Vodou
Hello all!
My name is Meriah, and I'm going to be writing a monthly column on Vodou. It might not be what you'd expect, as I tend to incorporate my Vodou writings into my everyday anecdotes. What good is a "living religion" if we simply write scholarly tomes about ethics and how to practice, eh? So, my first column will begin with the basis of most Vodou practice – The Ancestors.
It is hard to tell down here on my mid-south farm that Fall is right around the corner. The temps have been in the 90's and the humidity has made it almost hard to breathe – but Fall is coming, and even if the thermometer reads 90, I can feel it in my bones.
This time of year, for most folks, means setting their minds to warm quilts, wood fires, and the smell of baked goods floating through the home. For me, it means all those things, but it also is the time when I get to tell the stories of my ancestors to other family members at gatherings and holidays. I am the family genealogist, and so I have many, many stories.
For me, and for those others who Serve the Spirits, the ancestors are not dead folks who lived a long time ago. They live, and they interact with us on a daily basis. They are the first ones we turn to for real-world physical needs or wants. They are the ones who hold us up when the world, work and worry are pushing us down. They are the rocks we stand on to help us hold our heads above the rising tides. These ancestors have "been there, done that", and pass on their wisdom to us with amazing speed and, usually, a sense of comfort and love.
You do not have to be a genealogist to know your ancestors or to work with them. I do also realize that some ancestors are better left alone. But, good or bad, saint or sinner, they all have gone into making us who we are. Their blood runs through our veins, and that blood ties them to us in a way that few others are tied to us. They have a stake in how we turn out and how we reflect back on them – they want us to succeed. If you never had the chance to know your Grandparents (or further back) then there is no time like the present to introduce yourself. You can start with creating a place to sit and chat with them.
A simple ancestor altar can be a small table with a white cloth draped over it. On this place a glass of fresh clean water and a white candle and perhaps some nice flowers. More elaborate altars can include items that your ancestors used in life (either actual items they owned or representative items) or pictures of them.
As an example, I have many pictures of my ancestors, going back 6 generations. These reside in a large china cabinet, under glass (it gets dusty down here on the farm). I also have a special altar for those I knew personally and who I loved dearly in this life. On that altar I have pictures of my Great Grandparents and my Grandparents on my mother's side. My Great Grandfather was the town blacksmith, so I have a small anvil on there for him. My Grandfather played harmonica, so I have one of those on his portion of the altar. I have their pictures – not posed pictures, I was lucky to find some of them "just being themselves". My Grandmothers both sewed almost every item of clothing their families ever wore so I have a small sewing machine (a pencil sharpener shaped like an antique Singer) on the altar for them.
You will find, as you go about making your altar, that you will add and remove items that seem to 'speak" to you. You will also find that you get dreams or messages from "out of no where" reminding you of some incident or quirk of personality that you had forgotten that will give you insight as to what to add or remove. This is your ancestor speaking to you.
I remembered, after beginning my altar, that my Grandpa Leon would walk to the post office every day to get mail (they lived in a very small town). I would often walk with him, and he would show me how the leaves on the trees were curling up, teaching me that this meant they were waiting for it rain, so they could capture more of the water. On the way he would smoke a cigar, because Grandma never allowed smoking in her house. He would also stop by the corner store and buy me a small bag of penny candy – it was always rootbeer barrels. I put rootbeer barrels on the altar for him, to recall our special trips to the post office, and our secrets we would share.
So, what good is all of this going to do me? You may well ask. Yes, it is nice to pay homage to good old Uncle Louie or Aunt Ruth, but other than another altar to gather dust, what will I gain from it?
One of the cardinal laws of magick is to Know Yourself. How better to know where you came from, or where you may be going, than knowing intimately – both good and bad – what you have gained from your blood relations? What habits, prejudices, talents… have you gotten from one relative or another? What lessons have you learned from hearing your Grandparents speak of living through the Great Depression? What have they done in their lives that teaches you how not to act or believe? What baggage might you be carrying that was handed down generation to generation, because your Grandmother treated your Mother that way, so your Mother treated You that way, etc… recognizing those patterns can help you to let go of them, and not keep passing them on down the line.
Aside from that, when you reconnect to your ancestors, when they begin to feel more real and alive to you, they are easier to contact and to work with. You can call upon them to help with everyday sorts of things. For many people who work with Ancestors, they are the first ones to be called upon for daily intervention. They lived on this plane, they struggled with many of the problems we face – they understand because they were human once, also.
Another example – I had just gotten an old sewing machine at a yard sale, but it didn't come with a manual, and I needed one so I could service it (oil, tightening, etc…) and so I asked my Grandmother for help finding one. I was going to go on home to play with the machine and try to figure it out on my own, but as I passed one last yard sale I decided to stop. At this sale there was no sewing machine, but it had the exact manual I needed - for 25 cents.
There are so many ways that your ancestors can help you during your day. I moved to a farm after living in town for over 20 years. It was an experience, let me tell you! I had to remember all the things I never paid attention to as a kid on the farm, and I leaned on my ancestors very heavily to help me with this. Also, I had moved over 500 miles from "home" – family, friends, etc… - and I read and re-read their stories of how they pioneered and traveled and emigrated to gain strength in this. I figured if they could do it, with so much more work on their hands, and so many more hardships than I had to endure (and no technology or email or phones to call home to chat) then I could do it too.
In Haiti there is a saying that goes, "I stand tall because I stand on the shoulders of my ancestors". This is sometimes all we need, to stand taller, to know we have support, and to know that we can accomplish what we set out to do.
So, create that altar, talk to your ancestors, and I hope for you that you can find the relationship with them that I have with mine.
author: Meriah
