Ancestors Altar

In the southern hemisphere it's Samhain - but there's never a bad time to create an ancestors altar, so even if you're celebrating Beltaine, feel free to go for it. Our ancestors were celebrating life, love, and fertility enough to create the lineage that birthed us, so I think we can honour them in the mix of Beltaine.

Find somewhere you'd like your altar to be. If it's a temporary altar - for the duration of a ritual, a few days, or maybe a week or two - you can use a small table wherever you'd like, or make it a centrepiece on your dining table or even your desk! If it's more permanent, a place on top of a bookshelf or an insert into a bookshelf, on a bedroom cabinet or dresser, or a window ledge can work.

Bring your ancestors to the altar. This might be photos, jewellery or keepsakes, or anything else that reminds you of them; for example lavender or a special sweet they loved. Make offerings: candles, flowers, incense, food and drink, photos of their descendants, poems or art works.

Turn up to the altar. Light a candle. Sing, pray, or talk to your ancestors. Tell them about your adventures and your challenges. Introduce them to the newest members of the family. Whisper your dreams. Ask them for guidance. Hold them to account, forgive them, or maybe both. Tell them what you'd like from them - support, or release, or their presence. Tell them what they can expect from you - an altar once a year, or a permanent place on your main altar, or maybe their names get commemorated at a family, coven, or local gathering or ritual.

If you find it difficult or impossible to work with your biological ancestors remember that the land is also our ancestor. We can do ancestral work with the green ones, the mountains and oceans, the bacteria and seeds, the feathered, furred and finned ones. Stars and atoms. These are our ancestors as well.❤

Ancestors: Hélène, Charlotte, and Paul, circa 1905