WHY Would I Want To Work With My Ancestors Anyway?

A lot of troubles people today have in their lives can be directly traced to their non-relationship with their ancestors. Often when I ask someone, “Do you ever pray to your ancestors?” Most of the time, these sad individuals give me the most horrible attitudes with replies such as, “Oh no, Moloch, I can’t stand my family! They’ve never loved me, they’ve always done X and Y and Z and I do not want anything to do with them especially now that they’re dead!” Wow...

Yet these same people who seek my assistance out for help in their lives, often blame black magic and curses cast by others whom they cannot prove but they just ‘suspect’ ___ with nary a shred of proof. Sometimes these seekers are actual magical practitioners who seem to be able to get some spells to succeed but like for every step forward they take, they take two step backwards. So what’s the real problem here concerning one’s ancestors? Sometimes it just one simple thing, pride while other times it’s a sense of dread and loathing.

Look, no family is perfect. None. Some families appear better on the outside but when you get to know folks who are part of that family often you find chinks in the armor that are downright scary. Parents who have totalitarian attitudes or are heavy handed with the belt when it comes to discipline. Sometimes there’s sexual abuse even by blood parents, uncles, aunts and even siblings that can go on for years if left un-spoken.

However even if your family flat out SUCKED (and many simply do!) they are not the only ancestors you are acknowledging. Did you get that? Allow me to repeat it because it is vitally important that you understand this: when you salute your ancestors, you are not merely acknowledging your deceased family’s line but all of the ancestors going back to the beginning of humanity. Now let that sink in for a moment because it is imperative you make this connection.

What Can My Ancestors Do For Me Anyhow?

Ah now we come to the real reason you’re here, the old “What’s in it for me?” or W.I.I.F.M. This is a poor attitude to harbor where spiritual matters are concerned but oddly enough, more people seem to have WIIFM as they progress forward in their life. Time was folks took matters on faith and simply did what a priest told them to, even a Pagan one, but today it’s a different climate and everyone wants to know how they can benefit from doing something for nothing.

First off let’s ask, “Why should your ancestors give a damn about you?” (How’s that for a turnabout?) In truth they care about you in the way a parent cares about their own children. Do you have kids? Do you care about them? Now do you REALLY care about them or do you just tolerate them until you can kick them out the door when they turn 18? Be honest about it because it matters.

The vast majority of the dead and ancestors care about the living because they see us as their children - we are their descendants - even the ones who weren’t able to have kids because they still care about us. Why? They want to see humanity travel on into the future in positive ways rather than continue on the destructive paths so many are already on. Is that really too much to ask? I do not think it is. After all, wouldn't we all like to think that our kids and their kids are going to grow up to eventually revolutionize and change the world?

As a practitioner, you should want to no more upset the ancestors as you would any group of spirits be they demons, angels, djinns or whatever they are. The ancestors are closest to us because they are directly related to us whereas all other spirits are not and when they have no vested interest, then their work can always have that bit of suspect bit about it. When you begin to summon your ancestors, however, rest assured they will most definitely be in attendance.

Okay on a practical level, your ancestors can do virtually anything  you ask them to do. What does that mean? A lot! No seriously, my ancestors have helped me in ways I never imagined. You know how sometimes those situations arise where you haven’t even asked for any magical help and yet your desire came anyway? That was the ancestors.

Typically what they do is to smooth out the (figurative) road we travel in life by filling in some of the rougher holes and helping to steer us around the pitfalls and snares that at first seemed unavoidable but in the end we managed to avoid a bullet so to speak. That’s the ancestors. Most of the time their work is behind the scenes in subtle ways. You know that little voice in the back of your head that forewarns you about not getting in that cab which later was involved in an accident? That’s the ancestors.

The stronger your bond to your ancestors, the stronger their influence will be in your life. No this does not mean that your aunt Aggie’s will be nosing into your life in the afterlife like she did in life. Rather what it does means is that they will take more interest in wanting to assist you in both your sorcery and protecting your personal interests as well as your overall well being. So you should want to create an extra strong bond with them and maintain it indefinitely.

These Horror Stories Are Real

A lot of people have really horrid lives out there. So many of us live rather normal, drab, routine even everday lives with problems that we see as insurmountable we cannot fathom anything worse even though many go through worse than hell.

One does not have to look any further than pop culture fiction to see tv shows and movies where seemingly everyday people are portrayed as monsters. To us we’re glad it’s just a movie or tv show because in that 22 or 44 minutes of story time, the show took our imagination to a level of horror and then decompressed it by allowing the good guys to come in, capture the bad guy and save the day. In real life however, this almost never happens. The horrors portrayed in fictional families is never anywhere near the level of cruelty found in real life because network censors refuse to allow such to be shown on televison.

Since hanging out my shingle to practice sorcery to the general public in 2000, I have heard some personal accounts of human cruelty committed upon one another that have disturbed me to the point they’ve caused me no few sleepless nights. I had a young lady I counseled whose own biological father repeatedly raped her as a child beginning at the age of eight while her mother was at work. As a father myself when I first heard this woman recount this horrid time of her youth to me, I couldn’t help but cry for her. It staggered my mind. Revulsion? Anger? Frustration? Yes I felt all this and more just from hearing this. Or the man whose own biological uncle repeatedly raped him in his own bed while his parents sat downstairs watching television totally oblivious to the horror that was happening to their only son upstairs in bed.

Perhaps now you can see why so many people are hesitant or even antagonistic to working with their ancestors. Remember however, the worst is never what you hear, rather it’s what becomes uncovered later that is the worse.

The First Ancestors

The concept of the ancestors is greater in scope and scale than merely one’s biological family. We’re talking the entirety of human kind going back to our first genetic roots of consciousness. Back when Eve, the primate who many archaeologists believe is the mother of modern human kind first stood upright millions of years ago in Africa. That Eve begat our earliest ancestors, according to modern archaeologists, is significant and from her we have our earliest stirrings in human evolution. Just realize that the ancestors is not only about biology but also about human kind as a whole as well.

Further, there are ancestors in your family line that you never knew about nor known. Some of them were willing participants along the way having married from one tribe to another along the way in time while others were not so willing perhaps having been kidnaped or impregnated against their will.  However it happened, your family history is far deeper and more complex than what goes back to your parent’s parents genetics.

But I Was Adopted!

Beyond this, we also have the fact that a portion of our population have grown up with no parents. A number of these people were adopted into existing families. What this does is create not just one set of ancestors but now two sets of ancestors in the sense of one are biological who are related via blood and the other are related through adoption.

Reconcile and Exclude

I know I have not walked in your shoes and have no right to urge you to reconcile with your biological family’s ancestors, however as I’ve pointed, there are a couple of good, solid reasons WHY you should consider making peace with your ancestors. First is that not everyone in your family's ancestry did you harm. Even if say your parents and siblings were all shitheads, that doesn't mean their parents and their parents and so on as well as the plethora of uncles, aunts and cousins all did you wrong or wished you ill. Thus blaming your entire biological family for the sins of one or a few is not even close to fair.

The second reason you want to reconcile with them is you will have them at your back and when you’re wanting to practice a dangerous art like sorcery, it is necessary to have all of the precautions in place that you can. The world of the occult is not wholly safe and anyone who says otherwise is a lunatic. There are legitimate perils that need to be avoided and ones ancestors can assist in this.

Another reason is that your ancestors are not composed entirely of just your immediate family because you have far more family members in your family’s line than you will ever fully realize. There may be half-siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, step-parents and so on who care about and love you. Give them a chance to help you become more and realize your dreams and aspirations. Open yourself to the possibilities that your family is much larger than that small genetic code that simply follows your mother and father's DNA code.

Further you have all of the ancestors of humanity on your side and they count as well towards your well being. Isn’t it time you give them a chance as well? Still here’s a little secret: if someone in your biological ancestry was hateful to you, then nothing says you have to honor them in death. You can choose to omit them from your ancestral shrine if that is your wish and no one else has the right to tell you otherwise. It is your shrine to use to interact with your ancestors so do so at your discretion. 

When I work with my family ancestors, I have a litany of names I like recite. You too can do the same thing and say if you have an uncle Jim who was a scumbag you want no part of, then omit Jim's name entirely. If it pleases you, when you first set up your ancestral shrine, you can mention the fact that uncle Jim is not welcome at your family shrine. For some folks, this small act gives them a sense of justice that allows them to work with their biological ancestors without impediment.

So the really big question comes in as will you ask your ancestors to come into your home and be welcome at your shrine?