Getting
Started: Honoring the Ancestors
By Todd Covert, Chief of the Fellowship
Many people are drawn to modern pagan paths such as Neo-Druidism because they have a deep connection to—or at least a longtime fondness for—the past. For many, this expresses itself in interest in mythology or ancient history. For others, genealogical research may become something near to an obsession. This common thread of interest in what has come before is an excellent foundation for deepening a Neo-Druidic spiritual practice.
The ancients to whom we turn for inspiration were unquestionably devoted to a veneration of their forebears. “Veneration” is used quite consciously here, in preference to “worship,” because many moderns are uncomfortably attaching the latter word to practices relating to ancestral figures due to widespread associations of “worship” with a god or gods. If one is operating from this perspective, “ancestors” are seen as “human” figures, not “deities,” and “worship” seems like the wrong word to use in talking about building a spiritual relationship with the Dead. Fair enough. While it is undoubtedly true that the ancients worshipped their ancestors, when we use a word like “veneration,” we are expressing deep love or affection on a spiritual level.
Let us start there then: Let us set about to offer the deepest affection for those who—quite literally—made us who we are and bequeathed to us the world we live in. By coming to know and to honor our forebears, we not only act in an honorable way that deepens our commitment to a Druidic path, but we also stand to come to know ourselves as well. What is more: As we come to encounter those who have blazed the trail upon which we now walk ever more fully, we see their follies as well as their glories and can see our own shortcomings reflected there as well.
Ancestors of Blood
In first encountering the notion of ancestral cult practices, it is understandable that some might assume that the Ancestors being offered praise and sacrifice are literal ancestors, that is, one’s genetic forebears. And, indeed, these are generally the first to whom one will turn in seeking a connection that inspires a spiritual practice. Each of us is the sum of seemingly countless generations of connections among individuals, each connection the result of truly countless decisions made guiding their lives, each decision the result of free will, guided by conscience, culture, and the winds of fate. As such, each of us, at every moment, stands at the furthest reach of a chain of human will stretching back into the dimmest reaches of human history. Each of us is, in a very real way, all of our ancestors.
And so our first step should be to come to know those who have forged that centuries-old chain of lives. As we do so, we have an opportunity to embrace all of who we are by offering welcome to all who have come before.
Genealogical research is one step that might serve as a stepping off point. But for many individuals, this may be difficult, overly costly, and even impossible. Adoptees who do not know their birth parents or do not choose to honor them in preference to the parents who raised and shaped them might find this to be needless frustration. However, even simply working toward a fuller accounting of the relationship with the members of the preceding generations one has personally known during one’s lifetime is an admirable start.
What if one has experienced abuse at the hands of a family member, perhaps even a parent?
At the heart of the ancient law codes of the ancient Celtic peoples were two paramount principles. First, there was the basic understanding that families—both immediate and extended—were bound by mutual responsibility and that accountability for offenses by one family member was shared by all. But even more significant was the importance of personal worth, what many refer to as “honor.” Offenses were measured by the degree to which one’s worthiness in the community was diminished by an action and this injury was to be remedied, first of all by the offending party, but, failing that, then by the offender’s kin. In coming to terms with family who may have injured us, we have two ancient measures upon which to reflect: the degree of damage to our self-worth and whether we have been supported and aided by the broader community of our kin. In ancient times, victims were both entitled and expected to proclaim injury publicly and the victimizer’s kin were expected to help achieve resolution. As suggested above, we may learn as much from the failings of our forebears as from their virtues, but an open and honest reflection on our kin and our relationships to them are necessary to this.
But let’s frame this in happier and, one hopes, more ordinary terms. For the ancients, perhaps nothing was more important to achieve than “imperishable fame.” Kings and heroes were immortalized by praise poems and generations of bards committed the genealogies of worthy dead and the eulogies composed for them to memory. One does not have to be a poet to embrace this ancient custom; speaking the names of known ancestors from memory and even adding notes of praise for their good qualities and achievements, great or small, is a good first step. The Celtic New Year festival, Samhain, is an especially apt occasion for recitations of this sort, accompanied by offerings of food and drink.
There are others who can be honored in this way besides our actual genetic forebears. Many people speak of “ancestors of blood and spirit.” By this is meant the inclusion of both actual forebears and those who have gone before who have provided inspiration, personal role models, heroes of society, as well as those of myth. Setting the task of building a “roster” of these ancestors of spirit and giving them praise that expresses why they have earned the honor—again best accompanied by an offering of food or drink or even simply a toast—helps build the community of the honored Dead.
The ancients often interred objects of value with the dead in their tombs so that they could continue to exist in the Otherworld with the same stature they held in this world. They were, thus, both spoken of with praise for generations and fed with those things that would best sustain them in the halls of the Dead. Most of the ancient Indo-European cultures had customs of offering of food or drink to the Dead. All of them had customs of praise poetry for heroes, living and dead, and installed the mightiest of them in myth alongside the gods and goddesses. Regardless of one’s beliefs about an independent afterlife or reincarnation, the way in which ritual observance, the reciting of genealogies, and the giving of praise quite literally keep the Ancestors alive within us and—as we share these tales and poems with each other—within our community.
As we reflect on why the Ancestors have earned this honor, we ultimately reflect on the question of our own legacies. Again, we may or may not consider that our consciousness will survive our physical death, but there is no question that our memory can. And equally true that we can influence those who follow us just as the Ancestors have made us who we are and that our influence after we depart this realm might be mostly positive or just as possibly negative. As we embrace the Ancestors through our veneration of them as blazing the trail on which we have walked, we become ever more mindful that we are continuing to blaze that same path for those who follow through our own actions.
How, then, do we go about embracing the Ancestors and building their presence in our lives and in our spiritual practice? Much has already been suggested above. Here are some possible approaches:
--Start to learn about your immediate forebears. Find out what you can about when they lived and where they were from. Talking to family members about this begins the process of the passing of stories from generation to generation.
--Explore the history, the folklore and legends, and the myths of the culture in which you live. American culture has all of these and understanding the ways in which you have been shaped by these is at least as important as embracing a culture of the ancient past. Learn from what is most honorable as well as from what is most disgraceful in the legacy of your culture: Remember that we are shaped by both and are part of a web of interconnection with all in our community.
--Study the myths and folk tales of the ancients who call to you. The Celtic lands have not only mythology to offer, but also a rich tradition of oral lore preserved in the last two centuries, as well as a law code which is different from that with which we are familiar. Here again, look at what seems noble and what seems ignoble and reflect on how you may be carry each within you.
--Above all, begin to work simple ritual observances to welcome the Ancestors. These need not be lofty, poetic, scripted events. Simply lighting a candle and offering a toast to one or more of your ancestors of blood or spirit as suggested above may be sufficient. The ancients often connected the Dead to the underworlds, so pouring out the first portion of strong drink to the earth, dedicated to one or more of the Ancestors, is highly appropriate. Speak words of welcome and then praise—even just an anecdote you are fond of—accompanied by a simple offering. Take time to reflect on the image of the Ancestor or Ancestors you are honoring—the use of images is certainly helpful—and especially on why they are important to you. If you are comfortable with meditation or visualization or so-called “active imagination,” then seek out the Dead in the safety of the ritual occasion. Above all, thank them for their presence in your life.
©2007 Todd Covert