Old Gods and New Pagans
"Old Gods & New Pagans" is a welcoming space for new and curious pagans, heathens, and animists to explore the basics of paganism. Rooted in an Animist perspective, this podcast takes an inclusive approach, covering topics relevant to a variety of pagan paths. Each episode breaks down complex ideas into simple, easy-to-understand language, with guest discussions, stories, and insights. Whether you're just starting your pagan journey or looking to learn more, join us as we dive into the wisdom of the old gods and the practices of modern pagans.
Old Gods and New Pagans
Ep 9: Unlocking Ancient Wisdom: Ancestral Veneration and Modern Adaptations
The episode explores the significance of ancestor veneration, highlighting its historical roots and practical applications in modern life. By discussing various rituals, shared meals, and spaces dedicated to honoring ancestors, we address the complexities of family history and the importance of healing generational trauma.
• Importance of archaeological evidence on ancestor practices
• Historical accounts from Romans and Norse culture
• Common elements of ancestor veneration found in many cultures
• Practical tips for daily rituals and creating an ancestral shrine
• Engaging with difficult family histories and trauma
• Overcoming barriers to practicing ancestor veneration
• Simple ways to integrate ancestor practices into daily life
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Hello everyone and welcome to Old Gods and New Pagans. I'm your host, matt Holloway, your guide to the wild and interesting world of pagan traditions. Whether you're a seasoned practitioner, a curious newcomer or just here for the stories, you're in the right place. Today we're diving into one of the most fundamental and, honestly, most misunderstood practices of historical paganism, that is, ancestor veneration. Now I know some of you are thinking but Matt, my ancestors were terrible people, or I don't even know who the hell they are. Well, don't worry, we're going to tackle all that a little later. But first let's look at what our ancestors actually did to honor their ancestors, based on real historical evidence, not just Instagram, aesthetics or romanticism. Let's start with what we actually know from archaeology Because, let's face it, our ancestors left us more than just their DNA. They left us physical evidence of how they honored their own ancestors, and it's pretty interesting stuff. So one of the most obvious places we find this evidence is in burial practices. You see, germanic burial sites, particularly from the migration period, showed us something really interesting At sites like Oberflacht in Germany, where graves with not just weapons and jewelry but everyday items like cooking pots, combs, possibly their favorite cups, or even games and gaming pieces were buried alongside those people. Or at Sutton Hoo in England, we see elaborate ship burials with daily items alongside precious goods. This wasn't people just throwing away good stuff. A lot of these things were very needed for people living in those days. So the fact that they put these with burial sites of their ancestors it showed that they had beliefs and they had a lot of respect for the dead. So they weren't just throwing away stuff. This was setting up the dead for what they needed to remain part of their community. Here's one place where it gets really interesting. Across northern Europe we found house foundations with deliberate burial spots underneath the homes. At sites in Denmark and northern Germany, archaeologists have discovered houses built directly over graves, with offerings continued to be made through either special shafts or openings in the homes. Think about that for a minute. Our ancestors literally built their homes on top of their ancestors. They weren't separating the dead from the living. They were actually keeping them close, making them part of the daily life.
Speaker 1:The Romans, who, let's be honest, loved writing about everyone else's business, gave us some fantastic accounts of Germanic ancestor practices as well. Tacitus, writing in the 1st century CE, described regular offerings of food and drink, seasonal celebrations where the ancestors were explicitly invited to participate, and even household shrines that were attended to daily. And you know what, when we look at the archaeology, it all matches up well within these written accounts. Let's talk about the written evidence for the moment and, a little alert, my pronunciation may be pretty off here. In the Norse tradition, we have the saga of Thordr Kakali Sightvidsson, which describes how ancestors were believed to live within the hills near their farms. The Icelandic story Latnálmapok, or the Book of Settlements, tells us about settlers in Iceland who wouldn't even build their homes until they had consulted with the ancestral spirits about the specific location. Even in Anglo-Saxon England, we have this fascinating practice of high seat pillars, which were like carved posts that were so important to the ancestral practice that the sellers would throw them overboard their boats and build their new settlement wherever they washed ashore. These weren't just decorative posts, they were physical links to their ancestors. It's kind of cool. Right Now let's talk about some common practices across different cultures, because this is where things get practical.
Speaker 1:Despite what some modern authors might tell you, ancestor veneration wasn't some mysterious, complicated practice. It was actually pretty straightforward and simple, and that's good news for us modern folks trying to reconstruct these practices. The basic elements show up almost everywhere we look. You have a designated space in the home, regular offerings usually food and drink and specific times when more elaborate rituals may have been performed. The Romans had their Lillaria, or household shrines, where they honored both ancestors and household spirits. We have actual preserved examples from Pompeii showing exactly how these were set up and may have been used. Norse households had high seats with pillars dedicated to their ancestors. Even in Celtic, evidence suggests that there were similar practices, though they were a bit more private about it and didn't write as much down for us, though they were a bit more private about it and didn't write as much down for us.
Speaker 1:One particular interesting example comes from the Baltic region, where practices survived well into the Christian era. Lithuanian families maintained special rooms or corners called again my pronunciation Namus Finta, or sacred places of the home, where ancestors were honored alongside other spirits. They kept special cloths that were only used for ancestral offerings, and special foods were prepared according to family recipes passed down through generations. But here's the thing that really jumps out when you study these practices they were practical. These weren't elaborate ceremonies performed once a year. This was daily life. This was setting aside the first portion of dinner. This was pouring out a drink before you took a sip. This was maintaining a relationship, not necessarily performing a ritual or worship. So let's talk about how we can practice this today, because that's really what you're all here for, right.
Speaker 1:I'm going to guide you through two specific exercises that you can try this week for ancestor veneration. One is going to be a morning greeting. The other is like a weekly little ritual. Okay so the first one, we're going to call it the morning greeting. It's based on a Roman practice of the morning salutatio, but simplified it more. You know a few steps for just modern daily life. Choose a consistent time each morning, stand before your ancestral shrine or some photos, or we'll get into the shrine later, but just stand before your shrine or the area that you're doing this in Light, a candle. Turn on an electric candle, turn on a light, however.
Speaker 1:You know you feel, pour two drinks. You know like feel, pour two drinks. You know like, if you drink coffee or tea or water first thing in the morning, maybe, pour two cups of coffee, one for you, one for an ancestor. Greet them explicitly, you know. Say good morning ancestors, or good morning grandma or grandpa or Dio, whoever you're wanting to spend that relationship with that morning Take a couple of minutes to tell them about your plans for the day, how you feel, Ask for their guidance or support in that specific area. You know, while you're talking to them, drink your drink, you know, leaving theirs until you're completely done. When you're finished, thank them and then dispose of your drink, either outdoors or, if you're in a more urban area and you can't just pour your coffee or tea outside, just pour it down the drain. But that kind of gives you an idea of how these types of ancestral ceremonies would take place on a daily basis.
Speaker 1:I have a small shrine sitting up on top of a cabinet over here that I use and it's got some ancestral and we'll kind of get into like some things that you can put on your ancestor shrine. But one of the things it has on there is some memorabilia from my dog and I sometimes take time to spend time talking to him as well. But moving on, you know, beyond that daily ritual that you can have and it could be a morning ritual, it could be something at the end of your day to just talk about your day, to unload, just pick a certain time of the dayend that time talking to an ancestor or all your ancestors in general, and, yeah, see how it goes. The second little exercise that I would recommend is something like a weekly meal this is adapted more from Germanic practices and go through the steps and then we'll kind of explain that as we go through.
Speaker 1:Number one choose one meal per week as your ancestor meal. Set an extra place at the table for an ancestor Before eating. Announce you know, I share this meal with my ancestors, or, hey, we're sharing this meal with grandma today. Place a small portion of each food on that ancestral plate while you're eating your meal, mindfully thinking about that ancestor, because you've brought their presence in there mentally Think about their family stories or memories with that individual, if you have them. Leave the ancestors portion out for the duration of the meal and then, once after you've kind of cleaned up, you can dispose of that.
Speaker 1:Me personally, I like to leave food and drink offerings outside for wildlife and to kind of like, give that back to nature. But, depending on your own situations, dispose of it how you can and, yeah, just dispose of it respectfully Outdoors. Give it to birds, animals. Like I say, I give mine to the wildlife. As far as that, one meal per week.
Speaker 1:Living in the South, we have sort of a tradition of Sunday dinner. It kind of stems from church times and things like that, but even religion aside, it's become really a tradition that the family gets together for Sunday afternoon and has a big dinner. It's a way to mix and mingle and keep those familial ties together, and that's a great time to do it. Or you can have, you know, a Thursday night dinner for ancestors or Friday night or however you want to plan. It. Just kind of set aside a little bit of time just for that and it really just brings those ancestors and the wisdom and you start thinking about the memories and the life lessons that they may have taught you and these lessons can come back and help you through your day. So, yeah, just take some time, try out those two exercises a morning greeting or daily greeting and a weekly offering meal of some sort.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about setting up your space, your ancestor shrines, because that's usually where a lot of people want to start with this. Historically, ancestor shrines were often pretty simple. You didn't need fancy statues or expensive items on these shrines, you just needed a clean, dedicated space and some basic items for offerings. That's it Today. This could be as simple as a shelf, a windowsill or even the corner of your desk or the center of your dining room table. So what goes on in this shrine? We'll discuss some of the basics.
Speaker 1:You definitely want something to represent your ancestors. This could be inherited items, something that was very specific to a specific ancestor. Photos work great. You can have photos of your people. Heirlooms essentially just a name written down on a card or even symbols of your heritage work just fine. So if you have like symbols of like your history, your heritage, you know maybe a country you came from, you know where your people are, you know originate the ancestors you want to venerate having symbols of that. So if you're Celtic, a Celtic knot, if your ancestors are from Africa, you can have some African memorabilia or anything really of that nature.
Speaker 1:You want a place for these offerings. This could be a plain bowl or cup. Archaeological evidence shows that for the most part, our ancestors used common everyday items for these offerings. They didn't have some like bejeweled chalice for these offerings. They had the same kinds of bowls that they would use every day on their ancestral shrines. So it's more evidence for you. To keep these things simple and not so elaborate. It's customary to have some form of light. Historically this would be like a candle or a flame. Today you might use like electric candles. Specifically, if you live in an apartment, you're not allowed to have open flames, those little LED tea lights or some other type of battery-operated candle or, honestly, those little LED fairy lights. You can light up your altar, your shrine, that way as well, and that's valid.
Speaker 1:Some other items you may want to have on your shrine would be, as I mentioned, items that represent your heritage or family traditions. It might be traditional crafts. So if you have a Cherokee ancestor, you want to talk to. Some traditional basket weaving would be really fun to have on there. Maybe something that would be like your offering bowl could be a traditionally weaved basket. You can use tools of family trades. So if you've come from a long line of carpenters, or even you know we live in the modern age, you know you have like three generations of truck drivers in your family, it could be, you know, grandpa's trucker cap. So something that represents you know, that family trade, the heritage, the heirlooms or, as I mentioned, symbols of your culture. And remember these items. They serve one major purpose. It's really the only purpose of these items on your shrine is to remind you of the ancestor and to keep them in your thoughts and mind. I will repeat that the items on your shrine serve one purpose, and that is just simply to remind you of them.
Speaker 1:Okay, now we're going to tackle the elephant in the room. What about difficult ancestors? What about family trauma? What about ancestors who? What about family trauma? What about ancestors who did terrible things? There's really nobody free from that in modern time. All of our ancestors at some point did something terrible. It's there, but here's what you need to remember about that. It's there, but here's what you need to remember about that.
Speaker 1:Historical ancestor veneration wasn't about pretending everyone in your tree was perfect. It wasn't about only honoring those people that were perfect. The sagas are full of complicated family relationships. Medieval chronicles document family feuds that would last for generations, yet the practice of ancestor veneration still continued. It was about acknowledging the reality that you wouldn't be here without them and that working to heal and transform difficult legacies form difficult legacies. In many traditions, ancestors were seen as capable of growth and transformation. After death, the living had a responsibility to help heal those ancestral wounds. The same way you may have an ancestor that was racist as hell and like a grandparent or a great-grandparent that did not approve of your interracial relationship you were in. It's still important to try to for yourself as well as for them to try to mend those connections and say, hey, you know I still love you, grandma, but you know I'm happy we have three kids now. You can see that we are a good family, even though we are in a racial relationship, and use those times, like that morning greeting, to help heal those family wounds.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go through some FAQs or some troubleshooting type things for ancestor veneration just to try to answer some of the more common questions that I've gotten over the past on this topic when speaking to people. So, do you live in a tiny apartment? Just know that a simple photo and a tea light on a windowsill can be a shrine. Or, just again, like I said, the center of your dining table, corner of a desk, your nightstand beside your bed Anything can really double as an ancestor shrine.
Speaker 1:Maybe you can't have visible religious items in your space. I have a friend of mine who, due to some life circumstances, was living she, being pagan, was living in a Christian kind of center home for her and her baby. So having pagan religious symbols out was against the rules. So something like a photo album can be your shrine in plain sight. You can have photos of family members and for the outsider that just have, you know, photos of family members, and for the outsider that just looks like you want to remember your family members. So that's a you know, a little tip, a little trick that you can have to have a ancestral shrine in plain sight.
Speaker 1:Um, if you no space, again, like I said, your coffee morning ritual, your morning coffee ritual, doesn't really require much space. You can do it at your dining room table, you can do it sitting on the couch Just put the extra coffee cup on the coffee table in front of you. Or, yeah, at your desk. In the morning, when I'm sitting at my desk, sometimes I'll, you know, take that time to speak with some of my ancestors. Are you worried about family reactions? Well, it's best to keep it simple and private. Like I said, a photo album, or you can frame this whole ancestral shrine as a family history vintage memorabilia collection that you can use to serve as your shrine. You can have all these items on a shelf and just say, hey, I just want to learn more about my family and I'd like to have some photos of some ancestors here just to kind of remind me of them.
Speaker 1:Or do you travel a lot? You can create a way that I've seen some people do this, uh, like traveling altar. You can do like a ancestral shrine in the same way through like a little small box or even an Altoids 10 or something like that, where you can keep a photo, a tea light and maybe even a small offering dish in there. I mean, heck, you can even use the Altoids 10 itself or the box as the offering dish If you're, you know, really traveling a lot and you don't have any way to carry things like that around, really having like a dedicated folder on your phone of ancestral photos, symbols and things like that that remind you of these people, that remind you of your culture, that you can flip through and use that as sort of a digital ancestral shrine If you're living with.
Speaker 1:I've had some people talk about like depression or mental illness with ancestral shrines and it's really cool because, again, it doesn't have to be elaborate, it could be something very simple or just saying, hey, I remember you. The ancestors understand when we're struggling, because they struggled too and using this time to it's almost, like you know, like writing it in a journal or speaking to a therapist. You can speak to your ancestors in a lot of the same ways and again heal that generational trauma or just heal your own emotions and get those out of you. It's really therapeutic. If you're on a tight budget and you can't afford, like shrine items, that's perfectly okay. As I said, use what you have.
Speaker 1:These items that were traditionally used for shrines were common everyday items. I mean a literal coffee mug that was a free gift from your job for whatever it was could serve as an offering bowl, a cheap bowl that you buy, that you can pick up at a thrift store that just really connected to you. Maybe you had some symbolism on it that you like. For a dollar it can, you know, double as your offering bowl. You don't need fancy frames for your photos. I mean you can print it out on a standard printer, on printer paper. A photo of an ancestor. If you found online, that would work just fine. Like I said, a photo album works perfectly fine for something like this. This is all about your attention, not your wallet.
Speaker 1:And the number one question I get a lot of times when speaking about ancestor veneration is what if I don't know my biological family history? You don't know any of your ancestors. You don't even know who your parents are, that's okay. Work with your cultural ancestors. You don't even know who your parents are, that's okay. Work with your cultural ancestors, chosen family ancestors. So if you know, you know what country your ancestors originated from or what region your ancestors originated from. You know. Consider the cultures of that region and you know. Direct your ancestor veneration to the culture or to those peoples, or something I tell a lot of people like your family is also the people you choose. So if you were raised in an adopted family, you know your parents, their parents or your grandparents. Those people raised you. It doesn't mean they're going to stop guiding you after death, that those ancestors, whether they're not your biological ancestors, those people will continue to guide you and start building your practice upon that or again, like cultural ancestors or tradescraft ancestors. So if you want to put yourself into a trade, whether it's leatherworking or stone masonry, whatever it is, you can look at the ancestors, those heroes of that trade, as your ancestors and bring them into your ancestral practice.
Speaker 1:Remember, our ancestors had to practice discreetly too, so we're in good company. The archaeological record shows plenty of evidence of hidden shrines and subtle practices during periods of religious change. They found ways to adapt, so we can too. So keep that in mind when you practice. It's not about the money, it's about the attention, it's about remembering those ancestors, it's about reminding you of those ancestors to keep them in your thoughts and keep them in your mind as we wrap up. Today. I want to emphasize something Start small, start simple and start wherever you are. Our ancestors didn't build these practices overnight, and neither should we Begin with one simple, sustainable practice and just let it grow naturally. That wraps us up for today.
Speaker 1:The next episode explores various types of sacred spaces in ancient cultures, examining their definitions, their purposes and uses. I'll even clarify the distinctions between altars, shrines, temples and even natural sacred spaces like groves, while exploring how different cultures approach these concepts and how they were used in practical worship daily Until then. Just remember, nobody has all the answers, but asking questions that's where we learn. So if you're practicing ancestor veneration or planning to start, I'd love to hear about it. Drop by the Discord server. Reach out to me on social media. Check out oldgodsnewpaganscom. Just share your experiences with me so that we can learn and grow together, and if you're enjoying the show, please rate it, review it wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps other pagans find this podcast and trying to teach these small, simple ways of practicing basic paganism so that we can help people find their path. This has been another Old Gods and New Pagans. I'm Matt Holloway and until next time, keep asking those questions, thank you.
