13 Ways to Connect with the Ancestors
Spooky Season AKA the time around Halloween and Samhain, is a time filled with pumpkins, images of antiquity, costumes, scary movies, and ghost stories. Did you know, though, that it’s also the perfect time to connect with the ancestors in a more profound way?
It is believed that this liminal time offers up a thinned veil between our living world and the spirit realm, allowing those who have passed to communicate more easily with those of us still living.
Now, depending on your belief system, experience, sensitivities, and comfortability with such things, there are a variety of paths you could take to close the gap between this world and the next.
Below are a few activities and examples, from the simple to the sublime, without getting too woo or witchy on you ;-)
Pull Out Your Family Heirlooms & Photos
Spend time in reflection with family heirlooms or photos and share them with your family or friends, in person, via message, or online (social media is always a fun place to share, especially if your friends are mostly your family members).
Share Oral Histories with Family Members
Weaving the stories of our ancestors into daily conversation isn’t always the easiest things to do but spooky season offers up unique opportunities for sprinkling in tidbits about family members of the past and present.
You can also use this time to ask family members to share about their own memories or the oral histories they carry within them.
Work on Your Family Tree
Yes, yes… As family historians were never not working on our trees but I would argue that now is the perfect time to chuck your To Do list and simply follow your intuition.
Maybe you’re suddenly interested in looking up a 3x Great Grandma who has been historically challenging to research or a Great Uncle who you’ve struggled to find documentation for. Follow the pull of that obscure ancestor and you might just get “lucky”.
Meditate or Pray with the Ancestors in Mind
Quiet contemplation and manifestation can open a door to information held beyond our day to day reality. Whether you’re calling on the Creator of your heart or your ancestors directly for strength or guidance, the messages you open yourself up to can more easily come through during this time.
Create an Ancestor Altar
A lovely way to connect with the ancestors is through building an altar for them, inviting them into your space in a tangible way. Whether you use a few photos and/heirlooms, candles and incense, trinkets or foods, setting your intentions with every placement is key and can offer up a beautiful and profound experience.
There are tons of ideas on the internet these days to integrate into your altar space, just remember to keep it simple and relative to your own spiritual and cultural practices. Appropriation is never looked at lightly, whether in this realm or the next.
Visit Cemeteries or Sacred Spaces
This may seem obvious, but walking a cemetery at this time of year holds a whole different feeling than during the other seasons.
Additionally, if you live in close proximity to where your ancestors did, visiting the lands they lived on, walking the streets they walked, or sitting under their favorite tree might just fill your heart in ways other times and places simply cannot.
Use Divination Tools Such as Tarot or Oracle Cards
If you’re drawn to divination or use it for other aspects of spiritual connection, now is the perfect time to pull out your cards, settle into a quiet ritual, and ask a question or two of the cards that is directly related to your family history or ancestor work.
Now, any tarot or oracle deck can work for this specific practice but if you really want to focus in on ancestor work I recommend finding a set of cards that uses imagery that your ancestors will recognize/be familiar with based on your individual heritage.
My current favorite decks for connecting with my ancestors in this way are The Wildwood Tarot and The Celtic Healing Oracle. To be completely honest, my practice and the communications I’ve received blew wide open when I intentionally shifted my decks for this work away from modern imagery. Truly, it’s been wild.
Listen to the Whispers
Whether it be a dream that included a known (or not yet known to you) ancestor, an intuitive hit that points you in a specific direction in your research, or the inspiration to randomly call a living relative, follow it.
Now is the time to trust the energies we all might not fully understand, but know are there, guiding in directions we might not otherwise follow.
Other Ways I Personally Connect with the Ancestors:
As I thought through this post, I knew I also wanted to share some of the more personal items I use in my rituals to connect with the ancestors and have listed them below. Please know that none of the links in this post are affiliate links, I’m simply love and use all of these products all the time <3
I adore and use the Herbs for the Otherworld flower essences by Asia Suller often. Depending on where I am in my spiritual practice and what I want to focus on, I’ve found each of her essences to be so very profoundly special. Plus a drop in a glass of water helps keep me hydrated, which is always a challenge here.
When I really want to tap into my dream space I use just a bit of the Lucid Dream mugwort salve made by Indigo Elixirs and/or drink a cup of mugwort and chamomile tea before bed.
A few years ago a trusted Sensitive I became aware of through a mutual friend, Marcella Kroll, made a small batch of Ancestor Oil. It smells divine and adds a special layer of magic to all of my ancestral rituals and meditations. I don’t know if she’ll ever make it again, but if you can find your own special oil made by someone you trust that smells divine and resonates with you to use in ritual, I highly recommend it.
I was inspired last spring by @a.hearth.witch on Instagram to make my very own strand of Ancestor Beads. Similar to prayer beads or meditations beads, I created my own using stone beads from the lands of my ancestors (Scotland, Northwestern Europe, Ireland, and France) in addition to stone beads to represent the lands I was born on. I also added eight silver skull beads to represent my eight great grandparents.
Much more intention went into this process than will fit into this bullet point, and I’m so deeply pleased with how they turned out and how profound their use has been in how I connect to the ancestors, so I’ll write a proper post about it all shortly but I didn’t want to leave them out of this post, so here’s your teaser ;-)
And, of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my most recent project, my Heritage Journal. While I’ve only just begun this project, I’m confident it’s going to allow me the space and time to truly dive into and connect with my individual ancestors in a deeply profound way. Plus, a little fun and art never never hurt anyone.
Your Turn
Do tell, do you have established practices, approaches, or specific rituals you use to connect with your ancestors? Are you sensitive to “the other side” or simply curious? I’d love to hear all about your experiences if you’re open to sharing <3
In the meantime, I hope this post has helped inspire you to explore and/or deepen how you connect with the ancestors during this liminal time and beyond.
Onward,
Melis