Explore the benefits of feeding ancestors in shamanic practice, including ancestral healing, physical health, spiritual protection, and abundance.
Ancestral reverence has always been an important part of shamanic cultures, but why was it so important?
Although we tend to believe that souls of the dead reincarnate, there is also some part of them that remains within the family. We have genes passed on, containing ancestral memory. Through this, it is as if our ancestors continue to live within us. Whether we believe or not that their souls are with us, some aspect of them is. You see, consciousness isn’t confined within time and space, and the soul isn’t either. It is not just in one place, but remains connected to all it has touched. When we feel ancestral memory or consciousness still with us, in our underworld or unconscious, their memory, wisdom and experience, as well as their pains and conflicts, are all there. In our underworld we may see them in human form, the way we most remember them.
“You see, consciousness isn’t confined within time and space, and the soul isn’t either. It is not just in one place, but remains connected to all it has touched.”
How Ancestors Continue to Influence Us
Since their memory is within us, we can have their problems as well as their wisdom. The simple way we understand their impact on us in shamanic cultures is that if our ancestors are unhappy, it can make us unhappy. The first step to making our ancestors happy was to feed them.
Actually, it is more complex than that. When we are not aware of the influence of our ancestry, it affects us unconsciously. All their pains, limitations, patterns of bad luck, etc, play out in our lives. Feeding ancestors is also a way of separating from them psychologically. When we feed them at the ancestral altar, they are now separate beings external to us. Feeding them there regularly means that their problems no longer play out in our lives. Of course, feeding them regularly also gradually heals any feelings of neglect, abandonment and lack they were storing. This has the effect of healing those genetic memories in ourselves.
Ancestral Trauma, the Intestines, and Physical Health
“Since their memory is within us, we can have their problems as well as their wisdom.”
These stored memories also affect our physical health. It is well known in Shamanism that stored trauma affects health click here for an explanation and infographic of the sequence of emotional suppression and healing), but ancestral problems particularly affect the intestines. This is because the intestines are the first organ to form in the foetus. It holds the oldest part of the autonomic nervous system, because feeding was the most important act for survival, before creatures developed brains or glands. So all the ancestral trauma, which is there before we have any experience of our own, tends to be stored in the intestine. We are unable to access and release such deep traumas by normal means, but feeding our ancestors moves these energies out of us, therefore healing many digestive problems we couldn’t heal by other means. We may also find other hereditary problems easing as we feed our ancestors. If you feel you need help with ancestral trauma and healing, then you can contact me here.
Apart from physical healing, another benefit is to free ourselves from ancestral habits and patterns of bad luck, particularly poverty. When we feed our ancestors, we heal feelings of lack, neglect and abandonment, which are often at the root of poverty consciousness. In my Abundance Course, we deal with many of the ancestral blocks to the four main pillars of abundance: spiritual, mental, emotional and physical.
So much for the healing of negative patterns, but ancestral feeding is traditionally said to have other benefits, such as good luck, spiritual connection and help in resolving various problems in life. It is said that because they are already on the other side, they are closer to God and help carry our prayers. The way I see it is that once we have externalised these aspects of consciousness, which will have certain skills as well as experience in the inner plains, they can now act as servitors that can influence events from the astral plain. Being family, they will have a natural tendency to want to help us, plus the fact that we are feeding them can encourage them to work for us in return. In Vodou, this is also used as leverage: if the ancestors don’t give us what we want, we stop feeding them until they do.
Ancestral Feeding, Lwa, and Spiritual Power in Vodou
So, why should anyone want to worship the Gods, when they are just lenses we can use? First of all, they are not just tools, they are us. But to activate that part of ourselves requires us to shift attention and raise our vibration, by making this physical world less real and our spirituality more real. There were various yogas to help achieve this.
The Core Benefits of Feeding Our Ancestors
So you see, ancestral feeding rituals have many benefits: physical healing, spiritual protection, expansion of magickal power, good luck, abundance and resolution of various problems in life.
FAQ’s
Is ancestral feeding dangerous?
No, far from it. Feeding your ancestors can only improve your life. There has been a misunderstanding in the meaning of ancestral feeding, as the term ancestral diet is often used to describe the paleo diet, which is about going back to ancient eating habits, which may have detrimental effects on our health, but there have never been any problems associated with feeding our ancestral spirits.
How often should ancestors be fed?
Once a week is generally enough, at a time when it is normal to share a meal with your family, such as Sunday dinner, when the family is usually together. Sharing food with your ancestors this way gives a feeling of being closer to them.
Do all cultures practice ancestral feeding?
Every tradition around the world practiced ancestral reverence; it’s just modern society that has forgotten it, along with a lot of their spirituality.
