Black Spirituality Religion : Marriage to Spirits - Vodou

[ComUnity Uplifter]

Seek your ancestors. The one thing I will say from my experience as a practitioner, although it's not really popular among non practitioners who seek the ancestors, is that in traditional African thought, the ancestors are not thought forms or beings you contact in meditation.

The thought is when you wish to contact a living person do you meditate to talk to them? No!

Or if you wish to build a relationship with someone do offer them food and drink along with conversation or do you say "let's talk telepathically with no food or drink but through meditation?" No!

To approach the ancestors as abstract thought forms is like approaching any living breathing person as such. It's highly offensive!

In the African mind, the ancestors are living entities although not physically present to the eye. So while meditation is ok at times, many African people setup a point of contact space with physical items placed for the ancestors in order to interact with them.

The ancestors approach those who approach them and once you approach them, they are seldomly quiet. They communicate via dreams, meeting of certain individuals or through thoughts that suddenly pop in one's mind. You will know however when they are speaking. My ancestors talk to me throughout the day in various ways. I once got a reading and the priest told me I was deaf in one ear because my spirits are always talking to me. Wouldn't you know that I am deaf in my right ear. Not completely... I can hear sounds but I can't discern words via human speech in that ear. Sometimes it may take a little while for them to talk but usually in no time your people will be chatting away.

It's all about building a relationship. Ask your ancestors for awareness and to make themselves known to you.

That makes too much sense, and amazes me that I never thought of it that way. I guess I thought because they had passed on you couldn't communicate with them the same way anymore. I'll definitely try that. 2 more questions, how do you call the ancestors who you don't know, or are they just kind of lost to you? Second, do you always start with the closet ancestors? I ask because my father went to be with the ancestors about 3 and half years ago, and there was so much that we didn't get to talk about.

 

[Blackbird]

That makes too much sense, and amazes me that I never thought of it that way. I guess I thought because they had passed on you couldn't communicate with them the same way anymore. I'll definitely try that. 2 more questions, how do you call the ancestors who you don't know, or are they just kind of lost to you? Second, do you always start with the closet ancestors? I ask because my father went to be with the ancestors about 3 and half years ago, and there was so much that we didn't get to talk about.

You begin with the ancestors you know but you also invite all those whose blood is alive within you, those who's existence contributed to your being alive today, to come down and commune with you. Some ancestors, those that died in a tragic manner such as the slave trade, lynchings or other forms of murders/accidents, you offer them light so they can heal, become whole and evolve.

Here's a story. Some years ago I dreamed that I was transported back to slavery days. I was in a cotton field in Tennessee. An old Black man, a slave, came up to me and said "I have to show you something. Follow me." I followed him and we approached a bushy area with weeds growing wildly. The man got down on his knees and wiped the weeds away to reveal a grave site. He said "This is the grave of your ancestor. He was Mande." The dream ended. I was perplexed because I never known of any ancestors living in Tennessee. I got the feeling that this ancestor was on my maternal grandfather's side. Admittedly, I didn't know anything about that side. Three years later, I contacted my maternal grandfather's sister for any family information she may have. She sent me some names of people. I searched the census records and found that I indeed had an ancestor that came from Tennessee. The names associated with this family had an African origin which I recognized two of possible Mande origin. I studied Western African groups extensively so that's how I made the connection. More dreams followed that got me more confirmation and revelations.

I am sorry to hear about your loss but I am sure your father has a lot to talk about and he will speak. Parents and grandparents are generally closer or those relatives you knew in life, but any relative will speak if they choose to do so.

Another story. I had one dream with my grandfather in it. In real life, I never technically met my grandfather because as I was coming into this world, he was leaving. He died when I was 21 months old but for 21 months we lived in the same house. He appeared in one dream. In this dream, I was a child and he was an old man. He told me, "Let me show you about our family." He showed me one house. The house was strong, beautiful and intact. He said, "This is what our family was." Then he showed me another house. This house was old, decrepit, and falling apart from decay and neglect. He said, "This is what our family is now." The dream ended with us playing catch. He threw the ball to me. Then a boom followed by blackness.

Funniest thing is almost amazingly, I have accumulated a nice size of wealth and am working as we speak on getting my family back to prosperity with the 100 or so acres that my great great great grandmother purchased back in the 1870's. Land that I was the last child in the family raised on and land that the house my grandfather and I shared for 21 months was built on.

 

[ComUnity Uplifter]

You begin with the ancestors you know but you also invite all those whose blood is alive within you, those who's existence contributed to your being alive today, to come down and commune with you. Some ancestors, those that died in a tragic manner such as the slave trade, lynchings or other forms of murders/accidents, you offer them light so they can heal, become whole and evolve.

Here's a story. Some years ago I dreamed that I was transported back to slavery days. I was in a cotton field in Tennessee. An old Black man, a slave, came up to me and said "I have to show you something. Follow me." I followed him and we approached a bushy area with weeds growing wildly. The man got down on his knees and wiped the weeds away to reveal a grave site. He said "This is the grave of your ancestor. He was Mande." The dream ended. I was perplexed because I never known of any ancestors living in Tennessee. I got the feeling that this ancestor was on my maternal grandfather's side. Admittedly, I didn't know anything about that side. Three years later, I contacted my maternal grandfather's sister for any family information she may have. She sent me some names of people. I searched the census records and found that I indeed had an ancestor that came from Tennessee. The names associated with this family had an African origin which I recognized two of possible Mande origin. I studied Western African groups extensively so that's how I made the connection. More dreams followed that got me more confirmation and revelations.

I am sorry to hear about your loss but I am sure your father has a lot to talk about and he will speak. Parents and grandparents are generally closer or those relatives you knew in life, but any relative will speak if they choose to do so.

Another story. I had one dream with my grandfather in it. In real life, I never technically met my grandfather because as I was coming into this world, he was leaving. He died when I was 21 months old but for 21 months we lived in the same house. He appeared in one dream. In this dream, I was a child and he was an old man. He told me, "Let me show you about our family." He showed me one house. The house was strong, beautiful and intact. He said, "This is what our family was." Then he showed me another house. This house was old, decrepit, and falling apart from decay and neglect. He said, "This is what our family is now." The dream ended with us playing catch. He threw the ball to me. Then a boom followed by blackness.

Funniest thing is almost amazingly, I have accumulated a nice size of wealth and am working as we speak on getting my family back to prosperity with the 100 or so acres that my great great great grandmother purchased back in the 1870's. Land that I was the last child in the family raised on and land that the house my grandfather and I shared for 21 months was built on.

That's amazing, I'm glad that you are building your family back up. And I appreciate all the knowledge and wisdom that you are sharing, I hope that I can ask you for some more knowledge and wisdom as I continue my journey.

 

[Blackbird]

As we are on this, I have three stories to share. My first daughter was about to be born. Two weeks, before her birth, my grandmother appeared to me in a dream. She inquired about the new addition to the family. She asked "Has that baby been born yet." One week before the birth of my daughter, another grandmother appeared in a dream. In this dream, I remember telling my grandmother about the birth of my daughter even though my daughter had yet to be born. Happily and excitedly, I told my grandmother in this dream how much my daughter weighed and her length. I keep a dream journal so I wrote down the details of the dream. As fate would have it, when my daughter actually was born, why did she weigh and have the same length that I told my grandmother in the dream? I was surprised.

Before I got involved in Vodou, I had a dream that my dad's mother came to me and told me I was born into Vodou. She repeated this three times in the dream. I tossed it to the side but six months later, I had another very real Vodou dream. After this dream, I acted on the message and attended my first Vodou function. When the spirits came down, one who knew things about me, even stuff nobody would know, said I must be in Vodou. So here I am now.

 

[Blackbird]

That's amazing, I'm glad that you are building your family back up. And I appreciate all the knowledge and wisdom that you are sharing, I hope that I can ask you for some more knowledge and wisdom as I continue my journey.

Absolutely. It is a long and hard journey but it is worth it. I have received some many blessings on mine and each day is a new adventure. It is encouraging to have people along the way to share with, gain insight from or just have as a support. Each of us have our own journey; no two are alike - but what I learned is life is beautiful and magical. When we take the magical out of living it is no longer worth living. My take is... some people live life to learn all they can in a rational way filled with limiting logic and analysis, preoccupied with the metaphysical and philosophical underpinnings of life itself, but my journey has taught me only one thing and that is life is to be experienced, not explained. I generally tell people the more I learn, the less I know. Embrace whatever life has in store for you with humility, fortitude and charity.