The Horror of Palmyra

I have wanted to write about the matter of Daesh and their hostile takeover of the ancient city of Palmyra for days, but I have not been able to write about it. Summer solstice, a time of celebration for many, was the day I heard the worst of the news so far about the ancient Temple of Baʽal Shamem (Belshamin). No polytheist wants to hear of the planting of mines in an ancient temple to a god on summer solstice. The news descended upon me like a cloud of lead—heavy, inescapable, overwhelming. I fasted, and I tried to write a post on this matter, but the words just couldn’t come. Even now, the horror of the matter claws me from within.

I sputter with anger and sadness. I’d like to go off on a tangent of how reprehensible these excuses of “human beings” are. I’d like to curse and spit. I can’t find the words to describe the depths of my shock and horror, and the depth of my shame for the lows of this small segment of “humanity.” I’d like to express that this late moment is the alarm claxon blaring. Our ancient polytheist ways have been under threat for a very long time, and they are even more so today. We would do well to look steadily at this tableau as it plays out in Syria and see it for the dire warning it is.

I would also like to point out that sometimes the “bad guys” aren’t just a few angry people with explosives. People who deface and desecrate sacred sites come in all forms, even the seemingly harmless happy party goers at Stonehenge who left piles of garbage over celebrations of past solstices. Happy with trash or angry with explosives, the different situations still result in the disrespect and the violation of sacred places, and this destructiveness absolutely must stop.

As a devotional deed, I shall try to devote these next pixels to something more constructive and talk a little about at least one of the gods whose temple now has explosives mines in it. The Near Eastern gods are covered far less than the European, Hellenic, Roman, and Egyptian gods in the revival of polytheisms today, so I thought it might be helpful to lend some context to the gods in Palmyra, centering on Baʽal Shamem.

Because Semitic languages are quite different from English, names get put into English letters in various different spellings; and if you compound the changes in spellings and pronunciations over time, you’re going to end up with many various ways of spelling the same name. Baʽal Shamem’s name can also appear as Bal Samen, Baʽal Shamayim, Baʽal Shamin, Baalshamin, and Beelsamin. His name literally translates as Lord of Heavens. The beauty of the word shamem, or shamayim is that it represents heavens, plural. There’s an idea in Hebrew of shamayim and mayim, heavens and waters. The words are deliberately put into a dual-form, a plural form which indicates two of something, a pair, to symbolize that the heavens and waters are paired with one another. The waters of the skies and the skies of the waters: each expanse mirrors the other. It is as if there are technically “two waters” referenced, that of the above and that of the below.

Baʽal Shamem is a Lord of the Heavens; he’s not exactly a “storm god” although his sphere of influence sometimes includes this—he embraces far more than this.

Most people are unfamiliar with Near Eastern gods and think that there is one weather god named Baʽal. However, there is not one baʽal but many, and they aren’t all weather gods or even primarily sky gods. The word baʽal means “lord,” and this is a title, not a name. There are many, many gods who bear this title of baʽal. Most local areas had their own baʽal. Mountains and cities especially have their own local baʽal. It’s a tongue-in-cheek joke among Canaanite polytheists that “Canaanites have baʽals!” Because of this misunderstanding of the nature of the word “baʽal,” people often tend to think mistakenly that all baʽals are the same Baʽal and that they are all weather gods. They’re not.

For instance there is a Baʽal Sidon, Lord of the city of Sidon, who is likely Eshmun, a god of healing. There is a Baʽal Khammon of Carthage, who name means Lord of the Many—he, too, is a different baʽal. Most of the time when people mention “Baʽal” they are probably thinking of Baʽal Hadad, Lord Thunderer, the storm god who appears throughout Near Eastern polytheisms throughout time, and who is the chief god present in the ancient Ugaritic tales as the smiter of the sea god Yammu and as victorious over Motu the god of death. Baʽal Shamem, however, is a different god than Baʽal Hadad, is a different god from Baʽal Sidon, and is a different god from Baʽal Khammon.

Baʽal Shamem, provided there aren’t many different Ba’al Shamems throughout time and throughout the regions, seems to have seen his worship spring up earliest in Anatolia as a specific deity starting around 1000 BCE but may have been around earlier. Anatolia was in the area we know today as the country of Turkey. The worship spread into Phoenician cities of Tyre, Byblos, and Qedesh—the Phoenicians have Canaanite ancestry, and this area spans mostly through Lebanon and Israel. His worship spread to Cyprus, and also to Carthage (in north Africa, modern-day Libya and Tunisia), and eastwards into Nabatean culture, an ancient northern Arabian people. If you’ve ever watched the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: when Indy, Henry Jones, and Sallah are riding through that formidable crevice and catch site of an dazzling ruins built right into a rock face—that place is Petra, a Nabataean city. Indeed the Nabateans in some areas called upon Baʽal Shamem in curses meant to protect graves.

In Palmyra, the Lord of Heavens was honored alongside Bel, Aglibol, and Malakbel. Bel is the Babylonian god Marduk who became incorporated into the Palmyran pantheon. Bel is a god of magic, wisdom, water, vegetation, and judgment. Aglibol is a moon god, while Malakbel is a sun god whose name literally translates as King-Lord. The elegance of Baʽal Shamem is that, being the heavens, he spans the spaces between Aglibol the moon and Malakbel the sun. In a popular image from Palmyra, this is exactly how the triad is pictured: with Aglibol and Malakbel flanking either side of Baʽal Shamem. In the hierarchy of Palmyran gods, it appears that Bel and Baʽal Shamem were of greatest importance in Palmyra.

In other areas, Baʽal Shamem also carries the title Lord of the World, while in other places he carried the epithet Creator of the Earth. In some areas, Baʽal Shamem carries a connection not just to the heavens, but also solar qualities as well, and in times of drought he also serves as a god of rains and dew. He is also known as an establisher of wisdom for people.

The temples where Baʽal Shamem and Bel were worshipped in Palmyra are in an area built around 131 CE, so about 1,884 years ago. Bel, too, has a temple in Palmyra and this temple is probably also mined with explosives right now. I would highly suggest that in any honoring of the gods of the temples of Palmyra be extended to include Bel and probably also Aglibol and Malakbel.

If there is a blessing to be gathered out of the ashes of the wanton acts of evil Daesh has done here, it is that polytheists are gathering together, protesting in solidarity. I hope and I pray that for every temple they threaten, and for every mine they plant in these dusty, dry, decaying ruins, seven more living, new shrines or temples will spring up. As great as our fury is, we may feel drawn to hurl curses upon the heads of those who would threaten these sacred places. I do not say “do not curse them”—by all means, if you feel moved to do so, be my guest—but I firmly think that there are more important things that need doing first and foremost.

We need to nourish, hold, and maintain our polytheist spaces, our holy places, our sacred discourses, our necessary conversations, our holidays, our rites, our offerings, our blessed gatherings. We need to nourish, hold, and maintain these things on behalf of our deities, our ancestors, and each other. And we need to do this far more than any curse or call for vengeance. Indeed, these very acts themselves are revolutionary and the very things that Daesh and others would try to blot out. Do these things first, and then, only then, contemplate curses because vengeance is nothing when there is nothing left to avenge.

Updates! New multi-author column announced

The Thracian in Updates

Our third announcement of the week! Polytheist.com will soon feature a new multi-author column that will be unveiled later this season, showcasing entirely anonymous authors, sharing personal and informal accounts of liminal, ritual, magical and ecstatic experiences within their pursuits as Polytheists.

This track shall hold accounts of profound or terrifying or tragic or awakening moments as experienced directly by the writers, without the weight of being identified by name. Names are powerful things, which can — if known and respected, or carried with infamy on whispered lips, occasionally shape and influence how a piece is read. Similarly, some people whose names are not known might find themselves intimidated by the idea of sharing these most personal of accounts, asking themselves why anyone would value what they have to say?

There are many places where big names carry a lot of weight, and there are even more places where writers can make names for themselves: but this new column will be a place for no names at all, where all of the baggage of those things is stripped away and hung up on entry for sacred sharing in the dark sacredness of nameless anonymity.

There will be an honor system here, for better or worst: this is a place for truth, and for trust. The intent will be to provide a safe and anonymous place for authors to write personal accounts of transformative, ecstatic, divine, or worshipful experiences as a 21st century Polytheist, in connection with the many gods in any one of the MANY ways that these relationships unfold. Not everyone is a spirit-worker, or has a “god-phone”, but everyone has experiences, and these are sacred and valuable.

These experiences of our gods and of our spirits, or of our shifting and awakening awareness of them in all of their fullness and richness, distinct from one another and from ourselves and from this world, and yet in constant steady relationship with it all… these are the things which define us as Polytheists. This will be a place to share these experiences, in a setting where others might gain inspiration, growth, or insights from them… where others can relate to them, or find relationship through them.

The anonymity of the authors will be absolute between each of them and the single editorial person, and retained in private records for the sole purpose of author’s retaining their rights to the work (in the event that they would like to see them printed elsewhere down the way and the like).

Please stay tuned for more updates on this new sub-project, and feel free to contact us privately on FaceBook or email directly (polytheist.com at gmail dot com) for instructions on how the submissions process will work, with the subject “Anonymous Submissions”.

Thank you, and have a blessed day!

A POLYTHEISTIC DAY OF PROTEST & REMEMBRANCE

Galina Krasskova in Wyrd Ways

When:

July 31, 2015

Why:

In remembrance of the over three hundred ancient and in many cases holy sites destroyed by Daesh. In grief and terror over the damage to and potential destruction of the UNESCO city of Palmyra, and the Temple of Ba’al Shamin. In silent protest against the attack and forced eradication of even the vestiges of polytheism across the world.

This is not a Syrian issue. This is not a Muslim issue. This is a world issue. It is a human issue. Daesh is purposely targeting memory. They’re targeting their history, and their own physical connection with their polytheistic ancestors. It is done to demoralize, terrorize, and desecrate.

We Polytheists who have the freedom to practice our religions without fear of our lives (regardless of how much Christian hatred we may experience) have the opportunity to unite ritually, magically, spiritually in mind and will, with hearts and spirits in a cross-community day of ancestral reverence and remembrance.

Over sixty Deities were venerated at Palmyra alone, from multiple traditions: Canaanite, Mesopotamian, Arab, Greek, Phoenician, and Roman, as well as local and ancestral gods. Deities given cultus there included Bol/Bel, Yarhibol (god of justice), Malakbel (god of the Sun), Aglibol (god of the moon), Astarte (Phoenician Goddess of love and power), Ba’al Hamon, Ba’al Shamin, Ba’al Hadad, Atargatis, the Sumerian Nabu and Nirgal, the Arab Azizos, Shams, and Al – Allat, the native Gods Gad Taimi and Arsu, and even Dionysos.

What to do? :

1. Print out this graphic or copy it onto a piece of paper.

2. Meditate for a few moments, focusing on all the destruction,
desecration, and damage, on the sacred places that have
been destroyed, on the erasure of these ancient
polytheistic spaces, and all the other horrors Daesh
have committed.

3. Offer this prayer:

“May the holy places of the Many Gods remain inviolate for all time.
May the hands of the enemies of the Many Gods of be smashed and their efforts come to naught.
May the worship of the Many Gods flourish in many lands once again.
May those who hold true to the Many Gods be preserved and strengthened.”

4. Burn the paper in offering.

5. Make whatever other offerings you wish.

If possible, do this NINE times throughout the Day.

Feel free to share about this experience on facebook, blogs, twitter – this is an act of evocation of all those Gods Whose sacred places have been destroyed and Whose people are being violated. The internet is a perfect way to keep this evocation going.

This is a way of holding space for polytheism, ancient and modern, it is a way of drawing a line in the sand and declaring to the world that we stand in solidarity with those whose voices once rang out in praise to a plenitude of Gods and Goddesses. It is a statement that for every stone of every temple destroyed, we will restore that cultus a thousand fold. It is an act of evocation, execration, and magic. We’re still here.

(art by M. Gage. The logo is one of the symbols of Ba’al, heavily stylized. It seems particularly appropriate with Palmyra. Divination was done to ensure that it was ok to use the image for this purpose).

Updates! New site design, and call for submissions!

The Thracian in Updates

June 23, 2015:

Welcome to the new face of Polytheist.com, rebuilt and relaunched with a new engine under the hood and a more stable hosting environment. It’s an bustling week here, with new content and all kinds of exciting updates! Follow us on Facebook for the most recent of everything, or subscribe to our RSS feed!

Update:

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS! As a new feature with the site, four times a year — Solstices and Equinoxes — Polytheist.com will launch an open call for submissions from our communities.

What we are looking for is proposals for articles or essays on subjects, topics, perspectives or challenges related to living and practicing Polytheist religions and spiritual traditions today. These will be reviewed and the selected proposals will have a deadline worked out with the author, for inclusion in our Featured Voices track on the site (which will gain increasing focus and centrality on the site).

There is room for some Featured Voices guest writers to shift over into a regular column track, but to start, one-off articles is the way to go. The intent here is to break out of the echo-chamber that sometimes takes hold with online media in niche communities: it’s sort of like open-mic night, except still regulated in a minimal way behind the scenes to ensure continuity of quality in the content put forth. Please message our Facebook Page or email us directly (polytheist.com at gmail dot com) for instructions on how to submit a proposal! Many blessings and much respect to all in our communities.

Please stay tuned later this week for more updates, new articles, and more!

It is a damn good time to be a Polytheist!

Eponâ

Segomâros Widugeni in Nemeton Segomâros

Meaning of Name: Scholars give various translations of her name, all pretty similar. Olmsted translates it as “Horse Goddess”. Green derives it from the word for horse. Kondratiev translates it as “Great Mare”. Nantonos Aedui, of Epona.net translates it as “Divine Mare” or “She who is like a mare”. Mackillop gives us “Divine Horse” or “Horse Goddess”. ¹
Pronunciation: Ep-AWN-aa
Other Names and Epithets: Olmsted gives us Rîganâ, and its Latin equivalent Regina, both meaning “Queen”. More doubtfully, he also gives us Atanta, Dibonia, Dunna, Vovesia, Catona, Epotia, Eponina, and Imona, from his translation of the Rom Inscription. However, this translation is not generally accepted among scholars. Ceisiwr Serith mentions Meduna, a name derived from the Gaulish word for “mead”, as a by-name for Eponâ. And Epona.net also mentions the Latin Regina.²
Interpretatio Romana: No exact equivalent, but Eponâ was herself the subject of official Roman worship from 50 CE onward. ³
Irish Equivalent: Macha. ⁴
Indo-European Equivalent: Hékwonā, the Indo-European mare, mead, and sovereignty Goddess.⁵
Realm: Ueronadâ/Upper World Goddess
Iconography: Eponâ is depicted in two main ways – sidesaddle mounted, and seated between two horses. She is also occasionally shown in a cart. When depicted sidesaddle, she is shown wearing a long gown, often with a cloak. She often holds a cornucopia,patera (Roman style offering bowl), or a basket of fruits. She is also often depicted with a dog, a key, a foal, or a mappa (white cloth).⁶
Significance: Kondratiev identifies her with the Welsh Mari Lwyd, the “Grey Mary/Grey Mare”, a sort of hobby horse who is taken about by mummers during the Christmas season. From this, he interprets her as the Sovereignty Goddess, the Land Goddess, and the mother of the Child of Light – Maponus, in his view. He identifies her with the winter, but also sees her as a Goddess of fertility and plenty. ⁷ Ceisiwr Serith sees her indo-European equivalent, Hékwonā, as a horse and sovereignty Goddess as well, but also sees her as possessing associations with untamed sexuality, and a pure power which is potentially dangerous. ⁸ The Italian scholar Carlo Ginzburg sees her as the prototype for the later deity of the medieval Diana Cults, and, as such, the leader of the Wild Hunt, something that fits with Kondratiev’s identification of her with the Mari Lwyd. ⁹ The writer(s) of epona.net is generally not willing to go so far, seeing all such elaborate theologies as unproven. ¹⁰ Morpheus Ravenna, in her upcoming Book of the Great Queensees her as a Sovereignty Goddess more or less directly cognate to the Irish Macha or Ro-ech, sharing even by-names with Macha, and, like Her, possessing martial and fertility attributes, as well as the aforementioned Sovereignty function. She sees some of the differences between the Gaulish and Irish figures as due to the effects of Romanization in emphasizing the less martial attributes, of an existing Goddess. ¹¹

Strengthening Spiritual Communication

Dagulf Loptson in Ørgrandr Lokean

Last week, I had a frustrating dream, where I was very thirsty and kept trying to drink from different cups of water I had around me. However, every time I picked up a glass of water to drink from it, I found ants floating in it and had to move onto the next one. When I woke up the next morning, I walked over to my ancestor altar and found ants crawling on the altar and floating in their water glass I keep on the altar for them. Though I felt bad that ants were invading their altar, it was nice to have confirmation that my connection to my ancestral spirits is doing well, because I heard the message loud and clear: Clean our water!

Since I had that dream, I’ve had a few people ask me advice on how to receive clearer messages from their spirits and Gods, and how to build stronger connections to them (which is a question I have been asked in the past as well.) The answer to that question is really the heart of what Polytheism, at least traditionally, is really all about: relationship building. While this is actually very simple, is also very difficult for many people in our day and age of instant gratification.

Building a relationship with the Gods and spirits depends on a very simple paradigm shift, which is also difficult for many people to embrace: the Gods and spirits are real. In many Pagan traditions it is very popular to talk about the Gods in terms of “archetypes”, energies, or symbols, though it is not as often that I find people expressing behaviors and attitudes that would suggest that, for them, the Gods are very real personages who can have a noticeable effect on our day to day lives. When one person is relating to another person, whose reality is undeniable, there is a certain degree of formality and respect which we have all be socialized to appreciate: if you give someone a cookie, you don’t casually snatch it from their hands a few moments later and eat it in front of them. If you want to talk to a person, you don’t just think about talking to them as loud as you can and then become angry with them when they never responded to you. You don’t offhandedly talk shit about someone while you’re standing right in front of them (or at least you shouldn’t). I have seen Pagans of many stripes do all of those things when it comes to the Gods and spirits, be it taking back gifts or promises that were given to them, expressing anger at them for not anticipating your every desire, or speaking about them so disrespectfully that it implies a disbelief that anyone is actually listening. Though one can have an emotional attachment to a deity or spirit as a symbol, energy, or as a mythological character, this still isn’t the same as knowing that they are independent personages and treating them as such. I would say that the first step in building effective relationships with your Gods, spirit guides, and ancestors is simply thinking about them as if they’re real people, not just amorphous concepts.

In many modern Witchcraft traditions, a great deal of emphasis has been placed upon Witchcraft as a path of personal empowerment. While I fully support growing in one’s personal power, the Medieval idea of where a Witch got their power was quite different, and can be summed up in what was called the “pact”; the pact being either with the Devil himself or other (supposedly) demonic spirits. This paints a very different picture of traditional Witchcraft, where creating change in one’s world largely depended on a relationship between the Witch and the non-corporeal entities they served and allied themselves with. This idea is actually a very shamanistic one, where a person’s power is related to the collective power of their spirits and the pacts that bind them to those spirits. Conversely, I have heard many modern Witches and Pagans talk about their relationships with their Gods and spirits as if they are only latent aspects of their own personality that can be channeled in appropriate situations. In other words, when you are talking to a god or spirit, you are only speaking to an aspect of yourself that embodies that being as an archetype. While this may be helpful as a path to self-discovery, I have observed that it is almost completely useless when trying to build relationships with the Gods and spirits that can actually impact the physical world, and in comparison is little more than a colorful mental exercise. It is much more simple to skip the middle step of rationalizing your belief in the Gods to death before you work with them, and just proceed as if they’re actually real. Period. The end.

The next step, now that we have established that your Gods, spirits, and ancestors are indeed real, is also very simple. If you knew of someone in your life that you wanted to build a relationship with, what would you do? You would start by talking to them, inviting them to spend time with you, maybe inviting them over to your house for coffee. The Gods and spirits are no different. If you make the mental shift of treating non-corporals by the same rules that you would treat flesh and blood relationships, this becomes pretty self-explanatory. Praying to the Gods, spirits, or ancestors doesn’t always have to be a long, formal process. Communication can be simple as talking to them in the car on your way to work: “Hey, I’m thinking about you today, these are the things that are going on in my life right now.” You can set aside a small place in your house for a God, spirit, or your ancestors, where you can go talk to them or leave things for them. When you have a cup of coffee in the morning, pour a little bit into a small cup and give it to them and let them know it’s for them. Altars aren’t just for decoration; they’re supposed to be a special place, set aside for us physical beings to do physical things to help us commune with non-physical beings.

The next step is the most important aspect of this relationship building, and perhaps the most difficult to follow through with: consistency. You are never going to be able to attain powerful results in your work with your Gods and spirits if you set up an altar for them, dust it every once in a while, and forget that it exists most of the time otherwise. You will also never obtain results if you only bother to talk to the Gods, ancestors, and spirits when you’re in a crisis or want something from them. It’s not that the Gods and spirits don’t care, but part of their ability to work in the world for you depends and the energy and power that you build by continuously strengthening your relationship with them. If you’ve never put much work into developing a two-way bond with your spiritual allies, that umph isn’t going to be there for you when you really need it, and being able to receive clear messages from them is going to be much more difficult. The channel that connects us to our spirits is like a path through the woods, and the less effort you take in keeping that path clear and open, and the less you walk down that path, the more overgrown and difficult it will be to get through.

Now that we’ve talked about the hard part, what can a person do to stay motivated enough to build these strong connections that I’ve been talking about? The answer is the very crux of Devotional Polytheism: loving the Gods, spirits, and ancestors. If you’re pursuing these connections only as a way to obtain power, you are more than likely not going to possess the enthusiasm and dedication that is required to remain consistent in your efforts. Building these relationships with your spiritual allies should, ideally, feel as painless as it is to maintain your relationships with your friends, family, or romantic partners. Even if it takes work, you should feel excited about spending time with your friends, or setting aside time to spend with your spouse. If you have Gods or spirits in your life that you feel that kind of love for, it shouldn’t feel arduous to make time to spend with them, even if it’s only once a week. That could simply look like sitting in front of their altar and talking to them for a few minutes, maybe while lighting a candle for them or pouring them a fresh glass of water. The key is to do this consistently, even if you’re feeling distracted that day, or depressed, or tired. If each person would devote the same amount of time and energy building a relationship to their spirits and Gods as they do building relationships with people over social media, we’d have a lot of spiritual power houses on our hands. Honestly, the simple, simple solution to overcoming any kind of spiritual miasma is just giving a shit. Do something for your spirits and Gods once a week at least, preferably on the same day every week (don’t stress too much if you screw up and are a little late), and I guarantee you will notice results. They may not be instant results, and it may take many months of devotional work before the path you’re treading starts to become clearer, but it will happen eventually. This requires a lot of self-discipline, but if you want it and believe in what you’re doing, you can make it happen. I’m admittedly one of the most scatterbrained people on the planet (and a Lokean to top it off), so if I can do this, so can you.

Lastly, what do I suggest for people who don’t really know where to start with this level of devotional work, or maybe don’t have deeply established relationships with any deities or specific spirits yet? Again, this is very simple, and you will hear experienced spirit workers of all creeds say it over and over again: START WITH YOUR ANCESTORS! Perhaps because the ancestors were once undeniably human, or maybe because they are literally our family members, many people tend to overlook their ancestors in their spiritual work, or think about them as if they’re not very glamorous or exciting (or at least not as exciting as the Gods or the Orishas). It is, however, that familial connection that makes them so important and so powerful. Our ancestors (and especially our recent ones if you shared a good relationship with them in life) care deeply about us and want us to succeed in life. If you had a family member that would move mountains for you when you were alive, that hasn’t changed just because they’re dead. We wouldn’t even exist if it hadn’t been for the perseverance of our bloodline, and as a result the ancestors have a special interest on their continued success via their descendants. Because we literally are carrying a direct connection to our ancestors via our blood, they are also some of the easiest of our spiritual allies to contact. All that’s required is to open the path for them and empower them through our prayers and actions.

In my own practice, this means keeping an altar for my ancestors, where I put pictures, items they owned, some of my father’s ashes, and other items that remind me of them. I keep a glass of water and a light source on their altar (I was taught that spirits are attracted to both), and at least once a week I give them a cup of coffee and a shot of alcohol. If I’m making something to eat that I think they would like, I share a little bit with them on a small plate. I talk to them, tell them about what’s going on in my life, and say prayers for their strength, peace, and happiness.

For those of us who work with deities from broken traditions, such as the Pagan traditions of Northern and Western Europe, our ancestors may also serve as links of memory to the Gods and how they were once worshipped. Experience has taught me that a solid practice with your ancestors is the foundation that needs to be laid down before a stable structure can be build upward towards the Gods, and you may find that developing a consistent practice of ancestor reverence opens unexpected doors to the deities as well. If you’re interested in looking more into the whys and hows of ancestor reverence, I highly suggest the work of fellow columnist Galina Krasskova, who teaches and writes about methods of ancestor worship with a great deal of passion and understanding born from experience.

So there you have it. The secret to successful spiritual contact is actually very simple, and in many ways self-explanatory. The hardest part about building these relationships is simply just doing the work, consistently and with love. Extend the courtesy and effort that you would give a flesh-and-blood relationship to the Gods and spirits, and everything else will follow.