Black Spirituality Religion : Finding out who are Ancestors are for worship

[ANGELIC SOUL]

Finding out who our Ancestors are for worship

How many of you are comfortable with the idea of worshiping your ancestors? and if you are, does it replace a religion for you?

Lady Bastet

 

[Sapphdia]

A while ago my mom was practicing Yoruba. My sister and I had pretty much grown up in the church and my mom was heavily into church too. We were in high school at the time that she started practicing Yoruba and she introduced us to it. My reactions to the religion was that it scared me. I worried that I was going to go to hell or that God would be angry at me for practicing this religion with my mom. I wasn't really into it, but when we went to do certain rituals, I did as I was told. At home we were supposed to set up an alter and offer the ancestors (egun) some of our food, water, and alcohol. After a while, we no longer practiced it.

For a long time after that I became agnostic, not atheist, there's a difference. I felt confused about Christianity. I had questions that no one could answer and that people were angry at me for asking, so I left the church and stopped practicing Christianity. It wasn't until about a year ago that I started back. Someone had hurt me and I decided to make a positive cd that would remind of my fabulousness. lol I was listening to Faith Evans' song Keep the Faith and I just felt God. I broke down. I can't describe to you how I felt, but I just cried a lot and I prayed a lot and it was WOW!

Recently, as I've told others, I am on my spirtual walk with God. I don't subscribe to a religion and who knows, I may never, but I am a firm believer in God. The God that is described by Christians is not my God. I don't feel that God is a separate entity from me as I was taught in church. I don't think that I will burn in hell for my beliefs. I set up an alter, I give food offerings to my ancestors, I pray to them and thank them for their contributions to my life, because had it not been for them coming and struggling before me, I wouldn't have the life that I do. At first, I felt a little weird about it, because some of the teachings of Christianity is still within me, but then I became comfortable with it. It doesn't replace a religion for me. I don't practice a religion. I am spiritual. I plan to learn more about Afrikan spirituality as well as other religions like Buddhism and I plan to incorporate some of the things that I learn into my life.

 

[ANGELIC SOUL]

Many blessings to you on your journey!

Sapphdia!

I want to thank you for replying to my post. Not many women come in here!
I am supportive of your journey in finding your spiritual path. I was too a Chrisitian many eons ago it feels like. I turned away from those beliefs entirely about a year ago. I wasn't doing anything. It was upon a experience I had in my life that I found my true spiritual path. It is far from over. I pray and give thanks to my ancestors, I have begun to set up alters for them. I have been visited by them in dreams.

I am still banishing old christian ways of thinking and brainwashing everyday. I do believe in a God and that God has both male and female attributes, not just male. There are so many contridictions in the bible that its scary to me, I had to walk away. Many other factors led me to this decision as well.

Although, I am not Yoruban, I do identify with the Orisha's and do pray and set up alter for them now. Nothing elaborate as of yet, but its increasing.
I am also studying wicca,( although I do not consider myself a wiccan, I have been bound to study this new "religion") herbalism, astrology and tarot.
I have not subscribed to any "religion" but am on a spiritual walk and I have found it edifying and uplifting.

I support you in your search and am proud that you could share your experience with us.

Blessing and peace be unto you!

Shadow walker

 

[Blackbird]

Greetings All,

With all respect and love for other's position, opinions and truth, I have a question... Yoruba beliefs are very popular in this country, but unfortunately, many of our ancestors were not Yoruba and many of us are not Yoruba, in regards to our spiritual lineage. I was wondering have anybody looked into other Afrikan forms of beliefs, e.g. Akan, Ewe-Fon, Lebu, Igbo and so forth?

I believe if you don't have Yoruba as your spiritual lineage, your soul will not recognize it, resonate with it or at least to full capacity and potential. Instrinic to our own spiritual paths is our quest for collective identity as a people and to draw on any ancestral solutions to our present problems. It's Sankofa.

We have the concept of ancestral soul, once again y'all. Our ancestral soul can not reach its full capacity in any spiritual tradition which it was not born in. We have to center this aspect of self in order to have a foundation in anything we endeavor to do or be. On another note, your spiritual lineage maybe European-based, meaning the European ancestry (if you have such) is more dominant than the Afrikan in you, and you may have a strong inclination to Western-based forms of spirituality. It is a deep search, very complex, but I think due to our lack of knowledge of certain concepts, we over-simplify everything. My ancestral lineage, as I've stated many times, is Ewe and as such my ancestral soul resonates within a Vodou context. Ultimately, the choice of my spiritual beliefs (religion, if you will) was not mine, but my ancestors. The Vodou are in my blood and there's no getting around that. I could practice Buddhism or mix-up beliefs to form my own coherent system, but I would to have eventually come to terms with my purpose for incarnating with Ewe Vodou blood. Does that mean I don't look into other systems or respect them or incorporate them in my overall spiritual regimen? No. But I do this only within the context of Vodou, as my over-riding outlook on life.

Yes, at the core, these various beliefs are the same, but we also incarnate in this world with a specific function to perform and that function is informed by the spiritual lineage one possesses. Every spiritual belief sprang from a culture and every culture has its own worldview. When incorporating spiritual beliefs, we are also incorporating various elements of different cultures (some which may be, essentially, diametrically opposed in worldview) and this could eventually cause a problem, in regards to ancestral soul orientation. Just as the human body may reject another person's organ, so it is with the soul. As above, so below. In issues like this, I advise wisdom and for the traveler to tread lightly. Said in love and light.

Ase!
Blackbird

 

[ANGELIC SOUL]

This leaves room for serious thought!

Greetings All,

With all respect and love for other's position, opinions and truth, I have a question... Yoruba beliefs are very popular in this country, but unfortunately, many of our ancestors were not Yoruba and many of us are not Yoruba, in regards to our spiritual lineage. I was wondering have anybody looked into other Afrikan forms of beliefs, e.g. Akan, Ewe-Fon, Lebu, Igbo and so forth?

Blackbird

Blackbird your post was deep and taken with nothing but love and consideration. I think I have stated to you before that I do not feel a connection with Yoruba. However, the Orisha have visited me on several occassions, maybe I am confusing them with another belief system?

I have looked at maps of Africa during the slave trade and its hows the regions that were heavily taken into slavery. Yoruba is one, Kongo, Alergia.... if our ancestors did not come from the west coast of Africa, then where? and how in the world does one go about finding it?

I have not looked into the other belief systems... but I will now. Do you have any suggestions on how to get started?

Shadow... searches for the truth which is in the light!