The Veil! The Veil!

There's always talk at this time of year about "the veil between the worlds" and how it's now at it's thinnest. Eh... sure, but it ebbs and flows. It's never static. It's also just as thin at this time in April/May, but at that point most Pagans are thinking about fertility. Truth is, you can reach across "the veil" at any point during the year. It might be easier during April and October, but it's never that hard the rest of the year, you just need to know how to get (and stay) in touch. Here are a few tips and trick. Nothing earth shattering, but add them all together and you have the start of an Ancestor practice:

Ancestor Altar
This is your base of communication, especially when starting out. Once your practice is in full swing you'll find you don't need to be at your altar to get in touch with your ancestors.

This should be on the west side of your abode (house apartment, room, etc) and include pictures and tokens of your family members who have passed and things they liked. The best offerings are the little things. Grandma liked gardenias? Leave one on the altar, or burn a gardenia scented candle. Don't forget to add family patrons to the altar. Grandpa had an affinity for Saint Anthony? It won't hurt you to put his prayer card on the altar too.

I like to keep water on my altar as a means of communication. I've blogged about this previously- it's an offering of willingness to keep in touch, especially through dreams.

Commit to a time frame of offerings: Every night from new to full moon, or once a week for 9 weeks, or once a day for 9 days, or during a certain moon phase, etc. And stick to it!

Meditation
This cannot be overrated. Meditation isn't only about tuning into the neutral channel. You can have a directed, focused meditation: Contemplate your literal blood and how far back it reaches. Focus on a specific family member you would like to communicate with and recall every detail you knew about them. Alternately, you can set an intention to contact an ancestor you don't know, as in the case of adoption, and once you do reach the neutral channel in your meditation, have that person fill the proverbial airwaves. This isn't the kind of thing you do when you first begin a meditation practice, it's 202 not 101. For the 101 crowd, meditate on your ancestors before you go to sleep, especially as you are falling asleep. I recommend this only be done with those you knew in life who were loyal to you and loved you. No inviting strangers into your dream world!

Journey
I have a wonderful Ancestral Temple Journey I will be teaching and recording. Here is another 202: If you have an astral temple, an astral workspace, a dreamscape you return to: Build a place for your ancestors. This is a wonderful way to reach them outside of dreaming and reinforces the intent of contact and communication.

Divination
Tarot especially is a wonderful way to communicate with your ancestors. When in sacred space, you can ask ancestors to join you and interview them. Pendulums also work for this purpose.

And don't forget offerings to cthonic deities like... you guessed it! Mercury and Hecate! Mercury is a psychopomp and opener of the ways and deity of communication. Why not call on Him in this work? Yeah, I'm biased, and spreading the love. Whichever pantheon you work with, don't forget to include appropriate prayers and generally building a relationship with those deities which facilitate communication with ancestors. They can be wonderful allies on this type of journey.

Dancing with Ereshkigal

I was debating posting this. I don't often share such personal experiences, but as I've thought about it, the idea of posting this has felt better and better.

This evening I had time to myself and used it to Journey. I "centered" myself and entered through a door here on my land.  I've been there before and had something in mind of what to expect. I realized that was a mistake, I didn't want to impose my own ideas, I wanted the reality of the place. Once through the door, the passage was completely dark. I walked a much longer way than expected to reach the area I had been to previously. I came to a shore, it was that packed wet sand that doesn't get between your toes and isn't muddy either. There I met Mercury in his full travel regalia. He led me into the boat. The boatman briefly revealed himself then became invisible. Funny, his disappearance looked the same way as in Harry Potter when he donned the invisibility cloak but with a spin instead.

I journeyed across the water to the other side. It wasn't a long trip, but the water was "active." The ride wasn't smooth and I saw the water come in over either side of the walls of the boat, a comic book blue color. As soon as it touched the bottom of the boat it shrank away as if recoiling.

I stepped out of the boat onto a similar shore. Only there, I saw an empty throne which on my last trip had been occupied. This time, there was only Her. Ereshkigal, Great Queen of the Underworld. She looked the same as the last time I journeyed there: Covered head to toe in all black with some gold decoration - a fringe of small gold baubles on her forehead over her eyes, the only part which wasn't covered. I walked to where she was seated and she stood and faced me. She took my hands. Hers were completely white and her clothes seemed to follow her, as if a cape were hooked to each wrist I realized later that this symbolized wings. She and I danced together and as we danced, we talked. She didn't waste words and was very to the point, After we talked and danced, She asked me to dance for Her and I did: It was incredibly freeing. I also found myself dressed in completely different clothing than when I had first arrived. The dance was my gift to Her, an offering for meeting with me.

I think I'm ok with posting this because part of what we discussed included something for me to contemplate, a kind of offer to accept. I asked for time to think about it, but once I returned, thanks to a quick flying Mercury, I knew exactly what I needed to do and got to it. I suppose this blog is my answer. I don't know if I have it in me to do another journey tonight considering I'm still under the weather. I'm not sure I need to. They don't always need you to tell them in person. I feel her smiling as I write this.

I had started a different post on the history of Sumeria, Akkadia, Babylon and Assyria, but was called to this instead. We'll do a history lesson another time. Meanwhile, you can get a head start on wiki because yes, this does relate back to Italy! But so does everything ;)

Journeys

I've done a few today, both the esoteric kind and the actual kind.

I opened a door that I've left closed for some time, went through, and was guided by one of my Patrons. I was consciously trying to take in every detail, but I found I couldn't focus quite that clearly- I was trying to be an observer when instead I was the one being observed. I'm not ready to go into detail yet because I'm still trying to process it. I received a message and I want to incorporate that into my life nownownow! Never said I was patient! I want to go back again. I intend to do that in my dream work tonight. I'll let you know what happens ;)

I've been working on a post about other major points on Italian immigration in the US and after NYC, the number two port is Boston. I know my surname is up here! I wonder how we're related! In the meanwhile, I've decided that I'm going to have dinner here when I go back into Boston:

Would it be redundant to drink Strega liquor when I'm there? lol