Summoning Ancestors
Realizing the longing for presence
Here we go. Thank you for your patience. [These directions today; ritual tomorrow, Wednesday, March 26 at 4:41 P.M.]
This post is the full participation post—if you want to get the most out of it, that is. I could go on and on again about the importance of ritual, but I think it best to draw upon one of my dear teachers and Elders who speaks of Soul and ritual in ways much more eloquent than I:
“[…] ritual is any gesture done with emotion and intention by an individual or group that attempts to connect the individual or the community with transpersonal energies for the purpose of healing and transformation. Ritual is the pitch through which the personal and collective voices of our longing and creativity are extended to the unseen dimensions of life, beyond our conscious minds and into the realms of nature and spirit. […] I call ritual an embodied process.”
~ Francis Weller in “The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief.” (North Atlantic Books, 2015. p 76)
Among the varied purposes for rituals, Weller speaks of ritual’s “reparative functions.” “It sutures the tears in the soul that occur in the daily rounds of living. We live in a culture that has forgotten the basic needs of the soul.” (Ibid. p. 78)
In other words, ritual brings wholeness and healing.
Intentions
This ritual is meant to summon the souls and presence of our ancestors—all those who have gone before us and have taken with them valuable wisdom on how to be on this world for the benefit of all. By summoning their spirit, we recall their embodied wisdom and Elderings, no matter how old they were upon their death, in order to gleam from them additional teachings and ancestral advice to help us walk upon this earth, in fellowship with all other beings and creatures and even inanimate objects (for they have soul too!). And if not that, then simply to summon their presence so that we can at least feel them within our hearts. THAT is how we “suture the tears in the soul that occur in the daily rounds of living.”
You are now invited to join me in following the advice from John O’Donohue: “What you encounter, recognize, or discover depends to a large degree on the quality of your approach… When we approach with reverence, great things decide to approach us.”
May you, and I, approach what is now to follow, with reverence.
Summoning Our Ancestors for Presence, Guidance, Protection, and Forgiveness
You are invited to match what we are going to do by following the guidance that follows OR make your own appropriate alterations that might better suit your personal circumstances. Their is no wrong way to engage in ritual as long as you come to it with open-hearted intention and benevolence. It might be beneficial to read all the steps before beginning so you have the general idea and flow of the ritual.
[A brief word about how this might feel if you are new to ritual. Frankly, it feels weird. Or it CAN feel weird because it is so different from the usual habitual, hypnotic, and “busy-ness” of our days. And if you aren’t typically one who has pondered much on all things spirit and soul (I don’t mean religious here—ritual does NOT imply specific religious connotations), then you might also feel self-conscious with a tinge of embarrassment if you aren’t alone during this ritual. If this is the case, realize this: those feelings are natural and they are simply a sign that you are moving a bit away from wholeheartedness. Because when you invoke your whole heart into an act, it should feel safe, and warm, and loving, and soulful. If you do have awkward feelings, just breathe through them and recall your intention. Drive those feelings into your heart—a heart that I trust always aspires toward healing and forgiveness.]
Let Francis Weller end this notion and help ease your potential “unease:” “An approach of reverence… is foundational to a life imbued with soul. From this way of seeing, we recognize that everything possesses a measure of the sacred, including our sorrows and pain. How we approach our inner life profoundly affects what comes to us in return.”
The Alchemy of Ritual: after gathering all the ingredients for this alchemical ritual [described in the previous post here]:
Place all objects on a makeshift alter—any time you gather together materials for purposes such as rituals, you are creating an alter, or sacred space.
At 4:41 P.M., on Wednesday April 26, (or the time more suitable to your circumstances), light the candle and incense. The candle we are using was one we had lit at the graveside service. The ritual has begun.
Take a few moments to breathe into this moment and ground your body by feeling its contact with the ground and chair you are seated upon. Let go of everything else for the next few moments to be fully present to THIS moment.
Call to mind the ancestors you would like to have present. For us here, it will be my Dad. Please call to presence your own beloved ancestor. Say their name—recall a cherished memory. Feel what this does to your body. Slow yourself way down. Recall your intention for this ritual—even consider saying it to yourself or out loud. Mine will be something like: “Welcome back Dad to your new life of soul with me and with all those you love and who love you. May we feel your presence now in this new way as we continue to navigate our world with you held forever in our hearts. And may we do that with the gentle kindness you always embodied.”
Bow in namaste to the ancestor. Namaste simply is a sign of deep respect that communicates “I recognize and bow to the sacred presence that is in you.” Hands typically are brought together in front of your heart: 🙏🏼
We will now hit play of the YouTube link “Why Me Lord” by Kris Kristofferson.
And we’ll finally open our pints of Oatley strawberry ice cream and start eating. Did I say “finally?!?”
As we eat, we’ll share a cherished memory of our Dad. You will do the same with either what you remember about my Dad or recollect a shared a memory of your own ancestor.
There is NO rush here. Eat and share as long as you want. Replay the song as often as needed. OR, *** see below!
When you are done eating ice cream, bow in namaste again. At this time, we will recite our invocation that was spoken at Dad’s graveside service:
“Though we need to weep your loss, you dwell in that safe place in our hearts where no storm or night or pain can reach you. Let us not look for you only in memory, where we would grow lonely without you. You would want us to find you in presence, besides us when beauty brightens, when kindness glows, and [classic country western] music echoes eternal tones.
[And everywhere where hops are grown, and kindness is needed.]”
Thank the ancestor for their presence and ask that they continue to guide, protect, and forgive us.
This part of the ritual ends when you blow out the candle and watch briefly as the white smoke rises into the air carrying with it the intentions of the ritual from your heart.
Our Ritual’s Extension: I’m planning to eat the entire pint of ice cream at this ritual. Because, yes, I’ve been waiting that long! I will be rinsing the carton and then add compost to it turning the pint container into a pot for the growing of the sage seeds. This is how I’m planning to ‘grow’ Dad’s presence from this ritual into something beautiful that also had deep meaning for us from earlier in his life—the sage herb. We will care for these planted seeds appropriately and see what becomes of them over time.
If they grow with strong roots (see what I did there?), we will plant them out in our garden which will serve, then, as its own alter in honor of our Dad.
Final Step: IF YOU PARTICIPATED, and if you feel comfortable in doing this, please take some kind of picture(s) of your own ritual (either a selfie, or of the alter your created, or a pic of the ancestor you summoned, or your empty or potted pint carton, etc. You get the idea.) Send the picture to me, again only if you want and are comfortable: kertlenseigne@substack.com
I will compile all the pics sent me and publish them in an upcoming post for everyone to view and bear witness to. So, know that is my intention when you send me a pic. If you send them with a comment, it might be cool to publish those as well—a virtual, communal “memory book” of the ritual.
The dismantling of an alter is just as important as its creation. So you are invited to clean up and take apart your alter in a very deliberate, contemplative, and mindful way. (Or you can keep it going!) Focus on your breath and the memory of your ancestor. Engrave those feelings and actions in your heart to carry them forward into your future. The candle can be used in another ritual; the flowers when done with their current beauty will be composted in our garden to bring nourishment to the soil from which they will cultivate more beauty (maybe some of their petals saved and pressed); the water they sat in used to water the plants on our sills. Nothing we will use for this ritual will be thrown in the garbage. Even the wooden match we’ll use to light the candle will be composted in with the sage’s soil.
[OR Ritual Option #2:
At the appointed time, simply open a pint of “frozen dessert product,” recall a beloved ancestor from your past, reflect upon a memory or something you learned from that person, share your gratefulness for that person by voice aloud or in your silent heart, and ask for their wisdom, guidance, protection, and forgiveness. Add, or not, any of the other ideas from the larger ritual. In the end, you are coming together in community with others who share the same intention. You are ritualizing, with mindfulness and reverence, the experience.]
*** Kendra’s daughter, McKenna, created this WONDERFUL slide show memorial, with some of Dad’s favorite music, for our family. She’s given me permission to share this with all of you. We played it on continuous loop during our family gathering after the funeral. It now becomes a digital family heirloom. THANK YOU McKenna!!!
I wouldn’t expect anyone else who didn’t know Dad like we did to use this in your ritual today—but we are planning to watch this, yet again, as our final conclusion to our ritual, or as we eat the ice cream, and to more firmly plant Dad in our hearts. One way this might be made relevant to you, if you conjured a different ancestor, would be to watch this as well but for every scene you see of “us,” recollect a similar scene from your own life (there are scenes here from our christmases, picnics, family activities, etc.). In reality, we are never as different as we something think we are, or more sadly, want to believe. In the immortal words of Maya Angelou: “We are more alike my friends, then we are different.”
Additional Ritual ingredients:
Remember to send me your pics!!! You’ll see my pics of what we did here at that later post as well!
Thank you for joining us in this shared ritual of soul. I would LOVE to hear from you about how you experienced this—you all don’t reach out or comment to me enough. I would LOVE and am inviting that!!! So, either comment below so all others can see, or email straight to me at the above substack address. I always respond. Always.
BTW: If done well and with your open-hearted intentions, and if you approached this ritual with reverence, pay close attention to what happens for you, and in you, over the coming days. I don’t want to bias you, my experience after all will be different, but because rituals are alchemical, you will have been changed by your engagement. You cannot help but be changed—even in subtle, unfelt (at the moment) ways.
I would love to hear how this alchemy of ritual cooked your life into something different and new.
In soul.
Always soul,
Kert
🙏🏼
“Once we begin [and then end,] the ritual, it is out of our hands; it now belongs to Spirit. Life is far too complex to rely solely on our intellect. We need the invisible hands of Spirit to shelter us, to support us, and to offer us the nourishing comfort that comes from that Other World. This concert between the human and the sacred is ancient; it is held in the bones. Trust this bond. it is our healing ground.”
~ Francis Weller (ibid p. 88)
