Asking for guidance from ancestors/nature spirits?

[Shiranui117]

As I begin exploring the wide, wide world of spirituality, I've come to see my ancestors as people who can help me along this journey. My only question is, how to go about asking for their help. And perhaps I'll be including nature spirits to this list as well as I get my toes wet and figure out where it is I want to go.

I know some people set up an ancestral altar and make offerings, along with formal prayers. Is this the acceptable way of doing things, or is it also acceptable to simply call out and ask for guidance spontaneously without any formalized ritual?

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

There's no reason you can't do both.

 

[buddhist]

In this Buddhist's view, our ancestors could have been reborn in any one of a number of planes of existence due to their accumulated kamma.

I personally find that those who have been reborn in the lowest heavens - closest to our human plane - seem to be the devas that are most responsive to contact through meditation and prayers. And, like humans, they tend to have their own preferences.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

There is no one "right way." It's between you and them. It's good to do some regular more formal recognitions, but I also encourage spur-of-the-moment appeals and offerings.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

As I begin exploring the wide, wide world of spirituality, I've come to see my ancestors as people who can help me along this journey. My only question is, how to go about asking for their help. And perhaps I'll be including nature spirits to this list as well as I get my toes wet and figure out where it is I want to go.

I know some people set up an ancestral altar and make offerings, along with formal prayers. Is this the acceptable way of doing things, or is it also acceptable to simply call out and ask for guidance spontaneously without any formalized ritual?

I find it best to start with your closest relatives who have passed away and then go back. If you have close relatives that have passed away, and you know them well, then, in my view, they would be one of the first options of knowing your ancestors since they are closer to them than you are.

Building a genealogy tree and learning your roots is another good place to start. For example, my family has deep rooted seeds in slavery, southern US culture, and christian beliefs mixed with other practices here and there. Although I'm not christian, I pay my respects in the manner they'd find it appropriate. For example, when I took the sacraments, I experienced the spirit of jesus. I know everyone has a spirit regardless of who they are and how people portray them. So I may sign the cross or say a short prayer in their honor. It also helps remind me of the sacraments I took (saying hi to an old friend) without feeling confined to a belief system I oppose to.

Ancestral altars are good second option to going to your loved ones resting place. There is no "right way" to set up an altar unless you are following a specific path that has regulations for connecting with the spirits and ancestors. If you decide to connect to your ancestors through the loved ones you knew well, what do they like as in food, drink, music, art, and so forth? Is there something between the two of you that you can continue on regardless of their physical presence in your life?

Talk to your family as if they are physically here. There is no "special way" to talk to ancestors just because they are spirit. It just means they transitioned from one part of life into another since nothing dies we just go in a cycle. You speak to them as you speak to your living relatives.

Here are two sites I like:

1. Five ways to honor your ancestors
2. Interview by Randy Peyser: Accessing the Wisdom of Our Ancestors
The second is an interview with Sobonfu Some. It will give you an idea of one of thousands of traditions that honor one's ancestors. It's not for instruction.

 

[Serpent Child]

Wait, do you actually want to summon and work with your Ancestors? Because thats possible. You have your blood, adoptive (if you were ever adopted), spirit and heart ancestors. You don't have to have a formal ritual though. Everyday when i wake up and go to bed (i try) to annouce in my mind to all of my Ancestors that I love, bless, acknoweldge, honor, thank and hail all of my Ancestors forever, you can ask them for daily guidance, healing and protection. I think they appreciate it when you simply acknowledge and thank their existence daily. Heres something I found thats helped a lot!
" https://did%3Dfebadb1c9bbb92372cd307af4198234a2a6cf596%3Bid%3D155922461490%3Bkey%3DWwegq2Q1Ddvq-6LU2I9aZA%3Bname%3Dtalientia
The source also talks about how to connect more with your ancestors and what type of offerings to make ect. What type of nature spirits do you want to work with? I know commonly simply helping the Earth however you can will make them and beings like the Fae trust you more, I know the Fae are drawn to creavity. You should give offerings to the nature spirits to start a friendship. But it'd depend what type of nature spirit you want to work with. If you wanted to be friends witha a Tree or plant you can give them offerings and simply start a conversation with them, sing to them, read poetry to them, ect. Btw you can work with other peoples ancestors only if you have permission though.
This post https://did%3Dba6475b87af7230b406fedb60e21f7dfa76a52a7%3Bid%3D155410933425%3Bkey%3Dg8DTdasqbwuFBjCTtTl2IQ%3Bname%3Dcanadiandruid talks about communication with Nature Spirits too.

 

[lovesong]

Light a candle, any candle will do, and use the flame as a focusing point. Let yourself go into a deep meditation, close your eyes if it helps. Call out to them with passion, by name if you can, give an offering if you want to, and with any luck, they will respond. I recently wrote out a full step-by-step sheet for a more elaborate and fool-proof way to speak to your ancestors for a customer of mine, I can post it if you'd like.

 

[Shiranui117]

Light a candle, any candle will do, and use the flame as a focusing point. Let yourself go into a deep meditation, close your eyes if it helps. Call out to them with passion, by name if you can, give an offering if you want to, and with any luck, they will respond. I recently wrote out a full step-by-step sheet for a more elaborate and fool-proof way to speak to your ancestors for a customer of mine, I can post it if you'd like.

I would appreciate that, actually

 

[arthra]

As I begin exploring the wide, wide world of spirituality, I've come to see my ancestors as people who can help me along this journey. My only question is, how to go about asking for their help. And perhaps I'll be including nature spirits to this list as well as I get my toes wet and figure out where it is I want to go.

I know some people set up an ancestral altar and make offerings, along with formal prayers. Is this the acceptable way of doing things, or is it also acceptable to simply call out and ask for guidance spontaneously without any formalized ritual?

While it hasn't occurred to me to "set up an ancestral altar and make offerings" I do believe there is something to the practice of intercessory prayer and interceding for our ancestors .. our father, grandfather is recognized in my Faith...

"As here they can receive light by their supplication, there also they can plead for forgiveness, and receive light through entreaties and supplications. Thus as souls in this world, through the help of the supplications, the entreaties, and the prayers of the holy ones, can acquire development, so is it the same after death. Through their own prayers and supplications they can also progress; more especially when they are the object of the intercession of the Holy Manifestations."

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - , p. 330

"The progress of man's spirit in the divine world, after the severance of its connection with the body of dust, is through the bounty and grace of the Lord alone, or through the intercession and the sincere prayers of other human souls, or through the charities and important good works which are performed in its name."

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 240

Further:

After its association with the body draws to a close, the soul will continue to progress in an eternal journey towards perfection. Bahá’u’lláh wrote, “It will manifest the signs of God and His attributes, and will reveal His loving kindness and bounty.”2

An illumined soul continues to have an influence on progress in this world and the advancement of its peoples. It acts as “the leaven that leaveneth the world of being, and furnisheth the power through which the arts and wonders of the world are made manifest.”3

Life and Death | What Bahá’ís Believe