Honoring Your Ancestors: A Guide to Ancestral Veneration

This book is a good jumping off point for ancestor veneration. The author lists good spells, suggestions for prayers, covers how to build an altar, etc. I like how down-to-earth this was. I like that she didn't try to glamorize witchcraft. Witchcraft isn't Hollywood. It's work and effort and research and figuring out what works for you. It's learning the culture and history of your ancestors and getting in touch with your roots. This is a worthwhile read.

This is a well written book. It was recommended to me by a friend. I wanted to get closer to my ancestors and this book teaches you how yo honor them them daily if you so choose to. Small book but packs a punch with the detail.

This book provides an overview of ancestor veneration. Although most books on this topic focus on a particular tradition, this one offers material from several different traditions. Well worth the read.

She writes like we are having a conversation- assumes you have no prior knowledge or experience on the subject which was helpful to me as I have so many questions & no mentoring. She has an accessible, humble tone and does not claim to have any innate special insights- all her research and experience, she presents as something any person could do, making everything feel really inclusive & encouraging for the solo practitioner. It was interesting that one of her mentors was a woman who I have read the works of in regards to dance. That was a sweet Italian connection. I still have many questions but found this a kind, easy read to understanding what possibilities exist and steps to take toward deepening my spiritual practice by honoring my ancestors. I really appreciate finding this book right before Halloween when the topic was very much relevant for me in my curiosity about ancestor veneration.

Loved the book. It help me to understand how and why we should talk to our ancestors. I highly recommend to anyone wanting to learn how to talk to their ancestors.

This book is so eminently sane and sanely written. I jumped immediately to the section on spells and then moved backwards. I was impressed that there is magic of imagination, of petition, of simple intention-setting, herbs, and all the good more elaborate stuff of Psalms, holy days, saints, and conjuring visible evil eyes into oil. There is a lot of wisdom included here showing a lot of experience and wisdom gained as a spellworker, and a sufficient emphasis on personal responsibility. Some advice in this book is almost in the form of laconic jokes. The book does not feel like a critique or policing of contemporary witchcraft, but a call to do serious work and to re-think concepts popular in the mainstream today (like what it means to love yourself). The book is full of love and the dead. It is exciting to see Western writers approaching the almost taboo and forgotten topics of our dead who are hidden beneath cultures so often worshipping image and youth at the expense of a full vision of life and death. I would have loved this book years ago when I first started thinking about my ancestors, and I still love it now after wondering about and exploring so many of these topics with resources that were honestly more confusing and not as good.

I was a bit skeptical reading the reviews when I purchased as some commentors said it was written from a catholic/judaistic perspective. However, as a pagan who dabbles in everything from chaos magic to demonolatry & sex magic, I didn't find this to be the case. The author does make it clear in the very beginning that she writes from this perspective because it is how she was taught by her mentors and the reader is not only free to, but in fact encouraged to, interpret the prayers/views in the book in whichever way is suited to their practice. I found it to be very informative and appreciated the little easter eggs of the authors personal experiences and sometimes entertaining stories as well - and to make it even better, as soon as I began reading the book I set up an altar for my ancestors and got a couple checks in the mail from an art gallery I submitted pieces to a year ago with no results...so I think my ancestors approve!

Learned alot

Libro Ottimo adatto a tutti. Arrivato puntuale, si presenta ben imballato, con una copertina flessibile. Il libro è in inglese, ma facilmente comprensibile e ben scorrevole. Lo consiglio a tutti, specialmente ai neofiti che cercano un libro sull'argomento. Il libro è costituito da 11 capitoli... Lo divorerete!

This was a wonderful read. Very warm hearted and very beginner friendly. I hope this author will write another book on magic for beginners.

Ancestral practices are found around the world, every culture has ways to honour their dead both at the time of passing and afterwards. In most non-western cultures the life of the dead is a rich world intimately interconnected with our own. In the West, however, we have lost this connection to our ancestors, and that is the goal of this book... to be both an introduction and an invitation to a deeper connection. Honoring Your Ancestors is one of those calibre of books that is both indepth, but easily accessible. It's written in a style that you can read it from cover to cover and be lead through a journey of developing a practice, or just pick up and read a small section and hit the ground running. What Vaudoise has accomplished is a book that can appeal to both those who are new to the concept of ancestor veneration, and those who have b een working with their ancestors for years. Grounded in several spiritual traditions, the author brings her own perspective to the table while also maintaining the book as neutral as possible. Her book is written with the tone of "this is what these people do..." and always ends with the underlying question "what feels comfortable to you?" Honoring Your Ancestors has a large interactive component, with journal questions ending each chapter. Vaudoise invites readers to be active participants in the book, writing their own reflections and taking ownership for their own veneration practice. By expanding the definition of 'ancestor' and detailing the diverse spectrum of worldwide practices, Vaudoise challenges the reader to develop a relationship with their ancestors and a practice that is intimate and unique. Overall, a wonderful book and a great addition to my library!

This book is an great introduction to honouring your ancestors and it has encouraged me to further go down this path.It is written in an format that is usuer friendly and easy to read.i would recomend this book to any novice.The only negative really is that there is not much really on this subject and the closest thing to it is folk magic or hoodoo.its an great book overall and there is nothing I could be directly critical about

Perfectly written, it gives the base for an excellent practices and the beginning of a new path