Samhain is approaching and the veil is thinning. It’s the time to connect with the ancestors and collective dead. It’s the time to practise scrying or divination.
For your altar, decorate with natural things from your areas to honour the local land spirits and dead. Fallen leaves, acorns etc. carve or decorate a pumpkin for your altar or windowsill. Gather some local grave yard dirt for your altar if permission is given by the graveyard grim.
Practice divination with any tool you are drawn to. Traditionally it’s a time of scrying and all you need is a dark colour bowl filled with water and a darkened room lit only by candlelight (ensuring candles are not near anything flammable and secure in holders). The water you gaze into should be reflected by candlelight, soften your gaze as you look into your scrying bowl, it does take time and practice but stick with it and keep a note book close by for journaling.
You can also practice your tarot technique as well. Do a reading for yourself or even for the energy of the season. Maybe gather some friends together and do a group reading too.
Honour your ancestors by placing photos of passed loved ones on an altar for the ancestors. You could also add graveyard dirt,found animal bones, herbs associated with the dead etc and can be as simple or as fancy as you like. You can even offer the ancestors an offering. I often do one of incense, candle light and blessed water. I often do this around the dark moon and say the following to them during my offerings
On my ancestor altar (above) I have my late husband, my father and grandparents, aunts and uncles and even a passed beloved pet cat!
I give my offerings and say my words which I share with you here.
“Ancestors, I call to you now to be here with me now and always. Accept these offerings with the love they are given. I offer you Earth the grounding element to secure, I offer you water, the spiritual pure element. I offer you incense the air element for communication. I offer you a candle, the fire element for light and warmth. Ancestors accept these simple offerings in love and remembrance. Beloved Ancestors feed on this earth, smoke, water and light to nourish and strengthen you. Blessed be”
You can tailor the words to suit you and your ancestors and doing this on Samhain and every dark moon helps to strengthen the bond.
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Me: stubs my toe
Darkest Dungeon Narrator who lives rent free in my head: MORTALITY CLARIFIED IN A SINGLE STRIKE
Me: stands up too fast
Narrator: Ringing ears, Blurred vision... The end approaches.
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Curious about your roots? Clues are likely hidden in your surname. A last name could hold the echoes of historical events or reveal a fascinating connection to significant eras, unveiling a family's historical narrative.
The evolution of family names has been impacted by immigration waves, wars, and cultural shifts. From DNA testing to online forums, scientific and social strands weave our heritage.
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Today we venerate Ancestor Bishop C.H. Mason on his 157th birthday 🎉
Bishop C.H. Mason founded the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), THE largest Black American pentecostal church in the U.S. In doing so, he preserved and cultivated the religious culturesof our Afrikan ancestors while fighting for ourreligious freedom of expression and integration in the church house.
Brother Mason born to former slaves in Shelby County, TN. Due to his family's impoverished status, young Mason worked as a sharecropper and did not receive a formal education. Yet he still learned how to read and write. As a child, Mason was greatly influenced by the religion of his parents and other former slaves. He admired their prayer rituals, spontaneous singing, & shouting. At age 12, he embraced the Afro-Baptist faith and was later baptized in his older brother’s church.
In 1895, Brother Mason met Charles Price Jones, a popular Baptist preacher from Mississippi. Mason and Jones started preaching the doctrine of holiness and sanctification together in local Baptist churches, which led to their expulsion from the Baptist & Methodist churches. They, and others, established the Church of God and Church of Christ. Their movement consisted of both Black and White folk were grossly dissatisfied with mainstream denominations. From COGIC’s inception, Brother Mason ordained and allowed whites to join his denomination. He dreamed of an integrated church and believed that all races were entitled to equal rights and authority therein. Their principal belief was that being sanctified was an internal experience that resulted in external changes within individuals & their communities. They taught their followers to seek higher spiritual development and encouraged them to rekindle the dynamism of "slave religion".
In 1897, Brother Mason established St. Paul COGIC in an old cotton gin located in Lexington, Mississippi. He then started using the name “Church of God in Christ”, because, "God told him that if he used that name it would cause people to follow him". By 1904, Brother Mason established pastoring 4 churches: St. Paul in Lexington, Saints Home and Dyson Street in Memphis, and a COGIC church in Conway, AR.
In 1907, he attended an interracial service in Los Angeles, CA. After which, he declared that he'd experienced a spiritual metamorphosis and that he now believed in speaking in tongues. This is what spurred Jones and others to excommunicate him from their Holiness association. This ultimately led to Brother Mason and Jones’s 12yr partnership ending over theological differences, rights to church properties, ecclesiastical power, and the COGIC name itself. After 3 years of legal battles, in 1911, Mason’s legal victories catapulted him into historical prominence and placed COGIC in the Mid-South’s religious pantheon.
Brother Mason was also an outspoken conscientious objector. He was arrested in 1918 and probed by the FBI for teaching pacifism and encouraging Brothas to refuse being drafted into WW I and II.
By the early 20th century, the Black Christian middle class frowned upon any & everything associated with Mother Africa. They believed shouting, dancing, & especially speaking in tongues, were shameful & hindered Black progress. Defiantly, Brother bMason encouraged his followers to embrace their Afrikan heritage and gave them space to express themselves in church. He allowed the working classes to dance shout, testify, speak in tongues, string musical instruments, & sing gospel. His preservation of the Afrikan heritage, freedom of religious expression, & leadership spearheaded COGIC’s astronomical growth.
In the 1920s, COGIC had 30K members &, as a result of the Great Migration, 68.7% percent worshiped in urban cities. By the 1930s, COGIC was an urban phenomenon. During the Great Depression, Brother Mason’s churches fed and clothed poor Whites and Black Peoples across Memphis
Today, it has an estimated 6.5 million members and 12,000 congregations. COGIC is the largest African American denomination in the United States, with eight million members worldwide.
We pour libations & give him💐 today as we celebrate him for his passion & commitment to the preservation & cultivation of our Central/West Afrikan cosmologies, cultures, & belief systems via our religious of expression.
‼️Note: offering suggestions are just that & strictly for veneration purposes only. Never attempt to conjure up any spirit or entity without proper divination/Mediumship counsel.‼️
Offering suggestions: COGIC bible/prayer offerings, water libations, gospel songs of praise/dance
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#hoodooheritage #ATR #ATRs #hoodootradition #TheHoodooCalendar #ancestors #veneration #theblackchurch #ancestorveneration #bishopchmason #cogic #cogicchurch #og #deepsouth
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