Who are the Ancestors?

This one is not going to be super exciting. I have other stuff in the works, but this weekend my schedule has been a bit crazy. (Not that I have promised to adhere to any sort of schedule for posting anyways.) I have been coming back to this topic a lot lately, so let’s see if we can unpack it.

Do you honour the ancestors in your personal practice? If so, who are you honouring? This seems like it should be fairly easy to answer on first glance, but it really isn’t.

Most people in heathenry seem to honour their recent dead primarily in their ancestor practice. I know that a lot of my ancestor practice is based on honouring and maintaining relationships with recent dead. It makes sense. Presumably, you knew them in life and then wanted to continue your relationship with them in death. That makes perfect sense. It is also very healthy to do in order to accept their passing.

Things get very complicated fast though. Ancestors aren’t just the recent dead. You may be doing lineage work and intergenerational healing. That is perfectly valid. You may be exploring your lineage through trance or other practices. That is all very insightful too.

What if you don’t like some of your ancestors, or don’t know any of them? Maybe you had abusive relationships with family members. Maybe you were adopted or estranged. That is perfectly normal too. You aren’t going to like all your blood relatives. My experience with the dead is that while they might initially hold onto some of the prejudices they had in life, that fades with time. You may find you are able to reconcile with someone in death who you never were able to in life, or if not reconcile, at least get some closure. But you don’t have to. You do you. That is the important thing. Do what is going to be healthy for you.

As for not knowing your biological family, that doesn’t have to be a hurdle. You can learn about them if you wish through trance or meditation, or you can leave it be. If you have an adoptive family for instance, people from that family can be ancestors too. You belong to that family; it isn’t just about blood. Ancestors can also be people who had a huge impact on your life somehow. They might be very inspirational people within a heathen community who are remembered collectively after they passed. They might be someone who impacted you personally in a very meaningful way.

Here is where it starts to get even more complicated. If you are an animist, ancestors don’t even have to be human. They might be plants, or animals, or rocks, or other-than-human beings. And by extrapolation even the gods can be ancestors, but be careful with that one. It doesn’t mean you are descended from the gods and you can go around thinking you are better than others and treating them poorly. The gods are ancestors in the way that they have meaningfully impacted your life and your life is better by them being present in it. They are also ancestors in the way that they are examples of how to do things or how not to do things in your own life. Generally it is best to just regard gods as gods and ancestors as ancestors… I am just going to the extreme of what animist worldview allows.

In my personal practice, I honour recent dead, but also other-than-human beings as ancestors. And some of my lineage is a bit complicated in places, (whose isn’t?) so that can be entertaining at times too.

What I have been seeing a lot of lately is people in the community being worried about discussing honouring ancestors because they don’t want to be grouped in with bigoted heathens. I find this kind of sad really, because for the most part the folkish element of heathenry doesn’t seem to have any real ancestor cult. Sure, they say they are descended from whoever, from whatever country in an effort to get some sort of status that applies only to those of their ethnic makeup, but when it comes to actually honouring that lineage in a meaningful way, it doesn’t seem to be happening. It is really just a superficial excuse to act superior.

It is frustrating, but having a conversation about ancestors eventually has to touch on the racist roots of modern heathenry. We cannot ignore that modern heathenry evolved out of white nationalist sentiments, nor should we try. It is an uncomfortable conversation that needs to take place, and lately it has been taking place across a variety of platforms. It is important to put our foot down about what is acceptable practice in instances where it will be harmful to others if we do nothing.

I was listening to the Frith Forge talk by Austin Lawrence recently, and he was saying how it can be very uncomfortable when you are looking into racist heathenry and you see that the people drawn to it have some of the same reasons for being drawn to heathenry as yourself, even if for different reasons. He stated that he had been drawn to heathenry because he was interested in various shamanistic type paths but he wanted to find one that was culturally acceptable for him to follow. So he entered into heathenry on grounds of race, even though he did it with good intentions.

I feel this really speaks to the experience of a lot of heathens from what I have seen, and in this case I am the odd (wo)man out. I wasn’t drawn to heathenry because of my ancestry and wanting to find appropriate spiritual practice, but I know a lot of people who were. I hesitate to say it, but probably most heathens had these reasons for becoming interested in heathenry. This is important and this is valid. Being interested in ancestry and lineage is not inherently bad. (While it was not what drew me to heathenry, I do have my own interests in tracing genealogy in my family for various reasons.) All of this is natural. It is only using race and ancestry as a basis for exclusion or different treatment that becomes a problem, and it is a problem that we cannot pretend is going to go away. We are from time to time going to have to actively confront it as heathens.

We need to check ourselves as well. It is okay to be interested in culturally appropriate practices. It is okay to explore our lineage or even take DNA tests or whatever. We just need to be careful how we are engaging with what we find. Maybe you took a DNA test and the website tells you you were descended from Rollo or something. That’s cool. It needs to be taken with a grain of salt though. Being descended from Rollo does not make you a Viking or even make you all that unique or special. The further you go back the more ancestors you have, and if your ancestry is primarily northwest European there is actually a fairly high chance you are descended from Rollo or some royalty, or William the Conqueror. It is a fun trivia fact, but don’t go out sharpening your sword because your lineage doesn’t give you any sort of entitlement. Rollo lived in the 9th century, and sorry to say, but he probably wouldn’t find much to relate to in your lifestyle. He probably wouldn’t like you at all, and even if he did, he isn’t necessarily a figure you would want to try to emulate.

The other real problem with family tree research and DNA tests is they get messy fast. If you go back far enough then they might say you are descended from Odin or Freyr, for example. Stop, right there. Royalty in the past claimed they were descended from gods in order to gain more influence. This is very clear in the sagas. Is it true… ? Well, we will probably never know. However, just like we have no claim to being Vikings because we are descended from Rollo, we also have no claim to being descended from gods that may or may not be related to royalty even further back than the 9th century. It is really just the same argument again. Everyone with a significant portion of northwestern european ancestry is descended from some royalty at some point and probably could “link” themselves to a god. It is stretching. Please just leave it alone. It doesn’t add anything to your life or practice. If you want to be someone of good standing in heathenry you should focus on your own deeds in the present. The rest is just a fun conversation topic over a bottle of mead around a campfire.

So now that I have let the elephant out, we can go back to discussing actual ancestor practice. Everyone’s hearth cult is going to be different, but just like establishing relationships with housewights and spirits of the land is important in heathenry, ancestor practice is deeply meaningful. If you want to improve yourself, asking for aid from the ancestors should usually be your first stop. They have a more vested interest in your personal story than the gods, but first you need to establish those relationships through the gift cycle. They might help you anyways, if they think it is important enough, but be respectful. The ancestors are worthy of meaningful relationships with you and you should not take them for granted.

The ancestors who are in your life may be a diverse crowd of recently dead, local legends, people who were meaningful to you but not biologically related, and plants or animals that you have ties with or your family has ties with. It is really difficult to cover the scope of which beings could be ancestors.

A good example in Canada would be Louis Riel. He is a folk hero or a villain depending who you ask, but many people visit his gravesite each day at St. Boniface Cathedral and gift him things there. I am sure lots of others visit Botache in Saskatchewan for similar reasons. He is the father of Manitoba, and the province even has Louis Riel Day in February. Louis Riel is an ancestor for a lot of people. They might not use that word to describe him, but the way they venerate him is the same, by engaging in a gifting cycle with him.

Another Canadian example would be some of the family groups for some of the First Nations families of the northwest coastal region. The families are linked to a specific animal. One such group is the Salmon People. They are descended from the salmon. There is a story about it. As such the salmon would be an ancestor to their group. If someone was heathen and also a Salmon Person, then Salmon would be an ancestor. This type of link between animals and families was also present in Europe, although with some many generations removed from the practice it can be more difficult to trace. There were families that were linked with wolves, and bears, and ravens, and many other animals. A good way to explore this sort of ancestry is through meditation or trance work.

I hope this makes it a bit easier to understand ancestry and move beyond the limiting notion of it having to be just related to your lineage. If you haven’t already established a gifting cycle with your ancestors you will find there are a lot of benefits!

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Who are the Ancestors?

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