I don't necessarily mean this as in ancestors/family or saints, but I know that this falls under it. I'm more curious about people who have died that you have no blood or religious ties to, but someone who has passed that you admired. Could be from the far past or very recently, for any reason from them being a personal hero to your drawing inspirations from them artistically. Do you practice veneration in any way to a figure like this? (Leaving this open to interpretation, but could be anything: calling upon their spirit, leaving out offerings for them, whatever). What do you think of the idea?
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Veneration of the Dead
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Re: Veneration of the Dead
Had not really ever considered this,but in some ways I might be doing that for some old friends that went away in my younger years.MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED
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Re: Veneration of the Dead
I'm like Anu. I've never thought about it. However, if I admire someone or have a friend that has died then I will think about having a shrine to them. So far I haven't had a shrine to anyone other than my family.Anubisa
Dedicated and devoted to Lord Anubis and Lady Bast. A follower of the path of Egyptian Wicca.
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Re: Veneration of the Dead
I do.
I leave out gifts/offerings for some dead, particularly my mother who passed away on the day my wife and I got hand fasted.
Just a small offering of flowers or water/food.
I also occasionally include offerings to other dead as part of my general tensing to the local spirits.
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Re: Veneration of the Dead
Hmm... I never thought about it but I guess I do in a way. I hold Leonidas and his Spartan hoplites in high regard. The closest I come to a shrine or offering is a tattoo on my arm, ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑBE,śivāya vishnu rūpaya śivaḥ rūpaya vishnave
śivasya hridayam viṣṇur viṣṇoscha hridayam śivaḥ
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sea witch
- Oct 2005
- 11651
- relational theophysis and bioregional witchery
- coastal Georgia
- *a little bad taste is like a nice dash of paprika*
Re: Veneration of the Dead
I've started leaving offerings at the military graves in the local cemetery--we have veterans of every war from the Revolutionary War on.Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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Re: Veneration of the Dead
I might get some crap for this. I am a really huge Queens of the Stone Age fan. I use their song lyrics and songs for spell work. Because of that i listen to Eagles of Death Metal. Since the attack in France, I consider the people were killed there at the concert kinda connected to all of the fans of the band. I have been trying to collect the names. I want to put them on a scroll to keep on the altar I have for the dead. I don't know that I would honor them all the time or just the one time a year. It's been a priority for me for a few weeks.
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sea witch
- Oct 2005
- 11651
- relational theophysis and bioregional witchery
- coastal Georgia
- *a little bad taste is like a nice dash of paprika*
Re: Veneration of the Dead
^TBH, I think that is pretty cool (in a sad it happened way).
Most people deserve someone that will remember them.Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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Opinionated
- Jun 2013
- 2447
- Northern Tradition Shaminist Demonolator. Or something along those lines...
- female
- Adelaide, Australia
Re: Veneration of the Dead
There's a surprisingly high number of Heathen and NT folk who honor non-blood-kin dead as a part of their 'Ancestor' veneration. There's a very modern school of thought that 'ancestors' are not just blood kin, but those who have influenced you in some way.
Personally, I'm still getting my ancestor work off the ground, and I don't really do any actual dead-veneration stuff currently. Not in the sense that we're talking about here, anyway. I work with a more immediate sort of Dead.
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Re: Veneration of the Dead
I grew up in the south of England in the "sticks", and the landscape is dominated by bronze and iron age burial mounds and forts or old flint mines ( fields full of giant holes as if inhabited by giant ant-lions).
Its one reason why my spiritual landscape has always included the ancestors ( not just mine ), it was quite common for people to leave cider and bread on burial mounds, often on Sundays before going to church .
I believe you take part of your ancestors with you as you go through life, I read some brilliant work on pre-christian "peasant" religion in the UK and northern Europe, and how rural religion was quite removed from the dominant religion of the warrior elite.
It also talked about ancestor veneration and reincarnation in everyday life.
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Traditions as simple as naming offspring /items after dead people all form part of such veneration and could have a range of desired outcomes/motivations.
-Partial reincarnation of a desired trait of the named dead into the item/person ( "I want this child to have XXs wisdom" etc)
-protection/blessing by the deceased
-acceptance into the family fate/wyrd by the ancestors.
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Re: Veneration of the Dead
I wouldn't say I venerate the dead but remembering them in one way or another is a beautiful and meaningful thing for me. It puts us face to face with our mortality, our family (or whatever connection we have with the deceased) and somehow it's a very human thing to do. And it's also an opposite gesture to what we usually venerate; youth, health, vitality. It's quite Pagan for me to acknowledge the presence of death and the dead.baah.
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Re: Veneration of the Dead
Veneration of the dead is a big thing in any ethnic pagan religion, except Hinduism with its doctrine of reincarnation: there's not much point in talking to an ancestor who's currently alive again.
There's also the case of people who are regarded as having become gods (usually minor ones, but not always) after death: what we Hellenists call heroes. Anyone practicing an African Diaspora Religion will know Shango / Chango / Xango, who was once King of Oyo. The Chinese actually have more "human immortals" than "celestial immortals".
I don't venerate my ancestors, but I do have heroes. One of my household gods is Asklepios, whom some regarded as a hero rather than a god. Then there's Thomas Taylor, the restorer of Hellenic Paganism. I discovered he has born at Thargelia, the festival of Apollo - very appropriate - so I can worship Apollo, the Muses, Leto, and Thomas together. I need an extra bottle of wine that day! I'm also going to start veneration of the emperor Julian this year.
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Head Above Water
- Dec 2011
- 3034
- Ecletic Pagan
- Southeast Michigan
- There is no mastery--only constant improvement.
Re: Veneration of the Dead
Originally posted by DavidMcCann View PostI don't venerate my ancestors, but I do have heroes. One of my household gods is Asklepios, whom some regarded as a hero rather than a god. Then there's Thomas Taylor, the restorer of Hellenic Paganism. I discovered he has born at Thargelia, the festival of Apollo - very appropriate - so I can worship Apollo, the Muses, Leto, and Thomas together. I need an extra bottle of wine that day! I'm also going to start veneration of the emperor Julian this year.
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Re: Veneration of the Dead
Originally posted by habbalah View PostIf you don't mind, would you explain how you incorporate this into your practice? I'm curious how you go about it.
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