I get the seasonal catalogs from Llewellyn (dangerous, I know) and I had marked “Honoring Your Ancestors: A Guide to Ancestral Veneration” as something I wanted to read before I listened to the 3PAAC review of it. 3PAAC had good things to say about it, so it was definitely in my book order last December.
This is a very practical guide for those starting an ancestor veneration practice, interspersed with personal stories of how ancestor veneration has impacted the author’s life.
Vaudoise is very clear in the introduction that, if your Tradition already has an ancestor practice, you should follow that tradition first and use this as a supplement with your teacher’s blessing.
There is a lot covered in this slim book (207 pages); I have three pages of notes in my smallest handwriting, which would probably turn into 10+ pages if I typed them up neatly. I might have put the chapters in a slightly different order, with Healing Ancestral Trauma after the practical chapters on building an altar, making offerings, and prayer. I found the chapters on mediumship particularly interesting, as I’ve been getting occasional messages from my ancestors over the last year or so. The last two chapters are about magic and spells; her stance on the ethics of magic, especially when calling on ancestral power, jives pretty well with how I feel about it:
Whether you like it or not, whether you mean to or not, you are harming others all the time. And yet, the world does not collapse in a fit of despair.
Cha. 10, pg. 169
It was occasionally a bit awkward for me when Vaudoise casually referenced Christian / Catholic parts of her practice. I understand that she includes those practices in her ancestor veneration because her Italian ancestors also had those practices and would recognize them. I’m half Polish, and the Poles have been Catholic for approximately the last thousand years… but I need to do a lot more research on my ancestors and their beliefs before I can decide what I’m comfortable including in my practice.
I’m going to stop here, so I don’t spoil the whole book, but I highly recommend reading it. I think I’m actually giving this 5 out of 5 stars, as my uncomfortableness with Christian practices is a me-problem, not a book-problem.
The Book, The Tree, & The Flame 