Untitled

a white candle, a cup of water and 15 mins is really all you need.

place your white candle and glass of water on your altar. your altar can be anything: the top of a dresser or nightstand, a mantle, a small table, a window sill, anything.

light your candle and call on your ancestors. if you know their names, call them out if you want. or just say “to my ancestors, known and unknown, i welcome you here now. i look forward to getting to know you.”

then take a couple minutes and just listen. you may notice a change in the temperature, or a song stuck in your head. maybe you don’t hear or feel anything at all. that’s okay. it takes time to get to know someone in the physical, so it makes sense that it take some time in the spiritual as well.

spend a couple minutes once a week, talking to and listening for your ancestors. start with 2 minutes, then 5 etc. refresh the water once a week. increase the number of times you’re at your altar slowly. you don’t have to go all out all at once, trust me.

after a while you can start giving different offerings like: coffee, tea, likka, tobacco, dragons blood, food ect. again, don’t go all out all at once.

personally, since i’ve started over, i only give big offerings on first sunday. i make a nice sunday dinner complete with dessert for my ancestors the first sunday of every month. i struggle with my mental health and having low energy and this works for both me and my ancestors. figure out what works for you and yours.

also, remember your ancestors are more understanding than we think. you may think they don’t understand queerness, mental illness, disability etc but i promise you they do. you are not the first and you won’t be the last.

Did you know white colonizers banned African spiritual practices across the Caribbean because they feared the strength they gave enslaved Africans? In Jamaica, this was called Obeah, similar to Vodou in Haiti. Laws were created to stop its practice, and the 1898 Obeah Act still exists today. (a thread)

Sources:

– Diana Paton, The Cultural Politics of Obeah: Religion, Colonialism and Modernity in the Caribbean World, Cambridge University Press, 2015

– Jamaica Gleaner, “The History of Obeah and Its Criminalisation,” October 2010

– Verene Shepherd, “Obeah: Healing, Resistance and Criminalisation,” University of the West Indies Lecture, 2018

– British Library, “Caribbean Histories: Obeah and Resistance in Jamaica,” 2020

Harmonia Rosales @honeiee

Mama Onile, 60” x 48” (2024)

She is the soil from which all life began. She is memory. She is breath. This is Mama Onilé, “owner of the house,” our shared home… Earth, held by the Orishas who guard her.

A Benzedeira, or Brazilian traditional healer, tending to an altar in the temple that is also her home

I didn’t learn this in theory. I learned it by living inside my body when it wasn’t safe to look away. So I learned to stay. To feel. To name what was happening so it wouldn’t rot inside me. Over time, pain became something I learned how to listen to, not because I wanted to, but because avoidance can destroy you from deep within. So when something hurts now, I don’t know how to pretend it didn’t happen. I need to understand it. I need to speak it out loud so it can settle… it’s awareness. When I’m asked to “just move on,” my body doesn’t feel peace. It feels abandoned. When I name what happened, I’m not trying to fight, I’m trying to stay connected to myself. Avoidance may calm the surface, but it doesn’t repair the rupture underneath, and when something isn’t repaired, it doesn’t disappear. It comes back later to visit as distance, resentment, fear, or withdrawal. I need to be allowed to exist without being minimized or rushed, because I’ve already lived what happens when pain is swallowed instead of integrated.

1. what's on my mind right now?

2. how am i feeling right now?

3. write down one word to describe my day (calm or hectic, productive or unproductive, etc.) and write a sentence about it (today was calm because i did my morning routine and that helped me stay in the present moment)

4. what am i grateful for today?

5. emotions i felt today include...

6. what did i do today to make myself proud?

7. what did i learn about myself today?

8. what is something I accomplished today, big or small, and how did it make me feel?

9. something that bothered me today was...

10. how did I handle any stress or anxiety that came up today?

11. have i done anything to make someone else happy today?

12. write one thing that made me feel loved today.

13. what do i want to take from today into tomorrow?

14. what's my word for tomorrow?

15. what would i like tomorrow to bring me?

16. if i could change one thing about my behavior today, what would it be?

17. what is a meaningful conversation I had today and why did it stand out?

18. what are my top three priorities for tomorrow?

19. what's one thing I can do to improve tomorrow based on today's experiences?

❦ how much self-control do i have with things that i know are bad for me, but tend to indulge in?

❦ how do i respond to someone who is different from me or whose ideals and beliefs i don't agree with or understand?

❦ how do i deal with being misperceived or misunderstood?

❦ how do i respond when someone judges me, makes fun of me, or calls me names?

❦ how do i deal with other people's mistakes and unpleasant behavior?

❦ how do i deal with people who have hurt me in the past?

❦ how do i spend my free time?

❦ how do i deal with negative people?

❦ how do i deal with stressful situations? do i tend to worry a lot? what else do i do?

❦ how do i deal with inconvenient life situations?

❦ how do i respond to situations that i have no control over?

❦ how do i deal with negativity in my environment?

❦ how do i deal with challenges in my life?

❦ how do i respond to situations that force me to get out of my comfort zone?

❦ how motivated am i to change my life for the better?

❦ how much do i follow through on what i preach and talk about?

❦ how do i deal with uncertainty, the unknown or a future event that i have no control over?

❦ how do i respond to obstacles, hardships, and "bad" things that happen in my life?

❦ how do i respond when i don't get what i want?

❦ how fulfilling is my everyday life?

❦ how do i respond to new ideas and new ways of thinking?

❦ how do i respond to bad or inconvenient news?

❦ how do i deal with the violence, hate, and suffering in the world?

❦ how do i recharge, rejuvenate, and replenish my energy?

❦ how much do i prioritize spending time and energy on myself and on my passions?

❦ how do i deal with change? new job, new house, new lifestyle, new people, new rules, new technology...do i tend to avoid it, welcome it, fear it, like it, complain about it, stress out about it, worry about it?

❦ how do i deal with emotional pain?

❦ how do i respond when plans change or plans get cancelled without my say so?

❦ how do i respond when i make a mistake or when i fail at something?