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Can Ghosts Become Ancestors?
​
By Thea Wirsching


Many spiritual and cultural traditions across the world honor the darkening days of fall as a time when the veil between the worlds is thin and we may commune with our ancestors. Neo-Pagans celebrate the cross-quarter day of Samhain, a holiday occurring halfway between the Fall Equinox and the Winter Solstice that falls around our modern Halloween. The Mexican tradition of Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, has become so mainstream that it spawned a high-grossing Disney cartoon, 2017’s Coco, depicting the practice of ancestor veneration. In Northern latitudes, the fall has historically represented the dying of the old year, which is reborn at the Winter Solstice, when the Sun appears to stand still before reversing its trajectory in the sky. This period of inner and outer darkness, when the implements of agriculture are laid to rest and the bitter weather forces us indoors, is highly conducive to the internal work of communicating with our beloved dead.

And yet in the United States, ancestor work is not a particularly popular practice. The chest-thumping rhetoric of a “nation of immigrants” has contributed to the idea that we should leave our ancestors behind once we set foot in America. Americans are defined by our potential to be “self-made,” which means that we should not be limited by the class status of our forefathers, or so the ideology goes...
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Your donation pays for a full year of New PRS Journal excellence, including exclusive access to a subscriber content—rare unpublished articles, and new writing by experts in their fields, poetry, and book reviews. Initiation is a beginning, and an end – the initiate enters a new life as a member of a select group, but ends their old life. Nothing can be the same again. We ask you to join the PRS mission to reveal the light of ancient wisdom.

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  • HOME
  • ABOUT PRS
    • Manly P. Hall >
      • Manly Hall, A Personal Perspective
      • MPH Reading Group
    • PRS Board & Staff
    • Contributing Artists >
      • Arianne Ayu Alizio
      • Guadalupe Arellanes, PhD
      • Syd Buffman
      • Cecelia Condit
      • LD Deutsch
      • Paige Emery
      • Nailah Hunter
      • Marcella Kroll
      • Matt Marble
      • Brian Merriam
      • Lezley Saar
      • Radha Vishnubhotla
      • Senon Williams
    • Press
  • EVENTS
    • U.S. Tour Screenings JULY FILM SERIES
    • Visit
    • Accessibility
  • CLASSES
  • PRS ONLINE
    • Classes
    • On Demand
    • Videos >
      • Series
      • Subjects
    • Audio >
      • Seekers' Salon
  • EXHIBITIONS
    • Hansell Gallery
    • THE COSMIC EGG
  • Library
  • Shop
    • New Publications
    • Knapp-Hall Tarot
    • The Secret Teachings by Manly Hall
    • Books by Manly P. Hall >
      • The Signature Editions
      • New Editions for Contemporary Seekers
      • Vintage Lecture Notes
      • MPH Essays
      • MPH Book SALE
      • Manly P. Hall Book Bundles
      • Reprint Series curated by MPH
    • MPH Audio >
      • MPH Collection at BetterListen.com
    • MPH E-Books
    • PRS Merch
    • Online Gift Cards (not valid in store)
    • Symbolic Prints and Posters
    • Shipping Update
    • WHOLESALE
  • Rentals
  • BECOME A MEMBER!
  • Support
    • DONATE TODAY!
    • New Projector for PRS! FUNDRAISER!
    • FUNDRAISER FOR PRS!
    • Volunteer