The Almighty Dead

The River of Blood is the ancestral pool that we, as humans, belong to; this is our bloodline to the Almighty or Beloved Dead.

Understand that within Traditional Wytchcraft, we do not hold that those on the other-side are hovering around us, or that they live in another realm waiting for Samhain to draw near....on the contrary, they are part of the land.  The Land and the Dead are One.

What that means is that the Almighty Dead are literally the powers within the land; not addressed as aunt, uncle, grandparents or departed children, but as energies with abilities both mundane and magical.

Their knowledge is based on their experiences; all the ancient lore is derived from their beliefs, aspirations and fears.  All that knowledge is available to us through a practice we call Tapping the Bone.

As guardians, the Almighty Dead hold all the information of what they witnessed, achieved and aspired to in their life.  All that information is still pulsing through the energy of nature, in a different language, one we learn to understand. 

The Dead were once as we are now, what they breathed out, we now breathe in; the sweat that evaporated from their bodies as they worked, loved and fought became the river we draw water from today and the soil in which we grow our food contains their remains.

Some ancestors are addressed as the Spirit of Place; they are the lineage of the land which contains their vibration; when we call for aid and insight our answer may not come from the spirit of a distant relative but instead through totems, the wind or the call of a hawk overhead.

When we honor the Mighty Dead in ritual, we honor the collective energy of those who were, those who are currently passing into the ether and those we will eventually become.