Ancestors: Hidden Hands, Healing Spirits for Your Use and Empowerment [Paperback]

Ra Ifagbemi Babalawo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1999

Exactly who are the Ancestors? This book discusses the role and function of the Ancestors in our everyday lives while detailing the proper way to propitiate them. Included are Offerings, Prayers and Reverence as well as the procedure for establishing the ancestor altar

Product Details

• Paperback: 100 pages
• Publisher: Athelia Henrietta PR (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890157112
• ISBN-13: 978-1890157111
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #420,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #23 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Occult > Supernatural
  • #24 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Occult > Parapsychology
  • #33 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Occult > Spiritualism

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heavenly Sent, June 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Ancestors: Hidden Hands, Healing Spirits for Your Use and Empowerment (Paperback)

This book really opened my eyes and gave me a deeper appreciation for myself and the importance of ancesral communion. The book took a subtle and direct approach to African spiritualty in a way that one could easy digest. It was the epitomy of common since and quite easy to follow. I became engrossed as it keep my attention by giving step by step instuctions on how I could begin my own personal journey. By the time I completed the book I felt very comfortable with the subject and eager to do the work as the lessons provided.

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well, I Enjoyed It!, July 1, 2002

By 

"landofkam" (Jax, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ancestors: Hidden Hands, Healing Spirits for Your Use and Empowerment (Paperback)

Yeah there is some spiritism in this author's practice and a little bit of African Revisionist in there as well. But it doesn't make the book a bad book.

Unfortunately, a lot of people outside of the U.S. (and within) are not aware of the close kinship that the ancient Egyptians and the traditional African societies of the West of Africa have in common. This author recognized it and wrote about it.

Now, I am quite sure that some people don't like that because they are accustomed to having their own customs as it appears that the author is mixing traditions. But a careful study of what is actually being presented will give the reader a deeper understanding of ancestral honoring, the ethics surrounding becoming an ancestor to your own community and an understanding about how the ancients revered their ancestors.

No, if you are a purists it is not for you. But if you can open your mind, this book will be in the same vacinity as Awo Falokun's Iwapele.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good But Needs Clarification, June 20, 2005

By 

Derric "Rau Khu" Moore author of MAA ... - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ancestors: Hidden Hands, Healing Spirits for Your Use and Empowerment (Paperback)

I should have written a review on this book a long time ago but hopefully this will help clear the air.

This book is a good little pamphlet explaining ancestor veneration from a black nationalist perspective. It was written specifically for African Americans and anyone who has experienced racism in the United States based upon their ethnicity. And, this is the reason why it comes off sounding so harsh in word and content because it speaks of the plight to freedom from African American perspective.

For those of you, just tuning in to the Protestant American scene, Native Americans and African Americans have been at the heel and butt of this great country for over 400 years. Yes we have all heard this before, and many people will say that they are tired of hearing people complain. But, until you have read the history of both people and how every aspect of their cultural existence was strategically and systematically set for annihlation, you will not understand the black nationalist perspective. Unlike some of the countries in the Western hemisphere that were predominantly Catholic influence. There was no masking of the tradition under 'Mary's Skirt'. There was no masking at all and when the powers that be in USA realized that fragments of the Native American and African culture remained, they created viscious stereotypes and promoted their idea of a people throughout the world. The cultural conditions that Native Americans and African Americans are in today and the liberties that people have allowing them to practice Ifa, Santeria, Palo, Cuanderismo, witchcraft, and so on. Came at a very great price and was the compounded result of banned languages, customs, styles of dress, practices, drums (instruments), and thoughts.

Besides Native Americans and African Americans, the Aborigines of Australia, the Pacific Islanders and blacks of South Africa are the only other groups that have experienced this harsh reality of European racism.

I concur with some of the reviews, that race should not be the determining factor on who and who is not considered an ancestor. A different set of standards is used and in the Khametic traditions it is based upon one's growth and development symbolized by the decease's ab (heart) weighing the pan of justice, order, truth, law and balance. This is where the author strays from the path and finds himself in the wilderness surrounded by color lines. But there is still a lot of good information in this little book. And, if you can accept the fact and understand the harsh reality that the forefathers and the many of the descendants of people of European decent did rape, enslave, kill, murder and lynch people who were not White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestants (Native Americans, Black Americans, Latin Americans, Jews, Catholics and Asian Americans). And this is how a lot of European blood got into the bloodline of African Americans, then you will appreciate why the author has taken the tone that he has taken.