This practice, in which you feed your ancestors with blessed food, gives strength to your Lineage. Through it, you gain its protection and support. How to perform this practice correctly is what we will discuss in this article.

When It Is Best to Perform the Practice

It is best to offer rice to your ancestors on particular days—in the morning during the waning moon on a Saturday (the day of Saturn and working through karma), and better still during Maslenitsa week, the first days after Easter, and Pitri Paksha (usually in September–October), which are considered periods of honouring ancestors. It is also favourable to do it on a day shortly before a solar eclipse, when a large amount of negative karma is burned away. The practice must be performed in a state of love for your ancestors, with the intention of showing them respect and reverence.

What You Need for the Practice

For this practice, you need a new packet of rice, two new plates and a wax candle from a church. You can prepare a sheet of A4 paper on which to draw your family tree back seven generations, write the names of the ancestors you know and paste in any photographs of them that you have kept (but this is optional). Shortly before the practice, wash, put on clean clothes and ask God and your Lineage for a blessing. The kitchen in which you cook the rice must be clean. Do not salt or taste the rice! If you can, you may also add black sesame seeds (but this is not at all necessary). As for the plates, choose large ones in advance, like serving platters with rims—imagine that one must hold a kilogram of cooked rice! It is better to choose a sticky variety of rice so that it does not scatter but stays in a mound on the platter.

How to Perform the Practice

While the rice cooks, recite prayers from your faith. Put the cooked rice on a new plate and offer it to God while reciting a prayer. For Christians, this is the layperson’s prayer for the blessing of food and drink: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, our God, bless our food and drink through the prayers of Your Most Pure Mother and all Your saints, for You are blessed for ever and ever. Amen.’ For Hindus, these are mantras for offering food to a deity (for example, this one to Krishna—you can simply play it while cooking the rice and offering the food); for Muslims, the prayer Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim; in the Slavic tradition, it is the invocation: ‘Heavenly Rod, Forefather, You are the Patron of all Lineages! Remember my ancestors who are in Your bright Svarga! Now and forever, from Circle to Circle! So be it, so it is, so it shall be!’

Wait for the Lord to bless the food (about ten minutes), transfer the rice to the other new plate, light the candle (you can place it in front of the sheet with the Family Tree), and offer this blessed food to your ancestors, saying: ‘I invite the members of my Lineage to come and accept this food.’ You can remain in the room for about half an hour and pray (preferably somewhere other than where you sleep). Leave the food for as long as you consider necessary, but at least half an hour, and preferably remove it before sunset. Make absolutely sure that no one tastes or eats it! At the end of the practice, you must say: ‘Thank you, my ancestors, for accepting this food. Now you may go. Return to your own space and time.’

What to Do After the Practice

Wash the plates and mark which is for God and which is for the ancestors (they should not be stored with the dishes you eat from). The rice must not be thrown away—it must be given to animals or birds. During the periods of honouring ancestors mentioned above, you can perform the practice for several consecutive days. Some people do it for forty consecutive days, starting with the waning moon (better still, on a Saturday), but here it is better to pay attention to how you feel. To begin with, you can perform the practice once, observe your feelings for a while and, if all is well, repeat it—for example, the following Saturday, a week later.

The practice takes a great deal of energy, so you may feel unwell for one to three weeks afterwards—this is how your whole energy system and subtle body will restructure themselves. It is therefore very important to give yourself time to recover fully, eat well, take plenty of walks in the fresh air and get enough sleep. If you used a sheet bearing the names and pasted photographs of your ancestors, then after the full cycle of practices it is burned with respect and love so that the departed members of your Lineage may find peace.

Donating time, food or money for your Lineage—here.
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