ancestral spirits
Dead relatives' souls
Ancestral spirits are the souls or supernatural presences of deceased family members, believed in many cultures to remain connected to the living.
They may protect, guide, or require appeasement from descendants.
Veneration of ancestral spirits appears across African, Asian, and indigenous traditions: offerings to the ancestral spirits, consulting the ancestral spirits before major decisions.
- libationCeremonial drink offering
- animismSpirits inhabit all things
- shamanismMediation between worlds
- creation mythsTraditional origin-of-everything tales
- storytellingRecounting events aloud
the other side · Dreamtime · family altar · grave markers · rituals · sacred sites · ancestral homeland · family lineage · offerings · veneration · songlines · afterlife · elders · filial piety · reincarnation · mediumship · ghosts · heirlooms
- folklorefairy tales, fairytales, folktales, folk tales, folk tale
- supernaturalghosts, ghost, witches, spirits, vampire
- ghostsapparitions, ghosts, apparition, phantoms, specter
- Aboriginal CultureDreamtime, songlines, corroboree, dreaming, totems
- ancient religiongods, goddesses, pantheon, deity, polytheism
- African folkloreAnansi, folktales, ancestors, spirits, trickster stories
ancestral spiritsdemons
Malevolent supernatural beings
malevolent spirits · nature spirits · evil spirits · elemental spirits · hungry ghosts