Holy Manes

The cult of ancestors is historically one of the oldest forms of religion. At the earliest stages of civilization, people already hoped for the help of deceased relatives, who, having passed into the otherworld, were freed from physical limitations and thereby acquired godlike power. People remembered the earthly power of especially famous ancestors and sought to emulate their feats. The feats of ancestors were typically emulated in dances and festivals. Very often the rites were based entirely on imitation of ancestral deeds; initiation rites were structured similarly. The family needs the ancestor’s help, fears his wrath and revenge; on the other hand, the ancestor needs the worship of the living for their own peace and to satisfy their needs.

At the same time, even then people understood that not all souls of the dead can aid the living. Among the Slavs, the ancestors — chury, shchury (forebears) — guarded their descendants and warned them. “Chur me” meant “protect me, ancestor.”

The Romans expressed this most clearly, where only the souls of strong and good people were thought to become godlike helpers — the Lares — while the souls of the wicked or depraved turned into harmful Lemures (Larvae), and most of the dead dwelt in the otherworld under the name of Manes.

Funerary epitaphs in Rome began with a dedication to the Manes, asking that the deceased be granted bliss in the realm of the dead.

Thus, one may say that any human soul, upon entering the Interworld, first exists there as a Man — an Elementer — and, over time, some elementers, having become aware of their condition and its possibilities, transform into divine Lares; others, experiencing energy shortages, become hostile Larvae (the Sumerians called them Utukku), while the rest remain in a dazed, dormant state, often not even realizing that they have died.

Note that wickedness alone does not make one a Larva only because one was wicked in life. Any soul, bewildered by the realization of its carrier’s death and suffering from a sense of hunger, may become embittered and predatory, increasingly losing control. In addition, it was believed that if descendants ceased to make offerings to the spirits of their ancestors, those spirits would leave their peaceful abode, begin to wander and trouble the living; they would turn from benevolent to angry larvae, bringing disease and blighting the soil; only resuming offerings — offerings of food and wine — would restore them to peace.

According to Roman legend, when in ancient times, because of endless wars, the Romans neglected the Manes, numerous fires were lit and the Manes rose from their graves howling and frightening the living. Terrified by this, the Romans resumed veneration of the dead, and things returned to normal; in honor of this, special days to honor ancestors were established, and the custom survives to this day.

The traditional magical conception of the influence of Ancestors on the world of the living consists of two components. On the one hand, many of the effects described as “intervention by ancestors” are explained by the influence of the Physiological egregore. The help of this egregore provides a certain surplus of energy in difficult situations, and “commemorating the dead” largely aims to sustain this egregore.

However, some of the effects associated with help “from beyond” are connected with a genuine change in the status of the disembodied being, when an elementer continues evolving without returning to the physical plane. We have already discussed that a person can accelerate their own evolution and move to levels that exceed the capacities of his life-wave. It is precisely such a transition, occurring in the Interworld, that places some beings in the role of Lares, gods and patrons of families, states, and nations. We have also mentioned that many guardian spirits of various places originate as human elementers.

Among both the Romans and many other peoples, the dead were very clearly divided into two categories. In particular, among the eastern Slavs, one category long consisted of the “pure” deceased, those who died a natural death (they were usually called, irrespective of kinship, “parents”), and the other — the “unclean” — those who died an unnatural death: suicides, drowners, those who died from alcoholism, and sorcerers. The “parents” were venerated, while the “unclean” dead were feared and efforts were made to neutralize them. Since it was usually difficult for the “unclean” dead to pass into the Otherworld, they often harmed the living. Such “unclean” dead were called upyri. They were not buried in common cemeteries. To prevent them from rising from the grave, an aspen stake was driven through the coffin; sometimes the head was removed, hands and feet were bound, or other measures were taken intended to “neutralize” such a restless corpse.

At the same time, interaction with ancestors who became Lares, elemental deities, can still help modern people.

For a magus severed from their egregore, assistance from well-disposed ancestors toward him can still be useful in difficult situations.