Ritual · “Repetition Rewires”
Working with the Dead
To build a relationship with your own beloved dead via a simple ancestral altar and regular offerings (spring water, a tea-light, food/drink) — White’s recommended first and most accessible form of practical spirit work.
White’s ancestor work: Set a small altar with photos and mementos of the dead you loved (exclude anyone who harmed you — you have permission). Offer fresh spring water and a lit tea-light, plus the odd food/drink they’d have liked. Weekly (or daily): refresh, light, greet and thank them, then sit and listen. Build the relationship over time — White’s recommended first spirit work.
What it is
Across The Chaos Protocols and his Rune Soup teaching, Gordon White repeatedly argued that the simplest, oldest, and most accessible form of practical magic — the one a beginner should start with — is working with your own dead.
Not grand evocation; just building a small ancestral altar (photos and mementos of beloved deceased relatives) and making regular, simple offerings to it. White’s offering vocabulary is deliberately minimal and accessible: spring water and a tea-light candle, plus, when you like, a little food or drink they’d have enjoyed.
The practice is relationship-building over time, not a one-shot spell — and, read honestly, it is a structured remembrance, gratitude, and attention practice that also happens to be where White says the door to all other spirit work opens.
The Method
A faithful rendering of White’s approach:
- Choose a spot and make a small altar. A shelf, mantel, or table corner. Place photographs and images of your deceased relatives — and mementos (objects, heirlooms, things they loved).
- Curate who’s on it — you have permission to exclude. White is explicit: include and exclude family members based on your comfort. You are not obliged to honour someone who harmed you. Start with the dead you actually loved and trust.
- Keep offerings simple — water and light. White’s go-to offerings are a glass of fresh spring water and a tea-light candle. (Practitioners summarising his practice note that “all offerings are either tea-light candles or spring water.”) Optionally add food or drink they would have liked — coffee, a biscuit, a dram.
- Make offerings regularly. Refresh the water, light the candle, and spend a moment in attention — greeting them, thanking them, perhaps speaking aloud or silently. Weekly is a sustainable rhythm; some do it daily. Consistency and relationship matter more than elaborateness.
- Talk to them, then listen. Address them simply and sincerely — gratitude, news, requests for support or perspective. Then sit quietly and pay attention to what arises (thoughts, feelings, images, later dreams). White frames ancestor work as also feeding into dream and shamanic work; at minimum it is a contemplative pause.
- Tend it over time. Clear old water/food respectfully, keep the space clean, and let the relationship build across weeks and months. White positions this as the foundation from which more advanced spirit work (and his other techniques) becomes natural. (Sourcing note: the ancestral-altar-with-photos, the exclude-whom-you-wish allowance, the spring-water + tea-light offering vocabulary, and the “start with your own dead” framing are White’s, from The Chaos Protocols and his Rune Soup teaching. Wording here is faithful paraphrase.)
Source & Lineage
Gordon White (1976–2026), of Rune Soup and author of The Chaos Protocols (2016), Pieces of Eight, Star. Ships, and Ani.
Mystic, consistently taught ancestor veneration as the entry point to animist practice — “make offerings, learn your history, build shrines, talk to the dead.” He drew on a global, cross-cultural substrate of ancestor veneration (West African and diaspora traditions, folk Catholicism, Chinese and many indigenous practices) and recast it for a contemporary Western beginner. → suggested node. Companion practices.
The Traditions' versions
West African & diaspora ancestor altars (Lucumí, Vodou, Hoodoo “boveda”) — a white cloth, glasses of water, candles, photos; White’s water-and-light minimalism echoes the boveda.
- Chinese / East Asian ancestor veneration — tablets, photos, food/incense offerings, regular tending.
- Folk Catholic / Día de los Muertos — photos, candles, the deceased’s favourite foods.
- Roman Lares / di Manes — household shrine and offerings to the family dead.
- Modern grief “continuing bonds” practice — keeping a relationship with the dead as healthy mourning.
- Contemplative gratitude / remembrance journaling — the secular cousin of the “talk to them, then listen” step.
Common refinements
Over-complicating it. White’s whole point is simplicity: photos, water, a tea-light. Don’t wait for an elaborate setup.
- Forcing inclusion of harmful relatives. White explicitly permits exclusion — honour only whom you choose. Including an abuser “because they’re family” can re-traumatise.
- Neglect. Stagnant water, dust, and long gaps make it feel dead. Regular tending (weekly works) is the practice.
- Skipping the “listen” half. Offerings without the quiet attentive pause lose most of the contemplative benefit.
- Expecting transactional results. It’s relationship-building, not a vending machine; demands and bargaining miss the point.
- Treating subjective impressions as literal messages. Welcome what arises, but hold it lightly and reality-test important decisions.