First of all, I’m happy to report that Chani Nicholas seems to be going back to weekly horoscopes after a couple years of only the full and new moons. Yay!
That being said, I got her horoscope for the week the day before yesterday. The first sentence of the entry for my rising sign was “It’s time to let go of the daily roles and rituals that are untenable, undeniably outdated, or ready for a reboot” … which made me immediately look at the rum and coffee on my living room altar. Some months (or maybe a year, bc what even is time???) ago I started leaving coffee and rum on the altar for Papa Legba because I read it in a book about serving the loa. It was my way of maintaining a connection to the ATR spiritual realm.
Now I’m wondering if it’s necessary.
My relationship with ATRs (African Traditional Religions) is that I have no relationship with ATRs. But I know that the witchdoctor was at my grandmother’s funeral in Ghana. One of my cousins pointed him out and said “That’s the witchdoctor.” I never did find out what his relationship to the family was, considering my family, at least as much as I know of it, is very very Christian.
There were a few years when I considered making a pilgrimage to Ghana independent of my family, and purposefully seeking out somebody to teach me about the ancestral religions. I wouldn’t even know how to begin planning such a pilgrimage, or where to find an appropriate and trustworthy teacher.
My practice now is not an ATR. That’s fine, in part because I am not a Traditional African (if that’s even a thing). I’m starting to think it might be appropriate to offer those offerings to Adjua Luna rather than to the loa or the orishas.
At least, the coffee.
When my minister went out for groceries yesterday, he came back without rum, because we both forgot that liquor stores are closed on Sundays. (Actually, we both didn’t realize it was Sunday. Because what even is time anyway?) Which means I may soon run out of rum. Maybe that’s a sign that I should offer up the rum until I have no more, and then only offer the coffee.
Tangentially, the coffee I offer her is phenomenal. Like, I don’t even have an affiliate link; I just want you to know about this black owned coffee shop.