@trans-rite / trans-rite.tumblr.com
Last night your mods packed up our altar and brought it to our local anarchist infoshop and café for a beautiful TDOR event. A few dozen of us were squeezed inside the little venue for performances of music, poetry, and dance, and then we took the stage to lead the Rite.
Dear ones,
We’ve done our opening divination for this year’s Trans Rite and we wanted to update you with what we learned. We also encourage you to do your own divination and ask your own questions of the Ancestral Helping Spirits that we’ve been working with together, or others that you’ve incorporated into your practice, and would love to hear what you learn!
We reached out to the Ancestral Helping Spirits that we honor by name every year: Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Ray Rivera, and Comrade Leslie Feinberg. We confirmed that all three of them do want to be involved this year in helping us welcome the newly dead in our family, and giving them offerings of love, honor, and water for their journey. They also affirmed for us that moving from nine nights to one night is the right step to take this year, and that while there will be power in how many people will be doing it at the same time on November 20th, the Trans Day of Remembrance, it isn’t a problem to do it one or two nights before or after if you have to.
The revised FAQ here lays out the basic steps of the format, and we suggest you incorporate the specific offerings that they have all asked for this year. Marsha P. Johnson has suggested that we incorporate music from the past into the ritual itself, both as an offering to her and as a gift to the newly dead. Sylvia Rivera asked for the same offerings we’ve been making to her – including dulce de ajonjoli, and poppers and lube. Leslie Feinberg told us to include prayers for peace, so we’ll likely be including more Hebrew prayers this year as well.
The moderators also work with an entity called Agdistis in the Rite, whom we checked with and who is down to participate this year, so if venerating Agdistis as an ancestor or in other ways is part of your practice, we have their enthusiastic consent. Agdistis also reiterated what they always say, which is, “Give me the pain. I will take it and fix it.”
The final piece of guidance that came through for us this year was that it’s a good idea to localize your ancestors of spirit just as you would you ancestors of blood. What trans saints and history makers lived where you live? Who are your local trans heroes, who may have left our kind of life behind them but who can take on that role of welcoming more people across the line? Finding the local Ancestor Helping Spirits in the place that you live, calling them in and honoring them by name -- this will be a stronger practice than everyone honoring the same few people regardless of where you’re operating out of.
Ping us with any questions. As Leslie always tells us: Courage.
-- Mod Rocket
What is it?
Hi everyone. It's about that time...
Our divination confirms that we are not doing an elevation-style ritual this year. (You may recall that nine-day format with the altar on the floor.) The ancestor ritual will be one day only. We recommend November 20th, as it is already the Trans Day of Remembrance. (Our own ritual may need to be November 21st, due to bio family obligations, but we are still sussing that out.)
We also recommend setting the altar up early even if you don't work it night after night as in previous years. The Rite is still in a transitional, somewhat experimental stage this year - so we will try performing the ritual only once, and then verify what's working through divination after the fact.
We plan to check in over the weekend with the individual ancestors who customarily participate in the ritual, and will post results once we have them. We also plan to post a concise ritual outline with instructions and prayer texts in the next few days.
In the meantime, you could consider where, when, and with whom you might wish to perform the ritual. Is there a local TDOR ceremony you could add a ritual element to? Do you have comrades who might join you in lighting the candle and reading the names? A single ritual is more approachable for many than nine days of consecutive prayers, which opens up possibilities for new contexts and participants.
Please send an ask to let us know your plans and questions! You can also use the submission function to send us photos of your altars, or prayers, as in years past. We will be tracking the tag #troe2023 (even though the E for Elevation in the acronym is no longer quite right).
You may wish to turn on notifications for this blog if you are participating this year, as we post pretty infrequently and will otherwise likely get lost on your dash.
Thank you for joining us in honoring our siblings and cousins and elders who have passed on.
🏳️⚧️🕯️🙏🏽
--- Mod Alder
Hi comrades! We did our closing divination yesterday and wanted to share some of our results. We asked the Ancestral Helping Spirits that we’ve been working with whether they thought the new format was effective, and they all were in agreement that it was! We asked if there were any changes that they wanted us to make for future years, and we got responses that were a little hard to understand. They all seemed to think there were some changes we should make with regards to the timing — how many nights we do the rite, or when in the year, whether the nights are sequential or more spread out — and so we’ll be doing more work with them before next year to figure out the best plan, but they are happy with this year’s work and believe it was effective, so that’s great news!
If you did the rite with us this year, how did it go? Did you notice anything different from previous years? We would love if you shared your reflections with us!
- mod rocket
Mods' altar (Alder & Rocket), night 1.
[Image description: a photo in a dark room of an altar laid out on a white bandana. Contents include a round frame drum in back with a Celtic pattern painted on it, a blue goblet of water surrounded by silk flowers, assorted candles, an image of a person's face in a frame, and a smoke bundle and small offerings in the foreground.]
A little understated, due to family staying over, but very lovely to test out the new format.
We got encouraging divination responses that we'll share in more depth soon, but the upshot is that Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P Johnson, and Leslie Feinberg will all help tend the ancestral line this year and can be invoked by name as ancestral spirits. (Agdistis, a mythological figure that both of us work with in a related capacity, may also be involved if they fit into your practice - not to worry if not.)
Thank you for joining us, we will be checking the #troe2022 tag for anyone else who's participating this year. 🤍🌱🕯️💐🍶
– Mod Alder
This year’s Ancestor Rite is coming up quick and we’ve finally gotten some solid information about what needs to change this year.
After seven years of conducting the Rite in its current form, this year’s divination with the relevant helping spirits has provided us with some new guidelines around ritual format that we have been hoping for for some time. Here’s how we’re thinking about it:
Assuming our past years’ work has been effective, there are now a good deal of trans ancestors, people who were alive both recently and longer ago, who feel themselves in connection with us, who have received the care and honor we offered through previous years’ elevations, who are bright and well and who can tend the line from the other side.
Most ancestral practices discourage interfacing directly with the troubled dead; instead, the ongoing practice of the living is to honor and connect with our bright and well ancestors. Practitioners then ask these bright ancestors to care for the troubled dead, to bring them into healing, and to place blessings around the familial line. So this year we are shifting to that model instead of trying, as living practitioners, to offer peace that we do not ourselves know to the recently passed. Therefore, here are some new ritual guidelines to try.
1. We’re still preparing an altar and spending the nine nights leading up to the Trans Day of Remembrance with it. The altar should now celebrate and honor the bright and well trans ancestors and helping spirits that you honor in your work year round or that you wish to invite into your practice.
2. Instead of placing the altar on the ground, you should now put this altar in a place that you can sit with it every night. We won’t be physically elevating the altars this year. It can be a part of your existing altar setup if you have one, or it can be on a dresser, table, shelf, or wherever works for you.
3. Work the altar every night for nine nights, beginning on November 12th and ending on November 20th. We have some ideas for what working the altar will mean for us, but your ideas are also welcome and encouraged! We recommend that you still light a dedicated candle and offer a fresh glass of water. You can also offer them incense or other smoke, cut flowers, a drink or a meal, prayers, poems, music, dancing, whatever you feel called to offer. These offerings should be directed towards the bright and well trans ancestors that we have been working with for the last seven years, and any others that you are connected to – not to the recently passed.
4. We have a new base prayer that you can build around, with which we’ll be asking those bright and well ancestors to care for our troubled dead and to lay a blessing around the line, and we’ll be honoring and celebrating them for stepping up to do that work with us.
5. It’s fine to still read the list of names if that’s part of your annual practice, but instead of speaking directly to those family members who have passed in the last year, we are now identifying them by name to the bright and well ancestors and helping spirits and asking them to look after them.
6. Note: It’s still important not to put any images of living people on your ancestor altar!
We’re glad to be stepping into this new phase of the Trans Ancestor Rite for a couple of reasons. We hope that this format will be less grueling on practitioners – we’ve definitely felt the weight of trying to allow the trauma of hundreds of troubled dead to process through our living bodies for nine days in a row, and we don’t want to be guiding our community through ritual practices that feel like torture! We’ve also felt less than awesome about using the elevation format – it’s not from a closed practice, but we are using it out of context and that’s not a great way to operate. (Also the individual that we directly learned this from has gone vocally fascist over the last few years and we are glad to no longer feel like we have to be using her work!)
We welcome any questions or feedback! Have you been getting other information from your divination? Do you have practices that you have been finding effective for connecting with the bright and well trans ancestors? What are you thinking about for this year?
Let us know if you’re participating this year! Please share photos of your altars, or what offerings you’re making! If you tag posts #TROE2022, we’ll feature them on the blog!
In solidarity,
En la lucha,
Mir veln zey iberlebn,
Mod Rocket
This year’s Ancestor Rite is coming up quick and we’ve finally gotten some solid information about what needs to change this year.
After seven years of conducting the Rite in its current form, this year’s divination with the relevant helping spirits has provided us with some new guidelines around ritual format that we have been hoping for for some time. Here’s how we’re thinking about it:
Assuming our past years’ work has been effective, there are now a good deal of trans ancestors, people who were alive both recently and longer ago, who feel themselves in connection with us, who have received the care and honor we offered through previous years’ elevations, who are bright and well and who can tend the line from the other side.
Most ancestral practices discourage interfacing directly with the troubled dead; instead, the ongoing practice of the living is to honor and connect with our bright and well ancestors. Practitioners then ask these bright ancestors to care for the troubled dead, to bring them into healing, and to place blessings around the familial line. So this year we are shifting to that model instead of trying, as living practitioners, to offer peace that we do not ourselves know to the recently passed. Therefore, here are some new ritual guidelines to try.
1. We’re still preparing an altar and spending the nine nights leading up to the Trans Day of Remembrance with it. The altar should now celebrate and honor the bright and well trans ancestors and helping spirits that you honor in your work year round or that you wish to invite into your practice.
2. Instead of placing the altar on the ground, you should now put this altar in a place that you can sit with it every night. We won’t be physically elevating the altars this year. It can be a part of your existing altar setup if you have one, or it can be on a dresser, table, shelf, or wherever works for you.
3. Work the altar every night for nine nights, beginning on November 12th and ending on November 20th. We have some ideas for what working the altar will mean for us, but your ideas are also welcome and encouraged! We recommend that you still light a dedicated candle and offer a fresh glass of water. You can also offer them incense or other smoke, cut flowers, a drink or a meal, prayers, poems, music, dancing, whatever you feel called to offer. These offerings should be directed towards the bright and well trans ancestors that we have been working with for the last seven years, and any others that you are connected to – not to the recently passed.
4. We have a new base prayer that you can build around, with which we’ll be asking those bright and well ancestors to care for our troubled dead and to lay a blessing around the line, and we’ll be honoring and celebrating them for stepping up to do that work with us.
5. It’s fine to still read the list of names if that’s part of your annual practice, but instead of speaking directly to those family members who have passed in the last year, we are now identifying them by name to the bright and well ancestors and helping spirits and asking them to look after them.
6. Note: It’s still important not to put any images of living people on your ancestor altar!
We’re glad to be stepping into this new phase of the Trans Ancestor Rite for a couple of reasons. We hope that this format will be less grueling on practitioners – we’ve definitely felt the weight of trying to allow the trauma of hundreds of troubled dead to process through our living bodies for nine days in a row, and we don’t want to be guiding our community through ritual practices that feel like torture! We’ve also felt less than awesome about using the elevation format – it’s not from a closed practice, but we are using it out of context and that’s not a great way to operate. (Also the individual that we directly learned this from has gone vocally fascist over the last few years and we are glad to no longer feel like we have to be using her work!)
We welcome any questions or feedback! Have you been getting other information from your divination? Do you have practices that you have been finding effective for connecting with the bright and well trans ancestors? What are you thinking about for this year?
Let us know if you’re participating this year! Please share photos of your altars, or what offerings you’re making! If you tag posts #TROE2022, we’ll feature them on the blog!
In solidarity,
En la lucha,
Mir veln zey iberlebn,
Mod Rocket
[Please use this, along with any specific prayers to specific entities or individuals you may be working with, as part of your nightly ritual beginning tonight. This is a basic format and you can alter it as needed to accommodate your needs or practice. Please note that we’re using “transition” here to mean becoming an ancestor, not to put boundaries around who is and isn’t trans for the purposes of this work. –Rocket]
We call upon the ancestors of our line, the progenitors of our queer spirits,
those who came before and laid the path behind them, the mighty transgender dead.
We call upon the mighty line of our family stretching back to times none of us can imagine, sisters and brothers and siblings in every age of the earth,
who would not understand the words we use or the lives we lead but who would know us as their children,
who braided flowers into their hair as we braid flowers into our hair,
who touched flame to wick as we touch flame to wick,
who danced and howled under the stars as we dance and howl under the stars,
who lived in joy and died without fear as we seek to live and die.
Bright and well trans ancestors, known and unknown, named and unnamed,
you who transitioned in ancient times and you who transitioned within our lifetimes,
Honored helping spirits who have stepped up to tend the line of the transgender dead, and bright and well ancestors who know the practices, who bubble over with love and blessing to pour into the cupped hands of their troubled children,
You who led in life and lead in death, you who have offered the gifts of guidance and protection to the members of your family who have yet to find peace, to the troubled dead thirsting for care and to the weary living still battling each day, and you who have those gifts to offer, we call to you.
Marsha P. Johnson, we call to you. Hail and welcome. We offer you honor and remembrance. We offer you love and devotion. We offer you praise and proclamation among the living to bring your legacy to your descendants. We offer you cool water for your journey.
[Any other ancestral helping spirit, deity, or representatives that you are personally honoring or working with in your ritual], we call to you. Hail and welcome. We offer you honor and remembrance. We offer you love and devotion. We offer you praise and proclamation among the living to bring your legacy to your descendants. We offer you cool water for your journey. [Repeat as needed.]
Bright and well ancestors, hear us! Reach your hands out to meet us and be with us in this work!
We ask you to bless us with your memory, with your guidance, with your strength. We ask you to bless us as the living faces of your mighty line, to be with us and let us know you.
We ask you to pour healing and protection down our line to bathe our troubled dead, to bathe us, in cool sacred water. We ask that you hold the trauma of our troubled dead with love and understanding, that it may be washed away, that it may trouble them and us no more.
We ask you to lay a blessing around our ancestral line, that you encompass every generation that stands between your lives and ours in it, that you pour it outwards into future generations, that every member of our family that has ever drawn breath and every member of our family that will ever draw breath may breathe in your blessing like air and be filled and surrounded by it.
We ask that you guide our brothers and sisters and siblings who have come to join you in the last year, that you receive them with celebration, that you give them the peace and welcome that the living world would not.
We ask that you give them honor and remembrance; that you give them love and devotion; that you give them a light to guide them to peace and music to dance them through the gates; that you give them cool water for their journey.
May you rest in power. May your memories be a blessing. May you never thirst.
Hey everybody!
Rocket and I did our pre-ritual divination this afternoon and got positive responses from Marsha and Sylvia to participate again this year on the ancestral side. (Agdistis, an ancestral spirit of sorts with whom we both work, is also in.)
However, we got what seemed like a no from Leslie. Usually Comrade Leslie Feinberg is among the ancestral helping spirits we call on and honor during the elevation, but we didn't get a yes from hir this year.
We are asking a third party to verify our div but as of now it seems like Ms Marsha P Johnson and Ms Sylvia Ray Rivera are the ancestral helping spirits for this year's elevation. Hopefully Rocket can update on that divination in more depth tomorrow before we get started.
Thanks everybody. 🤍
- Mod Alder
More detail on our opening divination from 11/12/21
Asking of Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson: Do you want to participate this year? Is there anything you want or need from us this year?
We must learn our traditions to understand where we came from. Let yourselves be immersed in the waters of life, do not suffer for the sake of suffering. Continue the practice, bring tradition into the future, and infuse care for the dead and celebration of life into one another with grace and gratitude. (The Hierophant, 9 of Water)
Asking of Sylvia Ray Rivera: Do you want to participate this year? Is there anything you want or need from us this year?
Let your passion be directed and honed. Seek the moment of crystallizing direction that feels like flying, but let your pace be guided by the call of the earth. Be patient and have faith in your work; the fruits of your labor will last beyond your lifetime. (Knight of Wands, 7 of Earth)
Asking of Leslie Feinberg: Do you want to participate this year? Is there anything you want or need from us this year?
Withdrawal of old wisdom and old power. Guidance and reassurance in times of war, but pulling back with compassion and intuition. (The Emperor, 8 of Cups, Curandera of Water)
Asking of Agdistis: Do you want to participate this year? Is there anything you want or need from us this year?
Calm anticipation of the work to be done. Power held in reserve and gentle motion forward. Hope is hidden in the darkness of the depths of despair -- we must open to grief in order to let it pass through us. (Knight of Pentacles, the Moon)
- Rocket
Hi friends.
A few have asked, and yes - we are indeed holding the ritual this year. The annual group elevation ritual begins on November 12th and runs through the Trans Day of Remembrance on November 20th. We'll post some links to help you set up your altar and prepare for the ritual soon. Stay safe and stay tuned. 🤍🕯️✊🏽
Read the names aloud with a small group in front of the Stonewall Inn tonight. The organizers brought three bags of tea light candles and it still wasn’t enough. I came home and elevated my altar for the second to last time and prayed for courage and for the strength not to stomp the next white cis person who doesn’t put in the modicum of effort needed not to mangle the names of our dead sisters. I am tired and I see the breaking point ahead. Let us meet it with linked arms and masked faces, comrades. - Rocket
For anyone who's interested, here's a step-by-step on how I've been drawing labyrinths for my altar. (Sorry about the grainy photos; they were taken by candlelight.) I've been enjoying drawing them--the end result is satisfying, and the process of making them puts me in a trance-like, meditative state of mind.
- Janus
[Image descriptions: Seven photos of tiny altars, comprised of a candle with a photo of Sylvia Rivera on it, three pieces of dulce de ajonjoli, and a white flower.]
Third Night: Walking with Sylvia
During our divination with Sylvia Rivera, she expressed some specific offerings that she wanted this year, so I went on a walk through the West Village to try to give her something nice. I placed tiny altars at four points along my walk – the old location of the St. Vincent’s hospital on 12th street and 6th avenue where Sylvia spent her last days, in front of the Stonewall Inn, where a ceremony was held after her death, in front of Sylvia Rivera Way, and on the Piers where she did so much of her work and where her ashes were finally scattered. The tiny altars included a small pillar candle with this image of Sylvia taped to it, including the quote “We have to be visible. We should not be ashamed of who we are. We have to show the world that we are numerous. There are many of us out there.” I also added a few pieces of dulce de ajonjoli to each altar, and a white flower.
The first three altars I set up quickly and tried to tuck out of the way on the sidewalk so they wouldn’t get kicked or thrown out too quickly. The last one, I spent a little more time over, speaking to Sylvia, trying to keep the candle lit for a little longer, sitting with her. I also spoke the Mourner’s Kaddish, which I’ve been doing every night this year and has felt particularly important. It ends with a prayer for peace upon us, and upon the whole world. Oseh shalom bimromav, hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu v’al kol ha’olam, v’imru amein.
A year and a half after laying down the Mill from Tompkins Square Park to the Stonewall, it feels good to extend the holy line from the Stonewall to the Piers, laying love and veneration for our living and passed family into each inch of concrete.
If any other practitioners are working in or near NYC and want to walk the line with me, I’ll probably be doing it again on Sunday – you can drop me a line at my personal blog @flamingkorybante
Peace, Comrades. – Rocket
Every year, we do some divination to try to check in with the Ancestor Helping Spirits who have stepped up to tend the line of the honored transgender dead. We want to ask if they’re still up for participating in the ritual with us, and if there’s anything they need or want from us that we aren’t giving them.
We had a bit of a false start with a divinatory system that’s newer to our practice, and then Alder dug out the spirit board they’ve had since childhood and sat down to ask some questions.
First we asked Marsha P. Johnson if she would speak with us, and she agreed. When we asked if she was willing to participate in the elevation again this year, she said “maybe,” and that what would make it good for her was “abundance.” We determined that the specific abundance she wants from us this year involves specific offerings of tobacco (not cigarettes!), music, and love.
Next we called to Leslie Feinberg, who immediately agreed to be part of the elevation again. When we asked hir what zie wants or needs from us, hir first answer was “courage,” which teared us both up, and then zie added, “poetry.”
Then, we asked Sylvia Rivera, who said that she was glad to be part of the elevation again, but kept spelling out “f-o-g-g-y.” Her communication was a little less clear than the others, but she seemed to be saying that she wants her own candle, and an offering of candy, left in a specific location at night. We’re still working on the exact location for practitioners who are in NYC, where she spent her life, and will update!
Finally, we asked if anyone else wanted to step forward and join the Ancestors who were tending the line. We received the name “Patience” but no further details – we’ll look more into this and update. If any of you know a member of our line by that name, please contact us!
So! Based on this divination, we suggest that you add these offerings to your nightly ritual to give care and honor to the Ancestor Helping Spirits who are working by our side on this: tobacco, music, and love for Marsha P. Johnson, courage and poetry for Comrade Feinberg, and a candle and candy for Sylvia Ray Rivera. We are grateful for their continued guidance and care in this work, and we are glad to offer them abundance, our love, and our courage.
If any of you have done any other divination on this question, we welcome your input!
-- Rocket
EDIT: As of 2022, the format of the ritual has changed. We are leaving this FAQ up as a record of its original format, but please check our pinned post for the most recent ritual format.
What is it?
[Image: white ancestor elevation altar on the floor in front of a colorful wall hanging. In the foreground, green camp seat and various bottles and jars. On the altar, candles, white stones, a vase of flowers, papers with hand writing, and small dishes of offerings.] Zoomed out view of my elevation altar, final night, after the end of the working. The candle on the stack of books will stay burning overnight. In the morning, before work, I'll move the candle and cup to my main working altar. Things felt live, especially these last few days. Tomorrow we'll do some divination to confirm results of the rite and see whether we missed anything that needs addressing, but I felt connected and helpful this year without getting slogged down or overwhelmed. I hope others managed to strike that balance too. Thank you so much for sharing this work. - Alder
