Ancestral Grimoire: Connect with the Wisdom of the Ancestors through Tarot, Oracles, and Magic, by Nancy Hendrickson
Weiser Books, 1578637775, 240 pages, September 2022

Lately I’ve been all about exploring magic through a community-based lens. In Western occultism there seems to be an exclusive focus on the individual, but the deeper I’ve dived into my own practice, the more I see the interrelatedness and notice how the dynamics/energy of relationship influence our own manifestation, healings, insights, and so on. And it’s for this reason that I’ve been interested in cultivating a deeper relationship with my ancestors.

My seeking to learn more about my ancestors led me to Ancestral Grimoire: Connect with the Wisdom of the Ancestors through Tarot, Oracle, and Magic by Nancy Hendrickson. Hendrick’s previous book Ancestral Tarot: Uncover Your Past and Chart Your Future (2021) was the first time I realized tarot cards could be used for ancestor work; I loved this novel approach of using the tarot to know more about my own ancestral lineage. Plus, I trusted Hendrickson as a guide since she also has written extensively on using Ancestry.com to and discovering one’s family history online.

Ancestral Grimoire is the natural combination of her expertise, allowing readers to the next step of using tarot and oracles to enhance one’s own magical practice with the help of the ancestors by creating a personal grimoire, also referred to as a Book of Shadows. This book equips readers with tools beyond the tarot to reconnect with their ancestors, including pendulums, oracle cards, sigils, casting charms, runes, sidewalk oracles, and energy work. But it also goes beyond just reconnecting the reader with their ancestors; Ancestral Grimoire guides readers to discovering their own magic.

“One ancestor can be with you for a lifetime, another for just a moment. Ask for someone to show you the way out of darkness and they will hand you a blueprint no architect could even conceive. Want to know the most potent form of magic? Ask.”¹

Hendrickson focuses on four types of magic (family magic, personal magic, elemental magic, and celestial magic) as she guides the reader through a full-year process of creating their own grimoire. The invitation is to both experiment with different magic and also experience the enhancement that comes from trying out these forms of magic with ancestral assistance. No two months are the same, and the variety makes for an interesting practice month to month.

And there’s no need to fret if you start reading in a month other than January. You can certainly pick up right where you are in the Wheel of the Year or you can even skip around and choose to do the magic during a different month. As with most magic, there’s room for variation and a personal touch.

For instance, I started this book all the way back in September (yes, over six months ago!) and have been making my way in chronological order since without concern for the standard January-December year. You might find the book calls to you a certain time or perhaps you want to begin this grimoire with a particular sabbat. Trust that it has come to you at the right time and move through it in a way that feels aligned with your practice.

September has been one of my favorite months so far in this practice. It was a celestial magic month with the focus being sky magic. The tarot spread for the month focused on connecting with my celestial ancestor and discovering their karmic influence on me, the intergenerational sky magic I’ve inherited, and a solar or lunar symbol I could create to honor this ancestor (with ideas included on how to create this symbol). Then there also is a pendulum spread to discern where balance is needed, fitting for the time of the autumn equinox.

But what I enjoyed most about this month was the practice “Messages in Paint and Fire” where I got to play with finger paint! There’s also an option to use smoke signals, but I for one enjoy getting my handy dirty and engaging in the creative process. Hendricks writes, “Keeping your question in mind, look for answers in the paint.”² I still have my painting hanging up and it continues to give me new inspiration and insight from time to time.

This month, April, is focused on elemental  magic, specifically land magic, using the tools of tarot, a pendulum, and energy work (chakras). Hendricks writes, “I invite you to ask for an ancestor who was a land whisperer, an ancestors who knew how to communicate with the nonhuman entities who watched over the land, as well as with the land itself.”³

Though I haven’t delved in yet, I can see this month for my grimoire that I will be doing a bit of shadow work, using the pendulum to tap into energy points within my own neighborhood, and exploring the energy of my chakras along with land chakras. Exciting stuff! 😀

All in all, Ancestral Grimoire is filled with practices to discover your own personal magic while strengthening the connection with your ancestors. This book is a doorway to discovery about the hidden strengths and shadows of your ancestors that have been inherited, providing you with the tools needed to divine, manifest, heal, and create meaningful relationships with your predecessors. I recommend this book for anyone looking to explore their ancestry while also expanding their knowledge about who they are and where they come from.

Even if readers aren’t familiar with some of the tools used in the book, the month to month practice will build their confidence as the new skills are developed. In just a single book, there’s a whole year of possibility as your spiritual team grows and you learn who to call on for what purposes. It’s comforting to know you’re never alone and there’s always ancestors from beyond the physical realm available to be called on for advice and guidance.

Ancestral Tarot: Uncover Your Past and Chart Your Future, by Nancy Hendrickson
Weiser Books, 1578637416, 202 pages, March 2021

Ancestral Tarot: Uncover Your Past and Chart Your Future by Nancy Hendrickson immediately drew my attention because it combined two interests of mine: tarot and ancestry. I have been working with the tarot for almost 30 years and have used it countless times for advice, guidance, and clarification. Ancestry has been a newer passion for about the past 10 years. I have an insatiable interest in learning about the different ancestors that live in my family tree, all of them coming from Southern Italy. It’s the stories of these blood ancestors that intrigue me – why they did the things they did and how they lived. I truly feel the blood of these ancestors coursing through my veins.

Hendrickson does an amazing job of illuminating how one can use the tarot as a tool for ancestral communication to: “identify and access ancestral gifts, message, powers, protectors, and healers… and use the tarot to discover ancestors you may not have known you had.”¹ As one who has decades of experience in genealogy and tarot, she is well-poised to write on this topic.

In this book, Hendrickson writes that there is really no order recommended in which to read the book. While she understands that one might want to delve into issues around one’s family of origin for example, and start with that chapter, she does suggest doing the tarot spreads and journal prompts introduced at the beginning of the book to form a foundation for working with one’s ancestors. 

I automatically connect the term ancestor to my family of birth origin, or as she calls them, Ancestors of Blood – grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents – on down the line. Yet I was immensely intrigued to read about how she broadened the term “ancestor” to include two other types: Ancestors of Place and Ancestors of Time. Ancestors of Place are those ancestors with whom one has a genetic connection and who lived in the one’s ancestral homeland a long time ago, but those whose names are not known. Ancestors of Time are ancestors from past incarnations.² I have this inexplicable draw to Ireland and was hoping to have a “conversation” with those Ancestors of Time to see if there may be a connection.

The book is divided into eleven chapters. Chapters one through three contain an introduction to the three afore-mentioned types of ancestors. Hendrickson also writes about how those who are adopted can work with their ancestors. She provides tarot spreads to help one find an ancestral spirit guide for the journey as well as using the tarot to ask questions about the purpose of one’s walk with the ancestors. As she writes, “Chapter 3 will load you up with a variety of tools for the journey. I hope your backpack is super-sized – because you’ll be given a lot to work with!”³

I did the spread to help me determine what type of ancestors I wanted to work with initially – those of Blood, Place, or Time. While my head was pulling me to one column of cards – that of the Ancestors of Time because it was comprised entirely of Major Arcana cards, my intuition pulled me to work with the Ancestors of Place. 

The majority of my ancestors that I can trace come from the same province in Benevento, Italy. Ironically, Benevento was through to be the gathering place for witches, a place where they would not be prosecuted. I remember hearing about the “Evil Eye” growing up and was given an amulet to wear to ward it off. In fact, when my daughters were born my grandmother gifted each of them with their own amulet. I also remember hearing about great-grandmothers who knew how to do the “overlooks” that could remove the curse of the Evil Eye.

Looking back, maybe it was from my Ancestors of Place that I have inherited some of my interests in Italian folklore such as the Evil Eye and witchcraft. When asked how I could expect to benefit in my work with my Ancestors of Place I drew the High Priestess card – inner knowing seems to be spot on. Finally, when asked what message my Ancestors of Place had as I begin this journey, I drew the Page of Pentacles – learning how to manifest, being a voracious learner – and ironically, the astrological correspondence of the card is Capricorn – which is my birth sign. So much insight just from one spread, which as you can see really helped me to reflect on the unknown ancestors from this spirit of place and make connections to present day in my life.

Moving along, chapter four, “Meet the Family,” held information on using the tarot to work with one’s present family to reveal familial patterns. Then chapters five, six, and seven deepened the work with the three ancestral types. Chapter eight covers the importance of keeping a tarot journal for this journey of discovery. The final chapters nine, ten, and eleven offer ways to create “ancestral altars, sacred space, and crystal grids.”⁴

While I have provided an overview of the focus of each of the chapters, one should realize that there is a tremendous amount of information offered in each one — too much to digest in one reading. I came to understand that working with one’s ancestors is not a quick walk in the park, but rather a dedication to spending time with the ancestors, more of a slow, multi-leveled revelation versus a quick answer. I realized that I had to dedicate the time to do the spreads and journal promptings, to listen for the answers that bubbled up over time, and to put the pieces together to understand the story. From understanding the story and receiving the communications I could begin to work on self-healing and to experience hidden ancestral gifts emerge.

Hendrickson’s writing style is very straightforward and comprehensible. However, I feel that having an understanding of the tarot is beneficial before diving into this book. A tarot novice might easily be overwhelmed by the spreads, especially since one needs to use one’s knowledge of the tarot for insight into the cards as a form of communication with their ancestors. 

The only downside I encountered was in chapter nine, “Pairing Up,” she writes about using an ancestor’s birth date to calculate personality and soul numbers. Unfortunately for me, the majority of my ancestors were illiterate, and their birth dates are more approximations. Many of the church records that housed information on births and christenings were destroyed. However, I immensely enjoyed the final chapter, “Ancestral Rituals,” which covers how one can honor the ancestors through rituals such as creating altars. This has always been a meaningful activity for me. I truly liked creating an ancestral altar using items that “came” to me as I was meditating on what to include on it. 

The Appendices in the book provide additional information. Appendix A provides an overview of the tarot – or “Tarot 101”⁵ as it’s referred to. Appendix B offers recommended reading on the tarot and Appendix  C offers genealogy resources. 

I very much enjoyed working with the exercises in Ancestral Tarot as a new way to connect with my ancestors. Through combining tarot and ancestry, Hendrickson has opened a whole new realm of possibility when it comes to communing with our family and spiritual lineage from beyond the veil. I highly recommend this book for those who want to use the tarot to work with one’s ancestors and discover a connection to their ancestors beyond those of their bloodline. I nod in agreement with Nancy’s observation that “the search for ancestors is really about a search for self. Work with the ancestors and the person you find is you.”⁶