As October ripens into November, the air itself seems to shimmer with memory. Across cultures and centuries, this last week of October and first week of November marks a sacred hinge in the year — a time when the living honor the dead, when the veil between worlds softens, and when the ancestors draw near.
I began working with my ancestors during this time of year about 20 years ago. I have created different rituals, such as silent suppers with a place at the table for them. Setting out apples and pomegranates to feed them, creating altars of their images or favorite things. Remembering them, the ones both known and unknown to me. You will often find packs of cigarettes and a bottle of Scotch on mine. I notice that they show up in my dreams more often or with more profound messages. I am always in relationship with them, but it is definitely easier to notice them during this time, I think more than anything it is a reminder to slow down and pay attention to them, because in this Western modern culture we don't do that nearly often enough. And not to mention this culture deeply fears of death and dying, trying to constantly outrun it rather than understand that birth, death, and rebirth is the inevitable cycle of absolutely everything. I honor them, remember them for all their good and their bad. Laugh at the things they did, words they said, things they wore, superstitions they had. Most importantly, I remember what they taught me, both wise and maybe teaching me exactly what I don't want to be. And then I work to heal anything that was passed to me that is not my story but theirs. Because my role may very well be the role of breaking the inter-generational trauma so it doesn't get passed down the line.
It was actually my ancestors during a meditation that gave me the message "the plants aren't done with you yet." I had no idea what that meant until two weeks later the opportunity to acquire Anna's showed up in my email. And for me, I immediately thought.."who am I to say no?" I have said no before to similar messages. Maybe I wasn't ready, maybe the time wasn't right. But this time I was and it has become one of the most joyful decisions I have made in my life. It truly is my calling even if I ignored it for a while.
People often ask me if I work with Mediums who channel the dead. I do not. I believe we all have the capacity to be in relationship with them. All they really want us to do is remember them, talk to them, and ask for guidance, and ask what they may need from us. What I have found is much like talking to whatever we consider our Divine guide, is that the answers are never black and white. They are not here to tell us exactly what to do. They are here to remind us what we are capable of, plant a seed within us, but it is up to us to do the inner and outer work of bringing things into form on the Earthly plane.
To me working with plants especially the ones our ancestors worked with to heal body, mind and soul act as a bridge to the ancestors wisdom and our own healing. I am sharing a few different cross-cultural celebrations of honoring our ancestors during this time and the plants I use to connect with my Southern Italian ancestors. I encourage you all to research, no matter how far back you go, how the dead were honored in your culture, as well as, the plants used to heal or for food, and as a way to come together around the table.
From the Celtic Samhain to the Mexican Día de los Muertos, from the Italian Ognissanti (All Saints) and Commemorazione dei Defunti (All Souls) to the Japanese Obon, people everywhere have paused in this threshold season to tend the lineage threads that root them to time immemorial.
To honor the ancestors is to remember that life is cyclical, not linear — that death is a doorway, not an end. And for those of us walking a plant path, the green world is both our altar and our language for this connection.
Cross-Cultural Festivals of the Ancestors
Samhain (Celtic)
The Celtic New Year, Samhain, honors the thinning of the veil between the worlds. Bonfires were lit to guide spirits, and offerings of food were left at the hearth or the edge of the village. Herbs like mugwort and rosemary were burned to purify and protect as families communed with their beloved dead.
Día de los Muertos (Mexico)
Rooted in pre-Columbian traditions and intertwined with Catholic All Saints and All Souls Days, Día de los Muertos celebrates life, not death. Marigolds (Tagetes spp.) — known as cempasúchil — are called the “flower of the dead.” Their bright golden petals and musky scent are said to guide spirits home. Altars, or ofrendas, are adorned with food, drink, candles, and the favorite items of the departed.
All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days (Europe)
In Southern Europe, particularly in Italy, these holy days were once rich with folk ritual: lighting candles for ancestors, visiting cemeteries, baking soul cakes. Bay leaves, rosemary, and olive branches — sacred Mediterranean plants — were used to anoint the dead or adorn graves, symbolizing eternal life and remembrance.
Obon (Japan)
Though celebrated earlier in the summer, Obon also honors the returning of ancestors’ spirits. Lanterns are floated down rivers or out to sea, and incense — often sandalwood or mugwort — fills the air. It’s a reminder that light and scent can guide souls across dimensions.
Plants as Portals: Green Allies for Ancestral Connection
These plants are not just ingredients or decorations — they are kin, teachers, and messengers. Each carries a medicine for the body, the heart, and the spirit. These are the plants my Bisnonna used and all those that came before her. I encourage you all to research the plants of your ancestry, a good search is usually "Folk Medicine of _____"
🌿 Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
Physical: Stimulates circulation and memory; supports brain and heart health.
Emotional/Spiritual: Known as the herb of remembrance. Burning rosemary or using its oil invites clarity and ancestral wisdom.
Use: Add to ancestral altars, burn as incense, infuse in oil for anointing the temples or heart before meditation.
🌿 Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis)
Physical: A digestive ally and respiratory support.
Emotional/Spiritual: Associated with prophecy and ancestral sovereignty. The Delphic priestesses once inhaled bay smoke to enter trance.
Use: Write prayers to ancestors on bay leaves and burn them; add to stews made in their honor.
🌿 Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)
Physical: Eases digestion and menstruation, supports the nervous system.
Emotional/Spiritual: The dream herb par excellence. It opens the gates between waking and dreaming, life and death.
Use: Burn as smoke before bed, place under the pillow for dream connection, or add to ritual baths.
🌿 *Rose (Rosa spp.)
Physical: Cooling and anti-inflammatory; tones the heart and skin.
Emotional/Spiritual: Softens grief and opens the heart to divine and ancestral love.
Use: Offer petals on altars, drink rose tea while journaling messages from the ancestors.
🌿 Olive (Olea europaea)
Physical: Nourishes the heart and brain; strengthens the immune system.
Emotional/Spiritual: A symbol of peace and continuity — trees that outlive generations.
Use: Offer olive oil on altars, anoint candles, or bless thresholds and doorways.
🌼 Marigold (Tagetes spp.)
Physical: Anti-inflammatory and wound-healing.
Emotional/Spiritual: Guides spirits with its golden light and scent.
Use: Decorate ancestor altars, make garlands, or add petals to baths for solar warmth and remembrance.
Why the Ancestors’ Plants Matter
Reconnecting to our ancestral plants is a radical act of belonging. The herbs our forebears used were not abstract “remedies” — they were relationships. Each leaf carried memory, myth, and medicine.
When we work with the same plants our ancestors touched, we engage in a living lineage of healing. The olive that crowned ancient priests, the rosemary braided into funeral wreaths, the mugwort burning in a midwife’s bowl — these are not relics, but threads waiting to be rewoven.
In studying and using these plants, we awaken a sensory lineage — the smells, tastes, and textures that remind the body it comes from somewhere holy. We remember that we are not separate from the land or from those who walked before us.I also encourage you to honor both the lands you stand on, and the lands you came from. Give an offering to the ancestors of the land as well as to your own. This is why I often put out apples, pomegranates, corn meal and other things that can safely be returned to the Earth and safe for her creatures if one decides the meal is for them.
A Simple Ancestral Plant Ritual
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Gather: A small candle, a bowl of water, and one or more of your ancestral plants.
Arrange them on a cloth or altar. Light the candle and take a few breaths.
- Speak aloud the names of your ancestors, or simply say, “I honor the ones whose blood and stories live in me.”
- Offer the scent of your herbs — by burning, brewing, or anointing — as an invitation for their wisdom to flow.
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Listen. Dreams, sensations, memories, and synchronicities may speak in return.
In this season of thin veils, the plants themselves are bridges — between the seen and unseen, the remembered and the forgotten. To tend them is to tend our roots.
PS- The ancestors told me the time is right to plant the seed with our community that change is coming. We are in the process of renaming and rebranding the Apothecary. That includes a new website and online store that will make doing business with us even easier and more sacred. Over time we will share the details but suffice it to say the new name serves to encompass the vision that we ALL receive and share wisdom from the plants, our ancestors, and the community both locally and from afar. We believe that this wisdom is to be shared in reciprocity and it doesn't just belong to a "few".
