[This art is by Sarah Jarrett, an artist I recently fell in love with who seems to capture better than anyone I have ever seen the wild animism of the dead, always more than a singularity, always becoming something else.]
Yet again someone has let me know that they called upon my deceased father, Dr. Matt Finn, during a medical emergency—and that they experienced a miraculous turn of events. Suddenly the right surgeon was handy, suddenly the prognosis wasn’t so bad, and the outcomes were much better than expected. This person wrote to me in gratitude for my father’s extra special help from the other side.
Another person on hearing me talk about the scheduling miracles my father’s medical secretary Ruth Nelson facillitated for me during my health scare this past winter, called on this long-dead woman they never knew to get their own procedure on the calendar. They, too, wrote to tell me about the unexpected cancellation and the perfect timing for their biopsy. They asked me for a photo of Ruth—which unfortunately I do not have.
People I do not know call on my Uncle Leston the gifted psychiatrist because of the stories I have told about him in my workshop. They call on Viggo Peterson, the ice cream man, for the healing sweetness he has brought into my life because I have written about him. People I barely know pray to my ancestors. Why? Is it because my ancestors are more special, or more powerful, or more magical than anyone else’s? Absolutely not.
But I tell stories about my ancestors. And, even more fundamentally, the stories I tell are about my faith in these ancestors. A faith that is like a powerful river that flows to me, and through me, and which can carry others where they need to go. Anyone can access that faith.
I call on souls on the other side I have never met as well. My friend Kate is devoted to a woman horrifically disabled by TB who brought healing to others, Eileen O’Connor, and I called on Eileen for help with my lungs. I also called on my friend Polly’s friend Zam who died of lung cancer. I know these two, along with my own friends Beth, and Roberta, and Thomas, ensured that the radiologist would be fuddled by the disappearance of my spiculated node at the very last minute. “This feels like a miracle,” I said to her, all prepped for the surgery they were cancelling. “It is,” she said.
I am telling you about Eileen O’Connor and I am telling you about Zam. I am telling you about Roberta and Thomas and Beth.
Someone reading this will want to, or need to, call out to them for help. And you should call out to them for help. They help. BUT you should also call out to your own ancestors and friends on the other side. And you should find a way to tell others about the miracles they bring to you.
It’s not that my ancestors are more powerful than anyone else’s. But because I work daily with the dead, on all aspects of my life, from the most trivial irritations to the most intractable perplexities, my faith in the dead, my trust in the dead is very powerful indeed.
You can have that kind of faith, a faith that others can drink from when they feel hopeless, and turn to when the world feels broken and frightening. But you must wade into the water yourself, you must dare to let the water bear you up and carry it where you will. You must make you own magic.
To do that you must begin asking for help from the other side. And when that help comes, you must tell the stories of your miracles to anyone and everyone. At dinner. On the sidelines at the soccer game. On the bus to a stranger. Why do the dead show up for me? Because I show up for them. Why do I show up for them? Because they show up for me. Where does it begin? It doesn’t matter when it comes to faith and love. Once you are in the river, you know that it begins everywhere—a thousand mountain springs flowing into a thousand streams in a thousand valleys, and a thousand rain drops falling from ten thousand clouds for ten thousand epochs.
The world needs your faith right now. It needs your fearlessness.
Begin by calling on someone you know on the other side for real help. When that help comes, tell the story.
I love that people call on my father, and Ruth Nelson, and Uncle Leston, and all of my beloved dead…but we need the multitudes of the dead, the entire ancestral realm, to set the world right now. Your mother is on that team. Your grandmother. Your dog. Your first grade teacher. Your partner. Your child.
Let us call to this dry and depleted world a river of love. Help me. Summon the ancestors with me. Your dead are as powerful as mine.
Working with the dead is easy. Ask for help. Say thank you when they show up. However, that’s a little like saying baking bread is easy. Mix up flour and water and yeast, let it rise, and put it in the oven. This is why I offer a variety of workshops to help people figure out how to really do this, day to day, in their lives, so that their lives feel fundamentally more faith-filled, empowered, and joyous.
ANCESTRAL MAGIC
I am TEACHING IN PERSON in August at Omega in Rhinebeck, New York. This promises to be an extra special weekend, suitable for people who have taken one of my workshops before or never studied with me. There are ways we can work with the dead, and summon them to us, together, in person that are very powerful. Plus we can have tea under the trees together and talk under the stars about the unseen world. I am so hoping to see many of you there in person at last! Let me know if you have any questions.
Ancestral Magic August 15-17 at Omega in Rhinebeck, NY
PLUS, Omega is just beautiful—great food, beautiful surroundings, massages, bookstores, flowers, morning yoga classes, musical performances, and soul kin of all kinds! Let’s play with the dead together! Please!
I’ll also be teaching online in September and October with the Shift Network, offering a weekend workshop in October, and a year long course starting on November 2nd the Day of the Dead. See my website for more details: takebackthemagic.com
Perdita Finn is the author of Take Back the Magic: Conversations with the Unseen World (2024, Running Press) and the forthcoming Mothers of Magic: Summoning the Wisdom of Our Ancestors (2026, Running Press) With her husband Clark Strand she is the founder of a community devoted to the earth and the Lady by any name you like to call her, and the co-author of The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary.
Due to your course, and monthly online meetings, I'm working more and more with ancestors. I could use some financial help right now, and I have a second cousin on the other side who made a lot of money in his lifetime. I am always hesitant to call on him because he took the insurance money Mother received when Daddy died and invested it for her, losing half of it. So I thought broader to my time in chiropractic college when I did massage on wealthy people. I met a self-made man, very wealthy, named Sam, who loved my work and kept me afloat while in school. Sam was fun and kind and generous. Last night, I looked up his obituary, copied his photo, and put it on my ancestor altar. I'm asking for him to manifest a large sum of money for me with no strings attached. Stay tuned...
It has started! A check for $135.05 arrived in the mail! Yes, I know it's not nearly the amount I asked for, but I say it's a little "Hello! Here is your starter." from someone!