African Traditional Religions (ATRs) Part 3: Finding Teachers, Building Community & Honoring the Culture

If you've started walking the path of African Traditional Religions (ATRs), you already know it's not something you do alone. This journey is spiritual but it's also cultural, relational, and ancestral. At a certain point, most people feel the call to go deeper: to find a teacher, connect with a community, or clarify their role in the tradition.

This is a powerful step—and it comes with responsibility.

In this part of the series, we’ll explore:

1. How to find authentic teachers and communities

2. Red flags and spiritual predators to watch for

3. What cultural respect (vs. appropriation) looks like

4. How to stay grounded and protected on your journey

   
   

1. Finding a Teacher or Spiritual Community

ATRs are initiatory and oral traditions, meaning most of the wisdom is passed down person-to-person, not from books or online videos.

What a True Teacher (or Elder) Is:

• Someone who has been trained and/or initiated within a specific lineage

• Humble, honest, and committed to serving spirit not ego

• Willing to answer your questions without pressuring you

• Encourages you to build your foundation with your ancestors first

• Connected to a larger community, not a lone “guru”

You may meet them in unexpected ways through referrals, divination, ceremony, dreams, or when the timing is right. Spirit often sends the right person when you’re ready.

Ways to Seek Teachers & Communities:

• Attend open cultural events, drumming circles, or festivals rooted in ATR

• Ask your ancestors (literally!) to send the right guide

• Get a divination session from a known, respected priest or priestess

• Join online forums or groups with a strong vetting process—but stay discerning

2. Red Flags & Spiritual Scams

Sadly, not everyone who claims to be a priest, healer, or “rootworker” has good intentions. Spiritual abuse is real and even more painful when it happens on a sacred path.

Watch Out For:

🚩 People who demand large sums of money upfront🚩 Teachers who claim to initiate you instantly or online with no process🚩 Anyone who isolates you or discourages questions🚩 Leaders who use fear or spiritual threats to control you🚩 People with no clear lineage or community to vouch for them.

Trust your gut. If the energy feels off, it probably is.

Authentic teachers don’t chase you down in DMs promising wealth or love spells. They are usually known by others, live humbly, and protect the traditions not exploit them.

3. Cultural Respect vs. Appropriation

If you’re not of African descent but feel called to ATRs, it’s not an automatic no but it is a sacred responsibility.

ATRs are closed, ancestral systems, meaning they belong to specific cultural groups. But they are also spiritual technologies, and sometimes spirits choose people across racial or national lines.

If You’re Not Melanated or of African Descent:

✅ Approach with humility, not entitlement✅ Build your connection with ancestors first yours, not others✅ Ask yourself why you’re drawn to this path✅ Seek teachers from within the tradition who are willing to guide you✅ Never cherry-pick deities, symbols, or rituals out of context

It’s not about gatekeeping it’s about protecting something sacred that has already survived centuries of erasure.

4. Staying Spiritually Grounded

As you go deeper, you’ll likely experience shifts dreams, insights, emotional releases, synchronicities. This is normal, and beautiful. But staying grounded is essential.

Daily Tools for Spiritual Protection and Alignment:

• Regularly cleanse yourself and your space (spiritual baths, smoke, salt)

• Journal your dreams, downloads, and spirit messages

• Stay in conversation with your ancestors

• Don’t skip meals, hydration, or rest your body is your vessel

• Avoid mixing too many spiritual systems at once (stay focused)

This path will stretch you, test you, and transform you but it will also root you in a power that is ancient, real, and beautifully yours.

Final Thoughts: The Path Is Long, But You Are Not Alone

You don’t have to know everything today. You don’t have to be “initiated” tomorrow. Just keep listening, learning, and walking in respect.

Your ancestors are proud of you for remembering. The spirits are watching how you move. The right guides will appear. And the journey is sacred because you are sacred.