Ancestor Money

Ancestor Money — also known as Joss Paper, Ghost Money, or Spirit Money — is a traditional paper offering burned to transmit wealth, resources, and care from the physical world to the spirit realm. Working with ancestor money is a way to honour your bloodline, feed your dead, and maintain a reciprocal relationship with the spirits of those who came before you.

As the paper burns, the offering is carried across the veil — a gesture of love, respect, and continued relationship.

Traditional Uses

• Filial piety & ancestral respect — in Chinese folk religion, Taoism, and Buddhism, burning ancestor money is an act of deep reverence, providing for your deceased relatives in the afterlife just as you cared for them in life
• Qingming Festival (Tomb Sweeping Day) — burned at gravesites to honor and provide for ancestors during this central festival of remembrance
• Hungry Ghost Festival (Lunar Seventh Month) — offerings burned during Ghost Month to provide for wandering spirits and prevent suffering in the afterlife
• Providing material comfort — the smoke acts as a spiritual conduit, converting paper notes into real currency and supplies ancestors can use to buy food, clothing, housing, or luxuries in the spirit world

Occult & Modern Magick Uses

• Clearing ancestral debt — used to dissolve negative karma and spiritual debt carried by your ancestors; with that burden lifted, your dead are more able to show up and support your workings
• Ancestor altar work — burn regularly to open lines of communication, show gratitude, and build a strong, reciprocal relationship with your bloodline spirits
• Hoodoo & rootwork — offered at the ancestor altar or gravesite to petition the dead for guidance, protection, or assistance in spell work
• Samhain & ancestral feast days — burn during the thinning of the veil to strengthen communication with those who have passed
• Gravesite offerings — burn at the graves of loved ones on anniversaries, birthdays, or death days
• Petition work — write your petition or a loved one’s name on the money before burning to send your request directly to your ancestors along with the offering
• Prosperity & manifestation — a well-provided ancestor is better equipped to bless and advocate for their living descendants; burning money can unblock financial stagnation by addressing root-level ancestral burdens
• Crossing over & memorial rituals — burn in the days following a death to provide for the newly departed as they transition

How to Work With Ancestor Money

• Set up a small fire-safe vessel at your ancestor altar
• Call on your ancestors by name or speak an intention aloud
• Burn the notes as an offering, releasing them with gratitude
• Pair with candles, libations, or food offerings to deepen the work
• Write a name or petition on the money before burning to personalize the offering

Sold individually.