The Crossroads Five – November: The Living Veil

November’s theme is The Living Veil, a month devoted to the relationship between the living and the dead, ancestral remembrance, the mysteries of spiritual passage, and gratitude for the lives that came before our own. This month’s Crossroads Five allows you to choose any combination of five Community Jars from Health, Love, Protection, Money, and Sour, directing the work toward the areas of your life that need the greatest attention.

The crossroads has long held spiritual significance in Hoodoo and many African diasporic traditions. It is a place associated with decisions, movement, possibility, and encounters with powers beyond ordinary understanding. For November, the crossroads also offers a meaningful symbol of the space between the living and the dead, where memory, spiritual inheritance, and the choices we make during our earthly lives meet.

The Crossroads Five gives you five selections to use however you wish. You may choose one of each jar, repeat certain conditions, or devote all five selections to a single concern. Someone facing financial difficulties might choose three Money jars and two Protection jars. Someone navigating a painful relationship might choose two Love, two Sour, and one Protection. A person concerned about their health may select all five Health jars. Each selection receives its own petition and contributes to the weight of the work being performed on your behalf.

The Health Jar will be worked for healing, renewed strength, recovery, emotional steadiness, and peaceful rest. The Love Jar will support attraction, reconciliation, affection, passion, companionship, and lasting devotion. The Protection Jar will establish defenses against enemies, crossed conditions, harmful influences, and threats to the household. The Money Jar will draw prosperity, employment, customers, profitable opportunities, and greater financial stability. The Sour Jar will address gossip, betrayal, harassment, malicious interference, and people whose harmful actions need to be stopped.

Each selection will be prepared with the roots, herbs, minerals, and traditional curios appropriate to its condition. Health workings will incorporate healing and strengthening materials beneath blue and white candles. Love workings will use sweetening, attraction, and reconciliation ingredients beneath pink and red. Protection workings will be fixed with guarding roots and defensive materials beneath red and white. Money workings will draw upon prosperity herbs and magnetic ingredients beneath green and gold. Sour workings will use vinegar, peppers, alum, sulfur, and other traditional enemy-work materials beneath black and red.

Every petition will be written by hand, dressed with its appropriate condition oil, and placed into the corresponding jar. Psalms and prayers will be chosen according to your selections, and all five portions of your work will be tended throughout November as part of the community altar.

In keeping with The Living Veil, a place of ancestral remembrance will accompany the workings. Fresh water, white candles, and prayers of gratitude will honor the dead whose lives, labor, wisdom, and sacrifices helped sustain the generations that followed.

This month’s altar will acknowledge the many kinds of knowledge our ancestors left behind. Some knew how to heal and comfort the suffering. Some understood the patience and devotion required to maintain loving relationships. Others possessed the courage to defend their households, the resourcefulness to provide during difficult times, or the determination to confront enemies and survive adversity.

November also invites us to consider the mysteries of the journey between life and death. Across spiritual traditions, psychopomps are understood as guides who accompany souls through that passage. Their presence in the spiritual imagination reminds us that every life follows a journey, and that the choices we make while living become part of what we leave behind.

The Crossroads Five gives particular meaning to that idea. Each selection represents a decision about where you wish to direct your attention, strengthen your circumstances, and improve the life you are living now. The work will be concentrated according to your needs while the ancestral altar honors the wisdom and experiences of those who have already completed their earthly journeys.

The Living Veil reminds us that life is precious, time is finite, and the dead remain present in the memories, traditions, and knowledge we preserve. This November, choose the five conditions that matter most to you and allow those choices to shape your place upon the community altar.

Suggested Alignment

During November, prepare a simple place of remembrance with a glass of fresh water, a white candle, and photographs or written names of deceased family members you wish to honor.

Read Psalm 23 and say:

“I remember those whose lives made mine possible. I give thanks for their strength, their wisdom, and the love they left behind. May the beloved dead rest in peace, and may I make good use of the life entrusted to me. Guide my judgment, strengthen my hands, and help me tend the things that matter most while I am here.”

Consider your five selections carefully. Think about the areas of your life that need immediate attention, the circumstances you hope to improve, and the responsibilities you carry toward yourself and others. Choose one practical action that supports the conditions you have selected.

The Living Veil is also an opportunity to preserve a piece of family history. Record a story about a deceased relative, prepare a beloved family recipe, visit a grave, or ask an elder about someone whose life deserves to be remembered. These small acts help keep the experiences of earlier generations alive.

To Be Included

Send your full name, date of birth, and your five jar selections from Health, Love, Protection, Money, and Sour. You may choose any combination, including multiples of the same jar or all five selections devoted to one condition.

Include a short petition for each selection explaining what you want addressed. If another person is involved, provide their full name and date of birth when known.

You may also include the names of deceased ancestors you wish to honor in your personal prayers during The Living Veil.

Your five selections will determine how your portion of the November community altar is prepared and worked throughout the month.