Hello, FredL,
I have moved your question into the long thread on altar set-ups and i advise you first to read the entire thread, up to here, because some of your questions have already been asked and answered. That having been said, here are some further comments:
1) Voodoo is a religion that literally has nothing to do with African American conjure of the United States South. You could have an altar to any deity you chose and it would have no impact on what i am about to relay to you. For information on Voodoo, please seek out a Voodoo priest, houngan, or mambo.
2) We typically cleanse spaces with Chinese Wash in the practice of conjure. Since most conjures are Protestant Christian, we do not use holy water. That is a Catholic Christian practice. For more information on the role of religion in hoodoo, please see some of the replies that moderators and knowledgeable practitioners have made to queries about how, if, or when hoodoo intersects with religions of various sorts. The thread is here:
Hoodoo & Religion: Voodoo Wicca Santeria Witchcraft Atheism
hoodoo-&-religion-voodoo-wicca-santeria ... 10231.html
3) This is okay. It is rather Catholic, however, due to the proposed use of holy water, and it seems to have Kardecian Spiritist overtones or an echo of Santeria as well, due to the use of Florida Water.
For more on Kardecian Spiritism, please read this web page at AIRR:
Category:Working Within the Spiritualist Tradition
http://readersandrootworkers.org/wiki/C ... _Tradition
For more on Santeria, Lukumi, and similar religions, please see this web page at AIRR:
Category:Orishas
http://readersandrootworkers.org/wiki/Category:Orishas
Now, as for hoodoo ancestor veneration, you would usually have some mementos of the deceased -- framed photos, a pipe, a thimble, bronzed baby shoes, a pot of graveyard dirt, flowers, and candles. Some folks will place a skull on the ancestor altar (or a replica thereof), some will keep perfume or cologne of some sort on the altar.
You can read more about ancestor veneration in a conjure context and see actual pictures at these AIRR web pages:
Ancestors
http://readersandrootworkers.org/wiki/Ancestors
The Dead and the Graveyard
http://readersandrootworkers.org/wiki/T ... _Graveyard
And here is a page on African ancestor veneration
Bwete
http://readersandrootworkers.org/wiki/Bwete
4) In conjure, especially among Protestant and Catholic Christian practitioners, it is quite common to ask the dead to "watch over" the living, thus to place photos of loved ones -- especially those who may need watching over -- on the ancestor altar, to commend them to the guardianship of the grandparents who have passed.
Contrariwise, in some African diasporic religions -- most notably the religion of Santeria -- this practice is explicitly forbidden.
5) Whatever suits you or the ancestors! They will tell you what they like. If they are of Native American descent, for instance, they may request Tobacco.
6) Food and drink are popular offerings. So are flowers (real or silk), and candy, and anything they request.
7) Well, if you are Catholic, and your ancestors were Catholic, then by all means say Catholic prayers. If one of them had a favourite saint, you might recite a novena to that saint to get the attention and favour of the ancestor who loved that saint.
8) In hoodoo we often find that poverty is a strong delimiter of how many altars one can set up. Many folks just have the one altar, and that has become their family tradition, and they do not go all "altar crazy" and get into "altar artistry." This is especially true if they are Protestant Christians -- Protestant altars, both in churches and in homes, are typically less numerous and less elaborate than those of Catholics.
Here, courtesy of Ms. Robin of
the Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers (AIRR), is a simple cursing and revenge altar where work is conducted for clients.
