Working with spirits is a fun experience in my opinion, but definitely comes with a risk. You’re meeting someone new, and there are “good” entities and “bad” entities and entities in between, just like with anything. Working with spirits requires some preparation, and may be easier for some and very difficult for others. I personally had to train quite a long time to get to where I am and I am still learning a lot even today.
Preparation Stage
1. Warding
Knowing how to ward is so important in witchcraft in general, and this is definitely no exception. Please make sure to have strong wards around yourself and your mind. A spirit with bad intentions can definitely hurt you or possess you against your will if you are not careful.
Note: Ward against all spirits, even the ones you trust. You deserve your own space and there are going to be times when you want to be alone. This is so important.
2. Learn about yourself
This may sound strange but you need to know who you are before working with spirits. This way, you can tell the difference between when you feel them around or your own energy, and the same with trying to hear/see them vs. your own thoughts.
To do this, meditate as much as possible. If you can end up meditating at least a few minutes every single day, that’s awesome. Focus your meditations at first on quieting your mind and focusing on a single random object in your mind. Visualize it and observe the details. How it smells, feels, tastes, sounds. Usually I do this with an apple. Something simple. Once you feel like you can do this comfortably, then begin exploring your current emotions. Identify as many as you can. You can dig deeper if you would like, trying to see what underlying emotions you carry that can cloud your readings, both telepathy and divination. Explore your energy- what color does it look like to YOU, not what others have told you? Everyone sees things differently, so you need to see how you see.
I could go into more detail about this but that will have to be a whole other post. This is such a big part of spirit work and your own journey that I cannot stress it enough. The more you know yourself, the easier it will be in a lot of your workings in witchcraft.
3. Trust yourself, be confident
Doubts and fears cloud readings, both physical and mental. Your intuition will become clouded if you do not trust yourself. It is good in my opinion to have a little doubt and to not be too confident, but it is a delicate balance. It’s hard to explain how much is too much, so the one way I can put it is allowing the first thought be your instinct. The thoughts that come automatically tend to be the instinctive ones.
4. Learn what is instinct, and what is yours
This is important as well. I briefly mentioned it in the previous point. A good idea to practice this is begin with divination- for example, tarot cards have basic meanings, but also should be interpreted with intuition as well. Learn to listen to that intuition in your divination and not only will it help you with listening and identifying spirits, but also will help you with your divination techniques. Definitely an awesome double whammy! Don’t forget, tarot is NOT the only way to talk with spirits!
5. Learn how to banish
Just in case you come across a spirit who wants to hurt you or will not leave you alone even if you ask it to, you need to learn how to banish it. There are many ways you can perform a banishing- it highly depends on your own abilities and what is easiest for you. Some people have a lot more power in words, while others need to make a spray with herbs and oils. I highly suggest doing some research on banishing and find what works best for you.
6. Find a communication method
Once again, everyone is different. Some work better with pendulums (I personally don’t like using them), while others use tarot or another method. Getting to the point of seeing and hearing a spirit takes a while for some people, and that’s ok. It took me almost four years to get to the point where I can comfortably see and hear spirits with my third eye.
For anyone, I highly suggest using some sort of divination method to read what spirits are telling you. Pendulum, runes, and tarot are most common. Keep in mind, when you use these for spirit communication, you will need to avoid putting your own energy into them so the reading doesn’t get mixed up or end up reading you instead. Practice reading other people first to help with this.
Spirit Stage
So now about spirits. Once again, remember, spirits have their souls. They have emotions. They make choices. They have personalities. This means they are capable of both helping and harming you. I don’t really believe in “good” and “evil” since it is relative to everyone’s beliefs. Instead, I believe that every spirit is capable of positive and malicious intent. Please remember this: Spirits can hurt you. But also, don’t judge a book by its cover. Just be cautious.
How do I get in contact with a spirit?
I would suggest starting with a deity you trust and feel close to. Deities have an energy that can be easier to read, and you may already have a relationship with this deity. You can also reach out to spirits in an area that you feel is safe.
First of all, with any entity, you should remain respectful and treat them like you would any person you meet for the first time. Introduce yourself (out loud or projecting gently through your mind is fine) and ask if they would like to introduce themselves. Use your divination method to help receive answers.
Trust your intuition. If you feel unsafe, say goodbye and ward up more. Banish them if they won’t leave you alone. Give yourself a good cleanse as soon as you can.
But also, trust your intuition in how the spirit feels as well. If you sense they are uncomfortable, apologize and back off. Some spirits are shyer than others- others may not feel like interacting.
Don’t feel frustrated if your first few tries are unsuccessful, it happens! This is one of the most difficult skills to get in my opinion, and can take a while to master.
I also highly suggest having a look at this pretty good thoughtform post
One of the whole reasons that people go to spirit shops instead of finding spirits on their own is because the spirits that they meet through shops are supposed to be pre-vetted, that is the shop owner takes the steps to assure that the spirit is safe to work with so that the customer doesn’t have to worry about the danger. It’s probably the most important responsibility that a shop owner has yet I’ve seen so many shops take short-cuts or have really low standards for the spirits that they vet. This is troubling because a shop owner is making the guarantee that the spirit is safe for the person that they are matching them with and when a shop has a lackluster vetting process, they are putting that person in danger.
This post was written by reading about and observing the vetting processes that the shops say they do and finding common faults in them. It was also made from people’s experiences where the vetting process of a shop failed them and put them in a dangerous situation. I collaborated with people who are even more experienced than me to write this ( @chaosjelly,@acakaos,@swimminginscales).
Understand that everything I list here is an explanation of the VERY BASICS of what a shop owner SHOULD BE DOING. Shop owners, don’t look at this and think “Well I’m doing most of it so I’m okay”. No. You SHOULD BE DOING ALL OF THIS.
Non-shopkeepers, read this and think about how many shops that you know fit these standards, think about the dangers that can come about if shops don’t consider the points that I mention in their vetting processes. Don’t just assume that shops are meeting these standards or are even coming close to them, even if you haven’t heard anything bad about them yet. Like I mentioned, I did info gathering on shops’ vetting processes for this post and believe me when I say that the majority shops don’t meet these standards.
The Longer the Better
Three months minimum. Yeah you heard me, three months minimum. That’s the amount of time needed to truly and effectively vet a spirit. The majority of the shops don’t even have them around longer than three weeks. Why so long? Because you can’t intimately know someone in any time less than that. I’ve had spirits turn on me after knowing them for half a year and longer than that and then there’s people posting up spirits that they met three days ago as if that’s safe. Even three months is a little too short and you really should be aiming for much longer.
And the thing is, you shouldn’t be rushing spirits out. If you’re so impatient to throw up the listing of a spirit that you can’t fathom taking the time to get to know them for three months then I have to question how much you actually care. It might seem mean, but a shopkeeper should be willing to wait months and even years to match the spirit with the perfect person. By the time you post the listing of the spirit, you should be close friends with the spirit yourself. How else are you going to know what would truly be best for the spirit if you barely even know them past superficial friendships? And how else are you going to ensure that the spirit is safe if you barely took the time to get to know them? You’ll soon see that there’s a lot that you should be doing in your vetting process and it’s hard to complete all of these steps effectively under three months, much less under three weeks.
More Than Just Bad or Good
Most shops only vet for whether or not the spirit is likely to harm their human companion, but there’s many other things that you need to look out for. However, before I delve into those I do want to take a moment to discuss the whole “bad vs good”. That is, there are shops that only look for whether spirits give them “bad vibes” as an indicator that the spirit is dangerous. Spirits with “good vibes”, spirits with “light” energy can be just as dangerous as those without. A benevolent “white arts” spirit isn’t always going to automatically be safe for a person, just look at the people who recommend others not take their medication or similar and believing that what they say is benevolent and not harmful. A “good vibes” spirit should be vetted just as much as a “bad vibes” spirit.
And while we’re on the topic, energy sensing must, must, must be more detailed than “light vs dark”. If you can’t see through thick glamours or be able to differentiate spirits species apart by their energy for example then you risk letting imposter or dangerous spirits through. Like you need to have some super in-depth energy sensing and energy work skills in order to have an effective vetting process. You cannot rely on appearance to determine a spirit’s identity. It’s very ineffective and biased to what you think a particular species should look like. Think about how police need DNA evidence in order to properly identify a suspect. Yes appearance helps, but DNA cannot be disputed so easily. Likewise, forms of energy aren’t subjective and a spirit’s core energy signature is very hard to change unlike their appearance. Light, dark, watery, fiery, earthy, airy, etc. are extreme oversimplifications of energy. They’re only one component in the makeup of a spirit’s energy and if you can’t go any further than that in your energy sensing then you’re nowhere near having advanced skills. For example, all insect spirits tend to have an earthy component to their energy but grasshopper energy is thick and dense, moth and butterfly energy are both soft but moth energy is just a smidgen heavier, dragonflies and damselflies both have lightweight energy but the energy of damselflies is slightly thinner, roach energy tends to be more fluid than the concentrated energy of beetles and beetle energy is heavier than grasshopper energy. I’m just barely scratching the of each of these animals’ energy signatures and I can go further to do things like differentiate the energy of a monarch butterfly from a swallowtail and differentiate two monarch butterflies from each other using their energy. This is the base level of energy sensing that you should be at to have sufficient ability for running a spirit shop. If you can’t even differentiate between the energy of a harpy and a siren, a sun elf and a woodland elf, a fire dragon and a volcano dragon, etc. then you’re not advanced, not even close.
But there’s more to take into account than just imposters and harmful spirits. Just like the human, a spirit needs to be sure that they’re ready for companionship. They can be in it just for the fun or because it seemed cool without considering the consequences too much just as a human can and the shopkeeper needs to make sure that the spirit is actually informed about what being a companion entails and is dedicated to it. Hence why waiting longer to get to know the spirit is vital to making sure that the spirit is ready for companionship. If they’re not willing to spend the time to be vetted and prepare with you, then they may not be very committed to it.
You also need to look at the spirit’s culture. I’ll elaborate more on that in the next section but for now, know that it’s good to vet the spirit based on their culture. While it’s good to be open-minded, you don’t want to unknowingly send a homophobic or racist spirit to someone because you didn’t pay enough attention to their way of life. Yes, spirits can be bigoted against humans and they can also be bigoted against other spirits. That’s something that is extremely important for a shopkeeper to find out before sending the spirit to someone that might already have spirits in their family. Sometimes it may not even be bigotry but just a dislike for them because of other reasons. For example, I’ve worked intensively with bug spirits for years and most of them would not like to be around bird/bird-related spirits because those are usually their predators. Yes most people circumvent that just by having potential human companions list the members of their family but it gives you an opportunity to learn more about the spirit and you could just put that in their listing to dissuade people with conflicting situations from applying. Although it is very important that I point out how a lot of these instances are not immediately apparent and that’s why you need to spend a lot of time with the spirit before you may start to notice anything questionable. They may have certain quirks or habits, while not #problematic, could cause problems for companionship and make them unfit to be a companion. It’s hard to learn about these quirks if you don’t live with the spirit for a few months. (Think about the mannerisms that you learn about your significant other once you’ve lived with them for a while compared to when you would just meet on dates).
Furthermore, you need to be assured that there are no extenuating circumstances that may affect them even after they’re matched and out of your fold. That is situations like a potentially harmful ex, illnesses, parasites, any past abusers, etc. that affect the spirits need to be taken care of by the shopkeeper. Once again, the shopkeeper’s greatest responsibility is to ensure that the spirit they are giving out is safe for companionship and that includes making sure that even months or years down the line there’s nothing that can cause the spirit or human harm that the shopkeeper could have prevented. Like if a companion picks up parasites after leaving the shop then that’s not something the shopkeeper could have stopped however, if the human companion starts being attacked by the companion’s abusive ex from before entering the shop then that’s something that the shopkeeper should have been aware of and taken the measures to prevent.
Along the same lines, the spirit’s motive for companionship should also be heavily vetted. For example, a spirit shouldn’t be allowed to use companionship as a way to escape a bad situation, like an abusive ex or politics. I know it’s hard not to help someone but unless the situation is completely resolved, the spirit will always attract danger to them and the human. Like a spirit that’s trying to escape slavery may continuously be hunted by slavers for the rest of their life or a spirit may be a political enemy that is wanted by their government or society. Not even looking at the danger that situations like that bring, it’s more likely that the spirit is using companionship for escape rather than genuinely wanting to be a companion. Best to provide refuge for spirits in those positions yourself rather than passing them off to people you’ve never met if you can’t ascertain that the situation won’t be handled and not affect the companionship in the future.
It is Imperative to Know the Species
It’s extremely questionable when shopkeepers don’t know much about the spirit species that they are giving out. People are giving out species that they are interacting with for the first time, species that they don’t have any intimate knowledge about besides appearance and likes and dislikes. What about their culture? How are their children raised? What is the range of their political beliefs? How are they educated? Even if the species doesn’t have complex societies, there’s a lot more to them than just a paragraph of information. I mean tigers aren’t that advanced compared to us yet whole books could be written on their species.
Mythology isn’t all there is to a species. A wikipedia article won’t give you all of the details that you need to know about a species and when it’s a species that you discovered or one that deviates from normal understandings (ex- different kinds of dragons), you better be the expert on them. Furthermore, many of the myths only talk about a select few individuals and not the species as a whole. Youneed to do research on your own to learn more about them and stop relying on myths and other people to do the work for you.
If that is your first time encountering a species then you should not give them out as a companion. Not even after meeting the second nor the third member that you come across. A single spirit cannot teach you everything there is to know about their species. You need to meet and learn from many different members. For example, you couldn’t tell a spirit everything there is to know about humans (the biology, the history, the anthropology, etc.) for you don’t know everything despite being a human. It’s like that bad sci-fi trope where an alien seems to every single ins and outs of their civilization. Most Americans couldn’t even tell you how many votes are needed in congress to override a veto (It’s ⅔ supermajority vote in both bodies fyi). So don’t assume that a single spirit is the master of knowledge when it comes to their species and recognize that you need to meet many more in order to fully be informed about the species.
If you don’t know the species of a spirit in intimate detail then you aren’t qualified to be giving them out as companions. Without knowing much about the species, how can you reasonably vet a spirit without anything to compare them to? You can’t ascribe any mannerisms that they have to simply the nature of their species if you don’t know anything about it, for example. Another example would be that you won’t know of any certain needs that they may need met or any conflicts with other species. Don’t assume that they would tell you all of that for they might not realize it themselves. And if this is a species that you discovered then you better become the best resource on that species before handing them out. Enough of these paragraph-long species descriptions and start doing research for the benefit of your customers who just want to know more about their companion.
It’s like if someone who doesn’t know much about dogs and different dog breeds besides one or two articles that they read online opened up a dog shelter and started to give dogs away as well as teaching people how to care for the dogs. No matter the personality of the dog, all breeds have specific needs that have to be met such as exercise level or medical issues. Someone without the proper knowledge of the breeds would not be able to assess the dogs correctly (ex- Hyperactive personality or just the nature of the breed?) nor pass on information that its new family may need nor be able to properly assess if its new family would be the right fit for it. Obviously that person is not qualified to be the owner of a dog shelter just as someone who doesn’t know anything beyond the basics of the species that they’re giving out isn’t qualified to be an owner of a spirit shop.
The Spirit Must be Self-Sufficient
If a spirit cannot function on its own without help from the human then they are not suited for companionship. First let us discuss baby spirits and why they’re should never be any baby spirits offered in a shop. Baby spirits are not much different from human babies in that they need constant care. It’s not the same as taking care of a puppy or kitten as many of the shops would lead you to believe; the human companion is responsible for the spirit’s childhood. If the baby is a predator, then they’ll need to be taught by the human how to hunt in order to survive for example. The human would also have to nurture the baby’s emotional development among many other things. Most people in the community are not old enough nor ready for the trials of childcare when it comes to human babies, spirit babies that they can’t even sense should be completely out of the question. Furthermore, very little shops vet the human that the baby spirit goes to. A beginner is not suited for a baby spirit no matter what and even many experienced people aren’t in the position to take care of a baby spirit either. Another thing that needs to be mentioned is that there’s many sexual predators and pedophiles in the metaphysical community. You don’t even need to get off of tumblr to find them. Just, stop giving out baby spirits y’all.
Another instance is if a spirit is dependent on their companion for anything then that’ll lead to an unhealthy relationship and bad situations. Illness is a big one, where the spirit can’t function unless the human takes care of them. It can even be as simple as “the humans has to do this one thing for the spirit or else they’ll die/become unhealthy”. This can lead to very questionable situations where the human feels constantly guilty if they’re unable to take care of the spirit as directed or where the spirit feels bad about themselves for having to rely on the human so much. Then what happens if the human goes through a fallow period where they can’t interact with the spirit to take care of them? Or if the human is just stressed and busy so they can’t help the spirit? What’ll happen to the spirit then? Not to mention how questionable this all is because the spirit surely survived fine before meeting the shopkeeper or else they would have been dead so they don’t need a human to take care of them. If someone suggests that a spirit won’t be able to survive without the human then that’s a strong indication that the spirit is not suited for companionship.
Past Life Spirits Need Extra Vetting
Many shops have services where they match people with spirits from their own past lives. While this is a popular choice for a lot of reasons, it is a dangerous one as many shops do not vet correctly for past life spirits. Spirits claiming to be from past lives should have EXTRA vetting, not less. This is because spirits masquerading as past life spirits to get access to someone happens extremely often and going through a shop just makes everything so much easier for them. The shopkeeper would have to take many extra steps to ensure that the spirit is not lying and sometimes, without knowing anything about the human’s past lives, it can be hard to tell what is a lie and what is truth. Even if they are a past life spirit, it will require a lot of diligent effort and time to properly verify that especially without the aid of the human companion as, to the best of my knowledge, most shops don’t consult with the human during the vetting process to make sure that the information they are receiving from the spirit is accurate to the person’s knowledge of their past lives.
But even if the spirit is a legit past life spirit, you need to make sure that they’re there not for malicious purposes. Many past life spirits end up trying to get back at the human for wronging them in another life or their former abusers that are trying to “reclaim” the human. Things like that need to be vetted for, just knowing a human in their past lives isn’t enough to conclude that they’re safe. If a spirit claims to be a past lover of the human then you need to vet that so hard. It’s very easy for them to manipulate the human if they’re given that role and you also have to make sure that they won’t try to force the human into a relationship just because they were lovers in the past.
(Everyone just do yourself a favor and search for past life spirits on your own, it’s so, so much safer than going through a shop).
Thoughtforms vs. Real Spirits
One of the biggest problem that is starting to arise is shops giving away unintentional thoughtforms that they don’t know that they created and believe to be actual spirits. This is usually caused by shopkeepers either not having enough experience to discern for the presence of an actual spirit or when they have the hero-complex that I’ve mentioned before in another post. While this has mostly been occurring with free shops, all shops should take the measures to prevent unintentional thoughtforms from getting through.
To vet for a thoughtform, one needs to have a good handle on reading energy. That is, they need to be able to really discern the details of the energy. I’ve seen people describe their way of differentiating thoughtforms along the lines of “their energy feels fake or artificial” but that’s not good enough because a glamour or something similar could easily be read as “artificial”, and because what even defines “fake/artificial” energy? Also, while a thoughtform’s energy usually lacks the depth of a non-thoughtform’s energy that doesn’t mean that it will feel artificial. In fact, thoughtforms made from you may take on characteristics of your own energy and their energy source. In this specific situation, there is no separate energy source because you are the energy source as well as the origin point of the spirit, but any advanced energy worker should be able to easily tell when a spirit’s energy characteristics are oddly similar to theirs. Furthermore, we already discussed the importance of knowing a species intimately and this is one of the reasons why. Once you have a detailed understanding of how to identify that species by their energy, it’s easy to tell when something is not that species. A thoughtform of a mermaid may have elements of water in their energy but it’ll lack the smoothness and the weight of a real mermaid’s energy for example.
Having Wards Doesn’t Mean That You Have Effective Wards
From what I’ve seen, some vetting processes are like 80% reliant on wards and very little of any of this other stuff. Wards are integral to the vetting process but just because you have wards, that doesn’t mean that they’re good. Wards that are made for conjuring and vetting spirits are of a completely different nature than wards made for keeping spirits out. They’re more delicate and there’s more thought and care that needs to go into curating them. You need to have advanced knowledge of how wards work in order to create proper ones for vetting.
First, they need to have many, many layers. I mean even basic protection wards shouldn’t only have one layer. Many people just visualize a wall of light or something along those lines to create their wards. That’s the extremely basics of warding and if that’s all you know how to do for warding then you need to buff up your abilities if you want to make proper wards for vetting spirits. I mentioned my beginner warding post how wards created around “only spirits with the highest good in mind may enter” and things like that are very easily loopholed and that also comes into play here. Your wards need to be tested and perfected before implementing them for your shop, you wouldn’t want an avoidable breach to happen especially when you’re responsible for someone else’s safety, not just yours. Furthermore, energy work is a lot more than just visualization. These wards should be able to take into account the entire range of energies. You should also be aware that whatever energy you use to create the wards can affect what can go through them. A spirit can use the light energy of your wards to break in for example.
The Vetting Must be Done by You
Many people rely on other spirits or deities to vet the spirits that they’re bringing in. While having an extra “layer” of safety by having others vet helps, there’s a lot of problems that can come through with this. Someone who chooses this method of vetting will have to ascertain that they avoid the situations that I will discuss and are not completely reliant on the spirits to do the work for them.
First of all, having a deity vet the spirit for you isn’t the greatest method. A lot of people have trouble or problems with certain deities that may have caused said deity to not like them. Said deity may be more willing to allow a questionable spirit through if they are at odds with the person that is being matched with them. If you think that deities would never harm someone like that and are all pure and good… well that’s a post for another day. Also, the person themselves may not be comfortable with that deity or religion and knowing that the deity had a hand in the vetting might make them uncomfortable with you and the spirit.
Second are the people who have their companions or other spirits vet the spirits. This is questionable as there’s nothing that qualifies a spirit to vet others. It seems like just the fact that they’re a spirit means that they have the skills and qualifications for this when in reality, that’s not true. Many spirits actually lack the abilities that an experienced shopkeeper should have. There’s also less transparency in the vetting process. Rarely will someone who uses this method describe what the spirit actually does to vet besides something like “they look at the potential companion”. Do they learn about the companion’s species? Do they take care of any dangerous situations? Etc. We just don’t know and if the shopkeeper never mentions doing any of those things then we really don’t know how the vetting is done which can be a cause for concern.
Of course you can have spirits help you but when it gets to the point where they’re doing most of the work it becomes questionable. Yourun the shop, not the spirits.You’rethe one giving the guarantee that the companions are safe and you’re the one who will get into trouble if a dangerous spirit slips through. You chose to run a shop so put in the effort to do so yourself.
Experience Required
We all know that you need experience before opening a shop but not just any experience will do. You could be a spirit companion or spirit worker for 10 years and still not have the experience needed to run a shop. One thing that I’ve seen happen is that people buy a spirit from a shop, then somehow believe they are capable of running a shop themselves. The problem with this way of thinking is that nobody seems to realize that owning a shop demands much greater skill than simply being a companion. Think about it, the shopkeeper is the one who put in all of the work for conjuring and vetting and if you’ve never really interacted with spirits that didn’t come from shops then you wouldn’t have any experience in vetting spirits before you began the shop. At most, companionship will help you learn communication skills. But can you differentiate the energy of species that aren’t in your family? Can you make advanced and intensive wards for vetting? You need to have analytical, intimate, and diverse knowledge of spirit work and energy work to be able to properly vet spirits. Working with only your spirit family for X many of years doesn’t give you that kind of knowledge. You’ll need to know how to read energy signatures (this goes far, far beyond “light” and “dark”), have intimate knowledge on the different species that you’ll be giving out, have a lot of experience with dealing malignant spirits, among many other things.
This applies to people who say that they’ve been practicing “all their lives”. To be honest, most people say that just to make it seem like they have more experience than they actually do. Only someone who is insecure about their actual experience level would hide behind it. Once again, you need to be practicing analytically for your experience to really help you and I doubt many people were doing intense investigations into spirits at ages 0-10 and into their teen years or if they were even doing anything at all besides “I believe in magic and spirits!”. Pro tip: Don’t falsely advertise your experience, it just makes you look extremely foolish to the people who know what they’re talking about.
Furthermore, unrelated experience doesn’t mean shit. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been a witch for 5 years or are a Wiccan High Priestess, you need to have experience in spirit and energy work. Don’t delude yourself into thinking that because it all deals with the metaphysical that it’s all related, because it’s not. Astronomy and marine biology are both science fields however, someone who only has experience in astronomy would have a hard time using that to get a job as a marine biological researcher. They don’t teach the same skills, they don’t teach the same knowledge. You may know how to cast a spell for good luck but that has nothing to do with being able to read a spirit’s energy signature.
The only way to gain the experience is to practice and actively try to improve your skills. Emphasis on the word “actively” because, as I mentioned early, just interacting with spirits won’t get you the skills that you need for running a shop. This brings in the concept of deliberate practice, @chaosjelly wrote a good post on that here. Insecurity in your skills won’t go away until you take the time to focus on learning and improving more to the point of confidence. No amount of coddling and reassurance from others can make you skilled, you need to actually put in the time and effort improve.
While we’re talking about experience, I may as well point out that spiritual experience is not the only kind of experience that you need. You are running a business, even the free shops are, and you need to know how to do that. You must keep track of the spirits and who they go to, you must be willing to work with your customers without being rude or snippy (this is essentially a customer service job after all), you must know how to handle any bad situation that comes your way, and you must have emotional and professional maturity. You also need to think like a business owner, for example: excel spreadsheets with the transaction number, vessel, spirit name, spirit species, current companion name and how to contact them are a must. You should also know the community and have experience working with other shops. How else are you going to know the ins and outs of the community and how to run a shop if you haven’t been involved in everything for at least a year? Also, this will give you the opportunity to see the mistakes that others have made and learn from them when you open your shop. Furthermore, you must be aware of taxes and your state tax laws. This applies to both paid shops and the shops who only get money through donations. Ignorance of the law is not a suitable defense when you get in trouble for not paying your dues.
It NEEDS to be Intensive
You need to be extremely detailed and particular about your vetting process. The more attention, effort and time that you put in, the less likely a spirit that’s not suited for companionship slips by. However, a lot of shopkeepers don’t seem to be willing to put in this effort and instead cut corners so they can get spirits out faster and things like that. In fact, people who try to rush their RAs, listings, customs, etc. are usually the ones with problems compared to those who take the time to really vet the spirit. It’s cause they rush so much that they often miss a lot of the important things that they should know before matching the spirit.
But we also need to talk about an excuse that’s cropped up before in opposition to intensive vetting methods and that is how intensive vetting “hurts the spirit’s feelings”. If a spirit objects to undergoing a long vetting process then that should be taken as a red flag, not as you hurting their feelings. The intensive vetting is a necessity in assuring that the spirit is safe and when a spirit won’t agree to that then it’s easy to assume that the spirit wouldn’t be safe. Also, as mean as it sounds, the spirit’s feelings on whether or not they’re vetted shouldn’t matter. You have a responsibility to your customers to make sure that the spirit is fit for companionship, shirk that responsibility for any reason and you could very well be putting someone’s life in danger.
I once had a class where someone who worked for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency spoke to us and in their discussion they talked a bit about the background checks that they had to go through to get that job. The amount of work that the government put in to vet them was absolutely insane and some of the things that they were able to find freaked the person out a bit. However, they were fine with going through this process for they wanted the job and that’s the same with people who join the army and have to go through those background checks. These people understood why the vetting was necessary and were okay with subjecting themselves to it for they truly wanted the job. That’s how it should be with spirit companions, if they truly want to be a companion then they should be okay with an intense vetting even if it might make them a bit uncomfortable. I’ll repeat: you could very well be putting someone’s life in danger if you make your vetting process too weak.
You are putting a spirit in someone’s inner wards, usually a beginner’sinner wards, and they’re someone who trusts you when you say that the spirit is safe. Don’t take advantage of someone’s trust in you just because you don’t want to put in the effort for an intensive vetting process when you chose to be a spirit shopkeeper.
It NEEDS to Adapt and Change
The final section is a very important one for it is something that I rarely see. That is the fact that a vetting process should never be set in stone. By changing how you do your vetting whether it be by switching up your wards, testing the spirits with certain questions or something else, you make it less likely for an unsafe spirit to slip by. It’s easy for one to hide out and watch you as you vet the spirits in your shop, learning your wards and how you do things so that they can “beat” them and get matched with someone for malignant purposes. However, by changing up what you do, you can take measures to prevent this.
Furthermore, if you are ever in a situation where an unsafe spirit got past your vetting then that means that there’s most likely a flaw in your process. Many shops will just stick their tongue out and beg for forgiveness but go back to the same way of doing things when this happens.Then it occurs another time but they still are adamant about not changing what they do. It’s important to go back and reformat your vetting process if something went wrong. From the specific situation, you should know where you messed up and make sure not to make the same mistake again but you should also take the time to ponder any other “holes” in your system. Even if you personally haven’t let an unsafe spirit through yet, look at the situations where it happened with others and learn from their mistakes. Don’t stagnate your vetting process and then wonder why you keep having problems.
For clarification, by “change” I don’t mean something like “use wards one day, question them the next”. You should be doing everything no matter what every single day. These many layers are vital to the process and should be constantly present as long as you are working with spirits that you intend to match with others. When you change your process as I am strongly advising that you do, you are changing the integral parts of it.
The reason why I am closing with this section is because very little shops have vetting processes that meet these standards. In fact, I can only think of two or maybe three shops that I would actually trust (none of them are free shops/adoption centers in case you’re curious, not even close). But what I hope for with this post is that they’ll read it over and adapt the guidelines that I laid out for them into their vetting methods. Many of the problems that I discussed were taken right from their descriptions of their methods so hopefully they’ll also realize their mistakes and put in effort to do better. I also want non-shopkeepers to have higher standards for the shops they work with. Nothing will change, nothing will improve, unless we call for the improvement. Be critical of shopkeepers, don’t let them get free passes just because they own a shop and seem nice. In fact, I can say with great conviction that many shopkeepers aren’t as knowledgeable and experienced as they want you to think.
There’s a lot of work that needs to be done in the community, especially with all of these dubious shops, but here’s to hoping that this post will help people realize the importance of having an intensive vetting process and change theirs so that the community will become safer for beginners to adopt spirits!
*I’m using “spirit” to refer to all metaphysical entities, living and dead.
I think this is some really amazing advice that could only help shops be better and safer for the whole magic community!
Thank you for sharing this. As the ones that meet and greet all the wonderful things, it’s always so important that we do all we can and more to see they’re safe for others Advice is always welcomed and these are very good ones.
My English is terrible, but I believe that it will help someone at least a little! If you want more comics like this, let me know. Hope you like it, guys.
If you have questions, message me. Spirit work is no joke!
Before we go over the steps of real contact with spirit, let’s go over some warnings and some advice on technique. This guide will work for calling any spirit, whether it be a fluffy unicorn bunny or something extremely uncomfortable and dangerous. It’s like picking up the phone: anyone can be on the other end.
When you do spirit work, you are interacting with a real world filled with infinitely many, and infinitely varied, beings.
There are some spirits that prey on humans like wolves prey on rabbits.
There are some spirits that are extremely kind and helpful.
In my experience, whatever you call willcome.
If you leave your request open-ended, anything may come to you.
The more specific you are, the better.
But you must understand what you are doing when you call spirits to you.
For example:
“Spirits of light, come to me!” Many demons are considered to be “of light”, as well as gods you may be uncomfortable dealing with (Lucifer comes to mind).
“All spirits of darkness, leave me!” Well, spirits of all nocturnal animals could be interpreted as being spirits of darkness. The essence of storms and night-time, or even a spirit of sleepiness, could be considered spirits of darkness. Are you sure these are forces you want to send away?
Do not use poetic language. Speak plainly.
Instead of using flowery language, simply say what you mean.
Begin by writing down your intent.
What kind of spirit do you want to interact with? (Good, evil, nice, kind, mean? Nature, elemental, bunny, unicorn, demon?)
What is your purpose for calling this spirit? (Searching for a guide/guardian/teacher/friend? Have questions to ask? Need help with magic?)
How powerful do you believe this spirit will be? Is it going to be more powerful than your abilities to banish it? Never call up what you cannot put down.
What do you have to give back to this spirit? (Offerings? Time? Energy?)
In my experience, all spirits get something out of an interaction with a human. It could simply be that their curiosity is sated. A spirit could just be curious as to what kind of human is sending out a call in to their world! It could be that helping or aiding you assists their calling in life or a job they currently have. It could also be that they would like some kind of payment in return, such as offerings of incense, food, or drink. If you have the ability and inclination, have some small offerings on hand. Coffee, tobacco, any foods (I find they seems to like processed foods less), and any alcohols are good. Even a glass of fresh water and/or a little incense will be good.
Once you have your intent written down, formulate your call. Here are three example calls that I would use myself.
“I am [magical name]. I am calling out to the spirit world. I am seeking any good and helpful spirits that are willing to help a human such as myself. I wish for assistance with [guardianship/teaching/guidance/etc]. Please come to me so we may interact.”
“I am [magical name]. I am calling out to the spirit world. I am seeking any noble and strong warrior spirits that are willing to help a human such as myself. I wish for assistance with guarding my home. In return I can offer brandy and cigars. Please come to me so we may make a deal.”
“I am [magical name]. I am calling out to the spirit world. I am seeking a spirit of storms and rain that are willing to help a human such as myself. I wish for rain to be brought to my region. In return I will tell others about my experience so you gain fame in the human world. Please come to me so that we may help each other.”
Quick notes:
For spirit work, try adopting a magical name. It does not sit well with me that someone uses their true name immediately with spirits. It’s like giving your telephone number to every stranger you meet. I use my online name, typically Briar although now it is Thicket. Magical names do not have to be permanent. Choose any name or word you like.
“I am calling out to the spirit world” can be replaced by any phrase or action that connects you with “the other side”. Find an action or method of connection that feels comfortable to you.
It is important to mention that you would like a spirit who wants to help you! It may seem self-evident, but trust me, it is not. Plenty of spirits come to my call who just want to see what’s going on, or who want a chance at the offerings at my side.
Actually calling the spirits, interacting with them, and formulating a relationship
Suppose you would like to meet any guardian or guide spirits that you may have already. Try using a call like this:
“I am [magical name]. I am calling out to the spirit world. I am seeing any guardians, guides, or helpful spirits that are attached to me. Please visit me so I may get to know you.”
Take your notebook and write down the exact call you plan on using. If you like, have some offerings on hand (this is just good form in general). Have with you any divination tools you plan on using. Also have with you the basic tools for banishment.
Sit in a quiet place. Make your environment as witchy as possible to get you in the right mindset. Candles and incense work great if you have them, otherwise try atmospheric music. Do whatever it takes to make you feel like you are connected to the “other” world. Try praying for protection or wearing protection amulets that you may have.
When you are ready, read your call. Read it out loud or mentally, it doesn’t matter; nothing on this plane of existence will hear it anyway.
At this point one of two things will happen: a spirit will visit you, or it will not.
If a spirit does not appear within a few moments, read your call again. Repeat this for three calls total, then try again the next day or the next week. If necessary, do divination to discover why spirits did not want to appear for you. Is it possible the spirit you called for does not exist? Try a different call (more will be listed below) for practice. Is it possible you just do not know how to detect a spirit if it does appear? If nothing seems to be working after a week or so of trying, send me a message. Please send me the exact calls you used.
Remember that spirits are not physical. It is extremely uncommon that a person will see a spirit with their two eyes. A being isn’t just going to appear three dimensionally in your bedroom. Most likely, that being will appear within your imagination. The imagination is an extremely powerful magical tool and should not be ignored because it is “make believe”. If you call an air elemental you may imagine a whirlwind, a bird, a cloud, or anything else that is ‘airy’ in nature, for example.
When your imagination suddenly changes with an image of something, mentally or verbally greet it. Try, “Hello, you may call me [magical name]. Are you replying to my call?”
Understanding what a spirit is communicating to you is tricky. If only they spoke plain English! Look for any sign that the spirit has responded. The image of the spirit may seem to move closer to you, or further away. It may appear to be happy, sad, or upset. You may suddenly get empathetic feelings of agreement or disagreement. You may actually hear, feel, or think words. It is your job to interpret what the spirit is trying to communicate with you. If you like, ask the spirit to influence your divinatory tools so you can communicate through those.
Avoid repeating questions. They do not seem to like it. Ask once, and if you can’t interpret, apologize and ask another question instead.
If absolutely nothing seems to happen, take it as a sign that the spirit did not respond to you. In this situation, if the spirit does not respond, say, “if you are not here to answer my call and assist me, please leave. Thank you for your time.” There is no need to be hostile or rude, just send them away. If they refuse to leave, it is time to banish.
If something does happen, for example if you sense a feeling of agreement or the image seems to nod at you, take this as an affirmative that the spirit is here to answer your call. Continue with your line of questioning. Try these questions:
“What may I call you?” (Do not ask for their name directly, I have never had good results when I do).
“Are you [the spirit I asked for]?”
“Would you like to continue communicating this way?”
“What is your role in my life?”
If you are here to make a deal and get it over with, don’t drag out the small talk. “Are you the spirit I called for? Will you protect my house for some brandy? Awesome, I’ll pay you once a week and we’ll revisit the contract in a month.”
If you are there to make a lasting connection, speak for as long as you like or until the spirit appears to become restless or bored.
When the spirit departs, or when you ask it to depart, the mental image of them should leave their mind. Carefully distinguish between having that spirit actively within your imagination, and memories of the spirit within your imagination.
After this first meeting, you can call the same spirit by the name they gave you. Try, “the spirit that gave me the name [spirit’s name] on the date [the date you first met the spirit], please come to me so we may speak.”
Banishment
I don’t have the time or inclination to include full banishing rituals in this small guide. Simply google “how to banish a spirit” or ask a friendly Tumblurian to help :)
Detecting fakes
Alright, so here’s what you gotta do. Just pay attention. If something feels disturbing, wrong, or scary, DO NOT IGNORE THOSE FEELINGS. Fear is an instinct that exists to keep us safe. It is not you being a scaredy cat. It is not you being silly, nervous, or having stage fright. Ask the spirit to leave immediately and do a quick cleansing on your space.
Think about what you asked for and judge a spirit by those standards. An air spirit is not going to take the form of a boulder. A rain spirit is not going to take the form of a candle flame.
If something sounds too good to be true, it is. If a spirit is telling you that you are the chosen one, that you need it to be powerful, etc., you are going to be dinner. Send it away.
Practice calls
I would consider these calls to be relatively safe and good just to get a little experience in. Ask these spirits to come visit you for a short time, then bid them farewell. There is no need to get a name from them unless you really want to call them back. The offerings are just suggestions, to give you some ideas.
“I am seeking rabbit or hare spirits that wish to visit me in exchange for some fresh lettuce.”
“I desire to contact any spirits of flowers who are nearby, so I may appreciate your beauty.” (Remember to give the flowers many compliments in exchange for their time)
“I would like to visit with a good and benevolent water spirit who will teach me about healing.”
“I am seeking a dog spirit who would like a nice treat in exchange for his time.”
“I wish to speak with a bird spirit, who can show me what the world looks like from the sky. In exchange I can offer bird seed.”
“I wish to contact a spirit of beauty who can help teach me magics for clearer skin. In exchange I can give you three dried roses.”
“I would like to call upon the spirit of clutter that lives in my home, so that we may make a deal for you to leave my property.”
“I would like to call upon the ghost of [my deceased pet*****] so we may visit and share good times.”
“I desire to contact any good and benevolent spirits who are directly involved in my life, so we may speak and get to know each other.”
“I desire to contact any spirits who wish harm against me, so I may make amends and heal our relationship.”
“I am seeking a spirit of hard work to bless me in my future endeavors, in exchange for a small shrine built in your honor.”
*****DO NOT call human relatives to you at this point. It is way too easy for a demon or spook to pretend to be a human relative. It is okay if human spirits come to you in general, but it is a suckerpunch to the gut to realize that your beloved departed is really an evil spirit in disguise. Stick with animal friends for now.
Calling gods and other such beings
This method will work to call gods as well. Be very careful of petty spirits that pretend to be gods. Judge each being by its folklore and what you know about them.
What to do with offerings?
For any offering, set it aside and watch the spirit enjoy it. When the spirit is done, dispose of the offerings just as you would clear a plate from the guest table.
Pour any liquids on to the ground or down the drain. Bury or compost foods, or dispose of them in the trash. Simply allow incense to burn and throw away the ashes.
Please note - though I myself am not a spirit worker, I’ve done enough research and seen enough of other people’s personal stories to say this: spirit work is not always light and fluffy and happy (obviously it can be, but not all the time). Spirits are not all willing to work with you peacefully - some are even downright rude or aggressive. It can be dangerous, and there are risks of getting involved with other entities not of this world. Make sure you know what you are getting into completely and are well prepared before engaging. Read and practice at your own discretion.
Since Summer began to get really hot here, I do my best to make sure that my cats have enough water when I leave for work. I keep a large stainless steel bowl in the bathroom sink in case they spill some and I always make sure it’s full.
So, before bed, it was really hot and I made sure there was water in their bowl. When I woke up the next day, all the water was gone. Had they knocked it around, there would have been some left and I would have been startled awake. It’s a fairly sturdy bowl and not easily something the average cat can move. Even if they fought into the bowl I would have heard something. But, the bowl was bone dry.
When asked, my keep told me that a merman spirit had traveled very far to get to my house and drank all the water. I was dumbfounded. Even after being told, I still looked for a hole or something just in case it was a trick. My new merman was real and he was here to stay.
Since going on hiatus with the spirit work, I’ve gotten to really build on what I know and learn a lot. This was a great experience and things like this don’t happen often. Still, to this day, I can’t get over this and it will always boggle my mind.
There’s a certain mindset that is starting to become very commonplace in the community, the mindset that every spirit wants to be a companion. Obviously that’s not realistic and yet, it’s something that I’ve observed a lot. People claiming a spirit they met yesterday as their companion, people shoving every spirit that they come across into a shop, etc. It’s as if a spirit being nice to someone means that they want an eternal friendship with them and not that they’re just being friendly. You wouldn’t consider every human who has been kind to you your friend, but suddenly every spirit that talks to you is your new companion.
One thing that was particularly troubling was when I was on my old blog and people would come to me asking if they could “have” the spirits that I talked about even though nothing I shared about them would have indicated that they’re interested in companionship. In fact, it was usually the opposite, that they don’t like humans. Even mythology dictates that the majority of spirits aren’t interested in genuine friendships with humans if you don’t want to look at the experiences of many spirit workers, on an off tumblr, that corroborate the same information. Like I told my friends, if I gave away every single spirit that I met to be a companion like how many shops are doing, half of the community would either be dead or in some deep shit. Of course that’s where vetting would come in but I could write a whole other post on how absolutely abysmal many shops’ vetting processes are (rarely lasting more than three weeks, not being able to read energy in-depth, etc. ETC.). Once you throw in the fact that they’ll take in literally any spirit that they meet you get a #mess.
While it’s great that there are many spirits who want companionship with humans,you need to recognize that you’re not the most important person in the universe. You ain’t so great that every spirit wants to be friends with you or hop into your shop so you can feel good about yourself when you match them. This is where discernment comes in. Sometimes we can get so caught up in what we want the spirit to say that we project our wants on to the spirit during communication causing our fantasy to seem like “reality”. People with faulty discernment can continue down this path thinking that they’re set up with a new companion when the spirit is long gone.
We must also consider the hero-complex, that is people constantly “saving” many spirits that are eager to become companions despite just being rescued from serious abuse and torture, according to the rescuers. It’s hard to believe that there’s so many spirits out there that want to become companions after being abused. They say that they rehabilitate the spirits but unless they are certified therapists or psychologists, any “rehabilitation” that they do is dubious and untrustworthy. And yet, there’s so many rescued spirits in shops, okay with being taken care of by unqualified people and being given to other people with little screening (no, having a lot of spirit work experience doesn’t mean that someone is qualified for taking care of an abuse victim). The hero-complex clouds a person’s vision, they want to rescue spirits and be the savior and so, like the person who projects their wants of getting a new companion on a spirit, the “hero” projects their wants of being a savior onto spirits and likewise exhibits faulty discernment.
This all leads to thoughtforms.
“This spirit just showed up randomly one day wanting to be my companion!” Hmmm. Not saying that situation never happens because it definitely does, but people need to be critical about it. I mean people aren’t even questioning whether or not the spirit is malignant much less the possibility that it was a thoughtform created from their desire for a new companion. It’s not even that hard for someone to create a thoughtform like that, the feeling of lust is very powerful after all. Or when people interact with spirits with the intention of collecting a new companion. You’ll meet someone eventually but whether it’s an actual spirit or just a thoughtform made from your desire, you’ll have to be careful to determine that. Same goes for those that are constantly searching for spirits to rescue. They want to save all of these spirits so they constantly go into the astral and find all of the poor, abused spirits so they can rehabilitate them even though they don’t know how to properly do that and help them live new lives as companions uwu. It’d be a touching story if it wasn’t just thoughtforms created by the delusional fantasy that is the hero-complex.
Furthermore, the mindset that every spirit wants to be your companion opens yourself up to danger. You shouldn’t even be inviting random spirits into your wards and safe zones within hours, days, or even weeks of just meeting them, not matter how much they “want to be your companion”. If any spirit truly experienced “friendship at first sight” with you, they should be content with you waiting to build trust with them before bringing them in. Any spirit that wants access to your home under the guise of companionship shortly after you met them should be met with caution. Spirits aren’t fools. They know how gullible and trusting people can be and will take advantage of that. It’s not like pretending to be a very eager companion is hard.
Tl;dr: dont assume that every spirit who talks to you wants to be your BFF or wants to join ur shop, practice good discernment, be critical of not just the spirit but also yourself.
IMO, it’s helpful to think of offerings in terms of acts of hospitality. For example, when you have a guest over, it’s customary to offer them a drink such as ice water, tea, or perhaps something stronger if you have it and they like that sort of thing.
Now of course you don’t want to be miserly with your offerings and you do want to give your deities something they actually like, but the idea that something like, say, a glass of ice water just can’t be good enough because your offerings must be this exact expensive/inaccessible thing is just spiritual gentrification.
Water might seem awfully unremarkable, but it’s one of the most basic necessities of life and that is why we offer it to guests; because they might be thirsty after their trip to your home. And sure, it’s nice to offer guests something fancier if you have it. But I think we can agree that water should be acceptable to to your guests if it’s what you have.
What constitutes hospitality could also be used to inform what else you might offer your deities. Perhaps you could offer them a chair to sit on. Perhaps you could offer them a homemade cookie or even just a mint candy. Of course there’s going to be no one-size-fits-all answer here, but thinking of offerings as a matter of hospitality can still give you some idea of what might be appropriate.
I adore obscure gods. The only issue with loving obscure gods is that they are obscure; not much information is available. Some gods have entire cultus that span across the ancient world with an abundance of information. Others, however, are sometimes only mentioned in an epic a few times or are only found in rare archaeological records. Honouring an obscure god can mean a lot of devotional work to honour them fully.
Experience will be the guiding factor. After worshipping obscure gods for a while, it’s become easier for me to honour them properly. Trust that moving time will teach you what you need — you can do it. Now, here are my tips for honouring obscure deities.
Obtain every scrap of information
Every detail matters. There is bound to be something to help you understand this obscure deity. Whether that’s directly seeing the artifacts that are recorded, reading academic interpretations, seeing them in texts, etc. Analysing their depictions in art will be especially useful, as that is how that deity was envisioned and worshipped.
When it comes to very contradictory interpretations by scholars, it may be helpful to make your own or apply UPG to come to your conclusion.
Study the world that worshipped them
The ancient world was very different and similar to our own. All events need to be put in context. The ways a god is worshipped may change, evolve, or be removed entirely. Or perhaps they just appeared in a particular period, never to be worshiped until the modern day. I recommend this book series, the Routledge Worlds series, which covers the world — ancient or modern — across the expanses.
However, always remember to keep the evidence in the context of the times. Callimachus’ hymns will not be the same as Homeros, for example. They are removed by hundreds of years and long-lost contexts. The date, location, historical events — all of it must be kept in mind when analysing data.
Use general/typical offerings when beginning
A big hurdle in worship is knowing what to offer. An easy way to avoid this is to give “general” offerings. In helpol, this can be wine, for example. Water is a very versatile choice too. Each religion will have its particular codes and rules, so knowing these rules and applying them to the obscure deity you are trying to worship will help. However, most of all, you will eventually gain the UPG you need to know what to offer.
If possible, see what the worshippers offered historically. A great way to find out what to offer is to find what they were offered in the past. You will likely find this information in the papers about the deity. Zoological and archaeological records may contain trace details of food and other devotional gifts.
Take note of all UPG
Every scrap of UPG will be helpful. Others may present upg around a similar figure, or you may develop a strong SPG. These personal tidbits of gnosis will make up a large majority of your worship. Keep the knowledge somewhere where you will keep track of it — a blog, a notebook, etc. It would be a poor choice to let the UPG be forgotten (though if you forget, that is alright — forgetting is natural and not your fault. Do not blame yourself). This tip also applies to SPG, especially if it comes from outside groups or people.
Study Syncretisms
The process of syncretism can reveal a lot about a deity’s character. Particularly in regards to who they are syncretised with. Historical syncretisms made sense to those worshipping the god, so what did they know what we do not? Knowledge can be gathered via historical syncretism and why it occurred.
Historical syncretism could also lead to you reconstructing that very syncretism. It all depends upon you and your lovely path.
Identify who they were worshipped with and why
Another clue is who a deity is worshipped with. Was the god worshipped with a spouse, their child, a sibling, or because of a shared domain/association? It all depends upon context and sometimes interpretation. When reconstructing worship, continuing that shared worship may be an excellent option to honour this obscure deity.
Try to identify associations
Deity information lists often include their associations. They show what the deity likes, wear, etc. Associations are helpful to know when seeking to honour a god. Finding these associations can help you develop worship and altars. Common associations are weapons and accessories - they can be seen in art and sometimes cultus. You will most likely find a deity’s associations in art, epithets if they have them, and offerings.
Ask the deity themself
Who is better to ask how to worship the deity than the deity in question? Communication is key. You could even pray for more information to come your way about them. Devotional work is ultimately about the god in question, so definitely make sure to ask them and see if they reply.
I hope my tips from my experience can help you build your worship. As you learn and grow, you will honour the obscure deity or deities you are researching. From personal experience, I can tell you it is well worth it.
TLDR; worshipping obscure gods is beautiful but can be difficult. My tips to help you develop a praxis are: obtain every scrap of information, study the world that worshipped them, use general/typical offerings when beginning, take note of all upg, try to identify associations, and ask the deity themself.
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making this its own post. context being op has maladaptive daydreaming and experiences paracosms and wanted discernment tips—though i have used these in the past for unreality and dissociation :)
outside of these examples, i will always advocate for recognizing where your paracosm begins and where it ends, as it will help you significantly in the long run. who are your recurring figures, what features have you experienced and can confidently attribute to the paracosm only—this is something that can be done alongside professional help, if you feel you cannot trust your own judgement.
@bau-gremlin, I hope it’s okay that I respond like this, my thoughts are a little too long winded for a standard reply….
I do want to preface this by saying, neither tarot, nor pendulum are my preferred methods of divination, and while I have used them in the past I don’t really use them that much anymore, and I rely more heavily on other methods of communication and divination in my personal practice.
General Divination Tips:
My general advice in regards to divination is to not worry to much about “shoulds” and to focus instead on your actual experience with the tool. Don’t worry about if you should cleanse the tool, if you should go through elaborate bonding rituals, if you should store it one way or the other, none of that really matters when it comes to learning a divination tool. You’ll figure out your own ideas and practices for all of that stuff as you practice and develop your understanding of the tool. What I do think is worth focusing on when you start learn a divination method is consistency and nuance.
You will be the one interpreting all of the divination you do, so you’re free to understand any particular card, rune, or pendulum motion however you want, but you have to be consistent. If you decide that, say, The Tower tarot is less the indicator of impending disaster that it is popularly portrayed as, and more an indicator of rapid change that’s your prerogative. But if you’re wishy-washy about it and go back and forth on what you think The Tower means you’re likely to end up confusing yourself. It’s perfectly natural to have your understanding of things grow, deepen, and change, but as you develop more understanding of your preferred methods you have to be careful, in my opinion, to not fall back on old habits and understandings.
It’s also important to keep the situations and contexts that you’re divining about in mind. No divination or reading happens in a vacuum, no single card is an island, the best diviners remember that and link each aspect of the reading not just to other aspects of the reading, but to the context around them. This may be something that needs a bit of practice, or it may come naturally to you. Either way being able to approach your divination as part of a holistic solution or view into a matter will help you keep the nuance of a situation. In my experience nothing in magic or spirit work is black and white, or two dimensional, keeping that in mind will help you add depth to your readings.
Tarot Tips:
Don’t worry about memorizing card meanings - I’ve been using tarot for almost 20 years and I haven’t memorized anything. Instead try to become familiar with the symbolism of your deck and use the imagery for broad understandings, and the guide book for details.
Some decks have strong personalities - I personally ascribe this to each deck having its own spirit - I’m an animist, everything has a spirit. But that personality may also come from the different art styles and chosen symbolism, and how you as a reader react to that. Some decks may be nice and gentle with their style of communication, others may be a bit spicy.
Tarot doesn’t necessarily predict a garunteed future, as it is often depicted to do. When used to interpret the future it is giving suggestions of what *may* be, what *could* be, not what *will* be. No divination method has a a 100% prediction success rate, so don’t expect exactly what you read to happen. I recommend looking for similarities, themes, and symbolism that line up.
Pendulum Tips:
A pendulum is great for quick divination sessions, but unless you set up some letters or a board it’s primarily a system of “yes,” “no,” and “maybe.” There is a lot less nuance I find with a pendulum than with other methods of divination, they don’t really have the capacity for “Yes, but…” or “No, because” type answers. Asking complex questions with a pendulum can take a long time, and those questions, as well as longer form communication may be better suited for a different method.
To build on that, it’s best, in my opinion, to establish what movements mean what answers at the beginning of every session. Start the pendulum swinging and ask it to show you a “yes,” and then pay attention to how the pendulum swings. Do the same for “no.” You can do the same for “maybe,” or I usually interpret anything that is sort of like a “yes” movement but also sort of like a “no” movement as “maybe.”
Be aware of the ideomotor response - this is a psychological phenomenon that causes the human body to make micro-movements unconsciously. It’s the effect that makes Ouija boards/spirit boards work, and it is in effect with pendulums too. Decide how those micro-movements of your might play into your understanding of how the pendulum works, or remove them from the equation entirely by hanging your pendulum from a stand. (It’s very easy to make a pendulum stand from a large glass or jar, a pencil/stick, and your pendulum string or chain.)
I’m going to plug @archives-discord here, as there are so many resources on divination in that server for your reading pleasure, check out the channels on general divination, tarot, and pendulum for e-books on the subject.
A perspective on “signs;” internal rather than external.
Things that many people consider to be signs, [ie animal sightings, bugs, feathers, weather changes, head/stomach aches, patterns, numbers etc.] are all constantly naturally occurring around you. Externally, these things are existing at all times. So as they say, if you’re constantly looking for “signs”, you’ll find them.
This is why I do not consider signs to be physical/external. A deity is most likely not putting something physical in your path to communicate with you. Instead, your deity is in your head, calling your attention to something that is already around you. Its not the external object that is the sign, but what happens in your head when you notice it.
You could see 50 birds in a day and hardly notice them, then suddenly see a bird and feel something. It’s not because your deity is controlling that specific bird. It’s because your deity is highlighting that bird for you from within, likely because it’s something that will make sense to you. If you don’t understand a “sign,” it’s probably not actually a sign. Your deity has no use for trying to communicate via something you don’t understand.
In addition, here are some questions to ask yourself about signs:
1. Did I ask for a sign? (not all signs are solicited, but if you haven’t asked you don’t need to be on the lookout; or you’ll drive yourself mad trying to decipher normal patterns in nature)
2. Is there a specific question I need answered or problem I’m seeking help on? Does this “sign” give me any insight or answers?
3. Does this sign mean anything to me? Do I have personal associations with it?
4. Is this happening in it’s normal pattern, or out of the ordinary? (Normal such as, seeing a certain time on a clock, a species that is native to your area, feathers near a bird nest, foretasted weather, etc. or abnormal such as a wild animal in town, a large gust of wind in an otherwise calm day, a creature not normally seen in your area, a glitch in technology, etc.) Normal things on their own are not often signs, but can be depending on the other questions!
5. Did this spark an emotion, thought, feeling/vibe, etc? Did it cause an urge to do something, go somewhere? Remind you of a person? Did an answer pop into your head?
Ultimately, signs are a form of communication, to help point you in the right direction. So if you are not feeling any sort of message or answer, and there is not a personal meaning to you, it might not be a sign. Likewise, if you see something, no matter how ordinary, and feel a message from your deity, you have your sign, and should feel confident in that!
What is it? What does it mean? It can be translated as “spirit of place” and throughout history different cultures have perceived and connected to it in differing ways.
Every place, be it a park,a forest, a busy city street or your home has it’s own Genius Loci. But what really is it? It is the depth of that place, it’s personality, it’s history, the feel, smell, look, taste, and sound of the place. All of these things together create it’s spirit. It is the sense of calm you feel when you look over a lake at sunrise, the sense of mystery in the foggy woods you wander through, the sense of connection, sadness and respect you feel walking through a graveyard, the feeling of peace within your home. There are many ways to view it, to feel it, to connect to it, to let it fill you and so on.
How to connect to it?
There are many different ways to connect to the spirit of a place. But first you have to be aware of your own spirit and how it fits into the spirit of the place. When you look at a sunset and feel your soul stir, you are passively connecting to the spirit of it. The way I most often use to connect with the spirit of a place is to meditate.
Like any meditation, sit, get comfortable, and start by focusing on your breathing. Then, use your other senses to get a better ‘feel’ for the spirit of place.
Listen to the place, breathe in rhythm with how the place sounds. With the breeze, with the animals, with the sound of the water moving (if there is any near). Let your own sounds, your heartbeat, your breathing, your own soul sync up with those sounds. (this can be difficult with people around, though a busy street or park has as much spirit and personality as an ant hill!)
Feel the grass or the dirt, the trees or the water, the sand or the couch, the sidewalk… wherever you are. What does the place physically feel like? Is it rough or smooth? Soft or jagged? What do you feel like compared to the place? Do you leave footprints? Indentations? How does your physically being there change it, if at all?
Smellthe world around you, what scents do you smell? Is there a fresh garden nearby? Do you smell food? Trash? Salty air? Fresh water? Damp earth? Does your own scent stick out or does it match/ belong in the place as a part of it.
Lookaround you! This might seem obvious, but it is probably the easiest way to get a general feel for the spirit of a place. Is it busy and bustling? Is it calm and serene? Are there old buildings or new? What is the history of the place that you can see outright? Is it run down or well kept? What do the things you see about the place make you feel?
Taste(perhaps not literally, and definitely only if safe) this is not to say stick dirt or grass in your mouth and eat it…. that’s just silly. But smell and taste are linked, so simply opening your mouth wide and taking a deep breath can allow you to ‘taste’ the air. Is the breath you took clean? Or is it dirty? Was it refreshing, or not? This is the sense that can be most difficult if not impossible to use to get a sense of spirit of place.
Those senses simply give an idea of what the spirit of place is. For simply going out for a quick meditation and finding your place within that space, it can be a great exercise to do all of these and then journal about them. Continuously doing so in the same place can help you get a real sense of the spirit of the place.
Another way to get to know the spirit of a place is to research its history. What has happened in that place? Who lived there? Who died there? If it is a forest, was it always? Was it always a swamp or lake? Were battles fought there? Was it once farmland? Knowing these things about a place before you go out and explore or meditate there can help you protect yourself from lingering negative energies and emotions that still persist in a place.
On top of that even, would be learning weather patterns in the area. What seasons does it experience? What direction does the water flow (and what could that represent?)
Genius Loci In History
The Romans viewed genius loci as a protective spirit of a place, often giving the spirit of a place a physical embodiment. Spirits that walked the world in physical form to protect forests, rivers, mountains, swamps and so on. Faeries, elves, dryads, satyrs, unicorns and all manner of mythical creatures are representations of the spirit of a place. Other times, the spirit of a place (on a larger scale than a single spot next to a river) can be seen in the art style, furniture style, food and home style of an area and the people who live there. Animals, too, are often symbols of the spirit of a place.
Different native cultures around the world have all been highly concerned with the spirit of place. They held sacred rituals in the same locations, and gave offerings to spirits, ancestors and the land itself to bring about manifestations of good harvest, good fortune and the like.
Through myth and tale, the stories of the spirits of these sacred places have been preserved and passed down. Even though times have changed and humanity as a whole continues to change the physical face of the world we live in, the spirit of the place persists and often changes with us. Those old spirits still feel, and their pain at the changes we have made can be strongly felt at times. Other times, in gardens or wild places, we can feel their happiness and joy or even rage that we are trespassing in sacred places.
Spirit of Place in the home
In your own home and at work there is a spirit of place. And at home it is especially prudent to keep the spirit of that place ‘appeased’ and protective. It does your spirit no good to be at home and not feel safe or at peace. The general feel of your home is the spirit of place. Do you enjoy a cozy and cluttered atmosphere? Or a minimalist and clean or organized space? Is your home warm and welcoming to others? Or do you more prefer to keep to yourself?
Within your home, the spirit of place (at least I believe) is a very good reflection of your own personal spirit. It is the place your spirit should feel as if it belongs and where it should be able to go to recharge. If your spirit feels out of place there, like a puzzle piece in the wrong spot, then you should try and arrange that space to better reflect you.
For me, my home is warm, welcoming, and my door is always open to friends and family. I’ve always got a teapot on the stove, ready to make a cup for anyone who comes over, candles lit to give light and warmth, a puppy who fills my home and my own spirit with joy and boundless energy, a bookshelf, organized and never covered in dust, my altar where i go to do my spiritual recharging, and a general sense of peace and calm (I feel) permeates my apartment. My table is always set for more than myself, though I most often eat alone, and my spare bed is always open to any friend who needs a place to sleep.
I’d like to think that what I feel in the spirit of place of my home is the same welcoming and warm feeling others get when they arrive. It all boils down to you, here, and what kind of spirit of place you bring to your home.
~If you’re still reading at this point, I thank you, and if you’d like me to ever add to this post, please feel free to message me with info, links, or ideas~
Hey everyone! This is my list of resources I have made over the course of the existence of this blog, pertaining specifically to death witchcraft and spirit work. (EDIT: I also added divination because it is such a vital part of my own practice) I hope it helps some of you, and provides a resource for you to use! I’ve also thrown in my death work stuff as well. These posts are all mine, coming from separate blogs at times ( @shipping-the-gods,@the-daily-diviner, and @tarnished-headstone (@witchthatiam/@lonesome-bones are the names of this blog from a while ago)); none of these blogs are active. The only blogs I am active on are @shroud-of-roses and @breathing-in-gilded-dust (dodekatheism blog).
Please note you can do these three practices individually, I just choose to put them together for my own personal practice! Pick what you like and use it if you desire.
Does anyone have any tips for discernment when you have Maladaptive Daydreaming?
My biggest tip is mindfulness exercises, the kind that focus on learning and understanding how you think.
I don’t deal with maladaptive daydreaming necessarily, but as someone with a sometimes tenuous connection to their own body and the world it inhabits I found being able to recognize my own thought patterns extremely helpful. Mostly I use this skill for spiritwork applications - identifying what is an internally generated thought vs something dropped into my mind by an entity. Or for separating Otherworldly travel from dreams or daydreams.
Verifying with your preferred divination methods is also always good! If you aren’t confident in your internal discernment skills it never hurts to go an extra step for confirmation. You can think of the use of divination in this situation as training wheels, use them while you need them, and eventually you might not need them anymore.
Hello everyone! Apologies for the unscheduled disappearance. I experienced some technical difficulties, by which I mean my laptop refused to boot up. While waiting to get a new laptop setup, I have been doing what I can in the Winter Witchery Challenge, which comes to a close today.
I’ve been doing various things to keep up with the challenge after my computer failed. I experimented with using…
Three weeks into December already! Where has the time gone?
This was a very low spoons week for me, which you’ll see reflected in this update. I hope everyone is taking at least a little inspiration from my Winter Witchery Challenge!
December 15th: Spirit sensing. I didn’t get much for sensing my spirits individually, but did notice their energies as a whole. I made the mistake of lying down…
