I was having a private conversation with another Tumblr user which branched off into the topic of spirit work. I felt some of the opinions I expressed seemed worthy of being shared publicly, so here’s my take on spirit work…
What is a Spirit?
In my understanding, a spirit is [basically] the energetic imprint of a physical manifestation. Spirits can be residual energy of things that are dead, or dynamic energy of things that are still very much alive. In fact, these seemingly opposing life and death energies overlap one another in a way, but I won’t get into all that here. Spirit is ultimately what animates physical form– everything has a spirit in my belief, some more subtle and dormant that others.
What is Spirit Work?
Spirit work can be defined as so many numbers of things– from working with deities to communicating with plants and animals to conjuring the dead. It typically involves consciously convening with some type of spirit for whatever reason.
Everyone is Different
Everyone communicates with spirits in different ways and in varying intensities. Some people are acutely receptive to them, hence the many convincing stories of unmistakable spirit encounters. But for most people, including myself, it’s a subtle sense that is usually easier to ignore or “shut off” than acknowledge and sustain. In all honesty, I don’t do much spirit work, as in actively communicating, working, and building relationships with spirits– it doesn’t come naturally for me so it requires a lot of practice and effort that I don’t always have energy for, so it’s not a huge area of focus for me at this point in time. But many times it just sort of happens, either spontaneously or inherently as part of my practice.
My General Method
When I do actively attempt to communicate with spirits it is usually just a process of meditating for a few minutes– clearing my head and getting in a receptive and objective state of mind. I usually have particular spirit in mind I intend to target, but I try not to declare that intention/make that connection before I clear my head. Once I feel “open” enough, I typically burn sage or other herbs and evoke the nine directional powers, reinforce protections, etc, then state my intention and try to make a connection.
How I Sense and Communicate With Spirits
How one communicates with spirits typically reflects how they sense them. I am a “feeling” type. I can feel them, somewhere deep within my chest, but very rarely do I ever “see” anything I feel confident calling a spirit.
The people who often have the most convincing experiences tend to be “seeing” types it seems. My partner and his son are receptive to seeing spirits– they could probably be considered “naturals”.
I’m not usually as receptive as they are, even in my “feeling” aspect; I usually have to actively tap into it, hence the use of the little meditation ritual I described. Even then, I don’t always get results. But how they communicate to me is in direct relation to how I sense them. I feel them– sometimes it’s an empathic impression of pure emotion, other times it’s loosely articulated thoughts, spontaneous imagery, or vague concepts that I have to translate into words to make sense of. It’s all very internal and “feely” for me though, which makes detection a bit obscure.
Discernment
Now, discerning whether or not I’m actually communicating with a spirit is tricky for me. I can be rather skeptical (especially of my own experiences– ironic, right?). But there have been a handful of occasions when I just knew, half of which happened before I began actively practicing any kind of spirit work. From my experience, the best way to develop confidence in your own judgment is to really get to know yourself– your thoughts patterns, your emotional tides, your behavioral tendencies, etc. Being intimately familiar with your own internal processes is tremendously helpful when distinguishing between a thought/feeling/vision that you created (i.e. your “imagination”) and externally influenced extrasensory information (i.e. a message from a spirit). If you can identify the space where your thoughts and ideas originate (a skill best developed via meditation), it becomes a thousand times easier to determine when you are in fact perceiving information communicated by a spirit.
Making Pacts?
It is never necessary to make any kind of pacts in order to communicate or work with spirits. While it can be helpful in certain circumstances, especially once you become further acquainted with the practice and the spirits you work with, it’s never something I would recommend to anyone who isn’t entirely confident in doing so.
i think one of the most common dangers I run into in the edible and medicinal plant scene is the problem of “can you eat it” vs. “should you eat it”
a lot of websites and books these days will be like “ten wild plants you can use to make tea” without then listing the actual use for those teas because all they care about is the novelty of making your own tea from things you picked in the woods.
They tell you stuff like “A wonderfully cleansing medicine, it supports the liver, stimulates the flow of urine and the removal of waste by the kidneys.”
And people are so into the idea of cleansing their bodies of supposed toxins, that sounds great!
But what I know is that what they really mean is, this plant is a diuretic, meaning if you use it for tea, you’re going to peeing All. Day. Long. Every. Ten. Minutes.
Which isn’t fun if you’re on a hike or about to get back in your car and drive an hour home.
Some popular plants recommended for teas are used as contraceptives and morning after treatments. So here you are, trying to get pregnant, drinking your natural to rid your kidneys of impurities, being healthy as can be, and all along you’re taking birth control!
And if you’re already taking birth control and trying to not get pregnant, the plant can mess you up too.
There are plants that mess with antidepressants, and with blood pressure medicine, that make you sick to your stomach, that messes with your blood, and on and on.
And all of these sources will just list them as something you can eat, because hey, you won’t die if if you do!
Which is true, you’ll live, but at what cost!!!
Please remember herbal remedies and edible plants have always been consumed and applied with a PURPOSE, and unless you know what that purpose is, don’t consume them just because you can. It’s a bad idea.
Hozier is a necromancer that lives in fields or bogs in Ireland whereas Florence Welch is a weather witch that prefers misty forests or rocky coastlines this has been a psa
