Photo by Joseph Driscoll on Unsplash
In a recent blog post I shared how my relationship with the spirits has evolved over time into a symbiotic relationship. Part of how that relationship has come about has involved taking an approach to spirit work which goes against what you typically find in western ceremonial magic. In traditional evocation, for example, a person might summon a spirit, compel it to do specific actions with other spirits and then banish the spirit. This creates a relationship based on coercion of the spirits involved, and also attempts to separate out the spirit world from our world, creating a false division.
I’ve never found this approach to evocation to be workable, perhaps because I have a fundamental problem with the concept of coercing a spirit to do something. I’ve also never employed banishing techniques in my work with spirits, because of that false division it creates. Instead my approach to spirits is informed by my desire to have an ongoing, symbiotic, cooperative relationship with the spirits I work with. As such, I’ve always approached my spirit work with a perspective of how can we mutually achieve our desired goals and help each other.
In the last few years my work with spirits has been further influenced by a decision to take an experiential approach, instead of using the typical anthropomorphization that happens with most techniques based around working with spirits. I feel that while those techniques can produce results there is something lost in translation because what we’re trying to do is have the spirits communicate with us, using our preferred methods, instead of opening ourselves up to how the spirits might prefer to communicate. Reading David Abram’s works The Spell of the Sensuous (affiliate link) and Becoming Animal (affiliate link) has helped me develop a framework around experiential work that has lead to deeper connections with the spirits.
As I’ve opened myself to the experience of the spirits and allowed that experience to speak through me, what I’ve discovered is a deeper bond with the spirits. One could argue that the experiences are subjective, but the same can be said of using anthropomorphic techniques. Regardless, the consistency of the experiences and verification through repeated results suggests that the experiential approach seems to work.
Perhaps what’s most striking to me though is that I really do feel like I am in a continual conversation with the spirits I work with. For example, the other day I went for a walk and I felt the presence of archangel Suvuviel beside me. No words were said, no images transmitted, yet I felt this presence and a transmission of information through the experience. That information was verified by the day’s events, and was a response to a question about how I might get some help on my quest to become financially independent again. The indicator in this case was that a decision to relaunch classes was indeed the right course of action, especially because I changed my approach to something that is also working with my books. this verification of the result, along with the experience of walking with Suvuviel reinforced the efficacy of my work with the spirits, using the experiential methodology I’ve been developing.
I mentioned above that I don’t use banishing techniques when working with the spirits I regularly work with and the reason for that is derived from my choice to also create a dedicated space to work with my spirits. the creation of that space has necessarily involved inviting those spirits into my life and space. They can come and go as they please and indeed there’s no expectation that they are always here. Yet nonetheless I intimately feel their presence in my life regularly, and with no ill effect as seems to occur when more traditional western approaches are taken to working with spirits. Even the most negative experience I can think of wasn’t really negative, but rather was a recognition that the spirit and I no longer meshed together and should part ways.
To walk with the spirits and to truly let them into our lives is to make a choice to dedicate ourselves to developing a relationship that is consensual, wherein all parties our involved, honored, and respected. It is to let go of the expectation and assumption that everything ought to occur on the level we want it to and instead to embrace a humble and open perspective where we allow ourselves to learn from and with the spirits in a co-equal and symbiotic relationship.
