umbra-et-lux-spirits:

(Apologies, it’s rather late as I’m writing on this and I have no wifi and I’ve gone past my data limit. I won’t be able to link large resources and such at this moment, and the format could definitely be better. And I could go much more indepth but for the current moment this is what I have on tumblr mobile.)

PROTECTION

Okay, this is the most common and I understand repetitive lesson. Protect yourself! Protect your home and your spirit friends! Protect and ward!

There are physical wards where the a physical spell or object is set up as the ward. Like maybe you have a crystal grid that you set up to protect your home. That would be an example of physical protection!

There are astral wards where you simply set them up in the astral (the other plane where spirits generally reside or originate from, not everyone but trying to make a general point on clarifying the difference the physical plane from the astral plane). Like you can build a giant water bubble to protect and enclose yourself!

There are great recipes for wards and protection spells that can work for you, but you don’t need to follow anyone’s recipe to make a ward. You can make one a multitude of ways. Sure, yours doesn’t follow a $25 ingredient list, but that doesn’t make it inherently any less valuable or effective! If you don’t care and make it, it’ll probably be less effective than one of strong intent, of course.

Personally I rely on astral wards more than physical wards, but that’s a personal preference. Wards I make myself are also more efficient than the ones I try to copy from others by directions but personal differences. When I say I made them, I thought about the concept of spicy peppers and I designed three wards off that alone, so intent and direction is what you really need to make wards.

If you prefer following someone else’s recipe to help, there is absolutely no harm in that! Go for it! But don’t feel like you can and have to rely only on the recipes you find on tumblr!

Note: Even if you do not have a companion, you still need wards. I would most definitely recommend it. Even if you have no companion to protect, you should still ward and protect yourself and your space!

Protect yourself and your home. Remember to take care of yourself.

You can set up personal wards that protect the person or being you set them up around like a personal bodyguard or protection. Or you can set it up for an object, place or setting. Like for your space! And you should protect yourself. I’m nagging you for your own safety.

Protect yourself from malicious beings who straight up just wanna fight you, others who might sneak in and just leech off, or those who might decieve you to get in and then harm you. Not every spirit has malicious intent or purpose, and most of them haven’t in my experience, but you should be safe and protect yourself the best you can from those occasions where bad news is knocking on your door.

When you have companions or spirit family, you’ll have more reasons to practice warding and have more wards, but that should not stop you from learning warding and being well protected yourself before then!

You can have wards that serve to protect you from attacks, and others to keep out liars. But you determine your wards, not me.

The thing is, the more the merrier, and the more variety the better! Cover all your bases. Maybe a water ward might keep out more fire-based spirits but water spirits might have an immunity. Or if you had 10+ wards with the same weakness and a malicious spirit finds out how to get past one, they get past all of them since they have the key for the same 10 doors.

You should regularly keep them running, and also do a bigger maintenance. But remember than constant smaller checkups are important too. Do small checkups often, and a big checkup regularly. I do small checkups daily, and weekly big maintenance because it’s important and better safe than well, not safe.

ENERGY WORK

I may have been too long-winded in the protection section and this section is gonna be lacking in comparison but it’s still needed.

You should have a basis in energy work. Learn how to sense energy, like presences, be able to read them, maybe not in a “I can give you a 5 page summary about this person about their energy” but I can tell this spirit has malicious or unsafe intent towards me so I should step away and turn them away. And telling them apart.

Like a spirit comes home, and you should practice how to tell the difference between Sam the kitten spirit and Feraligator the chihuahua spirit. Although you don’t need to be a master of energy work to start in spirit work, but you should have basics or a solid starting ground.

You can completely struggle with this, while going into spirit work but be willing to keep trying. It’s important and a helpful fundamental and can lead into spirit work, but you can definitely go into spirit work without being an expert energy worker or an energy healer.

COMMUNICATION

Without a doubt, you’re gonna want to have a conversation or communicate with spirits in spirit work.

I’m gonna be honest, you will not have 100% clarity when you begin. Minus a few rare exceptions of people. But ignoring those exceptions and miracles, be prepared for the actuality of communication.

You’ll start out with fragmented conversation. You’ll depend and start with divination, like pendulums, dice, and tarot cards to talk.

The start of the road begins with asking the spirits yes or no questions, or whatever maybe the pendulum board or your tools are limited to. Or you’ll use tarot, which is less yes/no but it’s still not a whole conversation like you would expect between two people. But you’ll have to build up and grow from there. You’ll practice and keep going.

Beyond your tools, the next tier to practice is telepathy and astral hearing.

I don’t think they are exactly the same, but you may disagree. I understand and respect that. Telepathy is direct communication through your minds with thoughts (this is off the top of the mind and I am typing this in one sitting. I will check and correct myself, and edit it if I am wrong, don’t worry).

Some spirits only communicate with scattered words, images and emotions. That just may be their preference and method of communication in telepathy, regardless of how well you can hear them.

Others may be able to talk in complete conversations like you’d expect from another human. But they may simplify what they’re saying to you so that you understand, or cooperate other ways because they understand you can’t catch everything they say.

For me, I think astral hearing is different where they speak in the astral out loud and everyone can hear it. But if your hearing is bad, you might not catch it, and that way, I don’t consider it the same as telepathy where they would just send their thoughts straight to your mind. You can improve your astral senses with effort, trying, and exercise.

Either way, you will practice and grow. Keep going, I believe in you.

Even when you get to that point where you can regularly hear astral conversations and use telepathy, you should still remember to keep your tools. They’ll help you double check yourself, and get you through lulls where it’ll get even harder so your senses will be limited.

INTERACTION WITH SPIRITS

There are two ways you can find and meet new spirits or strangers. Either you can meet your local spirits or go out into the astral but that’s not a beginner concept. However if you do wanna hear about that more, I’ll discuss that by request.

Okay, let’s talk about local spirits. Meeting and communicating with local spirits is the best way to practice before a committment like companionship or running into the astral blindly.

Nature spirits tend to be much kinder and patient, especially considering you’ll take time to practice and learn. The easiest spirits to bear with you for practice are rock/crystal spirits and your own garden and plant spirits.

Although there are definitely a few that aren’t friendly at all, it’s safer than running into the astral. And as far as I know, most people can go outside much more easily and already know how, over learning from scratch how to astral project and travel and being prepared for everything it has to offer (dangers and otherwise).

Note: You do not need to know how to astral travel or project to work with spirits, and you can hang out with spirits even if you can’t travel all the way to their apartment in the astral. You can chill and watch Netflix in your room together even if you can’t travel.

EVEN AFTER YOU GROW

You’re gonna keep warding and learning protection spells. When I became a mod, I learned that I had to upgrade and add MORE. You’ll need them, you’ll want them, and you’ll appreciate them. Even the failures will become a start to building better and more efficient wards. So keep going. We all nag about protection, but we’re absolutely serious.

You’re gonna keep learning and you’ll have a different path from others. You will hit roadblocks and communication will get harder some days, whether it’s from a lull, or low spoons or anything.

Take a step sideways, yeah, but that’s movement. And it won’t stop you from progress. The worst thing is to not practice honestly and be apathetic.

(It’s honestly quite late here, I’m physically tired and a little sick, so sorry if anything got messy or confusing. If you have anything you want me to talk on, clarify or discuss further, shoot us an ask.)

Disclaimer: I haven’t stopped learning, so there’s much more you can read on, and more others can offer you on the subject, so never be afraid to ask others for help and advice too. And terms may slightly differ from being to being, so there’s also that to account for, and other people may have different answers for you too! So keep on adventuring and gathering knowledge.

-Mod Spark