Spirit Work – The Nephilim Rising™

I receive a lot of messages, comments and the like asking all kinds of questions, but mostly they’re from folks seeking advice.

By far, the number one question I receive is: Where do I start on my journey to Spirit Working?

I find that people are confused about how to find a Deity.

Let’s pause and address THIS.

-You do not need a Deity

-In my humble opinion, They find and choose you

-Your journey will lead you to them (Examples: S*xual A*sault, death and pain led me to Hekate; Asanas and practicing the 6 Branches of Yoga fully committed as a Hindu led Kali to me who paved the way for Shiva through Her dance of destruction)

Carrying on..

Folks don’t know how to Evoke or Invoke and when to do which; I personally do not engage in the latter because of a pact I made with another Spirit.

We each have our own paths to walk and Practices to well, practice.

Spirit Work itself is a broad term, but it means working with Spirits.

This could be anything from a God, Goddess, to a Daemon, or an Angel.

There are many classes of Spirits and different definitions depending on Tradition, individual opinion and personal, lived experiences.

So where do you begin? How do you start?

It’s really overwhelming and not something that can be summed up in a blog or fb post.

Jason Miller recently put out an excellent book called, Consorting with Spirits: Your Guide to Working with Invisible Allies. I will be reviewing it in the future.

The thing I must say about Miller’s book (he’s one of my favorites and most influential Authors) is that he wrote it for people that already have a Magickal foundation established and honestly?

I really appreciate that.

I think it’s incredible to have books that appeal to novices and adepts alike; I like that there are books for novices only; I like that there are books for adepts only.

They can all exist, and they are all (mostly) worthy.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with writing to experienced Practitioners. I started reading it and was like, “Oh, oh, thank f*ck”.

That said, there is a book that has kind of slipped through the cracks and I believe it’s noteworthy.

I had not heard of it before, and when I did and I started reading, even though it is specifically for NEW PRACTITIONERS, I found it exceedingly interesting, and it helped refresh some things for me. Not in a redundant way, either.

I never felt like I was being spoken to like a child, and I found the entire thing educational and that, my friends, is why I am here.

The Spirit Work Primer: A Beginner’s Guide to Streamlined Spirit Work by Naag Loki Shivanath, published by Crossed Crow Books. This is a revamped, second edition from the original 2017 publication.

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I highly recommend it if you are interested in working with Spirits but have no clue where to begin.

Covered topics are:

The Basics of Spirit Work, The Nature of Offerings, Spirit Senses, Magickal Invocation, Magickal Evocation, The Nature of Spiritual Pacts, Spirit Possession, Familiar Spirits, Spirit Keeping, Isolated Spirits, Created Spirits, Spirit Houses, Spiritual Self-Defense and Cleanup, Grimoire of the Thorn.

Publisher describes it as follows:

“Invocation, Evocation, Possession

These words conjure forth feelings of unease and confusion for many magical practitioners, even today. This book, however, is a fantastic guide intended to shed some much needed light on these often misunderstood subjects. Within these pages, spirit worker and necromancer Naag Loki Shivanath serves as guide and teacher, taking all readers through a sophisticated yet highly practical system of spirit conjuration. If you’ve been interested in learning how to sharpen your spirit senses, safely practice spirit possession, work through spirit invocation and evocation, then this tome is the book you’ve been waiting for.

Whether you are a follower of the more ritualized manifestations of the magical arts or a Witch looking to deepen your practice with the spirit world, A Spirit Work Primer will prove to be a valuable resource that is referenced time and time again.”

This is a book that is not specific to any one Tradition or path, and the Author never shames the Practitioner for the path they walk.

This is an informational guide on Spirit Work.

I will say, and this may be my only critique, the Author brings up Gender in Practice, and the way it’s worded could’ve been better. I don’t know if I agree with associating give and take (in pact work) with the masculine and feminine manifesting.

I know a lot of folks will not align with or resonate with this excerpt and I owe it to those folks, those readers to add this disclaimer.

As a Queer person myself, I will say this should not deter you from the book, but for non-binary folks who completely reject this dichotomy in practice I feel it’s fair to mention. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t.

“The Principle of Gender

At last, we reach the final law, stating: “Gender is in everything; everything has its masculine and feminine principles: gender manifests on all planes.” This law speaks to more than just your anatomy, however. This law speaks to the fact that nothing is without balance, and that everything that is generated or regenerated consists of both masculine and feminine energies: light and dark, fire and water, air and earth, and so on. To see how this principle applies to pact working, consider that for every desire you create a pact for, you have to give something up. You have to balance the scales, or else Spirit will not deliver on their end. This forms the circle of give and take, the manifestation of male and female.”

I agree the scales must be balanced. I agree that in pact working for it to be successful you must sacrifice something; as mentioned above, I don’t agree that it is masculine and feminine manifesting.

All in all, this is an excellent book and should be talked about more.

Most importantly, it should be read.

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“Real magic can never be made by offering someone else’s liver. You must tear out your own, and not expect to get it back.”

Peter S. Beagle

The Unethical Practice of Spirit Binding is to date one of my most popular pieces; even now, nearly 2 years since writing it, it’s still one of the most weekly visited blogs, and the one I receive the most emails/questions about.

I figured since it would be time consuming as all hell, and repetitive to reply to each email, all of which are essentially asking the same thing, it would be easier to address the concerns and issues in a blog of its own.

Before I get into the gist of this, let me first clarify a few things.

I firmly believe that binding a Spirit to a vessel is right under abusing a child (in general and/or) with Magick; to me, it’s THAT serious.

Our Magick comes from within, most of our knowledge and wisdom, too but a lot of our power, knowledge, wisdom and gifts comes directly from the Spirit world in the form of Ancestors, and the Spirits we work with daily—be they Gods, Goddesses, Daemons, Fae, Elementals, etc: they owe us nothing, yet are often more than willing to come to our aid when called upon.

To disrespect this world, these beings by acting like we are superior is a recipe for disaster.

Not to mention it’s audacious to think that just because we can, we should.

I have been practicing the Craft since I was a kid, and have been surrounded by Witches and Mystics for nearly as long and besides Djinn, none of us can think of a time when you would *need* to bind a Spirit to a vessel.

Note: Djinn truly are genies in many ways, and they must be bound to an object (preferably jewelry) to work with. The word Djinn means both “Demons and Spirits” and has an additional meaning of “hidden from sight”. Their energy is unruly, hence the need to anchor them; they should always be released afterwards as a bored Djinn is a dangerous Djinn.

Binding a Spirit to a vessel is entirely different than enchanting an object; this is important.

For example, evoking Lilith, and asking for Her essence to enchant a piece of jewelry or tool for sexual confidence, power and protection would not be considered binding; you called upon Her, asked Her permission and an exchange was made—what that exchange is, is between you and Her, or whatever deity/Spirit you are working this (in context exchange means offerings).

Binding a Spirit to an object is trapping them.

And, sorry guys, but it’s fucking wrong.

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I’m not sitting on a high horse, and I really hate to enter territory where it comes off like I am telling other’s how to practice but, we must have basic ground rules when practicing, right?

RIGHT?

Surely, not binding Spirits and not abusing them should be high on our list of basic manners of Practice, right?

A clear majority of those who email me have purchased or acquired a bound vessel without thinking of the Spirit itself; they are quite remorseful in their messages. Often, attributing their change of heart and “aha moment” to reading and/or coming across my blog on the subject; so much gratitude for this because awareness was the sole intent of the original piece.

Then there are those who purchased bound vessels and found they didn’t have use for the Spirit and now they don’t know what to do.

I don’t judge anyone because we have all found ourselves in situations during our Magickal career where we know we fucked up. If you have not had this moment yet you are either doing something wrong, or it’s right around the corner waiting for you.

Fucking up has been my best teacher.

So, what do you do when you find yourself in possession of a Spirit bound object?

Well, first you attempt to contact the Spirit itself.

In many cases the Spirit in question will be volatile (rightfully so); sometimes they will be shy, and/or fearful.

In many ways Spirits could and can squash us like a bug but in many ways, they can be dominated, and it has the same affect on them as it would on us if we were abused, and oppressed.

They become withdrawn and defeated.

Set up your ritual space, place the object in front of you and communicate with the Spirit; sometimes this can be done simply by touching the object, depending on how tuned into your intuition you are.

Other times you will need to choose a form of divination to act as a medium for the message to be received.

Even if it was not you who bound them, apologize for their mistreatment; if you know what type of Spirit you are working with, offer them something you know would appeal to them, if you do not know go with the basics of incense, liquor/wine/beer, sweets, fruit and a candle.

Then, release them.

It can be simple, and sometimes the Spirit will be released by you saying, “you are free to go” but other times it requires more effort in the form of a burial, or burning to break the original spell and allow the Spirit to return to its abode.

On rare occasions there will need to be a full ritual of cord cutting, and banishing (example: The Spirit does not want to go and/or is malicious in nature).

I have come across a few friends who have attempted to release a benevolent Spirit, and the Spirit expressed their desire to stay; if you are okay with this, then you can keep the vessel.

The point is to give the Spirit a choice at freedom, give them the option they were denied in the first place.

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You do not need a bound vessel to have a connection with a Spirit, or for that Spirit to grant you what you desire.

They are not our play toys; they do not exist to be at our beck and call; they are allies, sources of knowledge for Seekers; they are keepers of the Old Ways.

Magick and the Craft should never involve abuse; I don’t consider baneful Magick abuse because when I practice it, it’s justified. But, that’s been covered in my Justified Hexing blog.

Nothing about this path, this life or this Craft is cut and dry, nothing is black and white, each situation presented to us requires a new set of eyes; we must drop all that we think we know and assess the situation while keeping our wisdom in tact—it’s a Jedi level balancing act.

The Nephilim Rising™

Posts tagged with Spirit Work

BOOK REVIEW: Spirit Work Primer

LESSONS IN MAGICK: The Unethical Practice of Spirit Binding, Part II