Tag Archives: spirits

5 reasons not work with local spirits

Recently I came across this post

My post is not a rebuttal, but an ad joiner to the possible undesired experience that come from seeking connection with local spirits.

5) Just because a spirit is there, doesn’t mean it wants to “work” with you.

For one thing, let me clarify a term. In conversations I have had with other spiritualist minded folks and people who get into trying to chat up spirits, there is a difference between veneration and “working”. Veneration can be very simple, is pretty much devotional, and doesn’t expect much between the two parties except for a simple exchange of “pleasantries” and expressions of good will. Of course, if you get a negative feedback, it maybe because you have offended said local spirit, but we’ll get to that later. Generally veneration is just a way to say “hi” and “thanks for all that you do” and “lets be friendly and polite with each other”. Venerating ancestors, venerating local spirits, venerating Gods, and heroes and every thing else. It’s all just a way of making nice. This niceness can lead to “working” and help build relationships that can be quite beneficial in the future, and possibly even buy you a Free pass when you make a mistake, but don’t always count on it.

“Working” indicates that there is a request being made of a specific variety and purpose to a specific end for your benefit. Whether it is protection, wealth, love, knowledge etc…, what makes it different is the specificness and that you are making a specific request for something you want accomplished. Often it will entail behavior on your part that reciprocates to the spirit that you are willing to work for them. A number of spiritual beings are known to be workers, who are quite open to requests for things. Gods, Saints, Angels, Demons etc… and there are books quite busting at the seems with them. But local spirits, you’ll notice, don’t seem to function that way universally, for everyone in the same way that say, St. Expedite can for so many people. One person can have a great relationship with a local spirit, and another person may get bubkis. That’s just the way it seems to go. Just because you are aware of spirit that is tied to a certain local, doesn’t mean it wants to work with you, and it will often make that perfectly clear as soon as you attempt to connect with it.

4) Just because a spirit is there, doesn’t mean it’s going to know a lot of about anything in the area.

Or for that matter, be able to communicate it in a useful or intelligible way. A spirit of the tree is mostly going to know about Tree things, and if it notices if someone stole your bike or not, will have more to do with if that bike thief happened to interact with the tree shortly before or after. If you happened to have your bike chained to the tree, it’s only thought maybe “heavy earth thing was leaning against me and now it’s not” and that’s about it. Of course a larger local spirit (say of the park) might notice, but unless your bike was important to it for some reason, why should it even care. Unless you interact with a local spirit that has vested interest in human affairs and a reasonably intelligible way to understand and communicate it, you’re really not going to get much. It is for this reason that you’ll notice a lot of cultures often have a greater spirit of a particular thing (plants, animals minerals etc…) that is often more understanding of humanity and better able to connect with it. Most people, in my experience, are usually connecting with the larger overarching spirit then the much more limited spirit of the specific object, plant, mineral, animal or place and those spirits are not “local” per se.

3) Most local spirits could give about two cents to you and your issues

this of course, ties in nicely with my last point. While the various local spirits might be quite appreciate of offerings, veneration and devotions done to them, and thus you might get them to be more favorable inclined to you, which could generally make your going about in the locale easier over all, when it comes to specifics (theft, health, wealth, love, etc..) you know, all those things that humans value in interacting with other humans, local spirits quite literally don’t understand, or for some of the larger ones, don’t care. If there is some kind of human pandemic experience going around, it might peak some of the larger more understandings ones interests (like high murder or suicide rate, or a larger number of clinically depressed) because being that we are part of their environment that they govern that might be somewhat invested in it being harmonious for everyone, but the local tree spirit, rock spirit, spirit in the park, is going to be completely uncaring to your issues, if they understand them at all. If they are even open to working with you, they might still not understand something, unless you explain it in as naturalistic terms as possible (literally think birds and bees and pollen and trees people) otherwise, you’re going to get a kind of shoulder shrug, if anything at all.

2) They have needs that you can never provide for.

Do you know how to pollinate a flower? Probably not. Even if you do know, do you have the time and patience to do it for every flower during a 3 month period? I’m guessing not. What about trees? Or, the local watering hole? Maybe you could organize a community event to help clean it up if it was dirty or only barely polluted with trash, but if the spirit is telling you it wants to flow over there, and not there, I think you’re going to have a problem convincing those people in their nice homes to make way for the creek you feel ought to build. Generally, if you’re getting a quite possibly impossible request from a local spirit, it’s politely telling you to Go away! Because it doesn’t have time for your nonsense, human.

1) Just because a spirit is tied to specific locale doesn’t mean it’s smaller.

There is such a thing as Local Gods. These being are Gods, Divine beings in their own right, who don’t need to be worshiped or venerated because their divinity comes from their locale. Perhaps a shrine might exist to them (like in Japan, or China or places that have long standing animistic spiritualist traditions) but generally there won’t be one, and they don’t really need it. You might be able to identify it with some dowsing, but it could very well be very hard to reach, and the local god may not want you to reach it in the first place. So, they being a local God can really make things miserable for you if you offend them, much like any god, and more then likely, they will be much more easier to offend and will stay offended longer then a more transcendent Divine being that is not tied to specific location. The Spirit of the The City you live in, the spirit of your neighborhood, even the spirit of your building (which in very large apartment buildings can be quite powerful) and of course, there could be more natural spirits of ecosystems and environments that are quite mighty and powerful. If you ever notice that when you enter into some areas that you get lost easier, seem to have ongoing problems with minor nuisances (insects, muddy puddles, bumps in the road, tripping over roots) is probably because the local spirits find something about you vaguely offensive. You could try to clear it up, make an offering and appease them, and can work, but some people just don’t like some people no matter what. You just plain smell bad to them, and they will never like you and they have no compunctions about making their dislike and displeasure known. You may not experience this if you only visit, especially to a major city or tourist area, but if you try to stay and settle in, is when the problems start to occur.

Of course, there are other smaller beings, but they are often in league with the larger beings of the area, and will tend to take directions from the “top” on down. They might be willing to work with at first, but after some time, will be less friendly and sociable if your general essence is just not compatible with the local area. If that is the case, you’re probably better off moving, then trying to make a go at it. Good luck explaining that to your friends and family who moved with you, or the cost of the move in the first place.

It is also my experience that smaller spirits are far more dramatic and showy then the non-time space fixed transcendent beings. Most hauntings are caused by smaller spirits, not by gods and actual major demons (despite the name they toss around). To make a ready and known comparison, think of a Midsummer’s night dream. Oberon doesn’t do the dirty work himself, he sends Puck, a servant, to do it for him. A similar situation will apply in naturalistic settings. Most major local spirits won’t do something directly if they can avoid it. They will send a representative to do it for them. Of course, if you enter into an actual working relationship with one, you may very well end up being that representative from time to time as part of your deal in desire fulfillment.

Finally, for some people, in some situations, none of this, both helpful or harmful will hold true. Some people are, as I like to call it, Unicorns. Gifted mediums who are favorably received by all spirits. People gifted with spiritual authority, that allows them to work better with spirits, and perhaps from time to time, command them when needed. Others are favored by the land, or the Gods, or a God and in certain situations that favor will manifest things for that that others will never receive within the Land, or Gods, or God. Your mileage may vary.

Bune

Runes as Spirit Seals

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It seems like it should be an obvious thing to do, in our modern occult world that someone should have sought to use the runes as seals of spirits. With so much of western ceremonial tradition being the vogue undercurrent with most occult community, it surprises me that I never find any one who has tried to publish as such, or communicate that idea. Maybe it is because of the vast majority of runesters being involved in Reconstructionists heathenism, based only on historical lore collected by Christian writers in a period when most of the old ways were dying out or forgotten, except as folklore and “superstition.” Yet, with the common eclectic community, they too seem to never think of the idea of that the each rune could be the seal of a particular spirit, tied to that rune.

I have in my own ways, come across two people (well, one person, and a one website whose works involve more then one person) who has suggested such a practice. One was this man in Los Angeles, who had a series of books on Lulu. I had the opportunity to preview it once, and it did not seem like there was anything there. The other one I found was Raven Kaldera, both on his website about Northern Tradition Shamanism, and in his book WyrdWalkers. I found that to be some good stuff right there. The only problem for me, I don’t operate in a “shamanic way” per se. I have, over the past year, started to come into my own in various methods of working with spirits, and I have always been interested in those techniques, but did not try them out, for a multitude of reasons, from being solitary to lacking the ability to acquire items described (like triangles, wands, etc…). It wasn’t until I began my own meditation practice, and it went from affirmations and energy work, to visit inner dimensions (inner temples as it were) and then spirit guides started popping up out of the woodwork, that I began to make contacts. Fortuitously, I also became friends with a someone who was well trained in two African Diaspora traditions, both of which focused heavily on spirit contact work, where he also learned how to conduct a séance, and then with another friend, after becoming inactive in those traditions, developed his own method of spirit contact, based upon, but using more European and “witchy” symbols, tools and means. It was during this time that I asked for a spirit mentor, to give me further education in the runes, because I had learned all that I could from books at that time. Not sure who or what I would get, I was flabbergasted to see the Rune master himself, Odhinn (the spelling I prefer). I worked out a deal with him, where in exchange for lessons, I would make offerings to him, which have changed and developed over time, as my ability, and willingness have changed. It has been a slow lesson, spending a week with each rune, and as I am currently working with the Anglo-Saxon set, with the additional Northumbrian runes, I have a long road before me.
Over the course of each lesson, I was given instruction on how to call the spirit of each rune. The method shown to me so far has been exceedingly simple, involving only a fire source, some manner of incense placed upon the fire (sometimes a mixture, sometimes a single herb, sometimes the oddest of things). This of course, has not always been the case, but for most of the runes so far, it has held true. The exceptions to this are Gebo and Isa, but I am sure others will appear as I progress. After that is done, a simple repeated chant of the runes name, starts the process. After, I have been given galdr to use for this process instead.

I can’t say more about this process, mainly because it has mostly been carried out in the other worlds, under His single, watchful eye. From this experience however, I can say, when I compare my results with the descriptions of Raven Kaldera, I get very similar, if not always the same description. I have avoided reading his descriptions before my own work was completed, but with some cases, there were a few variances, but I think that is more reflective of me, then the spirits themselves.

Working with the runes as spirits, has seem to bring some greater “connection” with them, especially as I meet each spirit, and ask for it’s aid and assistance. Readings have become easier, magical workings with them flow better, and the particular current of each rune flows smoother. Alliance with Rune Spirits is also much easier affair then with some spirits that other people might choose. While Rune spirits are particularly strong, in their own way, they are also more akin to human beings in terms of over all power. Pissing off a Rune spirit won’t ruin your life as much as pissing off a God, a major land wight, or say the Alfar or Duergar. At best, it might just stop the whole runes from working with you, at worst, it could curse that particular part of your life, and make it rather unpleasant, kind of like a well connected and respected co-worker who spreads nasty gossip, it always sending you things after the last minute, and oh happens to be the head of HR. However, like a human, you could make it up to the rune in question, but it maybe unpleasant, particular with a more vindictive rune spirit. At the same time, they are easier to connect with for this reason. If you are already reading the runes, and you like them, and they just make “sense” you are more then half way there. That means that they like you, and think you have what it takes to deal with them.
Also, just because I say they are “more akin to humans” don’t misunderstand me, and think they are “human-like.” They aren’t. They are very primal, and not terribly considerate. Their thought processes are somewhat foreign to your average 21st century human being. Their thought processes were somewhat foreign to your average 9th century human being. If you aren’t sure what I mean, go read a translation of the “Havamal” and see how Odhinn brought them into the world. They expect the same dedication from any other runecaster who works with them. If you really want something, you are going to give it your all to get it, even if that does mean some serious personal sacrifice. What more, they just expect it. They won’t tell you, unless you ask, what is needed to make something happen, to get what you want, or how to achieve your goals. They will let you use them to set things in motion, and then have you find out what it is needed after you have begun. Depending upon how you respond to that, they will open up more, or just stop you right where you are in relation to them.

RUNEWORKER

The Runes, Rootwork and Sorcery of Brother Christopher

Tag Archives: spirits

Runes as Spirit Seals