by Nathaniel
I begun the practice, and after some time, when I passed through the three thousand repetitions of the mantra, I experienced something that was new to me. I stopped my practice for a moment, and there it was, a white-and-orange force approaching me – it was no spirit, as far as I could say at the time. There were no hands, no feet, no real body parts like I used to see in case of angels and other spirits. This "force" was soaring through time and space, and there it was, approaching me. From it, the great compassion emanated, and I could feel it with my entire body – my clairvoyant sight was able to see nothing but a "force of compassion" of white and orange light soaring in the air around me. After a while, the force soared away, and it was gone.
Later on, when I associated the fact that I felt great compassion emanating from this "force" and that I knew what kind of spirit is associated with this particular practice, I did some research. And I have learned that quite often, Avalokitesvara is associated with white and orange colors, and of course, he is the Bodhisattva of compassion.
This experience taught me – if you read about a spirit, then the brain will associate your knowledge with what the magical senses tell you, and you will see the spirit just like you expect it to look like. But if you do not have the knowledge of the spirit, and you have never read about it nor seen its sculptures or paintings, then your brain will not be able to associate the "earthly" image, but nonetheless, it will try to associate something. Thus, you may perceive the spirit it its "closest-to-reality" form – with no filters, no expectations, you may see the spirit as it really is on the spiritual plane.
"Winged Light Beings"
There is a group of light beings which are often perceived as winged creatures – in European tradition, they are called Angels, and this term – even if it implies some Christian associations, sticked to the modern esoteric and magical paths. There is some level of universalism in the world of spirits. Some entities are closely associated with specific magical tradition. But some spirits are universal – and within this universal category, we can distinct Light Beings, Dark Beings and Nature Spirits. Their tasks and purpose goes far beyond traditions, regions of the world and religions. Based on experience and discussion with people, I consider Angels to be such universal Light Beings. Because I live in Europe, and even if I'm an animist, I was educated in the Christian faith. Thus, the term "Angel" is quite familiar to me. Because a lot of people is familiar with this concept, when they see a strong, winged spirit, they associate it with Angels.
In different traditions and in different regions of the world, these universal winged spirits carry different names and different spirits, but in the end, they're the same entities with a specific hierarchy. That is why Archangels like Michael, Raphael or Gabriel are known under different names and looks but they work in the entire world and they help those who ask for help, without enforcing Christian faith, which is a proof that we talk about universal spirits that stand above religion and human concepts of spiritual borders. In your practice, you may encounter a lot of such universal spirits, and you may even experience a moment, in which you and a friend will perceive the very same entity, but you will name it differently, and you will visually perceive it differently. But it will still be the very same entity.
A thought - while we can speak of universal spirits and our perception filters, there's no way to go too far. In other words, we can't discuss everything from the universal perspective. In order to talk about some of the spirits – how to work with them, where do they come from and so on – we have to discuss them from a perspective of a specific magical path or tradition. Wicca have a different perception, and Asatru have a different perception.
Different traditions speak of different ways the world was created, or how the gods and spirits were made. This can be found in mythologies – which are full of archetypes, which is another reason why we believe there is some amount of commons in magick.
Dark Beings and Evil Entities
Logically saying, if there are Light Beings, there must be Dark Beings, as well. With their own agenda to bring chaos into order and cast darkness where should be light, they operate just like Light Beings do – in order to bring harmony to the world in accordance with the Highest Good. But Dark Beings are a very difficult subject to discuss because there is a little knowledge about them. Most books mistake Dark Beings with smaller astral critters and parasites, and they do not discuss these entities in details.
Therefore, without knowledge and experience, I will discuss the evil entities, instead of Dark Beings, really. Evil entities cannot be defined as "purely evil", but as "evil from our perspective". These are the astral critters, parasites, smaller spiritual predators. Spirits that attack people in order to seek life force. Sometimes, they come, attracted by magical or spiritual practice, and they seek prey. That is why it is very important to protect yourself and the room in which you practice magick – because these entities can attach to you, and drain your life force, your very life energy.
Robert Bruce wrote:
Accepting the existence of negative spirit beings – Negs – understandably can be difficult for many people. One way around this is to consider Negs as nothing more than dense patterns of negative energy. Another is to consider them as manifestations of one's own subconscious mind or the minds of others; or you can consider them to be independent, sentient thought-forms. (…) However, regardless of what they are, if they exist at all, they must be dealt with (…).59
Some of these unpleasant entities are weak and easy to deal with, and other entities are strong and difficult to get rid of or protect against. At the beginning of your practice, you may easily attract these beings without even knowing about it – especially when you don't practice regular spiritual cleansing and when you don't protect yourself through magical means.
Some entities of this type have greater agendas known only to themselves, and some seek only life force to feed upon. In the end, they cause pain, depression, illness, and even death – thus, we call them evil entities because they do us harm.
Don't trust such spirits, nor anything they do. For example, one of the types of negative spirits is the Incubus/Succubus. While there are two different terms, it appears that this is the very same entity. Sometimes this entity project itself as a male, and other as a female. It comes at night, in visions and dreams, in which they use your sexual desires and feed you with sexual visions, feelings and experiences, leading to a physical orgasm. This allows these beings to feed upon your life force that is released along with your sexual energy. This may be pleasurable, but if you allow these beings to feed once, they will keep coming unless you are dry – then, you die. Physically.
Other entities may cause great fear in order to generate strong emotions to feed upon. They come at night to scare people by punching their greatest subconscious fears.
Elemental Spirits and Nature Spirits
Finally, there is a neutral type of entities which we call Elementals, or Elemental Spirits, and Nature Spirits. Almost every tradition of the world mentions the existence of smaller spirits that dwell in homes and buildings, taking care of such estates. Even city flats have their own spirits. Kobolds, brownies, domovik, and similar entities dwell in places of a different sort. Some can be found in mines, some can be found in a forest or river, and some can be found in houses in which we live.
Every tree, every stone, every mountain and every river has its spirit. Some are lesser, some are greater. There might be a hierarchy among such spirits. Even each flat, house and the building has its own spirits, which evolved when a man begun to build shelters. These spirits take care of our shelters, and thus, they should be rewarded and supported by us. On the British Isles, nature spirits are known as Fairies, and this word is commonly used in modern books.
These elemental and nature spirits in general are not evil nor good – they're similar to us, humans. They have their ego – if they are angry, they can do us harm. If they are happy with us, they can offer us something in ret
urn. For example, if we cut a tree without offering anything in return, the spirit may become angry, and before it passes on to "Source", it may cause mayhem in our life as a revenge. But if we care about, for example, our garden, the spirits, which dwell them, may try to support our life even by providing us with more life energy.
Elemental spirits are directly related to one of the four primary elements: fire, air, earth and water. The most popular categorization of the elemental spirits is:
Fire - Salamanders
Water - Undines
Air - Sylphs
Earth - Gnomes
These terms originate from the European magical tradition, and today they're applied to most New Age and magical literature.
These spirits can be encountered when working with the elements. For example, when you work with candles, you may notice that there is a spirit of a salamander around the candle. When cleansing magical objects within the mountain streams, undines can be encountered. Strong winds come with legions of Sylphs.
You can offer your local spirits, and to nature spirits – not just those that dwell in your house, which are often called "household spirits", but to those that visit you, too, offerings such as small money coins, or food, by placing these on the altar. You will learn about offerings and altars later on. You should also pay respect to Mother Nature, houses of others and everything that surrounds you – it's better be nice to spirits than to be unpleasant to them.
Some magical traditions work with these spirits, but more often, some of the spirits are simple attracted by spiritual, "light" practices.
I do have a story about household spirits, one that I personally experienced. A story that teaches to offer your household spirits gifts, as they will offer things in return. Once, on a rented flat, a handle broke in one of the doors. I was unable to fix it as I lack the necessary skills. I didn't think about asking the household spirits to help, yet I was making offerings to them on a regular basis, as a part of my normal animistic practice. After offering wine and some candies, few days passed and surprisingly, I have noticed that the handle worked perfectly again. As I looked upon my household spirits, they have confirmed that they fixed it. So I offered them my thanks. This story shows that, among some more serious aspects of magick, there are moments when the practitioner can relax and observe how "grounded" some spirits can be. And there are moments, experiences and events that one can hardly associate with magick, and the work of spirits. Yet, this is what one can experience from time to time.
Egregores and Servitors
There is one last type of spirits which I have to mention and describe – the egregores and servitores. Both are artificial spirits – it means that these spirits have been created by people through either conscious or unconscious magical practices.
Egregor. (…) Artificial group soul brought into being by any working magical or spiritual group – or, for that matter, any group of people united by emotional ties of any sort.60
Egregores are created with thoughts. One of the things that occur in all magical systems is the creation of thoughtforms. A thoughtform is a magical construct made of energies of our emotions. If we focus enough on something, we create a thoughtform – similar to already mentioned psiballs or other forms of programmed energy. But often, a thoughtform is created unconsciously, through our worries or concerns. These thoughtforms are like energetic manifestations of our fears, worries or problems.
With time, if you put more energies into a thoughtform, it may gain consciousness – thus, it turns into an Egregore. An Egreogre is a magical creature that was born from our thoughts and emotions, usually the negative ones. Egregores of fear of losing money exists; egregores of fear of spiders exists; egregores of our own illness exists. The more we worry, or fear, or simple feel the specific emotion, the more energy we send to the egregore. Egregores feed upon the life force. With time, they grow, and they become stronger. Strong to a point, that they may even seek new donors; thus they may influence people in order to create cults of a different sort. They often participate in channeling phenomena, which is an easy way today to seek new donors and cultists.
A problem with egregores is that if you're not sensitive nor experienced enough, you may think you work with a powerful light being, but you may be deceived, and you may work with an egregore, nothing more. Clever and dangerous egregores can replace gods or deities even in major religions. And they're simple dangerous – because just like psychic vampires, they feed upon your life force. And the less life force you have, the more depressed, ill and weak you are. Thus, if some magical practice leaves you depleted of energies, even if you take great care about magical protection and replenishment of energies, then you should consult some more experienced magical practitioner about the possibility of being attached to an egregore.
Now, a servitor is something similar to an egregore – it is a magical creature created by magus in order to perform specific tasks. But sometimes, the creature gains consciousness if it is wrongly programmed and fed with energies, and then it becomes an egregore. Your own magical creation can turn against you and against other people. This is why unexperienced magick practitioners should not dwell into the creation of servitors or similar creatures. Lack of experience on the paths of magick and spirituality results in general problems of creating egregores. Without a proper level of developed magical sensitivity, people can turn their fears into thoughtforms, which then gain consciousness, and then manipulate their creator to mislead him or her in order to feed upon life force. This happen on the magical paths, and in the paths of spiritual growth, and this is quite common for New Age paths, too.
Without enough knowledge and experience you, too, may become a victim of an egregore – the creature may deceive you, appear as a light being, ascended master, Jesus Christ, Buddha, Mikao Usui, or any other famous and "wise spiritual teacher or entity". And the manipulation goes further – using your own fears and worries, the spirit – both an egregore and other spirits in general – can try to persuade you that you're a messiah that you have a mission, that you are very special and that you should create a group of followers. In the end, the cult serves only the egregore itself. Believe it – magick practitioners with a weak mind often fall victims of their expectations and beliefs – be a Christian, and worry about not been good enough, and a spirit might appear to you posing as a Jesus Christ himself. But it's just manipulation, which you should watch out for. Be careful and responsible. Even big organisations can be taken over by an egregore; thus leading to the fall of the organization. That is why your own personal development, self-confidence and self-assessment are important elements on the path of magick.
How to Deal with Spirits
So, you encounter a spirit – what should you do? How to deal with entities and spirits? It all depends on what kind of entity you're facing. In reality, it's just like passing by people on the street. Most of them just walk their own path and pass you by, without paying too much attention to you. Some will look at you, but they won't show any interest in your person. Some might ask you to show them a way to the nearest museum, and some might ask you for help because their friend has a heart attack. Some might be a policeman, and some can be delivery boys. Some can be friendly people with a "free hugs" sing, and some might be young thugs waiting to rob you. Some can be muscular thugs just waiting to punch a knife right to your heart.
You will behave differently towards all of these people. The very same thing applies to the world of spirits. Some are neutral, and some are aggressive. Some will only protect themselves against your attacks, and some will be higher spiritual beings that can show you the way to enlightenment. But let's start with the basics.
If you don't want the spirit to dwell around you, simple tell the spirit to leave. Use a strong and firm voice, and really mean it in your heart. To many spirits such type of "order" will be enough, and they will leave. If you deal with powerful negative entity, you can ask even a stronger being which you trust for help. If you have a good
relationship with a specific deity or god, you ask these spirits for help. Or you can ask Angels to help you. If you deal with an earthbound spirit, you can ask for a psychic to help you send the spirit to the light.
If a spirit:
Persuades you that you're a messiah, or you have a special mission of salvation for humanity, then it may try to deceive you. Be careful, though, because it's not always the case – sometimes spirits wishes you to do something. These might be nature spirits in need of help, or more powerful spirits, which decided that you will become a shaman.
Ask you to create a group of followers, then it may be trying to create a cult to feed upon life energies. I have never encountered or hear about a light being or positive spirit that ask for cult creation.
Ask you to give him life force or special offerings, it may suggest that's it's a negative entity like an egregore, and you should watch out.
Offers you something and ask nothing in return, then you should be especially careful – if it's a light being then it's all right. But it may be a misleading spirit which seek a way to attach to you and manipulate you, as well.
Appears to you looking like a famous entity from your spiritual tradition – like Buddha, Jesus Christ and such – then you should be extra careful. While such experiences do occur, it's tricky – such appearances are one of the most popular ways of negative spirit to manipulate people of the weak mind. And don't even think that you're stronger, nor that your experience is definitely real – if you think this way and you're not skeptical, then you're even more susceptible for the manipulation.
These are the basic safety rules to keep in mind.
Everyone has access to spirits. Some religions say even if a follower can pray to a deity, this deity will not respond as rarely anyone is worthy. Magick and pagan paths have a different point of view. They state clearly that everyone is worthy, and spirits, from minor ones to gods and deities, come when needed or asked to. This also refers to light beings such as Angels or Bodhisattvas. And these beings can be present in different places of the world at the same time - this is called bilocation, although "bi" refers to two places at once while spirits can be present in thousands of places at once.
