Working With Spirits and The Otherworld
At its core, Spirit Work is the intersection between humans and entities or spirits. It’s working with these beings as friends, mentors, and teachers. The most common form this can show itself is in working with land wights and genus loci. This stems from working with the nature spirits that are already around you. They are in your garden, of the plants in your window, at your local park, and in the forests near you. These spirits lend helping hands to us as practitioners when we honor them and recognize them around us. Working with spirits and entities is a wholly transcendental experience as we freely share our cultures between us (do not try to work with entities who belong to closed practices if you’re not a part of that culture). There may be times of cultural disconnect and of moral disconnect as they are not, or no longer, human and therefore do not play by the same rules that we’ve designed for ourselves.
Another common spirit work practice is working with spirit guides: disincarnate spirits that walk with us to guide and protect us through this life. They are entities that we have a pact with from previous lives and from our Higher Selves that could have been friends, family, lovers, teachers, or a close companion in that life. They are not always human, as we are not always human spirits- we are just living a human incarnation. Whoever they are, we chose them as we were about to incarnate. Though sometimes they can be relatives from this life who we lost- especially at a young age.
A lesser-known form of Spirit Working is working with Plant Allies. These come to us in the form of medicinal plants that we employ and work with to heal us. It also comes in the form of developing a bond with a plant that we grew and cared for whether that is in our garden or on our window sill. We give offerings to them in the form of water, in the form of tending to them by pruning, and by giving them fertilizer to help them grow. When we work with individual plants, we are given access to the archetypal spirit of that plant as well. By cultivating and understanding this relationship we get taught more about the plant. They grow with us and give us insights when we learn to listen.
As long as humans have been around, we have known that the Otherworld exists, and we know that it is not always a safe place for humans to traverse. The Fair Folk are a prime example of this. The whole practice of working with Them usually consists of learning methodology on how to keep them appeased and at bay. Though there are some that are relatively safe to work with, there are still those who look at humans as a plaything or a tasty treat to tide them over. Other spirits will work with us and help us but to know friend from trickster requires the ability to properly discern red flags that can, and will, come up. There are spirits who will walk into our lives with the intent to manipulate and take advantage of us. Others are truly benevolent and will help us in our pursuits. They continue to walk with us because of the bonds that we forge with them.
Spirit Work isn’t for everyone. It may not fit in with your practice at the time, you may still be learning to discern what they are communicating or if they are benevolent or malevolent. It is not my intention to scare you away from spirit work, but to only give you as much information as I can from my own experience and from the experiences others have shared with me so that as you progress down this path, you are ready for what is to come and to be prepared for it. Trusting yourself and your own intuition is key for spirit work. Any red flags should be taken note of, and if possible, should be addressed as quickly as possible. Entities and spirits can and will lie to you, or they will walk the fine line of white lies to further their own agenda. Encountering these malevolent entities is not the norm, but it is something to keep in mind while exploring the Otherworldly.
Spirit work blows the doors wide open. When we acknowledge that They are there, They acknowledge that we can see them and will make contact for many different reasons, usually from a curiosity aspect more so than anything else.
Leaving behind Nature Spirits and beginning to work more within the Astral Planes, our defenses only have to get stronger and we have to keep on our toes even more. When Astral Traveling or Projecting, we can come in contact with different types of spirits and entities that have never really been mentioned here on Earth, because they are further removed from us, than Satyrs or Merpeople are. Just as we have never heard of them, they have never heard of humans. This gives us a chance to learn about completely new beings, societies, and ways of living. It also allows us to think outside of how we ever thought we could by talking and interacting with these beings.
A newer way to work with spirits is through spirit companionship/keeping shops. These are shops run by practitioners who are experienced in discernment, conjuring, anchoring methods, and most importantly vetting. These shops, Poisoned Path Conjures included, take the bulk of the work off of our clients by doing all of the discernment work for them. We take on the matchmaking process of ensuring that the entity that you bring into your home is who they say they are and ensure that they resonate with you energetically and align with what you are looking for. There is some controversy around Spirit Companionship/Keeping as it can be seen as unethical since we say that we bind these entities when it’s better described as creating an anchor point between the entity and the physical realm through vessels. As conjurers, we have also undertaken the time and energy required to learn about the different entities and their cultures and societies that we conjure from. We form pacts and contracts with them as signs of trust which allows us to conjure them and offer their companionship with humans through us. This is why virtually every shop will have different types of entities available to become companions. Essentially, we’re matchmakers that work with very specific groups of beings. What we sell is our service, time, and energy. We do not sell spirits who have not voluntarily entered into this contract themselves.
At the end of the day, no matter how you decide to approach Spirit Work, it should be a wholly rewarding experience and part of your practice. Working with these entities opens our world to totally new experiences and can help us further our own paths while learning from them and teaching them about what it is to be human.
~Conium
Featured Image: Hylas and the Water Nymphs by Henrietta Rae
venomersgarden.com/welcome
















