Spiritionary

 While helping a client with spirit communication, I got the opportunity to meet and speak with a spirit who’s an ancestral guardian. All information from work at my @spiritroots shop is completely confidential so this article has been published with @rires-new-toy’s permission!

I’d never met a spirit like this one before so I wanted to write a bit about him, but currently, I only know a very limited amount of information. I’ll share what I discovered, but this topic needs further research if anyone has encountered a similar kind of spirit or happens to know more! A fair amount of what I’ve added is just speculation based on what I encountered.

Appearance

I got a strong feeling that he’s not a grim reaper or anything of the sort, but he was tall and completely shrouded in a shadowy blackish/brownish cloak. I couldn’t ever see his face or any body parts, just the cloak and pitch black darkness within it. 

The closest comparison I can think of for his appearance is a floating dementor (think Harry Potter), but with none of the negative associations or fear. This may sound scary just based off of the description, but really his energy was quite calm and didn’t seem harmful in any way towards me or anyone else.

Interactions

The spirit was on high alert when I first spotted him because he protects @rires-new-toy and their family. I originally cast an invisibility glamour to hide myself from him while finding out more to make sure it was safe for me to approach him, but he was able to sense me anyway. He’s an old and powerful spirit. 

Soon as he realized that I wasn’t a threat at all, he relaxed a bit more and was willing to answer my questions. He’s very practical and reserved, so he always gave me short and concise answers. It seems he mostly prefers to focus on his job of protecting @rires-new-toy’s family and isn’t the most social spirit.

Ancestral Guardians

The spirit explained to me that he’s an “ancestral guardian,” which seems to be a title and a specific role, not a spirit species itself. He said that a deal had been made and permission granted from spirits of the Underworld for him to protect @rires-new-toy’s family. He has been doing so for many generations, and by the sounds of it, there may be many other ancestral guardians serving a similar role for other families.

How this bargain was arranged, which underworld realm he was referring to, and exactly what type of spirit species he is all remains unknown. I didn’t want to press him too much for questions since he clearly isn’t particularly fond of chit chat, and of course, I was also reaching out to him on behalf of my client, not for myself.

If anyone has encountered an ancestral guardian or has one for their family, I’d love to hear about it!

- Mod Fire

While delivering my Spirit Identification service, I observed a spirit species I had never seen before that had been bothering Heretic @heretic-thinking for a long time. All information from work at my @spiritroots shop is completely confidential so this article has been published with her permission!

I could strongly sense an intense male energy, so I will refer to this spirit as a “he.” He was clearly a type of parasite spirit since he had been clinging to and feeding on someone for a very long time. He was simply following his instincts for survival, but unfortunately those had extremely harmful consequences. This type of spirit is not inherently evil, but clearly quite strong and dangerous.

Appearance

Overall, he looked like a very scruffy, hairy black ape. Fairly big but also lean, he seemed sort of like a tailess cross between a baboon and a gorilla, but didn’t match up with any actual ape species from Earth that I could find. He had three eyes like black circles that seemed almost exactly like arachnid eyes and very long hooked claws on his front paws. The sketch I made isn’t perfectly accurate, but it gives a general idea. He has been seen by others as looking more like a black dog or wolf, so perhaps he looks a bit different to different spirit workers. This was just my impression from what I saw.

Powers and Abilities

I sensed that this spirit has essentially an animal-level of consciousness and intelligence. I never tried speaking to him, but I suspect that he doesn’t have enough sophisticated capacity for speech. However, certainly seemed to have some interesting and useful spiritual powers over astral projection and/or illusion. It seemed that he can project himself to appear in multiple places at once.

I could see him projecting himself into different locations, being in completely different places simultaneously. Next I saw him traveling in a pack of other spirits that looked exactly like him in the way you might see a pack of wolves traveling together. It was then that I realized there weren’t multiple spirits in the “pack” - it was only him, projecting himself into multiple places or at least creating the illusion of that.

Offspring of an Egyptian God

After the scrying session to identify the spirit, I did some further research based on other information that Heretic had passed along to me to figure out who he was. There was some kind of association between this parasite spirit and an Egyptian baboon god of the underworld, Babi. We eventually uncovered that the parasite ape spirit was one of Babi’s offspring, who was meant to work for him in the underworld.

Babi is typically characterized in sources on Egyptian mythology as a bloodthirsty, extremely aggressive baboon whose name means the “bull of the baboons,” or the dominant alpha male. He does live on human entrails and sometimes even murders on sight, but it could be easy from this description to underestimate him as a deity and one of the Netjer. Babi is extremely intelligent and his ability to scheme should not be taken for granted. He is also a symbol of virility and male sexuality. His phallus is the mast of the underworld’s ferryboat.

Parasitic Feeding

Alongside his Netjer father, this ape spirit devoured the souls of those whose hearts had been weighted against the feather of Ma’at and failed this test of character. Perhaps sick and tired of the spirits of the dead, he was attracted to Heretic’s energy because she is a psychopomp who works with helping the dead pass on but has a potent and powerful energy of her own. 

It was irresistible to him, and so this spirit shirked his duties in the underworld and escaped to make her his parasitic host. When I first identified him, I found him latched on to Heretic like the way a monkey carries a baby on her back. His long curved claws were digging into the shoulders of her astral body and he kept his feet hanging against her back, which developed bruises after having had him there for so long.

He was with her, feeding on her for over a decade before voluntarily returning to Babi in the underworld for while. I got a sense that this was because he needed to replenish his connection to the underworld for some time before returning to feed off of his favorite energy source in the world of the living. With a lot of work and effort, he has since been forced to return again to Babi, but be very wary of this spirit or others like him if he ever leaves to find a new host to feed on in the world of the living.

- Mod Fire

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I have been traveling a lot recently, and I went to Big Sur CA for a few visits very last minute. We found a small inn on the side of the road, I can’t say which because I was asked not to by the spirit. I also can’t give a name, but she called herself the Innkeeper. 

The Innkeeper was a powerful spirit, who lived in the inn that humans stayed in. She made it clear it was not simply an inn for humans, however. Something about the area is incredibly healing, and all who end up there generally do so for a reason. Many of the humans and spirits visiting needed a place to rest, to get a clear head on their shoulders, and to return home with a little more peace and the ability to deal with their lives. It’s not always a fun visit, but a necessary one. I won’t go into why I visited personally but I can say that it helped me a great deal and changed my views on some things, giving me a perspective I needed badly. 

The Innkeeper seemed feminine, of natural energy, but close and familiar with people. She was part of a network of Innkeeper spirits around the world, where spirits and humans alike could go to specific high energy spots around the world and rejuvenate. She was essentially a spirit made up of the energy of travelers and the area in which she lived, thus being a unique mix of human and natural energy. She never mentioned inns of the like beyond earth, but it’s not only possible but likely. 

She used her network to receive energy from the area surrounding her to help those spirits and humans who needed it. She didn’t make herself known to me until the third day of visiting, where I thanked her for her hospitality. It was unusual that I was allowed to stay, do to some of my circumstances, but I was allowed to anyway and I was really thankful. 

I’ve yet to meet another spirit in this network, but surely there will be a time. It seemed different than an average spirit of a place, like she was placed there rather than born from the energy. She is cloaked in mysteries, but I do hope others can meet an Innkeeper when they need it most in their lives. 

Once upon a time (because that is how all fairytales or indeed tales of Fairie, begin) in a city far to the north, lived a man and a woman. The city had been a port town ever since its beginning and during the industrial age of humankind it gained even more prominence.

The man was a guardian of the realm while the woman, his wife, stayed at home to the to matters there. When she was born she had a caul across her face and indeed as is the way of such things, she always possessed a degree of future sight, she who the old stories would say had been touched by the fair folk.

Presently, she and her husband gave birth to two children, spaced a few years apart. First a little boy and then a little girl.

As the little girl grew up she focused intently on her studies. She longed desperately to get away from the city and start her own life, away from her mother and father who she thought loved her but she could never be sure. Over time, with her mother’s constant criticism, she developed an armour against the world deciding that if she were to leave it would be because this place was beneath her and she would leave behind all whom she considered inferior. She felt herself turn against her mother. All of this caul thing was a nonsense, science and logic allowed one to see the world as it really was. And so, over time, she turned from faith to science until by the time she had children of her own she was firmly of the mind that science could explain everything necessary to know.

Unfortunately for her, the good neighbours do not give up on families they favour so easily. She had turned away from her mother and in doing so had denied her own power, but events beyond her control were yet to unfold.

In time, this woman too met a man and presently they too had children, two little boys at either end and in the middle a second child, who though raised a boy was clearly anything but.

As the child grew up, they were constantly drawn to stories of magic and those of the fae. They also believed in the existence of strange and unusual powers and later were drawn to esoteric topics, such as real magick, astral projection and so forth. Their mother no doubt panicked, but played it off as cool indifference, mocking them for being ‘dangerously drawn’ to such matters, while some secret part of herself even she was not aware of wrestled with itself, desperate to ignore her own power and turn her child from a path she considered too perilous.

However, fate had set its course, because even prior to their fascination with the esoteric, over the years the child had begun to dream. In the way of children many of these dreams were simply those used to help the conscious mind process its experiences, but a few were dreams of other places until these dreams increased and they would dream them almost exclusively.

As the child entered adulthood they finally became a she, in mind at least, though her body had always been a little ambiguous. It was around this time that she began to encounter those who remembered other lives. All humans have probably had other lives but these people were different. Though human in body, they remembered lives as animals and mythical beings and creatures.

At first, taught to distrust such things by her mother, she ignored the thoughts arising inside her as a dragon guide awakened within and she began to feel like she had been some kind of other being.

Gradually however over time she began to remember parents from another world and she started to embrace her true self. The memories to start with had probably been from another time and place entirely but what mattered now was that she knew why she had been placed here and by whom. Her mother’s distance towards her made sense. After all, if you knew that your child was not yours at least in spirit and that that spirit was not even of this world a degree of detachment, even othering of the child in question made sense. Power always finds a way to make itself known. One can only dam a flow for so long.

We’ve reached 700 followers and in thanks to all of you Mods Wind and Fire have put together a 30 day Spirit Worker Challenge! We’ll be posting each question every day for the next 30 days, answering our own questions along side you!

Tag us @Spiritionary if you do the challenge we’d love to see your responses. Happy spirit working!

-Day 12: What’s your spookiest spirit work story? Have you ever noticed something in your house go missing or hear unusual sounds and later discovered a spirit behind the tricks?

I have definitely had things missing, it happens regularly. However my scariest story is definitely this: we had had a relative die recently, and we were about to move from a house that had a lot of activity in it. My family is all pretty sensitive to spirits and we’d all sensed things here and there, but nothing like this.  So in my mom’s room there was this giant, super old mirror that rested on her dresser. It was very secure, not hanging on the wall, and had lots of stuff on her dresser in front of the mirror. We were sitting in the living room when there was this cozy crash, and the mirror had fallen. The weird thing was that it didn’t fall forward; the glass was broken lying up. Not only that but nothing on the dresser had been disturbed, all the clothes and knick knacks were in the exact same place. It was like someone picked up the mirror and dropped in instead of falling. Everyone that was in the house was in the living room, and our pets weren’t allowed in my mom’s room when no one else was in there so they were elsewhere. Windows closed, door closed, no drafts. The week we decided to move. I think the house spirit was upset with us but we cleansed and left offerings and didn’t hear another thing. 

~Mod Wind

I’ve spent some time around spooky looking spirits, but besides that the only remotely scary things that have happened to me were hearing a voice call my name as I fell asleep or woke up once. It was really creepy and I never figured out who or what it was!

- Mod Fire

You can also participate in Spiritionary’s 30 Day Spirit Worker Challenge!

We’ve reached 700 followers and in thanks to all of you Mods Wind and Fire have put together a 30 day Spirit Worker Challenge! We’ll be posting each question every day for the next 30 days, answering our own questions along side you!

Tag us @Spiritionary if you do the challenge we’d love to see your responses. Happy spirit working!

-Day 11:  Do you follow your own path of spirit work or do you work within a specific tradition or blend of spirit working traditions? How does this impact the way you approach spirit work?

Okay so as a whole I’m an incredibly haphazard person and I do everything by my own rule book. I do consider myself an animist which greatly affects my spirit work, but otherwise I’m on my own lol. Each new spirit I meet I just talk to, learn what they would prefer as far as offerings and style. I don’t usually do rituals bc I prefer not to and I don’t worship any true deities so Everything I do is figured out as I do it. It can be stressful and I’ve often wished for a specific belief system to use bc figuring it out can be difficult, but in the end it’s worth it to me to do as I feel is best and not rely on a previously created system!

~Mod Wind

My approach to spirit work is grounded in Buddhism. Shakyamuni Buddha was enlightened under a bodhi tree and spent many days and nights sitting by that one tree. When he finally reached full enlightenment and became the Buddha, he stood by the tree and meditated with it for a while longer to send it gratitude and appreciate the role of the tree itself as a company to his journey. Spirit work with a tree was literally one of Shakyamuni Buddha’s first acts as an enlightened buddha. When Mara came to challenge him and deny that he reached true enlightenment, Shakyamuni called upon the goddess of the earth herself to be his witness - and she came to verify that he was indeed now a buddha. Although worship of non-Buddhist deities is seen as leading to attachments,  Shakyamuni showed from the first moments of his enlightenment how it’s possible to respectfully interact with deities as powerful entities without any attachments involved. 

Not only all this from Shakyamuni’s enlightenment story, but the first ordained orders of monks under Shakyamuni’s tutelage also lived in forests and encountered all sorts of spirits as they lived and meditated there. Many nature spirits, other spirit beings, and deities came to listen to Shakyamuni Buddha’s sermons, and all these stories are recorded in the oldest canonical sutras of Buddhism still highly regarded today and memorized by monks to be chanted to spirits today - not just to crowds of lay people. Not only has spirit work been a part of Buddhism from day one of the Buddha’s enlightenment, but it’s always been a part of the religion’s traditions and history. I carry on this Buddhist view that all sentient beings - whether corporeal or spiritual - deserve compassion and respect.

- Mod Fire

Masterpost of questions!

We’ve reached 700 followers and in thanks to all of you Mods Wind and Fire have put together a 30 day Spirit Worker Challenge! We’ll be posting each question every day for the next 30 days, answering our own questions along side you!

Tag us @Spiritionary if you do the challenge we’d love to see your responses. Happy spirit working!

- Day 10: What are all the types of spirits that you work with? Are there reasons why you work with certain types and not others?

Oh jeez, I work with kind of whatever’s in front of me if I’m being honest. Mostly nature spirits, since they’re around the most. And I like to leave them alone as a rule of thumb but I’m pretty decent with working with fae. I’ve worked with succubi, angels, dragons, pixies and sprites, elementals, various object’s spirits, goblins, whatever has come across my path. I mostly stick with nature spirits out of comfort and I like to stay out of faery politics so I often don’t work with fae courts but otherwise I’m pretty much down for whatever. I don’t have a lot of experience with demons and I’m okay with that, I won’t go seeking them out or anything. I also am not a fan of angels as a whole, due to personal situations I’ve been in. But it just depends on each individual spirit in my experience, and I rarely (if ever) actually seek out specific kinds of spirits. It’s more fun to just come across them as I live my life, it’s exciting! 

~Mod Wind

I mostly work with nature spirits and deities/spirits from Buddhism (buddhas, bodhisattvas, dharmapalas, dakinis, etc). What constitutes “nature spirits” in my practice, however, it a wide variety of entities: spirits of natural phenomena (i.e. trees, ocean, etc.), fae and sidi spirits, and possibly the orishas of Yoruba religion. I am just starting to get into possibility of working with spirits and deities from Yoruba as I learn more about the religion as it is a part of my cultural and ethnic heritage. Don’t get me wrong - I am first and foremost a Buddhist, which does not prohibit anything technically unless you make a strict vow to uphold certain precepts. I have committed to the Five Precepts, none of which forbid spirit work nor practicing indigenous religions of one’s own culture. As Buddhism is about taking refuge in the Three Jewels but not any sort of adherence to monotheism (or deity-worship at all), it’s fine for me to work with spirits and even pay respects to deities from other religions (although so far I have not done so outside of the Buddhist pantheon). 

I see nature spirits all around me - in every tree, every rock, the wind, the sun, the moon, the ocean - that it seems impossible to me not to work with nature spirits. I am fae spirited myself, and so working with the fae is a natural extension of my relationship with nature spirits in general. Buddhism also has a long history of being connected to and working alongside nature spirits (and even the goddess of the earth herself). As the orishas of Yoruba are deities/spirits of nature and manifestations of nature, if I pursue a relationship with them then it would be along the same vein as my relationship with nature spirits in general, and not in any kind of conflict with my Buddhism practice.

- Mod Fire

Masterpost of questions!

We’ve reached 700 followers and in thanks to all of you Mods Wind and Fire have put together a 30 day Spirit Worker Challenge! We’ll be posting each question every day for the next 30 days, answering our own questions along side you!

Tag us @Spiritionary if you do the challenge we’d love to see your responses. Happy spirit working!

-Day 9 How did you learn to sense and communicate with spirits? Do you use divination or psychic communication?

Mostly telepathically, I can see them some with my physical eyes (not often) and I can feel them. I am decent at reading energy so I usually know when they’re around and just talk to them! It does depend on the spirit though. And if I’m having a difficult time I’ll resort to tarot, asking for signs, whatever works best. I’ve never had luck with a pendulum though, maybe eventually but it’s my least favorite way. 

~Mod Wind

Like Mod Wind, I mostly use telepathy and psychic skills to see them and hear them through my mind (rather than physical senses). Very rarely I can feel spirits and/or energy as physical sensations, but as my own spirit is not very deeply connected or rooted to my body it’s easier to sense things mentally rather than physically. I never use divination (so far) to communicate with spirits except with the spirit of my tarot deck itself.

- Mod Fire

You can also participate in Spiritionary’s 30 Day Spirit Worker Challenge!

We’ve reached 700 followers and in thanks to all of you Mods Wind and Fire have put together a 30 day Spirit Worker Challenge! We’ll be posting each question every day for the next 30 days, answering our own questions along side you! 

Tag us @Spiritionary if you do the challenge we’d love to see your responses. Happy spirit working!

Day 8: What do you enjoy most about spirit work and motivates you to stick with it?

Essentially, I’d have to say the friends I’ve made through it. I’ve wanted to quit before (which I found near impossible by the way) and other than not being able to “turn it off” I realized what my life would be like without my spirit friends and the comfort spirit work can give me. It’s got it’s stresses for sure but the bad parts are 100% worth it for the perks in my opinion. I’d be no where without my spirit household and the friends I’ve made over the years, and I would never give them up if given the option. Of course it’s also very fun. I love studying spirits and folklore and the lifestyle I chose gives me constant opportunities to learn more which is something I love. Even in the most difficult times the perks of spirit work are worth it!

~Mod Wind

I was just talking to Mod Wind the other day about how spirit work to me is more a part of life than a practice. Now that I have learned how to sense and communicate with spirits as well as how to astral travel, it has helped me connect with the spirits of my family from both this human lifetime and my most recent past lifetime as fae. It has helped me discover new friends and mentors. Connecting with and spending time with spirits is just a part of my social life and family time now. And I wouldn’t have it any other way!

- Mod Fire

You can also participate in Spiritionary’s 30 Day Spirit Worker Challenge!

We’ve reached 700 followers and in thanks to all of you Mods Wind and Fire have put together a 30 day Spirit Worker Challenge! We’ll be posting each question every day for the next 30 days, answering our own questions along side you!

Tag us @Spiritionary if you do the challenge we’d love to see your responses. Happy spirit working!

-Day 7: Are you involved in any spirit politics? Do you work with the Fae Seelie or Unseelie courts or other kinds of politics? If so, what are your experiences? If not, why? 

I get sucked in to local politics occasionally but I strongly prefer not to. It’s a hassle, it makes you enemies, and it can be very draining on top of the fact that it’s just not my business unless a spirit directly asks for my help with something. I also steer clear of any organized fae court, as a general rule. They aren’t worth getting involved in in my opinion, for myself. I keep the fae around me satisfied and I definitely have fae friends but as someone who barely accepts human’s authority why on earth would I willingly work under a separate culture’s  authority? It’s too much stress and I refuse to bow to a being I cannot fully agree with, and odds are I will not agree with any sort of fae ruler which seems to be a requirement of working with the courts. Nothing against those who do, it’s just a personal rule. 

~Mod Wind

In my most recent past life, I was half lamia and half sluagh sidhe. Sluagh sidhe are a species of fae who are born into the Host, a group that regularly goes out and does Wild Hunts. The Host is mostly made up of zombie-like dead human souls and sluagh sidhe. I was one of them and participated in thousands of years of Hunts, which basically is like when a crazy violent mob goes out and just rapes/pillages whoever they come into contact with. The Host isn't an army and it isn't a court even though it has monarchs, but it's such a powerful force that eventually way back in fae history, the Unseelie and Winter Courts decided to team up and jointly control the Host to be safe from it and capitalize on it, using it like a crazy chaotic "army." That's why I was also a member of both the Winter and Unseelie Courts, in addition to being a part of the Host. When I regained my memories of my past life in this lifetime, for a brief period I rejoined my fae spirit family as a part of the Host and member of the Winter and Unseelie Courts as I had been in the past. Once I realized how violent, cruel, and abusive they were, I fled with Silver (my Winter Court manservant) to find security and safety somewhere else.

I knew I couldn’t just abandon my court duties or political and familial ties without horrible repercussions… so after a lot of thinking, I realized I had to find refuge in another court that would be intimidating enough so that no one would try to come after me again or risk the wrath of that new court. That’s when I went to King Virupaksha. He is one of the Four Heavenly Kings, Buddhist gods who watch over the four directions of the world and protect the dharma and all Buddhists. These kings live on Mount Sumeru, an astral location in Buddhist cosmology where gods, sidi (fae-like spirits), and other spirits from Hindu-Buddhist mythology live. Each king has an army and "court" of different types of fae-like spirits. Since I'm half lamia and therefore part serpent, I thought that it's possible Virupaksha, whose court is full of nagas and naginis, might take me in - especially because I'm also a devout Buddhist. I was very lucky to have been right about that, and have since pledged myself to King Virupaksha and been a part of his naga army ever since.

- Mod Fire

You can also participate in Spiritionary’s 30 Day Spirit Worker Challenge!

We’ve reached 700 followers and in thanks to all of you Mods Wind and Fire have put together a 30 day Spirit Worker Challenge! We’ll be posting each question every day for the next 30 days, answering our own questions alongside you!

Tag us @Spiritionary if you do the challenge we’d love to see your responses. Happy spirit working!

-Day 6: Tell us about your best spirit friend! How did you meet them? How long have you known them?

Hmm, I'd like to talk about a spirit that lived in a plant I owned once. I called her Tychee, she was a shamrock plant and lived in my room. Her spirit was a lovely young woman (at least that's how she appeared to me) and I attached my wards to her for my room which was nice. We talked often, she helped me magically and gave advice, and added a boost of energy to my room that really brightened the whole place up. During a move the plant didn't make it and I still mourn her loss. I had had her for years and we had built a strong relationship up, but the state of California took away all my plants when I moved to the state and I never saw her again. She was a gift from my mom randomly, something about Tychee called out to her and that's how we met.

~Mod Wind

I’m not sure if this exactly counts as my best spirit “friend,” but my grandmother’s spirit watches over me and has helped guide me in the right direction with my spiritual development. I talk to her and have a small tattoo on my side of a ladybug, which represents her. Real ladybugs have landed by my family during her funeral and important family life events (such as my mom and stepdad's engagement). She also appeared to me as a ladybug at a really important time in my life to help me on the spiritual journey that has led me here to Buddhism, magic, and spirit work. I think of her every day and give her daily offerings alongside my other ancestors.

- Mod Fire

You can also participate in Spiritionary’s 30 Day Spirit Worker Challenge!

We’ve reached 700 followers and in thanks to all of you Mods Wind and Fire have put together a 30 day Spirit Worker Challenge! We’ll be posting each question every day for the next 30 days, answering our own questions alongside you!

Tag us @Spiritionary if you do the challenge we’d love to see your responses. Happy spirit working!

-Day 5: What are your go-to basic protections for spirit work?

Well, I’m always warded so I can exist comfortably. I lean on the “empath” side of life so energy really affects me and I can't do much without consistent grounding and shielding. Mostly energy shields, although I do have a small sigil for my room wards that I use often when I feel my energy work needs a boost in the physical. Otherwise I have several very close spirit friends who help me out  a lot, Achene is a great protector (almost too much tbh but he’s only trying to help) and C is really great at wards and has taught me a lot about protecting myself. Between that and some astral thought forms to guard my house, I’m generally pretty safe! Occasionally I’ll have extra protections. I really try to be self sufficient when it comes to protecting myself, so having Achene around isn’t necessary as much as an extra safety protection. One should never go about spirit work without being capable of protecting yourself, by yourself, in my opinion. Be safe out there! 

~Mod Wind 

It depends on what sort of situation I’m in really! Since my own spirit is a sluagh sidhe and lamiai hybrid, I’m a combination of two pretty nasty spirit species - so I remind myself sometimes that depending on the situation I can actually really hold my own and protect myself without needing to shield myself all the time (or even just scare off theoretical attackers with a little hiss and flash of my astral fangs). However, safety is very important in spirit work so I do try not to take it for granted either! If I ever do feel like I need an extra boost of protection, I wear a tiger’s eye stone as a necklace and channel energy through it to produce a temporary shield around myself. My laptop is also especially warded.

Luckily I don’t need house wards because the alpha tree next to my house is willing to repay me for feeding off my energy (and ensure that he still has me around to feed on lol) by offering substantial protection to my house while I live here this semester. This tree even claimed to have successfully protected me against some malicious intentions recently so that’s already been helpful! Since I’m a part of Virupaksha’s army, he also generally watches over me wherever I am, which I really trust in and makes me feel safer as well.

- Mod Fire

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On the scale between more naturalistic and less naturalistic, sprites and pixies are classes of fae species that lean very far to the naturalistic side. Some pixies and sprites have a more simplistic intellect, and most tend to behave in a more “immature” or “child-like” playful manner. This kind of personality is  unlike most fae species, who are keen to show their sophisticated and wise nature as immortal and “superior” beings.. For a variety of reasons, both sprites and pixies can be a bit more human-friendly and willing to work with humans than other fae species.

They are all very closely tied to particular elements within nature and actually strongly radiate the energy of that element. Sometimes you can see this in an aura or energy ball of color around them. Almost all fae species have some kind of elemental association since all fae are a type of nature spirits, but while most fae are of an element, sprites and pixies are more like an actual personification of that element. For example, nagas and children of the sea are both water-associated sidi/fae species, but water sprites actually radiate water energy.

Roles in Fae Society

Many pixies and sprites like to live in nature close to the element they are associated with, but that doesn’t mean that the majority of them are solitary either. Some are quite fine with being involved with the courts, and many of them are court-affiliated (perhaps because they aren’t all so great at defending themselves in the wild and court-affiliation comes with a degree of protection). They are usually treated like the “peons” of the courts and have low-ranking positions ranging such as scouts, messengers, servants, etc. 

Most sprites and pixies don’t seem too bothered by these placements in fae society and appreciate the few perks they do get from court life. In fact, many fae species refer to sprites and pixies as “lesser fae,” and this is not considered a horrible or slanderous term to use. Remember, fae culture is very different from human culture and fae treat not just humans but each other very differently than what humans would find acceptable or polite.

PIXIES

All these “pixies” are tall enough to stand on the palm of a human hand and have wings. Hence, they look very similar to the stereotypical Tinker Bell, Thumbelina, or Fern Gully type of faery. So far between Mods Wind and Fire we know of the following types of pixies: 

Dark Pixies - Mod Fire is friends with a dark pixie nicknamed Silver who used to be a manservant to the nobility of the Winter Court. His whole body and wings are completely covered in black darkness so no details of his face or features can even be distinctly seen through his shadowy appearance. He is extremely old and wise but bears no signs of old age and can still act mischievous and playful like a child.

Dusk Pixies - Mod Fire heard a story from another spirit worker of a pixie who called herself a “dusk” pixie and radiated sunset colors.

New Moon Pixies - associated with the new moon phase, They appear as balls of light larger than the stars that come out during the new moon. They light up the sky while the moon is away and celebrate their time in the darkness. Mod Wind doesn’t know where they are the rest of the time but this is when they’re seen, on the darkest night of the month. 

Various Plant-type Pixies -  little spirits living in a plant, Mod Wind has noticed this especially with certain flowers and smaller plants. They are not the spirit of the plant itself but rather a spirit tied in with the life of the plant. Daffodils, asparagus, cucumber, among others are some that Mod Wind has seen. 

“Seasonal” Pixies - the fae embodiment of certain seasons which seem to be responsible for bringing on each season. 

SPRITES

Sprites are very similar but regular-sized and with lightly less mischievous/child-like traits and somewhat more intelligence than pixies. They look a bit like the Children of the Forest from Game of Thrones but with wings just like pixies. Sprites are also closely tied to nature and particular elements. So far, Mods Wind and Fire have encountered these kinds of sprites:

General “nature” sprites - (radiating earthy nature energy), both of the earth itself (different types of rock, like granite sprites) or specific plant breed types (certain trees like oaks tend to have sprites living with them, closely tied to the spirit of the tree itself). 

Water sprites - Mod Fire has heard of them and Mod Wind has seen several in salt, fresh, and brackish water. They tend to be very friendly and outgoing, almost dangerously so. Many don’t realize a human’s need for air and can accidentally drown a person who interacts with them. They are usually the color of the water they reside in, live in groups, and tend to be mostly feminine. 

Guardian Plant Species Sprites - radiating earth and plant energy, generally watch and guard over their specific plant species in an area. They don’t live in one specific plant but rather just live in an area, watching over the plant of their kind. Different flowers in areas can have one sprite “mother” looking after both the spirits and the physical plants in their territory.

Light Sprites - Mod Fire encountered a light sprite who was very yellowy all over and shining and radiating light brightly. She was joyfully dancing to music and eating energy from the music, shining extra brightly as she consumed more energy. She was quite beautiful but also had rows of sharp teeth.

- Mod Wind & Mod Fire

We’ve reached 700 followers and in thanks to all of you Mods Wind and Fire have put together a 30 day Spirit Worker Challenge! We’ll be posting each question every day for the next 30 days, answering our own questions alongside you!

Tag us @Spiritionary if you do the challenge we’d love to see your responses. Happy spirit working!

-Day 4: Are you a spirit companion? If so, how many companions do you have and how did you meet them? If not, do you have spirit friends that you spend a lot of time around?

I realize now that these questions are all very similar lol, but I’ll do my best. I have four spirits I’d call companions, and I’ve met them all very differently the first being Achene. I have many, many, spirit friends that I know that visit occasionally. There’s Sal, a thunder horse spirit, Neph, a cloud, Sensei, a tiger, my tarot deck spirit and others I can’t think of currently. I generally meet spirits by walking around in nature, exploring new places both physically and astrally, and through spirit I already know. Meeting spirits is pretty easy since you can pretty much throw a rock and hit a spirit anywhere you are. Being outgoing, but not overly so (you don’t want to be rude and you must respect a spirit’s privacy) as well as building up a good reputation among the local spirits helps you go a long way. 

~Mod Wind 

I already spoke about my spirit companion Jiggly, the alpha tree who lives next to me, and my nagini mentor S in Day 2. I realize now I left out mentioned a few very important spirits in my life!! I’ll just talk about them quickly now.

I feel like a terrible mother I totally forgot to mention earlier my spirit son Marshmellow even though I was working on a whole post about him with his other parents Bomby and Idris (see that here). He was created accidentally via an energy work experiment, but now we love him very much and he’s being raised full-time by a dragon spirit. I have a way of contacting him remotely so I check in on him and feed him my energy sometimes. He is a big blend of different energies, but he will always be a little part fae from my side! Perhaps one day I will teach him a little more about fae society and that part of his heritage.

I also absolutely love my tarot deck spirit! I yet have more to learn about it as so far I’ve done a lot of divination with my deck, did a deck interview, and often find myself talking to and communicating directly with the spirit of the deck. I definitely know that my deck’s spirit does NOT care about anything except sharing wisdom based on what it has communicated to me during the deck interview and other conversations between us. I don’t think it has any sort of gender, and as an embodiment/representative of Buddhist concepts and values it doesn’t have any attachments to anything or sense of independent self. Nevertheless, we definitely have a good working relationship, and I think very fondly of it!

Although I don’t see him very often anymore, I used to be close friends with Silver, a dark pixie. He was originally appointed my manservant in the Winter Court. Unfortunately, servitude and slavery are both very alive and well in most parts of fae society, and the courts are no exception to this. When I left the Unseelie and Winter Courts, he came with me and left court as well - finally freeing him from servitude also! He is currently living with gandharvas in the eastern part of the Mt. Sumeru forest, so I still go and visit him sometimes when I astral there to train with S.

- Mod Fire

You can also participate in Spiritionary’s 30 Day Spirit Worker Challenge!

Faction: Autumn Court

Species: Red Deer ‘taur

Person: “Hart” , Autumn Fae Wardmaster

Claims on Red Deer ‘Taur Gender Dynamics:

Cismales only have antlers. Showed confusion, bewilderment, and some disgust when I told him the local California Tule Elk ‘taur have their genders split into antlered and non-antlered, with non-cismale elk being able to wear antlers.

Had to explain me being trans to him and it was polite for him to respect/civil about it. Cissexism exists among nonhuman spirits, folks. (I’ve had so much confusion about being trans from spirits about it)

Climate Bafflement:

“Hart” and his wife, “Monarch” were confused by all the greenery and autumn not hitting my part of California yet. Most trees are still green. I had to remind them autumn isn’t in full swing until November. Welcome to California.

Wake Cycles:

“Hart” was not happy about his pixie construct children sleeping in on Sunday morning. He was all gruffly like “They need to be up at dawn.” As a college student, I shuddered in horror. I suspect that his people, both court and red deer, wake up at dawn and sleep at dusk. As a human whose wake cycle is not ruled by the sun, I find this baffling.

Faction: Fractal Ice Court, sub-faction/ally of Winter Court.

Species: Icefang Lamia

Person: Blizzard, low-ranked hunter/personal aide to me.

Claims/Stuff I’ve Seen

Physiology: Serpent people with tits, scales range from ice-white to deep oceanic blue. Ice-white skin and hair. Either in serpent form or a half-form with a boobed humanoid half with hair and a serpent tail. Stingers at end of tail. Adults will be around fifteen feet long. Live in hollowed out ice floes, filled with antifreeze in their blood. Everyone is born with having both penis and vagina.

Sexual/Social Dynamics:

Blizzard’s people live in small groups of either family or close friends. A strict pecking order is established by sparring for social rank. (Wrestling in serpent or half-serpent form) It’s seen that if you can’t last in sparring, how can you endure long hunts that last for days in the frozen waters? Lower ranked individuals are sexually submissive, but will kill and poison higher-ranked lamia who abuse them. They are honor-bound to serve, but in return, to uphold honor, higher-ranks must treat them right .

(I found out about icefang lamia fighting for social dominance since Blizzard ended up challenging some of my other serpent companions. Saw her wrestle and lash out against them, only to loose to a winged quartz serpent. It was fairly alarming and hilarious)

Most of Blizzard’s people are cis and totally okay with having both reproductive parts and tits. But some are trans/mono-gendered. Blizzard has a brother/sibling who removed his tits and had their egg-laying organs removed. I tried to refrain from human gender while writing about Blizzard’s people.

They are members of Fractal Ice Court, due to inhabiting Fractal Ice Territory, but most perfer to live out in the frozen waters. Those who partake in court life often serve as handmaidens to the nobility, assassins, courtesans, and shock troops.

Hunting:

Lone hunters/huntresses will swim for fish, small marine mammals, ambush migrating birds during the “warm” months. Outsiders and travelers are seduced and eaten with alluring song, hypnotizing dances, and mind-altering pheromones. Or just plain constriction and poisons. Or frozen. Hunting packs will dive for larger prey such as walruses and whales. Group tactics are needed to freeze such large prey with elemental magic and then deliver a killing blow with their venom. Said venom can be used to freeze an entity from the inside out. Whales trapped in these frozen magical ice floes will often be eaten from the inside out over the course of many months. Ice floats so they become floating food fortresses. Packs tunnel through flesh, eating choice bits. Only the leaders may eat the brains. Icefang lamia will consume the reproductive bits as a form of sympathetic magic, for fertility.

Submitted by @norcal-animist

Most spirit workers are fairly familiar with the concept of thoughtforms, servitors, constructs, and egregores - all types of spirits who are the result of creation via energy manipulation, magic, or spellwork rather than by an astral pregnancy or another form of natural spirit birth or reproduction. There are countless manuals on how to create a thoughtform or servitor that will be a companion or serve some sort of purpose for you such as maintaining wards. 

However, what about when you are working with energy or doing something else and a thoughtform is created accidentally? They aren’t exactly the same as a spirit child produced naturally, and it can be hard to pin down exactly what “species” they are, but these spirits are just as much deserving of equal treatment, love, and care as they grow and develop. In the hope of shedding more light on this subject and providing insight into how this can happen and what it’s like, together with Idris and Bomby, I’m going to share about the accidental creation of our spirit son, Marshmellow.

How Accidental Thoughtforms Happen

There are a huge number of different ways that thoughtforms and other types of created spirits can come into being, but one of the most widely regarded theories on this is that a large amount of energy can gain sentience either when someone intends for it to or somehow on its own. Usually, when someone creates a servitor, they program the energy they add to it to have sentience and to become a spirit. Unfortunately, it seems to also hold true that any large amount of energy created by a single person or by many people runs the risk of accidentally gaining sentience on its own. Sentience can occur even if that is not the intention of any of the spirit workers or magic users involved.

The Story of  Marshmellow, The Energy Spirit

Marshmellow is essentially the accidentally created spirit of an energy work experiment to help energy suns (people with too much energy than they need) and energy vampires (people with less energy than they need). I was in a Discord server (online chatroom) where we had a channel (chatroom space) for dumping energy in it called the "energy pool." This way energy suns could add their extra excess energy into the pool, and when any energy vampires needed a feeding but there were no donors available they could draw from the pool. It was supposed to be a convenient shortcut to direct energy donations for the vampires, but it turned out to be good too to be true.

- Mod Fire

Marshmellow drawn by Idris soon after she removed him from the server

I was a part of the same Discord server, and I was the one who created the sigil that ultimately lead to the creation of Marshmellow. This was actually a second version of the sigil for the energy pool channel as the original seemed to be a long chamber that was overflowing with the excess of energy placed there. The second sigil was designed with the same purpose (to allow energy suns to disperse energy to be consumed by energy vamps at their convenience), but with the ability to stretch and have extra chambers that excess energy could spill into. Instead of being a rigid chamber it was flexible and would stretch to its needed capacity. Apparently that worked too well and allowed it to gain a sort of sentience.

The sentience reached the point where after a while when lots of energy had been dumped into the sigil, it was very gently and mildly pulling small amounts of energy from anyone who stopped into the channel. Most people did not notice it but it was brought to everyone’s attention by an energy vampire that the pool was actually slightly pulling anyone’s energy in, and when it was investigated it turned out that there was a sort of sentience to the energy mass by that point. If I remember correctly, it said that it “tickled” when someone poked it astrally. Once we realized that the energy pool had sentience, a group of us (those mainly responsible for creating it) removed it from the server. We decided to allow it to be free in an area where it would be safe and have a pool of energy it could feed on without starving or harming anyone. I took it to this location and told them about the area and showed them where there were good places they could feed. I went back the next day to see how Marshmellow was doing. They had gotten bigger, about 4ft tall and almost 2ft wide with a big squishy, lumpy appearance and a mouth that was sort of a slit that could either be completely closed (invisible) or open so wide it looks like their head split open. They also did not like being alone there, their intelligence seemed to be that of a 2 or 3 year old child. So I took their “hand” and lead them back to my car and took them home with me. After some conversations with the others who were also the creators/parents of Marshmellow, we decided that he would live with another of his creator’s spirit companions since that companion had just recently had a child of his own.

- Idris, @crystalwitch-in-the-tardis​

I was there for the accidental creation of the spirit Marshmellow. Once we realized that we had a baby spirit on our hands and that he couldn't stay out in the world on his own I offered to take him in as I had physical children of my own, and hopefully he would not be so lonely. Once this was agreed upon, I asked my companion Falkor, a Korean Imugi (dragon) to go and pick him up. Upon picking him Falkor realized that Marshmellow would be far better off with him, as he had just had his own child a few days prior and was better equipped to raise him then we were. Currently, Marshmellow is happily integrated into the dragon family, and doesn't seem to notice or mind the difference in species. His energy feels very human too me, but last time any of were able to see him he seemed to be developing a few scales here and there, and he has a vague sense of "dragon" about him as well. - Bomby

Going back to Marshmellow’s origins, he was created by a number of different individuals - humans, some humans who are energy suns, a fae incarnate (me), etc. and now he is spending time around dragon spirits and their energy as Bomby pointed out - he seems to be influenced by that as well. It’s probably impossible to try to pin down exactly what “species” Marshmellow is unlike for other spirits who were born naturally rather than created through energy. Perhaps energy spirits like Marshmellow defy categories like spirits species and instead are a phenomenon all of their own. Regardless, as creators responsible for bringing Marshmellow into the world even if by accident, Idris, Bomby, and I have all done our best to try to look out for him as our own child even though now he is primarily being raised by Falkor. I hope the story of Marshmellow’s creation and how he is being raised is helpful for others as they might have to face a similar situation at some point int their magical and/or spirit work career. - Mod Fire

The mods of Spiritionary as well as others we’ve spoken to have noticed spirits in many of our divination decks whether tarot or oracle. Each seems to be unique and in many cases completely sentient, and it not only varies from type of deck but deck to deck as well, each specific deck having its own spirit. It’s quite common for cartomancers (diviners who use card decks) to describe their deck’s personalities. Even doing an “interview spread” to communicate with a tarot or oracle deck itself is a standard practice for a lot of diviners when they get a new divination deck. 

Yet despite how normal it is in the world of divination to speak of deck interviews and personalities, divination is usually considered a totally separate and distinct practice from spirit work. So acknowledging that most or perhaps even all divination decks have their own spirits has important implications for the potential overlap between spirit work and cartomancy divination (if not other forms of divination as well). At the very least, divination can always be used as a tool for communicating with spirits and the relationship between cartomancy and spirit work is very strong in that sense!

Here we’ve gathered some personal stories from 14 diviners about individual tarot and oracle deck experiences collected by Mods Wind and Fire...