If you think you may want to work with local Elemental spirits, it is worthwhile to consider giving an offering or two to them on occasion. I didn’t start doing this practice until I came to Hawaii, where a sort of belief in land/air spirits was part of the original culture. I had felt them in other places, but hadn’t really paid much attention to them. There wasn’t exactly an abundance of unpaved land in the areas I’d lived in as an adult, so I hadn’t really considered it.
Hawaii is a little different place. There are still “wild” places where the natural environment is still allowed to grow. Some locations had historical significance, some had old religious significance, some simply couldn’t be built on for one reason or another. Regardless of why, anyone with the ability to sense spirits will find local spirits in most of the areas where there is a little wild left growing (the rest of time, you’re paying attention to traffic). I was sensing these spirits in the small scrub area behind my home that led me to include them in my Ancestor Worship/Thanks ritual that I hold once or twice a month.
I started this partially as a way of humbling myself before the land I was a guest in. It seemed like an honorable thing to do. I could feel them. They could feel me. They were here first. Seems simple, but if I was already going to give offerings to my ancestors and the entities I work with, why not just invite the local spirits? I didn’t think they were going to crash the party or anything.
They seemed to appreciate the gesture, once I had started including them. This went on for months. Honest gifts with honest intentions. I wasn’t giving it with the expectation of getting anything. It was unexpected when a few of them stepped forward to help take care of a neighbor that is less than…respectful…to both people and the land. In two days, several behaviors had changed that had been going on long before I moved to this neighborhood in 2018. In a week, a few more mysteriously changed and their pets no longer wanted to come near me. Unexpected success. And it mainly cost me some tea, an apple, and genuine thankfulness.
While these local spirits are generally considered to exist in the same location, that doesn’t mean they are stuck there. In my own practice, some local spirits went forth towards a target on another continent. They indicated it wasn’t a problem. I’ve had local spirits from Kauai visit me on Oahu, which seems to suggest that distance, or being bound to a single location, isn’t an issue.
Offering to the Local Spirits
As said above, I typically give offerings not just to the local Spirits, but also to the other entities I work with and my ancestral spirits. These mainly consist of several types of herbal teas, maybe some sort of alcohol, fruit, and, sometimes, grains. I don’t give blood to local spirits, as my connection to them is normally not as strong as my connection to, say, Pele, Belial, or Abaddon. It seems a little over-the-top for this type of ritual and they haven’t indicated that they value it in our interactions.
This should be done outdoors, if possible, but there’s nothing saying it can’t happen on a balcony in an apartment building or inside your home, in a pinch. Since I practice privately, I typically place my food offerings in shrubs or bushes when the ceremony is done and a few hours have passed (if it’s still there). The spirits care more about the offering being made, than it being presented “properly” and kept outside for X hours. I typically dispose of things the next day.
Simple is usually better. This is a simple practice and a more elaborate version isn’t necessarily better. Go with what you care to do and as your practice or your relationship with these spirits grows, you can always add more.
I prepare several cups of tea, of different varieties (or one, if I’m out of the others), in their own glasses. If I’m offering beer or wine, I put a portion of that in a glass.
With incense, I typically use cones for shorter sessions and a charcoal disc with resin for longer ones. A longer session usually means I want to speak with one or more guests there about specific problems. I sometimes use cedar sawdust made using rough metal files and cedar wood as an additional incense with the discs, if one of my guests says they’d like it. Pretty easy to make in advance.
The first thing I do is to clean the area as best I can. Since it’s outdoors and there’s typically a breeze, this usually just means picking up litter that has blown into the backyard. The premise is that the spirits will appreciate your tidying up the area they “live” in. It’s also a good signal to yourself that the practice will begin soon. I’m using the term practice, because in simpler form, that’s all it is.
In fact, all you’d have to do is to speak to the land spirits, tell them these offerings are for them to enjoy, leave the offerings, and walk back inside. But, if time is an issue, this is better than nothing. You can always invite them into your space and communicate with them later, if you would choose to. With specific ones I have relationships with, they can come and go as they please in my space. They usually don’t come around unless we have business.
My current methods are a combination of the above practice and more of an evocation. I combine the practice of Ancestor Worship with that of thanking the various types of entities I work with, from demons to local land spirits. Sometimes, angels show up, too. I don’t explicitly summon these spirits, but the stages I go through are similar to that if I were evoking. Whoever shows up is usually allowed to partake. If I don’t know them, but one I do know vouches for them, then they can partake. Everyone must obey rules of courtesy.
Ready the offerings that are going to be given. This includes any drinks, food, or other offerings, such as blood offerings.
Clean up the area to be used, mainly removing litter and other debris. I will light my incense at this point.
Light any candles you plan on using. I typically use a white, red, or black one for this out of personal preference. I get into a ritual trance at this point, to help strengthen my senses prior to interacting with guests.
Banish the area to be used.
Mentally call out that the practice will begin. Typically, before I’m done, the guests have arrived, if they didn’t arrive immediately after the banishing.
Thank the guests for coming.
Describe what offerings you have for them and state that they are for their enjoyment. Since vocalization in different forms is seen as a sort of power on its own, I state what the offerings are and that they’re for them as a sort of way to transfer the ownership of the item to them. I also let them know I will dispose of the remaining items after a certain amount of time (typically the next day, if outside).
I may thank individual entities for specific things, but this is rare (ironically). I typically do a singular ritual of thanks for them, when this occurs, even if I “paid” them during the ritual.
If there are conversations that need to happen, I do this here if it isn’t “intrusive” to the rest of the group. I was doing a working on a particularly bad example of a human and asking the advice from several of my guests. Some of my Ancestors offered some other advice that was helpful and got involved themselves. I started doing this for noteworthy topics from then on. It was at one of these events where one of the land spirits offered to help with a neighbor’s animals.
When the practice is over and the given time has elapsed, I dispose of the offerings. The food is typically gone. The liquids get “returned to the Earth”. Ashes from incense or burnt offerings get “returned to the Earth”. If I couldn’t do this, I would respectfully dispose of them in whatever way made the most sense. The important part was respectfully giving an offering that they may enjoy. Less on how I got rid of the remains of it.
