If you found my Energetic Pillar posts interesting, this may seem like a slower burning fire. It is this pillar that really helps set up the Energetic Pillar. The spirit relationship aspects are what helped bring about some of the rituals I’ve already published such as a lot of those from Pele’s Grimoire. The Subconscious Pillar is really helpful for directing energy and workings, but it is the Spirit Pillar that gave more usefulness to the other two.
So what is the Spirit Pillar? The Spirit Pillar helps give rise to the relationships that enable hidden knowledge and abilities. It does this through a sort of give-and-take with entities that are interested in your progression. I don’t want to use the term “ascent”, because it may not have much to do with that. This relationship may only be focused in one area. They may just want exposure to other people that they will get from your sphere. Regardless of why, the heart of all of it is respect.
Respect – not control. The genuine respect that should eventually be shown both ways. It’s a partnership even if the benefits to one side or the other are not clear and sometimes they won’t be for quite a while or at all. After Hecate first came to me and started me on my path, it was very unclear where this was going, why it was happening, and whether or not I even wanted anything to do with it. While I knew that she was not going to let me slide back away into my “spiritual but not religious” practice (which was mostly just trying to stay evenly balanced), I couldn’t I can’t honestly say what would have happened if I had tried to ignore her. I’m sure she had plenty of things in mind.
The truth is I started my relationship with her believing that she wanted some sort of worship. That’s what I’ve been led to believe when I was on the right hand path. So, I went looking at demonolatry where I was exposed to Connolly’s work. I think it was really good to start that way, because it was early on that I could feel that she didn’t want worship. Respect – yes. Hard work from me – yes. But not worship. I approached her with demonolatry methods and almost that same mindset, but with “honoring” rather than worship. I know I’ve spoken about that before, but that was in a several different places. Sometimes in videos, sometimes in forum posts. I don’t always know where someone comes across my work. Sorry if you’ve read that many times.
I said this was a reciprocal gift giving of sorts and that’s true. You have to establish trust with them. They have to establish trust with you. I found that some entities I immediately felt close to I had served in past lives. I didn’t really believe in that as having value to current lives at that time. I’m still slowly being worse n over over the years. But those previous relationships don’t mean I have a shortcut now or that they will go easier on me. I think it’s a bit of the opposite (most days). If they have spent a lot of time and effort on you over several lifetimes or even just one they may expect you to be a poster child of their work to other entities. If much is expected, much should also be given. Naturally, all of this should be earned for best growth.
When I first started giving and all I could really use was my intuition for communication. I would try to sense if there was pleasure or displeasure. I figured that they would always like a song. I had a song that I felt drawn to that I would sing for Hecate and then others with their own songs. Eventually, I had more entities to sing to than I had time for songs on my commute. That first song –
The offering of a song was a good choice. It expands energy. It requires attention and you can simply give the intent that the energy from it goes to them. Thankfully, it doesn’t matter if you sing well or not and if you’re in the car alone no one else will be bothered.
This pillar will actually be challenging to write about because some of these things will not happen right away. Some didn’t happen for years, some did in a couple of months. I don’t dictate when some of these things happen to me and certainly can’t dictate when they should happen to you. I do intend to give you some ideas of what you might experience when working with these entities in this way. There are a few things that are really valuable to us that don’t require too much from them but the relationship has to be there for it to really be worth their while.
I would start a cycle of gift giving. Doesn’t mean you will always get something back when you give, but they may give things to you that you don’t see. I wouldn’t wait for something to be given back before giving again. I didn’t wait for some sign that I would be getting something before singing again or making another incense offering. If you’re going to go down this particular route you’ll need to decide if you want a more transactional relationship or something more substantial – whichever you decide is best for you and your practice right now. It may kind of determine how you go about it later on, but if you don’t know or the entity doesn’t agree, then take whichever you feel is best at the now and near term. I’m not going to say that one is better than the other, because I don’t know what you need or what’s best for you with your interactions with spirits. Transactional relationships happen all the time the spirits. It’s how most petitions are made.
The approach that I will mostly be talking about here will be more of the substantial relationships then transactional ones. You could argue that they’re all transactional, but here we’re looking at the intent of their relationship rather than focusing on the actions and expected outcomes. In the beginning, this will mostly focus on things like guidance, protection, and maintaining dignified relationships with these entities. We want their guidance about which paths we should go down, maybe which books we should work through, what areas we need to get good at at this point to set us up for success in the future. Along the way, we may need their protection or at least their help with it when it comes down to trying times or general asshats looking to ruin your good time. Some people need relationships that are more trying than others. I used the word “dignified” because these interactions should be respectful even if they are difficult. There may be moments that are not dignified, but the relationship overall should be. We’re not asking to be their slaves, but we are looking to serve without being nothing more than servants
The next few parts of the Spirit Pillar will be more concise and probably deal only with certain topics or specific parts that need clarification or further explanation. I really just wanted to get this outlined first before starting in on those. The next part will be about presenting offerings similar to all sorts of stuff you can find anywhere else that talks about more respectful relationships with spirits, but if I let them out it would be noticed, so I will see you in the next part.
