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witchingjackal · 8 years ago

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On Exclusives

[I did my best to avoid spirit names that are too close to any existing shops, but I do not know every shop out there. If any species name in here is close to your own spirits, this was not intentional and is not meant as an attack on you. This entire post is not meant as a point of argument, only as an explanation of my own viewpoint. It does not cover every point that could have been made on the subject (I am well aware that it can be degrading but that constitutes an entire conversation by itself) and does not consider cultural concerns as exclusive spirits, which is another topic entirely.]

Whether or not it has been labeled as such, an exclusive spirit is a race or species which a spirit shop expects other to never approach. These are things which do not exist in mythology (or are merely related to the actual mythological creature) and, in theory, would never be casually encountered. There should be no issue with labeling something exclusive because again, in theory, no one else would be capable of approaching them anyway.

In theory.

This is a concept I formerly believed in. For better or worse, I no longer do.

My trust in this concept has decayed as I’ve seen the actions of those who follow it and delved deeper into the psychology behind it. There are numerous reasons it doesn’t work when actually applied, no matter how much one may believe in the concept itself. I don’t believe the majority who put large stock in exclusive labels are malicious, they’ve merely been taught from day one about its importance and have not had proper discussions, rather than arguments, about its consequences to form whatever their independent opinion may be.

Quite frankly, most conjurers do not take the time to properly classify their spirits. To me personally, this is one of the largest downfalls of the label.

There are no standards in this business. People disagree with one another, shops who attempt to set precedents are then contradicted by those who approach the subject with a different mindset. There do not exist standards for classifying your species.

In the physical world, there are standards to this. Scientists have precedents for distinguishing species and the proper tools for doing so.

Many conjurers either are not skilled enough to give these explicit details to recognize and distinguish their species, or do not take the time and effort to do so.

Vague names are given by many conjurers. For example, if I merely said Cockroach Demon and claimed this as an exclusive - off the top of my head I can remember seven distinct species of cockroach demons, most of which have equally distinct social classes. Who is to say which species I am offering, or if it is only a single social class? Who is to say there are only seven species of cockroach demons in existence? This doesn’t even begin to cover the number of non-demonic cockroach spirits, or what constitutes a spirit as being related to cockroaches.

This is already messy, yes?

Vague names, no matter how many adjectives you stuff in there, are problematic for classifying spirits. That is the simple truth. Not only that, but if you attempt to use a mythological name, not every person agrees on the interpretation of mythical creatures. Some people argue that only the original mythological gryphon is a true gryphon, while others claim that any spirit who is a hybrid of feline and avian animals is a gryphon. Lines are blurred, viewpoints conflict. As there is no way to enforce a standard, you cannot expect others to not approach whatever a “Red-tailed Gryphon” or “Moon-speckled Opal Dragon” or “Higher lava demon” may be. The astral plane is so large that other species nearly identical to those you claimed as exclusive will exist, and you cannot claim a concept of a race as belonging to you.

But what about the shops who record the best translation of the race’s own name for themselves?

For one, not every species or race has a political structure. Some do not live in any society. Others do, but do not have a single government. Imagine this in relation to humans as a whole. It would not work.

Even if you trust the conjurer to have definitely explored every faction of that race and recorded every single aspect of it, in the end the decision to label them exclusive is speaking for the entire race. Whatever political leaders have made that decision with you are speaking for everyone, down to every last member. This includes those on the fringes of society, those who have left the society, or those who were not born in it at all but are the same species.

To put it bluntly: no political leaders have the power to command those who have left their jurisdiction. If they attempt to do so, consider the implications of this situation and your support over it.

I have personally seen conjurers who will label anything even remotely close to their exclusives as stealing. I’m not sure if they have not considered there being other similar species in existence or if they want a claim over the entire concept of a [adjective] dragon. Even more than this, there are conjurers who do not know where to draw the line for exclusives. There are no standards for this, no enforcement of “hey you cannot claim the entire concept of [adjective] dragon and every individual similar to that description as belonging to you”. I have seen conjurers attempt to label mythological creatures as exclusives, out of belief that they feel closer to the species than anyone else and therefore no one else can conjure them.

But as long as the exclusive label is slapped onto that spirit, it becomes no-touchy zone no matter how valid said claim is or is not. Without a way of enforcing standards, it is impossible for the exclusive label to exist without causing issues. That is the simple truth.

Some will withhold knowledge to prevent others from approaching or conjuring them. Not only are you purposely harming your customers by doing this, but you are creating more of a reason for them to approach the species on their own. If you will not give them the information, people may be forced to approach them for basic information that you were supposed to give. This isn’t touching on the dangers and greed issues of withholding knowledge, too.

I think it’s fair to expect a certain etiquette to exist. People do not browse your shop as a quick list of what to conjure themselves. If you’ve put hard work into introducing some exciting new species, people do their best to support you and your time spent on this endeavor. At some line people may step back and acknowledge, “Alright, I never came across this species myself and have relied on this person’s information the entire time. I don’t feel I should conjure them for others.”

Labeling things as exclusive supports a black and white mentality of either approaching to the fullest extent possible, or never ever touching or thinking about.

If you want respect given to your work, do your best to foster this respect, not to slap hard exclusive labels. These labels do not help. What will help is giving more knowledge about what you conjure, explaining your reasoning for not wishing someone to conjure something, and showing your customers the same respect you wish to be given. Not everyone will show you the same respect, but these people will approach the species whether you have labeled it exclusive or not.

Set the precedent you wish to see. The current precedent is for shops to hoard things to themselves and withhold knowledge.

If a race truly does not wish for others to approach them, others will not be able to approach them. They will be turned away, protections will be put up, the meaning will get across clearly.

If the race welcomes others with open arms, why are they listed as exclusive? If you want to be the only one capable of conjuring them, set that up with the proper people within the race and other conjurers will be denied if the entirety of the race truly wishes to be conjured only by yourself.

Greed is sometimes thrown as a reason for the exclusive label. After getting to know many people, I personally don’t believe the majority have greed in mind when they do so. It’s done out of fear of others messing up their work, insecurity, a need to have something unique.

That need to have something special and unique causes many issues. It makes people want to hoard things to themselves that should not be hoarded. This sort of ego boosting attitude is a trait I personally do not think belongs in any reputable conjurer.

Again: if something is truly exclusive, you should be able to explain this clearly, and others should be incapable of approaching even when full, explicit information is shared. If you cannot share explicit details about the race then what makes them appropriate to conjure for others?

Branching off from this subject, I’d like to explain my personal system for classifying spirits rather than slapping an exclusive label on them. It is still a work in progress, and after more use I’m hoping to have refined and possibly added to this format.

Classification: (Mythological, Mythological Variant, Earthern, Astral, Realm-Specific, Contract-Bound, Exclusive) Rarity: Location: Approachability: Danger: Relations:

First, I’ll explain the various classifications.

A mythological creature is the exact spirit spoken about within mythology. Or, at least it’s what you and them think is such, with evidence to back this up. Species argue among themselves over who is the actual one spoken about, so don’t think this means you aren’t obligated to release detailed information. You still need to give your customers explicit details on what you are matching them with, especially if others offer it, as they may be offering something entirely different under the same name.

A mythological variant is a species you may use a mythological name for (eg. Snowy Gryphon) but is not the exact creature within mythology. This may be something that is a subspecies, a related species, or another species entirely which has chosen to take the name of the mythological species. This label indicates that the species is definitely not the exact mythological spirit, and you should have fully described the differences between them.

A species classified as Earthern is one which exists primarily on our own plane. I personally use this to describe spirits found in earthern locales rather than astral locations, spirits of physical objects, spirits of lands, and many others. Some examples of these would be the native spirits of Chicago I speak to frequently, some mythological creatures (although these would be given the mythological label), the spirit of the nearest plant, dragons who migrate with our physical earthern winds, and many others. It is a broad category meant for anything that lives primarily on our own nonphysical plane yet is not a specific mythological creature.

Astral spirits are possibly the broadest of them all. This is simply for anything which lives primarily somewhere that is not the nonphysical layer of our own plane. Like the earthern label, this easily includes other labels and is best used when the more concise labels do not apply.

The Realm-Specific spirits have a specific astral location which can be considered their home, and the majority of these spirits will be found there rather than wandering. Many of the “unique” astral spirits in shops are these. To describe them clearer, a spirit merely classified as astral would be a basic hellhound, which arguably has multiple astral locations they come from and travel widely outside them. A realm-specific hellhound would be one that can be traced to a single astral plane or realm, and that species (or subspecies, depending on your view of hellhounds) is not typically found living beyond it.

The Contract-Bound label is for when the point of politics needs to be stressed, although this is easily omitted if one does not find it important to stress such things. The majority of “exclusive” spirits would be this. Something that is contract-bound needs to be approached in very specific ways not limited to creating a political contract. A race which bans outsiders from their cities unless you have been labeled as a friend by a higher up member would be contract-bound. A species which requires proper energetic tags signifying you as a friend before any member allows you to approach would be contract-bound. A race which requires an official political agreement to be allowed the honor of conjuring them would be contract-bound. It is important to note that you should not be grabbing these spirits to yourself and worrying about others “stealing” them.

Finally, the hard Exclusive label should rarely, if ever, be used. You cannot reasonably control every member of a race, unless it is perhaps a small faction (<100 maybe) you are conjuring. If I were to create shoggoths from my own specific eldritch brand of energy, and these shoggoths were so unique and easily differentiated from other shoggoths to be recognized as my own, then perhaps you might consider those exclusive. It’s not as if they could be approached, as I would be the one creating them, and they would be defined by my personal energy.

I will give an example of something I do believe has the hard exclusive label.

A race I will offer in the future, who I will refer to as honey demons for now, have isolated themselves from other honeybee related demons for long enough to evolve into a distinct species. They do not let anything that is not one of their own so much as step foot near their hive. While they travel outside to siphon energy from others, they do not do anything beyond this task unless manipulation is necessary to complete it. They are biologically incapable of non-work socialization, emotions, independent thought, sexual desires, and other such things. You can think of them as a hivemind.

If something within their biology screws up and they suddenly are capable of these things, that individual is considered diseased and culled. They will chase down infected members to the ends of the universe to cull them. Most do not survive anyway, if they manage to hide from their pursuers (which will never last for long, as they will always be chased) then they will be incapable of living on their own and perish.

I myself have gotten into circumstances where I’ve become an energy donor for their queen to safely harvest eldritch energy compatible with special purposes. Due to these unique circumstances, I have managed to convince her to give me custody of any infected members rather than having them culled. They are watched with heavy scrutiny for the rest of their lives, and they go through heavy shock and other issues during their rehabilitation that many do not survive from, but they consider this to be better than guaranteed death.

This, I believe, is a situation in which others would not be able to approach the exact species I work with. It would be impossible to approach their hive no matter how much information I put out there, and the infected workers who have broken from the hivemind would be instantly culled if their overseeing hive members saw them respond to strangers approaching. Their queen does not wish for any to leave without both of us knowing, so that they can be kept tabs on. They are slowly working their way to greater freedom from hive scrutiny and perhaps a long time from now they will achieve it, but in their current position there would be no possible way for others to approach them.

A more suitable name may someday be found to detach this entirely from the exclusive label.

Now, I’ll move on to the other parts of this classification formula.

Rarity is a description of the species’ numbers. It is their rarity within their homeland, their numbers outside it, and their general population size in comparison to other astral species. For a race within a species or a faction, this describes their numbers in relation to their species and society. This is a good indicator of how likely others will be to come across these spirits.

Location is where the species will be found, regardless of whether it is their actual home. For earthern spirits, many still have specific locations which can be described, an environment or a region. For more astral spirits this may be a description of their home realm, or their preferred locations/environments if they wander.

Approachability is not you demanding that others do not approach. This describes their general reactions to being approached, the danger level, specific requirements to doing so, and the difficulty. If they have specific requests about not being conjured en masse, note that here. If you do not want others approaching the spirit or feel they should not be approached, describe why that is here. If you cannot describe it, perhaps you should rethink things before offering the spirit or giving them a label.

Danger is exactly as it says. It describes whatever is necessary about the danger of these spirits. While of course the danger of approaching them outside of yourself should be noted, remember that this is to keep people safe and informed, not to tell them that the species is yours. If they should not be approached, detailed information will confirm this even if you do not explicitly state it.

Relations is the relationship between the species and yourself (focusing more on the shop/conjuring level relationship rather than your personal one). Many things can fall into this category, including if a contract or other agreement between you exists, which parts of the species you conjure from, how they view the shop, if you are involved in their political leaders or merely casual, if you have energetic tags making it easier for you to conjure them, etc.

In conclusion, I hope this post explains my own position about exclusives clearly. If I do not believe you should be approaching something from my own shop, I will describe the reasons behind it and why it would be difficult for you. If an entire race does not wish to be approached, that is their job to put barriers up and keep their members in line, not my job to withhold information. I know very well that there are more points where could have been made about exclusives and were not touched upon. I trust you guys to have basic respect and decency when it comes to information sharing and conjuring. If you do not, the spirits are capable of deciding for themselves whether or not to be approached.

#spirit companion #spirit companionship

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witchingjackal · 8 years ago

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Hey guys, I’m working on emails and updating various parts of the site, and figured I’d let you know some of the changes happening.

First off, with prices - I’m not happy with them. I’ve thought long and hard about where my discomfort stems from, and by the time I post an update in customs and prebounds the paypal prices will have changed. The new system for custom prices will have more organization compared to the previous prices, better match the prebounds, and work out in your favor.

$30 will be the base price across the site, and remain the RA price. More complex or difficult customs will be individually priced above this. These are ones which require political appeal and approval for individual customers, where the spirit is substantially more difficult to vet, and other situations which cause the custom to take a notable increase in work.

Next, the exclusive system.

Quite frankly, this is another system I am not happy with for various reasons. I’ve examined an overhaul of the system for a couple months now and have finally arrived at a classification system I am pleased with. You’ll see every encyclopedia entry updated with the new classification by the time an update is posted and further site explanations on the system. Here is the basic structure:

Classification: (Mythological, Mythological Variant, Earthern, Astral, Realm-Specific, Semi-Exclusive, Exclusive)

Rarity:

Location:

Approachability:

Danger:

Relations:

Classification meanings:

Mythological: The exact spirit within mythology.

Mythological Variant: A subspecies of a mythological creature, related species, or species which has chosen to take the name despite being a separate species. Levels of approachability vary.

Earthern: A spirit found within the earthern plane. Approachable (w/ varying levels of danger in doing so) unless noted otherwise.

Astral: Can be found across multiple planes. Approachability and rarity varies.

Realm-Specific: Found in a single astral realm. Approachability is typically lower.

Contract Bound: The race or species only works with the shop through a specialized contract. It is possible for them to work with others, but their low approachability and need for political appeal must be noted.

Exclusive: The race or species only meets humans through this shop. Zero approachability, for explained reasons.

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This will all be explained more fully when it has been implemented. But as you can see, this system is more focused on education and explanation than simply demanding space. The hard exclusive label will only be used in a small handful of special situations, none of which are currently listed.

A few races’ political leaders have already expressed that they don’t have the patience to be pestered. I expect you guys to respect these sentiments, and to respect my own work in introducing these spirits and giving them an opportunity to connect with companions. The same decency given to shops who label things exclusive still applies regardless of the level of explanation - don’t go browsing through my encyclopedia looking for spirits to offer yourself, support my work with non-mythological spirits and the time spent gathering information, etc etc.

I’ll potentially be posting the addition of the first adoption species outside the main update. This is for a group of spirits who have been helped from a situation of extreme trauma. The application process will be an average of six months and require work on your end to thoroughly vet and prepare yourself, as I disagree with matching an abused spirit to anyone who has not gone through extreme vetting and is fully capable of handling the responsibility.

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witchingjackal · 8 years ago

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Hi I'm wondering if you have any spells, I'm not looking for anything in particular maybe one for reducing breast sizes... anything really. Thank you, and say hi to the spirits for me.

I’m sorry hun, but the simple answer is that magic cannot achieve those kind of results. It can be a tool to complement physical actions, but it cannot be relied on to produce them.

If you’re asking for gender reasons, I highly recommend checking out resources about dysphoria and ftm guides (regardless of your own identity, bc they can still help with passing as less feminine) for dealing with breasts. These will help you far more than magic or witchcraft. If you’re dealing with physical pain, please make sure you get the medical help you need in case there is a serious issue :(

#Anonymous

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witchingjackal · 8 years ago

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Out of curiosity, have you had any experience with fox/kitsune spirits? If so, do you have any tips for working with them?

I have a bit of experience with kitsune, but definitely not enough to declare myself an expert. I’ve met with a number of them and worked with a few closely! But I’d prefer to meet a larger number before saying anything substantial about the species as a whole (my standards right now include gathering a large amount of data on at least 30 individuals across the species with variety between them, and more complex species require a lot more data than just 30).

My tip is research. They will appreciate people who take the time to learn about them in that fashion. Their folklore, Shinto, and Japanese culture in general is a good starting point. Research on them can be frustrating due to their place in pop culture and the number of westernized sources, but I highly recommend you try to find sources which are not coming from those two standpoints. I also recommend paying larger attention to their actual folklore and place in Shinto, and collecting your own experiences from there, before paying too much attention to neopagans and spirit keepers. There’s a wealth of information to be had from good research that’ll help you in approaching and working with them.

If you want to send another ask, I’ll gather some resources for you and analyze them a bit. It might take a few days to do so, but I’d rather give you some good research before stating my own upg.

#spirit companion #Anonymous

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witchingjackal · 8 years ago

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I'm accessing it on the computer and only the home page and contact us pages are letting me click them... maybe if you just posted the link to prebound spirits, and encyclopedia then I can access them?

Ah, I’m not sure why the drop downs aren’t working for you then! I’m currently unable to use my laptop until I replace its charger, which I’m hoping to get tonight if I can get to the store in time, so when I’m able I’ll either grab you the links or make the pages clickable table of contents overviews. It’d be quite a lot of links otherwise since I have everything in separate pages for every category.

#Anonymous

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witchingjackal · 8 years ago

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Wait it isn't letting me click on any tabs wth... how do I access the spirit tab?

What tabs aren’t you able to click? For the sections at the top of the page, they’re drop down menus. If you mean the tabs in the information pages, they’ve worked on every device I’ve personally tested them on but I’m not sure if every mobile device out there works as well ;_; The web version of the pages is best to view because I haven’t done anything for the mobile side, but if it’s super difficult on mobile I may be able to do a different system there.

#Anonymous

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witchingjackal · 8 years ago

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I didn't even think of that... I'm Canadian, but even the main weebly site doesn't work. Shit. What do I do if I want to apply for a companion?! Can I?!

Okay, I've had people from Canada so it should work there. It could be a network restriction then. Try using a proxy (if you just google proxy websites then you'll see free ones). It's probably the easiest solution, but if you google ways to access blocked sites then you'll see more effective, but also more complicated, ways of doing so. I recommend people to always use VPNs, but most aren't free and you'd have to take a while to set it up.

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witchingjackal · 8 years ago

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(Link isn't working anon) I tried googling it, but even clicking on the result isn't working ..

Can you access any other weebly site? It sounds like a weebly problem, at the moment others are able to access it. There shouldn’t be any reason for it to be blocked by any spam filters and it isn’t flagged with nsfw content, but it’s possible your country might block weebly if outside US? If it’s multiple devices then it probably isn’t your browser settings.

#Anonymous

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witchingjackal · 8 years ago

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I don't know if your link is broken, but none of my devices can access your shop site

...huh. I have no idea what’s going on. I changed the blog description to be a direct link instead of something you have to paste, but everything works fine for me so I’m not sure what else to fiddle with. The blog theme itself is broken and honestly I forgot to go searching for a new one, so I’ll see about that and maybe something in the theme is messing up links if it still doesn’t work.

#Anonymous

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witchingjackal · 8 years ago

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So... since Ze is a demon... does he work with the Christian devil? Just curious, no prejudice

Nope, he has no relations! He doesn’t even know what a bible is when asked.

I personally define demons as spirits that have a certain (fairly common) energy type. I’m not quite sure how to describe it in words, but to me there’s a lot of different types of demonic energies and lots of types of demons all across the astral! So it’s a super broad term and 99% have nothing to do with our religions, it’s just an easy term to use. But there are also a lot of spirits who see that we call darker spirits demons and figure that’s the closest thing to describe themselves as even though they’re not technically a demon!

(for reference, I also use Hell to describe a bunch of astral realms that primarily carry this demonic energy. Most have zero relation to christian hell. It’s just a term I picked up from other spirit workers and it’s a habit now.)

I don’t really work with abrahamic spirits so there probably will never be any here, because I’m not experienced enough with them to offer them. His race’s information isn’t up, but Ze’s race and culture also has no attachment to humans or abrahamic religions.

#Anonymous

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witchingjackal · 8 years ago

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Interview: Dynastinae Beetle Demon “Ze”

He hasn’t yet been listed, but will be in the future and has been chosen for an interview now. It’s still just an experiment but some spirits are interested in having interviews before they’re listed, so we’ll see how it goes!

Ze is a dynastinae beetle demon. He towers over me at about ten feet tall and holds a flaming staff in each of his four arms. His exoskeleton creaks as he attempts to sit on a human sized chair and his voice comes out as a series of hissing clicks that are only translated by the wonders of spirit communication.

I give him a spoonful of honey as a treat for participating. “Please tell us a bit about yourself.”

The chair hadn’t been terribly effective anyway, so he stands tall and puffs out the raised chest plates of his exoskeleton. “I am as you said!” he exclaims. “I am demon of horned beetle. I am passionate fire! I am structured of inspiration.”

I next ask why he is looking for a human companion, and he twirls his staffs in elaborate, showy patterns as he replies, the fire lingering in the air in burning patterns.

“I will protect! You see my great horns. I push and throw out any with lesser desires. I am stronger than mountain! My armor is insurmountable! Enemies see me then cry baby tears and flee, ha! I am also bringer of inspiration. I am demon beetle of fire, I spark life in whatever I see. I burn away blocks and insecurities. Your passion blooms around me! There is nothing I cannot spark life into!”

When he lowers his staffs, I ask, “So you would help, say, an artist or writer with their motivation?”

He bellows in hissing laughter. “Yes! That is easy. Perfect one for me. But I also keep them safe, none dare to challenge me.”

“And what are you looking for in your companion?”

“Someone who has need of me! And desire. I respect desire, I want them to desire these great fires of inspiration. You cannot learn if you do not desire it!”

I nod. “So what do you want in return?”

For a second he crosses his arms and huffs, then replies, “You insult me!”

“My apologies, but we’re doing this for public view. The ones seeing this will be wondering what gifts or offerings you expect as return payment.”

His eyes light up. “Ah! It is okay. You see viewers, I do not need payment. It is my….” he struggles to find a human word for what he is describing. “It is duty to perform this act. I am assigned to the act of wildfire and I shall do it with much pleasing! I do not want payment, for it already gives me spark. If you must offer gifts then we eat our nutrition.”

“And what do you eat?”

The conversation reminds him of the honey I gifted him, and he moves it to his mouth parts as he speaks. “No meat! I may look like scary beetle, but we do not eat meat. It is forbidden. We eat fruits and honeys, and rich saps and nectars.”

“Then do you have a favorite food?”

He thinks hard on this one. “...no… YES! I have great joy for the soft fruits. You call them peaches, yes? I would like peaches and whatever other soft fruits you have in this world.”

I’m running out of time, so I wrap it up. “I think that’s it for now. Do you have anything else to say to your viewers?”

Seeing that these will be his last words, he punctuates every word with another spin and trick of his staffs. “Yes! I do! You must stay strong! I am great beetle and I am strong, but you can be strong with me! Your kind has weak bodies but eat fruits and vegetables and you will grow strong! You must exercise outside in sun. Do not give up! You can do it! I believe in you small humans. Raise your flesh bodies to mountains and you will be strong as me!”

#spirit companion #spirit companionship #spirit keeping #spirit interview

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witchingjackal · 8 years ago

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Keep in mind that if you’re going to be selling / adopting out spirits that were previously in abusive situations…

ESPECIALLY if the abuser was also a spiritual being…

Make sure you’re aware of the fact those abusers can find their victim again and CAN attack. I’ve had friends get attacked because their spirits’ abusers found them, and I’ve had to help them.

I’m not saying people should stop adopting out spirits anymore, but please PLEASE be aware that this is a very real possibility. PLEASE take precautions and set up protections, because astral attacks DO happen and they are EXTREMELY dangerous.

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witchingjackal · 8 years ago

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I appreciate that you guys like this post but.... It also shows me how little some of these topics are really spoken about! I may offer services here but my support does not end when the conjuring ends and isn’t limited to only people who hand over money, so I’ll be sure to make more resources like this in the future. I have a sizable list of things to talk about and you’d better believe I am going to educate you on spiritual self care.

Spirit Working Cycles

[Disclaimer: This is my personal upg of your body’s natural cycle. Some people have reported either not having a hyperactivity period or having them so subdued that it isn’t an issue, so just use my post as a guideline for discovering your own needs. And natural fallow periods aren’t the cause for every downtime out there, some will be caused by blocks such as past trauma, energetic blockages, spirit influence, sickness and more. Some of those do require some sort of intervention and are good to get rid of!]

One of the biggest things I’ve seen you guys distressed over are the times where you are not working with your spirits! You’re not communicating (if you can communicate at all during this time), you aren’t really aware of their presence, you go ages without wearing their vessels, you just don’t have the strength to keep up with the work you want to do!

And then you grow frantic and anxious over what the spirits are thinking about you. You’re afraid of them hating you and leaving for how long you’ve been ignoring them. Or maybe they could be depressed by your sudden lack of interest, like you’re their best friend who suddenly cut contact and is ignoring their texts and calls. You may be worried about all this during your period of inactivity and can’t fix things despite being aware of them. Maybe the stress is even making it worse than before and now you can’t feel them no matter how hard you try!

So when you start to get in a better spirit working state, you’re afraid of speaking to them now, afraid of what they’ll say and if they hate you and if they’ll ever accept you back as a friend…

Guys, this is totally normal. This is a natural body cycle (well, psychic body cycle!) just like menstruation! I haven’t heard nearly as many people talking about it as I would expect, so let me break down your spiritual fallow periods!

(yes, it’s a lazily drawn graph)

The graph is divided into three horizontal sections: Hyperactivity, Normal State, and Fallow Period. The colored vertical sections are parts I want to pay particular attention to. And finally the curving black line represents your spiritual state.

Area 1: Here, you’re in a state of growth. This is fantastic! You’re learning and improving!

Area 2: You are neither growing nor declining, but there is nothing wrong with this. Many people spend the majority of their time in stasis, their growth periods coming in sudden, sharp increases. Others will almost constantly be in a state of growth too gradual to see. Any way is okay as long as it is your way!

Area 3: This is your decline stage. It isn’t quite a fallow period, but you may notice that you are not quite as sharp as usual or have trouble concentrating on spirit activity. This is fine, it is your body preparing itself for a state of growth, recovering from large energy use, or just focusing on other things. You can also enter a period of stasis before your new growth period as your body recharges. If you feel you are in a stasis period after declining, take some time for both spiritual and mundane self care!

Area 4: Here you have peaked into a time of hyperactivity.. Your senses are better than ever before and your spirit working skills are on fire. This is not necessarily a good thing! Many people don’t know how to manage themselves during this time and end up burning out into area 5. When I was in high school and attended band camp (which wasn’t really camp as much as it was all day summer practices), most parents gave their kids twenty dollars for the entire week’s lunch. As one might expect, the kid spent the entire twenty dollars on day one and spent every other day either hungry or bringing whatever scraps they could find at home. This lack of saving is similar to what you might do during your hyperactivity stage! I’ll speak more later on how to manage this stage.

Area 5: This is a sharp decline after the hyperactivity stage due to burning out. It is possible to exit the hyperactivity stage without going into such a decline, but it cannot be avoided every time. This type of decline typically happens in a very short period of time, even overnight.

Area 6: Here is the moment you’ve been waiting for: your fallow period! This is not a bad thing! Essentially this is your body’s way of resting and recharging so that it can stabilize itself to go back into spiritual matters. Your senses may be distant or nonexistent, your communication may be difficult even with the use of tools, and you may feel a disconnect from spirit work in general. Do not panic and push yourself to do spirit work; you will only damage yourself and spend more time in this state! Strive for self care right and grounding right now. It is perfectly fine to separate from spirit work right now and even recommended for some people. Dive back into the mundane world!

Area 7: Finally, you’ve exited your fallow period! Many people go through growth after their fallow periods because their bodies are so fresh from recharging. Don’t burn yourself out, but feel free to have some celebratory communication with your spirit friends!

So you’re saying my fallow periods aren’t abnormal? They’re good?

ABSOLUTELY! Not only are they good, but they are necessary for you to maintain your abilities! Going without fallow periods would be like going without sleeping. You would eventually crash and burn from the lack of rest, and then your fallow period would be more akin to being knocked unconscious than a good night’s sleep. Don’t try to push them away.

And my spirits really don’t care?

Your spirits are more attuned to spiritual needs than humans. Not only are they going to be aware of this cycle, but they may go through it too. Almost everything goes through it. If you’ve been with a spirit for a long time, you may have noticed times where they don’t communicate much or fade into the background. They also go through periods where they have difficulty communicating with physical creatures. Some will hide this very well, while others will be very upfront on the subject.

How often should I be getting these? How long should they be?

This depends entirely on yourself. Everyone has a different natural cycle. Some people will have cycles of sharp increases and decreases, with every stage lasting in bursts. Others will have almost constant growth, but it is so gradual that they feel as if they are in permanent stasis. Your fallow periods are going to be whatever your body needs. If you need longer periods to recharge then it will be longer, and perhaps lessened in intensity. Others will have shorter periods, but they are more intense because your body has to dip so far down to recharge so quickly. It is not always even, either! Most people have fairly even patterns within their cycles, but it is possible to be everchanging. As for your hyperactivity, this is usually a sharp, albeit short-lived, spike.

Now onto how to manage your cycle!

Signs of entering a hyperactivity period:

Pressure, vibrations, buzzing, or other unusual sensations in your third eye and other energy centers

Psychic senses are suddenly intensified, possibly to the point of discomfort

Feeling as if you are not grounded

Difficulty grounding

Floating sensation

Headaches

Disconnection from reality; disassociation

More attuned to the astral and physical planes than your physical body

Others notice that your energy is bold and even chaotic, much louder than usual

You attract spirits more than in your normal energy state

Seemingly endless energy for spirit work and other related activities

Sudden motivation for spirit work, you may feel an exaggeration of your skill level

A disregard for discernment

How to manage a hyperactivity period:

Ground frequently! While it may feel useless, it will help to stabilize you in the long run

Discharge your energy into crystals and other storage units. It will give an outlet for excess energy and give you boosts when in need

Attempt meditations focused around peace, calm, and stability

Spend time in a garden or otherwise surrounded by nature, and ground by extending your energy like roots into the earth. Doing this will help to connect yourself to the energy system around you, the plants aiding in keeping you stable

This is a good time to look at the big pictures of vast energy systems. Try looking at the energetic connections within a forest, or between houses in a neighborhood.

Do not go overboard with spirit work, energy work, magic, etc! You will not start to feel the effects of burning out until it has happened. Work on grounding and stabilizing and try to not overwork yourself.

Consistency is the key! Instead of spending your energy all at once, try to use this time to be consistent with your spirit senses and communication. Consistency takes much more energy than you may realize!

Although you shouldn’t do everything all at once, that doesn’t mean you can’t get things done right now! Feel free to work on that big project, just pay extra attention to your spiritual health and go easy.

Don’t get arrogant or stupid! While confidence is good and important, don’t let your abundance of energy convince you to summon a nuclear doom spirit of death without protection. You will regret power trips.

Practice discernment! You may feel concrete in your senses right now but it is just as important as ever

PROTECTION!! Some people become larger beacons for spirits during this time, so up your protection and be wary of strange spirits. Even if you do not become more attractive than normal, energy siphoning spirits will still be drawn to the excess of food in you

Be extra polite to local spirits. Perhaps put up a ward to quiet your energy to others or if possible avoid going into particularly active locations. Even if they have no wish to snack on you, the loud energy can be obnoxious.

Signs of entering a fallow period:

Disinterest and lack of motivation for spirit work, energy work, and magic

Psychic senses are distant or nonexistent

Tools seem to fail or are difficult to understand

You do not naturally notice telepathic speech from spirits

Discernment is difficult, or you may feel that nothing is real

Attempting spirit work, energy work, or magic exhausts you

You are constantly distracted when attempting to meditate or astral travel

You think less of your spirits throughout the day

You are more drawn to mundane activities, such as watching tv, and feel the need to skip or pay less attention to daily exercises

If you feel guilt over ignoring your spirits, you are still unable to communicate well

Sudden frustration with your lack of ability and progress, feeling as if you have retrograded

Sadness or other negative emotions at the sudden sense of disconnect from your spirits, as if your bonds have disappeared

How to manage a fallow period:

Focus on the mundane world! Your body is not meant to be overworking itself on the nonphysical right now

Work on gentle physical self care

As you breathe in, visualize energy in your body like liquid streams of light collecting and brightening in your third eye and any other places you use as psychic energy organs. As you breathe out, it gently diffuses outwards back throughout your body, dimming as it is once again returned to its regular density. This helps to keep your psychic energy points in shape.

Visualize your energy like before, but when you breathe in it flows in a steady, circular cycle upwards from the tip of your toes through your chest. Let it pass through your third eye, and as you breathe out it completes the second half of the cycle by curving downwards, flowing through and cleansing that side’s energy centers as it does so. Rather than being in a single ball, the energy is in a constant, equal flow like the blood in your veins. This helps to keep your energy clean and flowing and cuts down the risk of stagnation during your fallow period.

If you must do any sort of spirit or energy work, make sure it is very slow and gentle like the two exercises above. It must not conflict with your body’s rest. If you wish to practice meditation, don’t do anything requiring long periods of focus or that demands energy. Try doing meditations for sleep or calm which do not involve any spirit contact, but only focus on relaxing your body.

Spiritual protection based in the physical plane is very good to have for when your fallow periods occur! These are things such as witch jars and large scale crystal grids. It is easier to keep these clean and working, since you may not be able to sense purely nonphysical protection like wards at all.

If you wish to remind your spirits that you have them in your thoughts, include them in a daily meal by offering its energy as you eat. Simply thinking this will most likely be enough for them to hear, but if you want to be certain, say it aloud or whisper it if with company!

Before you go to bed, invite your spirits to sit with you as you tell them about your day, no matter how mundane. Even if you can’t sense them around you, this will show them that you are still keeping them in your thoughts and taking the time to include them in your day!

However, it’s also okay to simply push spirit work to the back of your mind and focus on pressing mundane matters. They will understand.

Above all, remember that your spiritual self is resting and recharging. Do what your own body needs to encourage this rest. Don’t try to rush past it or forcibly stuff energy into yourself, most likely you’ll end up hurt and elongating this period.

So hopefully this guide will help on the stress everyone seems to get during their fallow periods! It’s always important for us to understand the natural workings of our bodies, whether physical or nonphysical. Start including your daily thoughts on your current location in your body’s cycle to start recognizing your patterns, and maybe to even predict when your natural downtimes will occur!

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witchingjackal · 8 years ago

Text

Spirit Working Cycles

(yes, it’s a lazily drawn graph)

Area 1: Here, you’re in a state of growth. This is fantastic! You’re learning and improving!

So you’re saying my fallow periods aren’t abnormal? They’re good?

And my spirits really don’t care?

How often should I be getting these? How long should they be?

Now onto how to manage your cycle!

Signs of entering a hyperactivity period:

Pressure, vibrations, buzzing, or other unusual sensations in your third eye and other energy centers

Psychic senses are suddenly intensified, possibly to the point of discomfort

Feeling as if you are not grounded

Difficulty grounding

Floating sensation

Headaches

Disconnection from reality; disassociation

More attuned to the astral and physical planes than your physical body

Others notice that your energy is bold and even chaotic, much louder than usual

You attract spirits more than in your normal energy state

Seemingly endless energy for spirit work and other related activities

Sudden motivation for spirit work, you may feel an exaggeration of your skill level

A disregard for discernment

How to manage a hyperactivity period:

Ground frequently! While it may feel useless, it will help to stabilize you in the long run

Discharge your energy into crystals and other storage units. It will give an outlet for excess energy and give you boosts when in need

Attempt meditations focused around peace, calm, and stability

This is a good time to look at the big pictures of vast energy systems. Try looking at the energetic connections within a forest, or between houses in a neighborhood.

Practice discernment! You may feel concrete in your senses right now but it is just as important as ever

Signs of entering a fallow period:

Disinterest and lack of motivation for spirit work, energy work, and magic

Psychic senses are distant or nonexistent

Tools seem to fail or are difficult to understand

You do not naturally notice telepathic speech from spirits

Discernment is difficult, or you may feel that nothing is real

Attempting spirit work, energy work, or magic exhausts you

You are constantly distracted when attempting to meditate or astral travel

You think less of your spirits throughout the day

You are more drawn to mundane activities, such as watching tv, and feel the need to skip or pay less attention to daily exercises

If you feel guilt over ignoring your spirits, you are still unable to communicate well

Sudden frustration with your lack of ability and progress, feeling as if you have retrograded

Sadness or other negative emotions at the sudden sense of disconnect from your spirits, as if your bonds have disappeared

How to manage a fallow period:

Focus on the mundane world! Your body is not meant to be overworking itself on the nonphysical right now

Work on gentle physical self care

However, it’s also okay to simply push spirit work to the back of your mind and focus on pressing mundane matters. They will understand.

#spirit work #spirit companion #spirit companionship #energy work

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