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I’ve been researching and practicing the occult for I’d say a decade at this point. These day’s I’d consider myself a hermeticist. But I still have a love of more local spirits, ghosts and “cryptids/yokai/fae.” I feel like they often get sidelined among gods, and angels, the one. I’m very interested in recording local spirits at places (both human and non-human) it’s really my origins in the occult, when I was younger I would go ghost hunting and that’s how I started into the occult.
I don’t want to be a Zac Bagans, I’d prefer to avoid disturbing these too much, I feel that they likely have something of a “ecosystem” and i don’t want to control them. And I’d generally like to avoid banishing anything except as a last resort. But I want to understand the behavior of local spirits, document them.
I feel drawn to them, these beings which exist liminal between the spiritual and physical(although this separation is a flawed way to look at it I feel that most things still tend to stick to one side.) I feel that they represent an important aspect the world, and that external work is equally valuable as internal work, I also feel it’s somewhat neglected by a lot of new magicians who struggle desperately to avoid anything physical or “beneath them”.
so what are some skills that could help me A: defend against any potentially dangerous spirits(not that i expect to be in deep danger but if you go into the woods you bring bear spray) and ways to seek out these spirits better, ie perceive them more easily and be able to track them(although of course that exists on a case by case basis)
Also sorry that this post is a bit ranty I didn’t know how to word it particularly well without useing sensationalist terms like “cryptid hunting”
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Also, addendum: I’d particularly like to hear about ceremonial resources on the subject because I consider myself a ceremonial magician and generally get better results with it than with witchcraft.
I would suggest documenting them, but then also searching for books or other documentation or research about what traditional spirits are in the area. Just see what correlates to what you feel as well.
I’d particularly like to hear about ceremonial resources on the subject because I consider myself a ceremonial magician and generally get better results with it than with witchcraft.
what would you do if all your offerings, physical charms , and spells you hang in nature get stolen or taken suddenly? You might consider it to be natural or just some curious person saw it and took it, what if it turned out to be a spirit?
After having my offerings being taken in a very weird pattern I decided to take matter into my hand. Is it really just a random person stealing stuff, why isn't he taking other garbage? why is he taking my charm on a tree but clearly leave the plastic bag on the tree? something seemed wrong, so I decided to settle it by setting up a spirit trap/bottle.
After Preparing the trap using an empty bottle, red wine base along with some other materia to confused, intoxicate, and confine the spirit I set up the bottle in the desert, behind dunes, in an inaccessible spot. I prepared the spot with two candles and using shem angels from Geoff's book I prepared this call to prepare the bottle, after saying the words definite visual distortion and physical response appeared from the candle:
“Thou SAY-EAT-ELL(Saitel) and OLE-ME-AH(Olmiah). Lie in wait for mine enemies. Send fire and force them and jail them into this vessel when next they harass me. I seal this command with the Word of Power: TEE-FAR-ATE-YOD. So mote it be.”
After preparing it the trap I left the spot and came back a few days later to see the results:
Clearly the spirit was trapped, the candles burned in a weird pattern and charred the sand beside it. The bottle was heavier than before, and the whole thing seemed like a success, what came after that is the interrogation session:
The interrogation of this entity was rather ...disappointing. It wasn't some mischievous spirit with evil intent but it turned out to be a small nature spirit that can't even say it's name that doesn't even know why it's doing this. It couldn't even say it's name, so we had to use the Headless One to help us speak for this entity.
Us: What's your name?
Spirit:Soitaebte
Us: What's your power?
Soitaebte: Stealing stuff hanging from tree [vision of old hag with hunched back ]
Us: What's your nature?
Soitaebte: Confused, garbled, noisy
Us: What's your sigil
Soitaebte: [gave us a sigil]
Us: Why do you keep stealing our offerings
Soitaebte: Doesn't know why/the entity is too dumb
Us: Are you an angel or a demon?
Soitaebte: None/ small spirit
Us: What moon phase are you associated with?
Soitaebte: Waxing
and the most important question, we asked the headless one.
Us: How to dispose of this spirit?
Headless one: In Parts
We took the instructions to mean disposing it in different spots, what better way other than to dispose of it in multiple road stops along the highway!
Next saturday went on a road trip, taking the spirit with us:
We drained the content of the bottle in 3 different spots, and overall felt like the spirit was dismantled and thrown apart in different places more than 80+ km away from my hometown. I assumed it is all good and did a reading yesterday to verify the efficacy of the procedure.
6 of wands is his "bondage" inside of the bottle
3 of wands is him being poured out in three different places
8 of swords is him being "broken" and shut off in a way
2 of Coins/Disk represent me and my partner being free/infinite sign, mobility.
That's the end of the story, we are freed from this entity. I hope that you enjoyed listening to this story interjected by images and find the process or methodology to be helpful for your practice, maybe you might get some interesting insight out of this
I recorded that most of the spirits I saw in nature looked like 3d geometric polygons:
Excuse me for sounding so "weird", but living near desert it's just mind-boggling the number of entities that are shaped octahedron, tetrahedron, or even cubes. At first I dismissed the phenomena because I thought it related to visual disturbance at night and the horizon acting weird, and after multiple appearances both near my apartment, in desert, and near Ed-Dur's Temple I am sure there's a huge or significant amount of these entities around this area.
They don't seem to have a lot of "intention" going behind them except showing an absurd amount of interest in what me and my partner are doing in the desert from rituals to worship. They rustle and swiftly going around areas without footstep noises, they peek in here and there but they don't actively interact without showing their pyramid head look for a moment or two before running around.
I am tempted to catch one of these entities or invite it to a chat and talk to it.....
On the other hand I think this classification of entities that get mis-attributed as jinn in arabic town/cities, but that's a hot take...I need more research on them.
If anyone got anything about these entities or dealt with them, I would be happy to hear from you either as a comment or as a reblog.
so what are some skills that could help me A: defend against any potentially dangerous spirits(not that i expect to be in deep danger but if you go into the woods you bring bear spray) and ways to seek out these spirits better, ie perceive them more easily and be able to track them(although of course that exists on a case by case basis)
(I actually have a more recent interactionwith local spirits let me check my journal)
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Not a direct working but a blessing for land spirits if you want to use:
27-03-2026
(Ancestor) going to meet my ancestor, basically telling me to use this time of heavy rain and thunder to bless the land. He advised me within 3 to 4 days I can open the window, go out, or print photos of the rainy places and to bless the land. The blessing of the land will heal and maintain the “underworld” spirits who are carrying the land on their back. the 3 moves advised previously was the method I should use to gesture the blessing entrance. My ancestor advised me to check back on him in a few days and see how it went. Lastly my ancestor smirked and showed me [some personal parts omitted], I thanked him and left.
The following is the blessing format/similar prayer from heart I was doing to bless the rain that fell in UAE and the Arabian peninsula:
"I bless the spirit on the earth, above the earth, under the earth, and the inhabitants of the underworld with peace and protection"
lift arm up "those who lift us up"
stretch arm outward horizontally "and carry us on their shoulders"
I’ve been researching and practicing the occult for I’d say a decade at this point. These day’s I’d consider myself a hermeticist. But I still have a love of more local spirits, ghosts and “cryptids/yokai/fae.” I feel like they often get sidelined among gods, and angels, the one. I’m very interested in recording local spirits at places (both human and non-human) it’s really my origins in the occult, when I was younger I would go ghost hunting and that’s how I started into the occult.
I don’t want to be a Zac Bagans, I’d prefer to avoid disturbing these too much, I feel that they likely have something of a “ecosystem” and i don’t want to control them. And I’d generally like to avoid banishing anything except as a last resort. But I want to understand the behavior of local spirits, document them.
I feel drawn to them, these beings which exist liminal between the spiritual and physical(although this separation is a flawed way to look at it I feel that most things still tend to stick to one side.) I feel that they represent an important aspect the world, and that external work is equally valuable as internal work, I also feel it’s somewhat neglected by a lot of new magicians who struggle desperately to avoid anything physical or “beneath them”.
so what are some skills that could help me A: defend against any potentially dangerous spirits(not that i expect to be in deep danger but if you go into the woods you bring bear spray) and ways to seek out these spirits better, ie perceive them more easily and be able to track them(although of course that exists on a case by case basis)
Also sorry that this post is a bit ranty I didn’t know how to word it particularly well without useing sensationalist terms like “cryptid hunting”
Post automatically merged:
Also, addendum: I’d particularly like to hear about ceremonial resources on the subject because I consider myself a ceremonial magician and generally get better results with it than with witchcraft.
Awesome post, you totally would have got bonus points if you used "cryptid hunting". Haha. I grew up with my grandma and her family practicing Mountain Medicine. My whole life I've been obsessively in love with EVERYTHING paranormal and strange. I am pretty new to practicing and am still trying to figure all this out, so I haven't done any work with higher deities of any kind. That being said my Grandma would have me put honey and milk out every morning and before bed to keep the "playful mountain fairies" as she called them happy. I guess growing up in the back woods of the Ozark mountains gives you a weirder belief system, at least it was for me. I grew up about an hour and a half from one of the oldest Bigfoot legends the Blue Man of Spring Creek, legends of the Ozark Howler, the cave monsters, the Gowrow, the Snawfus, countless UFO sightings, abductions, and countless more. I believe in ALL of these. I'm a firm believer that even if a legend isn't a physical thing, but it has belief from countless ppl for the past 300 years, it becomes something real in a different form. I use an SB7 to do the Estes Method with friends in the middle of the woods and I can't tell you how often they'll interact with you. Especially when you bring them an offering and talk to them like it's normal. Sorry for the rant... I get excited when I see badass ideas like yours that resonate with me like that. Hahaha I have some other experiments I do to talk or just to kick it with them. Let me know if you need any new ideas for them.
The offering makes sense but I do tend to be cautious about who I give gifts too. But I’d be far more careful taking “gifts”.
I’m from the other side of the country but there’s been a lot of stuff I’ve seen around NorCal where I grew up, especially the few times I went to Shasta, that place is crazy. I’ve also seen a handful of UAP’s but that’s kinda out of my area of expertise(I mostly focus on ghosts and land dwelling cryptids). But I’ve also always been in love with the supernatural. Besides my strange encounters in the woods I’m from a smallish town closely connected with the gold rush so there were lots of haunted places. ghost hunting was pretty big part of my childhood.
I’m writing a post about these “liminal spirits” as I’ve come to call them so expect to see that posted soon, it will just go into more detail about my theories on these things as well as just trying to spark some conversation about the paranormal because it’s one of my favorite topics to discuss.
Many people don’t know how to find local spirits because local spirits exist outside of books. They are not neatly listed in grimoires. They associate with places, and land. That means you do not find them by reading more theory. You find them by using your skills to detect them.
Some spirits enjoy attention. Others do not want human contact at all. A spirit not responding does not mean you failed. Sometimes that is the answer. So if your goal is to understand local spirits, the most important skills are discernment and respect. Seek them out if you feel called to it, but understand that local spirits are found by learning the language of a place, not by forcing the place to speak.
Many people don’t know how to find local spirits because local spirits exist outside of books. They are not neatly listed in grimoires. They associate with places, and land. That means you do not find them by reading more theory. You find them by using your skills to detect them.
Some spirits enjoy attention. Others do not want human contact at all. A spirit not responding does not mean you failed. Sometimes that is the answer. So if your goal is to understand local spirits, the most important skills are discernment and respect. Seek them out if you feel called to it, but understand that local spirits are found by learning the language of a place, not by forcing the place to speak.
Many people don’t know how to find local spirits because local spirits exist outside of books. They are not neatly listed in grimoires. They associate with places, and land. That means you do not find them by reading more theory. You find them by using your skills to detect them.
Some spirits enjoy attention. Others do not want human contact at all. A spirit not responding does not I
Many people don’t know how to find local spirits because local spirits exist outside of books. They are not neatly listed in grimoires. They associate with places, and land. That means you do not find them by reading more theory. You find them by using your skills to detect them.
Some spirits enjoy attention. Others do not want human contact at all. A spirit not responding does not mean you failed. Sometimes that is the answer. So if your goal is to understand local spirits, the most important skills are discernment and respect. Seek them out if you feel called to it, but understand that local spirits are found by learning the language of a place, not by forcing the place to speak.
I can only speak from my own experiences and what I've learned from old timers, and I couldn't agree more with that. I have found that every "spirit, fae, elemental, cryptid, alien, or whatever an individual feels comfortable calling them" are so unique to themselves. I do think that if you go out of your way to show them that you are conscious of them, and respect them, that they are usually pretty outgoing unless like you said, they just aren't going to connect with you no matter what. The best advice, which isn't saying much coming from a backwoods hillbilly with internet, is to go out to the land with an open heart/mind, be respectful, and most importantly, have fun with it!
I have found that every "spirit, fae, elemental, cryptid, alien, or whatever an individual feels comfortable calling them" are so unique to themselves.
When it comes to local spirits, they are not unique to the person who receives the call. The type of spirits present is shaped by the terrain of the land itself.
You don’t have to physically go out into the land to begin working with local spirits. You can summon them to your own space.
I used to interact with the local land spirits quite often, many years ago. I feel that many of them are forgotten about and generally appreciate any interaction that recognizes or remembers their essence or natures (in a constructive sense). I used to build shrines in particular places in the landscape where they could localize and manifest, often making little sculptures or figures that I felt represented them from mud, sticks or rocks. I would leave offerings - things I found out-and-about while in the area - cool rocks, pieces of glass, trinkets of this or that; and I would sometimes bring food, little sweets or candies, and sometimes candles (when permissible). I would leave notes at those places for others letting them know what it was they were happening upon - that this was a place where a local spirit is to manifest, and to leave votive offerings and to be kind. I would also document the progression of such places as the public would interact with them, taking pictures and writing down what was left, taken, built-upon, or destroyed. I occasionally had to rebuild the shrines in some instances. But I always felt they were kindred. This has always fascinated me through the decades of my practice, and I think it forms and integral basis for connection to a particular place. As magicians, witches and occultists, I always felt deeply that we are the custodians of such places, and have a duty to take care of their rapport. Not all spirits are kindly though. Just like people, they have personalities. Some are mean and don't want interaction, or some only like certain things. Others are very friendly.
I agree, and this is one of the big reasons I want to interact with and document these spirits. I’m currently in college studying forestry for conservation. My one of my biggest passions is conserving and researching nature, so I want to extend that beyond physical nature. I want to document spirits like we document plants and animals, I want to understand them and share that understanding with others so that we can come together to protect and steward these spirits.
