How to Work with Spirits Workbook

This workbook is designed to help you learn how to work with spirits.
Print it out, pull out a pen, and starting filling it in. That’s how you make
it work!
In the exercises in this workbook, I’m going to introduce you to my
process for working with spirits.
Remember, that the only way you truly change magical practice is by
taking action. This workbook is designed to help you learn how to work
with spirits and get consistent results. Let’s get started!
What I want to explore with you first is how NOT to work with spir-
its. There's a lot of books out there on how to work with spirits, but what
I notice with many of them is that you either get a recipe approach to
working with spirits, where you pick out one for whatever purpose you
have and work with it for that purpose or you get an approach that's re-
ally esoteric and cryptic and wants you to create a coercive relationship
with the spirit where you force it to do what you want.
Neither approach, in my opinion, is the way to work with spirits, and
we're going to explore why here.
"So Taylor, why are you taking exception with how people work with
spirits?"
That's a good question to ask.
When we look at how spirits are discussed and worked with what
stands out to me are the humanocentric assumptions built into working
with spirits. These assumptions try to create a relationship with the spir-
its based on what's convenient and easy for us, such as having spirits ap-
pear before us and speak in our language of choice, or the quaint notion
that spirits somehow benefit from being put into a situation of servitude,
because such servitude supposedly helps them evolve.
For the purposes of this newsletter what I want to share here is that
the true underlying problem with conventional approaches for working
with spirits boils down to one essential problem:
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2 TAYLOR ELLWOOD

Disrespect.
What do I mean by that?
Simply this. When you approach working with a spirit from a place
of just selecting a random spirit to work with from a recipe (grimoire)
book or from a place where you're trying to force it to do things, what
you're telling that spirit is that you disrespect it. You're also building as-
sumptions into that relationship which aren't necessarily accurate and
can come back and bite you in the butt.
I don't recommend working with spirits in this way, because you're
creating a relationship that is dysfunctional and is based on your needs,
but with little to no reciprocity built into the relationship.
You can work with spirits for the purpose of getting results in your
life, but it's worth considering that one of the results you get is the actual
relationship with the spirit. Before we do that though, let’s do an exer-
cise.
Exercise
How do you currently work with spirits? What are the advantages of
that approach to working with spirits? What are the disadvantages?
Share your answers in the Magical Experiments Facebook group
#walkingwithspirits.
Up above I shared that one of the results you get is the relationship
you have with the spirit. I want to unpack that statement, because we
need to understand that the relationship you have with a spirit isn't a
byproduct of your magical work with the spirit, but a direct result of that
work, and it's a relationship that can last a life time.
The Relationship with a Spirit is a Result

When people do results oriented work with a spirit, the main concern is
will the spirit produce the result I want.
This is a short sighted approach to working with spirits.
 HOW TO WORK WITH SPIRITS 3

While you may get that specific result you want, you are also getting
other results, including the relationship with the spirit.
That particular result is more important than the short term result
you've gotten, but its a relationships that can last a life time.
When you consider that, you also have to consider what you want
that relationship to be.
Do you want an adversarial relationship with the spirit, where it may
try to strike back at you for what you've made it do or twist the result
you've gotten in some way you can't anticipate.
OR...
Do you want a friendly relationship with the spirit where you work
together, to each other's mutual benefit?
I know which type of relationship I would prefer.
Now you may think that you can banish the spirit after you work
with it, going with an out of sight, out of mind mentality. And yes you
can banish a spirit, but just because it's banished doesn't mean the rela-
tionship is ended.
It just means you've temporarily shut the door on the spirit.
But the spirit may try to open that door again and who wants that,
where you have to constantly defend yourself against a spirit you called
up and coerced into doing something for you?
I wouldn't want that kind of relationship.
What we have to recognize is that the relationship we have with the
spirit is a result we live with. Once we have that recognition we can start
re-thinking our relationship with the spirits.
Exercise
What kind of relationship do you have with the spirits you work
with? What, if anything, would you change about that relationship?
Share your answers in the Magical Experiments Facebook group
#walkingwithspirits.
The Relationship with a Spirit is a Result Part 2
4 TAYLOR ELLWOOD

So let’s come back to this idea: That a relationship with a spirit is one
of the results you get when you're trying to work with spirits to get re-
sults.
I hope you sat with that a little bit, because it's not the way spirit
work is typically portrayed in Western occultism.
What we see in Western occultism is a tendency to objectify spirits,
and treat them like servants.
But there's a better way...
How to Change our Relationship with the Spirits
If you want a relationship with the spirits where you never have to
worry about them getting loose and coming back to attack you...
OR
If you recognize that you wouldn't want to be treated disrespectfully
in the way that spirits are typically treated...
Then it's time to change how you approach your relationships.
I'm not just talking about giving them offerings.
I'm talking about engaging them in an entirely different way. That
way is through a combination of showing respect right from the begin-
ning of the relationship and also engaging them on an experiential level.
So what does that really mean?
With respect, its simple. Treat the spirit the way you'd want to be
treated. Instead of calling a spirit up and threatening it to get it do some-
thing for you, try an approach where you come up with an agreement
about what you're both willing to do for each other. For example if I ask a
spirit to help me out, I'm also going to ask it what it would like in return.
Once we've come to a mutually beneficial agreement, then what I need
to do is fulfill my end of the agreement, just as the spirit also needs to the
same on its end of the agreement.
By taking such a respectful approach, where an agreement is come to,
you avoid the pointless drama that comes with more conventional meth-
ods. Instead of coercing spirits into doing your bidding, you develop a
mutually beneficial relationship where all parties benefit.
 HOW TO WORK WITH SPIRITS 5

The second change involves engaging the spirits experientially.

Typically magicians have an expectation that the spirit will appear
before them and speak in the preferred language and some spirits oblige
the magician in that way, but we close ourselves off to a variety of other
ways the spirit could connect with us. For example a spirit might choose
to connect with you through a smell or a tactile sensation, but if you're
focused on expecting the spirit to connect with you through sight or
sound, you may miss out in its attempt to connect. And that's also not
including the more subtle senses such as intuition which may be another
way the spirits communicates and connects with you.
So how do we connect with a spirit experientially?
Let's try a little exercise.
Exercise
Invoke a spirit you regularly work with, but ask it to communicate
with you in whatever way it prefers instead of what you prefer. What
do you notice when the spirit communicates with you in its preferred
method of communication choice? How does that communication
method differ from what you might prefer? Do you still understand the
spirit?
Share your answers in the Magical Experiments Facebook group
#walkingwithspirits.
Mediation and its role in spirit work
Let's take a moment to define mediation.
Mediation is a process of spiritual transmission, wherein the spirit
transmits information, energy, essence, etc., to and through you. When
you mediate a spirit, you are doing more than just invoking them. You
are communicating with them and then transmitting that communica-
tion through you.
The benefit of mediation is that it gives you access to what the spirit
knows. However, it's not telepathy. It's an embodied experience where
you are essentially seeded with that spirit's knowledge, and that informa-
tion gradually reveals itself to you at the right time and place.
6 TAYLOR ELLWOOD

You might find yourself knowing things you didn't know before, hav-
ing access to insights you didn't expect to have. You may find that you
relate to the world differently or that you're able to access magical energy
you normally wouldn't draw on.
The reason why is because mediation is a meshing of your identity
with that of the spirit's identity. When you mediate a spirit you exchange
information and experiences with that spirit. You embody and manifest
the spirit through you. The resultant connection gives you access to the
spirit in a way that is different from conventional approaches to spirit
work.
I call this walking with the spirit, because you are walking with the
spirit, interacting with it, in a way that doesn't just involve calling it up
and sending it out to accomplish something. It involves creating a delib-
erate connection with the spirit that is an experiential one where you and
the spirit are in continual contact with each other through the deliberate
use of daily ritual work with the spirit.
For example I work with archangel Suvuviel each day. I do this
through the sphere of art work where I connect with him and the other
archangels, and mediate them into my ritual space. Thereafter, every ac-
tivity I do in that space is an activity, where the archangels are with
me, working through me, on the work we're manifesting together. They
aren't necessarily in the room physically, speaking with me, but I can feel
their spiritual transmission coming through me and manifesting into the
world.
Walking with spirits is about establishing a relationship with the
chosen spirit(s) where they work with and through you. It is not just evo-
cation or invocation. It is the establishment of a current of being that
allows you to transform your life and work because of the relationship
you've established with the spirit.
Want to learn more about my approach to
working with spirits?
If you want to learn more, pick up the Walking With Spirits series, in
which I share my practice for working with spirits.
Book 1: Walking with Magical Entities1
Book 2: Walking with Spirits
Coming soon Book 3: Walking with Elementals

1. https://geni.us/wwmeebook
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