So, how do you know, how can you tell if you’re hallucinating or actually in contact with a spirit or entity that’s communicating something specific to you?
In my personal experience, as a Tarot reader I suddenly “know” or “see” things in my mind (which most of the time have nothing to do with the cards that came up), and I tend to brush off most of it just assuming I must be crazy and that’s it. But the few times when I do tell my querents about it, they always get shocked and confirm what I saw… then I get shocked even more (though also validated) and think “wow, ok, I’m not so crazy… yet” with a sigh of relief.
When it comes to entities in rituals, so far I have only done rituals with Fortuna and the Moon, but I never felt them communicating back to me. They do fulfill all my wishes, and I do show my gratitude with offerings, so I can’t complain, but it doesn’t seem like there’s much of a back and forth communication.
I do use some oracles I have only for them, and it’s usually quite heartwarming feedback that I get from them in my rituals, but then again, I wonder if maybe I’m just crazy and that’s it.
So, I’m curious since in so many threads so many practicioners say the entities they work with communicate back to them. How do you know? How does it happen? How can you stay grounded and not wonder so much about your sanity (as I do)?
Well sanity, as it stands, is a subjective term to the individual rather than in common society an objective one. If you get a chance, listen to the interview with Ed Kemper on his own sanity, he believed himself sane, society however and his actions did not.
When it comes to communication and hallucination, cant they be one in the same? If a person takes a substance and communicates with spirits is it any less “real” than the individual who sits in the dark and deprives all their senses but then they pick up on a subtlety of light, smell, or sound? Both can be considered a “real” experience and be scrutinized by our modern world and society as an overactive imagination.
To me, when performing ritual to obtain information or “speak” to an entity, its not so much speaking as its a foreign voice in my head and words as though they’ve shouted down a hallway. Faces and things appear like dreams or memories of something I had forgotten, something i knew but never was apart of in this existence. Example and most recent, last night I’m performing an invocation to Duke Dantalion, nothing so sure yet, but near the end of my chanting i close my eyes and see a girls face, crystal blue eyes, chin length black hair, freckles, and a gap in her front teeth. Who is she, i dont know, never saw her before, and like a whisper in the dark i hear “dont get behind”. Was it real? What did it mean? was this a message from Duke Dantalion, or a figment of my already overactive imagination? A little column A and a little column B, but I still have to figure out what it means and it could mean nothing at all. Nothing in my experience has seemed as coherent as some of the others here, but I also enjoy personally some of the cryptic nature of spirits I work with. It makes it more fun.
Deities, spirits, demons use symbolism when communicating telepathically, it is a vision in response to your ritual. The young girls face, and advice, “don’t get behind.”
This could be symbolism about growth and moving forward. During adolescence we move from youth to becoming a mature adult. This means learning to become more independent. It means making your own decisions, moving toward earning your own keep and establishing yourself in the community and the world.
Many things we face in our youth or as a child are never resolved, or remain as potentials, and are frequently confronted later in life. So the dream girl could depict these unresolved issues or potential still to discover.
Agreed, its been a push for me lately to keep up with my practices ( I have a larger show I’m appearing at in a week and other issues on the home front and work) but I made the connection after typing it out here haha. Funny how it works that way, and a child undoubtedly, as my 2nd job/hobby is a toy maker and surprisingly or not most of the parents buy barbarians and astronauts for their daughters. Spirits like to make us think, only issue being human is its easy to over think
@Faustus wrote a post about a similar topic that I recommend reading:
Not necessarily about hallucinations vs. communication, but some of his theories could be applied in a scenario like this too to “prove out” things.
As for hallucination vs. the real deal, this was a big challenge for me in the beginning, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t still struggle with this sometimes.
A real entity will “feel” different. Some thought forms that I dealt with in my early days would be super easy to talk to and have “all the answers” but nothing I could prove out. But they just didn’t “feel” right. They were either too heavy or too fluid and free-roaming. (Edited because I realize this paragraph made 0 sense.) Dropping the mind is super important to a true experience (but just my opinion), Faustus also wrote a great article on that as well.
I try to “ping” entities to get an idea of what their energy feels like before I focus too much. Though, even sometimes I’m not convinced. It’s all a matter of practice in my opinion. There’s also a little bit of intuition at play.
@aBetterHuman poses some really good points that I have to agree with. Also, the fact you make toys is absolutely the most fascinating thing I’ve ever heard about a person.
That’s an awesome post, but I also grew more and more frustrated as I read it because in all these years (+15) I have never met any spirits, deities, thoughtforms, or imposters that I know of. I communicated thoughts and wishes to spirits and deities, and I got results every time, but I never heard or saw them. If I’m able to read the Tarot and have visions and just “know” things, how could my intuition not allow me to hear or see these entities? Maybe I don’t really know anything at all?
Maybe I just can’t. I don’t know. Ever since I registered here (only a few days ago) I’ve been wondering if I maybe I should just drop everything and become another sheep. Everyone speaks wonders of working with entities and how they communicate back and I’m like… idk, maybe I’m incapable or maybe there was nothing there, ever. I got results, yeah, it’s undeniable and it’s real, I can even touch and actually see the results of my magick working. Maybe I shouldn’t even try working with any entities anymore since I can’t feel, hear or see them?
Seems good enough to me. Abramelin tells us that we shouldn’t insist on seeing them and that it should be enough that they do and say what we wish. You communicate through oracles? That seems fine if the information checks out. In some spirit working traditions that is simply how it is done. Some people here can see and hear spirits. Some only think they can. Take any claims with a grain of salt.
I know that what I hear and see of the spirits is real because nothing else explains a good bit of the shit I’ve borne witness to. If I were insane something else could.
I’ll take the opportunity to ask you something else you might have experience with, and it’s about what I keep reading here in the forums of spirits “f-ing your life up” if you don’t do your side of the bargain after they did a favor for you… maybe it’s because so far I’ve been working with more “benevolent” spirits (Fortuna, the Moon, Diana, soon Aphrodite & Archangel Raphael, etc), but I haven’t made any promises of any “payment” to them, ever, though I do leave them some coffee, crystals, and coins (no big sacrifices honestly) in my altar, but I see them as gifts and gratitude on my part, and not a payment.
Do spirits always F your life up in retaliation for not keeping a promise, or is it just that these like me so they’re chill about it?
Marbas beset me with a series of mechanical failures because I frankly forgot his promised offering. So yes, it’s a thing. Will they do it every time? Who knows?
I have to agree with @Faustus that it’s different for everyone and speaking to a spirit through divination is exactly how spirits communicate back for a lot of people. Especially when we’re awake.
Otherwise you’re probably communicating with them through a dream
Or a vivid meditation
Hallucinating a spirit or seeing them manifest as though they are standing right in front of you rarely happens without drugs being involved (drug use has historically been a widely accepted spiritual practice not advocating it just saying there’s a long history of it and people tended to halluncinate a whole lot more while on drugs than off them)
What you determine as being worth accepting into your own version or reality or rejecting is entirely up to you. But overall I would say trust your gut and intuition. I only go wrong when I don’t
At some point in our lives I think we all get one
I think most of us on here just cut right to what we felt the spirit was saying back to us instead of pointing to the clues we got and how we interpreted them or we are talking about interactions that happened on a more astral level
Or maybe we’re all crazy and you’re one of the few sane ones here so don’t feel bad about that
But generally spirits communicate back through divinations or signs and sychronicities
Sometimes I notice spirits manifesting through phantom smells or out of the corner of my eye or inside a mirror (this is rare but has happened and its why I refuse to keep mirrors in my bedroom now because it freaks me out too much)
Yes they all have their own unique personalities! I take each one as they come and try not to overthink it
The communications I get are often a combinations of words, images, and even direct knowing so the is a bit of processing of that I ha ve to do if I am going to write it down. Still, I get suspicious when I read a full length manuscript spirit conversation
I had quite a few of those, especially with bugs for some reason. Around a year ago bees would start to chase me everywhere, and then drop dead as soon as I noticed them (sort of like “ok my job here is done, remember me as a hero!”). It all started a day when three of them came into my home, and one after another they just dropped dead on the exact same spot (one died, another came in, died, then another, etc, but not all at once). Then I was in a car and another chased me and wanted to get in like crazy through the window all the way. As soon as I stopped and got out of the car, she dropped dead. And so on.
I also remember wasps wanted to get in like crazy as well (a few managed to and I panicked a bit). And a dragonfly managed to get in and leave on their own too…
Sidenote: I live in an apartment up high in the middle of a city. Bees, wasps, and dragonflies have nowhere to live around here, so these are quite uncommon events. No bee/wasp hives anywhere around, and no water for dragonflies either. And I have no plants or flowers that could attract them.
Worst part is, I never really understood what the bees meant to say to me. I assumed it had to do with what I was trying to manifest, and maybe they meant to tell me I had a lot of work to do ahead of me… which might have been true because it’s all coming together and properly manifesting right now. Maybe it was about that, but maybe I totally missed the point.
I know bugs or flying creatures in general tend to be messages/signs from Beelzebub (I actually dreamed of a big golden beetle recently, and as I looked it up it seems to have something to do with him and how he was represented in ancient times), but I did a quick compatibility check-up with my Tarot cards recently and Beelzebub didn’t seem so keen to work with me at all. Also, no way it was Beelzebub sending me these bees and wasps a year ago because I my focus was nowhere near him.
lol that is too funny poor bee! Well I don’t know where your focus was last year. Could it have had anything to do with relationships or conflict by any chance?
If Beelezebub doesn’t make sense to you there are other spirits associated with bees.
I had something similar happen when Freya was trying to get my attention. I had an altar set up for meditation when a bee flew through the air vent and landed in the middle of the altar and I was like “Oh that’s weird”
I also had bees trying to get inside my car when I was out at the park. I felt the presence was feminine and since I was working with the runes and with Freyr I thought it might be Freya his twin but I wasn’t sure if she was associated with bees so I did research and found out that she was and honey (especially honey mead) is a traditional offering to her
So I started paying attention to her and the bees stopped
Besides Freya there are other goddesses associated with bees as well Artemis I believe might be one of them.
It definitely sounds like you’re getting signs from someone. So just do research pay attention to what jumps out at you and keep confirming through your tarot cards
I think of it as detective work gather your list of suspects then go through the list testing each one out until you find who is making the most sense and confirms their identity
What about flies? It’s winter and out of nowhere 2 big fat flies showed up in my room. I chased them until they disappeared. Just as mysteriously as they appeared.
The only spirit I know of associated with flies is Beelzebub but a quick google search led me to the Egyptian goddess Utachit as well but other than that I couldn’t find much about her. I’d say do a divination, research both spirits and stay open to more signs and information coming your way
