How important is mental health in regards to working with spirits?

I am late to the party, because I always am.

In another post of mine, A Personal Account of Parasites and My Own Ineptitude in Magic, I talked about how my own mental illnesses played into the parasite problem that I had, and those experiences are what I base my opinions on.

I believe that it is important to ourselves to work on our mental health prior to diving into evocation and pathworking. Sometimes, mental illness can make us fall prey to things like escapism or delusion, which could cloud our judgment when evaluating the realness of an experience with spirits (or reveal parasites). Depending on where you are in your practice, you may be already at an advantage or disadvantage when interacting with spirits and these internal “stumbling blocks” can only add to that.

It is possible, with practice and self-awareness, to have a valid experience and use those spirits for growth, but it requires being aware of your biases and actively challenging those when interacting with spirits.

Faustus wrote a post about the importance of the state of mind in rituals here that I think would be excellent, additional reading. In terms of methods that could help when working with this type of handicap, he also wrote another article that I think is great for this subject: How to Drop Mind.

I’d also add that this is an important thing to keep in mind when undertaking such a task:


At the risk of sounding like a double-talker–intent drives many things. If you go in with the intention of asking for assistance with the area that could potentially prohibit you from advancing in your practices, it could be worth attempting the work but taking your experiences with a grain of salt (which you should do always anyway, but I realize this is easy to say and hard to do even for me). It would also be important to recognize the risks and take steps to mitigate them. Practices such as grounding, shielding, and cleansing would be critical to keeping your space clear of potential hazards that could damage your experience.

In terms of spirits used for addressing the issues I perceive you are dealing with: Paimon appears to be a good resource for this, but could I also suggest additional entities if you decide to pursue this method of addressing your problems?

In Goetia Pathworking: Magical Results from the 72 Demons by Corwin Hargrove, Murmus is an entity that can calm thought and remove unwanted energy.

The book also suggests that Buer can also assist in mental and emotional healing. I can say that in my own pathworking on this spirit, I found myself at ease and found the pathworking of Buer to be a pleasant experience.

Another entity, Leraye is also suggested by Hargrove to assist with increasing mental strength, though this could be in relation to intelligence mor than

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