I know I’ll likely get varied opinions on this one, but still I’m asking anyway. So far when working with spirits, I tend to work with one at a time, first learning if I can have a working relationship with it and then somewhat committing to letting it be my “go to” spirit for a while. So far they have just passed me off eventually to the next one and then of course I start to work with a new one. But lately I’ve begun to feel like this is not always needed or expected. That they don’t typically demand (or even want) our exclusive commitments. Perhaps it’s more an issue on my part in regards to trusting my own intuitions and impressions, trusting that I can keep more than one working straight in a week or month, perhaps I’m afraid I will offend or something. Or simply that I barely trust myself to approach one myself without another directing me to it first. (I’m convinced these guys network and share student files.)
It depends on what you need the spirit for and what you and them agree on. For a simple fix like getting a raise at work, it could be 4 days and you’re done. For something like being taught about magick and pathworking, I have seen people work with demons for 3 months, 6 months, a year, etc.
I actually have a lifetime pact with 2 of them.
Confidence is probably the issue - I wouldn’t mentor someone in my own professional skills (I’m not talk about magick, I mean the other stuff I can do) who didn’t seem to trust themselves and was afraid of offending me, because it’s just a minefield.
People who can assert themselves (and this can be learned) are thicker-skinned, less likely to go into a tailspin over something I said that came out wrong, or whatever - plus if someone’s looking up to me that much, I’d be worried they also secretly resented me, or would when they discovered I’m just as flawed as everyone else.
That last part might not be applicable to spirits, and demons, but still they seem to prefer working with people who are confident and assertive, especially spirits like Belial. 
Very true Eva. I have had conversations with a few demons that I felt were very pleasant to work with, very understanding and almost father-type figures to me and I said, so why on earth do some people continually say you are difficult to work with and warn others away from you?
Their reply; was those who found me difficult were the ones that wanted everything done FOR them as opposed to working WITH me. The lazy magicians that want all results with little to no effort on their part. I value the magicians that are assertive, dedicated, and prideful of their accomplishments that they had to work for.
These spirits have told me that they will treat a dedicated magician very well, but those who lack drive and enthusiaism and constantly question the validity of their workings because they doubt their own abilities irritate them, and they have no problem being harsh with those people to the point it may seem like they’re actually being mean and rude. They are our teachers. They are no different than a teacher in high school yelling at a 16 year old student that is daydreaming to pay attention.
Teachers use scare tactics to reinforce good behavior in the student and as a way to show them you are losing focus so pay attention. Spirits try to reinforce dedication and life altering skills to help us succeed and if the student seems to want to use the spirit for a free way out, is not committed to their end of a deal, or is constantly doubting themself they will sometimes resort to harsh means to get their point across or ignore the student all together. Someone that seems unsure of their abilities or intuition at first, the spirit will still engage with the them to try and derail this type of thinking but if the student has eventually spoken to many spirits and all of them can say nothing I have tried is getting my point across, this person still doubts their magick, doubts that I am really here because they cannot see or hear me then they will ignore the student until he or she comes back with more experience.
They just simply do not have time to work with those who are not catching on or need their hand held. Spirits can be nice, but they do not cuddle or baby anyone. Some spirits will only work with those experienced enough to do certain things on their own and those who are sure of their abilities. However, there are spirits whose only purpose is to work with and train new magicians and those having trouble.
I will say, for all others reading this since we occasionally get a newbie on here like this, that anyone who is so new or inexperienced that they cannot cast a spell correctly, cannot scry or do divination, and other basic things should not be seeking to work with spirits as they are nowhere near ready to and jumping the gun too quickly will lead them down the road to nowhere fast. These are the types that continually try to evoke spirits but they never get any results at all, because they are not ready so the spirit is most likely ignoring their requests as the spirit feels that helping someone this experienced may lead to that person becoming dependent on the spirit because the person realizes the only time their magick works is when they ask a spirit for help, thereby reinforcing even further that maybe they just need to stick to asking spirits for help instead of trying to learn the techniques for themselves.
That is the kind of behavior the spirits do not want anyone to develop so if they feel that working with a person will reinforce this type of behavior they will just refuse to work with that person.
I see it as being really simple - cause, and effect.
Being the person she is and thinkiing, acting, and believing as she does, is what’s made Courney Love have Courtney Love’s life - same with Angela Merkel, who’s ten years older than Courtney and got the life she has (and the power she holds) through thinking, believing, and acting in specific ways.
External things can have an effect, but past around age 18, we have a lot of choice over what external things we allow ourselves to be exposed to, what we permit into our lives. It’s what we permit in, that affirms our core belief about who we are and what we’re capable of, so be VERY careful what you allow to be in your life because they WILL change you, for better or worse.
Making changes - conscious changes - to our beliefs, our thoughts, and our actions WILL change the outcomes we get, whether it’s from demons or fellow humans.
It can be done, millions of people do it everyday when they adopt an exercise regime, go into recovery from some addiction, leave a job that’s destroying them, or begin a course of study.
The outcomes in our lives right now are the effect of choices we’ve made, they almost never just land on us from nowhere, and to get different effects, we need to become aware of what we need to change.
Very often we haven’t entirely realised how much junk programming we have, muddled-up messages from society, the media, and our families, that all sum up to make us feel BAD about ourselves, our desires, our motivations.
So while saying “be more confident” sounds like a demanding prospect, when you examine the internal dialogue that leads to lack of confidence, and so on, it’s actually quite easy to deconstruct and replace with empowering thoughts and beliefs!
I feel like Savodonger’s post here would be very helpful to you, Blazewind Bluebird, and so would that book (PsychoCybernetics), because it describes the cause > effect connection to our thoughts and self-image in great, and easily-understandable, detail.