Hello everyone! My name is Liberty (yes, like the insurance company, yes, that’s my real name) and I am a high school student outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan. I was in middle school when I came upon the wondrous world of the darker arts or the left hand path. I’ve always been interested in spirits ever since I had an encounter as a small child with my deceased grandmother in her old house. As early as I could remember I would watch ghost tv shows and horror movies, I thought that I couldn’t be afraid of something I admired. (Look at me rambling)
After struggling a lot mentally, religion really saved me and now that I have money to buy the resources that I personally require for this and I have finally found the perfect platform, I want to do this right. I just don’t know where to start. I’ve read a lot on here and other places about awakening your chakras and then immediately jumping into summoning and I have no clue how you can go from one step to another or even how to begin.
I’m not on here for a quick fix, I want to begin my lifelong journey down this path and be able to use it to help people I’m just really struggling on how to start. Much help would be appreciated! 
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Welcome to the forum @Yeep_the_sheep
Before we can help direct you towards anything, please tell us what you are particularly interested in learning about. Most people are first brought to magick by mundane struggles, for more money, more love etc. but those who stay tend to find more than what was initially sought.
So what struggles or goals draw you here? Once you have a goal in mind, we can help you get started.
My goal is to help people. I know how incredibly cheesy that sounds but there are some psychological horrors that can create blockage and in that regard I how to be able to use this as a platform to bridge that gap. I’m also interested in communicating with spirits and being able to better understand the world around us through use of higher beings.
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Do you meditate?
The first step is always to learn to focus your mind.
Now, there are many ways to work with spirits, some complicated, and some simple. If you plan on learning what is known as evocation, which is the manifesting of spirits in physical form, then your second step should be learning a banishing ritual, and practicing it twice a day upon awakening and before sleeping.
A banishing ritual clears your space of unwanted energies and beings, but it also serves the purpose of training your mind in visualisation, energy manipulation, and the vibration of words of power.
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I do meditate, though not on a schedule. Really, it’s just to help with stress.
With the banishing rituals, how do I know if what I’m doing is right and how do I focus on learning something if it’s a new sensationalism?
Sorry if that didn’t make any sense
A banishing ritual takes practice. In the beginning, you probably won’t feel or sense anything at all, and will stumble over parts of it until it is eventually committed to memory. However, the ritual works regardless, as long as the intention is there.
It is simultaneously a learning tool, and a weapon in your arsenal to combat things that may not have your best interests at heart, which you may begin to attract once you start raising your energetic vibration. Magick lights you up on the subtler planes, and brings you to the attention of its denizens, some of which you’d rather not have in your space.
Probably the most famous and well known banishing ritual in Western Ceremonial Magick is the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, created in the 1890’s by an occult order called The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It clears an area, and establishes a circle protected by four archangels at the cardinal points.
If Hebrew God names and angels aren’t your thing, there are many different types of banishings available. Find one that appeals to you, and try it out.
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Thank you so much for your help! As far as your experience, what is your biggest advice as far as your safety and sanity goes? What do you do if the results that come out of it scare you?
As far as safety and sanity goes, make sure you know how to ground.
When things get wacky in magick, you have to be able to switch focus back into the mundane world. Magick is inherently destabilising because it calls into question our collective belief in a static, objective reality, so to counter that force, you learn to bring yourself back down to Earth, so to speak.
Things like eating, exercise, walking, playing with pets, etc. reconnect you with your body and the world around you, and is your buffer against madness.
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When it comes to evocation, obviously there’s cautions to be taken with regards to just the whole principle, what are the best forms of communication outside of spirit boards? I’ve heard pendulums can do quite a trick but I was wondering of other methods too.
Also, does summoning/communicating get harder if the people you’re seeking residency with are following the path of the false god? Is it possible that, even though a person has never done any form of ritualistic practice, their presence in a household could taint the work you’re attempting to accomplish?
First off, there is no such thing as a “false god.” That is dogma taken from monotheism that calls anything but the single god they worship as less.
Yahweh is no different from Odin or Zeus or Ra or any other heads of a pantheon that humans worship.
If you are talking about Christians, and can they interfere in your magick, then yes, they can, but only if their will is stronger than yours, or they are fanatically anti magick and pray against it.
Christian magick does exist, though, and there are many Christian magicians on this forum. Most Christians don’t really care one way or the other and have no ill regards for magical practices so I don’t think it is anything to worry about.
I mean, if you are going to follow the demon worshipping route, and practice demonolatry, then maybe they might have a problem with that, but otherwise, I don’t think you’ll have any issues.
Alright, thank you for your help!
And there’s me thinking it was like that abstract and childish concept George Washington fought for.
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Welcome!
I used to live off of Ivanhoe, after the war in Iraq. Used to hang out at Javasphere and Liquid Room back in the day…