Eoten

Animist poet

Wild poetry, untamed stories and animist teachings from Eóten

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Spirit Communication

Spirit communication is an umbrella term for animist practices that involve… you guessed it, communicating with spirits.

Spirit communication can be as simple as prayer to a favoured deity or as advanced as trance work. It can include communication with ancestors, elemental beings, demonic spirits, land spirits, deities, angels, deceased loved ones, animals and plant spirits.

A common spirit communication method in Western cultures is spiritualism, which is a tradition that involves mediumship within a loosely religion-inspired framework. It usually involves angels and deceased humans, but no other spirits.

Spirit communication is helpful when:

  • We need guidance from our spirit helpers.
  • We want to make contact with our spirit helpers without using spirit flight (journeying).
  • We have encountered a new spirit and getting familiar with them.
  • We need to enforce a boundary against an intrusive spirit.
  • We need to ask a spirit for help with another practice.

Spirit communication almost always involves some level of trance or altered awareness, although formal trance practices aren’t essential. Trust in ourselves, the spirit helpers and the process we use is imperative; as this is built over time, the communication will become clearer and stronger.

It also needs some form of boundary containment, for which sacred space is perfect.

Trance Practices

 

Trance is an animist practice that shifts our mental states so that we can access different ways of thinking and relating to reality.

Entering into trance is like re-tuning a radio; you don’t go anywhere, but the signals you’re picking up, and so the information you receive, changes.

Trance practices are helpful when we:

  • Want to receive new teachings from our guiding ancestors or lineage members.
  • Want to influence the physical world at a more malleable level, such as the energetic level.
  • Develop our mental and energetic flexibility, to enhance our creativity, problem solving and expression of emotions.
  • Need to divine on questions that are complex or challenging.
  • Are working on the energetic level for healing or protection.
  • Want to work through our altars to influence the relationships we’re working on.
  • Need to interact with spirits for any reason.
  • Need to gain experiential understanding of a relationship, problem or wound through spirit flight.

There are different types of trance, from the light trance we all enter when we’re reading, watching TV or falling asleep, to the deep, transformative levels of trance accessed during spirit flight, hypnosis and sensory deprivation.

Trance practices are at the core of animism, and as such can be used to enhance almost any animist practice. However, as an advanced practice there are contraindications to the use of trance, which I talk about here.

There are a huge number of methods for entering a trance. Some of the most common are drum rhythms, dance, song, sensory deprivation and single-pointed focus. The essential element of trance work is that we are changing our mental state from our normal, everyday state; anything that helps us achieve this can be a method for working with trance.

To begin introducing trance into your animist practice, you could work with the rhythm of a drum or your voice to enter a light trance before doing a divination.

For a refresher on the basics of divination practice, join the free 12 week Foundation in Animism course here: