Book Series, Part 1

Chapter One, part 1

For the purposes of this series of articles, a spirit companion is more than a spirit guide or a spirit friend. While technically each of these could be considered companions, the term “spirit companion” was created with a specific dynamic in mind. Simply put, a spirit companion (SC) is a spirit who enjoys an intimate personal relationship with a human partner. The manner of spirit is not limited to any one category or type — it could be an angel or discarnate human, an infernal spirit (also called “demons”), an elemental (sylph, undine, et al) or any number of other labels. A spirit companion often has a guiding role, but this is not required to fit the label as it was created.

This series will focus on two main objectives. One, gaining and strengthening contact with a spirit companion, which will be useful for any type of human-spirit relationship or interaction, including spirit guides, with only minor modifications. Two, taking your relationship to its fullest potential, which includes advanced work including daily exercises, analysis of lessons, and ordeal work.

In this chapter, I’ll provide a brief summary of what you’ll learn in detail later. Some of this material will describe my experiences, but later you will discover your own, which may differ. There is a wealth of information in this book, and I strongly urge you to read, take notes, and compare to your own experiences, but suggest you avoid skipping ahead. You may miss information that forms the foundation for later exercises.

Keeping a Journal

It needs to be said that the potential for fooling yourself and exercising in creative wishful thinking exists, and is an area in which you should exercise caution. Being open-minded to events of a spiritual nature need not equal gullibility, any more than efforts at objective skepticism have to result in closed-mindedness. There is a balance to maintain, and its key rests in your honesty with yourself. It is easy to dismiss events or experiences out of hand due to their unlikely probability, just as it is easy to accept too quickly. You should think at least twice and really examine the situation before deciding, at least until you are more familiar with the territory and have an idea how things tend to feel, look, sound, and transpire. Keeping a journal is a very good idea. Rather than simply recording the facts of the situation, as you would in a standard Book of Shadows or magical journal, you should write down the subjective experience — your feelings, your personal opinions and observations, etc. Treat this as a journal, not a bullet list. When you read it again later, not only will you fondly remember a past event, you will have criteria with which to judge your progress over time. As this experience is almost completely a subjective one, keeping a subjective journal makes sense. If you require scientific evidence, include it, but don’t limit yourself or your expression to the plain facts of the matter.

One of the most common mistakes I’ve seen is the tendency of the individual to fail to record some feeling or observation due to embarrassment or fear of someone finding and reading her words. If you allow fear to stifle your expression, you are performing a disservice to your development. Another facet of this same mindset is the impulse to purge or throw away past notes because you’ve suddenly decided that you are not going to fall for this ridiculous notion of a spirit companion any longer. This behavior is based on the idea that somehow, by purging your notes, you solidify your denial. This is patently ridiculous. All notes and writings regarding personal experience are valuable, and if later you feel embarrassed by that activity, simply realize that you are different due to growth and that identifying with those words is not required. Burning them is tantamount to destroying the understanding of how you came to be who you are. Don’t do it. All you really need to do is make a new notation with the current date, and state how your feelings have changed. This should put your mind at ease that anyone reading those horribly embarrassing old notes will be reassured that you didn’t stay as stupid as you may feel reading them yourself. (You weren’t stupid. You were inexperienced, and learning. Give yourself a break.)

If that is not enough to make you feel better, then remove the old notes or start a new notebook, but don’t destroy them. Put them away in a locked box, bury them, but do not render them lost forever. By passionately recording the subjective side of your experience, you’re able to keep a running tally on the consistency of the occurrences in how you perceive them. This is a key point. Perception is absolutely the crux of the entire spirit companion experience. Perception encompasses not only that which we perceive with our five physical senses, but also those things that we identify or translate metaphorically into the fives senses. I’ll cover journaling in more depth in Chapter Four.

Do You Want to See More?

If you’re interested in seeing more of this series, you should register for this blog and visit this page to sign up for the series. There is a small fee that is more than worth it. If you’d like to comment on this setup, please do so here (link reverts to post on blog, for those on LJ etc.) or via email. This series serves as a test market for the book. Interested parties should please at least let me know of their interest, even if you don’t sign up.

Thank you.