SPIRIT WORK, PART 2: GUARDIAN SPIRITS AND PATRONS
One of the topics Aaron and I discussed during our recent online session was the importance of having a chief spirit in place BEFORE engaging in a lot of other spirit work. Oddly, this is not a concept I see emphasized across the board of various spirit traditions. Some, like Quimbanda, are built differently in the way you work with the titular spirits, and yes, I am aware of that sort of difference. But I mean more, generally, that teachers and elders do not typically train a practitioner to attain that main spirit first. Like before, I will address this from the perspective of Espiritismo.
As open and light on doctrine and rules as Espiritismo is, it is a tradition with its own protocols. It is not chaos magic in the sense that things can be made up or changed as you go. There is a sense of order and progression in Espiritismo because you are building your own personal practice and approach to it. Your teacher is vital, yes, but more importantly is the spirits who walk with you. Your teacher can show you the tools and how espiritistas do their thing in different ways, but it is the bond you create with your spiritual court that runs the show. This is so much the case that you could even have a godparent who practices Espiritismo teach you something, only to have one of your spirits tell you what you were taught needs to be done differently because that works well for them the way they do it, but it won’t work as well for you. A teacher who understands this knows to keep their ego in check because they have had those experiences throughout their practice.
In Espiritismo, one first step you take is to work with a teacher or community to determine who your guiding spirits are. I can only go into some of the different ones they could because each would be a separate post and then some to explain! But foremost among those spirits is an ancestral guide called a Head spirit. That term is misleading a bit because those of us in initiatory traditions, when we hear that phrase, we think of something like a Holy Guardian Angel or Orisha crowned to a santera’s head. But Espiritismo has its own Head spirit that walks with each human being. This is a spirit you do not need any initiations to attain because they are with you the moment you are born (and really, before you’re born!).
This spirit is essential for many reasons. One is that they direct the traffic of your spiritual development and how other spirits walking with you work with you. Because of this, sometimes a Head spirit can feel distant or not present at all. But that’s not what’s going on. It is more like they are in an air traffic control tower, ensuring all the planes take off and land while you are at the gate to receive passengers. You aren’t both working the terminal gate, but you are working in concert together to keep things in order. Make sense?
In my relationship with my Head spirit, I usually experience them when something big is afoot or about to happen. I consistently feel the energy around me to remind me of the importance of staying grounded. To meditate and let things go that others around me are holding onto and creating misfortunes for themselves because they do. To have compassion when I would rather destroy someone. In essence, to take the high road as much as possible in this life. When they show up, it usually makes me stop what I am doing and pay attention. It doesn’t register like others of my spirits, who tend always to be around and talking and guiding.
All that said, Head spirits are also important because they will set boundaries. For example, I cannot tell you how many times I have gone to that spirit with an interest in trying a new spirituality, only to have the spirit say no. When I ask why, they respond with things like “Because it won’t work well for you” or “You don’t need to add anything else.” I have learned over the years of this work to listen to that no and roll with it. This aspect of the relationship can be challenging for some people who don’t like to be told they can’t or shouldn’t do something they think they want to do. But if we are honest with ourselves, we all know there have been times when we embark on some new spiritual path only to throw it away in short order. Head spirits can help you not waste time, money, and other valuable resources.
Finally, one of the most important reasons to have a Guardian is that they protect you. They protect you from other people and their pettiness. They protect you from wilder spirits who try to go sideways on you. I have heard Aaron talk about how the Solomonic tradition deals with entities like demons. The way that tradition forms its goetia, following the protocols should keep the demon in check. But honestly, there’s no guarantee of that. I have followed the protocols of a tradition and still gotten gunk on me. But the Head spirit can be the difference between spiritual oppression by an entity that you can’t get from under and the ability to chase that thing away when it decides to ignore your exorcism prayers and holy water. I have experienced this myself, where an entity I was trying to initiate a working with started to try to attach itself to me, and my Head Orisha rose up and put them in their place. I could see the whole thing happening in my mind’s eye and felt a great sense of gratitude to my Orisha. That happened a few years back. What fascinated me was that I was not doing any ATR work, nor had I called on Chango. But he was there and prepared to put that spirit down into the dust.
These are just some reasons you see teachers like Aaron and me encouraging people to attain a spirit like this before engaging in more intense spirit practices. They make the whole thing go much easier.
