{"id":25618,"date":"2022-05-15T03:00:48","date_gmt":"2022-05-15T09:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=25618"},"modified":"2022-05-14T15:05:08","modified_gmt":"2022-05-14T21:05:08","slug":"consorting-with-spirits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2022\/05\/consorting-with-spirits.html","title":{"rendered":"Consorting With Spirits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Consorting with Spirits \u2013 Your Guide to Working with Invisible Allies<\/em>
\nby Jason Miller
\nWeiser Books \u2013 May 2022
\n240 pages
\nTrade paperback<\/a>: $18.95, Kindle<\/a>: $9.99, available on Audible<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jason Miller and I hang out in some of the same circles, but we do different things in different ways. Jason is a sorcerer trained in classical occultism and Tibetan Buddhism<\/a>. I\u2019m a polytheist priest trained in modern Druidry. Yet when I read his work, most times I finish by saying \u201cyeah, that makes sense.\u201d I think I\u2019ve always known why, but near the end of his new book he spells it out:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a big, messy, complex world out there. Bigger than what we know, and bigger than what we can<\/em> know.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s filled<\/em> with spirits.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On that, Jason and I are in complete agreement.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The title Consorting with Spirits<\/em> comes from a crime you could be charged with in the medieval and early modern times. If found guilty you could be hanged \u2013 or worse. And while many of the confessions in such trials were obtained through torture and should be considered unreliable, at least a few were telling the truth. Beyond that, we have books written by people who were doing the work of consorting with spirits. In the Introduction, Jason says:<\/p>\n

Spirits were considered so important and powerful that people risked imprisonment and execution<\/em> to contact them and communicate with them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today, grimoires and other books of spirits \u2013 translated into English \u2013 can be delivered to your doorstep in a matter of hours, with no risk of Inquisitors or Witchfinders showing up afterwards.<\/p>\n

And some people think we live in \u201cdisenchanted<\/a>\u201d times. We live in a Golden Age of magic and witchcraft.<\/p>\n

Working with spirits from three different perspectives<\/h2>\n

If you want the TL;DR summary, Jason provides it on the next-to-last page of the book:<\/p>\n

This book is more than just some invocations, spells, and ceremonies to add to your occult collection. Those bits are here, but what I wanted to give you is something that not many other books have done: give solid advice for how to navigate a life filled with spirits.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don\u2019t do much in the way of traditional conjuring. Almost all of it is presented from a Christian perspective, and I still have deep scars from my fundamentalist Christian childhood. I\u2019m mostly healed now \u2013 twenty years of dedicated Pagan practice has many benefits. Still, I\u2019m not really interested in invoking demons in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.<\/p>\n

So what I like most about Consorting with Spirits<\/em> is how Jason presents the material from three very different perspectives: the Christian, the Pagan, and the Luciferian. The \u201cmagical tech\u201d works with any of them.<\/p>\n

That it does work presents an interesting metaphysical question about the nature of the Gods and the Universe. That\u2019s not something covered in this very practical, hands-on book. For now, I\u2019ll just remind everyone not to read anyone\u2019s mythology literally. But if you\u2019ve ever got a free evening and a bottle of wine (or several bottles) this would make for a very interesting conversation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You\u2019re in charge \u2013 make sure it stays that way<\/h2>\n

The book begins by asking \u201cwhat is a spirit?\u201d The answers it gives are simple enough to be useful without falling into dogmatism. It moves to manifestation \u2013 the ways that spirits can present themselves to us so we can interact with them \u2013 and then to the skills we need to develop so we can hear, see, and speak with them. Most importantly, it discusses the need for good discernment. Not everything we hear from spirits is accurate, true, and helpful.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a theme that\u2019s repeated several times in the book: don\u2019t give up your sovereignty. Whether you\u2019re talking with Nature spirits, demons, or Gods, it\u2019s still your life and you have to live it the way you see best\u2026 because you\u2019re the one who\u2019s going to bear the brunt of the consequences if you go down the wrong path.<\/p>\n

Respect and authority<\/h2>\n

I wish I could enable \/ persuade \/ compel every person who works with spirits (including embodied human spirts) to read Chapter 4 \u201cRespect and Authority.\u201d Too many people have the idea that to consort with spirits, you have to invoke them, bind them, and threaten them with torture to get them to do anything. That\u2019s another reason why I\u2019ve never done much of this work.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t have to be this way. Most of the time, it shouldn\u2019t be this way.<\/p>\n

First earn respect. Then exercise authority, with the goal of mutual respect. This won\u2019t work with every spirit in every situation. But it works with many.<\/p>\n

In my own work, I\u2019ve seen a few cases where a God forcibly claims someone. But most times, They simply ask. If you say yes, great. If you say no, They move on to someone else.<\/p>\n

We can do the same when consorting with spirits. If a particular spirit is being uncooperative, you could get more and more forceful. Or you could move on to another spirit who\u2019s more interested in working with you. It\u2019s not like there\u2019s only a few of them.<\/p>\n

For those times when you have to get forceful, Chapter 9 covers \u201cCompelling Conjurations.\u201d It\u2019s a good skill to have in your back pocket. There\u2019s wisdom in the old saying \u201cnever call up what you can\u2019t put down\u201d \u2013 spirits are persons with their own agency and some of them are not particularly nice. And as Jason points out, some are simply more trouble than they\u2019re worth.<\/p>\n

Who should read this book?<\/h2>\n

In the Introduction, Jason says \u201cthis should not be your first book on magic.\u201d I agree, but you don\u2019t have to wait for years and years before you read it. I would suggest reading it before you start working with any of the grimoires \u2013 it will simplify some important concepts. Mainly, it will keep you from thinking you know more than you do because you read one Ye Olde Booke of Magick. None of the classic sorcerers did things exactly the same way \u2013 reading Consorting With Spirits<\/em> will help you figure out what\u2019s essential and what\u2019s personal preference.<\/p>\n

But this book isn\u2019t just for beginning demon conjurors. It can also be helpful for those in the polytheist wing of the Big Tent of Paganism. The skills necessary to perceive and interact with spirits are the same whether you\u2019re dealing with local land spirits, angels and demons, or Gods. The warnings about discernment apply to anyone and everyone.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, so is the emphasis on practice. If you want to work with spirits \u2013 of any variety \u2013 it\u2019s not enough to read a book or three. I\u2019m all for being prepared, but as Jason says \u201cprepare less, risk more.\u201d You have to do the work.<\/p>\n

And if you do, you\u2019ll get results. Those results may be dramatic or they may be subtle. Subtle results are fine. Seeing a green glowing bird<\/a> is nice, but what\u2019s better is seeing result after result after result, to the point that it\u2019s easier to just accept that magic is real than to try to rationalize it away.<\/p>\n

\n

For those who care about such things, I bought my copy of Consorting with Spirits<\/em>. I know Jason casually, I respect his work, and he was very helpful to me when I was getting started teaching online classes. But as always, my only obligation in a book review is to you, the reader. If I couldn\u2019t say good things about it, I\u2019d conveniently forget to review it.<\/p>\n

I bumped Consorting with Spirits<\/em> to the top of my to-be-read pile, and I started writing this review as soon as I finished it. If you\u2019re at all interested in spirits and working with them, you\u2019ll find this book quite helpful.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I bumped Jason Miller\u2019s new book \u201cConsorting with Spirits\u201d to the top of my to-be-read pile and I started writing this review as soon as I finished it. If you\u2019re at all interested in spirits and working with them, you\u2019ll find this book quite helpful. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":25623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[4117,4120,404,42,4,5,8,642],"class_list":["post-25618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books-2","tag-conjuring","tag-grimoires","tag-jason-miller","tag-magic-2","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-polytheism","tag-spirits"],"yoast_head":"\nConsorting With Spirits<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I bumped Jason Miller\u2019s new book \u201cConsorting with Spirits\u201d to the top of my to-be-read pile and I started writing this review as soon as I finished it. If you\u2019re at all interested in spirits and working with them, you\u2019ll find this book quite helpful.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2022\/05\/consorting-with-spirits.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Consorting With Spirits\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I bumped Jason Miller\u2019s new book \u201cConsorting with Spirits\u201d to the top of my to-be-read pile and I started writing this review as soon as I finished it. If you\u2019re at all interested in spirits and working with them, you\u2019ll find this book quite helpful.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2022\/05\/consorting-with-spirits.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-15T09:00:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-14T21:05:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2022\/05\/Consorting-with-Spirits-3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"764\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2022\/05\/consorting-with-spirits.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2022\/05\/consorting-with-spirits.html\",\"name\":\"Consorting With Spirits\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-15T09:00:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-14T21:05:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"I bumped Jason Miller\u2019s new book \u201cConsorting with Spirits\u201d to the top of my to-be-read pile and I started writing this review as soon as I finished it. If you\u2019re at all interested in spirits and working with them, you\u2019ll find this book quite helpful.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2022\/05\/consorting-with-spirits.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2022\/05\/consorting-with-spirits.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2022\/05\/consorting-with-spirits.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Consorting With Spirits\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Consorting With Spirits","description":"I bumped Jason Miller\u2019s new book \u201cConsorting with Spirits\u201d to the top of my to-be-read pile and I started writing this review as soon as I finished it. If you\u2019re at all interested in spirits and working with them, you\u2019ll find this book quite helpful.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2022\/05\/consorting-with-spirits.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Consorting With Spirits","og_description":"I bumped Jason Miller\u2019s new book \u201cConsorting with Spirits\u201d to the top of my to-be-read pile and I started writing this review as soon as I finished it. If you\u2019re at all interested in spirits and working with them, you\u2019ll find this book quite helpful.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2022\/05\/consorting-with-spirits.html","og_site_name":"John Beckett","article_published_time":"2022-05-15T09:00:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-05-14T21:05:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":764,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2022\/05\/Consorting-with-Spirits-3.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John Beckett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Beckett","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2022\/05\/consorting-with-spirits.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2022\/05\/consorting-with-spirits.html","name":"Consorting With Spirits","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-05-15T09:00:48+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-14T21:05:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad"},"description":"I bumped Jason Miller\u2019s new book \u201cConsorting with Spirits\u201d to the top of my to-be-read pile and I started writing this review as soon as I finished it. If you\u2019re at all interested in spirits and working with them, you\u2019ll find this book quite helpful.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2022\/05\/consorting-with-spirits.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2022\/05\/consorting-with-spirits.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2022\/05\/consorting-with-spirits.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Consorting With Spirits"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/","name":"John Beckett","description":"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad","name":"John Beckett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"John Beckett"},"description":"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}