I guess it’s my turn to say it.
This lecture has been issued so many times that the vast majority of spirit workers crossing these lines know better, so I’m just going to put a not-so-brief, highly specific reminder here (and I’m aiming this directly at shops):
Please stop with the inaccurate bullshit listings, actively trying to co-opt things you don’t understand.
Your random-ass American were-creature is not a skinwalker. You want to know why? Ask a Navajo.
Your carnivorous beast that is “sweet and gentle with their keeper” is nothing like a wendigo. Any Ojibwe or Cree will quickly set that record straight.
Your giant bird spirit is not a thunderbird and for fucks sake your water elemental panther spirit is NOT an underwater panther!!! The thunderbird is sacred. The underwater panther is sacred.
GTFO here with your plastic shamanism.
Every now and then a shop does spring up with a legitimate (and often known malicious) spirit from a closed culture. Here’s what you don’t understand though: there’s a difference between spirit vessels and spirit traps. These legitimate, malicious spirits are likely captured rather than willfully bound, and I believe this is where half the community is getting this whole ‘spirit binding is slavery’ thing from. Some species want nothing to do with humans, and when you find one of those beings listed, there’s a good chance they’re trapped and angry. And there’ll be hell to pay once the binding weakens enough for them to get loose.
You don’t want to listen? Fine, get wrecked.
For all the spirit workers who do use shops, do your research! When a conjuror lists a entity whose bio flies in the face of everything that species is, RUN.
When a conjuror does not publicly state their qualifications/experiences working with traditionally malevolent entities, RUN.
A conjuror who cannot properly inform themselves on a species cannot properly vet that entity. If they don’t care about the cultural origins of an entity they do not know the correct way to interact with that entity, nor what it is truly capable of.
Say you are matched with an entity from a closed culture, and it’s the real deal/not an imposter, and you get along fine. Your particular experience doesn’t mean it’s okay for just anybody to interact with that species. There are communities that have been working with their spirits for as long as mankind has roamed the earth, and when outsiders who do not know the proper level of respect to show get involved – en masse, thanks to irreputable conjurors – you know what happens? Offense is taken and they stop wanting to work with humans, period. And it’s not fair to those of us for whom this is our birthright; to have some outsider come in and fuck shit up so that our traditional spiritual allies close their doors to us. IMO, when it comes to beings from closed cultures, not only should the conjuror be a member of that culture, but along with the spirit being vetted, the spirit worker should be vetted as well.
There’s more than a couple of people in the community just trying to make a quick buck and they do NOT CARE about your safety. And if you can’t understand that part of the reason people call out folks appropriating is due to sellers misinforming people and putting them in direct contact with dangerous beings, you too can get wrecked.
Culture vultures are the exact reason I won’t post anything in depth about Unktomi.
I keep my head down and avoid most of the drama in the spirit community, but I am asking you now as an unenrolled Santee Sioux and Shoshoni (sheep eaters clan) native to please step back from our culture. It’s invasive at the least and desecration at the worst. Please grant us at least this small measure of respect.
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