So I am starting from 0 as far as knowledge.
I've read your course on energy work, but I'm still not exactly sure how to get started. If that makes sense??
I feel a strong call to work with nature, specifically plants, and their spirits and energies but I am unsure how to initiate contact.
I don't generally remember my dreams but I've repeatedly had a dream of sitting at the bend of a river beneath an ancient oak tree, the light coming through the leaves is orange, more like fall than a sunset, and the energy of the place is like I have always been meant to be there. It's old and familiar but I am unsure how to connect to it in the waking world.
Sorry if this doesn't make sense. I woke up to write it.
That totally makes sense and OMG thanks for reaching out!! I know you joined our Energy and Us server only last night, so I'm super glad to hear you've already looked at our first Tapping In: Energy Forces class! Below are some tips on getting started, and then I'll respond to each other part of your Ask too ^^
Disclaimer: This is not an all-inclusive guide but I truly do hope it helps!
Energy Work Course (Tapping In: Energy Forces)
First thing's first, our first class is meant to be treated as a walk-through. Once I'm not as sick, I'll be hosting live sessions as well, so I can more actively support you as you walk listen to the class and practice. I've found this helps some people better than just reading.
However, if you're still confused, please do let me know if there's any specific slide that confused you. Maybe I can find where the discrepancy is! We also have our Class Two of the same course, it's not free but it has some really good information that might help you as well.
If all of this is still moving a bit too fast for you, I think perhaps practicing grounding and enhancing your intuition first might be best! I believe we note this in the beginning of the class. I'm also going to be hosting a free LIVE CLASS on grounding work (including intuition work) but as I noted above I am sick so I'm just not sure when. I do have a brief post here if you'd like to check that out though!
Working With Nature Spirits
So there's a lot of steps to this and avenues you can take!
Firstly, make sure your protections are up! This, in my opinion, is the most important thing to do before attempting any kind of spirit work.
Once you have thorough protections up, look into the following:
What nature spirits specifically?
A lot of people broadly say "I want to work with the nature spirits!" but don't realize there's so many nature spirits out there. Are you trying to work with the fae (who are usually very difficult to work with because most fae are not friends to humans; and if the answer is still yes, which fae - mermaids, dragons, fairies, etc)? Are you trying to work with nymphs? Are you trying to work with deities with domain in nature? Are you trying to work with the spirits who watch your plants in your garden, or the wind spirits, or the spirits in your local park, etc? And there's other options too! So definitely consider who specifically you want to work with. Though spirit classifications are important and shed insight on some of the spirits' traits, spirits are still autonomous individuals just like the rest of us and it'd be disrespectful to go out of your way to connect with them without truly knowing who they are / acknowledging them.
How to connect with nature spirits as someone of your identity.
This is going to be one of the most important pieces. Anyone of any identity can work with nature spirits, but if you're non-Indigenous to the spirits of that land, they simply don't know you / don't recognize you. And, even your family moved to that land during awful times (such as European colonies moving in directly during / after Native American genocide in the Americas) they're probably not going to like you because they were harmed by that too (and still are, considering our lands and people are still genocided without acknowledgement from most non-Natives who use our lands). So, you'll want to think about how to introduce yourself as a genuine person and a non-threat. So whether you're Indigenous or not, whether you have a history of disrespecting nature or not, whether you've ever said hello before or not, and other things too, that's all going to alter your best possible route to introducing yourself as a friend and making solid attempts to be kind and show your interest. We share this world together, and who you are / have been / your choices make an impact on all community members, living and spirit alike. And remember, nature spirits don't work with just anybody - some would love to hang out with you, but not help with spells, vise-versa or neither. Make sure you're recognizing what you bring to the table too and acknowledging that not every spirit will become your personal go-to in any given situation just because they like you (I'm not saying you see it that way but a lot of people do so I thought I'd add this disclaimer anyways)!
Spirit Types + Spirit Communication Basics
But, finding all this information can be difficult, you know? So you want to make sure you research. I have a brief guide to research here that may help you with that.
The main two things I want you to research first are spirit types (classifications) and spirit communication basics. Not just how to communicate methodically (pendulum, tarot, etc) but how to speak to those spirits, what red flags and green flags to look out for, what materials may be harmful to them, etc. You want to make sure you're staying safe and that they're safe when called on too. Whether your intentions are good or not, it's easy to accidentally contact the wrong person, or for the spirit to just be genuinely disinterested / not like you. It's easy to accidentally cause spirit bindings, and it's easy to disrespect or hurt them if you're unknowledgeable, which would be your fault and is seen as an act of violence to other nature spirits. Like I said, we're all individuals, so it's important to consider possible rejections, how they prefer to be spoken to on the basis of respect, what materials may harm them so that you don't use those, etc.
When it comes to spirit classifications, go broad but go detailed too! Yes, you can look at nymphs - but are you look at tree nymphs? Which trees? Are you looking at naiads? Are you looking at naiads within streams or naiads within the ocean or something else? If you're looking at fae - are you looking at positive, negative, or neutral fae (and what does that mean for that specific spirit / spirit type)? Local fae, or a different region / cultural fae? Fairies, mermaids, dragons, someone else? Each of these spirits, both on a general basis and on an individual basis, may appreciate different approaches to your contact and friendliness, if they're someone who wants you to approach at all (like I mentioned above, many nature spirits don't want that, especially the fae)! It's not impossible to work with nature spirits and fae, but it's something to heavily learn about and consider first, in my opinion!
Working with someone's personal energy is a very intimate thing. Some nature spirits won't even do that with you, but will still help with spells / workings, hang out with you, etc. A lot of people preach energy, but not every spirit is OK with doing that with you, or would rather get to know you more first. Some humans, deities, and other spirits are like this too! Energy Forces are the spirits who sometimes most freely allow the use of their energies in general, but even they revoke access to their energies from people who are disrespectful / unnecessarily harmful about it. One's energy is not to be given so lightly, so working with the spirit themselves first is usually my recommendation.
As a server focused on energy forces, that includes teaching about elemental forces such as Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire. Working directly with them can help you a lot with your interest in nature spirits and energy work! You're working directly with the energy sources, who can not only vouch for you but shed some insight on some paths to get you to your goals, depending on your relationship with them. Please do drop a question in our channels if you'd like to learn how to do this because myself and others are more than happy to assist, but we also have some resources posted on how to do this in our server too: we have our Tapping In: Energy Forces course, and we have more events being hosted! We have a trained Oracle in our server who also occasionally hosts events where she channels the forces themselves, so if you have questions directly for them, write them down and come to our next channeling event!
Finding Someone Who Already Does
One of the best things I could recommend to anyone is to find someone credible who already works with spirits that you're interested in working with. Whether it be someone local who knows the exact spirits you're trying to contact, someone Indigenous who has a plethora of methods that they're willing to teach you or trade you, or even someone states / countries away who just has experience in that spirit type, there's so many options out there.
The hardest part is recognizing if they're credible or not (the research guide I linked above can definitely help with that though). Make sure to consider their culture and region as well, because that may change how they're perceived by those spirits in comparison to you. How I work with nature spirits is not how other Indigenous people work with nature spirits, not how other European people work with nature spirits, not how other Trinis work with nature spirits, etc (as a living example). And of course, make sure you're comfortable with whichever spirits they say they work with, because they will possibly become aware of you once you contact that individual.
You can find these people in spaces like our Energy and Us server that you joined. You can also find them in other servers and on other social media platforms. But you can also find people locally using the "looking for a friend" options of dating apps, looking for local witchy meetups and events, going into local witchy shops, etc. Additionally, there are people like us who post online courses, who are willing to host individual events, who are willing to mentor you, etc etc!
Finding someone who is genuinely experienced is truly going to boost your understanding of how to do things first-hand. It can be hard to settle on someone that you vibe with, but reaching out to me was a great first start to learning from others, so thank you for that!
This dream is really interesting to me! Off the bat I do have a Situation ID service as well as a Dream Interpretation service so I can definitely perform those for a small price if you're interested ;) but here are some of my initial thoughts:
Do you have protections up? If not, this could have easily been a spirit influencing your dream.
It could have also been a vision (visions are not always of the future), or something related to a past life or spirits you know in the afterlife!
The specific nature scene you mention, the ocean and the oak tree, sounds very Greek to me! Your interest in nature spirits has me wondering if you're leaning towards Greek spirituality (perhaps you were Greek in recent past lives, or there's a nymph around you trying to reach out, etc etc)!
The reason why you're struggling to connect it could be any of the reasons above, but I'd also suggest trying to look deep internally to see if there's any reasons you can find. Why does the orange stand out to you? What specifically makes it feel familiar - is it just cozy, or does it feel sacred, or does it seem vivid enough that you actually could have been there, etc? Intuition work like I mentioned above can help with this if you're not sure, but so can shadow work to a degree!
I hope this helps you out, black-cat-book-witch! I've included some extra resources below that you might want to check out, mostly just from my Tumblr, and do check out our other resources in the server too! Let me know if you have any further questions.
Do & Don't: A Mini Guide to Respecting Spirits (Various)
Fun Facts About SUCCULENTS
Protection Tips for Beginners
Working With Fire (A Brief Beginner's Guide)
A Witch / Practitioner's Reminder to Love the Colour Black
How do consultations work?
Conducting Proper Research (Basic)
Beginner's Sea/Water Witchcraft
A BRIEF GUIDE TO VETTING: Who am I talking to?
TRICKSTERS (A Brief Intro for Beginners)
Witchy Book Recommendations
If none of these resources interest you, check out my Table of Contents instead! It has more about protection, Greek religion / spirituality, and more!
For those interested in energy forces and our energy work teachings, check out our discord server:
Spirituality server focused on mutuality and energy work / conduction, run by Aestas Dilexistavit! Education on energy forces (autonomous /
