#fae work

[babysfirstpentagram]

A Basic Overview of Elemental Spirits

There are many types of elemental spirits in the realm of mythology and witchcraft. The most important thing to know about these spirits is that each species has a different set of rules and a different moral code. I know working with them may sound cool and fun, but to safely do so, you would need to learn each species' codes of conduct to be both respectful and safe. 

The term spirit is used as an umbrella term in this situation. It could be used to describe ghosts, demons, faeries, nymphs, etc. Anything that embodies the “spirit” of one of the elements: Air, Earth, Water, and Fire. 

We will start with Water Spirits. 

This category would include: 

Merpeople

Sirens

Selkies

Kelpies

Grindylows

Naiads

Camenae

Gwragedd Annwn

Water spirits are mostly known to be tricksters and pulling pranks on humans who interrupt their ways of life. Many of these species have tragic tales of how they came to be. Selkies are shapeshifting seal women that lounge around the coasts of Scotland and Wales. If a man were to steal their fur coat, they would be doomed to a life of land until their coat is given back. Mermaids are typically women that were found to be stowaways on pirate ships. Their legs were tied and they were thrown overboard in hopes of drowning. Many water spirits are deemed “vengeful” towards men (for good reason), which is why the element of water tends to be a Feminine element. 

Our next element will be Air.

This category will include: 

Sylphs

Pixies

Harpies 

There is not a lot of information about strictly “air” elementals. Just because a creature can fly, does not make it an air elemental. For example, Dragons would be considered a fire elemental even though they can fly. Air elementals don't avoid or seek out humans, however they can be tricksters when need be. 

Next is Earth. This will include:

Brownies

Dwarves

Bogles

Dryads

Unicorns

These creatures, while not actively seeking out humans, may help humans in times of need. Please do not take their hospitality for granted and DEFINITELY read up on their customs before attempting to work with them. 

Last would be Fire. This would include:

Dragons

Phoenix

Salamanders 

Angels 

Fire giants

These creatures actively seek solitude. They most likely will not interact with humans, even if called upon, which is why Angel work and Dragon work is so hard to get into.

This is by no means a complete list of elementals, they are just the most common ones of each category. Please let me know if you would like me to do a more indepth post on a specific species.

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[fairfoxie]

Anyone else get annoyed at faery etiquette guides like this that only cover what you don't do? I feel like it contributes to the fearmongering that elemental spirits are all jumping at the chance to scorn and enslave you and it's simply not true. What's the point of making a guide to interacting with the Fae if all you're gonna say is don't do this or this or this like okay but what do you do???

I've always had better luck with taking my cue from nature. The wind will show you where to go. The birds will guide your senses if you listen. If you see an interesting stump or tree compliment it. Most common tree spirits are close to humans and actually like to be thanked and appreciated. Listening is often more important than looking. A genuine smile goes a long way. If you get a trick played on you, laugh it off, it's all in good fun. Faeries appreciate a good sense of humour, childlike wonder, and carefree singing. Let them approach you rather than approaching them. If you close your eyes and rest for a moment, you will hear the whole forest breathe, and feel more connected to Spirit than ever. And as for what you shouldn't do, don't bring your phone! It interrupts your aura and makes you appear more threatening.

THESE are the things I had to learn on my own that have actually been helpful on my journey. I hope they help you too.

[lalune-nymphee]

☾ lavender tea to the fae!

[sophia-the-hearth-witch]

House Spirits

I finally got a chance to set up a space dedicated to my house spirits on my altar.

More on my work with House Spirits below!

My History Working With House Spirits

When I was a kid, I was introduced to the concept of English/Scottish Brownies through the Spiderwick Chronicles and quickly became obsessed with trying to attract a brownie to my own home. I took one of my small miniature tea cups, filled it with half n' half and set it in a place in the house that I was sure wouldn't be seen by my parents or disturbed by my cats. I did this for quite a long time and even, as per the advice of the Spiderwick Field Guide, occasionally scattered flour on the ground as a way to try to see evidence of little brownie footprints. Brownies weren't the only Fae that I tried to make contact with when I was younger, but they were the ones that I was most persistent with. I loved the idea of a little creature making a home within my own home and living with my family and I. I never got the tangible "evidence" I was looking for as a kid, but I undoubtedly felt a presence. So, looking back, I most certainly succeed in attracting a brownie (or at least a house spirit) and it wasn't until recently that I came to the realization that I may have done so by giving the spirit offerings, even if I didn't call it that at the time. It's things like this that make me feel like I was destined to be a witch and a pagan~

Inspiration

Since I started walking a bit more of a Pagan path in my witchcraft, specifically since I started venerating the Norse gods, I have been feeling an urge to return to my work with land and house spirits. I've always felt their presence and feel that I should honor that presence. I'm not sure why it took me so long to actually start, but since coming back to my practice, I've been feeling that need to honor the land and house spirits around me even stronger than before.

**Edit as of 12/24/25: I have become aware that Jacob Toddson/The Wisdom of Odin is a creator I would no longer like to support, promote, or be affiliated with. While the video I go on to mention is not harmful on it's own, in my opinion, WoO is harmful to the Norse Pagan Community as a whole. I still wanted to include and keep my original writing in this post, but also wanted to draw attention to something that until recently, I hadn't noticed/realized. Thank you to Alikai's video on Youtube on the topic (it might have been posted years ago, but I just found it and it has changed my feelings and view on WoO as a creator and person in the Norse Pagan Community

One of the final pushes was actually from when I was going through the back-log of videos I hadn't watched from Jacob Toddson. He's one of my favorite Norse Pagan creators I found very early into my own path venerating the Norse gods. About a year ago, he made a video about house spirits and after watching it, it truly inspired me to actually take the steps to honor my own house spirits.

I do intend to do some work work with the land spirits around my home as well, but I want to do more research into the beliefs of the local indigenous tribes of the area before I do so.

Making a Space for My House Spirits

In making a space for my house spirits, I knew that I wanted to do it in a way that was reminiscent of the way I interacted with them as a child. Having lost my original miniature porcelain tea set from when I was a kid (it's probably floating around somewhere in the depths of my parents' house lol), I started looking online for anyone selling a set like the one I used to use. After a bit of searching, I found a set that was just like one of the ones I had. It even had the same pattern! So, I ordered it. In the mean time, I started making my house spirit a little home. I bought and modified a birdhouse, painting it a dark wood color and mounting some moss on the roof. Then while looking for stuff to make flower crowns for midsummer, I stumbled across a little gnome statue that felt perfect as an idol of my house spirit. Once I received the tea set, I was ready to welcome in my house spirit. I reorganized my altar, making space for him, and set everything up, complete with an offering of heavy cream. I invited the spirit to make a home and told him that I hope he feels welcome in his new space. The experience and the energy felt nice and familiar and I'm happy to have a little space on my altar for my house sprit to call home~

I plan to continue to give small offerings and light a candle for my house spirit. I want to to become an everyday practice if I can manage it and have been thinking of maybe giving him offerings in other ways besides food. Maybe little trinkets to keep in his house~

[gardenofthearkane]

Spirit/Entity Work and Spirit/Entity Worship are two different things. Spirit/Entity work involves working with spirits/entities that assist the practitioner in their metaphysical and mundane lives. It's forming a relationship between yourself and the spirit/entity as a partnership to ask for their assistance in exchange for offerings or work to be done on behalf of the spirit/entities.

It's not always guaranteed that the spirit/entity you petition for help in whatever it is you need help with will actually agree to help you and that's okay one, respect their wishes and two, there are other spirits/entities you can reach out to for help with your situation. On the other hand the same goes if a spirit/entity reaches out to you for whatever reason, you're not obligated to work with them (whether at this time or at all) if you don't want to.

Spirit/Entity worship is when you devote yourself or an aspect of your life, practice etc. to a spirit/entity. It's you honouring said spirit/entity by living your life according to the values of said spirit/entity and the culture they originate from and by adopting their morals, values etc. and living your life in a way that not only shows respect and honour to the spirit/entity but the culture they originate from as well.

While the interactions between the spirit/entity and the devotee isn't as much or as frequent as it would've been between a spirit/entity and their practitioner. Sometimes the spirit/entity will visit their devotee from time to time and sometimes spirits/entities do decide to bless their devotees in some way if they think that their devotees deserve it. Now this isn't something to work towards, neither should it really be an aim. Just be authentic in your devotion and good things might happen.

You don't have to be a witch/call yourself a witch to work or worship spirits/entities, neither does working or worshiping spirits/entities make you a witch. However, you can incorporate working or worshiping spirits/entities into your witchcraft if that's what you'd like, but remember you don't have to be a witch to practice either paths and neither does practising either paths make you a witch.

Before starting with spirit/entity work or worship decide which you like more spirit/entity work or spirit/entity worship? Which practice resonates with you more? For the rest of this post I will be talking in terms of spirit/entity work, because I'm a spirit/entity worker and have much more experience in spirit/entity work than I do spirit/entity worship.

Before delving into spirit/entity work decide which facets of spirit/entity work you'd like to focus on. There's general spirit/entity work (or eclectic spirit/entity work) where you work with a mix of different types of spirits and entities like deites, angels, the good neighbours, pop culture entities, demons etc. You could also look at specific facets of spirit/entity work like deity work (where you mainly work with deities) , ancestor work (where you mainly work with your ancestors) , demon/infernal work (where you mainly work with demons and other infernal spirit/entities (like underworld gods)), fae work (where you mainly work with the fae and other fae-like spirits and entities) and so on.

No facet of spirit/entity work is any less or more important or any less or more hard work than the other. They all have different ways of being handled and each facet has different rules and regulations than the other facets (some facets' rule collide in some cases). You don't have to decide immediately on which facet you'd like to focus on. Do your research, test the waters and than decide which facets you'd like to focus on.

Do a bit more research on the facet of spirit/entity work you'd like to focus on and also make sure you're in a comfortable place with the basics of protection, warding etc, the basics of energy work (or at least energy sensing), the basics of vetting (and when I say vetting I'm not talking about vetting them to figure out if they're some imposter spirit (but if imposter spirits are apart of your practice than sure you can do the vetting with this in mind) , I mean vetting in the way of getting to know the spirit/entity more), make sure you have a reliable method of divination yet (and if possible have someone you can trust and that's reliable who can confirm or deny your findings) and make sure you at least have some basics understanding of what boundaries are and the dos and don'ts of boundaries.

Say for instance you've decided you'd like to do deity work. If you've felt drawn to a specific (open and welcoming) pantheon like the Greek pantheon or the Celtic pantheon than do more research on the pantheon of your choosing, research the culture, the practices, the dos and don'ts of the culture and of course do research on the deity(s) you'd like to work with. Once you feel like you're in a comfortable place with the knowledge you have send out an invitation to the deity and hope they bite and reach out to you.

Remember even if they reach out it's not guaranteed that they'll actually work with you. They might just be reaching out to check out whoever it was that invited them. If they don't reach out, leave it at that, don't try and force the situation and just move on. There are plenty more deities in the universe who would be much more suited for you and your needs and interested in working with you.

You don't have to have had worshipped or honoured the deity before reaching out to work with them to start working with the deity, but if that's something you'd like to do than that's completely okay and you can do that if you'd like. You can also decide to do spirit/entity worship before you delve into spirit/entity work if you'd first like to get comfortable with the whole practice and if you're still trying to figure out what it is you'd like from this practice and no.

Remember you actually have to be willing to do the work if you do decide to delve into spirit/entity work (I think there are certain spirits/entities who do send their devotees tests and such, so you definitely also have to be willing to do the work when it comes to spirit/entity worship too). You can't just decide to reach out to a spirit/entity (whether they're a deity, angel, demon etc), if you're not willing or wanting to put in the necessary work.

There are a lot of spirits/entities that do not take kindly to their time being wasted for no reason and if this happens multiple times remember that the spirits and entities love to gossip and your name will definitely be shared if you think disrespecting them in such a way (not doing your work even after asking or agreeing to work with them and not keeping your end if the deal of whatever agreement you and the spirit/entity made before you started your working relationship together) will slide.

Contrary to what it might seem like according to social media (especially tiktok) spirit/entity work (especially deity work) is not that hard or overcomplicated. The only way it'll be hard is if you fight the spirit/entity on everything and don't want to do the work or face the tests. Having boundaries is good, but acting like a child and not wanting to do what you're told (as long as it's logical and it's in your ability to complete) is not going to make the working relationship any easier and it might end up making the spirit/entity leave because what's the point of them being there if you don't want to do the work?

When it comes to offerings and interactions it will depend on you and the spirit/entity itself, meaning while getting outside help is okay you cannot and shouldn't depend on outsiders when it comes to the relationship you have/want to build with the spirit/entity. Yes, you can find general resources and such on what a spirit/entity would like as an offering and you can ask other (reliable) practitioners on what kind of offerings a specific spirit/entity might like if you're just starting out.

However, it's also important to build your own relationship with the spirit/entity and figure out what works and what doesn't on your own (with the help of the spirit/entity of course) because one, what an offering a spirit/entity might like from one practitioner might be an offering the spirit/entity doesn't like or want to get from you and vice versa and two, like I mentioned while getting outside help is okay you cannot and shouldn't depend on outsiders for every single thing when it comes to your relationships and your practice in general.

With interactions, the basic idea is to be as respectful as you can be and make sure to address the spirit/entity by their proper formal title (if they have formal titles) like King, Queen, Marquis/Marquess, Duke, Prince etc and definitely don't call them lord or lady if they do have a formal title because even if you think it's respectful to some extent "lord/lady" hold little to no importance compared to most of spirits/entities' formal titles.

If you're not certain how to address a spirit/entity ask them. If ask them if you can address them by their formal title or if there is another way you can address them. Always ask the spirit/entity yourself what they'd prefer you call them by, while it's fine to ask for extra confirmation from a RELIABLE source, don't depend on others, especially not ones who insinuate it's okay to disrespect a spirit/entity's title (i.e. reffering to a Grand Marquis with something as insignificant as "Lord") when it comes things like these.

This is my own personal gnosis gathered through my own personal experience as well as research I've done. If you don't resonate with the below than that's okay, what's not cool is disrespecting me just because my experiences are different than yours

[fenlock]

A list of gifts that I’ve been given by the fae.

-A live mouse. Safely caught and taken outside, only for the same mouse to keep returning to the exact same place in my house. Finally I drove it over a mile away to a small overgrown cemetery, after which it did not come back.

-A live fish. Still have it in our outdoor pond with some koi and goldfish.

-Strange bones, including a femur too long to belong to any native species, and what looks similar to a squirrel skull but with a beak-like mouth.

-Lots of fish bones, particularly gar jaws.

-Large dangly gold earring.

-Various small charms and trinkets, like stuff that would go on a bracelet.

-Neat rocks, usually quartz or agate.

-Once I asked the fae near my uncle’s house to keep the house safe from intruders while I was staying there alone, and literally everybody forgot I was there, including a cousin who had promised to come out and mow, and my own mother. Myself and the house just vanished from their active thoughts unless I contacted them first. Not quite what I had in mind when I asked for protection, but I was indeed safe.

-Clovers. So so many clovers. Anytime I’m within a decent sized patch, at least one four-leaf clover will be there. I’ve even found a few with five leaves. I literally have a dictionary with dozens of pressed clover leafs in it. If I find one while I’m with other people, I give them away.

-Not entirely certain if this was fae, but it’s definitely weird. Found a dead doe while walking down some railroad tracks with a friend. Feeling sad for her, we gathered some flowers and placed them and some spare change we had near the body. Later that night we found the exact same amount of change laid out in a line along the side of the road. Visiting the doe the next day, the change we left had vanished, despite being hidden underneath the flowers where people wouldn’t find it. (Side note, that deer had lots of weird occurrences around her, including her head going missing and then reappearing still attached so...)

[kawaiigrimoire]

🌼Beltane🌺

I’m so ready for Beltane this year! My friends and I plan on celebrating together by having a picnic and spending quality time together. Here are some correspondences and fun ways to celebrate!

Colors 🌈

Red

Green

White

Any bright colors!

Altar decorations 🔥

Flowers

Vegetables

Mini Maypoles

Animal figurines

Rose quartz

Red candles

Brooms

Flower crowns

Objects that symbolize fire

Spell themes🪄

Cleansing

Love

Abundance

Manifestations

Fae work

Glamours

Plants 🪴

Hawthorn

Lilies

Rowan

Daisies

Birch

Roses

Tulips

Food 🍲

Bread

Oats

Berries

Milk

Salad

Cheese

Ice cream

Activities ☀️

Make a flower crown

Have a picnic

Dance around a maypole

Take a nature walk

Have a spa day

Take a bath

Make music

Write songs and poetry

Spend time with people you love

Have a bonfire

I hope everyone has a wonderful Beltane! Let me know if you try anything on this list🌳💐

[jasper-pagan-witch]

🔥faeries

I don't mess with the Good Neighbors. Especially not since my mom implied that our ancestors boned them. I'm shit enough at human social interactions, I'm not ready to be a lawyer to what might potentially be my extended family. I get enough of that shit during Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.

~Jasper