Dealing with spirit anxiety
Introduction to magic masterpost
I do not believe that it is a good idea to attempt spirit work if spirits give you feelings of anxiety.
If you are in a spirit-working situation and giving off anxious, nervous, or fearful energies, you will attract either spirits which cause anxiety and fear, or spirits which feed off of anxiety or fear.
Being anxious in any regular situation does not attract negative spirits to you.
Being worried or fearful in any regular situation does not attract negative spirits to you.
I am only talking about situations when you have intentionally opened doors to the spirit world.
You do not accidentally open doors to the spirit world. You specifically, reader. You do not.
So under no circumstances should you worry right now. If this article gives you anxiety (and if it does I’m really sorry :( ) it will not attract any spirit of any type, no matter what. Let me also assure you that there is no spirit door open around you right now. I have specifically looked, and seen that there is not. You are very cozy and safe.
I have been asked a few times before, “is it a good idea to do spirit work if you have anxiety about working with spirits?”
And no, I do not believe it is a good idea. For a few reasons:
We need a balanced and accurate warning system. If our ‘fear’ switch is always on, then our intuition has lost a really good mechanism for warning us when something actually is going wrong.
The more you believe spirits can harm you, the easier it is for them to harm you. Which sucks, I know. But maybe this article can help with that.
The more anxious you are, the harder it is to make clear choices in the moment (or hey, maybe that’s just me).
And, I don’t think doing spirit work is a particularly effective way to overcome a fear of spirits.
Overcoming your fear of spirits
Let’s get one thing straight: Spirits can only come in when they are let in. I don’t know how it works, but it’s true. It just works.
Now some spirits are real shitheads, and once they get in it can be a pain in the ass to get them out again. But you know what? You can do it. I’m not trying to be all cheesy and give you a speech about inner power. I’m just telling you – you can do it. I get a billion messages from people who have “tried everything” and can’t get rid of a spirit, when in reality they tried an ineffective technique like three times over the space of two weeks. If you set your mind to it and get to work, no spirit may rest where you choose to purge. That’s the long and short of it.
I would like to ask you to review your personal rules about when a spirit is let ‘in’. Some people’s rules may look like this:
A spirit can come in if I’m not properly protected against it
A spirit can overshadow me if I don’t do daily meditations
A spirit can overshadow me if I don’t wear a protection at all times
A spirit may come in my home any time I do a spell or ritual
Consider each one of these rules to be a doorway which a spirit can access. If you accidentally leave a doorway open, the spirit can come in. Forgot to do a meditation for a couple of days in a row? According to your own rules, a spirit can now freely attack you.
Forget to take your protection charm with you? According to the rules you set, you are now open to attack.
The more complex your system is for when a spirit can or cannot attack you, or what kind of spirits will or will not attack you, or every rule and ritual you have to follow so spirits will not attack you, is nothing but another doorway to guard. And the more doorways there are, the more likely it is one will accidentally be left open.
So here is what I propose:
That’s it. What are the rules for when spirits can attack you?
No. Spirits can’t attack me.
Don’t modify your rules. Don’t reduce them. Don’t say, “spirits can’t attack me unless one is super strong and it overwhelms me.” Don’t say, “spirits can’t attack me unless…”
Don’t imagine your defenses to be solid, and without a doorway. Do not create a wall for spirits to attack. Remove the mental maze that spirits have to run through. There is no contest, there is no maze, there are no doorways. If you imagine a wall, you can imagine that it is breached.
So shove it all. Put it all away. There are no “rules” about when a spirit can get to you – it can’t. Say it to yourself. “Spirits can not attack me. There are no doorways in to my mind.”
It’s not an issue of who is stronger or who has more power. “Literal Zeus could come down to earth, and he could not attack me. I am completely and totally safe within my own mind. Nothing can touch me here.”
“Literal Donald Trump could ascend to godhood, return to earth, come to my front door, and be unable to tax me. I am totally safe.”
“Literal Master from Doctor Who could steal the TARDIS, fly to my bedroom, and be unable to touch me. I am totally safe.”
“Literal blind nurses from Silent Hill could come to my house, and they would just stand outside on the sidewalk for a moment and then leave, because the entire universe knows that I cannot be attacked. I am totally safe.”
Any time you ever have a fleeting doubt, a niggling question about whether or not a spirit could get to you, come back and read these words I give to you:
No. They cannot get to you. I don’t care if it is literal godhood Donald Trump, you are safe.
Now even though you are perfectly safe, some spirits will be pissed at you now and then (it happens) and they will try to cause a ruckus in your life, just to be a bother.
But don’t worry about it. You’re safe. You are safe. You just need to take out the garbage. That spirit could be doing some damn Poltergeist shit, stacking your chairs and opening your cabinets, or whatever. And that is pretty spooky, but that’s all the stupid thing can do, just flop around some cabinets. So take your broom and a jar of flying devil oil, and banish that dumb fucker to Oblivion.
To us it may seem super spooky, like oh no my cabinets! But like, come on. Your cat can open cabinets. Spirits do not have to be huge and powerful and freaky to do that kind of stuff. If a cute lil furbaby can open your drawer, a cute lil spirit can do it, too.
Now even though we have all agreed that spirits cannot get to you, there are still things we can do that makes dealing with spirits easier and more efficient. Basic home protections are just smart business. Regular weekly or monthly cleansings is simply common sense if you are a practicing witch. If you take a physical shower to clean off physical grime a few times a week, then you should probably take a magical shower at least once a month!
Having a few good banishings on hand is just a smart idea and can lay naughty spirits to rest quickly. The only way to be totally sure a spirit never comes in to your house is to seal the place off like Fort Knox, but that is very tiresome and can make your place very cut off, cramped, and stuffy. So don’t worry about the little guys coming in now and then. Getting rid of them is no problem.
If for some reason you get more than a little guy who is causing trouble, this will simply require more intense banishings, cleansings, and wardings. It’s more of a pain in the ass, but does not reduce your chances of getting rid of the spirit (your chances are 100%, you will get rid of it.)
Literal Arceus, god of the pokemon, could manifest in physical form, raise an army of pokemon, declare war on your house, and be unable to kick a pebble aside on your driveway because you are totally untouchable.
If you have ongoing spirit anxiety, work on closing your doorways. Gain skills and learn new techniques in banishing, protections, and cleansings. Wait to do spirit work until you think honestly and purely within your own mind, “I cannot be touched.” Then I think you will be better prepared for spirit work :)