Considerate Spirit Offerings - The Skeptical Occultist

The concept of giving something to invisible powers in order to curry favour, or placate them, is as old as mankind. When we look at the archeological evidence this practice is found in the earliest record of man’s beliefs. In temple and cave we find burnt and charred remains, idols and other objects and substances meant to be given as currency to those beings with which shaman, priest, and witch all traffic. Sacrifice, that is, the taking of a life, has long been considered the pinnacle of spirit offerings. Blood spilt and breath taken, the life of a being is the most precious gift one could give from time immemorial. More commonly it was not a sacrifice but a simple offering that was the bargain between people and spirits. Those bits that were deemed sufficient to please, to coax and to favour the beings whose aide and instruction one desired. The items were often personal, something that had acquired significant sentimental value or that was inherently rare for the time and place it was being given. When we look at the folk practices of northern Europe, particularly in Scotland and Ireland, we see that common people regularly made offerings to appease the localized version of earth spirits (fae, fairies, sidhe, hillfolk, goblins, gnomes, etc). A saucer of milk, a plate of cakes, a bowl of cream could all curry favour with one’s local sprite. Even wine and mead were given on specific occasions. These offerings may seem trivial in an age of supermarkets and global produce but in an era of self sustenance farming even a saucer of milk was a considerable offering. The witch, being that pinnacle of human superstitious practice, trafficked with such entities more so than the common person. Thus these exchanges developed and refined the practice of making offerings into an art. While the practitioner may have left regular offerings of milk and cream, much as their neighbor did, they would more intimately have dealt directly with these beings. Having given other more elaborate offerings in exchange for particular deeds and information. Such passive offerings, preemptively enticing the spirit to favour, give way to active considerations and even requests from the spirit. A lock of one’s hair, the bones of some animal, the burning of particular herbs. At the edge of work in the shadows one may encounter beings who request even blood sacrifice for their services. Such work is not undertaken without due consideration even for the most experienced of practitioners. In general those spirits whom require the taking of life are not to be trafficked with lightly. Yet it is much more common that one would make a binding agreement with a spirit through the giving of a gift. A simple and practical exchange that results in the barter for services. In Caribbean conjure work cigars and exceptional liquors are the preferred currency, in the Highlands of Scotland a brass button, lock of hair, or coloured thread is more likely to achieve practical results. In the modern world we tend to forget that the spirits with whom we traffic are as old as the hills and forest in which they manifest. They have seen countless men and women come and go like fireflies on a summer night. Our lives are but a brief burning of a candle to them, our decades and centuries like hours and days, much in the way trees experience time, or mountains. While approaching the building of a relationship with a spirit one should be sure to make offerings of those things thought precious in an earlier age. A saucer of milk, a silver spoon, an old brass button. These things were once the most precious gifts a spirit could be offered, and the old ones remember them well. A spirit who has seen men come and go for millennia remembers the taste of fresh milk and churned butter, may delight in the shimmer of a brass button or a particular stone, find comfort in coloured cloth, silk ribbons or hand spun thread. We must learn in our dealings with earth spirits of all kinds that barter is a principal that is beyond human culture. The giving of gifts is an inherent part of living, practiced in one form or another by birds, reptiles, mammals, and fish alike. From mating rituals to the cessation of a conflict, countless forms of life barter. No less these entities whose world rubs against our own, whose manifestation lingers at the boundaries of what we call real. The practitioner should remember that much like how your grandmother still likes “old fashioned” things, that may be long out of date, the spirits, be they sidhe, fae, wight, lwa, or boggart, often long for offerings we no longer consider rare, for gifts we overlook in our fast paced world of amazon deliveries. Make an offering with consideration, in keeping with the stature and age of the being with whom you are dealing. Learn to give them those things which they desire, those objects that fulfill the promise of the ancient pact. If not you may wake to find your milk spoiled and your windows cracked!