- Hi, I'm Olivia, I'm The Witch of Wonderlust,
and today, I've got a book review for you.
It's Jason Miller's new book,
newest book, "Consorting with Spirits."
(gentle piano)
I've done a couple of reviews for Jason's books,
and overall, I really like
the way that he explains things,
I think that he has a very thorough,
clear, and practical
and realistic way of explaining how to practice
or how to look at practicing,
especially in a modern sense.
So I was really excited when I got this book,
"Consorting with Spirits:
Your Guide to Working with Invisible Allies."
To be honest, reading any kind of witchy book
that talks about working with spirits,
the explanation and the execution
of explaining how that goes
is less than helpful for the most part.
And it's not the author's fault,
because explaining relationships
and explaining interacting with spirits
is a very difficult thing to do,
especially with someone who
either doesn't understand
what working with spirits is like
or interacting with them,
or just doesn't have any experience
in general with it.
So it is very difficult to convey
your actual experience and certain steps
or specific steps on what that's like
and how to do that without sounding woo woo
and unreachable.
I was curious, because I love the way
that Jason explains things.
So when he came out with a book about
interacting with spirits,
that, I jumped on, I'll have to say.
So, he did not disappoint.
I was overall very happy with the book.
My only piece that I wish
would've been added, is a lot more.
It is very small.
It's a very small book.
And I'm not a writer,
I've never worked with a publisher,
but I think he does mention
a couple of times in the book
that he wants to go in further
and deeper with a lot of the topics
that he talks about in this book,
but due to character limits, he's not able to,
so he had to cut out a lot.
Now, that being said,
that also does hopefully open up
the door to maybe branches of different books
that kind of branch off of this book,
because spirit work is such an umbrella.
There's so much
and too much that goes under that.
And that's just spirit work,
let alone working that into a practice,
just where you have spirits as allies.
And he goes in and talks about
a lot of different questions
that I think are a really common question,
but a lot of the time people don't know
how to ask them,
which is a very important part of learning,
because if you know how to ask your question,
you're just much more efficient
in receiving the answers that you need to get.
One of the things that is great about this book
is that there are practical
and easy exercises that you can just take
straight from the book and go right into applying
and actually practicing.
They're so easy.
They don't need any tools or, really, experience,
and it's more of just practice,
as most of this is.
The thing I think that also he tackles in this book
is that a lot of time,
as with most of the occult,
people tend to expect more, I guess.
As with most of this,
of working with energies
and working with spirits,
a lot of the time, it's so much more subtle
than people want or expect.
So he talks a lot about that,
about how interacting with spirits
is not these writings on the walls appearing
and things shifting and floating around
and these mass of voices whispering in your ear.
They are very subtle,
and the more you interact
with very specific spirits especially,
the more you start realizing,
ah, yes, this is that spirit,
this is that spirit and you can differentiate.
And that kinda helps to understand
and be able to separate energies
and be able to label energies
and understand the difference
between the energy of one spirit
and the energy of another.
Further, he also touches upon local spirits
and kind of working with bigger spirits
such as deities or angels,
compared to local spirits that are a little more,
I guess I wouldn't say down-to-earth,
'cause some of them are not really down-to-earth,
but local spirits as in ones
that are a little more accessible and active,
being that they are local.
And he gives, again,
it's really good practical examples
to better understand what that's like.
If you're not new to my channel,
then you know that I'm a huge advocate
for working with local spirits
and the spirits that are here now
and not ones that I have to reach for.
So maybe that's another reason
why I'm not big on deity work,
I don't really work with deities
other than the one course
that I'm taking with Jason Miller.
And even then, after the course,
I really don't see myself
working exclusively with Hecate
or continuing that.
Local spirits are so important
and also often looked over,
and I just feel like they're easier
to have a relationship with
because you are inhabiting
the same space as they are.
And he goes into a little bit of that
and talks about some of his personal experiences
with working with local spirits
and just kind of how he went about that,
which I think is really helpful,
especially with the examples that he gives.
Again, they are realistic.
It is difficult to get across
personal experiences like that
without losing your audience sometimes.
And I think he has a very good way
about going about that without losing his audience
in like, "What were you on when that happened?"
'Cause sometimes those experiences
can get really out there
and it's really hard to explain to other people,
even in the occult realm.
There is that.
Also, I love that he talks about
actually conjuring
and what to do when things go wrong.
He talks about a relationship of his
with a specific spirit.
It molds and changes and grows,
and I think that's a very good example and point,
that with spirits and with people,
you have relationships with people
and they change depending on how you interact.
And that's, from what I have found
in my personal experience, to be true as well.
He also talks about familiars,
and that's also a very big question
about spirits that I get, is familiars.
And then he talks about strengthening bonds
and different kinds
of relationships with spirits.
So there's the familiar spirits,
there's the ancestors,
there's also deities and local spirits.
And he does touch on a lot of that,
and again, it's just very well-articulated.
My last bit is my favorite part
about this book is that there is a Q and A
in the back of frequently asked questions.
And some of them, I didn't think about,
so I'm glad that somebody else
asked the question.
It does give you a very clear and direct answer
instead of having to
thumb through the whole book.
Overall, again, my only complaint
is that it's not longer.
A book about spirit work could be like this thick
and I still don't think that you would really
be able to cover everything.
So it is a very good beginner book
on working with spirits
and understanding how to actually
begin that allyship
and that partnership with the spirits around you,
which I personally think is really important,
especially as an animist.
I would actually suggest this to anybody
who is beginning to work with spirits,
wants to work with spirits,
or is just curious about
what that would look like.
It's a really good guide
of just being able to maneuver
your way around gaining
and creating relationships with spirits,
no matter what kind of spirit
you may have in mind.
I'm a huge advocate for spirit work,
again, as an animist, I kind of have to be,
but I do think that having spiritual allies
when you're doing spiritual work
is kind of a big step up
and is definitely helpful in expanding your view
of how big the universe really is.
And it's interesting to plummet into that
and just be kind of shell-shocked with
how your results in your workings can change
with stronger relationships with spirits.
But that's my overall review.
I would love to know what you thought
if you've read this book.
Again, that's all for this video,
and as always, I'm Olivia.
Thanks for watching, best of luck.
Be kind to each other,
and may your God's treat you
as you've treated others.
Bye.
(gentle piano)