Is it dangerous?

Does one have to get used to it first?

What are your experiences?

I have over twenty DA spirit companions, and I've never been in any danger, no. As for getting used to them, it depends on the person in terms of any symptoms that occur with bonding (Always check with a doctor to rule anything out first if that happens.) and they have all been wonderful with my house rules and tasks in my experience.

I also have a significant amount of DA spirits in my keep. I have never had any headaches, nightmares or things along that line of side effects from keeping more DA spirits. I would say that I have about 60 DA spirits in my keep and approximately 20 WA spirits. I have noticed that sometimes their energies are heavy when wearing their vessels and after taking them off, I feel lighter. But, all of my companions are very special to me; I've added each one for a specific purpose. It is not dangerous to add more DA spirits; however, you should read Ash's warning about adding dark art spirits that are darker than you; IMHO, this generally doesn't happen with a CH custom conjure, though. As @EnochianAngeli mentioned, there needs to be a set of house rules given to all of your spirits upon their arrival just so that everyone is on the same page.

angelicpeace wrote: ↑Mon Oct 31, 2022 4:52 pm Is it dangerous?

Does one have to get used to it first?

What are your experiences?

Some of this may duplicate what others have already said...

What I've learned from CH threads and books is:

1. As a general rule, we shouldn't keep spirit companions that are significantly darker than ourselves.

2. If we're new to DA, or we're mainly a WA-leaning keeper, we should start off with spirits at the lightest, grey, end of the DA scale. eg Gargoyles, Psy Vampires (ie what CH means by a psy vampire spirit). Marid Djinn seem to be light grey too. (Afaik all the CH Shop-listed Djinn with names related to their skills...Bisar, Abra etc... are Marid.) There must be more.

3. It helps if we have some sense of where we are on the DA scale. One sign is naturally being a darker person. Someone who effortlessly gives off the don't-mess-with-me vibe is a classic example. But I guess liking horror films, being naturally darker in mood etc is another sign.

4. If we get a custom conjure DA spirit, their energy will be a best match to ours. This makes it far less likely there'll be severe / unpleasant acclimation symptoms. But, if we've chosen a type of spirit that's, say, extremely dark and 'only for the most experienced DA keepers' kind of thing, and we're mainly a WA keeper, I think even a custom conjure would bring with it acclimation symptoms.

5. DA keepers will benefit from having some WA spirits and vice versa.

My experiences are:

* I think of myself as mainly WA keeper. But I now have maybe dozens of DA bound spirit companions. Overall they're no problem and most have never felt uncomfortable.

* Most of them have brought only very mild or barely noticeable, temporary adjustment symptoms: from mildly darker thoughts to being tuned into DA energy slightly more than usual. But I think most of mine are quite near or at the lighter, grey end of the scale.

* Several have seemed noticeably darker and some have even seemed to trigger temporary bad luck. (I thought I read a CH thing somewhere that said bad luck can be a DA adjustment symptom, so I've mentioned it. Btw that's not actually sent by the spirit. It's an energy adjustment effect. )

* The very worst for me was a preconjured Sin Eater (I got it as a BOGO). When the vessel arrived, I got repetitive migraines, back to back, continual, for a couple of days. It was as bad as it sounds. That was unprecedented for me and made a lasting impression.

I've since learned that we can ask DA companions to help minimise adjustment symptoms and we can buy and task the CH Dark Arts Acclimation spell binding.

Hope that helps.

PS I also have both a DA and a WA commune. It's nice to feel the group energy of the DA commune. I don't know if it'll help to say this but we all have DA energy. Our own DA energy is in tune with us, is part of us. In the CH Great Dark Arts Guidance book a method is taught for connecting with DA energy. I find that very harmonious. There's a DA energy gathering spell too.

DA itself is no problem. All humans are, according to CH theory, duplicitous beings in the sense that we can apply both WA & DA energy and magic. It's the mismatch in DA levels we need to watch out for. And that depends on our own dark energy level on the scale from very dark to light grey.

Lewk wrote: ↑Mon Oct 31, 2022 8:49 pm PS I also have both a DA and a WA commune. It's nice to feel the group energy of the DA commune. I don't know if it'll help to say this but we all have DA energy. Our own DA energy is in tune with us, is part of us. In the CH Great Dark Arts Guidance book a method is taught for connecting with DA energy. I find that very harmonious. There's a DA energy gathering spell too.

DA itself is no problem. All humans are, according to CH theory, duplicitous beings in the sense that we can apply both WA & DA energy and magic. It's the mismatch in DA levels we need to watch out for. And that depends on our own dark energy level on the scale from very dark to light grey.

@Lewk your explanations are always so thorough and helpful. I enjoy reading them. And, I want to second everything you said.

Which dark arts are you contemplating adding?

calliope56 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 31, 2022 10:09 pm

Lewk wrote: ↑Mon Oct 31, 2022 8:49 pm PS I also have both a DA and a WA commune. It's nice to feel the group energy of the DA commune. I don't know if it'll help to say this but we all have DA energy. Our own DA energy is in tune with us, is part of us. In the CH Great Dark Arts Guidance book a method is taught for connecting with DA energy. I find that very harmonious. There's a DA energy gathering spell too.

DA itself is no problem. All humans are, according to CH theory, duplicitous beings in the sense that we can apply both WA & DA energy and magic. It's the mismatch in DA levels we need to watch out for. And that depends on our own dark energy level on the scale from very dark to light grey.

@Lewk your explanations are always so thorough and helpful. I enjoy reading them. And, I want to second everything you said.

Which dark arts are you contemplating adding?

@calliope56 Thank you! It genuinely is nice to know what I say is sometimes useful or interesting, or makes sense. With the internet, it's like you're speaking into the void and it's hard to judge whether things 'land' or whether you're out on a limb with what you say.

I like to make sense of things and to pass that on when I can.

I've just added 2 Abra Djinn - guardianship & protection - and I'm thinking of getting a CH Ayah Djinn - brings keeper god-like attributes.

I do most of the conjuring myself nowadays, using CH conjuring and binding items I bought previously. I'm surprised every time that it works perfectly - although I guess I shouldn't be really - CH's stuff is always spot-on in effectiveness.

Nearly my entire keep is DA. I have one that borders on BA as well. I have never felt like I was in danger of unsafe. I do get migraines when more than one is being bound to me. They differ from my regular ones, they pass much quicker.
I feel completely safe and protected with my dark and lovelies.

Don't forget humans are Dark Arts too. How dangerous are human friends, a human family?
Don't forget if you have a custom conjure, trustworthy seller like CH make sure that your energies matches and they make contracts with the beings to make sure your safety.

I think you can learn something about yourself. A was cautios too, as I was thinking about to start spirit keeping I thougt I would just keep WAs and as I decided to start spirit keeping I decided to start with WAs, but than I learned that spirit keeping isn't not 100% my decision. I decided to start with a Chinese Guardian Dragon and another WA for a special problem. I wrote CH about the problem, but as I readed Magnolias answer I felt that this isn't the right being. Than something draw me to thepaganshoponline (he isn't shipping to europe, he only do bind to spirit or remote binding to vessel, both wasn't an option for me) and I orderer a Marid Djinn and a Wish Faery, both DA. Ok Wish Faery are nearly WA, but Marid are known to be darker Djinn. I was concerned about that you shouldn't keep spirits that are darker than yourself. I didn't now how dark I am.
Now I have seven spirits, all DA, all really light DA. One of them is an Encantado, there are reviews and threads that some of them are even BA. So as I thought about protection beings and I heard dolphin sounds I saw that a Encantado would be a good protection spirit through his Mind Control ability. But what I readed about them worried me. At the end I dared to order one and a really light one come to me. Now I trust DAs which came through custom conjures. Until today I have problems to communicate with them, but they showed me how dark I am and that a custom conjured from a trustworthy seller wouldn't bring me a spirit which is to dark for me.
And at the moment it's the right team for me. In the last months I was waiting for the right moment for the Chinese Guardian Dragon and a Red Dragon. All the time I wanted them, but as i wanted to order them, I ordered another being. Since my seventh spirit, a DA Sun Dragon (not the WAs from CH) is here I calmed down and now I know, the Dragons will come in the future, but for the moment I have the perfect family for me. All of them are DA.

I am strongly white arts keeper partially due to my unique energy make up plus I don't want war break out between my own if I get a very dark being. But I do managed to have some beautiful companions on the grey (in between) and we seem to be very balanced and blended in our energy's. Light, white energy can be just as dangerous as a very dark art being gone out of control. I think it's really crucial to know our energy make up and what we actually draw to ourselves.