Personally I never considered the buying part as actually buying the spirit. The money, I personally feel at least, is for the time and effort that the shop owner puts into finding and vetting willing spirits and for the vessel. Also most shops have clauses in their bindings that allow the spirit companion to leave if they are unhappy or feel that the relationship isn’t what they want. Also it can be dangerous for the inexperienced to attempt this on their own; it’s difficult discerning if a spirit is really as nice as they seem or unwilling to hurt people on this plane if you’re not experienced. Paying for this service from a shop doesn’t invalidate them being a spirit companion it just means that you’ve compensated someone for doing difficult work.
However there probably are shops that don’t have this clause and there are likely people who do take advantage of that, which is really awful. So it could become slavery because of that. But I wouldn’t say that’s a majority of spirit keepers or that paying for a spirit companion automatically makes it slavery.
You know that you can have a spirit companion without a vessel, right? Because you’re paying someone to “vet” and “find” a willing spirit, I liken it to slavery. Otherwise, just find a spirit companion for yourself. You don’t need a broker.
Some people do need a “broker” because they’re inexperienced. There are definitely shops (honestly, most that I see now a days) who treat the spirits like commodities and it certainly is slavery. But as an inexperienced magic user, I was capable of astral traveling and sensing spirits, but to a much lesser amount than I wanted. I hoped that working with a companion from a shop would help, and I ended up working with L, who helped me greatly in growing my abilities. Within a few months, I broke the connection between her and her vessel because I no longer needed it to reach her and I’m not really comfortable with the idea of keeping a spirit attached to a vessel when it’s unnecessary.
The point is, I don’t think it HAS to be slavery by default. There’s ways to run these services without treating spirits as commodities or trapping them. The issue is that most spirit shops that are still up and running do just that, and vetting these services is about as difficult as vetting a spirit. Vessels are supposed to be a way to feel the spirits energy and recognize it and get used to it so that you can use it to call them to you, not to keep the spirit indefinitely attached to so you can make them show up for your every whim. And these services should be sold as that – a service. Not selling the spirits like they’re on a pet adoption site.
Hi there! My larger point is that…it sounds like slavery by default. Maybe slavery is too much. The fact that you’re…buying spirits at all for companionship is the problematic part. Slaves had brokers, too. Escorts get paid for companionship. Pets are bought, often for companionship. I don’t know. Call it what you want. No me gusta.
*shrugs* I mean, I always kind of figured it was like, buying the vessel and paying for the vetting and stuff, because I mean, vetting and what not is exhausting. But uh..anyways
I find spirit shops too risky. Yeah someone on their shop can say a spirit was willing and consenting, but you are fully trusting the word of that shop owner and not the spirits. And there are too many scammers now a days to know if you are even receiving a spirit, which at this point you do not even know was consenting in the first place, or just a claimed vessel. Not to mention the controversy of some shops trapping spirits not even from their culture.
fair--y backup 