---
title: "The Magick of Lucid Dreaming: An Interview with Nikki Wardwell Sleath"
url: https://staging13.perseusarcaneacademy.com/post/the-magick-of-lucid-dreaming-an-interview-with-nikki-wardwell-sleath/
date: 2026-02-04
modified: 2026-07-03
lang: en
author: "Perseus Arcane Academy"
description: "Introduction In this post we talk with Nikki Wardwell Sleath in what is a highly detailed and informative interview. Nikki Wardwell Sleath is a full-time occult teacher, author, and founder..."
categories:
  - "Interviews"
  - "Western Traditions"
tags:
  - "Magic"
  - "Witchcraft"
image: https://staging13.perseusarcaneacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Nikki_Lucid_Dreaming_Thumbnail-1024x683.jpg
word_count: 6068
---

# The Magick of Lucid Dreaming: An Interview with Nikki Wardwell Sleath

## Introduction

In this post we talk with Nikki Wardwell Sleath in what is a highly detailed and informative interview. Nikki Wardwell Sleath is a full-time occult teacher, author, and founder of the Society of Witchcraft and Old Magick. In this interview, she shares how her early experiences with spirits shaped her path, what disciplined training taught her about ritual skill, and why lucid dreaming can function as a living laboratory for real magical practice.

We hope you enjoy this interview and find it useful for your own practice. If you’d like to learn more about Nikki and her work, you’ll find a set of links at the end of the post.

Finally, we’d love to hear your thoughts—leave a comment with any questions or reflections, and share this post with anyone you think would enjoy it.

Image credit: [Nikki Wardwell Sleath | Occult Books](https://www.nikkiwardwellsleath.com/)

Table of Contents

- Introduction- Interview with Nikki Wardwell Sleath- Early Life and Background- Training, Healing, and Personal Breakthroughs- Lucid Dreaming and Dream Sorcery- Alchemy and the Philosopher’s Stone- Goddess Traditions and Magickal Craft- Vision and Future Endeavors- Learn More (Nikki Wardwell Sleath)- Join a Free Course on Perseus with Sixty SkillsThe Three Transformations - Free Course

---

## Interview with Nikki Wardwell Sleath

![](https://staging13.perseusarcaneacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/af9ad2_caf824227e994aa1b70aec4a1e2c210dmv2.avif)

## Early Life and Background

**PAA: Your ancestor Samuel Wardwell was executed during the Salem witch trials, making you the eight-times great-granddaughter of a woman accused of witchcraft. How has this unique family history influenced your own path as a witch and occultist? Did growing up with a Salem witch in your lineage shape your identity or inspire you to explore witchcraft?**

Interestingly, though I had heard vaguely of my ancestor Samuel and knew he was hung in the Salem witchcraft trials, there wasn’t much talk of it in my family during my upbringing. As a high schooler I began to realize that I really should know more about this, and I did a genealogical project for a social studies course, where I charted my ancestry back along the Wardwell (my father’s) side of the family. This was not hard to do, as I grew up in Reading, MA, which is only about twenty or thirty minutes from Salem. The local libraries had lots of old birth, death, marriage and tax records and it was pretty smooth going as I connected the dots of this history. Still, I had not really connected the dots of my own magickal nature yet at that time, in my youth. I was very intuitive and perceptive, and had very vivid dreams but I never really realized how inspiring it was to have Samuel as my forbear until I was an adult and will into the development of my own magickal practice. He was actually on record as having had the ability to tell fortunes with cards, and to be able to know things that would happen ahead of time through dreams. Aside from Tituba, he may be the only person who was accused based on any actual magickal skill. I find it fascinating that dreams and cards are also my own personal strongest forms of divination, talent-wise. Certainly, now that I have been operating publicly as a witch for so long, I am so grateful for his legacy, and it feels like an immense honor to be able to practice and teach the Craft publicly. It feels as though my work has helped to shift some familial karmic balance in this regard.

> When I heard spirit voices in my house, I just assumed that if anyone else had been there with me at the same moment, that they would have heard it too.
>
> Nikki Wardwell Sleath

**PAA: In interviews, you've mentioned that as a child you became aware of voices and spirits in your family home, and even noticed your psychic abilities sharpening every fall season. Can you tell us more about these early paranormal experiences? How did they lead to your “huge spiritual awakening” and the realization that you were a witch for life?**

Honestly, as a kid, I just thought I was kind of perceptually sharp in general, but I didn’t initially notice that there was actual psychic ability there. My mom would joke about me having “ESP”, but I didn’t really think there was anything extraordinary about my psyche. When I heard spirit voices in my house, I just assumed that if anyone else had been there with me at the same moment, that they would have heard it too. I now know that would not have necessarily been the case. I would sometimes pretend to be a fortune teller or make potions out of acorns and rainwater in the yard, but it definitely felt like play when I was young. I certainly did have plenty of time to play on my own and get lost in imaginative thought in the old victorian house in which I grew up in MA. It wasn’t until I was a student at the University of CT that I started noticing that pattern of extra crisp psychic clarity ramping up each fall. That sensation was really something though, and after I noticed it a couple of years in a row, it was no longer something that could be ignored or written off. Luckily, this coincided with a time when more occult books were starting to be seen on the shelves in bookstores, and when the internet was just starting to provide access to other people’s thoughts, articles and teachings. There had come a day when I was hellbent on digging further into my psychic relationship with autumn, and I found a couple of online articles about the modern-day practice of the Craft. When I read about some of the underlying beliefs, practices, themes of personal magickal and psychic development, it resonated with everything I felt to be true about myself and my worldview. That was when I had a moment of hyperclarity and truth chills, understanding that I would never stop following after the mysteries of magick and the Craft from that day forth.

## Training, Healing, and Personal Breakthroughs

**PAA: You received formal training as an initiate and priestess in the Religious Order of Witchcraft. What was that training like, and what are some of the key lessons or disciplines you learned as part of this tradition of American Witchcraft?**

Since ROOW is an oathbound tradition, I can really only speak about my experience in generalities. The training was a very traditional “year-and-a-day” type of training where I had a private lesson with my High Priestess once a week, and also gathered with the other members at each Sabbat and full moon to be in ritual together. I was a sharp student, easily taking to formal divination practices and ceremonial magick skills, so I was shunted straight from my initiation as a witch into another year of training as a priestess. I got a lot of what I call “on the job training” in my experience with ROOW. I never intended to teach magick or do any of this professionally. I undertook my training solely for the purpose of quenching my own deep thirst for greater exploration of the mysteries, and for the expansion that arises when magickal experiences are shared with others. All the same, as my propensity for this work became clear, I found myself quickly being asked to take on leadership responsibilities in a way that validated my capabilities. Some of the key things that were reinforced to me that were very valuable were the need for constant study, and the realization that continual learning would be my key not only to ongoing effectiveness magickally, but to personal fulfillment. I was prompted to study from the oldest texts I could find, and not to fear the archaic language or dark connotations associated with some of them. This was probably one of the greatest gifts of my training- gaining the confidence and ability to patiently pick through old tomes and see how powerful it could be to bring old magick into my own modern practice. I also truly learned the value of honed ritual skill and the benefits of a daily ritual practice, and this is something that I continue to impress upon my own students to this day.

> Our approach is to never tell a student what is absolute truth, but to give them tools to explore what they are able to hold as truths personally.
>
> Nikki Wardwell Sleath

**PAA: After years of practice, you went on to form your own occult order, the Society of Witchcraft and Old Magick, also known as the Wardwell tradition of American Witchcraft. What inspired you to create your own magickal order? How does the Wardwell tradition differentiate itself from other witchcraft traditions in terms of practices or philosophy?**

I branched out to create my own order because I wanted the freedom to be creative in terms of ritual and curriculum development. I left the ROOW in order to do this, so I have no idea how things are in that order now, but at the time when I left many years ago, it was extremely traditional in terms of the insistence that things were always done a certain way, following old traditions. I love tradition and learning from prior magicians, but I also tend to be something of a chaos magician in the sense that I prefer to allow my beliefs, and therefore my corresponding practices, to evolve as I do. Part of what is different about SWOM is evident right in the comparison of the titles of the two organizations: the order I trained in was quite religious, where I tend not to be. SWOM is, at its heart, a training order and not a religious organization. Yes, we offer ceremonies and teach practices that facilitate spiritual experiences for the participants and students. Where we differ from other orders is in trying to avoid dogma, and being cognizant not to fall into traps of fundamentalist thinking wherever possible. So, the Wardwell tradition of American Witchcraft emphasizes learning and evolution, the respect and consideration of teachings from traditions from all over the world, and the use of magick to work toward greater wisdom and enlightenment in this life. Our approach is to never tell a student what is absolute truth, but to give them tools to explore what they are able to hold as truths personally. Essentially our belief system is that we should always be breaking the walls of any belief system, and that we can use magick to do this. It is due to this approach that I have decided not to file the order as a religious organization, but to operate solely on the basis of personal instruction.

![](https://staging13.perseusarcaneacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/DSC00403-1.avif)

**PAA: You have a strong background in healing arts – you hold a Master’s degree in Integrative Health and Healing and are a Reiki Master/Teacher – and you offer private psychic and energetic healing services in your practice. How do these holistic healing modalities intersect with your work in witchcraft and magick? Has your training in health and energy healing informed the way you cast spells or conduct rituals, and vice versa?**

It is impossible for me to keep healing and magickal practices separate from one another. I perceive every moment as a unique combination of energy and consciousness that not only manifests in its own way, but also vibrates with the raw potentiality of magick. For me, there is a sense of the dreaming universe that underlies all things, no matter the time of day or the season of the year. When I set intentions and make myself very present for a client in order to flow healing energy to them, for example, I become very aware of liminality of it all, and in the space between the intention to receive healing and the integration of the experience, I find spirit guides, psychic information, spontaneous new healing techniques, and more. It is all so undoubtedly magical, and for this reason I am very forthright with new clients about my tendency to eclectically blend Reik and witchcraft, for example. I can’t undo what I know, in a sense. If I’m present to a healing flow of energy for a client and I start psychically hearing the name of a rune or a spirit being chanted, I’m not going to ignore the pertinence of that magic to the session- I’m going to engage it. On the flip side of all of this, having become very comfortable with how it feels to open to the flow of Reiki also adds to my ability to flow energy through myself for ritual, channeling and all kinds of other magickal purposes as well. A few of my trainings are very shamanically oriented in their healing approaches, and this is simply magick. Everything I learn informs everything that I do and that’s sort of just how I roll.

**PAA: You once noted that you “would not be where [you are] as an occult teacher” had it not been for studying healing on a holistic level. Looking back on your journey, what have been some of your biggest personal breakthroughs or turning points in magick? For instance, were there moments when your understanding of occult practice evolved dramatically or when you achieved a new level of spiritual insight?**

I am so fortunate that part of the requirements for the holistic Master’s degree I sought included having to do mentorships with three various well-established holistic professional practitioners. Some of my biggest breakthroughs happened as a result of undertaking trainings with these mentors, specifically in doing various week-long in-person trainings to become a facilitator in the approaches of Robert Moss, as a teacher of Active Dreaming, and with Llyn Roberts to be trained as a shamanic Reiki practitioner. Llyn brought all of her experience working with Peruvian indigenous shamans to the course work she created (with their blessing), and her training was rigorous in terms of hours spent learning spirit flight. This caused the metaphorical psychic training wheels to go flying off in the sense that the repetitive work caused me to come away with an ingrained confidence in what the groove of spirit flight feels like and how to get right back there whenever I wished. When you know you can seek the wisdom of spirits and guides literally and directly at any time and trust the ensuing experiences, anything is possible in both magick and healing.
Exposure to Robert Moss’ teachings just blew my mind with respect to the limitless potential that lies in dreams. I became constantly aware of wanting to integrate more and more of my night dream experiences into my daily life, and this is what caused me to start becoming fully lucid in my dreams. I was thinking about dreaming so much that I would realize I was dreaming, and then try to learn even more in those lucid opportunities. I describe one particular breakthrough dream in my book Dream Sorcery, where I became lucid and suddenly just started receiving hyper-clear wisdom downloads from the energy of the dream scene itself. It’s impossible to relay with words exactly what this feels like, but I woke up feeling quite irrevocably changed. I understood something about the ongoing nature of consciousness in the dreaming that put physical incarnation into perspective in a new way. While each life is important and should be lived to the fullest, I knew fully that this life only comprises a quick glimmer in the cauldron of all that we are. The understanding in that dream was so crisp and acute that I found the sensations of this reality to feel a bit blurred and less “real” feeling than what I had experienced in the dream. I would definitely call this a moment of sudden new spiritual insight, and it informed the motivation of my dreaming practice from that point forward. Since that time I have purposefully engaged lucid dreaming and spontaneous night dreams consistently to aid all of the important magick that I have done, including attaining by traditional methods the coveted “knowledge and conversation” with my Holy Guardian Angel.

## Lucid Dreaming and Dream Sorcery

**PAA: What sparked your deep interest in lucid dreaming as a component of magickal practice? You’ve trained to the highest level in shamanic dreamwork with Robert Moss’s School of Active Dreaming and now you’ve authored Dream Sorcery: The Ritual & Magick of Lucid Dreaming. Was there a particular experience or influence that led you to marry lucid dreaming with witchcraft and sorcery?**

Two experiences I had with lucid dreaming that greatly spurred my fusion of it with magickal practice included energy infusions from the Morrigan, and my runic sorcery training. When I first started to realize the spiritual intensity of lucid dreaming, I began trying to summon the Morrigan, the ancient Irish goddess of battle, prophecy and death, into my lucid dreams. After a few tries I had the experience where she arrived as an onslaught of swirling energy- a tornado of abstract wings and feathers and bats- that hurtled toward me with great force. I allowed the energy of this Morrigan tornado to smash into me, and it ended up thrumming through me with the vibrations of an out-of-control train. Imagine deep, vibratory energy racing through your body at top speed. I gave myself over to the sensations, and my dream body began involuntarily floating, writhing in the air, and snarling. When I woke, I could feel the energy thrumming through my physical body for a long time after. The dream empowered my auric field in a very obvious way, and I was so grateful, and simultaneously excited to see what else was possible.
Not long after I began deepening my lucid dream practice, I also began the work of Edred Thorsson’s The Nine Doors of Midgard. This is a book that provides the outline for a self-guided system of training in runic sorcery. It takes a few years to do the whole thing to the letter, and being unafraid of ongoing magickal work, I made the commitment and dove in. Each stage of the training calls for in-depth, close examination and practice of each rune for long periods of time, using many varied approaches. There is psychic work, yogic work, academic study, and of course magickal practices such as chanting and hand gestures that are all a part of the recommended training. I was doing all of this, but felt I would be remiss if I did not also add a lucid dream component to my learning with each rune. After all, the point of such a training is to learn to embody the runic energies to such an extent that you become a natural channel for their wielding at will. I began using my lucid dreams at the time to practice signing, gesturing and chanting the runes. I would enact the technique and then pause and watch the dream environment to see what the effects were. Upon waking, I documented every such experiment with all the detail possible, so that I could continue to build on my experiences and benefit from using the techniques more confidently in waking. Spending the time doing this for all 24 runes of the Elder Futhark really impressed upon my just how perfect the lucid dream state is for experimenting with and honing magickal skills.

![](https://staging13.perseusarcaneacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/image.png)Source: [Info | Nikki Wardwell Sleath](https://www.nikkiwardwellsleath.com/more-info)

**PAA: Your approach to dream work is quite unique – Dream Sorcery isn’t just another dream guide. In fact, it treats the lucid dream as “a metaphorical alchemy lab” for transforming one’s magickal practice. How does Dream Sorcery differ from more conventional lucid dreaming books or from psychological approaches to dreams? What can occult practitioners gain from lucid dream magick that they might not get from traditional spell work or meditation alone?**

Dream Sorcery is different from the other lucid dream books out there in that it highlights the theory that consciousness is not local to our physical brains. It requires the reader to consider all of the dreams that show us that we are often transcending time, and all of the dreams that bring us real interaction with other spiritual beings. These are the transtemporal and transpersonal potentials that exist within dreaming. Magickal practitioners naturally work with these enchanted parameters of reality, so the conventional lucid dream material that takes the approach that everything about dreaming is solely about you and your own mind, is very limiting to them. I knew that the magick I was experiencing through my lucid experiments was achingly real, and that no one else was really teaching about this in any accessible depth. The book had to be written, and I believe it is an important addition to today’s magickal literature. There is so much that an occultist can gain from lucid magick that they can never gain from waking magick alone. At the crux of this is the ability to function as a spirit, thereby collecting glimpses of truths about the nature of consciousness itself. Lucid dream magick is the only way (outside of some kinds of astral projection experiences, which are just as tricky to cultivate) to perform magick while still existing here in this physical life, yet without the limitations imposed by being in a physical body. Journey work, meditation, trance and all kinds of waking divination work are all impacted by the combination of the body’s presence upon our conscious awareness.

**PAA: In dreams, you’ve said, the usual rules don’t apply – we can practice magick without the physical world’s constraints. You’ve even shared experiences of precognitive dreams and collective dream rituals that show how expansive the dream realm can be. Could you give an example of a magical operation or experiment you’ve conducted in a lucid dream that would be impossible or impractical in waking life? What did that experience teach you about consciousness or the nature of reality?**

Well, all of the magickal operations I’ve conducted in lucid dreaming would be impossible in waking life, in terms of the scope of the results and the ability to experience them. The clearest example for readers to comprehend is any of the myriad of spirit summonings I’ve successfully conducted in lucid dreaming. In waking ritual magick, the work of full-on evocation is immense. It takes months of preparation and buildup, personal work, and lots of energy expenditure as well as precise ritual skill. In lucid dreaming, however, you can simply yell out a precisely worded summoning call, and then experience the results of the spirit showing up in a potentially fully personified way, in a dream body. You still get to experience their energy as you would in waking, but in a thought-responsive environment like lucid dreaming, the toil of a physical world summoning isn’t needed because the limitations of the physics of our reality aren’t there. This is just one example, but this applies to so many magickal acts that are possible here.

## Alchemy and the Philosopher’s Stone

**PAA: Reviewers of Dream Sorcery have noted that you “thrill with the suggestion that, fully charged, lucid dreaming may be the philosopher’s stone.” That is a fascinating analogy! Can you elaborate on what you mean by that? In what sense could lucid dreaming be considered a philosopher’s stone for modern practitioners – does it facilitate a kind of ultimate spiritual transformation or alchemical process for the soul?**

Yes, lucid dreaming does hasten spiritual evolutionary experiences. The idea behind trying to transform lead into gold in the alchemy lab was based on the idea that the underlying wisdom of such a transformation exists in its witnessing. The process needed to be sped up and performed as an experiment because our human lives are too short to get the chance to witness this transformation in its entirety while living. Similarly, we really don’t get to function as bodiless spirits while living, except for in the space of lucid dreams. The philosopher’s stone was the term for the missing ingredient needed for the full alchemical experiment to be a success, and I believe that it is our ability to wake up in dreams, and therefore to the felt experience of the nature of ourselves as spiritual beings, that is the key ingredient to hastening spiritual transformation while here, physically incarnated.

**PAA: Alchemical symbolism appears to be a significant influence in your work – for example, Dream Sorcery is grounded in the framework of alchemy and even divided into sections named for Salt, Mercury, and Sulfur. What draws you to the alchemical paradigm? How do you apply classical alchemy concepts in your own occult practice and teaching? For instance, do you find that the alchemical idea of transmutation plays a role in your spell craft or personal development work?**

I love the alchemical paradigm because I find a cross-cultural universality to the concept of the tripartite nature of the self. Whether we are talking about mind/body/spirit, land/sea/sky, lower/middle/upper worlds, the Cauldrons of Poesy, Agrippa’s three soul model or any number of others, there is a relatability to this type of construct. The tria prima of alchemy gives us a clear format in which to break experiences and learning down into categories while also acknowledging that they are not separate from each other. The salt, mercury and sulfur of the book relate respectively to the foundational practices of lucid dreaming, the spiritual goals and motivations of lucid dreaming, the purposefully transformative magick around lucid dreaming. The tria prima constantly effect each other in order to inform the nature of the whole, and this is true of the various acts that can make up a virtuous cycle between lucid dreams, spiritual experiences and magickal skills. And finally, yes! I believe the whole point of having a magickal practice that runs deep and through the course of a lifetime goes well beyond spells and basic manifestation and must ultimately be motivated at its core by the desire to develop as much as possible as a spiritual being while in this life. Looking at magickal experiences such as lucid dreaming in this way is a great approach to the continued facilitation of this progress.

## Goddess Traditions and Magickal Craft

**PAA: In addition to dreamwork, you’ve delved into divine feminine mysteries. Your book The Goddess Seals grew out of your frustration that traditional grimoires had seals for various spirits, yet none for the goddesses you and your students work with. You responded by channeling and creating 13 Magickal Seals for 13 Goddesses (from the Morrígan to Persephone, Hathor, Freyja, Lilith, and others). What was the process of developing these Goddess Seals like, and how are these sacred symbols used to enhance modern magickal practice? Did your own relationship with these deities (for example, your work with the Morrígan) guide this creative magickal work?**

It was not solely my relationship with these goddesses that guided this work, (those relationships were certainly the original motivation of the work) but also the ability and confidence I had gained in approaching spirits in general that allowed me to undertake it. I am a trained practitioner of a few shamanically-oriented arts, and I use these skills routinely in the healing and magickal work I do on behalf of clients. I spent many years doing energetic and spirit flight work to meet up with the guides of others, bringing back wisdom, healing energies, messages and more for the person on my table. When I realized how consistent the accuracy of the information and experiences gleaned were for the clients, it allowed me to develop a deep trust in my spirit communication abilities. Because of this, when I decided to begin creating traditional seals for goddesses, I was able to put these skills to use. The process for me involves going into a state of meditative communication with the deity or spirit in question. I do this by going either to my usual spirit flight starting point or one of the routine inner temple spaces I use in my daily practice. From there, I normally allow my usual navigational spirit guides and goddesses to help me gain access to a desired spirit if it is someone with whom I don’t already have a familiar relationship. I then begin respectful discussion, trying to learn what their vested interests are and what they would be willing to do on behalf of magicians who might use a seal to connect with their legions. I would take notes and allow the conversation and resulting downloads of imagery and wording for the seal to take form. Later, after I had polished everything up and gone back and gotten it fully authorized, I would do a formal casting of sacred space and conduct a ritual consecration of the seal with offerings to the deity.
Seals are a huge enhancement to magickal practice because they allow the practitioner to engage spirit assistance locally. Spirits can often manipulate energy and move information and impulses between realms, and outside of time and space in ways we cannot. If we don’t involve spirit talents in our magick, we may be limited to effects that our own physical and mental energy can create. Working with seals also brings the ongoing benefit of continuing to build bonds between the magician and numerous talented deities. These types of relationships are invaluable.

**PAA: As a full-time occult teacher and the founder of a training order, what do you find most rewarding about teaching witchcraft and magick to others? What is your approach to mentoring students through the Society of Witchcraft and Old Magick – for instance, how do you balance imparting foundational knowledge with encouraging personal gnosis and individual growth in your students?**

A: I think the most rewarding part of running this order is seeing people accomplish their magickal goals, have their petitions answered, and seeing them gain measurable magickal skill. We have lots of members who did not use magick in a professional capacity prior to their study here who are now professional mediums, readers, healers, magickal artisans and more. To try to provide a balanced experience to students in both knowledge and gnosis, I have different levels of training available. Neophyte (first year) work is generally a knowledge-building time, where the student learns basic ritual skills and accumulates confidence in understanding crucial areas of magickal practice in a broad manner. Then, there is a mage-adept level of training which requires much more experimentation on the part of the student with both psychic and energetic magickal faculties. This depth work helps them create and trust lots of experiences within their own personal gnosis. I also happen to have a priesthood training level which involves teaching skill, group ritual administration, ego work for being of service and other things of that nature. Ultimately, the thing that balances my teachings overall is my constant effort to emphasize the avoidance of fundamentalism. While I relay wisdom I’ve gained from my own learning and experiences, I make sure to tell students that everything is possible and there is no one set of truths and no one right way of doing things. I don’t tell them what to believe, but try to give them the tools to form their own beliefs around magick and the development of the spirit. I think this is what provides the balance of which you speak.

**PAA: You emphasize the importance of building genuine relationships with deities and spiritual energies, comparing it to befriending someone rather than making “transactional demands of strangers,” which challenges a common approach in magick. How does this philosophy shape your own practice and rituals? For example, as a long-time Priestess of the Morrígan who co-facilitates the Morrigan’s Call Retreat, how do you personally forge and maintain such authentic, living relationships with the divine? Any advice for practitioners seeking to deepen their connection with their patron deities or spirit guides?**

Yes, I do think it’s important to have great spiritual relationships, and I think it’s important that the same rules of engagement apply as you would expect in your physical world relationships. To elaborate, consider the principle of correspondence from the Hermetic teachings. This teaches that there are parallel resonances that exist between things on every level of existence. If you subscribe to this, then we can try to apply respect, etiquette, comfort level and such things to our relationships with deities just as we would in order to have a relationship with trust with another human. For example, are you inclined to help another person that goads you into helping them in an obligatory way? If someone forced you to act on their behalf, would you be likely to reach out and help them later when the choice were up to you? The answer to this is probably no. This is simply a matter of my own personal belief, but I think it’s wise to treat spirits the way you would wish to be treated if you were in their shoes.
One bit of advice I often give to people trying to deepen connection to their spirit guides is to make an effort to get to know the heart and mind of that spirit. In other words, don’t just appeal to them constantly asking for help for yourself, but, as in any good and reciprocal friendship, make sure to spend just as much time asking them what they want, what is important to them, and how they are doing. This goes a long way in nurturing mutual understanding, and inspires the relationship with greater confidence from both sides.

## Vision and Future Endeavors

**PAA: Finally, what’s next for you on your journey? You’ve mentioned you have more books in the works – can you tell us about any upcoming writing projects, events, or magickal endeavors you’re excited about? Additionally, what is your broader vision or dream for the future of your work – for example, goals for the Society of Witchcraft and Old Magick, or areas of the occult that you hope to explore more deeply in the coming years?**

I have begun offering a publicly available online course as a depth teaching companion to Dream Sorcery. I’m happy and proud of how this going so far, and I hope to keep offering it at intervals to folks who are ready to truly dive into the work of the book. As far as writing projects, I do have numerous things in the works. I’m not at the point of having the editorial go-ahead to reveal them, but I can say that there is another seal-oriented book coming soon, as well as a couple of other Celtic sorcery books that I have co-authored with some other talented folks. There are more in the pipeline after this as well. As far as SWOM, I hope to have the energy and constancy to keep it going as it is now for at least another 6-8 years, at which point I might be needing to retire from the immense amount of work I currently do in this respect. (I’m 52, and as I get closer to retirement age, I hope to shift the emphasis of my work in ways that suit my energy level.) I haven’t yet identified who might take over for me, but my hope is to find someone who has trained within the order and who understands how to continue it healthily, to do so. It’s not an easy job at all. We’ve been in operation for 11 years now under the current format, and I would love it to be perpetuated on by someone else. While I do want to hand the order over to the right person eventually, I don’t think I’ll ever stop writing and teaching, since all of my decades of magickal experience have left me with a very deep well of ideas to impart. I do love to travel, and am grateful that I’ve been able to start doing more of this with conferences and book appearances, and I hope to do more of this as well.
Thank you so much for your very thoughtful and thorough questions, and for the opportunity to share my responses here in this forum. May all who read these words be blessed and inspired.
Let us not fear death, lest we vandalize life;
For the aim of the spirit is awe and not strife.
Blessings,
Nikki Wardwell Sleath

**PAA: Nikki, thank you very much for answering our questions and providing so much detail. Very much appreciated. **

---

## Learn More (Nikki Wardwell Sleath)

- [Official Website](https://www.nikkiwardwellsleath.com/)

- [Society of Witchcraft and Old Magick (Order / Wardwell Tradition)](https://www.nikkiwardwellsleath.com/society-of-witchcraft)

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