As the title suggests, this is about all of the worrying themes I see in both paid and free spirit shops, more often in free shops. This is not to say that a shop that has one of these is bad, but they can be red flags towards a fraudulent or untrustworthy shop.
Almost all of the spirits were abused / harmed before coming to the shop.
This is a very common thing to see on Tumblr, but rare in other spirit work circles. A lot of shop owners, especially social ones, try to make themselves out as a saviour and try to have grandeur in the eyes of others. If a spirit was abused, especially by another spirit, what qualifications do they have to be rehabilitating those spirits? What protections do they have to prevent the spirit from being harmed again?
They claim to have many spirits waiting or claim to have upwards of 100 spirits in their realms.
This should be a huge red flag. One, how can someone possibly be a companion, vet, and work with over a hundred spirits on the daily? How did they meet all of these spirits? Do they claim to have a facility where they work with them? Be very cautious as this can imply sketchy vetting, keeping, and treatment towards the spirits. Shop owners should treat each spirit as a companion before adopting them out.
The shops vetting process is less than three months.
This ESPECIALLY applies to reverse adoptions and custom conjures. If you are getting a newly conjured companion, they require even more thorough vetting than a spirit they have been working with for even a month. RA and CCs should be a process of at least three months, any less isnt adequate time to get to know the spirit and make sure they are safe for working with. Even more experienced conjurers should uphold at least a two or three month vetting process. Any less is very sketchy.
The shop owners are under 18, or adopt out to minors.
This is due to laws. For a shop in the US, there should be a disclaimer somewhere on the website that states their services are for entertainment purposes only. The shop owner should be 18 or older, as unless a parent signs off as the owner, it is illegal to own a business while under 18. Adopting out to minors is a worrisome practice, as US laws are that no one can offer spiritual help or consolation to a minor without parental consent. Even for psychic readings or, even a pendulum reading performed on a minor could result in the parents sueing the shop owner if the parent did not consent to their child having that done. Adopting out a spirit to a minor should, most definately, be done with only written parental consent.
The conjurers have been caught in lies about their age or practices.
Rather self explanatory, but its very sketchy for someone who youre entrusting with spiritual safety to be lying about their processes, age, or experience level.
They share a spirits name, close held nickname, or a very detailed description of the spirit.
This is worrisome in the fact that sharing a spirits real name can result in them being forcefully conjured away from the companion or conjurer. Vividly detailed descriptions, nicknames, as well as even drawn pictures of the spirit can also result in someone being able to pinpoint their energy and potentially harm or forcefully kidnap the spirit. Shops that provide so much detail that you can picture the spirit completely are pause for concern.
They are listing a spirit that was someones companion.
Spirit workers who raid astral spaces and kidnap spirits they believe to be abused, or if they simply dont like the person they stole from, are very dangerous. Often someone like this is the abusive one, and very very few raids Ive heard of were actually justified. Stealing someone elses companions is pure evil and this should immediately make you turn your back on a shop.
They seem to cut all contact after you work with them.
A conjurer should be keeping tabs on all of the spirits theyve adopted out, and checking up on them every once in a while. If they stop contacting and seem to have forgotten about you and your companion, they are likely untrustworthy.
The spirits all seem to mimic the shop owner and lack emotional, personality, and/or historical depth.
If you notice this, the conjurer is likely not experienced enough to know the difference between a thoughtform and a true spirit. Odds are they have adopted out constructs to many people. While a thought form is not inherently bad, if you are looking for a spirit companion, a thought form, especially a bad one, will provide almost nothing akin to a true spiritual companion.
Spirits theyve adopted out seem like a statistic to them, or they seem to only care about listing and adopting out multiple spirits at a time.
Again, rather self explanatory, but this is still important to note. A spirit adoption centre or shop should never have a quota that they feel they need to fulfill. If they do, and they say its due to the surplus of spirits waiting, see the second bullet point. This raises huge questions and concerns about how the entities are being treated in their hands.
If you plan to adopt or meet a spirit through a spirit shop, keep your eyes out for the red flags listed above.
