Communication is probably the second most popular thing I get asked about. And, generally speaking, probably the biggest thing that Spirit Keepers struggle with on a daily basis.
"I can't hear my spirits" is something that I hear regularly. Generally with a varying degree of panic or despondence from the person saying to me.
"How can I hear my spirits?" Is a question that's often impossible to answer definitively from a practitioner. Mostly because there are far more factors at play than anyone may realize.
EVERYTHING in life affects our abilitiy to see/hear spirits, from genetics - which you can do nothing about - to diet, to stress levels, to how much sleep you've had, to circumstance, to environment... And the spirits themselves... There is no sure fire, always going to work, bottom line on how to hear your spirits.
But what I don't understand is why everyone feels they have to hear them, otherwise they can't communicate. This is so far from the truth...
I know that hearing your spirits and seeing them (as much as you can possibly see a non-corporeal being) is considered the Holy Grail in a spirit keepers life. THAT is validation that you're 'good' at spirit keeping. Often people think if they can do this then they can conjure and bind spirits themselves (it's not that simple in case you do think it's true).
But if that's what you focus on then you are missing out so much on what else is out there that your spirits can do.
Seeing/Hearing your spirits is considered to be the biggest and best way of communication because that's how humans communicate. YOU communicate that way, therefore you place heavy emphasis on that form of communication. That's all it is. It's the most important to the bulk of people keeping spirits because that's YOUR primary means of communication. It's important because it's what you know.
Spirits can do so much more than that. Spirits DO do so much more than that, but if you're not open to it and looking for it, focused solely on seeing them or hearing them, you're going to miss out. I don't think I need to tell you how powerful and magickal your spirits are, right? We all know they are. ;) So just imagine what they can do with those talents and abilities. Beings now comprised entirely of energy, with the entire universe of knowledge at their disposal are not simply going to talk and leave it at that. Some of them can't... Sometimes spirits lose the desire or even the ability to speak in their energy form. It's just the way it is. But that doesn't mean they can't communicate.
Here's an example that just happened to me yesterday... I was wandering through a thrift store, not really looking for anything in particular. My mind was occupied more on thinking about a spirit in my keep. One that I just seem to be meshing with in a really surprising way that doesn't generally happen with me. As I smiled and thought about them, my eyes were drawn down and to the left to see this:

Now... Could be coincidence. I was looking at books, my eyes likely would have seen this book regardless. But the timing? The fact that of all the books, all of them neatly shelved, no others left out in the open, THIS book is the one sitting on top while I was thinking about that spirit? That says otherwise.
This is communication, plain and simple. This is a message, this is them speaking to me. This is them chiming in their two cents on the subject I was pondering. Think about all the things that my spirit would have had to have line up in order for that to happen. Someone would have had to take that book out and leave it there. I would have had to be in the store before it got put away again. I had to be convinced to go INTO the store, because I hadn't been planning on it, I decided spur of the moment to go inside. I would have had to be thinking what I was at just the right moment as I went over to the corner where that book was so that when they drew my attention down, the book was there, the message clear. Amazing. Spirits are powerful in ways we can only imagine. They see so far ahead of us, they know how to line things up perfectly.
Things like this happen all the time, we just have to be aware of them. We just have to be open to them.
Have you ever been listening to the radio and the next song that comes on seemed to fit with exactly what you needed to hear or matched your mood perfectly? Or while the radio is on but you're not really listening, but you suddenly focus your attention on it just in time to hear a line of a song that REALLY seems to speak to you? You would normally just think it was coincidence but I would be willing to bet it wasn't.
Or what about when you notice repeating number sequences? Have you had that happen where for days you'll see (for example) 4:36 on the clock or 436 in other places? Stop and take note. Look up what those numbers mean (my favourite place to look up numbers is at the bottom of this post).
Or repeating themes like seeing rainbows everywhere or seeing the same animals all the time. (How many times do you have to randomly see picture of an armadillo before you think to go and look up what armadillos mean?)
Phantom scents. Warm patches. Cold patches. Sudden flush in the face. Deja Vu. All of these sorts of things and SO much more are methods of communication that even if they're not completely overlooked, are often downgraded as lesser forms of communication.
They really aren't. They are incredibly powerful, and honestly far more weighty to me than spoken words.
There are spirits in my keep that I have never seen or spoken a word to. Either because they don't want to or they can't. Either way, it's never made me feel like we don't work together, nor has it made me think I suck as a spirit keeper or a practitioner.
Not all spirits will speak in words. Not all people will be able to hear them if they do. That doesn't make you bad at spirit keeping, it doesn't mean your spirits don't like you or don't want to talk to you. It means you have an opportunity to find out what they might be doing instead to communicate.
There's lots of tools you can use in communication, but honestly you don't need them. Sure, I know that people like to use them and want to use them and I don't discourage that, but your spirits know what they're doing and they can be pretty intense with getting the point across in a timely way. You just need to be open and watching for it.
It takes practice. It takes dedication to start seeing things differently and realizing the 'coincidences' are not really coincidences at all. But that's what this whole path is about right? Opening your mind, being ready for new things, following a path and learning so much.
If you place weighted importance on human communication and that's all that matters, then you're robbing yourself of some pretty incredible experiences.
You know how to communicate like a human already. Why not learn to communicate like a spirit instead? (My favourite place to look up number meanings is here-
It goes from 0 to 3299 and offers a great amount of insight into each one. Yep, it does say that these are 'the angels' talking to you, but it's a universal language, spirits use the same round up. ;) )