In this post I would like to address a subject I feel everyone using a spirit board or even practicing magic needs to be educated about, that is spirit obsession. Obsession is when a spirit, usually but not always a husk attaches itself to a person, object, or place.
I say, they are usually a husk because this is the kind of entity that is most often doing it. So now I need to give a definition of what I call a husk. First, I must point out that what I tell you here is from my own experiences and what I have learned in all my years of trafficking with the other side. If Jerome and I were alive during the witch trials, we would have been found guilty without question. But the spirits talk to us about the human soul being made up of parts. Some are part of who you are, and you carry these from life to life, it is what the Fool in the Tarot deck carries in his bag.
But other parts are temporary, the sphinxes pulling the Chariot. And these exist in a positive and negative form, think of them as an angel and a devil on each shoulder, the Sumerians did. They are the two parts of the ego, the part that wants to be an angel in people’s eyes and helps others and the part that wants to be a devil and dominate them. We tend to see the angel as good and the devil as bad, but they are both incomplete and if left alone would lead us to destruction. Trying to be too passive will only make you the pray for others and trying to be too dominating will make you a predator that others will avoid. We need them both and to use them at the right time. Like the Charioteer we need to keep to the middle while these parts of our ego pull to the extremes.
The thing to remember about these shells is that they are a mask made up over a lifetime to protect the inner self which is vulnerable. That is why the Chariot Card is related to the sign of Cancer. We need them, when we are alive because, like it or not, there are bad things other people do and this false image we project out to the world help us to live with others.
But when we die, we need it no more, just as when you are born you no longer need the placenta. So, it is cast aside. It often stays close to the body because it is the ego that thinks the body is a part of us. There is a line in Romeo and Juliet about how people have noticed these things and that they return to the body at a particular time, we have found it to be at 3:33 am by the way.
Were bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
Lies festering in his shroud; where, as they say,
At some hours in the night spirits resort
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
This entity is not so much a spirit, but the husk of an ego thrown off at death and starting to divide into the two parts that make it up. Because it is made by the person’s awareness of themselves it will eventually fade away. But the ego thinks it is the person and now tries hard as it can to find someone or something to convince itself it is real. If it can remember an object or place, then it often retunes to it when it is away from the body. Therefore, some spirits haunt places or objects and we call it spirit obsession. But if someone is willing to talk to it than that is enough to hold its memory of itself together.
You can usually spot these spirits by the way they behave on the board. They will keep you talking and tell you everything they think you want to hear just so you will talk to them. They will often tell you that there is something very important that only you can do. Remember these things are pure ego and they will try to use yours to attach to you.
When you get one the best thing to do is stop talking to it immediately. Do not let it attach, if it does find a ritual to get rid of it. You can tell, if one is attached to someone because the inflicted person will get angry for no reason, they may suffer panic attacks and over time may lose hair and gain weight without a cause. These things feed off the aura and as it becomes damaged the chakras become unbalanced causing many physical side effects.
The Veve of Legba was put on the board to keep these things out. He is the gatekeeper to the other side so hopefully you will not get one of these, but they can still get through at times. One thing to keep in mind is that spirits of this kind are more dense and thus closer to our world. They will remember their lives and how to read and write so they will use the alphabet to communicate with you. The higher part of a spirit is more likely to have evolved beyond written language and will probably communicate using the Cave Runes.
As practitioners of magic, it is our place to help keep the balance between the worlds, but I will address this in a later post. For now, we need to learn what we are dealing with, and I hope this helps.
Blessed Be
