Elements of Pagan Exorcism
Just Whose Demon Is That, Anyway?
With Spelcastor@aol.com
at Florida Pagan Gathering - November 3, 2007

The use of term exorcism is not confined to our Christian
neighbors. The Greek origins are assembled from fragments meaning
"to bind by oath," "out of"," and "cause to swear." A more recent
1382 French reference means "one who drives out evil spirits."

This process of exorcism can also be found within Judaism, Islam,
and the earlier religions embraced by us Pagan. Do note that the
more enlightened now test that they are dealing with fey and not
mental or physical illness.

Whatever our path, the three types of supernatural beings that we
deal with in our pantheons fall into three group: The deities, the
nature spirits, and the ancestors.

My path is Celtic. My upbringing was Christian, specifically, a
moderate group that enjoys tradition, ceremony, robes and candles.
The word exorcism is most popular within Christian traditions.
Pagans are more inclined to call it banishing or binding. More
about that later.

As for the deities, perhaps you have one or many. Perhaps you have
none. Deities are something I just can't mess with. They do their
own thing and perhaps they allow me to prosper.

The nature spirits have many names. For some, they are the fay, genies,
fairies or elves. Perhaps some are demons or trolls. These spirits,
lesser deities, or critters, might be connected to a particular
place or thing. Think of the spirits of a field or a forest. Think
of the spirits of a river filled with rapids, and you want to get
through them in a kayak. As was said in the movie Deliverance, "You
don't beat the River. You may get down the River, but you don't
beat the River."

Some of these lesser deities are everywhere. Others are local and
maybe quite personal. Some such possessions might take the form of
an addiction or dependency.

As for ancestors, I have heard it said that we touch seven
generations: our own, three back and three forward. Three back
would extend back to my great grandfather, my father's grand
father.

Here is a picture of my father's father. There was a portrait of
his father resting on the mantle in the home where I grew up. A
mantle is the frame around the fire place and can be recognized as
a family altar. Poppa was second engineer on a Confederate blockade
runner out of Charleston, South Carolina. He was captured along
with the ship April 25, 1862.

Poppa and the other officers were taken to England for trial. They
were let off in a plea bargain made with Abraham Lincoln. The
Confederacy and the Union would not hang each other's privateers.
Poppa's portrait rested on our mantle. "If the Yanks could not hang
him, the family won't either."

This photo I'm passing around is his son, my grandfather, known as
"Father," probably at his wedding in 1900. He was a shy and very
formal man. He lived in the shadow of his father who was
flamboyant, a war hero, and who founded the family business. Father
was wealthy, well connected in Charleston society, yet he still
lived in this shadow of his father. He did not marry until two
years after Poppa had died.

My father was born eight years later. Although he never met Poppa,
he, too, grew up in Poppa's shadow. My father had a reverence for
the old times and places. He too may have felt that he was not
quite as good as Poppa. And I was born into this world. The ghost
of Poppa touched me. I never even met Father, And I have my own
self-doubts. I look at my brother and sister's children, now grown.
They are the next generation and outside of the reach of Poppa's
ghost.

I grew up in a world where all the Confederate heroes were giants.
Look at the surviving World War II veterans. They see themselves as
giants and offer less than full respect to the veterans of Korea,
Vietnam or the Gulf Wars. Same thing.

I read the Celtic legends and of the multiple invasions of Ireland.
I read how the earlier peoples were giants. I look at lists of
Celtic Deities and some of them clearly were once ancestors. Such
ancestors can morph into nature spirits. Some can blend into
descriptions of the Gods.

Our topic is Exorcism, but my first quest was, "Just whose demon is
it anyway?" That is why I explored choices in what we might be
dealing with.

I once has a friend who would curse God. He rode a bike and we knew
him as the Red Byron. Once he was racing through the rain to a draw
bridge that was about to open. He didn't make it. He swerved to a
stop as the bridge opened. He raised his angry fist to the heavens
and shouted, "F___ you God."  Just then his bike flipped over. I
see the Red Byron's curse as a prayer, and a prayer that was
answered. He was OK; but me, I don't mess with deity. I might get
a lightening bolt up my ass. Have you ever seen what lighten does?
It's so arbitrary. It misses one thing and obliterates the next.
That's why lightening is called an act of God. I don't mess with
Deity.

As we sit here, there just might be a nature spirit evolved from
the Calusa Indians. This guys hangs out around that wizened tree
over there. After the Spanish wiped out his family, he was the one
that mixed the poison that went on the arrow that nailed Ponce De
Leon. He now hangs out around here in that tree and continues to
hold a grudge.

Personal fay or demons are different. They live in the emotions,
not the intellect.  One cannot think one's way past them. Such
lesser spirits can lurk in the shadows and steer our actions.

I approach a choice and then decide, "Maybe not." I can offer any
excuse, but what prompted my decision?

We are in a culture that worships the intellect and ignores what
lies beneath. Our great minds are a very recent product of
evolution. They are pasted upon that which the other mammals and
reptiles already had.

We cannot think our way past these fay or demons. There are stories
of bargaining with them, cutting a deal, or driving them off.

That brings up a question? Is the Christian devil a god or a nature
spirit?

So now you have the line-up: deities, spirits, ancestors, and there
is morphing going on between them. Then there is psychologist Carl
Jung telling us about the collective unconscious. Here lurk
archetypes of parents that look like deities (Good Daddy or Bad
Daddy) and memories carried through evolution. Perhaps these are
memories of reptiles and monsters.

But just whose demon is it anyway? When I choose to fight the Fay
of the River, this spirit belongs to the river and I chose to be
there. When I choose to "save" an alcoholic friend, it's her demon
and I choose to be there.

I once offered to help a lady who was could be mistaken as an exit
ramp from the astral plane. All sorts of spirit thingies where
running through her house. It reminded me of the Kohr bathroom
fixture commercial. I did my bugga-bugga to get these guys to go
somewhere else. Problem was that the lady kept inviting them back.

Remember the movie, the Exorcist? Whose demon was that possessing
Linda Blair? Remember, she could rotate her head all the way
around. This one became the priest's demon. He was fighting
something that looked like it was in her, but it was really
possessing him.

So we see enough to ask, Just whose demon is this? If it is
connected to a place, that is one thing. When it is connected to a
person, wonder, is this person cooperating?

Is this a nature spirit or something personal? If we are dealing
with a nature spirit like that Indian over there, don't try
invoking him in Spanish. It just makes him more angry. And, for
sure, don't approach him while wearing a metal helmet.

Let's say it's your personal demon. It is more profitable to work
on oneself than anybody else.

The first step with fay or demons is to name them. When they lurk
about in the shadows, they can steer our actions. You must name
them in order to see them.

The second step is to confront them by name. There you go again.

Then there is the choice of binding or banishing.

To bind a pesky little demon is like wrapping him in duct tape and
pasting him on the wall. He can no longer do mischief, and you know
right where he is. You can even say that you are not harming the
critter. However, he won't stay bound forever, but this might be
enough time to serve your purpose.

The other choice is to banish the demon. You drive him away, toss
him into a flaming pit, or flush him down your toilet. Banishing
can work, but the problem with demons is that they do tend to come
back. And when you banish them, you no longer know where they are.

We each have our own personal demons. A therapist one explained to
his group, "We meet here, sit in a circle, and each of us tossed a
sack of our demons into the center. And when we get up to leave,
our own sack will follow us home."

So we have gotten as far in theory as to banish them. So how do we
do this?

So whose demon is in anyway? 

Door Number One: If the Goddess is out to get you, too bad. So sad.
You might discover a way to make amends or to appease her, but,
otherwise, you are Wiley E. Coyote, and life's not going to get any
better.

Door Number Two: If it's somebody else's demon, like that of an
addict, a wacko, or someone who has joined a cult, maybe you can
educate them. But it is still their choice to fight the demon or
not.

Door Number Three: If it's a free floating critter, like fairies
hiding you car keys or trolls trampling upon your garden, maybe you
can work a deal with them.

Door Number Four: If it's your personal demon, gather resources and
support, and let the battle begin.

We see such critters in both the Craft and Christendom. The
symptoms and actions look very similar. Good luck in convincing a
person on one path that there's is a critter from the other.

So how shall we perform this exorcism? We can cast a circle.
Sometimes a Circle is to keep the energy in. Sometimes a Circle
cast with a Circle to keep something out. Perhaps we need
protection from what we are calling. Think of this as a spiritual
condom.

As for calling quarters and other energies, return to the source of
your strength. What can you conjure from the four directions that
would be helpful? You might conjure other critters or even
ancestors.

But for exorcism, you don't just need protection, you need to face
the demon. First you need to name it. With it's name, you can drag
it from the shadows.

Once upon a time, I was in a scream therapy group. We would take
turns selecting a meaningful phrase and then shout it over and
over.  Say I was worrying about the influence of my Great
Grandfather, I could shout some phrase like, "I'm OK, too!" As I
did this over and over and thinking of Poppa, the emotions and
fears would rise within me. I could conjure this emotion up strong
enough so that I could confront it and push past it.

Does this sound strange? Some people in the midst of a life crisis
choose to go sky diving and conjure a similar fear. Emotions touch
far deeper into the, shall we say, soul than thoughts. Emotions are
best to let pass instead of blocking or bottling them.

But we don't have to take on this demon alone. You get your
spiritual nurturing somewhere, don't you? We can reach for support
by returning to the center of our strength. We are back to the Four
Doors. Do you have a deity you can call upon? How about a friend
and the energy she brings with her. How about some of those
critters with which you have made peace. There is strength in
reconnecting with ancestors. What will you blend into your call of
your elementals.

In the movie Practical Magick, there is a beautiful scene in which
the witches and ladies of the town gather to cast out a demon ex-
lover from one of their friends. They call upon the strength of
their relationships and upon ancestors several generations back.
It's a great visual.

We passed over a key word, trigger. Triggers are like those on a
gun. With little effort, they can release lot's of energy. A
trigger can be developed to use as a defense. When you are raising
all this energy, think of a key phrase to associate with it. The
next time you say the phrase, you will feel the energy return.

The steps of an exorcism are 1) to center, 2) to cleanse, 3) to
invite support, 4) to name the target to be exorcised, and 5) to
command it to do your bidding.

I did some research online. The Peoples of the Book, our Jewish,
Christian, Islamic neighbors, draw upon their sacred texts and
prayers. They stay within their traditions. I wouldn't hold up a
cross to challenge a Jewish vampire.

As a Pagan, I would draw upon the incantations that are meaningful
along my path. Some of them might be secret, or or drawn from my 
inner court. Just like other spells, the more personal I can make 
this, the better it will work. The more I know about the fey I am 
dealing with, the more likely I will succeed. Here follows a 
A Sample Exorcism.