Exorcism On The Rise. Good Or Bad?
by Gordon • • Magic, News • 18 Comments
Send to Kindle
Taken in the chapel on Saint Michael's Mount in Cornwall. Powerful place, that.
Apparently exorcisms are on the rise. And there is a worldwide exorcist shortage.
This seems an unusual piece of news for the developed world in the twenty first century.
At first glance, exorcism -along with no sex before marriage, literal creationism and the use of stoning to dish out punishment for minor civic infractions- belongs in the primitive monotheistic practices that most enlightened believers in the post-Dawkins world shamefully consign to the attic of history.
But before we all snort derisively and put it down to the fact that “there are still a lot of stupid people in the world”, perhaps we might ask exactly why exorcisms are on the rise.
The developed world is currently undergoing the most acute economic disruption in more than a hundred years.
- Economic instability directly correlates with a rise in mental illness: People lose their jobs, families are put under strain, core components of workers’ identities are removed. Generalised anxiety disorder and insomnia spike sharply. This particular combination regularly leads to auditory and visual hallucination.
- Economic instability unfortunately correlates with a reduction in medical and social services: This particularly affects ‘soft’ services like counselling groups, depression hotlines, etc. Really anything that doesn’t immediately impact the number of nurses you will find in an emergency room. (In fact it does impact it, sadly just not in a way that you can put into some spreadsheet in a remote government department.) For the UK at least, you will feel this more if you live in a ‘safe’ electoral area that the Coalition is unlikely to ever win. Here’s a black hat life hack for you: If you actually want your garbage collected in the coming year, move to a contested electoral area/swing constituency.
Back to exorcism. If we consider exorcism an act of magic -which it undoubtedly is- then it should fall into the 95:5 ratio: Magic is overwhelmingly an act of psychology… Except for those times when it isn’t. (I’m going to tighten this definition up eventually but you all know what I mean.)
So from a socioeconomic perspective, an increasing need for exorcists is an expression of psychological health needs from people who are much more likely to have been marginalised by economic disruption.
And you know what? I don’t actually mind that much. Surely some help is better than none. If you take a longer view, prior to the whole idea of mental health, it was the exorcists, the cunning folk and the shamans who took care of this anyway.
The only reason there should be cause for concern would be if these exorcists came in swinging censers and thumping Bibles over a case of mild depression that is best treated by a change in diet and just talking to someone. But it doesn’t appear that’s happening at all.
This from the article above:
A team does discernment. “I have a physician, a clinical psychologist and a psychiatrist, all of whom are practicing Catholics,” says Thomas. “Out of a hundred I exorcise five.” He says the exorcist is the ultimate skeptic. “I never assume when someone says ‘I need an exorcism’ that they do.”
(Sidebar: Anybody notice the ratio? 95:5. Or 19:1 if you want to be a massive nerd about it.)
The black hat life hack here is obvious: If you need to speak to a psychologist and can’t find/afford one then just call an exorcist. This is the world we live in now.
The exorcism rainbow
Thinking about it, the difference between a full-on Hollywood exorcism and your auric cleansing is a matter of degrees.
It is a continuum -or more homosexually- a rainbow that has the light dissolution of yesterday’s mental detritus at one end and an acute case of transdimensional dissociative identity disorder at the other.
These days it is quite rare for me to actually use a magic circle unless I am in the mood for it. As Jason regularly points out, it’s a minority, Western-European practice that really only took off in the late Renaissance among the ceremonial bourgeoisie. It’s practical application is comparatively rare on a global level.
And Peter J Carroll points out in his completely fucking amazing new book that, in his experience, magic circles afford little protection, anyway. (He recommends counter spells as the thing that works with the most regularity. In my mind that would include charms you wear/carry… Which have been the most effective for me.)
That being said, not using a magic circle doesn’t mean I completely avoid magically washing myself. (Not a euphemism but could so easily be one.)
Here are two really lazy examples:
Two lazy cleanses
1. Sea salt
I can’t believe how simple this one is and I am frankly ashamed of the way I came to possess it. This doesn’t go any further than you and me but mother and I were in Doreen Virtue’s first ever graduating class of Angel Intuitives. (There’s a certificate and everything.)
On the first day she said you should take a plastic cup with a little sea salt in it with you in the shower, hold it under the showerhead to get warm water in and then pour it over yourself. This will remove psychic debris from your energy field.
At the time I was avoiding all use of salt in my magic as per the rules of my much more… umm…. “summony” practices at the time.
Anyway so the next morning I tried it and it was like pouring warm water over an iced windscreen (which you should never do but you can picture the effect). You can also bilocate and dunk your energy body in the sea -mom prefers this method apparently.
Try it. I use Cornish Sea Salt which comes from the same location as an Iron Age coastal salt mine. I adore the historical continuity of it. Consider it endorsed. Just charge with white light. (Experiments with Necton, Cornish God of The Sea are ongoing. I think I prefer showering alone, though. Or maybe he does. Whatever, sometimes it’s weird.)
2. Haydn
Download and play Haydn’s Quartet Opus 62 in C Major (known as “Emperor”). Light some pleasant-smelling, store-bought incense. Sit comfortably and just breath in through your nose and out through your mouth, focusing on the breath as you go.
You can match the incense to some kind of cleansing/protective herb if you want but I prefer to go with an all-round ‘higher vibration’ product like sandalwood or frankincense -this is likely because I have an oversupply I’m looking to get through.
It doesn’t really matter. The whole point is not to visualise ‘too hard’ and to sit for the whole movement (just under ten minutes). It’s basically meditation with some auditory and olfactory white noise but it seems to have a really potent cleansing effect.
Changing the rhyme
There you have it. In this economically difficult era, it might be time to amend the rhyme about keeping away doctors (which I suspect was probably coined by the apple industry).
“A small cup of Cornish sea salt a day keeps the exorcist away.”
Granted, it’s not quite as good. But ruining rhyming wives’ tales is just something else we can blame the banks for.
The salt cleansing show is one of my favorite methods! I came to it from a shorten version of hoodoo baths. I usually had a bit of condition oil that is applicable, such as van van oil.
If I really want some extra punch, I do the full bath rite. But a little salt and drop of oil is very effective for day to day “gunk” that accumulates from just living life.
Jay´s last [type] ..Timing is powerful stuff
I am 100% eager to read your expansion of this. Genius.
“95:5 ratio: Magic is overwhelmingly an act of psychology… Except for those times when it isn’t.”
@Shane I’ll take that on board. The post will happen. But in a reduced way:
Like the amazing Mr DuQuette, I’m of the “it’s all in your head” camp. The trouble is I haven’t quite squared this with some of the frankly spectacular effects you can get -spectacular yet rare effects.
Hence: It’s all in your head except for when books fly off shelves and plates hurtle across the room.
In your head or not, magic works. From my (a chaos) perspective, I’m not really bothered where we draw the line between psychology/enchantment.
Fun personal fact: It’s taken me fifteen years to come round to this realisation because on a personal level I much prefer the -shall we say- “Harry Potter theme park” way of seeing magic. As usual, LMD was right all along.
“95:5 ratio: Magic is overwhelmingly an act of psychology… Except for those times when it isn’t.”
That is rather nice and pragmatic definition, I think.
Magic is a confusing word. People associate it often with just clearly supernatural feats – it has to be either supernatural or it is completely worthless endeavour. But I tend to think that there is certain ambiguity connected to magic. Yeah, often it changes the mind of that practitioner, but then again, weird sh*t happens occasionally, and even changing one’s mind has often huge effect to life of the practitioner.
Kündröl Namchuk´s last [type] ..Celebration and appreciation
If you’re at the point of maybe calling that exorcist in for real, you can try a full “emotional reboot” bath (from Draja Mickaharic):
In a warm bath, dissolve a POUND each of sea salt and baking soda. Soak well. Go sleep about 10 hours but at least 8. (DM says get professional help in the morning. Almost no one actually will).
I have used this exactly once and it works as advertised.
Freeman Presson´s last [type] ..Review in Winter 2010 Eternal Haunted Summer
Thanks for the tips. I recently had reason to do a more thorough banishing and cleansing of my house. L’Occitane’s Verbena Home Perfume was surprisingly effective. Much more so than the white sage mist I’ve used in the past. http://usa.loccitane.com/FO/verbena-home-perfume.htm
The unidentified things that I kept seeing flitting through the periphery of my vision disappeared, I found it much easier to concentrate and there was a new sense of quiet. Another benefit was that I now go to bed on time and don’t find it nearly as hard as it used to be to peel myself off the couch and get going in the morning.
I’m going to try the sea salt too. Is it important that it’s sea salt rather than salt from terrestrial mines?
Apel Mjausson´s last [type] ..Authenticity of Magickal Ingredients
@Apel definitely important. Don’t ask me why. I have actually tried with both. Something to do with the ocean and cleansing.
As for L’Occitane, I hear you. About five years back -when I was still bringing strangers back to my room and trying to impress them- I bought a ‘room spray’, the use of which correlated with some amazing clairvoyant dreams.
I checked the ingredients and they were a perfect Culpeper match. Weird, huh?
You are effing splendid! I mean it.
The Wizardess´s last [type] ..Tapping the Long Tale
Salt is my one ‘must have’. I use sea salt but I’ve been known to just grab the table salt too. And for special occasions (i.e. when I’m in the mood to get my feet wet) I collect sea water at our local beach.
Lyn´s last [type] ..Witchfinder General Trail
Of course the need for an exorcist goes beyond socio-economic reasons. There are valid cases of possession and spiritual atttacks where an exorcist intervenes and sets things aright.
Now, I personally don’t fall into the camp of “its all in your head” and view magic as more than a form of alternative psychology. Perhaps, this skews my view of things a bit, but there are cases where I’ve witnessed a real, hair-raising, cold-sweat producing possession and the effects of the exorcism on the possessed.
However, from a structural-functionalist point of view the correlation between exorcism and socio-enconomic stain can certainly be seen. Key being “correlation.”
ConjureMan Ali´s last [type] ..Hoodoo on YouTube
Pingback: Summoning A Ghost The Old Fashioned Way
Excellent post.
I’m not as far in to the “it’s all in your head” camp as you are and see magic as more than just psychology with some unexplained happenings bit. However, my theory on why there is a rise in the need for exorcists is twofold. Firstly the decline in properly trained exorcists such as priests, shamans, wonder workers, etc.
Secondly it’s my belief that the evolving psychological techniques used in media such as advertising is possibly leaving people unconsciously more open to spiritual encounters. Some of these encounters take the form of unwanted spirit possession.
I don’t view this as being part of any conspiracy; but rather as an unintended consequence of advances in psychology being used in media overlapping with what was previously in the realm of occultists.
If I may, even if it is not all in *my* mind, it is certainly all in the One Mind.
LMD was precisely who I thought of when I read your quote.
LMD is a fan of it’s all in your head. He goes on to say you just don’t realize how big your head is, before going into the Hermetic reasons why all is one mind. I’m not all in on that camp. I am however, an 80/20 kind of guy. I harbor a very healthy sense of skepticism. So, I’m with you on mostly psychology …except for the times when the shaman gives asshat tourist the stinkeye, and the tourist promptly evacuates his bowels to his dire end. Or maybe the lights flicker a bit.
Now, the more important question. Why is Pope Pete’s new edition that awesome?
Yes, please. How about a review of that PJC book? I already ordered it on your recommendation, but would love to hear your take on it.
Wind´s last [type] ..Mystical Musings on my Birthday
@Wind it’s coming. There’s quite a bit to say.
Pingback: Carpentry, Chaos and Carroll :
keep in mind that the the church holds different and varying opinion on why they should perform an exorcism. They believe anything and everything is evil if in manifests in the body, and they have been using less practical and more paranormal approaches than in the past
Brett´s last [type] ..Battle of Good and Evil