Communion
Many witches establish relationships with spirits and deities whose veneration is well-established or formalised (even if it is still a developing reconstruction of lost practices). This is a page for those who don’t have a tradition of communion to initiate in, and for those curious about communing with spirits in general.
APPROACH
Many witches approach magick as a means to obtain their desires. That’s neither praiseworthy nor shameful, but one should always treat others, whether those are fleeting acquaintances or close colleagues, with the respect and consideration one wants for oneself. It is a spoiled teenager which assumes that anyone they approach—especially exigently or as a command—will have the time, energy, resources, or inclination to give them what they want.
No, you don’t want to buy a Cutco knife. Yes you’re quite sure you’re content with the knives you have. Yes, the performance isn’t bad. The demonstration’s nice and it’s even proven their point but—
Telemarketers, uninvited salespeople, spam. It’s not an enviable profession, and very few welcome their company. Fewer still seek it. Most souls simply want to get on with their day, attend to their affairs, spend time on the activities of genuine importance to them, with others whose company gives them joy. It is for this reason that proper solicitation involves ritual and is carried out through specific channels and avenues—such benefits the spirit in convenience, and demonstrates a genuine appreciation of their time and energies.
One entering the world of metaphysical business-making must be prepared to present respectable offers from the outset. A serious deal-maker will attract like serious deal-makers, and cheapskates or beggars will be ignored at best, or keelhauled at worst. Carriage and presentation are equally as important as the offer; lustration is a typical requirement. What are the sought services worth? Smaller services command lesser prices, naturally, and greater services will demand greater prices in return, and possibly a whole series of transactions with more than one party or a collective company. The supplicant may have to convince a trusted subordinate to grant them access to a sought-after higher deity, or pay another to carry out a favour wished for by the entity they seek to curry favour with.
Different parties favour different forms of compensation. Libation is a classic votive, but others may prefer song, writing, art, sex, sexual denial, fasting, treasure, money (joss paper or actual money), flowers, animal or entrail sacrifices, self-mutilation, favourite stones, and so on. The supplicant should research to find who is best suited not only to meet their wishes, but also in regards to what they ask for in return. Some spirits are open to long-term arrangements, some may accept short-term arrangements or transactions only, and so on. If after one’s best efforts one is still unsure what the spirit would like or accept, one should try asking them, another spirit closely associated with them, or a practitioner who has already worked with them.
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RELATIONSHIPS
Everything from one-night stands to life-long communion is possible. Some desire exclusive relationships (most famously as monotheism) whilst others freely befriend those with relationships to other spirits. Some delight in spontaneity and casual meetings, whilst others prefer scheduled or formalised veneration. There may be special days, seasons, or tides that the spirit wishes to celebrate.
Whatever kind of communion one enters: change, ebb, and flow is part of life and of any relation. The spirit one communes with may not be the exact same entity a year later, and their energy may ebb, flow, and alter with the passing seasons.
Not all exchanges have to be so transactional. Sometimes one simply wishes for the good company of one who shares the same joys, to bide the time happily and together partake in the pleasures and little happinesses that this world has to offer. It is much easier to find an individual looking for a fun relationship than it is to find an angel investor. (On that note, it is possible to enter a relationship as a “fun sugar baby” to a “sugar deity”, but that’s quite rare, and the sugar baby must be very attractive, exciting, and attentive to their SD. One might be safer and more successful in pursuing a mortal POT rather than a supernatural one.)
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LOCALS
Spirits are our neighbours; they’re already here. One doesn’t need a grimoire—a practical phonebook for the gods—to begin supernatural contact unless one is seeking a specific entity within said tome.
Many people unknowingly cohabitate with spirits in their homes. These are not the grand deities of certain mythic traditions, but it is the smaller, everyday connections of existence that make up the stuff of life. Happy introductions to the locals will engender happy introductions in kind, and one may find oneself a part of a much larger family than previously aware of. Common “mundane” and “lesser” spirits are those of trees, landmarks, well-used tools, other household objects, and deceased loved ones and ancestors.
It is possible to consciously construct or cultivate a separate aspect, spirit, consciousness, or systemmate. (Which term applies is up to the individual. My family likes the terms “crewmate” or “gangster”. “Alter” and “split personality” are generally used by those who wish to pathologise plurality.) Some refer to and make use of esoteric means. Some cite a hereditary, cultural, or family tradition. Some simply start writing, painting, singing, and talking to their burgeoning companion.
A concerted effort to incubate, brood, or generate another of relative maturity and distinct character, as opposed to a gradual nurturing, is both physically and mentally exhausting. Mental and physical fatigue are to be expected, and one may be severely weakened if they overtax themselves.
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LODGINGS FOR SPIRITS
In addition to the well-known altars and temples, items, landmarks, and even living beings such as animals or people may serve as fleeting or long-term lodgings for spirits. The spirits of certain objects may move to new vessel, particularly when new parts or added to the old object as part of repairs or modifications. Such is the case for well-worn tools, arms, armour, and expanded bridges and buildings. Purification rituals should be held to welcome the spirit to its new home.
Certain spirits will never find themselves in certain spaces. For example, the spirit of a kris or sabre will not migrate to a sauna, and the spirit of a besom will not go into a hearth. It may be possible, though with great difficulty, to get the spirit of a certain object to move from its intact vessel into a like object, e.g. the spirit of an old besom into a new besom. Such displacements can be distressing or even traumatic, and near-impossible if the other object already has an inhabiting spirit. A sort of couple’s counselling and perhaps on-going therapy will be needed for such new living arrangements, if it is even possible for the two spirits to agree to cohabit or merge.
On the other hand, some spirits may get along fantastically with each other and even invite the other to move in. This is especially common for larger, holier dwellings, such as ancient trees, expansive gardens, well-cared-for temples, and great bodies of water, which often house multiple spirits who may or may not merge into a collective. If several close objects seem particularly quiet, their spirits may be out playing together.
Lastly, it is possible to link, connect, tie, or otherwise associate some spirits with an object. This may be done to augment their characters—linking a spirit to a helm will make them sturdier, but also more stubborn—or to support relations by making communication more accessible or convenient, e.g. consecrating a pendant one wears to a specific deity. Ideally these are objects that the spirit already has an affinity to, e.g. a widow’s wedding ring to their departed spouse.
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POSSESSION, OR FRONTING
It is possible to share one’s meatmobile with others. For “me”—I’m not actually native to this body, I came from without!—it has always come easy: this body began with three inhabitants who have been sharing the controls since they were children, and it is seamless or near seamless for all of us, so I cannot give much advice for preparation. Others may require ritual preparation, but that has never been a requirement for us.
One may force another to take control of the body. For fun, Jin and Cocoa (one of the first three) introduced a friend to carnitas by literally kicking him in the back into the “cockpit”. His first words upon being injected were, “What the fuck!” He loves carnitas now.
Being in control of a body that isn’t one’s own is a potentially disorienting experience. Spirits who don’t require to breathe, for example, will have to be reminded to breathe before it becomes automatic. Others may feel hobbled by a lack of limbs, or amused by a new stature, or distinctly discomforted by gender or species dysphoria, particularly if they claim a sort of personal identification with or ownership of the body. Those who view themselves as “renting a car” rather than “owning” it may find it amusing, rather than distressing to have these parts.
A spirit’s first possession may last only a few minutes—they have not yet built up the stamina to retain control of the body for longer. Practice builds endurance, but it is unwise to force oneself beyond one’s strength to maintain a presence in the front. This invites physical exhaustion in the form of chest pain, brain fog, fatigue, nerve pain, and other symptoms. A merging or fusion of spirits, whether temporary or long-term, is its own individual entity and will need to build up their own fronting stamina with practice as the body acclimates to this new, novel configuration.
If one hasn’t fronted in a very long time, they may be struck by physical changes in the body since they last fronted. One of the persons who has been part of this system since birth had stopped fronting around the body’s 13th year, then returned to the front around the body's 22nd year. He was bedbound for a solid fifteen minutes unable to move, because the body was so heavy compared to when they were thirteen. He still feels fantastically tall whenever he fronts.
Sensory perception differs between individuals. Synaesthesia comes to me easier than it does to most others. When Jin fronts, goat cheese tastes sweet—so we force him to front whenever goat cheese is available. He is the first to perceive pain but also has the second-highest pain tolerance amongst us, but gets cold very easily. In contrast, Cocoa has a relatively high insensitivity to pain: it takes more intense noxious stimuli for the body to send any pain signals in the first place, but her ability to withstand pain, once it is sent, is not as high as Jin’s. As for the cold, she can withstand such prolonged low temperatures that even the esophagus can become colder than a man’s arm, and she’ll still be kicking just fine.
Cocoa can also get drunk off meat and eggs—the face turns tuna red, she becomes very loudly emotional, sentimental, and jokey, and when drunk enough the body literally has to be dragged out of the seat—, so it’s inadvisable to have her in or near the front when we go to the all-you-can eat Korean barbeque. We’ve spoken to other systems whose certain members have arrythmias or allergies that their other members don’t. Those who enter a long-term shared fronting arrangement may find themselves having to manage a myriad of sensory differences and unique health issues.
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WARNINGS
All of what I’ve written is predicated on our high degree of synchronisation (we don’t lose time and are in constant communication with each other when co-conscious) and consent (pranks not included). Once one opens the door to spiritual cohabitation, with or without bodily control, one exposes oneself to the risk of uninvited and destructive presences. It’s not fun to be haunted by a creepy floating mask that screams and charges at you after a traumatic incident leaves you vulnerable to frightful influences. In such situations, one must have the strength to ruthlessly eradicate such presences, if they cannot come to a mutual understanding. (Cocoa’s done both. Cocoa is scary. Don’t make enemies with Cocoa. You’ll die.)
Do you have the mental fortitude, clarity, and precision to excise a destructive force in your own body, one that will react and attempt to preserve itself and maintain control over the body? Do you have the patience and empathy to communicate with, heal, and reform an endogenic or traumagenic part of your psychic household before resorting to annihilation? If you invite a “demon” into your life do you have the power to kill that demon, or at the very least banish it? How do you handle break-ups, disagreements, fights, miscommunication, differences in priorities and aspirations, your own mistakes and wrongs toward others?
One who isn’t strong enough to handle their own life as it is, as a singlet, should not seek plurality or spiritual communion as a panacea to all their personal, social, and psychological issues. Imagine two idiots in a dysfunctional relationship throwing a baby into the mix. Don’t be those two idiots. You know the ones. Few people aspire to be your unpaid social worker, and even fewer gods do so. Don’t enter a relationship if you’re not ready for one!