One of the jobs of an exorcist is to deal with the spiritual remnants of a death, which can present in a number of ways. Our society as it is does not have the religious, magical, or spiritual structures to deal with the inner issues that surround death— instead it focuses on the bereaved and their recovery.

This lack of guidance for the dead, combined with the often neglected inner impact that a death causes, can lead to quite difficult and unhealthy situations. The work of an exorcist is to address these situations sensitively to ensure that the souls of the dead continue on their path, and that the energetic after-effects are cleared and rebalanced. All of this must be approached with a careful sense of understanding not only for those left behind, but for the beings and energies that the exorcist encounters. Doing an aggressive exorcism on a death/haunting situation is inappropriate and doesn’t really address what is going wrong, why it happened, etc, nor does it really resolve the issue—it just moves it to one side and sweeps it under the carpet.

The work with a dying person, a coma patient, or a very recent death is addressed in my book The Initiates Companion Book—that is more the work of a priest or priestess. The job of an exorcist comes to the fore when the job of a priest or priestess has not been done for whatever reason.

So what causes all these things to go wrong in the death process?

Some people die in a way that they were not expecting, some die suddenly, some fight it aggressively, some don’t even know that they are dead. Then there are those who do not want to be dead, or do not want to let go of that which drove them in their lives. This is a common problem in esoteric lodges when a leader dies— he refuses to let go and continues to try to run the lodge from the inner worlds. That is different from becoming an inner contact, which is a totally different process after death for a teacher or leader.

Some cultures have specific rituals and vigils that are performed for and with the newly dead person to guide them on their way and to assist those left behind in letting go. Clinging by either party will result in an unhealthy situation that could develop into a haunting. The ability to let go completely is something that some spiritual systems teach at great length and those cultures connected to such spiritual practice, have very few problems with true hauntings.

Hauntings

There are a variety of different types of hauntings, some that involve dead people, and some that involve the echoes of what a dead person has left behind and a parasite has stepped into. Another form of haunting (although in true terms it is not a haunting), is where an impression has been imprinted upon a place— certain events release a lot of power all at once and leave a ‘mark’ on the place, i.e. accidents, murders, etc.

There are some imprints that can be left from fear, sex, pain, birth, and are not involved in a death/haunting, but may present as a haunting. These appear as recordings that play when they are triggered, but the ‘people’ that appear cannot be interacted with as there is not actually a being there.

The two most common types of hauntings that an exorcist would be called out to attend to are the ghosts of recent dead, and then long term disruptive hauntings. The recently dead types of hauntings are obviously the saddest and the exorcist is often called out not to get rid of them, but to find out what they need.

Recent deaths

When an exorcist is called out to a recent death, the family will report dreams, sightings, interactions, and the feeling that they are experiencing emotions that are not their own. A family will approach a priest or spiritual leader for advice who will sometimes in turn contact an exorcist.

When this sort of haunting is reported, it is often where the spirit is trying to communicate, or to find a way to continue some sort of interaction or relationship with the bereaved family. This type of haunting will occur if the person who died is sensitive, or has their own psychic ability, though often unrecognised. Once they have gotten over the shock of death, some people will try to communicate with the family to let them know that they still exist. This in itself is not a problem and usually fades off of its own accord as the spirit moves further away from the old life and begins to let go.

It does become a problem if the spirit of the person is trying to communicate and cannot find a way to be understood. The frustration can often be felt by members of the family, who in turn become confused, as the boundaries between their own emotions and the emotions of the spirit become entwined. The spirit will initially go to the closest members of the family to try to communicate. If that is not successful, then, like water, the spirit will find the most accessible conduit in that family group and try to connect with that person.

So the first real contact can sometimes come through a person who was not that closely connected with the dead person and that in itself can cause some emotional pain to those left behind (why did they go to this person and not me?). To ease that pain, it is important to explain to the close members of the family that maybe the spirit had been trying to communicate, but had not been able to get through for one reason or another.

In a situation like this, the first step is to sit down with the family members and let them talk openly about their experiences since the death. It is important to steer them through what they felt/feel emotionally and physically—dreams, ideas and strange sightings that catch their attention. This guides the family through recognising potential attempts for communication by the spirit. Once recognised, the family members gain more confidence in their own ability to understand spirit communication and their barriers become less ‘dense,’ which then opens possibilities for communication.

It is common, though, for the close family to have not felt or experienced anything and that can be very hard for them if they realise that the spirit has been trying to get through. But not everyone has the ability to pick up on subtle communion, or the emotional loss can be so great that nothing else can get ‘in’ so to speak.

The next step for a family situation like this is to create a bridge for the spirit to communicate and say what it needs to say. This can be done in a variety of ways, by doing the death vision and speaking to it in its own reality, by divination vocabulary or tarot (ask it what it wants to say and to speak through a reading layout), or through mediumship. Either way, giving voice to the spirit will often release a lot of tension and allow the spirit to begin the process of letting go.

That process at this stage is very important: if a spirit or those left behind try to hang on for a length of time, it becomes unhealthy and draining for the living, and spiritually degenerate for the dead. He needs to learn to let go of his former life and all those connected to it. By doing so, he releases all of his knowledge, experiences, connections, and emotions back into the world, and the soul, polished by life, moves on to its next phase of development. This release is the source of what the Western Mystery Tradition calls the Library—the combined and collected knowledge/wisdom of all those who have gone before. This can be consciously connected with in vision, and can also be absorbed practically when a master dies—his knowledge is released and can be picked up by students/apprentices. This applies to all skills, not just magical/spiritual ones.

Once the communication channels have been established, then information, last thoughts, emotions, messages, etc, can be passed back and forth until both sides are ready to let go. This often happens naturally once all that has needed to be said has been said— the interactions slowly fade as both sides begin to move on.

As an exorcist one has to be careful, though, that you do not become a prop for someone’s grief, and that you do not continue to bridge communication after it is no longer necessary. People will try to cling to the connection and it is important that they learn to let the spirit go—working alongside counsellors who understand esoteric approaches can be really helpful at this time. The family will need much longer term help to cope, but that is not the job of the exorcist and it is very important that the exorcist does not slip into that support role—blurring the boundaries of help for the living and help for the dead can become very sticky. Leave the counselling to the counsellor and do the work of the bridge until it is time to withdraw. This helps the family to disconnect emotionally and let the spirit go. While ever the exorcist is there, some families will hope for continued communication.

Long term hauntings

Well established hauntings are a more complex affair that can need a careful ‘eye’ and an approach that deals with both the dead spirit and the parasitical beings that can be riding them. When a spirit has been hanging around for a while, the emotive reasons for the spirit to cling to the living world provide a choice buffet of energy interactions that draw in parasitical beings of all types. These parasites then slowly take over the personality shell that once was the living human and operate through them. This also happens with land beings that can similarly use the shell for their own agendas.

The only problem with dealing with such a situation is that the personality shell that is used in such situations often still has emotive and psychic connections with the families and places left behind—there is still a fragment of the person within the haunting and that fragment must be handled with compassion and care.

Problematic hauntings that are well established tend to elicit specific emotional patterns from the people who occupy or visit the building that is haunted—the pattern of interaction will often give the exorcist major clues as to what is actually happening. Through those clues a picture emerges of an original situation whereby the spirit of a dead person needs to attend to something or the spirit feels the need to express some suppressed emotion or agenda.

Because such a situation is highly charged, it quickly becomes attractive to a variety of parasitical beings who then learn to ‘operate’ the personality of the deceased and drive her down a road of food supply—the original driving emotion is amplified and ridden with the need to interact, thus forming a chain of interactions with the living that would initiate emotional reactions, therefore creating ‘energy food.’

A good example is a haunting whereby the ghost is aggressive, sending bad dreams, being physically aggressive, and creating extreme fear to all who occupy the building. The spirit may be someone who was murdered there, who died during a conflict, or who was extremely territorial and maybe even mentally ill. They inflict their angry emotions upon all who are sensitive enough to detect it which in turn generates an emotive reaction in the living person. Fear, anger, and confusion are all very yummy energies which attract parasitical beings for dinner.

The pattern of fear generated by the living over a period of time becomes a food source for certain types of beings who quickly realise they can use their own inner ability to ‘beef up’ the original haunting and therefore create stronger emotions in the living. They begin to merge with the dead spirit until they eventually become almost like a composite being. Over decades and generations the truth of the dead spirit is pushed to one side as the parasite gets bigger and stronger.

Sometimes there is a situation whereby the person who died was already heavily parasited and the being within them instigates the haunting as a way to keep its energy source going. That is a very difficult one to figure out and can only really be diagnosed, as it were, by detailed questions put to the living relatives. If there is a long history of mental illness, bizarre or abusive behaviour, or extreme sexual drives that were destructive, then there is a very good chance that the person was parasited before death.

Dealing with a parasited haunting

The first step is to figure out what is actually going on. The second step is to remove the parasite before you try to deal with the dead spirit. The removal of a parasite from a dead spirit can be real fun. If there is no body, i.e., if there has been a cremation, then the chances are that the parasite is a strong and intelligent one—weaker and dumber parasites tend to cling to flesh/shapes to express themselves through, a little like body builders and botoxed actresses. In such a case, a mild exorcism and blessing of the body, along with a clean up of the haunted space will usually get rid of the parasite, leaving the way forward to walk the dead spirit into death.

If, however, the body has been cremated, you have to work purely in the inner worlds to remove the parasite from the spirit, which can be tricky and exhausting. There are two ways this can be approached and it is best to use both: through the spirit image that exists in the inner pattern of the building, and through the death vision itself.

To attempt the first part of this method of clearing, work in the building as is—don’t try to clear the space first because that will cause the spirit to become flattened to the periphery of the space which will make it much harder to deal with.

Kick everyone who is living out of the space, put on a prepared stole and sit down before a lit candle. Using inner vision, pass into the void first to disconnect yourself from your daily life and then return into the space as the priest/ess. If the haunting is a bad or aggressive one, then call upon the Sandalphon to work with you as you step out of the void. Look around the space, the parasite will have been attracted by your actions and will be curious. If it does not appear immediately, just wait. Ghosts are like horses, if you pretend not to be interested in them it drives them nuts and they just have to come over to investigate.

Once they are in your range, the parasite will be more visible than the spirit (the two will often be overlaid, or the spirit looking out of the eyes of the parasite, which is the reverse of a living infestation whereby the parasite looks out of the eyes of the living). Treat it from this point like an ordinary parasite: grab it, wrap it, and dump it back where it belongs (underworld, Abyss, etc).