7/1/2005
To this day I wonder if I’m the only pagany person in the entire world who thinks that expecting a deity (or, as most imbeciles spell it, diety) will come when called like a well-trained puppy, Possess the desired person, dispense the desired Words of Wisdom, then depart again on command, is utterly ludicrous? I don’t doubt that at least some people who engage in invocative trances (by whatever name they’re called) believe wholeheartedly in what they’re doing; but I’ve yet to see or hear or experience anything that would convince me, and I have also seen/heard/experienced enough obvious bald-faced fakery to be highly suspicious of anyone who makes the assay and puts it forth for an audience. Invoking a particular deity form for a particular, personal reason can be a quite beneficial exercise; but the only reason to turn it into a spectator sport is for self-aggrandizement, the sort of occultier-than-thou posturing in which many take great delight.
I have ties to various traditions and organizations, and most (if not all) of them seem to feature some form of this activity, whether it be the relatively innocuous “aspecting” or a full-bodied, blackout, dissociative-episode full-trance possession complete with bizarre behaviors and pompous pronouncements. Opening my yap on this subject earned me no end of suffering as a Wiccan, since it would appear that the practice is considered by most to be the religion’s central feature. Um. OK. ::edges slowly toward the door:: Right, then. Generally, one does not consider wilfully inducing a dissociative state to be a desirable thing. Generally, one does not consider a person claiming to be embodying a god/dess to be anything other than a ranting, raving loon. Generally, most pagans would dismiss a Christian writhing about speaking in tongues and getting Slain In The Spirit to be a ranting, raving loon, so why is it different when you or one of your co-religionists is doing essentially the same bloody thing?
Do I even believe in invocation? Sure; it’s similar in character to what used to be called Method acting, to my mind at least. I can call upon a particular deity or spirit or what-have-you in a similar way to how I might “get into character” for a show, drawing the desired characteristics into myself to achieve a desired end. Does it work? Yes. Is it a “possession”? Holy crap, no. Do I believe in possession? I believe a belief in possession is likely to cause possession, how’s that? I believe some people have experiences in which they believe themselves to be possessed, either wilfully or accidentally; I’ve known at least one person who thoroughly believed herself possessed, and she did indeed exhibit classic symptoms–but she was also taking a prescription medication with known psychotropic contraindications (the same scrip had been a factor in one of her relatives’ suicide) and appeared to a degreed friend to be an undiagnosed schizophrenic to boot. So…make of it what you will. I’ve known plenty of folk in pagan and occult circles who were slightly less than stable–a few fries short of a Happy Meal, no mortar between their bricks, pick your metaphor–who also indulged, seemingly successfully, in various forms of possession trance (mostly the Wiccan “Drawing Down the Moon” type). And frankly, at this stage of my life and occult career, I’ve seen enough that were I to experience anything that seemed to indicate the possibility that trance possessions by deities were genuine, I think my first response would be to have an MRI done to make sure I hadn’t got a brain tumor.
The Serpent and the Moon 
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