EVOCATION TO VISIBLE APPEARANCE: MY THOUGHTS & CONCERNS

When I was in seminary, students of color, LGBT, and women students (and yes, some were all three LOL) had this way of differentiating schools of theology between “neck up” and theology of the whole body. Most of the theologians we had to study were “neck up” European men who articulated their theology as if doing theology could be pure if one just focused on the attributes and actions God takes in the Bible and the world. The lack of consideration for context was frustrating in the classroom discussions. People like Paul Tillich, Karl Barth, and James Cone wrote during historical periods of immense socio-political upheaval—namely the Nazi regime and World War 2, and the Civil Rights and Black Power movement for the latter. Not considering the context these men wrote felt silly and disingenuous to many of us. Even so, some seminary colleagues insisted on the neck-up theology as supreme. I was not one of them!

Sometimes, I feel the same when I read through ceremonial magic texts. It doesn’t take much exploring before you start to see that bringing spirits to physical manifestation is the chief aim of many grimoires. What I find light in many grimoires is the same whole picture sense many of us in seminary wanted. As my elders in this tradition teach, many grimoires either assume you know the context or intentionally hide it. The Arbatel is the only one I have read that has somewhat of a developed sense of purity that goes deeper than fasting and days of abstinence. This book makes it clear that purity is about how you live and how you serve humanity. The beginning of that grimoire is something that, if I were teaching traditional ceremonial magic, I would point students to study first. Preparation, for me, begins with how I walk in the world. The rest flows from that.

But I digress a bit. The fixation I see on visible appearance concerns me, especially for people just starting in spirit work. It is almost as if this bar was set to discourage people from practicing (because it takes so much effort) or set an unreal expectation. Case in point: I had some students recently note that they DID feel a significant presence during their operations, but because they did not see the spirit, they wondered if things worked. Thankfully, they had the spiritual development and maturity to recognize that things did work. The community we created also validated them.

I know from my years of practicing espiritismo that spirits manifest in multiple ways to let you know they are present. Physical manifestation is one of many ways such things can happen. In all my years of doing this practice, however, I have not seen it happen in the context of our version of a séance. Most of my experiences of visible appearance happened in moments when spirits like Orisha appeared in human form and then vanished. It has happened twice to me. Most times, however, they have come through a person and given a message, much like what happens at a Misa in espiritismo. But it is also common in espiritismo to “see” spirits through another sense. For example, many spirits register on my body with heat and cold flashes. When that happens, shortly after, I will catch a vision of who it is. That opens up a floodgate of messages, more images, visions, and sometimes even emotions from the spirit. We know we are not making this up by the evidence we give to the intended target with the spirit’s messages.

All of this said, instead of stressing something like visible appearance as the standard, teaching people the different ways spirits manifest and encouraging them to develop themselves while remaining open to experiencing Spirit any way Spirit chooses to make itself known. It is an excellent practice to surf the fluidity of our connection and communication with spirits, where the control and who’s in control flow back and forth.

I am not saying physical manifestation has no place or is irrelevant. It is time to relativize its place in spiritual development so people can grow and apprehend their unique abilities in working with spirits. As you do this work, know that the best is yet to come.