So You've Got a Spirit Problem: An Adept's Guide to Taking Care of Business
Knowing how to do magic is not at all the same thing as knowing how to solve a problem.
Here is a map to one trail through this irritating, often murky, forest. The steps are generally presented in the order I'd recommend taking them, but naturally the details of execution are up to you.
This guide assumes that as someone who knows how to do magic, you may be called upon to assist others from time to time, so there is a distinction made between you as the practitioner, and the victim of a haunting.
Never rely on visualization-only techniques.
There is a difference between Energy Work and visualization. If someone has told you that all you need to do to protect yourself from spirits is to imagine that they cannot hurt you, they are wrong.
Yes, where your attention goes, energy flows - but as it turns out, real spirits are probably more powerful than the wispy energy patterns sprinkled about by you imagining stuff really hard.
I have met many a practitioner who was convinced they were up against an incredibly powerful spirit, because years of visualization did nothing. The first time they cast an actual spell with real power (that takes like 45 minutes of prep and 15 minutes of execution), the spirit was gone.
Please place the mask over your own mouth and nose before assisting others.
Spirit hauntings often affect more than one person. Household members, social groups, entire Discord servers - it happens.
Attend to your own personal protections first. If this is your first rodeo, a few suggestions:
We may assume there is a timeline pressure; by the time you're called in to help, things may have become rough. There is no need to avoid taking care of the problem for months while you carefully craft a system of protections.
Obtain or recharge a single personal amulet of protection, especially one crafted against malefic spirits (as opposed to a general protection). Charge it and wear it for the duration of this process.
Obtain or recharge a single household ward for your own home, if you are not the one being haunted. If your home is already under spiritual attack, now may not be the right time to place wards. Read on for details.
Obtain or recharge a single ward for your sleeping space, a heavy-handed one that strongly protects your sleep, and strongly limits spirit movement into your room.
For the duration of solving this problem, engage in spiritual cleansing techniques more often. Also ensure you are getting enough calories and rest - depending on how resistant the problem is, your ongoing energy may be required for some time, and burnout helps no one.
Gather as many details as possible.
If you are assisting another person, get down (in writing) as many details as you can about when the haunting began, who it affects, the symptoms, any locations where the spirit is present, etc.
Consider that sometimes the spirit haunting is caused by a spirit which cannot be banished, like local nature spirits who are going to dwell there regardless of your actions. Whether you need to approach the situation as a warrior or a diplomat should be ideally figured out before you begin taking actions.
Make sure wards are not trapping the spirit inside.
If there is a potential that this is happening, open up or partially dismantle a ward (this can often done by opening a household door or window with Intent) so the spirit can leave.
Not, "leave me/my friend alone." Not, "go away."
"Please leave this household permanently, and do not come back."
Combining this with a good-faith offering can help a lot. Place the offering outside, ideally beyond the property line, but we all do what we gotta do.
"Please leave this household permanently. I have placed an offering of [stuff] outside for you, because we are not enemies. This offering is yours if you accept these conditions: that you leave this property and do not come back. Please accept this offering, and leave."
"You must leave this household, and all the people in it. This is not your home. Authority has been given to me to revoke any invitation which brought you here. Leave now of your own volition. If you do not leave, force and aggression will be used against you to force you to leave."
And if that doesn't solve it, time to get down and dirty.
Maybe you didn't even ask it to leave, because you arrived well after that was already attempted. If things have already escalated:
Prepare personal protections for everyone involved.
If you cannot reasonably do so, teach them how to shield through energy work. Remember that there are many inherently protective amulets found in nature which do not require much (or any) magic to be worked over them before they are effective; employ these to your advantage.
Optional: Figure out the spirit's weaknesses.
This step may be especially useful if banishments have already been attempted, and failed.
Gather a wide variety of magical symbols, amulets, talismans, and objects charged with various energies.
Find the spirit or connect to its energy (ideally behind a mirror, or through a protected scrying device, or using some other technique so it can't see you).
Hold up each symbol, object, etc., up to the spirit in turn. See how the spirit is affected. Take notes (ideally, have an assistant who can take notes as you describe what you're seeing).
Suppose the spirit seems totally unaffected by watery energies or solar symbols, but seems very affected by fiery energies and iron - now you have helpful answers.
Combine your discoveries with information about any previous banishments that may have been attempted to aid you in choosing your next course of action.
Less optional, but still optional: Perform divination
1. DO NOT CONVERSE WITH THE GODDAMN SPIRIT.
2. You do not need to know everything about the spirit before you get rid of it.
It drives me fucking CRAZY when people refuse to banish or get rid of obviously harmful spirits because they want to know its backstory, its personality traits, its gemsona, its full natal chart, and its favorite comfort foods first.
"We can't banish it until we know why it's doing this!"
If your attitude is literally that it's okay for beings to hurt you as long as they have a good reason for it... Or you're not going to set boundaries unless you know why someone has crossed you...
I don't know what to tell you.
And hey, by the way, if it's an obviously bad spirit that you've already acknowledged is harming you, IT'S GOING TO LIE TO YOU AND MANIPULATE YOU.
There's a hell of a lot of people out there who have fully acknowledged the absolute hell a spirit has caused them, but they want to talk to it because idk, why wouldn't you want to talk to your own personal torturer, and thirty minutes later they're accepting the spirit as their new guardian and building it an altar.
Divination is useful to help determine the outcome of your banishing actions and to give you insight into how to perform your operations effectively. This is a really good idea if you don't have a million years to randomly try stuff until something sticks.
It is not to become penpals with a harmful spirit who has already shown you its intent towards you.
Telling a spirit something, or sending messages, is extremely different from two-way communication. Don't open yourself up to a force that is causing active harm.
So now you've got to banish.
Your banishment will be greatly increased in efficacy if you surround it with supportive actions. The ability to employ any of these techniques of course varies depending on situation. Employ as many of them as possible.
Petition benevolent spirits, ancestors, and divinity to assist and support your workings.
Include as many people as affected by the haunting as you can.
Flood the house with supportive and helpful energies.
A floor wash or steam pot will be very helpful. Smoking out an entire house is difficult to get away with these days, but a fine option. If you can't get to the whole house, especially try to work on the areas where the spirit is known to be present.
Protective symbols hung about, including saint candles, also tends to assist in shaking the spirit "loose" from its moorings.
Loud and cheerful music, fresh air, and a generally upbeat mood helps the proceedings a great deal.
If it is determined that the spirit is attached to a single person, focus applying smoke, blessed waters, and talismans to their person.
Trap the spirit inside of something.
When you banish a spirit, where does it go? Just outside the property line? All the way across town? To the ends of the earth? How long until it finds its way back?
A cobalt-blue bottle filled with sand is a handy spirit trap. The spirit will eventually be freed again, before this world is over - and likely, quite a bit before that. Research why and how spirit traps work, and what techniques may be used to occupy the spirit for a great length of time before it can escape.
As this post is for those who already know how to do magic, I leave the details up to you. Reflect on what you've learned about the spirit up until that time, and utilize powers which seem best suited to cross it.
Relying upon your personal power alone is not advised. Draw from sources greater than yourself. Asking divinity and benevolent spirits to arrive and support the working while you undertake it is a fine idea.
Once the spirit is gone, or trapped, dispose of various implements and clean up as you normally do.
Cleanse the home or person if you haven't.
Set up home wards if they did not already exist.
This includes helping others understand how to maintain protections in their own home.
Listen to yourself, or the person you are helping.
Mighty sorcerer though you are, it is possible that the spirit was not actually removed when you performed your banishment. Do not discard gut feelings or intuitions that the situation is not fully at rest.
You may need help, or new techniques, or simply ongoing effort applied to the situation before it is completely resolved. Every now and then, rare as it may be, the solution is really just to apply protection and go about your business.
Taper off healing, cleansing, and spiritual hygiene back to your normal levels.
Even if a spirit has been correctly removed, a person or place may have sustained actual spiritual damage. Instead of immediately dropping extra spiritual self-care when the spirit is gone, try maintaining it for a little while (especially if your normal level is zero). Staying clean and hygienic will help spiritual injuries heal on their own. Mundane actions, such as continuing to get enough food and rest (where possible), will also help.
If you are helping another, give them steps for things like cleansing baths how how to clean their own aura.
