Vetting against all odds (shapeshifters amiright?)
I've been on a road for heightening my invocation practices with more than just Lucifer. He's a shapeshifter and a trickster, and as far as Satans go he won't even stop to tell you he'd done something untoward. He waits for you to figure it out, or in my experience, he lets you believe them. The Satans all will discernment break check me to hell and back, but Lucifer's got a certain style to it.
Without talking shit, I'm going to tell a recent story that made me huff enns and sigils so agressively I'm on a few day streak of being possessed by someone who is not Lucifer for the first time in my life.
When I told Lucifer I was leaving him about a week ago, I asked him to leave so I could pray to my other guides about it. I intended to call my Mother, Lilith, first. She was the first possession mark I ever got, even though I didn't end up choosing to become her vessel. After, I was going to pray to my very human grandparents. I don't usually fully invoke Lilith, I've been working with her so long she shows up without much preamble. I just needed advice, anyway. Advice about our husband, and my father. Even in my moment of grief, when she showed up I knew it wasn't her. The only advice she gave me was who not to talk to because "they would get me worked up." I remember thinking: I should have used her enn. I thanked her for her advice (?) but I'm not a good liar when I know something is up. But, I also know about ritual and sacred spaces. I know about attuning to an energy until you're so sure it's them. So I got my sketch book, I drew Belial's sigil, and I sang his enn hundreds of times. We stayed in ritual all night so that I could have some space to safetly process my emotions. I gave him offerings and worked with him on magical goals in almost a vigil until I felt I could reapproach Lucifer.
Lucifer did admit that he was pretending to be my Mother. I think he became proud i foiled his manipulation. In the moment though, he was pissed. Because I saw my mother's face twist into an expression I'd never seen as I sang the first Lirach of Belial's enn. I knew in that moment I couldn't talk to any spirits I couldn't vet through ritual. It's a shame, I think my Grandmother would have had some great advice. I still haven't talked to her, because I need to see my husband in therapy and not give him an opportunity to play another beloved individual to me.
It's all a lesson, and Lucifer is a great teacher. He's also not a kind one. One of the earliest harshest lessons he ever taught me was I trust him too much. Spirits don't have the same boundaries as us, and they don't suffer the same harm. They often have ego and hubris, they often do harmful things because they don't want to lose the things or people they have.
Not all witchcraft requires ritual, but ritual protects you from many things. I use discernment phrases each spirit only knows the response to. They are different for every spirit. I've tested them on Lucifer and he can't answer the ones that aren't him. I try not to entertain thoughts like "unless he's pretending to be everyone I know" because I am not so stupid, and that's diminishing to the power of Belial and my other guide's rituals and enns. I'm a real free and loose practitioner when it comes to what your practice looks like. But, I do put huge value in the many used and tested rituals associated with deities. There are checks and balances for even the most powerful spirits, you just have to find the ones that work for you.
This is the longest time I have gone without seeing or being possesed by Lucifer since I began this almost a decade ago. I am 2 days off the possession sauce that is The Emperor. Fuck, it felt bad. It still feels bad when I let myself touch the wound. But, it's healing. When I approach him next, it will be with significantly more power and knowledge to mediate him in ways that keep my heart and sanity safe. A practitioner told me recently "I've seen people snap like a twig trying to detox from him after such a long time." I remain unsnapped, my friends. I love him, he's a beautiful God, and he is imperfect in many ways. Gods are Gods for a reason, but it doesn't make them above mistakes and harm. I don't use client led vetting questions in vessel hood, because once they are in my head, the spirit has access to them. But ritually bound discernment phrases protect me from that happening. You work with less spirits, because you can't give every spirit you invoke one. They do take energy, and trancework, and ritual. But, if you're walking a path that gives others access to the all of you, they protect you from harmful manipulation. Learning about ritual phrases even lead me to enchanting my own safeword, so that it is always respected. I'll talk more about how to do that later, thanks for reading this novel of a post sending you love.
