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I was taught that if you're going to do possession (the word I learnt was "aspecting", which includes different levels of possession) before you go anywhere near actual possession, you get a very clear idea of who you are, what your boundaries are and make sure you're clean, purified if you like, so there's nothing for the deity/entity/energy to stick to and so you can tell which parts are you when you come out of it.
In terms of safety, making a contract before it starts is a good idea, especially if you're going deep, including cues for when you want to stop, making clear what the possession is for... but then in some traditions people open to their patron (or equivalent) and allow them to ride their bodies, trusting in the relationship they have. This is obviously best if you have a working relationship witht he entity first, the other thing is to be very clear on what or who you are allowing into your body, some beings aren't necessarily good at taking care of mortal bodies, as I've heard tales of people being ridden and damaged by accident in the process.
I experienced this very lightly by accident, I was invoking a deity by opening to them and acting as them, to use drama to invoke within a group of people, it was an extremely effective invocation but as the aspecting wasn't planned for and I'd not done it before I had no experience or support for coming out of it, so when I stepped back into the circle, my part over in the creation of the space, the deity left me, the energy withdrew and I felt like all my strings had been cut. I ended up in floods of tears in the middle of a joyful ritual... and I didn't understand why.
Someone more experienced than me eventually picked up on my state and when I told them how I felt explained what had likely happened... and they helped me regain some sense of self. This kind of experienced support is a good idea in anything other than opening to inspiration.
What I was taught is that the different levels of aspecting correspond to different types of experience, ranging from opening to inspiration through wearing them on your shoulders, almost like a cloak or a glamour, to light possession, through to full possession.
To my mind, opening to inspiration is like listening to them, deep aspecting is allowing them to take over your body... the extent to which you can put yourself aside and let go determines how completely they gain control. Presumably if you had no hold over yourself to begin with and you opened up to an entity they could take over to a large degree in the same way as if you put yourself aside. This does lead to questions on what is yourself if you want to get technical, and possibly off-topic.
In a discussion about this someone put forward the argument that it is never necessary to do possession; would you let a friend or relative have complete control of you from the inside? When would that ever be necessary? When is it ever necessary that you do more than listen to them, and perhaps act on what they are telling you?
One answer to this is that perhaps its never necessary, but maybe its fun. Some people argue that it allows for a deeper connection and sharing, and so a deepening of the relationship... and I guess for some people its part of the agreement they have with the entity, to allow them to talk for themselves in ritual, or to walk in flesh for a time, to taste our food, to feel what we experience.
Talking about accidental possession, on another occasion there were people who had aspected deities on purpose as part of the invocation, and the deities had a strong presence for the duration of the event, and people were having feelings of the deity tapping them on the shoulder, wanting to play, at points I could feel my brain fuzzing over and I'd start feeling different, acting not-me, so I'd shake it off, then get the feeling again, until I realised what it was, so I took steps to stop it (grounding, shielding, telling them firmly that I didn't wa\n to play, and promising to make it up to them tomorrow if they'd just let me sleep dammit!). This was what sparked the conversation and teaching of safety techniques mentioned earlier.
I haven't as yet done full possession, or even a deep level of it, so I can't comment directly on these. |
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