Based on my experience dealing with the unseen entities and seeing what they’re capable of, at least I know what I’m not dealing with.

I am not dealing with only the psychological. Archetypes or some kind of personal mental states don’t even come close.

I am dealing with independent, separate beings with their own intentions, interests, desires, and agendas. Just without physical bodies.

Let’s say, preternatural entities, with their own consciousness.

Over the years I’d seen physical manifestations of spirits or forms beyond explanation for their presence. Explaining them logically is tempting and possible.

At first, I was using the word – Spirit – to refer to them all. When I started to ask ‘who are you?’ the gates opened. Information started to flood in. Information I hadn’t looked for or searched for literally turned up out of the blue. Websites, books, comments, even people.  All had one thing in common. Demons.

I didn’t expect this. At first I was freaked out. I believed in the Spirits, no problem. I could even stretch it to angels, gods or other beings. But demons? This energy didn’t match anything I’d been told about demons or the demonic.

Long story short. Pushing the ‘reset’ button on much of what I thought and grew up with, as well as flushing a lot of previous mental constructs and ideas helped. Logic has a way of being the biggest obstacle.

The first aspect that makes these particular entities stand out from others, is a strong gravitas about them. There’s a quality of energy or presence that’s different to other spirits. Their approach is direct and dignified. Not once, but each time.

There is a regularity of contact about them.  I noticed the interaction with them was insightful beyond my ability to manufacture. It wasn’t my mind ‘inventing shit’. It wasn’t anything I’d seen in popular culture or ‘out of a book’ or heard anyone else talking about. This was different.

I wouldn’t be a very good fiction writer. I’m no good at creating extensive personalities with quirks and nuances and remembering them in depth. Yet each spirit or demon I’ve come into contact with, it’s easy to acknowledge each one separately like it is with friends with flesh-and-blood bodies.

My approach to the demonic today comes out of respect and a good deal of awe. Reverence is a good word to throw in there. I can’t wait to get home after work and sit down at their alter. Usually we talk. They reveal information I need or need to know. Odd things happen.

During the day, they’ve ‘dropped in’ with comments or remarks. I welcome their ‘check-in’ no matter how jarring or disconcerting. I can be so present in the physical world, it is a useful reminder to refocus on alternate space and reality. Often the demons, and lately the disincarnate (those who have passed on), come through loudly and shift my focus and engage. Often I notice a charge in the air or a smell, and sometimes it’s just a silent almost electric presence.

I’ve read advice on- and offline that the only way to interact with them, is to command or direct them like some kind of personal spirit-slave. I’m very uncomfortable with this idea.

I think that kind of interaction can only end in trouble. Working with demons to achieve a certain outcome is possible. Demanding them to do something feels pretty risky.

The demonic are becoming a touchstone. It’s a relationship. I focus on the quality of interaction they offer. They are a guide to the work I’m doing in conventional space (all that time and place anyone is familiar with – work, life etc) and the work I’m invited to do in unconventional space (that unfamiliar or intangible stuff, although to me, this is also conventional space).

I expect my approaches, techniques and skills will change over time. I imagine your approaches are different to mine.

My approach to the demonic, or any spirit for that matter, always starts with who’s there?

• Who am I’m dealing with?
• What elements of reality do these entities impact and relate to? and
• what does this mean for my interaction with them as discrete independent entities?

18 February 2017