Embodiment: why you would do it and why you wouldn't

Spirits, Evocation & Possession
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I just decided to create this post encase it might help someone else on their path. I’ve noticed within the magickal world most people opt for appeasement and ritual vs embodiment of a spirit. It’s not that I think this is wrong, I think ritual to get into a certain frame of mind and showing sincere gratitude towards a spirit are both good things.

But I just think that embodiment is overlooked. For me personally embodiment has taken me so far along on my spiritual ascent and because I have practiced it I see that my rituals work better with that specific entity.

When I say embodiment I’m not talking about spiritual posession I’m talking about a psychological embodiment. But perhaps you could argue there isn’t a difference

You can file this under “chaos magic” if you want as that’s fueled by our psyche but I still chose to post it here because I feel it’s a valid way to work with any spirit

The Pros

  1. Rituals work better when you do them

My first ritual to get Apollo’s attention did NOT work. I felt nothing then thought the whole thing must be crap. The thing is I already had his attention and that’s what drew me to him in the first place. I’m sure many of us have felt the calling of a spirit so I don’t have to go into that

But I shifted my focus instead on embodiment. Years later I feel connected to him when I do a ritual. I’ve even had dreams where he shows up later and encourages me to ask for a little more…think bigger because apparently I have quite the “allowance” to spend

  1. When you spend time embodying a spirit instead of just appeasing them you are taking in their power. This way you don’t even always have to do a ritual to get what you need just tap into that side of yourself and those new strengths you’ve cultivated

  2. You learn more

If you’re genuinely interested in spiritual growth and learning this is a good way to go. Embodying a spirit helps you start to see the world through their eyes

The Cons

However looking back on this journey I’ve had I can see that by taking this god into myself I also took in the weaknesses that came with it. I don’t know if there’s a way to filter that out. My focus was just on cultivating his positive strengths but I got all of it

  1. In mythology Apollo accidentally kills the love of his life

I accidentally killed a beloved kitten I had and never got over it Just like Apollo felt when he killed Hyacinth

  1. His dating life always ended badly (see above) I had strings of relationships that were just awful

  2. Apollo is a major cockblock

It took me a long time to lose my virginity but as my lifelong focus wasn’t really on getting laid this wasn’t a major problem for me The only thing I regretted was the major dickhead I chose for my first time out of sheer sexual frustration (not a good reason to sleep with someone especially for the first time)

  1. Unless you count polygamy with 9 women Apollo never really settled down or got married but had a lot of kids

I got pregnant before I really wanted too

Before the cons make this sound not worth doing at all this is what it brought me

  1. I became a pretty badass kid who did archery and played rock music and I don’t know how many people can say they’ve had that kind of life experience

  2. Apollo’s strengths helped me walk away from and completely destroy dysfunctional relationships so I had room to build better ones

  3. I like to think I’m pretty good at divination but I know there’s always a better magician out there. But for my personal use my divination has led me into some great advice for my life when feeling overwhelmed or lost. And my friends have often come to me for it as well and I’ve even had strangers knock on my door who heard from someone that I do this kind of thing (Thankfully that hasn’t happened a lot though) A lot like the oracle of delphi come to think of it

  4. Apollo was perhaps one of the more stable characters of greek mythology. Let’s face it most of the greek pantheon is extremely dysfuncyional but for the most part Apollo had his shit together

I come from a really dysfunctional family but I’m somehow one of the few people from it who is actually pretty stable. My own little family that I’ve started is way more functional

So if this sounds like something you’re interested in this is how you do it

  1. Pick a spirit that resonates with you

  2. Study them and research the crap out of them

  3. Find traits you have in common and strengthen those

  4. Find a trait you don’t have in common but sounds interesting enough to take up

I already did music so check That might even be one reason I seemed to have gotten his attention in the first place

I didn’t do archery though and that sounded cool so I gave it a shot and liked it

  1. Studying the jungian archetypes helps but isn’t necessary

I found it helpful to see that my “Apollo side” became my inner warrior and exactly how it served a purpose in my psyche. This also helped me flesh out new ways of getting in touch with him and new ways of doing ritual with him. We won’t be interested in the same things our whole lives so that inner archetype might morph change and hopefully grow up but they’ll still be there in some form

Thanks for reading this and I hope you found it helpful

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Thank you for that contributon!

Sincerely,

¥’Berioth

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You’re welcome Glad you liked it

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So like a roundabout extended invocation except without the invocation.

I find it easier to just permanently invoking primal forces. I did it with the five elements, and the seven classical planetary forces. On top of that I’ve done a lot of theurgy stuff too.

Although I’ve done something similar to your thing with Apollo, except more along the lines of becoming the All instead of any specific being.

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Ive had very similar experiences with a few of my favorite entities.
The weakness can always be turnes into a strength and it often shows you a part of their archetypal story.

I identity strongly with a few masks of Lucifer one of them being the supreme archangel who gets kicked out and rebels.
I started doing everything my way and sure enough the relationship of those closest to me was tested and I was kicked out.
I realized I had done nothing wrong but their rule and power over me felt very tyrannical like.

The sheep are also extremely polarizes to someone who embodies the archetypal anti-establishment. The adversarial archetype has taught me a lot about being alone and secluded from what is considered normal or “the right thing”. You learn a lot by yourself. You deal with yourself a lot as a result.

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We used to call this “shadowing” an entity. I didnt realise it had even fallen out of common use as a practice.

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I definitely associate with a lot of the aspects of the Morrigan.
War: conflict within and without and how to cause/manage it.
Sovereignty/Rulership: I tend to often find myself in places of power and in more ways than one. But I also often moderate those who are abusing their power.
Sorceress: My interest in the craft. Not much else to say.
Fateweaver: my interest in Seidr and other things associated with fate. I’ve also been taught how to work with fate.
Death: Not just about baneful magick, but also the shedding and changing of self, amongst other things.
Shapeshifter: the constant changing and evolution of self and my abilities.

The great thing about Aspecting/embodying, is that those aspects of them, unlock those aspects of you. You unlock dormant abilities that you never knew you had and foster new ones. You sort tap into an inner (fill the blank here) them.

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