Holding Hellfire: On Exorcisms and Demons

By: Alejandra Amalia

On any given weekend night in my hometown of Detroit, the lighted windows of storefront churches in my neighborhood are aglow. Parking is scarce but attendance is high for Pentecostal services. Inside, the congregation will pray and lay hands for members of their flock in the midst of spiritual warfare. A mile west the spires of a church cast shadows which loom over the homes beside it. The church’s receptionist will take messages and schedule the Father for meetings with those calling for help. The marquis of a nearby drive-in movie theater advertises a showing of “Prey for the Devil”, a film about a female exorcist. For many, the mention of an exorcism conjures images of a priest reciting Latin prayers inside a Medieval cathedral. Exorcisms, or a ritual to expel demons from a person or place, is an actively widespread practice spanning many cultural and ethnic boundaries.

Although the heavily stylized Catholic ritual has come to be one of the most iconic renditions of an exorcism, far more exist. Just as there are diverse versions of the practice, there are countless conceptualizations of demons. For many people of faith, a desire to banish the evil and demonic seems obvious. However, the practice of invoking and evoking unseen presences is widely employed by many followers of non-institutional spiritual paths. This tradition exists among Indigenous tribal cultures, ritual magicians, witches and theurgists to name a few.

The goal of communing with otherworldly beings can be driven by all manner of desires– to help heal the sick, gain intimacy with the Divine or to lead a sorcerer to hidden spoils of war. While angels would be invoked by ceremonial magicians because they are being called inward, a demonic presence would be evoked because they are being called up from an underworld. A key distinction in a common worldview held by one group of practitioners who summon the unseen, ceremonial magicians, versus that of many religious followers is how their relationships to the universe exists. For example, those whose beliefs are founded on a strictly literal biblical interpretation may consider heaven or hell to be external, spiritual locations. That's not quite how a ceremonial magician may assess things.

The maxim “As Above, So Below”, whose origins trace back to a centuries-old alchemical text called the Emerald Tablet, has been cited as a philosophical truth by occultists for hundreds of years. The statement is meant to impart the idea that the workings of the heavens bear weight on what unfolds on earth. Likewise, what is both celestial and infernal is mirrored in us all. In other words, every individual is interconnected and reflective of the cosmos itself. Heaven and hell, angels and demons, are not only present but inherent in us all.

Given how vast our inner world is when we consider it through this lens it’s no wonder we find ourselves lost so often. Our angelic nature, and the demons we struggle with, understandably feel as if they’re from heights too high and depths too deep to know. We turn to forecasts of the zodiac, tarot cards and spiritual counsel to act as a compass to navigate this sprawling terrain. Although this may be an intimidating concept to grapple with, it can also offer a reframe of demons and exorcisms. Both can definitely use a reframe at this juncture.

Exorcisms have long been an open window to abuse. As far back as the 1740s, a Brazilian friar was relocated to a monastery after sexually assaulting a parishioner while allegedly attempting to “rid” her of demons. Zealous believers may turn to exorcisms as a means to stifle natural instincts in young people, too– using them to purge everything from an interest in anime to whom they love and desire. Mislabeling what is inherent as alien, something to exorcize, can lead to a heartbreaking sense of loss and rejection.

What and who gets classified as demonic is also highly subjective and political. The types of demons we are commonly exposed to in Hollywood media–such as Pazuzu, the malevolent creature who inhabited Regan in The Exorcist or the king of hell, Paimon from Ari Aster’s Hereditary—were not initially known as evil beings. In their genesis they were deities of the Ancient Near East whom various cultures worshiped. The religious and political struggle to establish monotheism in these regions overpowered them, though. Eventually, they became recast as enemies to God existing in hell as demons.

In a sense, we can view the population of infernal realms as part of our religious subconscious, holding dusty memories of an age in which forgotten gods and goddesses sparkled in the pantheon of heaven. As they were banished, for better or for ill depending on one’s vantage point, they were exiled to the underworld. This history is like a looking glass into our own impulses to repress, to hide, to banish what is at odds with the orthodoxy a dominant culture seeks to establish. What is inherent can never be vanquished, though. An ember will always survive, no matter how harshly the winds of hegemony bluster against it. Next time we think of exorcisms, think also of what it might be like to hold a lantern to the parts of ourselves we cast into shadows simply because we’ve been taught to fear the unknown.

Encountering an unwanted presence can be a deeply disturbing experience. For some it manifests through sleep paralysis while dreaming of a creature so invasive they seem to seep into our bones. For others it's the sense that an unseen voyeur lurks in the shadows. Whatever the case, below is a ritual which can be used to dispel this phenomenon. It draws on over two decades of working with the public as a tarot reader and as an ordained minister. The framework used to create it is rooted in ceremonial magick practices. Among the Abrahamic religions, although certainly not limited to, there is a belief that angels rule over demons. This simple ritual follows that logic to enlist angelic support in sending away any unwelcome entities. All people may approach it regardless of their background.

 Alejandra has been practicing and researching magick art forms for over a decade. She shares her crafts of tarot and crystal ball readings, angelic invocation and lectures on the occult through her practice Gemineye Tarot. Booking: www.gemineyetarot.com IG: @gemineyetarot