Devoured by Flame

This isn’t going to be a “how-to” post necessarily, but I am going to discuss and encourage people to rethink how we commune with the Gods and why it is so important to not discourage this kind of possibility but rather learn about how it can be done healthily, ethically, and as safely as possible.

In my last post about storytelling, I explained how the Gods are not put into stories that They inspired but rather they manifest as the stories They inspired. One way of avoiding using the Gods strictly as characters is to employ the ability to speak directly to Them in various ways. 

We cannot strictly use stories only to know the Gods but to speak to the Gods Themselves and allow Them and Their people tell it to us. 

People tend to get undignified if something is not part of the words from stories that were used by people before our time and even during the times when They ceased being worshiped. It is not that I wish to be rid of the stories we already have, but rather to grow the archive among Their people by allowing for the Gods Themselves to speak for Themselves and growing the abilities of all those among us to hear Them and communicate more properly with Them and with other humans without the abuse of power dynamics, mistrust, and coercion.

I think the only way to combat this issue is by dispelling the notion that it’s dangerous to channel or to do possessory work and the idea that you must have an immediate community around to do this kind of work. We tend to not trust the Gods with our bodies and tend to disassociate Them with our own nature. 

We don’t trust the people They use to get the words across, either. This is a worthy issue to be afraid of. However, if we can empower each other to learn and to realize the distinction between a Deity and a human when this is happening, the idea can be less set up for abuse within a community and used as a tool for healing, discernment, love, and trust with the Divine rather than a crutch for people to use against others.

In this blog post, I’m going to discuss the means in which a Deity can be manifested through a human and why it is important that we reconsider this as a possibility and not something that should be played with but rather used as a point of connection with Their people. In future posts, I will discuss the nature of this work, why it can be useful and how it can be used going forward rather than hidden in more esoteric communities.

I will also say this is not recommended for those under the age of when your frontal lobe is fully developed. I will not ever recommend any minor to the age of 24 to do this sort of work. Please wait until you are fully developed before you discern anything for anyone else in this way and use divination instead as your sole technique. I implore anyone under the age in which your decision-making skills are to a standard they need to be for a multitude of reasons. 

What can channeling or possession look like?

Channeling is a spectrum of abilities that range from just relaying a confirmation by whatever entity involved (in this case only Deities, though spirits and ancestors can, as well) through another human to a devotee to full-on possession of the medium by the Deity. The Divine can use this tool to become more aligned with us as teachers, guides, and healers and we can use this to heal our relationship with the Gods in general.

Channeling is something that can be done alone, through two people, or any group of people who work with the Deity involved. It can manifest as either one or more people hearing the Deity at any one time and can be used as a tool for discernment as well as clarification of omens, messages, signs, and interpretations of any relevant thing at that time. Channeling can be a relaying of ideas, pictures, or music, or it can be full sentences to actions conveyed by the medium for the Deity. 

Communing with the Deity can also look like Them coming down and assisting the human with a task They are trying to get their devotee to do, and also assisting others in a time of distress, are in need of healing, support, or any other thing that the Deity is wanting to use the medium for. The possibilities are endless and there is no assigned function for the Deity should They want to be with Their people in this way.

Using the medium’s body in possession can take a lot of work and practice depending on how the medium’s brain functions. It can look anywhere from light possession to heavy possession all ranging from the person involved being there, aware, and capable of making choices to being completely gone and trusting the Deity to do the choice making for Them. Many people mistake possession for being completely without control of your body when there are varying levels of possession wherein the human can still make decisions on behalf of themselves. 

However, though there are varying levels of it, the definition of possession would be that the human can not intercede between what the Deity is doing and what the human would want for the Deity to be doing. Therefore, the decisions the Deity makes in regards to a human would be negotiated before going any further and therefore would not interrupt the value of the words and actions of a Deity no matter how far gone the human is.

Below is a scale of different levels of channeling and possession.

Another analogy often used is where the medium is located in their body or in the “car.” A human is essentially in the driver’s seat until the point of light possession which the Deity would push the medium to the position of passenger where they can intercede, backseat which they can give input, or trunk wherein the medium has fewer choices involved in what the Deity says or does. Obviously, this does not happen in defined stages, but is more like a spectrum and can fluctuate during the duration of the session.

Channeling is something that can take large amounts of preparation beforehand to only a moment’s notice depending on the proximity of the Deity involved to the medium. This can fluctuate depending on how far away the medium is from the Deity or what level of intimacy the Deity is with the medium in the first place. 

It can take hours to become possessed fully or only a few moments given the ability and timing of the possessed individual. It depends on how easily the medium is capable of allowing the Deity control or if they have been working alongside the individual in this way and developed their own system of communication and signals for when it’s time to leave and come back. This requires absolute trust and authority of the human involved to be okay with what is going on, communication of boundaries, and set expectations for what is and is not okay to do within the body. 

Allergies and other problems relating to the health of the medium are to be addressed as well with the Deity before possession takes place. A Deity cannot save a human from having an allergic reaction, a panic attack, or stomach problems should they not digest something right or are triggered in any sort of way. They can take away certain side effects should drinking be a problem, but they cannot promise that will be the case given how the Deity withdraws from the human’s body. There is only so much They are capable of doing before it gets out of Their control and into the human’s problem.

Being a medium is not an excuse to know everything about what is being said by the Deity at the time of the session.

In most cases, the medium will not have any information or former knowledge about the person the Deity is talking to ahead of time. If the medium does know the person, the Deity will likely be more subtle in making attempts to confirm previous relationship history through the medium so that the person They are speaking to recognizes the Deity and can trust the medium. This kind of knowledge tends to not be explicit details of events and more along the line of emotional relationships to events and personal history tied to the Deity involved or otherwise.

If the Deity does not know the human well, this also may not happen in which case it is not the medium’s fault but rather the Deity does not know the background well of the other human involved. 

It should never be assumed that the Deity knows how to take care of you, knows what you need when this happens, nor what to do should something go wrong. That is best left for the discussion between the medium and Deity prior to the channeling or possessory session.

It is extremely important that you develop a close relationship with the Deity in order for Them to truly be able to take care of you should anything happen you were not otherwise prepared for. The closer you are with the Deity you are channeling for, the easier it will be for Them to learn your brain and figure out the complexities of your own nature, and thus making you a more perfect channel for Them to use. 

It’s like molding to fit the size of a puzzle piece so it fits together. Some are already fitting together easily while others take time to grow and mold into a perfect fit. The longer you work with a Deity – I’m talking years, not months – the easier it will be for this to happen.

Some people are more attuned to certain Deities than others. Some will have a pact with that God that they cannot channel any other Deity and only Them. Some will have a door man who only allows certain Deities in and others out depending on how They feel about that other Deity impacting Their channel. It’s really up to the Gods and the devotee to decide because otherwise, it will be a dramatic ordeal wherein anyone can come through the channel and the God can be tossed to the side while trying to develop a bond with that individual. 

Similar to how compatible some people are with their natures, there are levels of compatibility between a Deity and a human. If a human is less compatible with the Deity involved, it will be uncomfortable for both parties as the human would be more resistant to the Deity’s energy. This tends to not be because the human has done something wrong, though there is a chance the Deity may not actually care very much for the human and can discard their need for comfort easily. 

It is important to recognize this doesn’t happen without reason though the Deity can take advantage of the human’s lack of knowledge in the matter because they don’t know the impact this may have on their body. The Deity can make the human uncomfortable without realizing if the human does not know the Deity and has not worked with them at this level before. 

It is important to note these things lest mediums grow to resent this form of divination and come to resent the Gods taking advantage just because they don’t know the consequences of what’s involved before this takes place. 

It is unique to every human the kinds of lengths they will need to go through to become a better channel. It really depends on how unique to this person the Deity is and how easily they already fit with the energy of the Deity. It doesn’t make them any more useful to the Deity or any more important, but it does give the Deity easier access and allows the human more breathing room when learning how to develop this sort of thing.

Additionally, if only one person in a community has this ability, it will become hard for the medium to see things outside their own mind. This is, once again, another reason why it’s important that people of all walks look into this sort of thing and not just those who think they are special. It can become a cult-like following of individuals who think this one person has it all in the bag. Unnecessary worship of the medium for having this ability will happen because they are seen as powerful when anyone can wield this. 

It does, in fact, take a village to host a God and to know a God. It takes more than one person to really understand how this works, and it doesn’t always fall on one person’s shoulders to be the one discerning it. They need support themselves otherwise it could be an issue getting the medium to step out of their own head.

The Benefits for the Community

Channeling and possession is an intimacy that is hard to describe outside of sexual intercourse with the Divine. Even if you see yourself as Their child, it will still be the same process you need to take to learn the ways of your intimate partner in bed or develop the kind of bond you would need in order to make this the easiest, safest, and more fulfilling relationship you would need with your Divine partner.

Not only does the medium get to have a unique relationship with their Divine partner in this, but the Deity gets to look out of the human’s eyes and see the world in their vision. Considering They have no eyes or no ways of seeing the world in our place, They find it much easier to relate to humans if They are allowed this sort of access into our world.

This work will also give Them more means to try to intercede for someone who They work with, allow Them to have a feel for what kind of things are going on in Their devotee’s life that may impact the work they are doing with the Deity, and all sorts of other insight that would not otherwise happen should they not work with each other in this way.

The Divine are not perfect and all-seeing and this would allow Them an access to this world they might not already get to have. It can allow Them a better understanding of how to work with humans and how to be a relevant part of the human world by witnessing our behavior and our devotion firsthand.

We just don’t know the kinds of possibilities of what may happen should this sort of thing come to light in more communities. We can share this world together with the Divine besides us, rather than Them guiding from afar and using other means to try to get Their point across. 

It is my observation that the Gods didn’t always have this problem with humans before Christianity and global Westernization arrived. They usually had means of access to this world through seers, priests and priestesses, Spouses, and other kinds of intimate relationships that often allowed Them to go through mediums to relate to Their people. 

We have more and more people everyday wanting to talk to the Gods and get to know Them but have no

This work is not just important to the Gods, but it is important to the humans They are talking to. We do not see the Divine as partners as much these days but we used to. This was one of the many ways partnerships tended to happen by being able to carry a part of the Divine either temporarily or as a permanent fixture within. This was typically the cause and reason for rituals, feasts, and other celebrations, was to have the Gods come down and be with Their people. 

This was not a thing only smaller groups would do, but rather entire cults and practices among commoners and followers alike so the Gods can get to know the people They are with instead of guiding Them like some overlord or supervisor waiting to smite Their people. This would create friendships, relationships, lovers, and so on to happen among the Gods and the Gods would know Their people in this fashion.

This sort of thing has stopped being a thing due to Christians who tended to believe their God was too good for this world, too sacred to hold near, and too distant to get a response from. We then have turned the other way and put this derogatory mark on the polytheistic Gods as a way of shortening Them of Their abilities to work in this world and be among humans. This is a fallout of latent Christianity we need to address. 

We hold the Deities at arms’ length because we’re scared of what may happen if we did not. We tend to like being controlling and incapable of meeting the Gods where They are at because we are afraid of being wrong and afraid of other people taking advantage of our devotion and using it for their own ends. 

This does happen, by the way. I meet people all the time who run into others who claim to have some sort of reincarnated piece of the Divine within them and so therefore they must do everything they say in order for the God to want them as devotees. People’s lives, relationships, friendships, and worlds have been destroyed because people are using it as a way of asserting domination and authority. 

Unfortunately, that’s not going to stop happening unless we figure out a way of asserting what is a real experience and what is not which can only happen through people experiencing it themselves and using it to their own ends. Like sex, if we don’t talk about how to go about doing this the right way, it has a way of creating side effects that are not immediately obvious like turning a whole community even further away from their God and not do anything because they don’t know better all the way to causing a bad name for the Deity they are channeling and there tends to be a significant impact on their luck and orlog (in other terms, fate), as well. 

No one is supposed to be taking this lightly, but it doesn’t need to be serious, either. The Gods are just as capable of having a casual conversation with a follower as any human can. It only takes both sides of the conversation to be open and allow this to unfold so that it can be enjoyed by the entirety of the people involved rather than just the human receiving it. 

Which takes me to my next point: not all Gods are necessarily open to working with humans in this way nor may They ever be focused on to do this sort of work, either.

Some Gods are not wanting to come down and will make Their opinion extremely clear to all involved. They may come down just to relate that They don’t want to be bothered or called on to assist in this way. This is not something all the Gods want to do, and not something They want from all of Their followers, either. Though it is helpful for the Gods to have followers who are capable of relaying things, They tend to not trust most people in order to best relate these messages. It is a fair problem to have given the amount of abuse it takes for people to just realize it’s a problem, much less that They already don’t have many people as it is, so why abuse the ones They do have or allow them to abuse themselves? 

Before doing this work, speak to the Deity you are wanting to start this with. You may be surprised and They may tell you They’ve been wanting this the whole time or They might say it is either not wanted or now allowed at this time. You should not assume any Deity wants to speak to anyone, either, not even those who call themselves a follower.

Not all Gods know all of Their people, and most Gods know only some of Their people. It depends on proximity and how well They have worked with Their humans in the past. It is extremely important to ask a Deity whether or not They want to speak to another human because it might just be even harder for Them to know the individual in question for reasons that may be explained or not.

All of these criteria depend on a lot of factors that aren’t just being more important than others or having them be more “cut out” for it. Those two factors are typically never the case, either. Everyone can do this. I’ll repeat that until I’m blue in the face.

That’s all for now. Next time I’ll talk about safety and boundary conversations that need to be considered as well as consent with the Deities and consent with other humans.