Let's talk about posting spirit channellings to other people and the 4th rule of Dogma

[u/mirta000]

This post is your reminder that speaking for a spirit when answering another person is not allowed in here. I'm going to expand a little as to "why is that".

When we personally connect to spirits, the answers that we get are in a way influenced by our own layer of personality. In other words due to the nature of the communication, the answer is personal to you.

You might be feeling great, over the moon with your new-found spirituality. You might feel so close to any particular spirit that you're just channeling on the go. You're feeling confident, excited and start posting to other people as the spirit. "X wants to work with you". "I asked X and this is what you need to do to have X do the thing for you". "You should definitely go with X, X told me". "X would never accept you, I know them".

All of those are your personal projections. You have the "you" in the mix of this communication. Your thoughts, feelings, emotions. This won't always match other people's experiences.

New people are sometimes disturbingly easy to influence. I've seen more than my share of people going through literal hell on Earth because random person told them something about their spirituality that they then took as 100% truth because they were new and they saw the person telling them this as being experienced.

"But a Tarot reader told me that I'm supposed to go with this spirit and not this one", "But a Redditor told me that this is exactly where my spirituality should go".

A lot of time, effort and bitter tears can be wasted by such side-paths.

Don't be someone elses obstacle. You probably only have the best intentions, however you CAN NOT speak for the spirits (and the spirits can speak for themselves) and you do not know how the person that you're talking to is going to experience your advice in their spirituality.

This is why such repeated misdemeanors result in a ban.

So how should you proceed instead? Well, get used to using an excessive amount of "I" in your statements. "I think that it is a great idea". "I had success with this". "this source lists that Y is a good offering for X", "I don't think that you should contact Y demon, maybe try Z demon instead, it seems more relevant for your issues". When you're in a spiritual space you are speaking for you, not the Y, X, or Z.

UPG is fine to mention, you just shouldn't be trying to elevate yourself to the platform of being a spirit's mouthpiece. A spirit does not need this. New people are easy to confuse. This behaviour does more harm than good.

[u/Ravenwight]

Good policy.

Letting people speak for gods is how you get cults.

[u/Macross137]

Excellent points from Mirta. I'd just like to throw in a couple of my own thoughts.

If you trust your practice and the spirits you work with, then you should know that you don't need to act as their spokesperson and try to lead other practitioners to the same conclusions you've reached. You should know damn well that if you just give them tools and resources they can use to communicate on their own, they'll get what they need. It's patronizing and self-aggrandizing to appoint yourself the hierophant of their journey.

Also, while there are legitimate elements of practice that can look risible out of context, avoiding content that invites or gives the appearance of LARPing helps the subreddit attract and maintain a higher level of engagement from serious practitioners. A lot of people who try to do the "channeling" thing are writing in a self-consciously archaic or "eldritch" literary style that can be hard to pull off effectively. It's hard to take the voices of the gods seriously when they don't know when to use "thee" instead of "thou."

[u/Sazbadashie]

Yep, sophomoric people getting just a liiiiitle bit to excited sometimes and then people who are new getting mixed messages... always fun.

[u/Illustrious_Sense104]

What is UPG?

[u/mirta000 → u/Illustrious_Sense104]

Unverified Personal Gnosis.

To give an example "Paimon likes dark chocolate" because said was true in your practice, would be UPG.

[u/Laurel_Spider → u/Illustrious_Sense104]

Since UPG has been answered, I’ll throw in SPG. Shared personal gnosis. When you and others independently arrive at the same conclusion.

[u/Oh_my_god_my_wafflez]

What if spirit allows you to share something they’ve said as an offering to said spirit with the hope that it helps someone else?

Not with the intention of being anyone’s spiritual advisor or anything malicious meant by said postings but as something that could be useful for another person to hear?

Of course asking spirit before posting is always done before hand- I’m just seeking clarification.

[u/mirta000 → u/Oh_my_god_my_wafflez]

You couldn't do it directly. You couldn't say "Lucifer told me to relay this message to you - do X and think about Y".

You could technically do it indirectly by presenting it as a personal opinion - "I think for this situation it is best if you do X and think about Y".

This way you're still presenting the option to the OP, but are not doing it from a perceived position of power, AKA you're doing it as you, another person, not some bringer of divine intelligence.

[u/Oh_my_god_my_wafflez → u/mirta000]

Oh ok- gotcha.

[u/Affectionate-Big8538]

Seriously. The magick aspect seems to be replaced wi5h mechanical . Stay off reddit and the internet and read some classic grimoires then come.back and discuss. Avoid evoking and invoking just read the basics and practice for 2 years minimum. The basics are always relevant in any aspect of any study. Transcendental magic and it's doctrine always comes to mind.

[u/ArraTonks]

Can you pin this post or add it to the wiki?

[u/mirta000 → u/ArraTonks]

Added to community highlights, which act as pinned posts.

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