Exorcisms
July 7, 2005
I’ve believed for some time now exorcisms need to be revived as the newest spiritual discipline and I am persisting in that belief (I’m just about ready to make pamphlets). I’m not talking about some new age craze to make money off of nor the newest fad that will die out in a year or two - I’m being genuine: I think we need exorcisms.
You’re probably thinking slap a hand on the forehead knock the demons out of someone else type exorcisms. And, while I think that vision is kind of amusing (can I decide if YOU have demons?? because I think I might know a few people who need to be exorcised), that’s not what I’m talking about.
I’m thinking of a ritual, a tradition, something to do when you simply can no longer live with your demons. Not the red-suited demons with horns and pitchforks, but the demons of memory or vice. The demons of bad habits or stuckness. Whatever it is that plagues you and keeps you from moving forward - whatever it is that halts you and throws a wall up in your path. Whatever it is that burdens you and weighs you down, making it hard to stand up straight.
We all have those kinds of demons at certain times. And what do you do with them? Even if you can name them, how do you move forward? What ritual do you find to pass the time while you wait them out? What do you do if you wait and nothing happens? Perhaps it works sometimes to rationalize them away, but I think sometimes thinking about them only makes it worse. So what do we do? How do we find ways to move forward?
I think we need something in the church, in life, we can do to help ourselves let go and move on - to knock the demons out so we can keep going with a lighter load - to knock the demons out so we might have room for the good that will come along in due time. It’s not a matter of forgetting or pretending it never happened, it’s just a matter of making room and putting it back in perspective - holy perspective.
Posted in spirituality by Sarah
John said:
July 7th, 2005 at 11:53 pm
Hey, can we start a whole club? We could call it the exorcism club!
Sarah said:
July 7th, 2005 at 11:56 pm
Let’s . . .
Bec said:
July 8th, 2005 at 1:37 am
Oooh! Brave post. Nice blog Sarah - I can here via pomomusings, which I read sometimes.
I agree…fundamentalist pentecostals are cool with exorcisms, but the rest of us have relegated them to the weird/new age basket. But tradition is important, it can provide closure, it involves a decision to move on. I’ve seen and been involved in church splits, and nasty politics between christian organisations, and it’s kinda inexplicable when you look at the individuals involved. Everyone seems to be behaving badly, and out of character. Perhaps it’s my way of coping, but I’ve often thought it was some kind of insitutional spiritual issue…and that an exorcism or some kind of ‘forgiveness’ service would be a way of moving forward…
Amanda said:
July 8th, 2005 at 10:02 am
I think you’re right that we have a great need for ceremony. We have so many ceremonies for the positive things; weddings, baptisms. But we have very few for dealing with the negative things in our lives. I never thought of exorcisms in that way, I guess I’ve always been just a little too tainted by hollywood.
Julie Jensen said:
July 8th, 2005 at 10:36 am
I think this is a great idea. I have been a part of services of healing and wholeness, and I think we could incorporate exorcisims into those services and create a really powerful, meaningful ritual.
Can I help design the pamphlets?
bec said:
July 11th, 2005 at 7:53 pm
We had a service of healing for a woman in our community who had gone through a divorce. We’re a pretty progressive community, but our senior pastor still copped a bit of flack from older members of the congregation, who thought she was condoning/approving, even celebrating divorce. It was quite bizarre, the different understandings people brought to our attempts to meet the request of this woman to make the end of one stage of her journey and the beginning of another with some kind of ceremony.
It was a beautiful service - most of us cried throughout, because it ended up having a lot of meaning to many of us. In the end it provided a space for a number of us, not just the woman who’d requested the service initially, to let go of past loves and mark a new chapter of our lives.