Customer Reviews

Drawing Down the Spirits: The Traditions and Techniques of Spirit Possession

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Kaldera and Filan write an interesting perspective on the drawing down of spirits within the African Diasporic Traditions (particularly Vodou and Umbanda) and the NeoPagan movement. While this book doesn't teach one how to specifically become a 'horse', it does go into the how, what, where, and why people allow themselves to become living vehicles for the divine. An interesting read for anyone interested in Shamanism, Neopaganism, and Trancework.

Drawing Down the Spirits is far and away the best resource I've found on the subject of vesseling or horsing. For many years I worked in a "traditional" coven but was told I couldn't possibly be experiencing having the Gods come and sit on my head or speak through me, I wasn't an initiate yet. Guess what--the Gods don't always care! I got no help, no guidence, just a slap on the wrist everytime it happened. I came upon this book entirely by chance, having heard Raven speak at a conference about astrology and thinking 'cool, I need to check out some of his books.' All I can say is 'thank you' to both he and Kenaz Filan for this excellent resource.

Drawing Down the Spirits is written with common sense, humor and humility.

I'm the priestess of my own coven now and *all* my kids read this one, whether the Gods are trying to sit on their heads or not.

This review originally appeared on The Magical Buffet website on 6/23/09.

Are you ready to have your mind blown? Seriously, are you looking for a book that will force you to confront and/or reevaluate your thoughts on the very prospect of God or Gods themselves? Then you must, I repeat must, get your hands on a copy of "Drawing Down the Spirits: The Traditions and Techniques of Spirit Possession" by Kenaz Filan and Raven Kaldera.

Where to begin? First, I like the authors' honesty and straight forward nature. There are ample texts out there that study the phenomena of spirit possession, the cultures that practice it, etc. Most of it is written from a perspective of trying to dissect it, to figure out why practitioners believe it's happening and what's really going on. This makes for intriguing reading. The authors here make it clear that this is not that kind of book.

"The metaphysical preconceptions underlying this book are quite simple. The authors believe that possession is a real phenomenon; we also see the spirit world(s) as a real place, and that at least some instances of possession involve the displacement of the horse's ego by an outside entity. We acknowledge scientific method as a useful tool, but we do not limit ourselves to this method, nor do we believe it can explain all possessions."

(These guys would get along with LeShan and his theories on the study of the paranormal.)

So with that out on the table by page 34, you might be inclined to think that "Drawing Down the Spirits" is going to become an odd how-to book, or a long winded retelling of first hand experiences. Boy howdy would you be wrong!

The book opens with a fantastically well written, in depth look at the history of spirit possession. This involves a retelling of the history of Spiritualism, Edgar Cayce, Madame Blavastky and Theosophy, and JZ Knight and Ramtha. This all leads into a geographical history lesson in spirit possession that covers Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania. I would gladly have purchased this book for the historical overview alone.

What follows is a compelling look at everything from what constitutes a genuine possession to cosmologies to safety tips to seriously, anything and everything you could ever want to know about spirit possession. Really, anything.

This book presents itself to the reader as a practical look at the phenomenon of spirit possession, and it is, but what really appealed to me was that it is impossible to read "Drawing Down the Spirits" and not spend some time thinking about your thoughts and relationships with God and/or Gods. Hidden within this informative, straight forward text, is a philosophical discourse that is fascinating. Once you open this book, you'll find it hard to put down.

The book covers a variety of information about spirit possession and also examines the history of spirit possession. While most of the more in depth information and descriptions are regarding Western pagan practices there is some cross cultural content with Haiti, Africa and other places with a history of spirit possession. This has plainly been a long time area of interest for the authors. The book delves into the varying degrees of spirit communion from simple communication or contact, channeling which is partial spirit possession, and full on spirit possession. The some sample of areas also covered are healing, divination, and methods used to bring on spirit possession, what to do if a spirit possession goes wrong, fake or frauds practicing spirit possession, and trances. They explain the traits that make for a good horse or vessel for spirit possession, the ins and outs of spirit possession, and warn that even when the participants have the right offerings and objects that the spirits require it can be dangerous and there isn't any safe spirit possession. While not exactly a how to book, there is probably enough info to help those interested in this area. They also describe a method to help determine if the information received should be acted upon, but their method seemed rather complicated basically by confirming and reconfirming the info received. It is clear that one needs to get to know the spirit contacted, their personality, if they are truthful or accurate before acting on any information received. This is a fairly cautious book with wide-ranging information, kind of a everything you ever wanted to know about spirit possession. This isn't my area of interest so I learned quite a bit from this book and it was an interesting read.

Drawing Down the Spirits: The Traditions and Techniques of Spirit Possession offers an insider's view of the inner traditions and actualization of spirit possession in the modern world. The authors are initiated and experienced in Shamanic and Vodou traditions and here provide keys to understanding possession and spirit agendas.

First let me say that "Drawing Down the Spirits" is a good book. It offers a look into the minds of people in modern day paganism who are still working with living gods, the ones who come down and speak directly with their devotees.

This book talks about culture and possession, what possession feels like, the do's and do not's of possession, and it also offers insight into whether a possession is real or fake, and the different perspectives of how possession works.

My main concern with this text is that possession is dangerous. I have practiced possession and I work within traditions that practice possession, so it is not unfamiliar to me, but I am not sure I can promote solitary practitioners practicing possession, or people who have no formal trianing. This opens up the practitioner to a whole bunch of potential issues.

The book is good, and I do believe that we need more texts for advanced practitioners, but I am thinking maybe this text offered too much information that should have remained a mystery or at least within oral tradition.

Before I write anything else, I must commend Filan and Kaldera for their in-depth survey of spirit possession throughout various world religions. The book contains plenty of information that one can utilize and learn from, however I was somewhat disappointed with it. From first glance, I was under the impression that "Drawing Down the Spirits" was going to focus mainly on spirit possessions within African diaspora religions. It turned out that it made mention of it, but really didn't go into much detail on that sector of Paganism. Aside from briefing different practices across different countries, this work focused mainly on possessions within American groups practicing paths such as Wicca. Nothing wrong with that, but the authors can attest that possessions within African diaspora religions are much more intense and powerful. I had only wished to read more on that topic.