These days we have an astrological constellation called Mars/Pluto which astrologers associate with fanatic concepts, compulsive mind patterns, and paranormal phenomenon like being obsessed by negative spirits, so called “demons” and so on. Let us have a look at that topic from different perspectives.
In the Hawaiian shamanism called “Huna” – which means “secret” – it is mentioned, that it is possible, to send out negative spirits to harm others, but one has to first feed these spirits with “Mana” – which means “life-force”. That is a very common concept in negative sorcery and maybe we can understand this concept metaphorical as well, in the sense that it eats up a lot of our life-energy, when we think of harming others or even really do it, especially if we do that by so called “magical” methods.
In Daoism one puts certain signs on the door of buildings, to protect them from being visited by negative spirits. These signs are designs of abstract patterns, which are based on a certain kind of logic but also, include disturbances of that logical pattern, to confuse negative spirits, so that they cannot enter. The idea behind it is that demons can not think beyond their concepts. According to that approach, demons have a “one track mind”.
This seems to be a quite insightful approach, because when someone is obsessed with a certain idea, he or she usually follows only one certain pattern of logic and often cannot think outside of, or beyond that pattern. He or she simply can’t think “out of the box”.
Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian founder of anthroposophy also brought up an interesting idea. He once said, that the human being itself creates phantoms in its own aura by habitual thinking and feeling in one and the same pattern again and again and during the process of becoming free has to dissolve these phantoms again himself – which can be understood as another perspective onto the concept of “complexes” and/or “fixed ideas” and their therapy in modern psychology.
And Rudolf Steiner once said: “Everything which appears to be bad was originally something good!” This is actually a master key for anyone who works as a healer and uses alchemical and/or transformative methods!
And we might like to keep in mind, that there are also benevolent and constructive relationships to “invisible visitors and companions”, like the relationship of medicine women and men to their “power animals” or “helping spirits”, which assist them in travelling to other realms of consciousness and also in healing procedures. There the whole thing appears as a win-win situation. Male shamans in Siberia are said to even intentionally dress up like women, because they believe that this way they can attract the spirit beings much more easily.
From the astrological perspective one might see all that as related to Pluto + Mars, which simply means “condensed mind + energy” – a constellation which, as I said before, is “written in the stars” these very days, while we are discussing that topic.
As far as I can see there are several solutions, in case a relationship to “invisible visitors and companions” creates problems.
For Dzogchen people and followers of other nondual teachings there is always the option of turning awareness onto itself, regain access to the open and unlimited space like nature of mind and thus go beyond any kind of attachment to any kind of negative spirits or demons.
It is reported that the Tibetan Yogi Milarepa once said: “In reality, there are no demons at all. But on the path of hope and fear you might encounter thousands of them!”
There is an interesting connection here to the Christian tradition and one of its great Saints, namely St. Antonius, who was frequently approached by demons during his meditations. This subject has fascinated many European painters in many cultural epochs like Hieronymus Bosch and Matthias Grunewald and even the surrealists in the 20th century. In quite a few of the traditional paintings St. Antonius is just smiling or looking quietly focused into space, while the demons are attacking him. Could it be that he was inspired by Milarepa?
Then there is the method of “Feeding your demons” by Tsültrim Allione, inspired by Machig Labdrön, which I mentioned and posted a link to before. And as far as I can see there are many, many more Tibetan methods which can help.
Light workers like Rhea Powers – who has a strong relationship to Tibetan Buddhism by the way – negotiate with spirits and “send them into the divine light” to liberate them. So the focus is on compassion and on liberating such kind of beings, who are according to the concepts of the light workers in most cases playing the role of the “bad guy or girl” quite unwillingly because of bad karma and who suffer very much.
So if we put that approach of the light workers into the terms of Tibetan Buddhism one might call that approach “Liberating demons by Compassion” – which is by the way the main principle of the method “Feeding your Demons” by Tsültrim Allione.
Modern therapists, who use the reframing methods of Neuro-Linguistic-Programming take a similar approach and act as if they knew Rudolf Steiner’s statement “Everything which appears to be bad was originally something good!”. When they find a tough negative pattern which persists and seemingly is recreated by the subconscious mind again and again, they work with the assumption, that this pattern once had a positive function in the past, they build up a connection to that pattern by using nonverbal communication and then start to negotiate, for example by saying things like this:
“Okay, hm, that’s interesting and it is nice to meet you, you seem to be very important, since you show up again and again, and maybe your function is essential for the survival of this being and there is proof that this has worked, look at it your self, it is quite obvious, because you and I can see, that this being actually did survive. Thank you, congratulations, well done; you have done a very good job. You did that, even though you may have felt misunderstood many times and maybe you have already noticed that other aspects of that being react with stress, when you show up, which is because they do not understand how important your function was and still is and as times goes by, we all change, like the clouds in the sky can change anytime quite easily and trees grow leaves, later start to bloom and still even later they bear fruits, so the tree goes on doing one and the same very important thing, do you want to know what kinda thing that is? The tree is “treeing” – of course most humans do not know nor understand that term “treeing” – but you know and I know, that time goes by and as the seasons change, the tree changes its ways of self-expression right? It remains absolutely the same tree all the time and still changes its self-expression in a creative way, how beautiful and all of that comes about quite natural…”
I guess you sort of “picked up the vibe” of that kind of communication.
From my astrological research about Mars/Pluto I can say, that all the approaches mentioned above can be very helpful. The key points are insight, understanding, compassion, open and clear communication and dissolving hard structures in the mind until all mental tensions dissolve into appreciation – and, to get there, to start with appreciation, in case you work with transformative methods.
And if you prefer a nondual approach towards the demons, just turn your awareness onto itself right now and don’t even ignore them. 🙂
May all beings be happy!
Vincento