Debate: Spirit Trapping

I'm not sure where trapping spirits originated from, though if I had to make a professional guess I'd say in the Africa and Asia area since those are the regions humans originally came from. When spirits become malevolent, angry, or dangerous, people have trapped them in objects before so they can no longer cause harm.

A spirit could be a deity, an angel or a demon, a person deceased, etc etc. I've never debated this before, put I imagine there are people who are for and who are against trapping spirits in objects.

What do you all think?

If it's a negative force, I'd prefer banishment to entrapment. I've yet to encounter an entity that I couldn't get rid of. But I have attached Thoughtforms to objects many times.

I imagine binding a spirit to an object would be useful if one needed to remain connected to it. For example, binding a spirit to an object would make it easier to communicate with it so that you don't have to conjure it all over again.

If you want to bind something up out of revenge, that's another reason. Say a spirit that is completely beyond saving. Banishment is still an option, but if you think a spirit deserves a fate worse than death and want to ensure it won't attack anyone else, you can weave it into an object that can be easily disposed of. Drop it in the ocean and let it sink to the depths where there is no light, where it will remain alone forever.

There are a number of rituals for binding unwilling spirits to objects. Either to keep that spirit from causing trouble or provide an enchanted object with a self sustaining source of energy.

Ihe Ibibio tribe in Nigeria have a ritual for trapping angry ghosts. An Idong spirit worker places food in the corner of a room. The ghost's name is called and a pot is placed over the food to trap it when it is thought to be "eating."

The Brazen Vessel of Solomon to some Demonologists was either the precursor to the concept of the Genie in the Lamp (where Genie comes from the word "Genius" referring to a powerful and knowledgeable spirit who could use that skill to allow the Magician to have whatever (s)he so desired) the only problem is that when you contain something you create the inevitability that someone (or you) will release it (material things just happen to be ephemeral like that). Using an object as an anchor to banish as a punishment is a truly insidious way to banish, but an interesting idea for Baneful Magick.

However, I should note that S. Connolly, a notable figure in the Left Hand Path as one of the few public practitioners of Daemonolatry, does also mention using physical objects as tethers for the same reason as was mentioned for simplifying conjuration. Where the being simply uses the object as a conduit instead of being contained inside it like a prisoner.

There are some beings that could benefit from containment, but even then the object would inevitably be cursed in the worst sense that it would still act as a conduit to the nature of that being.

I find the concept of creating a Servitor with an object as an attachment of the being and containing the being within when not employed to be something to investigate as well.

Well.. i blieve sometimes trapping it would be a better option then to banish it.. If it keeps coming back, and back, you should definetly bind it to an object so it can no longer 'cause any damage.