My best friend and a fellow witch have been looking for solutions to help her father with oppression. We are almost certain he is being taunted by a malevolent spirit and are looking for advice?
I am afraid I am very new to these things but I once did a burning sage cleansing of a house and it was very successful. I would try that first. (Just take the ashtray with you as ash falls as the sage burns)
Try to find out why the spirit is doing what it‘s doing. Get rid of the cause. That might help. If it does not, there should be a bunch of exorcism prayers, spells and rituals on here that should help. Try something with arch-angel micheal. He is the one I would call to get rid of this, and if you cannot do this, then I hate to say this, but the church might be able to help you, if you are a christian. If not, start asking around the covens. Someone will know someone in your generell area who could help
As far as finding out what the spirit wants, that may be a good place to start, but please be aware that communicating with it may be the equivalent of welcoming it into your space. If it really feels as though it has a bad feeling about it, I would not suggest doing this unless you were to cast a strong protectionspell first.
As for feeling its energy, that mostly has to do with the vibe you get from that space. What does your intuition or your instinct tell you? If it reacts instinctively with fear and you are not entirely sure why, it is probably not something you should mess with.
Sage is a good suggestion, but it is really mostly used in cleansings, which are often confused with banishings, but are not exactly the same thing.
Cleansings are to clear a space of negative energy, or to renew it in a sense so that you might start fresh.
Banishing are very similar in their execution, but they have a different purpose. Banishings require a bit more strength. You must claim the space as your own and tell the spirit it is not welcome there. Spread your own energy mentally about the spaceand push or drive the spirit out. It is nice sometimes to have a couple people with you while performing banishingsbecause it may give you more confidence, particularly if the spirit's presence makes you uncomfortable. You may feel safer and stronger having more people with you, and therefor the banishing will be more effective.
If you feel that her father is the one the spirit is mainly attached to or feeding off of, it would be good to have him with you. Help build his confidence, and try to have him participate. It will be more effective if he claims the space and tells the spirit to leave because he is the one who inhabits it most of the time.
Personally, I recommend following a banishing with a cleansing because, as I said, it cleans the negative energy from the space so that you can start fresh, but that is simply a bit of personal advice, not a requirement.
Best of luck to you. If you have any more questions about cleansings or banishings, please feel free to send me a message.
Once you did the cleansing of the house and this spirit has left, did you also go on to the next step and properly ward the house so it could not get back in? Ridding a home of any sort of entity is a two step process and skipping one means things won't work long-term
