Exorcism

First published 27 Jul 2026 · Last reviewed 27 Jul 2026 · 3 traditions attested

One word covers two opposite operations, and the record keeps them apart even when modern usage does not. To exorcise can mean to drive an intruding spirit out of a person — or to summon and bind a spirit, compelling it to appear and obey. The Coptic and shamanic records do the first; the grimoire does both. What every version shares is the source of power: not force, but a name spoken with authority.

¶ Coptic Christian — the spell that drives out

The Coptic record preserves an explicit exorcism, titled in the manuscript itself a spell for driving out demons. The method is staged: olive branches are set before the afflicted person; the operator stands behind and calls the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, summoning the power named "Yao Sabaoth"; then the unclean spirit is adjured by name and commanded to leave the body.

A second group of texts asks the power of the crucified Jesus to "cast out every unclean spirit," calling angelic names — Uriel among them — in the adjuration. The mechanism is consistent: the exorcist borrows no strength of his own; he wields higher names, and the spirit must obey them.

¶ Grimoire — command, not only expulsion

The Key of Solomon shifts the meaning. Here "exorcism" is chiefly a ritual of command and binding — not removing a spirit from a sufferer, but compelling a spirit to appear and answer. One exorcism blesses the incense so it may "attract the Good Spirits, and banish... all hostile Phantoms"; another commands spirits, by the divine name "Yod, He, Vau, He," to reveal what is sought, such as the truth of a theft.

And it is fenced by purification. Before any exorcism the operator must withdraw from company, cleanse with hyssop and water — "wash me and I shall be whiter than snow" — bathe in consecrated water, robe, cense himself, and only then draw the circle and begin. The authority to command is earned by the operator's own prepared state.

¶ Turkic shamanic — the drum that expels

In the Turkic record illness is often an intruding spirit, and the cure is its expulsion. The kam (shaman) diagnoses and drives the spirit out in the course of the rite, believed to free the sufferer from the spirits' oppression. One recorded spirit-expulsion chant addresses "the thirty-nine tribes of evil spirits," bidding them release their hold and permit the expulsion to be completed.

The instrument is the drum. Each beat's tone is held to drive spirits off and to open contact with others; the record states the kam cannot perform the rite without it. Where the Coptic priest wields a name and the grimoire operator a prepared authority, the shaman wields sound.

¶ Two operations, one word

Two of the three drive a spirit out; the grimoire mostly calls one in. But under the surface they agree: no operator overpowers a spirit directly. The Coptic priest borrows the patriarchs' God, the grimoire operator the Tetragrammaton and his own consecrated state, the shaman the drum's tone. Authority is always delegated — and that shared assumption is the finding beneath the difference.

¶ Asked and answered

Is grimoire "exorcism" the same as driving out a demon?

Usually not. In the Key of Solomon, "exorcism" most often means commanding a spirit to appear and obey within an operation — a binding, not a removal from a possessed person (KS pp.57, 131). The archive keeps the two senses distinct rather than collapsing them.

Why olive branches, and why stand behind the person?

The Coptic text specifies both without explaining them — the branches are set before the afflicted and the operator speaks from behind (MS p.50). The archive records the staging as given; the reasoning is not in the passage, and is not supplied from outside it.

Why is the drum essential to the shaman?

Because in this record the drum's tone is itself the active force — each beat drives spirits off and opens communication — so the kam is held unable to perform the rite without it (TB p.122). The instrument is not accompaniment; it is the mechanism.

¶ Related entries