Adorcism is a positive ritual interaction with a spiritual being inhabiting a physical host. It involves voluntary possession that may be undertaken for divination or curative purposes or simply to commune with the deity or spirit being.

In contrast with exorcism, a ritual designed to drive out the possessing spirit, adorcism involves propitiating the spirit and encouraging the possession.

Examples of adorcism can be seen in such rites as the Wiccan rite of Drawing Down the Moon and the Voodoo Lwa possession rites. The term was coined by anthropologist Luc de Heusch in 1962.

Liked it? Take a second to support The Sacred Hearth on Patreon!