We tend to fall into a trap, when thinking about spirits (both ghosts and other types of spirits). We think of them as if they were people, bound by the same limitations that they were in life....most specifically that of location. While it is true, that many people will call on deities or ancestors who originated in other areas, we still tend to think of things like hauntings as being people who died nearby (or at a location). Even when it comes to calling up spirits to aid us, we normally either think of them in terms of 'local spirits' or that somehow the spirits answer us from wherever they are...but do we consider where they actually reside?
I think it's something that we do out of convenience. We want to believe that we can ask for any spirit we want, and that it doesn't matter if they aren't local. We think that if we call them we answer. And yet, at the same time, when it's something bad, it's trapped to a location. If someone died horribly in a house, they can't leave. If someone did horrible things, they are somehow locked to the scene of their crime.
I think we create these arbitrary rules because we don't want to really sit and think about how the spirit world might work. We want to feel like we are safe if we leave a creepy location, and we want to believe we have access to the whole spirit world. We want to be the masters of the world around us, and we don't like thinking that we might not have as much control as we believe we have.
It also reminds me of one of my big gripes about ancestor work: the idea that our ancestors just kind of hang around us, always ready in case we want to talk to them or ask them a favor. Some people treat deities this way as well.
I honestly feel like time and space don't operate the same for spirits as it does for us. I tend to think of them as outside of time or space, and thus also able to be anywhere or anywhen. But that doesn't mean that we can take them for granted. I also don't think they are in any way locked to their location of origin (or death, or the places they frequented in life). And, to complicate things even further, I don't think that all spirits are the same.
Let me explain. We'll start with spirits of the dead, what many people consider to be ghosts. I have my own thoughts about what happens to us after we die (the short version is...whatever you think will happen to you does), which means that functionally I don't think everyone will stick around as a ghost. But most ancestor worship is based on the idea that we can call upon any ancestor we wish, any person who has ever lived on this earth, is there for us to reach out to.
That just doesn't make any sense to me. Firstly, I don't think that the afterlife is just a big waiting room with all the dead sitting around watching what us living folks are doing. Also, this belief kind of excludes a lot of afterlife beliefs. If I go to heaven or hell....am I really going to just be able to pop out and help answer my decedents questions about which person they truly love? If I am reincarnated, do I just zone out of my current life whenever someone is trying to talk to my spirit? If I 'become one with the universe' how do I separate myself enough to show up at a Samhain ritual?
I think that many things can happen to us when we cross over (to where ever we cross over to). I do think that some people stick around, in a pretty coherent form. These are the active ghosts, the ones who tend to effect the world around them. But I also think we sometimes leave echos, these aren't full fledged ghosts, but just bits of ourselves. It might be a cold spot or a stain that won't go away, but it's not a complete personality, just one bit that lingers. I also think that sometimes what we see as spirits are reflections...they are the bits of those who have gone before that are a part of us, so when we reach out to them, we are interacting with the part of them that became a part of us.
Now, some of these spirits will be more location tied. Echos are often stuck in one place, because they aren't complete. They are linked to one specific point in the life once lived. They might go away if that place is changed enough. But others are truly free from the limitations of the living. They are energy beings, and as such, they can be where (and when) they want to be. If they are here speaking with me at the moment, and you call on them from across the globe, they can be there with you as well.
For reflections, well they are where we are, because we carry them inside us. And I think we can reflect spirits that aren't directly connected to us, because when we learn about someone, we create a connection with them. We can reflect spirits that we might not be directly descended from, simply by being aware of their existence.
Here's where I think it gets even more tricky. When we reflect or carry spirits with us, they can also become aware of the world around us...remember reflections go both ways! If we consider how our ancestors migrated, and how they took their memories with them, they brought with them their beliefs in the spirits of the land and the world around them, they brought with them the gods they worshiped....it only makes sense that some of those spirits would take root in the new lands they found themselves in.
I don't feel that spirits or energy beings are locked, either in place or in evolution (as in they can never grow and evolve....I don't think they are flies trapped in amber). As we have spread out and mingled with each other, I think the spirits we work with have as well. I don't think that my land (here in North America) is only populated with spirits that originated here.
Now, many spirits have preferred habitats. Some may like woods and some might like streams. Some might like a particular plant or stone, while others may want to be in a specific room in our house. If those things don't exist in a new place, they might change their likes. And just like someone who is forced into a new situation, sometimes they look for the closest thing to what they used to have, and sometimes they see something brand new and fall in love with it. I think that spirits that have moved over time can evolve in surprising ways, just like people do.
I think we owe it to ourselves, and to the spirits we work with, to stop thinking of them as both unchangeable and locked into their 'place of origin', and also somehow limited by the same limitations we face as human beings. We need to really look and listen and see what they are telling us. We need to be open to the changes they may have gone through, so that we can work with them as they are and not as we expect them to be. And we need to respect them, and not treat them as if they are only hanging around to serve (or scare) us.
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