[identity profile] grondfic.livejournal.com 2005-02-23 02:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I think it's quite normal to Channel characters.

I'm a Pagan and walk the shamanic path, so I'm used to a milieu where all kinds of entities get contacted and (maybe) Channeled whilst Journeying.

I started shamanic life by "actualising" the this-world faces of spirits in Mask form. So - by analogy - Channeling characters from fiction works the same way. I have to say that it's easier if the literary characters connect in some way with an Archetype, whether a Universal one (say - "Trickster"), or a personal one (say - bit-of-rough-with-a-heart [Yay! Shagrat!]). In fact, I'm often made aware that a particular writer/film/tv show has produced an Archetype by the reaction I have when writing in that particular fan-verse (JKR - yes, I'm thinking of Snape here!). If the character has got free of their creator and is rampaging joyously across the fandom, then they've probably struck an archetypal nerve (and usually without the author's knowledge or approbation).