The Witches' Book of the Dead (17 page)

Apollonius's bloodless sacrifices and prayer-based necromancy were marked departures from earlier Greco-Roman rites, even those that did not involve blood sacrifice. In effect, they initiated a new stream of “kinder, gentler” necromantic practice. In reality, Apollonius was very likely scraping away much of the veneer of evil grafted onto necromancy over the centuries by authorities seeking to discredit its practice.

The Christian Church ruthlessly attempted to stamp out the magical arts, and although it successfully suppressed magic, it could not eliminate it altogether. In many cases, the Church absorbed magical practices and converted them into acceptable religious traditions, just as they did with the spiritual beliefs of most of the places they conquered. And, in some cases,
the Church simply turned a blind eye. Most magical rites went further underground, hidden in families of Witches and occultists, while others were practiced openly, though thinly veiled in Christian symbolism. Necromantic rituals, forming part of the darker side of magic and in constant collision with Christianity's teachings on death and the afterlife, remained underground but never truly went away.

9
Oracular Necromancy: Divination with the Dead

Some years ago, when my friend and mentor, the late Shawn Poirier, told me he was buying real human skulls on the Internet, I was pretty freaked out and thought he was diving off the deep end. Mind you, I'd been practicing Witchcraft for years, but I'd never heard in any book or from any teacher that a skull would add value to the nature-loving, tree-hugging ways of Wicca. Shawn often poked fun at both my naïve idealism and my cynical skepticism, and while it took me years to understand, I know now that it was because these things he was teaching me—they were the real deal. Magic isn't always safe. It doesn't always fit in. And it definitely doesn't always conform to nature. It is supernatural and has the power to direct the tides of nature in ways that most magical practitioners only scratch the surface of.

Shawn purchased two skulls. One, an adult that lacked a lower jaw, Shawn said was named Robert. I asked, “Did
you
name him that?” Shawn replied, “No. That's what he says his name is.” I scrunched my face up, skeptically. The other skull, to my horror, was that of what must have been a seven-year-old
child. “They
sell
these? And what's
her
name?” I asked. “Claudia,” he replied, without missing a beat. “And just what do you plan to do with them?” I demanded. Over the next few years, up until the time of Shawn's passing in 2007, I learned just that.

What Shawn knew instinctively, and what I discovered when I inherited Robert after Shawn's death, was that this skull was better suited for necromantic magic than for divination. I later found out through more scholarly practitioners that this was due to Robert not having a lower jaw. To be sure, Shawn really didn't get much more than a name out of him. Claudia, on the other hand, was a true necromantic skull. She had both the upper and lower jaw, and all her teeth. Shawn used to have quite the conversations with her, and my coven-sister Leanne Marrama continues to do so as Claudia's current guardian.

You've learned about why you would contact the dead, how to make offerings to them to begin a relationship, and some of the more common methods of spirit communication. You've also learned how the ancient world called upon the dead in ritual. And while many of the specifics of those practices are enshrouded in the depths of time, there are rituals you can perform today that will aid you in bringing the dead in for contact.

In some ways, necromancy is not all that different than spirit medium-ship. In fact, necromancy is very likely its ancestor. The primary difference is that modern mediumship has been stripped of most of the ritualistic elements, while necromancy often involves complex rituals, tools, offerings, and other physical practices designed to help facilitate the process. Another difference is in the intent. Modern mediumship was promoted to a far broader audience and often lacked purpose other than to prove to an increasingly skeptical society that there was, in fact, an afterlife. It was often done simply to bring closure to people hoping to make contact with a particular spirit. Necromancers have no doubt that the spirit world is real, and they approach their work with a definitive purpose. This usually involves a question that the necromancer wishes to have answered, such as a portent of the future, where treasure may be hiding, or the intent of an enemy. Such criteria are why the Witch of Endor is usually considered a necromancer and not a
medium, but it is important to understand that these lines are often blurred. Some might argue that mediumship should replace necromancy. I feel that both have their place and that ritual and ceremony can often bring spirits into far clearer presence. Some have even told of seeing the spirits manifest into near-physical form as a result of their necromantic arts!

Defining Your Purpose

Necromancy is
not
a parlor trick. It should not be used like the Ouija board to call up spirits to impress your friends at parties. Even more than mediumship, this is a very ancient art that the spirits of the dead have learned to recognize as the dinner bell for returning to our world, so you'd better take it seriously or you might just end up wishing you had!

It is important that you employ the arts of necromancy for significant reasons. Yes, the spirits will tell you of things to come in the future and they will also reveal hidden secrets, but you should not waste their time or yours with trivialities. Some years ago, I stopped offering psychic phone readings regularly because the same people would call almost nightly asking, “When's my man gonna call?” Inevitably, after I told the client when, and the client got the call from her enamored when I said it would happen, my phone would ring again and I'd be asked, “When's my man gonna call?” These people never seemed to want to just wait for the man in question to call. Granted, sometimes the man was never going to call, and sometimes, clients would call about men they hadn't seen since 1973. Regardless, the questions always seemed to me to be so trivial, and I quickly became frustrated at my inability to convince these people to simply let life happen, and that psychic readings are meant to help us through milestones in our lives. I can only imagine what these individuals would do with the power of necromancy, but please, I implore you to take this more seriously. Imagine yourself after your death. You're in a serene place of spiritual bliss, exploring fantastical realms inaccessible to the living. You don't mind returning to your former world to visit loved ones still living. Until, that is, your cousin Mildred suddenly starts
summoning your poor soul to her boudoir nightly to ask, “When's my man gonna call?” I'm sorry, but I think I'd rather be in the Christian hell than deal with that! So please, do the dead (and your own sanity) a favor and don't bother them with frivolous questions.

It's a good thing to build a daily relationship with the dead, with offerings, communications, and the like, but spirit work is a two-way street and the dead should be getting as much out of the relationship as you are! Always approach such work with a sense of purpose. Know what question you want to ask, whether it is if you'll get married, if you're going to get hired for that new job, or even if it's the combination to your safe that you forgot. Just please make sure your purpose is one that truly justifies calling the spirits away from their other pursuits.

Choose the Appropriate Spirit

When deciding whom to contact for your necromantic inquiries, be sure to choose the spirit that best fits your purpose. If you're looking to know the best path to take in your career, you don't want to call on your uncle who spent half his life on unemployment. You'll want to call on the spirit of your brother, the successful executive. When you want to know if love is coming, call upon that big sister who really understood the inner workings of love, not your second cousin who spent her life in a convent. Now, mind you, all of the dead have access to some information, but it's just easier to get someone to help you who is better equipped for the cause!

Don't Diss the Dead!

For anyone who has studied some form of necromancy in the past, this is perhaps one of the most important sections you will read. Some practitioners of necromancy, including the ancient Greeks and many medieval authors on spirit conjuring, would recommend commanding the spirits by threatening them with torment and harm, promising an offering only after a
question is answered or a task is complete. In doing so, they would often call on the lowliest of the unquiet dead, lost souls with little intent other than to cause mischief and misery. I repudiate this method wholeheartedly.

First of all, would you really look forward to an afterlife that resembles Guantanamo Bay, with greedy necromancers summoning you back to this plane with threats of spiritual waterboarding? If that's not enough to make any decent person stop and think before going that route, then at least consider the vast dangers involved in this method.

Perhaps it is empowering to an inflated ego to think that we might be able to order the spirits around like they were mere slaves awaiting our every command. I guess it could be appealing to wonder what it might be like to have an army of the dead ready to act on our every whim. But this is foolhardy, arrogant, and highly dangerous. Anyone who ever had an Italian grandmother like mine knows that you aren't going to tell grandma, “I command you to stand in that triangle over there while I decide what you should do for me!” I don't know about your grandmother, but mine, from everything my mother told me about her, would step out of that triangle and hit you with a wooden spoon. And what about those spirits whose intent is purely hateful? Such souls can be very strong willed and can sometimes overpower the living because the dead have learned to tap into energies that the living are often unaware of. Some spirits may pretend to cower before your every command simply because they might find you interesting, but the moment you are at your weakest, they will strike.

While I understand that the forceful method is very old, it is not the oldest. One has only to look to the medicine people found among the tribal cultures of Africa and the remote areas of the world to see that a far more respectful tone is taken with the beloved dead with offerings made before the question is answered or task undertaken. This is how the earliest Witches dealt with the dead, and it is how truly wise Witches deal with them today.

It is far more sensible to call on the spirits who truly cared about you in life, such as family, or on your ancestors, who have an interest in seeing their bloodline continue unfettered. When you draw in spirits with whom you
already have a connection, and who care about your cause, they will
want
to help you because this is, in part, why they still partake in this plane of existence.

Finally, consider this. Think of your coworkers. Isn't it safe to assume that those around you who truly care about their job perform better? The spirit world is no different, which is why I choose to work with the spirits of those who loved me in life—those who would have cared about the particular reason I have for calling a spirit up. I would never dream of threatening the spirits except in the most extreme of cases—when the spirit has a malefic intent and is trying to harm either me or those I care about. But other than in those most dire of circumstances, I maintain a relationship of love, respect, and admiration with all of the spirits I call on.

The Skull: Portal to the Spirit Realms

In
chapter 3
, I described the skull as among the most important tools of the Witch. This most ancient tool of divination and magic is a fundamental implement of necromancy and has often been referred to as the oracular head. The Witch of Endor would likely have had one—known as the Oboth to the Hebrews. As stated before, if you cannot obtain one from a reputable place like
BoneRoom.com
, then substitute with a skull made of bronze, resin, or quartz crystal. These are not quite as powerful because they do not contain the energy of the species, but they will work as a strong symbolic link to the dead. As mentioned previously, a skull used for divinatory practices should probably have a lower jaw since, traditionally, this meant that it was able to communicate. If yours does not have one, not to worry, for it will still be a fantastic energy conduit to the Death Current, that vibrational plane of existence where the spirits of the dead reside. However, you will probably not receive much communication from the skull directly and may want to use another method of actual contact such as a scrying mirror or cauldron of fire.

To energize the skull, you'll use your other tools and a willing sacrifice of your own blood. Don't worry; you won't have to slice your hand open or anything weird like that. Three drops of blood, taken via a sterile medical
lancet available at any drug store, should be more than enough to satisfy the spirits. In ancient times, animals were sacrificed. We don't even need to approach the ethics of this, for while there is strong magical force in the blood of any creature, it is missing the emotional component of sacrifice, at least outside of truly poor countries. When you can buy ten more chickens down at the grocery store, you're not really giving much up.

Ritual: A Rite of Necromantic Divination