necromancy
nekros, "dead", and manteia, "divination" death magic
necromancy, necromantia , is the practice of magical sorcery involving communication with the dead by summoning their spirits as apparitions or visions, or by resurrection for the purpose of divination. it is a means to foretell future events; discover hidden knowledge; return a person to life, or to use the dead as a weapon. since the Middle Ages, necromancy has come to be associated more broadly with black magic and demon-summoning, losing its earlier less-pejorative meaning.
It is important to note that necromancy is separated by a thin line from demonology and conjuration. Necromancy is communing with the spirits of the dead, rather than the evil spirits of conjuration and demonology.
the driving force behind black magic is hunger for power. for some necromancers, their ambition is to wield supreme power over the entire univerise, and to make themselves a god. black magic is rooted in the darkest levels of the mind.
It is important to note that necromancy is separated by a thin line from demonology and conjuration. Necromancy is communing with the spirits of the dead, rather than the evil spirits of conjuration and demonology.
the driving force behind black magic is hunger for power. for some necromancers, their ambition is to wield supreme power over the entire univerise, and to make themselves a god. black magic is rooted in the darkest levels of the mind.
The word comes from nekros, the Greek word for dead, and manteia, or divination. This death divination was a way of discovering knowledge from the dead. Many agree in its earliest form, necromancy was part of shamanism, and shamans sought advice from their dead ancestors.
Necromancy is a practice that originated in ancient Persia, Greece, and Rome, but was most popular during the Middle Ages, and is rare today. The most common form of necromancy is to summon the spirit of the corpse by sacrifices and incantations but there is also the less common practice of attempting to raise the corpse to life. For the ancient Greeks, necromancy referred to the ritual you completed before you could get into the underworld. Seeking information about his journey home, Odysseus follows the ritual prescribed by Circe so he can talk to the dead. Homer’s Odyssey notes he makes a drink of animal blood for the ghosts.
The Romans and Greeks thought spirits only knew as much as they did when they were alive. That made them only marginally useful as a source of information. You could ask them personal information, but not for prophecies about the wider world. But other cultures thought the dead gained access to all knowledge once they passed over.
In the Bible, Saul asks the Witch of Endor to raise Samuel the prophet for advice on dealing with the Philistines. She does so, and Samuel predicts Saul and his army will die in battle. Saul goes ahead with the battle anyway and commits suicide when his army loses.
By the medieval period, necromancy was adopted by magicians seeking knowledge. For them, this new science was also a way to influence others, often using illusions. It sounds nefarious, but these magicians wanted to find lost things and solve crimes.
Despite what detractors claimed, necromancy, though associated with black magic, didn’t involve pacts with the Devil. Instead, necromancers issued commands to demons or other dark forces having had power conferred to them by God.
Necromancy is a practice that originated in ancient Persia, Greece, and Rome, but was most popular during the Middle Ages, and is rare today. The most common form of necromancy is to summon the spirit of the corpse by sacrifices and incantations but there is also the less common practice of attempting to raise the corpse to life. For the ancient Greeks, necromancy referred to the ritual you completed before you could get into the underworld. Seeking information about his journey home, Odysseus follows the ritual prescribed by Circe so he can talk to the dead. Homer’s Odyssey notes he makes a drink of animal blood for the ghosts.
The Romans and Greeks thought spirits only knew as much as they did when they were alive. That made them only marginally useful as a source of information. You could ask them personal information, but not for prophecies about the wider world. But other cultures thought the dead gained access to all knowledge once they passed over.
In the Bible, Saul asks the Witch of Endor to raise Samuel the prophet for advice on dealing with the Philistines. She does so, and Samuel predicts Saul and his army will die in battle. Saul goes ahead with the battle anyway and commits suicide when his army loses.
By the medieval period, necromancy was adopted by magicians seeking knowledge. For them, this new science was also a way to influence others, often using illusions. It sounds nefarious, but these magicians wanted to find lost things and solve crimes.
Despite what detractors claimed, necromancy, though associated with black magic, didn’t involve pacts with the Devil. Instead, necromancers issued commands to demons or other dark forces having had power conferred to them by God.
the most common practice for a necromancer is to summon the spirit of the corpse by sacrifices and incantations. The rituals demand meticulous execution and exacting preparations involving the choice of a proper place, for example a cemetery or the ruins of an ancient monastery ; the choice of the right time, usually between the hours of midnight and one in the morning; use of specific incantations; and accessories, such as bells. One of the most important elements is the use of a magic circle which protects the necromancer and his or her assistant from being harmed by provoking the dead.
when summoning the dead, it's imparative to get into the right frame of mind. the necromancers surround themselves with the aura of death for nine days, dressing in the dead person's clothes or wearing a token of theirs while eating food that represents decay, like black bread. some are known to eat the flesh of dog as it is a creature of hecate, the goddess of ghosts and death and sterility. the black bread and drinking unfermented grape juice is a necromantic equivalent of the bread and wine of communion, and is considered a sacrament of emptiness and despair.
through these preparations the necromancer puts themselves in touch with death, into a corpse-like state in which they are in rapport with the real corpse they intend to disturb. they will burn torches and burn a mixture of henbane, hemlock, aloes wood, saffron, opium and mandrake.
they will read therites of hecate , and arrange the body with its head to the east, the direction of the rising sun, and with its arms and legs in the position of the crucified christ, so that it will rise from the dead. they will light a dish of wine, mastic and sweet oil to conjure the spirit to enter its old body and speak. in some cases, the dead are summoned to attack a person the necromancer wishes to harm or master. they also resurrect for the purpose of answers; foretelling the future, or for the witch to carry out its unfinished business in exchange for something in return, usually jewels or relics buried inside the coffin.
some necromancy rituals require a sacrifice but that doesn't always refer to killing a person. offering hair or blood was a substitute for a sacrifice, though they often used animal blood in the process. many necromancers chose sympathetic magic when making requests of spirits. As an example, knocking two rocks together demonstrated the feud they wanted the spirits to start between two families.
Some necromancers used a system more recognizable to us as a form ofspiritualism . The necromancer invited a spirit into a medium, using the medium like a ventriloquist’s dummy. Famed Elizabethan magician John Dee used Edward Kelley as his medium when speaking to angels. Under Redgrove’s definitions of medieval ceremonial magic, their seances were closer to white magic since they involved angels.
some say necromancers might mutilate or eat corpses though that’s unlikely in the medieval period. These magicians used spells and incantations with a linguistic structure similar to those used in exorcisms. They took these rituals very seriously.
when summoning the dead, it's imparative to get into the right frame of mind. the necromancers surround themselves with the aura of death for nine days, dressing in the dead person's clothes or wearing a token of theirs while eating food that represents decay, like black bread. some are known to eat the flesh of dog as it is a creature of hecate, the goddess of ghosts and death and sterility. the black bread and drinking unfermented grape juice is a necromantic equivalent of the bread and wine of communion, and is considered a sacrament of emptiness and despair.
through these preparations the necromancer puts themselves in touch with death, into a corpse-like state in which they are in rapport with the real corpse they intend to disturb. they will burn torches and burn a mixture of henbane, hemlock, aloes wood, saffron, opium and mandrake.
they will read the
some necromancy rituals require a sacrifice but that doesn't always refer to killing a person. offering hair or blood was a substitute for a sacrifice, though they often used animal blood in the process. many necromancers chose sympathetic magic when making requests of spirits. As an example, knocking two rocks together demonstrated the feud they wanted the spirits to start between two families.
Some necromancers used a system more recognizable to us as a form of
some say necromancers might mutilate or eat corpses though that’s unlikely in the medieval period. These magicians used spells and incantations with a linguistic structure similar to those used in exorcisms. They took these rituals very seriously.
After the Renaissance, necromancy quietly disappears from many texts. Following the Enlightenment , the practice seems to have moved into other areas, such as seances, channeling, ouija boards and spiritualism to invoke spirits by revealing future events or secret information. the 19th century introduction of cremation in the western world makes resurrecting the body impossible. it’s hardly surprising that spiritualism offered a cleaner alternative with fewer (or no) religious overtones.
but not limited to
necromancers will call on specific deities as well as entities during their ritual practice. if a necromancer chooses to feel more powerful in their magic, they will often worship a diety or dieties in order to reach their full magical potential. these divine gods and goddesses are linked with death and witchcraft, and are therefore the most commonly worshipped.
hecate the goddess of witchcraft, the night, moon, ghosts and necromancy. she has powers to communicate with the dead.
urgathoa goddess of physical excess, disease, and the undead. She is mostly worshipped by dark necromancers and the undead. on occasion, those infected with plagues make offerings her.
hades king of the underworld and god of the dead. he is able to manipulate and possibly conjure the spirits of the dead to use as he desired.
grim reaper , the god and personification of death, harvests souls and guides them to the afterlife.
hel the gruesome goddess of death and of the dead. she can resurrect the dead, raise an undead army to fight endlessly, sense when someone is close to death, and can kill mortals, demigods and legacies by turning them into ghosts, and forcing them into helheim for eternity.
bifrons Bifrons appears in many forms but usually always as a ghoulish figure depicting his apparent interest in things of the dead. He lights strange lights above tombs of the dead.
murmur He teaches Philosophy, and can oblige the souls of the deceased to appear before the conjurer to answer every desired question.
has at least three main abilities
aura absorption: can absorb auras, while removing it from the source, into their body and use it in various ways, gaining some form of advantage, either by enhancing themselves, gaining the drained power, using it as power source etc., either temporarily or permanently. +divination: can employ divination, a method of reading the future, the present and the past and/or provide help to a problem at hand by using an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Divination can communicate with the supernatural (i.e. gods, demons, spirits, nymphs) or read certain patterns. +blight: a spell that allows a necromancer to drain its target of its life essence, however, this spell does not affect the undead.demonic possession: allows the necromancer to call upon a demon and order it to possess another human.blindness/deafness: causes the victim to lose their sense of hearing, seeing, or both. This effect is only temporary, however skilled necromancers can make it permanent.curse: believed to be the easiest spell a necromancer can perform. It causes the victim to suffer unbearable pain until a curse removal spell is performed. they can also use a spell to remove the curse.blood magic: able use blood magic; an a ancient and very powerful but still dangerous form of magic that relates to blood. This particular kind of magic predates the modern word-based magic via incantations and was considered by some to be more powerful then most due to the esoteric nature of blood, as user has the inherent power in their blood, they can cast extremely powerful spell. +conjuration can bring forth any form of creatures, items, spirits, demons, deities or elements by either summoning, creating or manifesting them in any particular way to do the bidding of the conjurer. in traditions and most contemporary usages, it refers to a magical act of invoking their conjuration subject by using incantations or charms to cast magical spells to bring the creation forth. +bone magic: can create, shape, move, control, interact and manipulate bones, a rigid tissue that constitutes part of the vertebrate skeleton in animals, of oneself and others. Users can control bare skeletons or entire skeletal systems, including growing, shaping, manipulating density/weight, creating constructs, etc. More advanced users can manipulate bones of other species, or even metaphysical and divine beings. For combative purposes, one can turn bones into spears that brutally skewer enemies, strengthening bones to increases defenses, or positioning bones to defend from incoming attacks. +spell casting: can cast spells, which are formulae for producing specific magical effects and phenomenon. Such formulae are often a series of magic words, symbols and incantations, but they can also take the form of specific thoughts, gestures, rituals and other actions that can sometimes require additional components to function properly, such as the use of items like wands or certain conditions such as celestial events. If the user is powerful or skilled enough, they can cast their spells as nonverbal spells which doesn't require them to say the incantations to perform the spell. +death inducement: can kill anyone and possibly even anything using varying means, either instantly, slowly over time, after certain conditions are met, or after a certain period of time has passed. may be induced by touch, at a distance, simply willing it to happen, or by performing a certain ritual. +death magic: this power can utilize powerful spells that involve death itself, which can be an extremely potent magic that can cause any living thing to die or cause powerful spells using the supernatural forces of death, either instantly or eventually. +immortality: possesses immortality, a state where one has eternal life and undying. Usually, users never age, are completely self-sustaining, free from all bodily necessities, and can survive virtually any kind of decay or harm. Any damage done to the user would either be regenerated or just remain but not be fatal to them. as byproduct of having everlasting life, users may have an infinite reservoir of life energy that can act as a dynamic-system of their immortality. +mediumship: are spirit mediums that can view communicate with or interact with the souls/spirits of others. they can banish these entities from an area or summon souls/spirits that will defend them if they were ever to come to harm. They may even have their own soul or spirit enter the different worlds within the afterlife, while having their bodies within the living world entering in a sort of trance-like state. that allows them to return to their body when they're finished with their affairs within the afterlife. +motor-skill manipulation: can take control over motor functions of others against their will as if they were a marionette, subjects are still conscious, but can’t resist the user's puppet control. +undead manipulation: can create, manipulate, and destroy physical and ghostly undead, command dead souls, condemn them to torment, or steal the souls of the dead/dying to increase their legion of the undead. +pain inducement/suppression: is able to cause varying levels of pain, including physical, mental and/or emotional, to their targets using supernatural means. can also block pain at will, are incapable of feeling pain or are highly resistant to the physical pain of any kind, allowing them to think clearly and continue to move without even flinching despite horrific and grievous injuries. users can continue to move, ignore torture and generally function in situations where the pain would disable a normal person. the user does not react at all when damaged, they can walk onward as they are being damaged or continue fighting without stopping no matter how hard they are hit. + +spell casting: can cast spells, which are formulae for producing specific magical effects and phenomenon. Such formulae are often a series of magic words, symbols and incantations, but they can also take the form of specific thoughts, gestures, rituals and other actions that can sometimes require additional components to function properly, such as the use of items like wands or certain conditions such as celestial events. if the user is powerful or skilled enough, they can cast their spells as nonverbal spells which doesn't require them to say the incantations to perform the spell. +