Yeah, I know why they say to use one. I don’t care for any of them and haven’t felt anything special when hearing them live.
3 Likes
Chapter 5 is about Banishing and Exorcism. Chapter seems fine. It gives a basic shield spell you’d expect to find in most books.
Super basic and you can read up about the benefits and drawbacks elsewhere. Here, it has some wording to specify “malefic forces”, to help form the intent, so it’s not just another generic shield ritual. They can be useful in a pinch, without other means, but I don’t normally use them at this point.
I did want to highlight that he does bring attention to “Eliminate Natural Causes” in this work, which is a healthy thing to do and maybe not done enough (or done too much with people like myself).
If you’re going to ask for signs, ask for a cluster or grouping of signs. Otherwise, someone may find meaning in cats fighting and forget it’s past their dinner time. I don’t accept most mundane signs, so I don’t ask for them. Here, he’s lumped it in with spiritual activity of the Dead sort, but the principle stands. Was that REALLY a ghost breathing on your neck or was I behind you and being an ass?
I appreciated the “Spirit Residue Versus Hauntings” section. It is a distinction to make. We drove by an old mental asylum on the way to the renn fest the other weekend and I knew it was an asylum and haunted before I asked my wife if she knew what that was. I could tell some of it was residue, but some of the rest was not. There were spirits/entities there. Not all were residents (hence the entities - to soak up fear as food).
Aside - One thing I would like to study at some point is to tap into the residue and recharge it a bit. If the entity isn’t trapped, I’m not concerned about doing so. If they are, my responsibilities kick in. Moving on…
He covers attachment to objects, but leaves it more in a “this can happen” state. It isn’t written like someone that has done this directly (for whatever reason). He does give some advice or how to deal with it, a few paragraphs, but that’s all. Spirit Keeping from S. Connolly is a good intro guide to this sort of thing for understanding.
The chapter splits into Cleansing and Exorcism at this point. I just cleaned my space of unwanted energies, but his camphor and candles method should work. I can’t speak to the crystal recommendations, as they are outside of my practical knowledge, save in a few niche areas.
He gives a “Roman Rite of the Beans”, which is clearly old, but I’ve never met any dead that would be lured outside by 3 beans and somehow forget they were fucking with you before that. My opinion.
Then, Exorcism. He gives a really useful diagram in the book for knowing where to start for a pentagram leaning towards a certain element. Would’ve been nice to have something like this for Helios Unbound.
Page 67, bottom.
His exorcism uses the Archanglel Michael and he spends a lot of time explaining that sources for Michael predate Christianity. My opinion is if he’s the right tool for the job, then go for it. I wouldn’t hesitate, if I felt I needed to use him.
But no one I know is possessed, so I’ll have to wait and stay away from fundamentalists so I can see a real one.
That concludes Chapter 5 and the info in it. The exorcism isn’t a bad nugget to tuck away, but, like all rituals, relies upon you grabbing your power, even if it doesn’t state it. Grabbing your divinity, if it gets rough.
5 Likes
Chapter 6 involves methods to contact the spirits and starts off with Automatic Writing. Here, he takes the Old School spiritualist approach that’s been around popularly for at least a hundred years. Here, since we’re dealing with the Dead, he advocates for the calling of a spirit to then get the message, rather than strictly, pure Subconscious approach. As always, it’s a good idea to know who you’re contacting and be able to discern that it is them. The exercise is on page 74.
If you’re going to practice calling and then channeling the message, it may be best to start with a Family member or friend whose spirit you can recognize. It’s a safer way to practice, but be sure to still keep up your protective practices to help ensure it.
The Pendulum gets 3/4 a page, but that info is everywhere and there’s no real way to spice it up without making things overly complicated.
The Ouija Board gets the next 8 pages to go over the device itself, address the fears, and gives proper use suggestions, which mainly apply to all of the other means and methods of spirit communication in general. It isn’t a risk-free activity, but can be nearly so, with the use of protections.
Scrying is next and this is something I’m about to get a lot more experience with. I’ve scried into shiny surfaces (such as a polished desk and water). The exercises here are for mirror, water, and candle flame. His water scrying involves using olive oil. He does advocate for rinsing them in mugwort, which I may or may not do.
I haven’t decided if I’m going to use a candle for my fire scrying or pour some alcohol into one of the stainless steel mixing bowls I have. I suppose my glass tabletop (tiki-style) torch would work.
6 Likes
Chapter 6 is about mediumship and the approach is basic. A basic ritual is given, but it’s really a calling to the spirit with some protections in the form of the Chapter 5 protections and intent during the calling. I don’t have an interest in Mediumship, since I can call and communicate via light evocation. The exercise is about one page, the rest (~10) is history and overview.
4 Likes
Do 
A true necromancer 
4 Likes
I may after my next large work through, but for that one, I’m to do it with Oleum of Satan, for the Kasdeya Rite of Ba’al. This was decided last night, after reading through the book and some pondering. That will have it’s own thread, though.
4 Likes
I know, but it was different from the book.
2 Likes
I’m replying to this top to say why I haven’t updated it in a long time - I can’t find my book! I moved it because we had company coming and now I can’t find it for the life of me. I’ll keep looking and then get this topic back on track.
Edit - book found. Let’s roll! 
2 Likes
I have some loose mugwort and have had it requested in tea form by some of the spirits I work with. I haven’t rinsed my tools in it because…I don’t use a lot of tools. Only some of my tools are dedicated to Necromancy and similar, so I don’t feel a need to do this every time I use them and then recleanse them to be used with other rituals. For example, right now, my incense burner is primarily being used for rituals with a Death entity, but not exclusively so. I may want to use it to give a resin incense offering to a group doing a working for me, such as a combined healing crew of Helios, Raphael, Leviathan, Hi’iaka, and Marbas. No need to rinse, just scrape out anything stuck, light the next coal, and get to it.
2 Likes
Chapter 7 involves Mediumship. I purposefully don’t develop this area for a few reasons - mainly of personal preference. Since I primarily use evocation or a similar calling to work with this current, I’m less inclined to give the proper trust to spirits I don’t know.
Some of my less documented work involved trapping some of the more dangerous spirits presented to me by some of those I work with. This means I have reason to be warier that the average person. While these spirits may be contained in things, it doesn’t mean they don’t have alliances. Seems like more risk than reward for me.
Another reason is that I don’t want to be thought of as a go-to for gathering messages from spirit X and sending them to person Y repeatedly, interrupting the work I need to do for myself. While I do give messages back and forth, it is irregular and unless I’m inspired to do so or you’re a good, close friend, I will likely decline. I’m in ritual pretty much daily, several times a day frequently. I don’t want to get caught up in a time-trap that I would then grow to despise having started.
There are exercises starting on page 97 for this, if interested. I would suggest bringing a guide or similar when starting, so you don’t get “had” by tricksters or imposter spirits that may cause issues over time.
2 Likes
Chapter 8 - The Forbidden Arts of Necromancy.
The chapter is main a small history lesson of basic figures that have been associated with Death, as God/desses, Psychomps, assistants to them, etc… It’s only about 20 pages long and can largely be skimmed. There can be benefit in establishing the “look”/imagery of entities in your head to help give you clues in ritual or in dreams. That’s about it, though. Nothing practical in this chapter.
He does give mention of why one would want the (self-given) title of Necromancer and it comes down to him liking theatrics and feeling “ballsy”. Fine. People are hung up on titles and imposing their definitions of what is and isn’t (insert largely meaningless self-identification here). If it helps you with your craft, then it’s a tool. It is doesn’t, it’s a prop. Only you know which is which and this could change over time.
Getting back on track, after the Greek examples of necromancy he goes into the Roman examples of it. After that, necromancy and Ancient Christians. These sections are appropriate in that this is a beginner’s book, but they don’t really add much in the practical department - unless they inspire your own rituals, of course. That’s really all there is to Chapter 8.
2 Likes
Chapter 9 - Necromantic Divination
Starting to get a bit juicy now. My sort of thing. I take issue with a few things, but feel that this chapter is a good starting point. Some of the advice feel like it came from Martin Coleman’s book Communing With Spirits. Both have their place in the field, for sure, but Coleman’s ideas of the world, some of which I find abhorrent, color his work throughout. I would recommend this book instead.
The chapter does start off with one thing I disagree with, but can also see outlier cases of it that should be worked through over time. The skull housing of the spirits his friend once owned. He claims that because the skull itself doesn’t have a jaw, that the spirit can’t speak. Which is largely ridiculous, unless the spirit isn’t advanced enough to (or degraded enough) to not know/remember how. How can we speak with spirits that have no skull or speak to those dead whose skulls are long gone for whatever reason? It lacks logic and while the author does have experience with magic, I’m betting it isn’t with heavy evocation and clair usage with it. There is the off-chance that the spirit of the skull is an egregore and doesn’t believe it can’t speak because the owner of it impressed that upon it.
One important line on page 123 is - “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”. I mean, if your friends are into that and you have relationships secured with spirits that would find that to be a good time 
Largely agree and this is used to remind the reader that when beginning, there should be a purpose. What that is may differ and not knowing is still fine. One should develop. I didn’t a purpose (or a clue) when I decided to answer Hecate’s call first to ritual and then towards Necromancy, specifically. In the beginning, my purpose was to honor her and Hel by doing acts of good will to the dead that wanted help that I could give. Some people want to simply study the current itself and understand the nuances of its energies. Other simply want power in this area.
What is my purpose now? Harder to define. It’s just a part of me that I need to develop and embrace. Best answer I have right now. While I can feel there’s a method and direction to it and that’s about all I know. I can feel there’s a path I’m supposed to walk down it. Maybe that’s all one of you feel.
Why establish a purpose at all? Because it helps define your point of view towards the craft and the spirits in it. These aren’t like calling a land spirit, a Goetic, or similar. These are different types of entities as varied as any other kind, defined and connected by the current/energy type they exhibit. I would spend some time reflecting on what your current purpose is and you may find that your path starts branching from there with experience. If it doesn’t, it likely will with enough progress/experience.
On page 124, he speaks about a practice I had already started and absolutely agree with - especially when starting out. This is to have a daily relationship with the dead or the Death current. What this is can be as simple as lighting a small piece of incense daily, lighting a candle burn for a little bit at an altar or place of remembrance, or a song sung to the dead, whether known, like your ancestors, or not. Some people place fresh cups of water on their altars for the dead to drink from. I keep water for Santa Muerte’s idol (and the general dead she allows). I also light a small joss stick daily. You’re building up good will and giving honor to those who have come before you. I’m building a similar relationship with the Immortal Fox right now using some of these same methods.
He does give some good advice that one should ask an appropriate spirit for the specific topic. This seems more like common sense than anything else. Usually when I ask for advice, it’s in a group of my ancestors that have come for a Full Moon offering or similar. The more appropriate spirit of that group usually steps forward to answer or they say they’ll get back to me and I get an answer later.
There is some contention about whether spirits are “stuck” in the world they lived in and can’t see or understand anything more modern than that. Coleman is an advocate for that, but he also thinks spirits take several days to go from place to place (then how do they follow you home so quickly?). Some cultures believed the dead gained more knowledge when they passed, others don’t. I think this depends on the spirit themselves and how active they are in our world. The older gentleman spirit that lives downstairs is happily tinkering at his long-gone home workbench. What need/incentive does he have to learn new things?
He makes a case for not being an ass to spirits, what I would place in the Conan of the Graveyard area. Respect is usually returned when given. So are other things.
There are four rituals in the next part of the chapter and I will be making entries for each as I do them. Likely starting tonight.
2 Likes