Ars Necrotica

Nathaniel J. Harris

This article exists as an addendum to Chapter 19, WITCHA, Mandrake of Oxford, where we have introduced the subject of Necromancy; Necros Mantia, being the summoning by goety of the shades of the departed. Such may be for the purposes of interviewing the shade, perhaps to discover some secret kept by them in life, or to employ that greater wisdom that comes with the passing into death. The shade might also be bound unto the service of the witch, and made to obey their command. It is that art forbidden by Mosaic Law, Levit.XIX:31; XX:6, which is abhorred by the Lord, Deut.XVIII:11, 12, and punishable by death, Levit.XX:27; cf. I Kings.XXVIII:9. Necromancy is found in every nation of antiquity, and is a practice common to paganism at all times and in all countries. It was known amongst the sorcerers of Persia, Etruria, Chaldea and Babylon. Isaias XIX:3 refers to its practice in Egypt, and in Deut.XVIII:9-12 Moses warns the Israelites against imitating the Chanaanite abominations, among which is mentioned seeking the truth from the dead. In Deut.XVIII:11, Isa.XIX:3, Vulgate, we find mention of 'pythons', which in the Hebrew are called as 'ôbôth denoting the spirits of the dead, who were consulted to learn of the future (Deut.XVIII:10-11, I KingsXXVIII:8), giving their answers through the possession of mediums (Levit.XX:27, I Kings.XXVIII:7), Isaias.VIII:19 states that necromancers 'mutter' and makes the following prediction concerning Jerusalem: "Thou shalt speak out of the earth, and thy speech shall be heard out of the ground, and thy voice shall be from the earth like that of the python and out of the ground thy speech shall mutter" (XXIX:4). We find it practised in the time of Saul (I Kings.XXVIII:7-9), in the age of Isaias, who reproaches the Hebrews on this ground (VIII:19, XIX:3, XXIX:4, etc.), and of Manasses (IV Kings.XXI:6, II Par.XXXIII:6). It is to that art employed by the anonymous witch of Endor, whom Saul commands to summon the soul of Samuel (I Kings.XXVIII). In ancient Greece and Rome the rites of nekromanteia, psychomanteia, or psychopompeia were performed in dark caverns, in volcanic regions, or near rivers and lakes, such as that celebrated oracle in Laconia, in a large and deep cavern from which black and stinkings vapour issued, and which was considered as one of the entrances to the cthonian realms. So too were they performed in Thesprotia, besides the river Acheron, which was supposed to be one of the rivers leading into the underworld, and at Aornos in Epirus and Heraclea on the Propontis, and in Italy was the oracle of Cumæ summoned in a cavern near Lake Avernus in Campania. It is spoken of in the narrative of Ulysses' voyage to Hades (Odyssey, XI), which tells of his evocation of souls by means of the various rites as taught by Circe.

Thus we may see that Necromancy is amongst our most ancient of traditions, for indeed it has been known amongst men since the first aeon. It is spoken of at length in many of the classical grimoire of the craft. As divinities frequently were but human heroes raised to the rank of gods, necromancy, mythology, and demonology are in close relation, and the oracles of the deceased are not always easily distinguished from those of other spirits. Those rites as are employed in the evocation of shades are in all ways similar to those of other forms of goety, whether summoning daemons, phaeries, or familiars.

You may know that such shades still love their relinquished bodies after death, and are allured to their proximity as young lovers are one to the other. This is especially so with the shades of criminal men, who have died under unfulfilled oaths, or harbouring guilt for things they did not take chance to put right. Also, with those who have died suddenly, by violence and surprise, and the shades of those awaiting burial. From hence it is, that the shades of the dead are summoned by the application of some part of their relict body, and by the sacrificing of fresh blood. Other offerings are of bones, flesh, eggs, milk, oils, honey, as with the traditional Soul Cakes, by the preparation of food such as is known as the Dumb Supper, and such things as do remind the shade of its manifestation in physical form.

The circumstances and conditions of the Necromantic Art, such as the time, place, and rites to be followed, depend upon various conceptions entertained concerning the nature of the departed spirit; its abode, its relations with the earth and with the body in which it previously resided. Conjurations as these are most effectively performed in those places that the shades of the dead are known to most frequent. Such might be some place of importance to the shade when in life, of which they felt affection, and which might allure them. If the death was violent or sudden, the shade may often be called from proximity to such a place as their shade was separated from its body. Alternatively, they might be drawn to some place where a spirit trap has been lain, that they may be punished and enslaved by the sorcerer. Those places also suitable are those that are revealed in dream, vision, or are known for apparitions, or upon whose soil much blood has spilt. To such a place are the bones, flesh, sacrifices, perfumes, and tools of evocation taken.

The lore of the graveyard, and of death, is an uncomfortable subjects to consider. It inspires an irrational superstitious fear, as any midnight graveyard will, despite being hallowed ground and thus theoretically 'safe'. Even the most modern mind can become unsettled by places. Even in our apparently enlightened age, we are still surrounded by taboos concerning all things deathly and funereal, as anyone who has ever found employ in 'death-care' will contest.

Nevertheless, the use of human remains was common in our old spell-craft. Human bones, usually powdered, were employed in many of those remedies sold by medieval apothecaries. Mixing such with red wine was believed to provide relief from dysentery. Another cure, this time for gout, included mucilage scraped from shin bones 'found' in a graveyard. A tricksterish spell recorded in the nineteenth century was to mix the burnt remains of a corpse with ale, so as to vastly improve its potency. Medieval sorcerers were keen to acquire them for their workings, with the theft of human remains from graveyards and tumuli being frequent. Similarly, such unwholesome ingredients provide a regular part of much surviving folk magic, both in England as elsewhere. Modern practitioners, being more likely to acquire their ingredients from a reliable supplier than go grave robbing, have largely substituted the hoodoo powder called 'graveyard dust' for spells whose earlier forms would require necrotic substances.

The most famous example of necrotic witchcraft is probably the 'hand of glory'. Many other spells employed the left hand of a corpse, which may be used for both benign and malign ends. Such beliefs, although held more rarely today, are still alive amongst certain witches in East Anglia. When I returned to live in Norwich, Norfolk, and reforged contact with certain hereditary streams existent here, I met a young witch who confessed to owning such a gruesome item which she used in her spellcasting, now mummified and over a hundred years old. The essence of the belief seems to be that a certain portion of a person's 'spiritual power' may reside in its corpse after death, so that an item becomes powerful because it is essentially haunted. As is known amongst ghost hunters, those who have lead traumatic lives are more likely to leave some kind of 'aetheric recording', and this is in keeping with the idea that the body parts used in spells are often those taken from criminals, or those that have died a sudden or traumatic death.

That part of our skeletal structure believed most likely to maintain some semblance of the spirit is undoubtedly the skull. It was once believed to be the essential vehicle and centre of the soul, and of all psychic awareness. Thus the warriors of ancient times took great pleasure in collecting heads, just as in modern times we believe the seat of consciousness to be the brain, and thus still essentially 'within the head'. In the rites of witchcraft, the skull may be seen not merely as the 'container' of an individual spirit, but as a point of contact between those who serve in the circle and the ancestors.

Let it be understood that such things as oils and human remains are not sufficient in themselves for the raising of shades. It is of greatest importance that the summoner has prepared their own mind with meditations and rites of quiescent gnosis, the ultimate expression of which is that which has been called the Death Posture. Such periods of self preparation and purification are instructed within all the grimoires of antiquity, although couched in the language and beliefs of their time. There may also be employed certain unguents and potions known to the witches, whose effect is to transport the soul of the witch to a place 'between the worlds', and which may serve to heighten astral perceptions. It is through the trance of the witch that the spirits shall manifest, and any disturbance shall jeopardise the operation in its entirety. Moreover, there are things which may aid or hinder the operation of which I may not speak, since they are known only to the dead themselves. Such shades are allured by those things that do move the spirit, be they of rationality and intellect, or imaginative and intuition. Such may include the use of poetry, song, sound, enchantments; such as are provided in the classical grimoire, and are known to the witches of the sinister craft.

Nathaniel J. Harris is the author of 'Witcha- A Book of Cunning', published by Mandrake of Oxford. A Yahoo group discussing those disciplines outlined in his work may be found at- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/witcha/

'Caliban's Redemption' David Parry
Reviewed by Charlotte

The prospect of writing a review…of a book of poetry…I must admit threw me into a state that was uncomfortably reminiscent of school assignments and essays and said assignments subsequent desecration of beauty in the name of literary analysis.

So I'm going to bypass that conditioning of old, and write this my way: warts, stilted grammar, sloppy syntax and all.

I was given 'Caliban's Redemption' some time ago, despite my interest in poetry having diminished over the years in favour of non-fiction with the occasional embellishment of literary fluff. Thus it wasn't until last week that I started, finally, reading 'Caliban's Redemption' and discovered a truly wonderful and fascinating book.

The contents are poetry mixed with what I consider to be a poetic prose which form a series of themes that can be flow read over to simply appreciate the beauty of the words, structure and emotional effect; or read more deeply to enjoy the excitement of insights around perspectives of beauty and grotesquery; sexuality and magick and concepts of non indulgent, angry, vital and transformative alienation.

The book alludes to the work of Nietzsche, Spinoza, and Crowley, as well as to Greek and Egyptian Mythos, and concepts of initiation.

This is never done in a trite and clichéd manner though, and always touched with a depth and perspective that opened up new directions of thought and emotion for me. Despite the more cerebral references and explorations, this is also a very physical and earthy book.

It is about power and strength and the joy that can be found in spinning conditioned values of right and wrong, good and evil, beauty and ugliness on its head.

It is a descent into an underworld and a return as a sweat and semen stained, dirty, ugly, angry and very empowered God.

The cover is great; an image of a befurred, bellied beast of a man, face obscured in foliage; apt imagery considering the contents and a powerful call for me to return to my old love and enjoyment of poetry.

OMPHALOS MAGICKAL FAIR

Creative Magickal Expression
In Bath from April 25th to May 1st.
OPENING RITUAL
MOGG MORGAN

WORKSHOPS
JULIAN VAYNE AND GREG HUMPHRIES
MISHLEN LINDEN

PERFORMANCE
ANTON CHANNING
GAVIN SEMPLE
ORRYELLE DEFENESTRATE / METAMORPHIC RITUAL THEATRE

TALKS
LEVANNAH MORGAN
"MOVIES AND MAGIC"

PAINTING / SCULPTURE / TATTOO / ASTROLOGY / PHOTOGRAPHY / COSTUME.

ASTRID BAUER …....GREG HUMPHRIES……DAVE EVANS…….CHRiSTINA RICHARDSON...
ANN BRYN-EVANS….GERARD HUTTON……ROBERTO MIGLIUSSI ….JASMINE DEVILLE... ANTON CHANNING ….. MARK HURST…….. NATHANIEL HARRIS…….MISHLEN LINDEN.... CHRIS CHIBNALL……HAZEL MACLEAN……ORRYELLE DEFENESTRATE…..IAN SELBIE
MUSIC CHARLOTTE PUGH SULIS
FILM 'EARTH INFERNO'

CLOSING RITUAL MISHLEN LINDEN
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Sponsored by 'The Annual Witchcraft Seminar'

Kaos Hieroglyphica
Alchemy for the New Aeon
Anton Channing

isbn 1869928830 19.99UKP 200pp special hbk

In the year 1564, Dr John Dee published his work, Monas Hieroglyphica. Its central symbol represented the unity which was the gnosis of the monotheistic aeon.

Now over four hundred years later, Anton Channing has published his long awaited debut work Kaos Hieroglyphica, within which he expounds a new symbol, the Kaos Hieroglyph. This symbol represents the plurality and freedom of the New Aeon. This work of magical alchemy draws on such diverse material as Thelema, the Chaos Current, the Maat Current, Timothy Leary, Witchcraft, Paganism, the Hermetic Tradition, Taoism, Shamanism and the author's own Pineal Gland.

The Kaos Hieroglyphica offers the reader interpretations of Hermetic symbolism in a way that is both insightful and relevant to New Aeon Magic.

Liber T: Tarot of Stars Eternal by Roberto Negrini,
artwork by Andrea Serio

Liber T is a new rendering of the famous Crowley/Harris Tarot deck into what some might say is a more contemporary mode. The person who first drew my attention to the deck - assumed, perhaps rightly, that the pun on liberty was another blow in the 'fightback' against the current corporate copyright holders of Crowley / Harris deck. It is said that it can be difficult to gain the appropriate permissions to reproduce images from the old deck and there are rumours that those who have managed to do so have lived to regret the experience. How much of this is true - i dunno - but such are the rumours that go round bookfairs. Redrawing an image is one way to circumvent any existing copyrights - and the result is often quite pleasing - as in this case the colours seem fresher. The style is distinctly stellar. Overall this is a nice deck, and the artwork is of very high quality.

The deck is inspired by the OTOA although the current Outer Head of that Order says there is no formal connection or indeed approval of the deck. According to the rather informative page of Albion Lodge OTOA stands for 'Ordo Templis Orientis Antiquas' [whose] history . . based upon suggestive charters and few documentations about its historical facts. [Let's not forget that there were times when even Crowley mislaid the odd certificate!] In spite of this its egregoric power and dynamic has proved to be resistant to falling into sleep and forgetfulness. By this fact one can at least assume that the line is capable of a certain power. In a letter to Peter Koenig, Bertiaux said the following: "Whether or not the Jean-Maine lineage was linked to the OTO of Reuss probably can't be ever proven" (Bertiaux, letter dated 4 April 1990). So from this let us proceed in the history of an order that started in the same place as all other OTO bodies with Theodor Reuss.'

I garnered a lot of information on the deck from Diane Wilkes review for the http://www.tarotpassages.com/liber-t.htm principally that: the subtitle of the deck (Tarot of Stars Eternal) hints to the impetus behind this deck; the revisions to the Minors are based on the Decans, also known as the 36 Symbolic Constellations of the Egyptian Star Cult, the SIBU SEPESU (Eternal Stars). Negrini's sources of inspiration include Liber Hermetis of the Corpus Hermeticum, Indian (Vedic) astrology, Picatrix, and the writings of Agrippa and Bruno. The deck is intended for ritual use, based on the spread/ritual provided in the Little White Booklet (LWB).' There is also a useful table setting out the differences in keyword between the Crowley / Harris and Liber T. So probably a deck for those caught up in the OTOA trajectory, but may also be of interest to any lover of the Tarot. - mogg

Sacred Smoke (advert)

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Ancient pagan bird at risk from bible-bashing anglers

A report by Mark Valentine

The Government has ordered the killing of at least one in ten British cormorants, in defiance of its own scientists’ advice, to appease anglers and fish farms who say the dark bird is stealing too much of their quarry. Amongst the arguments advanced by anglers for the cull were that "in the Bible, cormorants are described as an abomination, so we have God on our side!" and "the cormorant does not respect fishing club boundaries".

The cormorant, black, sleek and sharp-winged, has long been seen as sinister and free-spirited, and identified with the occult. Milton’s Satan, in Paradise Lost, is depicted as a cormorant when he perches upon the Tree of Life to contemplate Eden. Pagan author Llewelyn Powys was a keen votary of the bird, and in his Glory of Life (1938) memorably evoked a colony upon the Dorset shore: "The damp white cliffs above the deserted sea-washed beaches are set with small images, images of satanic saints, each in its Parian niche...cormorants roosting, cormorants dozing in the twilight, cormorants dreaming of diving feats through dark waters in the wake of white flickering fish..."

Under the announcement, sneaked out last week, at least 1,800 and up to 3,000 of the cormorants, normally protected by wildlife laws, can be shot each year: the total population is currently only 17,000. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is strongly opposed to the move, and believes more humane deterrents against cormorants around inland fishing sites have not been properly tried.

If you’d like to defend one of Britain’s ancient totemic birds, write to Fisheries Minister Ben Bradshaw to object, and invoke Freedom of Information laws to demand to see why he over-ruled his own scientific advisers and ordered the mass shooting (nothing to do with anglers’ votes, presumably...).

Footnotes
The RSPB concerns are summarised briefly at http://www.rspb.org.uk/policy/wildbirdslaw/1in10shot.asp
Contact Ben Bradshaw here: www.benbradshaw.co.uk/contact/contact.php
The anglers’ arguments are set out at www.cormorantbusters.co.uk, together with pictures of dead cormorants

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Groups

Bath Omphalos, a Moot for LHP magicos in Bath area. For more details contact omphalospaganmoot@.... Essentially a discussion group at the moment, open to all. The first speaker meeting is

Conferences

Next Witchcraft seminar 23rd October 2005 - review of 2004

Gale force winds whipped around the battlements, rain lashed the windows. Marion Green was heard to say, 'if you really want to understand the elements go into the carpark.' Well that didn't really come out right but we knew what she meant.

Many were there to hear what turned out to be Maxine Sanders engaging description of the genesis of the Alexandrian movement. But first - in heavy chiaroscuro, choking clouds of incense rose from half a dozen censors, then Ralph Harvey's voice cut through the gloom - a voice straight from the hammer house of horror and long john silver - WITCHCRAFT!!!!! - the OOOOOLLLLLLLLDDDDDD religion.

Lots of hocum and wiccan foundation myth, of course, but all done with great panache and a final crescendo of passion that had many, myself included, in tears.

Was it that or Diane Firmin's earlier amazing talk about the magick of cats, where the speaker conjured a pathetic image of the witches on the gibbet, the family pet hanging and sharing their fate to the last. Its a very sad image that - and in the news this week it was confirmed -

LONDON, England (AP) -- A Scottish township plans to mark Halloween by officially pardoning 81 people -- and their cats -- executed centuries ago for being witches.

Well what a wonderful conference - perhaps the last to be held at that spooky venue - above is just a smattering of the many excellent speakers - some maybe a bit worse for wear from the demon drink on the evening before but otherwise as good as . . .

Star of the show i'd say the very understated but thought provoking piece from JSM editor Dave Evans which can be viewed at:

Well done Adrian and everyone involved

Omphalos

Bath is to play host to a Magickal Fair from the 25th of April to the 1st of May, 2005. This event is basically about having a platform to express magickal creativity. Part of this involves the creation of a magickal picture book. A key word is being sent to magicians from diverse cultural, geograpical and philosophical perspectives... This word will be interpreted and illustrated in either one image or a triptych. These examples of a linking of a collective magickal unconscious will then be assembled (in a simplistic format) and sold at the fair.

We cannot give any financial recompense for this, just a chance to be involved in something interesting and a copy of the resultant magazine. The deadline for submissions is the end of January. We'll need your name, the name you use to sign your work ,and a contact address...

The key word is Omphalos.

If you are interested in contributing and want further details please contact me at charlottejane2002@... Many thanks, and look forward to hearing from you! Charlotte