Necromancy

Necromancy (Latin necromantia, Greek νεκρομαντία nekromantía) is a form of divination in which the practitioner seeks to raise the spirits of the dead in order to gain knowledge of future events from them, or to acquire special powers from such entities. The word derives from the Greek νεκρός nekrós "dead" and μαντεία manteía "divination". It has a subsidiary meaning reflected in an alternative and archaic form of the word, nigromancy, (a folk etymology using Latin niger, "black") in which the magical force of "dark powers" is gained from or by acting upon corpses. A practitioner of necromancy is a necromancer.

Necromancy in history

Necromancy may or may not have a relation to shamanism, which calls upon spirits such as the ghosts of ancestors.

The historian Strabo (Strabo, xvi. 2, 39, νεκρομαντία) refers to necromancy as the principal form of divination amongst the people of Persia; and it is believed to also have been widespread amongst the peoples of Chaldea (particularly amongst the Sabians or star-worshippers), Etruria and Babylonia. The Babylonian necromancers themselves were called Manzazuu or Sha'etemmu and the spirits they raised were called Etemmu.

In the Odyssey (XI, Nekyia), Odysseus makes a voyage to Hades, the Underworld, and raises the spirits of the dead using spells which he had learnt from Circe (Ruickbie, 2004:24). His intention was to invoke the shade of Tiresias, but he was unable to summon it without the assistance of others.

There are also many references to necromancy in the Bible. The Book of Deuteronomy (XVIII 9–12) explicitly warns the Israelites against the Canaanite practice of divination from the dead. This warning was not always heeded: King Saul asked the Witch of Endor to invoke the shade of Samuel, for example.

Norse mythology also contains examples of necromancy (Ruickbie, 2004:48), such as the scene in the Völuspá in which Odin summons a seeress from the dead to tell him of the future. In Grogaldr, the first part of Svipdagsmál, the hero Svipdag summons his dead Völva mother, Groa, to cast spells for him.

The 17th century Rosicrucian Robert Fludd describes Goetic necromancy as consisting of "diabolical commerce with unclean spirits, in rites of criminal curiosity, in illicit songs and invocations and in the evocation of the souls of the dead".

Modern séances, channeling and Spiritualism verge on necromancy when the invoked spirits are asked to reveal future events.

Necromancy may also be dressed up as sciomancy, a branch of theurgic magic.

Necromancy is extensively practised in voodoo.

Spread of necromancy

In the middle ages, the literate members of society were either the Nobility or Christian clergy. Either of these groups may have been responsible for the propagation and ongoing practice of necromancy, even though it is forbidden in Christianity. It is apparent that necromancy was a method of witchcraft only available to the scholarly of Europe, because of the accessibility, language, knowledge and methods it employs. There are a few confessions of some Nobles or Clergy members professing a history of experience with necromancy, although these may well have been obtained under duress (cf. the Salem Witch Trials). Some suggest that Necromancy could have became a way for idle literate Europeans to integrate Hebrew and Arabic legend and language into forbidden manuals of sorcery.

The possibility exists that literate Europeans were the main forces simultaneously practicing and condemning necromancy. The language, execution and format of the rituals illustrated in the Munich Handbook (Kieckhefer 42–51) are striking similar to Christian rites. In a Christian exorcism, various demons and spirits are driven away by name, in the name of God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit. The spells of necromancy are very similar to these Christian rites (Kieckhefer 128–129) in their complete opposition. The distortion of the rites into spells is within the scope of Christian understanding at that time. Necromantic spells were mainly illusory or utility spells. Modern scholarship suggests that most were written with hopes that their utility would prove to be useful in acquiring a feast, horse, cloak of invisibility or perhaps just notoriety among others in the necromancy practicing clergy. The nature of these spells lend themselves to being understood as underground clergy members deviantly indulging in unlawful pleasures..

The rare confessions of those accused of Necromancy suggest that there was a range of spell casting and the related magical experimentation. It is difficult to determine if these details were due to their practices, as opposed to the whims of their interrogators. John of Salisbury is one of the first examples related by Kieckhefer, but as a Parisian ecclesiastical court record of 1323 shows, a “group who were plotting to invoke the demon Berich from inside a circle made from strips of cat skin,” were obviously participating in the church’s definition of “necromancy.” (Kieckhefer, 191)

The probable reason that these renegade so-called Necromancers were dabbling in the dark arts is that the evolution of "natural" magic and "spiritual" magic was slow. Caesarius of Arles (Kors and Peters, 48) entreats his audience to put no stock in any demons, or “Gods” other than the one true Christian God, even if the working of spells appears to provide benefit. He states that demons only act with divine permission, and permitted by God to test Christian people. Caesarius does not condemn man here; he only states that the art of necromancy exists, although it is prohibited by the bible. Within the Rawlinson necromantic manuscript, a fable is presented as a warning to those that would perform necromancy, although the story ends with a note of physical trial, but without mention of the ramifications in the afterlife.

In the wake of these inconsistencies of judgment, necromancers, sorcerers and witches were able to utilize spells with holy names with impunity, as biblical references in such rituals could be construed as prayers as opposed to spells. As a result, the necromancy discussed in the Munich Manual is an evolution of these understandings. It has even been suggested that the authors of the Munich Manual knowingly designed this book to be in discord with understood ecclesiastical law.

It is possible to trace Christian ritual and prayer and its subsequent mutant forms of utility and healing prayer/spells to full-blown necromancy. The main recipe employed throughout the manual in the necromancy sorcery uses the same vocabulary and structure utilizing the same languages, sections, names of power alongside demonic names. The understanding of the names of God from apocryphal texts and the Hebrew torah demand that the author of such rites have at least a casual familiarity of these texts. The structure of the spells themselves also requires that the author have experience with Christian rites that are not pedestrian, again suggesting either the Nobility or Christian scholars as possible suspects.

As we have suggested that alleged Christians might have been the authors of the sundry necromancy manuals, the question of their inspirations must arise. One of the first clues could be the Gods and demons references in the illusions, conjurations and spells. The Hebrew Tetragrammaton and various Hebrew derivatives are found, as well as Hebrew and Greek liturgical formulas (Kieckhefer, 139). Within the tales related in these Manuals, we also find connections with other stories in similar cultural literature (Kieckhefer, 43). The ceremony for conjuring a horse closely relates to the Arabic The Thousand and One Nights, and the French romances. Chaucer’s The Squire's Tale also has marked similarities. This becomes a parallel evolution of spells to foreign Gods or demons that were once acceptable, and framing them into a new Christian context, albeit demonic and forbidden. Most forms of Satanic Necromancy today include prayers to such Demons, namely Nebiros, Azrael, and Beelzebub.

As the source material for these manuals is apparently derived from scholarly magical and religious texts from a variety of sources in many languages, it is easy to conclude that the scholars that studied these texts manufactured their own aggregate sourcebook and manual with which to work spells or magic.

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.

Necromancy in fiction

In fantasy and horror fiction, necromancers are often considered evil, and are sometimes said to have sold their soul to a demon or the Devil himself, to worship demons and evil gods, or to have been otherwise tainted by their evil practices. However, in some stories, necromancy is not inherently evil, but is simply a tool to be used like any other.

In fiction, Necromancy is often not a form of divination but a discipline of "dark" or "black" magic used to raise the dead as "undead," typically as zombies under the necromancer's control, though the binding of ghosts and spirits is also common. Necromancers often become powerful undead creatures themselves; in modern fantasy fiction, the Dungeons & Dragons-derived term "lich" (originally a word meaning 'corpse') is often applied to such beings. Necromancers are, in rare cases, capable of raising the dead or restoring vitality to the living, though in some cases the life energy involved must be transferred from another living creature.

The short horror story The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs is considered a classic of the genre. In the X-Files television series 7, the episode Millennium deals extensively with the subject of necromancy.

In Brian Lumley's Necroscope series, the villains often perform a particularly gruesome form of necromancy.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's fiction, The Necromancer was a name applied to Sauron in The Hobbit, and Morgoth's magic is sometimes described as necromancy. Notable are the Barrow-wights as evil undead spirits, as well as the phantom that ensnared Gorlim in The Silmarillion and the army of the dead that helped Aragorn defeat Sauron's attacking forces.

In Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novels, the title character, Anita, is a powerful necromancer. She ressurects zombies for a living and can also use her control over the dead to aid her in the slaying (and dating!) of vampires.

In the anime and manga Shaman King there is a character named Faust VIII who is a necromancer. His main corpse is the skeleton form of his deceased love, Eliza. For his oversoul, he magically grafts skin, hair, and clothes to her walking corpse. He is a descendant of the infamous Dr. Faustus.

In the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix, necromancers use seven bells to raise and control dead spirits. Most of the necromancers are seen as evil because they use Free Magic (an unacceptable, evil branch of magic) to raise the dead. The exception to this is the Abhorsen, who uses the bells and "good" magic, Charter Magic, to send back the dead that are raised by others into the river Death.

The title of the Thai movie Jomkhamungwej translates to The Necromancer in the context of Vedic Occultism

In the television show The Venture Brothers, The character of Dr. Orpheus refers to himself as a necromancer. However, despite aiding Hank and Dean against the ghost of "Major Tom", Orpheus himself does not really have/use any powers in relation to necromancy.

In John Bellairs’ young adult novel, The House With a Clock in Its Walls, Lewis Barnavelt unwittingly manages to raise the evil spirit of one of the previous occupants of his home.

In Gordon R. Dicksons magnum opus The Childe Cycle the first book chronologically and the third book written was titled Necromancer (novel). The title is somewhat of a misnomer because it has nothing to do with traditional thoughts on necromancy. The lead character Paul Formain is a dead man reanimated by a person from the future for purposes of changing past events. The methods used owe more to the traditions of science, where necromancy usually is associated with magic.

In the movie Excalibur, Morgana, Arthur's sister, was alleged to have practiced Necromancy.

In David Edding's The Mallorean, one group of the Seers of Kell are the Necromancers. The aid of one necromencer is used later in 'The Seeress of Kell', when the group require to pursuade a king that his late adviser was actually a Grolim in disguise, having gained the friendship of the king in order to postpone the group in their quest.

Necromancy in computer and video games

The Necromancer is also a common character class in role-playing games. In such games as Dungeons & Dragons and Diablo II, the Necromancer is a practitioner of Necromancy, but is not necessarily a force of evil. It simply represents a collection of skills relating to raising the dead, and/or death-related magic spells, and is sometimes a subclass of the general class "Mage".

In Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, a Necromancer is one of the chief disciples of Dracula, and the second boss.

In Dungeons & Dragons, necromancy is one of the eight magic disciplines, representing a collection of spells which fall under a common heading. The Necromancer in second and third edition rules, is a subclass of the general Mage or Wizard class, who is most proficient in Necromancy spells. However, in Dungeons & Dragons, Necromancy is not only dealing with Death-Related Magic, but also Life-Related, making Necromancy more of a "Life-Controlling" School (meaning that it can both create and destroy).

In Diablo II, the Necromancer is one of the five original classes. He is always represented as an elderly white male, good-natured but fascinated by death, and aligned neither to the light nor to the darkness but fighting to maintain the balance of all things and keep extraplanar influence out of the mortal plane, both angel and demon. His skill set in the game includes Summoning Spells (which aid him in the creation of Golems, and raising the dead), Poison & Bone Spells, and Curses. He worships "Rathma" and believes in a dragon "Trang-Oul" (which is manifested in the item set "Trang-Oul's Avatar") on whose back the world lies, even though neither appears anywhere else in the game's storyline. When a necromancer wears the full Trang-Oul's Avatar Set, he is transformed into a Ghoul and is able to cast three fire spells.

In Shadowbane, the Necromancer is one of the 8 "mage" based classes. Necromancers, utilizing the powers of the Void, have the unique ability to summon multiple undead pets, command the loyalty of pre-existing undead creatures, wield unholy magic, strip a character of their buff spells, and become invisible.

In Ultima VIII: Pagan, Necromancy is one of the four main magic disciplines, which is focussed around the element of Earth, and is less to do with death itself. However, it does relate to death, raising and communicating with the dead, and also the creation of Golems. Necromancy is governed by Lithos, the Titan of Earth. In the game, The Avatar trains as a Necromancer after finding them in the graveyard.

In Warcraft III, the Necromancer is a spellcasting unit on the Undead race who was once a human mage, but tempted into the service of the Lich King. It has the ability to raise "Skeleton Warriors" and "Skeleton Mages" (one of both from one corpse). Other characters that exhibit the ability to raise defeated units or create new units from the death/corpses of other units include the "Paladin" (Resurrection), "Death Knight" (Raise the Dead), "Spirit Walker" (Ancestral Spirit), "Dark Ranger" (Black Arrows), "Naga Siren" (Parasite), and "Pitlord" (Doom).

In the online RPG game "AdventureQuest", there are two moglins (Zorbak and Kabroz), which try to take over their world by raising undead dragons.

In World of Warcraft, the Warlock class practices necromancy, including the summoning/binding of diverse demons and resurrecting the dead, as well as life-draining spells and curses. Their alignment to the causes of good or evil are irrelevant in this particular universe, where there are no good/evil alignments, only political ones, most prominently alliegence to the Alliance or the Horde, which is based exclusively on race.

In EverQuest the online roleplaying game and it's sequel game EverQuest II, the Necromancer is portrayed as always evil. The original game set this by automatically setting their religious alignment to one of the dark gods of the game (Innoruuk, Cazic Thule, etc.), while EverQuest II requires mage players pursuing the path of the Necromancer to be a citizen of the evil city of Freeport. Shadow Knights, unholy knights serving the dark gods, were also able to raise the dead in the original EverQuest.

In the PC game Battle Realms, four Ronins can be merged to form a 'Necromancer'.

In the White Wolf RPG game Vampire: The Masquerade, the Giovanni Family/Clan were expert Necromancers. In Vampire: The Dark Ages by the same company the Cappadocian Clan, from which the Giovanni sprang, use a more basic necromantic Discipline called Mortis.

In "Guild Wars", one of the six possible player professions is the Necromancer. They are not necessarily bad, but they are definitely not a saint-like class. Their god is the god of the underworld, Grenth. Guild Wars Necromancers control Blood Magic, Death Magic, and Curses. They use their skills to raise fallen enemies from the dead to fight with on their side.

In the Elder Scrolls universe, necromancy is a legally acceptable but widely distrusted magical discipline in all provinces save Morrowind, where it is outlawed by the Tribunal Temple. Necromancers are required to obtain legal rights to any remains they use for their activities, usually through prehumous agreement with the deceased or a posthumous agreement with their family or similar. Necromancers may apply to be integrated into the Imperial penal system as a posthumous part of the execution process. However, many necromancers disregard these rules and may be outlaws because of it. Some of the most notable necromancers are N'Gasta and the King of Worms.
Remains buried with the proper rites of Arkay are incapable of being used in necromancy. In addition to being used for divination and to create undead servants for various purposes, necromancy is also popularly used to extend one's own lifespan by utilising modified corpse-treatment techniques on a still living body to artificially bind the soul and preserve life functions, albeit at a diminished capacity. If taken to extremes, this may result in Lichism, a dreaded condition of extended half life in which the practitioner's body becomes desiccated and atrophied, and he is left clinging hollowly to a shrunken, death-like coil, perhaps permanently.

necromancer in music

"The Necromancer", based in part on J.R.R. Tolkein's character of the same name, is a song from the 1975 album "Caress Of Steel", by the Canadian progressive rock band Rush. It consists of three parts, entitled, respectively, "Into Darkness", "Under The Shadow", and "Return Of The Prince". Perhaps it's most notable aspect is the re-emergence of the character of "Prince By-Tor", the antagonist from the song "By-Tor & The Snow Dog", which appears on their prior album "Fly By Night". This marks the first time in modern music that such a carry over occurred, though Rush would later execute a similar continuation, with "Cygnus X-1: Book I, The Voyage", from their 1977 album "A Farewell To Kings", to "Cygnus X-1: Book II, Hemispheres", on their 1978 album, entitled "Hemispheres".The group Insane Clown Posse uses the word necromancy in their song "The Great Milenko" on their album of the same name.

NECROmanceR is a death trash metal colombian band. influenced by DEATH, Carcass, MetallicA, ARCH ENEMY, Sodom.

Sources

Greco-Roman

Halliday, Greek Divination (1913). Chapter 11 is on Necromancy
Ogden, Daniel, Greek and Roman Necromancy 2004. ISBN 0691119686 — Reviewed by Sarah Iles Johnston, Bryn Mawr Classical Review (6/19/2002), with stinging methodological criticism.
Ruickbie, Leo, Witchcraft Out of the Shadows. Robert Hale, 2004. ISBN 0709075677. See ch. 1 in general and p.24 in particular for discussion of necromancy in the encounter between Circe and Odysseus.

Medieval

Kieckhefer, Richard, Forbidden Rites. Sutton Publishing, 1997.
Kieckhefer, Richard, Magic in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. ISBN 0521785766
Kors and Peters, Witchcraft in Europe 400-1700. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. ISBN 0812217519
Vulliaud, Paul, La Kabbale Juive : histoire et doctrine, 2 vols. (Émile Nourry, 62 Rue des Écoles, Paris, 1923).