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Necromancy

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Necromancy is divination by raising the spirits of the dead. The word derives from the Greek nekros "dead" and manteia "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

The historian Strabo (Strabo, xvi. 2, 39, νεκρομαντεις) 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), Ulysses makes a voyage to Hades, the Underworld, and raises the spirits of the dead using spells which he had learnt from Circe. His intention was to invoke the shade of Tiresias, but he was unable to summon it alone without the accompaniment 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, and there are many other notable evocations of the dead within the Bible. Some might argue that Jesus Christ's raising of Lazarus from the dead was a prima facie case of necromancy.

Norse mythology also contains examples of necromancy, such as the scene in the Voluspa 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 volva 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.

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.

Necromancers in fiction often 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 villians 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.

See also

Sources

  • Paul Vulliaud, La Kabbale Juive : histoire et doctrine, 2 vols. (Émile Nourry, 62 Rue des Écoles, Paris, 1923).
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