Necromancy has had a long and very disparate history between cultures and generations. The definition seems to slide in every way at once thus seemingly muddling its clarity. Many cultures and societies and sub-cultures have adopted the term "necromancy" as the title of their practice, which is not necessarily wrong, but it has caused confusion for the etymologically-minded who tend to be quick to point a finger at things which do not fit the strict definition of "corpse divination" as it might appear to their modern standards.



Necromancy's etymology comes from two Greek words. "Nekros" which means "corpse" and "manteia" which means "prophesy". Despite these roots though, we must remember a fact about the nature of dictionaries which is most poignantly brought out by Jorge Luis Borges in the prologue to "El otro, el mismo". He cleverly noted that "It is often forgotten that [dictionaries] are artificial repositories, put together well after the languages they define. The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature." It is difficult, and indeed often impossible, for the modern occultist to look at a dictionary as their source of information about the nature of a practice. "Necromancy means spirit divination!" they shout. Delving into case examples, both modern and historical, gives us quite a different picture though. A peculiar (and damning!) habit of those claiming knowledge in the ways of necromancy is how they define the art. It takes little more than a brief scan of random internet pages about the subject of necromancy to discover that, in the overwhelming majority of sites that exist on this subject, the definition is a simple etymological breakdown which then immediately departs from the roots of the system to dash blindly into new age mediumism.



The origins of the word "necromancy" itself comes from the Greek and Roman world where necromancy was practiced as the name might suggest: divination out of corpses. It developed, however, in many ways which would bring about the common myths and legends that we know of in the modern age. Surprisingly enough, the image of necromancy has not been too wildly distorted throughout the ages by media and legend. Spins are always given, of course, but the general idea of a necromancy holds fast: one who works with the powers of death. This may take many forms. Historically, necromancy has ranged from everything between spirit communications to out-of-body trips to the underworld (known as katabasis in Greek, or as "Greater Necromancy" by some) and even extending so far as to curse and hex the living or impose quests upon the dead via hex tablets (katadesmoi). Some of necromancy's history even includes speaking to underworld demons and specfically asking boons of them to aid the necromancer in their purpose or invoking the spirit of another (or an underworld demon) to gain their strengths and help. The different forms are manifold and well exceed the strict boundaries the modern critic might suspect by simple word origins.



Necromancy itself has developed in many stages since the inception of the word to describe this practice. Distinct forms from different cultures have perpetually arisen throughout the ages. This can be seen clearly in the superstitions and rites of Voodoo, the pompous forms and diagrams of medieval European necromancy, the old Middle-Eastern legends of the living dead, the wards and charms used by central Europe, Egyptian rites of passage beyond the grave, and also simply information passed on as stories or family tales. For this reason, it is impossible to blanketly say "This is the history of necromancy" with any certainty (though there are certainly no lack of web pages which claim to have 'the history of necromancy' condensed sufficiently). Necromancy has many definitions which ostensibly change according to which culture is being used as the source of necromantic archetyping and thus we come to the conflict between different necromantic traditions.



Some necromancers perform little more than glorified mediumism. They are spiritists and have no interest in the extensible powers related to soul manipulation. These typically retreat back to the realm of new age divination though as they are not welcomed by diviner nor necromancer by virtue of their short-sightedness. Other necromancers are simply interested in hexcraft and all but ignore the divinatory aspects. These, while not shunned, have been traditionally kept at arm's length so as to avoid being caught in thanatoic cross-fire. Another of the necromantic strains are those who have tried to formalise necromancy and turn it into a ceremonial charade with wand, staff, powder, circle, and sword. These are relatively recent additions to the necromantic tradition that were imposed by belief in Judeo-Christian dogmas in the middle ages, usually carried over by ritual-heavy ceremonialism (Waite, for example); they have tainted the system and have earned little respect among the necromantic community. Among the strains of necromancer that exist there are also the thanatoists and azraelites who seek to know the avatar of death itself. These are the artistically inclined necromancers who seek to know death as a personal guardian and patron. Holding least firmly to traditional necromancy, many practitioners have had mixed feelings about them. Yet another strain of necromancer is the soul manipulator. This is the sort of necromancy presented on Ars Falcis. The soul manipulator seeks only to learn the powers of manipulating the soul and studying the interaction between soul and the material plane. In general, it is an acceptable enough practice in itself but has an uncanny tendency to bring practitioners into conflict with those of any other path. There are also many other types of practitioner, yet it would be fruitless to mention all of them here. Suffice it to say that the necromantic tradition has found itself mirrored in a thousand fragment, each with their own gifts, rationales, and methods.



Necromancy, more than any other magical system, is responsible for the reputation of occult cults and sects holding graveyard rites and performing the infamous "blood sacrifice". Be it human or animal, blood sacrifice was at one time considered an important part of many necromantic rites. The reputation of having undead legions at the necromancer's command is not entirely undue either. Though the physical dead, it is generally agreed among modern necromancers, are not going to be moving again, commanding a legion of geists fuelled by the blessings of the underworld are not uncommon even in contemporary practices. The underworld, the quasi-demonic, the ghostly, and the spectres of the once living are channelled and commanded by the necromancer to gain power in the mortal realm. Often there were sacrifices of the living to appease the dead in historical necromantic rites and other offerings, either burned or simply left to rot, to entice and appease necromantic entities. In some cases the necromancer disembodied themselves by entering a trance-coma which emulates being dead in what would be called an "out of body experience" (OOBE or OBE) to harness the hellish ethers of death personally. Interfacing with the realm of death and its spirits (known as nekuodaimones in Greek necromancy) has been a long-standing tradition of infernal meddling that has earned the necromancer a ghastly but reverenced position in occult history.



The first traces of necromancy itself come from the classic Greek era and thus much of the history and terminology used within the art stems from that culture. Necromancy has been analyzed by few decent writers, unfortunately, but those that have made a respectable effort at it tend to break down the practice into a few broad classes: Greek and Roman Necromancy, Latin (Medieval European) Necromancy, African Necromancy (including many Voodoo rites), Egyptian Necromancy, and Oriental Necromancy. The intended focus of this site is to make most of the Greek, Roman, and European necromantic variants though hopefully the other types will find a place here as well over time.



This is only a most brief breakdown of the art of necromancy barely sufficient to touch on the major facets of practice, let alone the actual historical developments or belief systems associated with these. Necromancy is a profoundly old non-doctrinal occult practice which persists even to this day. With this we delve into the art itself in search of answers.