Books of the Dead

Oxford languages defines necromancy as “the supposed practice of communicating with the dead, especially in order to predict the future; sorcery or black magic in general.” On page 35 of A History of Magic, Witchcraft, & the Occult, necromancy (in the context of Greece) is similarly defined as “the art of speaking with, or even raising, the dead, which took place at sites such as the Necromanteion in Epirus.” There has always been a fascination with the concept of death throughout the existence of humanity, most commonly in the context of fear, and the unknown. Therefore, it is no surprise that over the course of history, humans have attempted to theorize what exactly happens post-mortem. Due to many commonly held beliefs of some form of afterlife, people have oftentimes attempted to reach people who have come and gone from this planet. Whether due to an inability to let a loved one go, or out of pure fascination and curiosity, there have been many attempts to contact or even raise the dead. “Nero was said to have conjured the ghost of his mother, whom he had murdered, to beg her forgiveness” (page 43). Another example would be in Greek mythology, where Odysseus slaughtered a black ram in order to attract ghosts of the dead with whom he wished to commune (page 38). I find it interesting how there is often overlap between different practices in our studies of witchcraft and the occult. In this example, sacrifices are used to supplement the successful execution of necromancy by Odysseus. Page 26 of our text discussed the existence of “The Book of the Dead” in Egypt. They believed that after dying, failure of a series of trials would lead to a second death, which would result in the erasure of the deceased human from the memory of every living person on earth and the transformation into a wandering ghost for all of eternity. The Book of the Dead was used to prevent this second death. Around 1700 BCE these books were composed, and around 1500 BCE there were about 200 common versions of the book. These books remained as an integral element of Egyptian culture until the Roman conquest in 30 BCE. Today, the concept of necromancy is frequently applied to popular culture and various forms of media. In the movie Army of Darkness (1992), the plot circulates around an extremely powerful relic known as “Necronomicon Ex-Mortis” or more commonly, “The Book of the Dead.” This book is an antagonistic object in the film series and wields the power to control and summon the dead. The protagonist, Ash, fights off the evil dead with a double barrel shotgun and a chainsaw he attached to his arm after his hand had been severed. In fact, this artifact can be purchased on Amazon, for $150! Another common form of necromancy in cinema is the summoning of armies of the dead, which happens in Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Thor: Ragnarok. Those examples exclude the concept of zombies, which would generate a ridiculously long list. Not to mention the frequent occurrence of resurrection across many different fictional universes. Relative to other terms in our text, I would argue that necromancy comes in a wide range of shapes and sizes; there is not one common way to practice necromancy. It is more of an umbrella term that encompasses many forms of interaction with, or resurrection of the dead.

Army of Darkness clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP3H6lZ_mt8

Amazon product: https://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Evil-Dead-Darkness-Pages/dp/B07MFMK6RV