Few forms of magic are as subject to shadowy obfuscations, fearful misgivings, and downright denigration as the Black Arts of sciomancia and necromancia - that is, consorting with spirits of the dead, often through the manipulation of their material remains. Little has spilled more demonologists' ink barring perhaps witchcraft and its attendants hunts and hysterias... which are themselves related back to the norms of human society and authority challenged by interactions with ecologies of spirit and the exercises of often-forbidden power; accusations that also mark the necromancer. It can seem such practices are as tenebrous and mythic as the shades they seek after, as powerful yet intangible as a nightmare, and as removed from actual full-blooded sorcery as mere heresiographers' marginalia.

And yet, through this brackish morass of rumour and superstition concerning the nigromancy of Other Magicians, we do have some surprisingly cogent and consistent concepts and descriptions from which we can chart an exploration into practicable techniques of pre-modern European necromancy. In Thomas Blout's Glossographia of 1661, a necromancer is defined in the following manner:

Necromancer (necromantes) he [sic] that practises that wicked Art, a Master of the Black Art, one that seeks to the dead; or consults with Satan in the shape of a dead man. The Hebrews describe him thus; he made himself hungry, and then lodged among the Graves, that the dead might come to him in a dream, and make known to him that which he asked, &c. Others there were that clad themselves with cloathes for that purpose, and spoke certain words, burned Incense, and slept by themselves, that such a dead person might come and talk with them in a dream.

Far more than simply describing, this entry combines several approaches to such black magics and how they were performed, offering us rich avenues for pursuing not just what early modern necromancers did, but how they did it...

In this course professional diviner, historian, and folk necromancer Dr Alexander Cummins will lead us through this de facto nigromantic syllabus with a selection of early modern grimoiric and folk magical material for dream incubation, humoural diet, ritual garb, graveyard protocols, suffumigations, incantations, and spiritwork. This illustrated lecture will ground us in the practicalities of such pre-modern European necromantic approaches, operations, and procedures, that we might better engage with our necromancer forebears and learn - both directly and indirectly - from the dead magicians who came before us.

Advanced Necromancy for Beginners: Seeking to the Dead, Wednesday June 22nd

Exhuming the buried bones and bringing them into living contemporary moonlights, modern necromancers may have as much to learn from wandering the archives and libraries of the dead as the graveyards and potters fields.

Historical research can greatly inform, enhance, and develop modern nigromancy practice, and what is history – a itself made of dead people – if not thoroughly necromantic.

In this class, contemporary cunning man Dr Alexander Cummins will guide us through the catacombs of historical evidence for the black magics that seek to the dead: examining trial records, heresiographers’ accounts, occult philosophy, and a wealth of folklore and folk magic concerning the relationships, power dynamics, and affectivities intertwining and enmeshing the living and the dead.

In the course of this class’ exhumations, we will consider the source materials and traditional techniques for studying and practicing pre-modern necromancy, and how we as the living may breath new life into these old bones of ancestral cunning.

Advanced Necromancy for Beginners: Seeing in the Dark - Wednesday July 6th

All the accrued wisdoms of the ages concerning the black arts of consorting and trafficking with the dead might come to naught for our own practices if we are unable to perceive their gathering, their presence, and their effects. The enterprising necromancer must develop keen senses to discern black from blacker shades in the night.

Spirit contact, mediumship, and otherwise facilitating the delivery of information and understanding from spirits form crucial elements of necromantia as an art of, after all, gaining knowledge from the dead. A variety of historical practices and approaches are pertinent for modern necromantic practitioners to consider.

In this class, contemporary cunning man Dr Alexander Cummins will guide us through the secluded graveyard entryways of visionary spirit-work to examine the tools and techniques of pre-modern black magics that still call and cohere the dead.

In the course of such explorations, we will reflect on various preparations and consecrations, rites of necromantic dream incubation, unguents of spirit-vision, and many many other sorceries for perceiving and engaging with the dynamic spirits of ancestral cunning.

Advanced Necromancy for Beginners: Of Smoke & Speech - Wednesday July 20th

Two potent mysteries ensorcel the airs of a fertile ground for necromantic ritual: the incenses that allure and stir the spirits of the dead, and the calls of conjuration which beckon and charge these shades. It is thus important to consider both smoke and speech.

Whether gladdening with sweet fumigating powders and honeyed words, or maddening and stoking to turbulent action with acrid smoke and violent demagoguery, how we as necromancers colour and shade the airs – and the spirits of the dead who cohere and weather in them – is of the utmost nigromantic ritual significance.

In this class, contemporary cunning man Dr Alexander Cummins will guide us through the use of incensing and perfuming, of scented materia and rites of suffumigation, as well as the importance of ritual speech, breath, song, and vocalisation in necromantic operations.

In the course of such investigations, we will consider formal grimoiric commands to appear and depart as well as folk nigromantic calls for haunting souls to cohere and impart wisdoms, and the formularies and deployments of ritual fumigations for effectuating such necromancy and further conspiring with the spirits of ancestral cunning.

Advanced Necromancy for Beginners: With Sable Wings - Wednesday August 3rd

Rites of necromancy draw upon a wide variety of specific tools and techniques for trafficking with the shades of the dead. From fasting and observing food taboos, to the wearing of particular black garments for a range of sorcerous as well as sartorial reasons. The grimoires and personal working-books of historical necromancers provide many such potent nigromantic preparations and empowerments.

Moreover, the elemental and humoural understanding of the passions of both the living and the dead, studied by pre-modern doctors of both physick and conjuration, provide vital understandings for contemporary necromancers about the grave nature of melancholia that attends these very Black Arts of working with the dead.

In this class, contemporary cunning man Dr Alexander Cummins will guide us through the dark in this examination of the tenebrous mysteries of blackness as relate to the dead, to earthy melancholies of sorrow and suffering, and to the nigromantic rites and regimen that dim and darken the shades of the deceased.

In the course of such a journey through the dark, we will come to consider the helpful and harmful strategies of engaging with necromantic practice and the spirits of the dead both in the graveyard and in our own hearts, heads, and hands.

About the Presenter:

Dr. Alexander Cummins (@grimoiresontape) is a professional diviner,  consultant sorcerer, and historian of magic.  His work focuses on grimoires, divination, and folk necromancy. He co-hosts Radio Free Golgotha, and can be booked for talks, workshops, readings, coaching and consultation at www.alexandercummins.com/. His recorded classes can also be obtained from The Cauldron Black archives.

THIS CLASS IS ONLINE ONLY! If you are unable to make the live  streaming of this class, don't worry - the recording will be  available for you. The class link will be  emailed to you in your registration confirmation. The class recording link will be emailed to you within 3-5  business days of the conclusion of  the class and will be  available to you until 9/2/2022.

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