An Inquiry into Necromancy

Hardcover pre-order only. Please expect three to four months for delivery. Image shown in the paperback edition. Our hardcover edition is bound in graphite Wibalin buckram with silver foiling, black head and tail bands, and a ribbon marker.

‘…a comprehensive but accessible history of spirit communication over the last two millennia in the West.’— from the Foreword by David Rankine

An Inquiry into Necromancy: Spirit Conjuration in Western Culture is the successor to The Cunning Man's Handbook: The Practice of English Folk Magic 1550-1900 (Avalonia, 2014). It expands upon the chapters on conjuration to offer a chronicle of intentional magical interaction with spirits of all sorts – ghosts, elementals, demons, angels, and god – from the Graeco-Egyptian rituals of Antiquity to the post-modern diversity of contemporary evocatory magic(k).

Through consideration of the expository magic and functional magic of Antiquity, the development of concepts of the soul and spirits in ancient Greece and early Christianity serve as an anchor for this temporal voyage of conjuration. Detailed study of the practices contained within numerous grimoires explore ‘the justification for the elaborate preparations, sanctified equipment and ritual actions was to harness the spiritual authority that enabled control of the conjured entities to compel them to appear, cooperate and safely leave’. Works covered in depth to demonstrate this process include classic grimoires like the Picatrix, Liber Lunae, Sepher Raziel, Ars Notoria, Sworn Book of Honorius, Summa Sacre Magice, the Hygromanteia, De Nigromancia, the Elucidation of Necromancy/Heptameron, Key of Solomon, the Abramelin, and Miscellanies (mixed collections) like the Book of Oberon, the Munich Necromancer’s Manual, the Cambridge Book of Magic, the Grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet, the Cunning-Man’s Grimoire and others. 

The influence of social, religious and cultural changes such as the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and printing are all considered throughout this comprehensive study, adding layers of context to the exploration of practices and the changes they underwent. The change brought by printing is explored through the French Bibliothèque Bleue catalogue, particularly the Grimoire of Pope Honorius, Grimorium Verum, and True Black Magic, as well as the German Faust-books and the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, and the books of St Cyprian. The development of spirit contact through the Romantic period is considered through works including The Magus, and the works of figures like Ebenezer Sibley, Robert Cross Smith, Frederick Hockley and Paschal Beverley Randolph. Expanding the scope of his work, the author also explores the influence of branches of Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Spiritualism (including that of Allan Kardec), Emmanuel Swedenborg and Franz Mesmer. The journey concludes with more recent magical movements and figures and their spirit work, including the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley, Austin Osman Spare, Gerald Gardner and modern Wiccans, and Chaos magic.

This definitive study is a must-have for anyone interested in the history of necromancy and the development of learned magic.

 Table of Contents

Foreword by David Rankine
Preface
Chapter One: Dialogues with the Invisible World    
    Introduction
    Necromancy’s Origins in Antiquity
    Death and the Soul – A Cultural Turning Point
    Expository Magic
    Functional Magic
    The Magical Dark Ages
Chapter Two: The Hidden Tradition
    Return of the Ghosts
    Devils or Angels?
    The Liber Luna and the Magic of the Stars
    The Sepher Raziel 
Chapter Three: Pope John XXII and the Prevalence of Demons
    The Advance of Intellectual Magic
    The Invocatory Exercise
    What does all this tell us?
    The Summa Sacra Magice
    Berengario Ganell and his Magnum Opus
        Selections from the Summa
Chapter Four: The Hygromanteia
    The De Nigromancia 
    The Elucidation of Necromancy
    Assembling the Conjurational Assets
    The Heptameron
    The Heptameron and its Components
Chapter Five: The Key of Solomon and Manifest Results?
    Consecratio dei 
    Invocatio 
    Evocatio 
    Constrictio 
    Ligatio
    Licentia
    Solomonic Conjuration
    How Did the Key of Solomon Inform Necromancy?
    The Abramelin
    The Four Internal Books
    The Abramelin Working
Chapter Six: Magical Miscellanies
    Early Modern Necromancy
    Forbidden Rites – A Necromancer’s Manual of the Fifteenth Century 
    Necromancy in the Medici Library 
    The Cambridge Book of Magic 
    The Book of Oberon 
    Of Angels, Demons & Spirits 
    The Grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet 
    A Cunning Man’s Grimoire 
Chapter Seven: Vernacular Necromancy
     Vernacular Necromancy in France
    The New French ‘Black Magic’ Grimoires
        Le Grand Grimoire / Le Veritable Dragon Rouge
        Grimoire Du Pape Honorius
        Grimorium Verum
        Les Œuvres Magiques De Henri-Corneille Agrippa
        La Véritable Magie Noire 
Chapter Eight: Vernacular Necromancy in Germany, Iberia and Scandinavia
    The Faustian Magical Books
    The Magic of Saint Cyprian
    St. Cyprian in the North
Chapter Nine: Necromancy Carried Forward
    The Magus: or Celestial Intelligencer
    A Complete Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology
    The Conjuror’s Magazine
    The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century 
Chapter Ten: A Reconditioned Mysterium
    The Masonic Impulse
    Rosicrucian Theurgy
    The Conjurations of the Élus Coëns
    A Prototypical Transitional Figure – Frederick Hockley
    Another Example of Magical Physicality
Chapter Twelve: A Digression on Disenchantment 
    Temporal Metaphysics
    Kardec and Spiritism
Chapter Eleven: Modern Spirit Communication
    The Scope of Victorian Spiritualism – Speculative
    The Scope of Victorian Spiritualism – Phenomenal
    Conjurational Communication up to Date
    Conservative Conjuration
    Innovative Conjuration
Chapter Twelve: Conjuration and Magic After Crowley
    Crowley’s Heirs
    Gardner’s Wic(c)an World
    Spirit Conjuring for Witches: Magical Evocation Simplified
    The Witches’ Book of the Dead
    Austin Osman Spare – ‘Strange and Gentle Genius’
    Necromancy Endures
Chapter Thirteen: The Necromantic Experience
Appendix A: Thoughts on Sigils
Bibliography

An Inquiry into Necromancy: Spirit Conjuration in Western Culture
Jim Baker
ISBN 978-1-915933-32-4 (HB)
ISBN 978-1-915933-33-1 (PB)
ISBN 978-1-915933-34-8 (ebook)
400 pages (approx.)