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