| “ | There is no one among us who knows the dark art of Necromancy. She and she alone can give voice to the dead. | ” |
— Hag about Tituba's necromantic skills
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Necromancy is the forbidden and dangerous practice to give voice to the dead via magical means.
Description
Necromancy is the ability to summon the spirit of a deceased person performing a blood sacrifice and using a part of the corpse from the dead person to be summoned. According to the Hags, Tituba was the one and only able to give voice to the dead, perhaps alluding to the fact that necromancy may be a practice linked to shamanic heritage and non-white origin, or that "give voice to the dead", meaning calling them forth from Hell both body and soul is a task far more complex that temporarily animate a corpse.
Notable Examples
- Tituba demonstrated this ability while reanimate William Hooke's flayed face to question him about his plans. In order to do this, she sacrificed a rabbit near a bonfire.
- Mary Sibley, the current Samhain of the Salem hive and the most powerful witch of the Essex Hive, demonstrated this ability when she raised Increase Mather's ghost back from his grave allowing the spirit to act on the physical plane and subjecting him as her servant with a fetish made by the head of the deceased.
Necromancy Rituals
Main Article: Spell Casting
- To consult a dead: a ritual that gives voice to the face of a mutilated corpse to learn secrets about the living, since dead cannot lie.
- Incantation: "Balbin Gab, Gabor Agaba! Arise, I call thee! Colpriziana, offina alta nestra, fuaro menut. Thou art the dead I seek [dead's name] answer my calling."
- Used By: Tituba
- To summon a corporeal ghost: to give corporeal shape to a dead body drawing his soul from Hell using the corpse as a binding agent.
- Incantation: "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Every man feeds the conqueror worm. I eat your flesh, so obey, you must. By my command, moist earth turn. Give up your dead, their secrets to tell. [Name], I call you from Hell."
- Used by: Mary Sibley
Gallery
Memorable Quotes
- Tituba: Increase Mather!
- Mary Sibley: The one and only.I used it to summon his soul.
- Tituba: Risking necromancy without my aid is dangerous enough, but to raise Increase Mather from the dead...
- Mary Sibley: Your aid? I have new allies. Do not worry your cowardly mind. I've already sent him back from whence he came. But his specter proved quite useful.
- --in Wages of Sin
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Notes
- According to the Elders in the episode "Lies" Tituba is the only one the witches of their hive to know necromancy. This turned out to be incorrect as Tituba taught necromancy to Mary Sibley who was even able to conjure a ghost from Hell.
- The Necromancy spell used by Tituba is taken from the Grimorium Verum, an actual medieval book of ceremonial magic, which purpose is to conjure the spirits of the dead as servant of the necromancer.
- From one of the dialogues between Tituba and Mary in "Wages of Sin", it is made clear that Mary Sibley learned necromancy from Tituba.
See Also
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