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Necromancy is the practice of magic or black magic involving communication with the dead – either by summoning their spirits as apparitions, visions or raising them bodily – for the purpose of divination, imparting the means to foretell future events, discover hidden knowledge, to bring someone back from the dead, or to use the dead as a weapon. Sometimes referred to as "Death Magic," the term may also sometimes be used in a more general sense to refer to black magic or witchcraft.

Medieval necromancy is believed to be a synthesis of astral magic derived from Arabic influences and exorcism derived from Christian and Jewish teachings. Arabic influences are evident in rituals that involve moon phases, sun placement, day and time. Fumigation and the act of burying images are also found in both astral magic and necromancy. Christian and Jewish influences appear in the symbols and in the conjuration formulas used in summoning rituals. Often, accusations of necromancy were made against those accused of witchcraft. William II de Soules, known as "Bad Lord Soules," was accused of necromancy and boiled alive in oil.

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Knight of Cups

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• ... that the son of Horus, Imsety is an adversary of Set?
• ... that none of Thomas Rudd's occult books were published in his lifetime?
• ... that each sign of the Zodiac constitutes 30 degrees?
• ... that Eva Perón incorporated aspects of the Virgin Mary into her public persona?
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This month in history Angeline Tubbs 1 August - Occultist Edward Kelley is born. (1555) 1 August - Witchfinder Margaret Aitken is exposed as a fraud. (1597) 4 August - Scottish nobleman William II de Soules is brought before the Black Parliament on charges of treason. (1320) 4 August - Voodoo priestess Marie Laveau marries Jacques Paris in New Orleans. (1819) 9 August - Flemish painter Hieronymus Bosch dies. (1516) 10 August - Astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel determines Sirius has an unseen companion. (1844) 10 August - Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard bigamously marries his second wife, Sara. (1946) 12 August - Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins dies of tuberculosis. (1647) 16 August - Angeline Tubbs, the Witch of Saratoga, dies. (1856) 16 August - Blues musician Robert Johnson, who signed a diabolical pact with Satan, dies. (1938) 16 August - The Satanic Temple publicly unveils a statue of Baphomet in Little Rock, Arkansas. (2018) 18 August - French priest Urbain Grandier is convicted of "magic, maleficence, and possession." (1634) 19 August - Five people are executed in the Salem Witch Trials. (1692) 19 August - Occultist and author Damien Echols is freed from prison after making an Alford Plea. (2011) 20 August - Johannes Trithemius writes a letter warning of a conman named Georgius Sabellicus. (1507) 20 August - Horror author H. P. Lovecraft is born in Providence, Rhode Island. (1890) 21 August - Astronomer Tycho Brahe observes a solar eclipse which he had predicted. (1560) 21 August - A Voodoo ceremony turns into a violent rebellion sparking the Haitian Revolution. (1791) 21 August - Principal photography for occult horror film Rosemary's Baby begins in New York City. (1967) 22 August - English King Richard III dies in battle. (1485) 24 August - Accused witch Rebecca Nurse is baptized. (1634) 25 August - Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible is born. (1530) 25 August - Galileo Galilei demonstrates his telescope to Venetian lawmakers. (1609) 25 August - The occult horror film The Ninth Gate premiers in Spain. (1999) 29 August - Lilias Adie dies in prison, accused of witchcraft. (1704) 29 August - Austrian painter Christoph Haizmann visits a church in Pottenbrunn seeking an exorcism. (1677) 31 August - Mary Ann Nicholas is murdered, the first of Jack the Ripper's confirmed victims. (1888)

Featured image Dante Alighieri, widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian poet, writer, and philosopher. His Divine Comedy (commonly called The Inferno in English) is widely considered one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language. Dante is known for establishing the use of the vernacular in literature at a time when most poetry was written in Latin, which was accessible only to educated readers. His depictions of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven provided inspiration for the larger body of Western art and literature. He influenced English writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer, John Milton, and Alfred Tennyson, among many others. Artist: Luca Signorelli (More Images)

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