The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) · 171 of 175 · tr. Arthur Edward Waite
Page 80 (part 4)
"There are also necromantic processes, comprising the tearing up of earth from graves with the nails, dragging out some of the bones, setting them crosswise on the breast, then assisting at midnight mass on Christmas Eve, and flying out of the church at the moment of consecration, crying: 'Let the dead rise from their tombs!'--then returning to the graveyard, taking a handful of earth nearest to the coffin, running back to the door of the church, which has been alarmed by the clamour, depositing the two bones crosswise, again shouting: 'Let the dead rise from their tombs!'--then, if we escape being seized and shut up in a madhouse, retiring at a slow pace, and counting four thousand five hundred steps in a straight line, which means following a broad road or scaling walls; finally, having traversed this space, lying flat upon the earth as if in a coffin, repeating in doleful tones: 'Let the dead rise from their tombs!'--and calling thrice on the person whose apparition is desired." The object of Necromantic evocations was much the same as the other operations of the Grimoires.
If the sorcerer of old, like the modern magician, had ever dispossessed the shade of Apollonius of its eternal rest, it would have been upon a question of finance.
The remaining process in Necromancy will be therefore an appropriate conclusion to our whole inquiry, as it is designed to raise up and expel a human spirit who is supposed to stand guard over a hidden treasure.
It is from the Verus Jesuitarum Libellus , and is the ne plus ultra of Ceremonial Magic, however distributed according to the colours of the spectrum.
The end of all things is money, says the sorcerer, and if asked to define Occult Science, he would answer that it was the method of obtaining concealed money.
The testimony of the entire literature coincides with this definition.
A CONJURATION FOR THE SPIRIT GUARDIANS OF HIDDEN TREASURE I cite, require and command thee, Human Spirit, who frequentest this place, and in thy life hast interred thy treasure herein, who also of recent time, to wit, in the day or night of .
.
.
., about the hour of .
.
.
., hast shewn thyself in the form of a fire at this spot..
I conjure thee by God the Father e, by God the Son ✠ , by God the Holy Spirit ✠ , by the most glorious and Holy Mother ✠ of God ✠ , by the most holy wounds of our Saviour, by all miracles performed through His Divine sorrows, Passion and tears, by His material death, by His descent into Hell, by His triumphant Resurrection, by His most glorious ascension into Heaven, by His sitting on the right hand of God the Father, giving rule to His angels from thence over the whole earth ✠ .
I conjure thee by the terrible Day of Judgment ✠ , by the power and virtue.
of St.
John the Baptist ✠ , by all the martyrs, apostles and prophets.
Come to me.
I adjure and beseech thee by the terrible, ineffable and Divine Names inscribed on this sheet, and in reverence and confession of their power, to come before me, and to make thy sign visible, without lightning, without thunder, without noise of dread tempests, without causing fear or trembling, harm to body or soul, or annoyance of any kind.
But do thou perform my will in all things, even as I shall command thee, by the virtue of the, one stupendous and holy Name, which even the adverse and inferior powers of the Abyss do venerate and adore, ever confessing the Almighty, Whose creatures we all are.
Transgressive knowing acquired against divine prohibition — the Watchers' teaching of metallurgy, sorcery, and cosmetics in 1 Enoch, the Gnostic Eve narratives, the Promethean mytheme; explicitly contrasted with gnosis_direct_knowledge, which is salvific.
The practices described (necromancy, grave robbing) are transgressive and associated with risks like madness or imprisonment, fitting the theme of forbidden arts.
The interference of a discarnate human soul, or the lingering condition of a particular place, with the living — Dion Fortune's distinction between a soul in distress that clings out of ignorance and ties itself to a person or locality, versus deliberate malice. Distinct from animism (indwelling nature-spirits inherent to a place by nature, not a specific dead individual's soul) and from psychopomp_journey and ancestor_veneration (guiding the dead onward, or the living's ongoing ritual obligation to the honoured dead) in naming the pathological case: a soul that has NOT been guided onward and instead interferes, whether with a person or a place.
The passage describes spirits guarding hidden treasure or appearing as fire at specific spots, interfering with the living through apparitions.
The grimoire-tradition practice of ceremonially commanding or binding a spirit through consecrated seals, circles, divine names, and prescribed instruments, compelling its appearance and obedience. Distinct from theurgy in the direction of the power relationship — theurgy is reverent engagement with the gods on the premise of the operator's own ascent, this is subordination of a lesser spirit to the operator's will — and from word_power_incantation and sacred_names, which name components (verbal force, name-power) this practice deploys rather than the ritual structure itself.
The passage details specific necromantic processes and a conjuration formula designed to command human spirits to appear and reveal hidden treasure.
The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.
The text emphasizes the power of spoken commands ('Let the dead rise', 'I cite, require and command thee') to alter reality and force spirit obedience.