Journal of John Winchester (Supernatural)

September 28

Séance

On a clean altar cloth place a small bowl filled with

fresh herbs. Around the perimeter of the cloth, place black

and white candles alternating and equal in number. When all

of the candles are lit, recite the following :

Amate spiritus obscure te quaerimus.

Te oramus, nobiscum colloquere apud nos circita.

At the fnish of the incantation, pinch a tiny amount

of frankincense, sandalwood, or cinnamon powder over one

of the candle fames.

Pythagoras also led séances in approximately 540 B.C.

using something like a Ouija board. Using a wheeled table that

moved toward signs set up in a rough circle, Pythagoras and

his student Philolaus interpreted the motions as spirit signals.

Here Perimedes and Eurylochus held the victims,

while I drew my sword and dug the trench a cubit

each way. I made a drink-offering to all the dead,

rst with honey and milk, then with wine, and thirdly

with water, and I sprinkled white barley meal over the

whole, praying earnestly to the poor feckless ghosts,

and promising them that when I got back to Ithaca

I would sacrice a barren heifer for them, the best

I had, and would load the pyre with good things. I

also particularly promised that Teiresias should

have a black sheep to himself, the best in all my

ocks. When I had prayed sufciently to the dead, I

cut the throats of the two sheep and let the blood run

into the trench, whereon the ghosts came trooping

up from Erebus—brides, young bachelors, old men

worn out with toil, maids who had been crossed in

love, and brave men who had been killed in battle,

with their armour still smirched with blood; they

came from every quarter and itted round the trench

with a strange kind of screaming sound that made

me turn pale with fear. When I saw them coming I

told the men to be quick and ay the carcasses of the

two dead sheep and make burnt offerings of them,

and at the same time to repeat prayers to Hades and

to Proserpine; but I sat where I was with my sword

drawn and would not let the poor feckless ghosts

come near the blood till Teiresias should have answered my questions.

Katabasis: the voyage to the underword—Orpheus looking for

Eurydce. Adapted to Greek necromancy. A spirit project

of the necromancer would travel to the underword to speak

with the dead.

Katadesmoi: A Greek curse inscribed on a lead tablet (usually. A spirit is summoned and bound to the tablet to make

sure the curse is effective). Term also used for the summoning

and binding of a spirit to a task. Katadesmoi bured in a

cemetery or sacred place to make them more effective.

. . . souls after death do as yet love their body which

they left, as those souls do whose bodies want due

burial or have left their bodies by violent death, and

as yet wander about their carcasses in a troubled

and moist spirit, being, as it were, allured by something that hath an af nity with them . . .

Necromantic conjuration from Regnad Scott, Discoveries of

witchcraft. Seals of the Earth necessary to bring the spirit.

FIRST fast and praie three daies, and absteine thee

from all lthinesse; go to one that is new buried,

such a one as killed himselfe or destroied himselfe

wilfullie: or else get thee promise of one that shalbe

hanged, and let him sweare an oath to thee, after his

bodie is dead, that his spirit shall come to thee, and

doo thee true service, at thy commandements, in all

dales, houres, and minutes . And let no persons see thy

doings, but thy fellow. And about eleven a clocke in

the night, go to the place where he was buried, and

saie with a bold faith & hartie desire, to have the

spirit come that thou doost call for, thy fellow having

a candle in his left hand, and in his right hand a

christall stone, and saie these words following, the

maister having a hazell wand in his right hand, and

these names of God written thereupon, Tetragrammaton + Adonay + Agla + Craton + Then strike

three strokes on the ground, and saie;

Arise N. Arise N. Arise N. I conjure thee spirit N. by

the resurrection of our Lord Jesu Christ, that thou

doo obey to my words, and come unto me this night

verelie and trulie, as thou beleevest to be saved at the daie of judgement. And I will sweare to thee on

oath, by the perill of my soule, that if thou wilt come

to me, and appeare to me this night, and shew me

true visions in this christall stone, and fetch me the

fairie Sibylia, that I may talke with hir visiblie, and

she may come before me, as the conjuration leadeth:

and in so doing, I will give thee an almesse deed,

and praie for thee N. to my Lord God, wherby thou

maiest be restored to thy salvation at the resurrection daie, to be received as one of the elect of God, to

the everlasting glorie, Amen.

Sibly, necromantic conjuration. At the tomb or grave, after

inscribing the protective circle: "By the virtue of the holy

resurrection, and the torments of the damned, I conjure

and exorcise thee, spirit of N. deceased, to answer my liege

demands, being obedient unto these sacred ceremonies, on

pain of everlasting torment and distress. Arise, arise, arise, I

charge and command thee."