Ancient Greece - Sole Source of Goetic Magick?

I have recently read an article about a forthcoming book from Scarlet Imprint that touts the revelation of the source of Goetic magick as being a purely Greek phenomena. The book that is promoting this perspective is the much anticipated second installment of the Encyclopaedia Goetica, written by Jake Stratton-Kent, which has the title, “Geosophia: The Argo of Magic.” You can find the announcement of this new book here – I will certainly buy it, at least to thoroughly acquaint myself with Jake’s thesis.

While I must wait just like everyone else for this book to be printed and distributed, which will occur some time later this autumn, I can at least make a few comments about the reputed theme of this work. I will have to read it thoroughly before I can accurately gauge its usefulness and judge the plausibility of its principle theory. I have to admit that I am a bit skeptical about this claim. I feel this way because I have read the book “The True Grimoire,” and found within it some of Jake’s pronouncements about the historical authenticity of that grimoire compared to the Goetia of the Lemegeton. These comments seemed to be quite personally biased, and in my opinion, without much merit. I have found that what Jake has said contradicts what David Rankin and Stephen Skinner have proposed in their book “Goetia of Dr. Rudd.” Jake has some strong opinions about Goetic magick, its history and evolution from the early Renaissance to the 21st century. Jake seems to believe that the actual history of Goetic magick goes all the way back to the practice of necromancy in ancient Greece, and that the Goetic tradition, represented by some grimoires, has an unbroken lineage of practitioners.

While there is little doubt that there is a Greek source to the Goetic tradition, there are other cultural elements that were mixed in as well. I also don’t agree with any argument that proposes an unbroken lineage based on very sketchy circumstantial evidence. However, Jake is a brilliant writer and occultist, even if some of his arguments don’t seem to be very plausible to me. However, his opinions are often controversial but also compelling, so they are not easily dismissed or overturned. Instead, they offer quite a bit of material to ponder, analyze and compare against what others have said - practitioners and scholars.

The main theme of the book is quoted from the pre-sales text found on the publisher’s web page. I would like to discuss this theme and add some of my own questions and thoughts about it for my readers to ponder along with me.

“Geosophia is a very important text. Tracing the development of magic from the Greeks to the grimoires it lays bare the chthonic roots of ritual. By exposing the necromantic origins of much of modern magic we are able to reconnect with the source of our ritual tradition. There is a continuity of practice in the West which encompasses the pre-Olympian cults of Dionysus and Cybele, is found in the Greek Magical Papyri and Picatrix and flows into the grimoires.”

While I might be intrigued by the ideas promoted in this book’s advertisement, some of Jake’s opinions are both puzzling and appear to go against the grain of what academics have established as a basic understanding of the period of late antiquity, and the various occult ideas that were flourishing at that time. We should keep in mind that the time period and culture that we are talking about existed over a couple of thousand years ago. Existing source material is scarce, even for popular writings of such philosophers as Plato and Aristotle, or even the plays of Aristophanes, some of which are lost to time. Obscure grimoires and occult writings are nearly nonexistent. Modern occultists have had to reconstruct these ancient systems using very meager literary sources enlivened with a great deal of imagination. For instance, to this day, we still know very little about the mystery cults practiced in antiquity, and in most cases, not enough information exists to accurately replicate them.

Using single sources, such as the “Greek Magical Papyri” as representing the whole of the tradition of magick in late antiquity could also be a problem. Often, practical magick is a regional phenomenon, related to place and time. The bulk of the “Greek Magical Papyri” are a collection of Graeco Egyptian magick spells, whose place would be Hellenized Egypt, and whose time would be from the first two centuries before and after the common era. Location is an important consideration, since the original massive scroll that makes up this work was supposedly found in the tomb of a rich man who was buried in the Karnak area (Thebes). This should inform us that the collection of spells are particular to Egypt during and after the Ptolemaic period. While there are identifiable sources in that collection from Jewish, Greek and even Persian sources, it should be considered mostly an Egyptian collection, with a particularly Egyptian perspective on magick.

There are quite a large number of obvious spells and rites in the PGM that use Jewish formulations, in fact a number of sections of the papyri are devoted exclusively to these cultural artifacts. The editor of this scroll assembled a large number of the spells together from many sources, and seemed to be more driven by their reputed power than if they were Greek, Egyptian, Hebrew or even of Persian derivation. The mixture of cultures, god names, heros, and cultural sources represents a phenomenon that was characteristic of the times - cultures, languages, religious beliefs and superstitions were melted together to form a massive heterodoxy, much like gnosticism. The magickal language consisting of words of power also seem to meld various words from several languages together to form a strange polyglot, what scholars have called a verba ignota (unknown tongue). It’s interesting to note that the verba ignota was a feature of some Christian European grimoires, but not the Greater and Lesser Keys of Solomon, or the Grimoirium Verum.

A further quote from another website that Jake has authored presents his opinions in a clearer manner. It’s taken from Hadean Press’s “Mark Ye Well the Dead Underworld of Hadean Press.”

“The Hellenic sources of the Picatrix are indicative of the real roots of the entire genre. The form and style of the grimoires were determined millennia in advance by magical texts in Greek. This far predated the influx of Christianised Kabbalah into Western magic in the late 15th century; erroneously credited with supplying the basis of Western occultism. ”

I would agree that the Picatrix, an Arabic grimoire from the 11th century (translated into Latin in the middle of the 13th century) drew its sources from earlier Greek manuscripts and practices. The original source of this grimoire, now lost, was very likely produced from the occult tradition that thrived through the various writings and teachings of Neoplatonism. How Neoplatonism found its way into Arabic culture of the early middle ages could be explained by the transition of Greek philosophy and the academy in Athens to Harran (529 CE), and the building of a university there by the Caliph, Umar II (717 CE). The Neoplatonists thrived in their new location and continued their work until the around the 11th century, and two centuries later, the Picatrix was translated in Spain.

During that time, Jews lived and congregated in the Persian and Parthian areas of influence, and later managed to continue to thrive within the newly established empire of Islam. Since Jews were expelled from Alexandria during the Christian era, it is possible that they sought refuge in various parts of the middle east where they had been living for centuries, including Mesopotamia, which would have also placed them in Harran at the same time as the Neoplatonic philosophers. It is possible, and even likely, that magickal and occult practices continued to blend together, with Judaism supplying a large share of the derived lore. The Qabbalah would have had its birth during this time (Sepher Yetzirah - 4th century CE), and the first example of a grimoire working with both angels and demons (Testament of Solomon). 

We can see the same kind of blending occurring in the earliest writings of the Qabbalah, where the obvious Neoplatonic concept of emanation became a critical part of that occult system. The Qabbalah as we know it today is a thorough mixture of Hebrew occultism, Neoplatonism and Christian theology. If one were to attempt to purge one or more of these strains from the Qabbalah, it would cease to be useful or perhaps, even recognizable. There were obviously a lot of ideas being passed back and forth between occult scholars over the past two millennia, and this exchange powerfully impacted the various practices of Qabbalah, alchemy, astrology and ceremonial magic. I believe that to attempt to extract and remove Christian and Hebrew influences from the various ceremonial magickal grimoires would be not only an impossible task, but one that would undoubtedly produce a whole new system of magick. It would be something contrived and derived, not representing the more original source, which is obviously lost to time.

Whatever was practiced in ancient Greece and called necromancy had already been contaminated by Pythagorean beliefs and practices at the beginning of the classical period. Pythagorean philosophy probably had eastern sources and influences, as the belief in the transmigration of souls appears to attest. Not much is known about Pythagorus or his philosophy, and what is known was probably written a couple of centuries after his death. However, Pythagorean philosophers were reputed to be able to see the ghosts of dead people, and were able to call them up and talk to them. This appeared to be a grafting of Pythagorean teachings with more primitive shamanic practices involving divination of the dead, or necromancy. Pythagoreans were often conflated with goetic magicians who specialized in necromancy.

How we get to the conjuration of demons from the summoning and incubation of the spirits of the dead is probably a bit of a logical over-reach. I have already written two articles that explore this idea from two different perspectives, but it would seem that the Greek concept of the invocation or summoning of daimons would be quite different than the ceremonial magician conjuring demons - they represent cultural perspectives separated by more than fifteen hundred years. There is also the consideration that Jewish and Christian religious influences have had a huge impact on this system of magick, making it nearly impossible to retrieve the earlier system intact.

Without an authentic source document written from that time period (predating Christian and Jewish influences), I believe that no one could reconstitute the ancient Greek system of Goetic magick. It’s also very likely that ancient Goetic magick was an oral tradition practiced by individuals who couldn’t read or write. However, this is all speculation, since records of what was actually practiced don’t really exist.

What we have are just intriguing fragments and literary constructs, possibly derived from a combination of realistic observation and fantasy. The fragments of actual magickal workings consists of curse tablets and various bits and pieces of parchment and papyri. The PGM is the only complete source scroll from that time, and relying too heavily on a single source is problematic. So the task of deriving a pure source of occult and magickal practices from antiquity to the compilation of the grimoires in the 16th century is likely a fool’s errand, since none of this would pass the inspection of historians, archaeologists and anthropologists. What we are dealing with here is an “As If” approach to reconstruction, where we use creativity and our imaginations to fill in the huge gaps in actual evidential knowledge.

Even an examination of the various names of the goetic demons reveals that there are Hebrew, Greek and Latin elements merged together. Some names are taken directly from Hebrew folk traditions, gathered together from many Semitic sources (Akkadian, Canaanite and Egyptian), and then there are the Greek and Latinized names whose source is completely unknown. Attempting to put together a list of demonic names reclaimed from ancient Greek sources would be nearly impossible, since some of the names are obviously of Semitic derivation. What we would have to do is to detach the list of goetic demons from the infernal princes and put them into a chthonic pagan context, a task that I have promoted in my previous articles about this subject. 

Perhaps a clue as to what Jake is proposing can be found in his article published in the anthology “Both Sides of Heaven.” In the article entitled “Grimoires for Pagans,” Jake lays the foundation for establishing a pagan chthonic perspective to goetic grimoires, such as the Grimoirium Verum. The principal infernal triumvirate that rules over the demonic hoards are Lucifer, Belzebuth and Astaroth, and to these demonic princes, Jake has attributed the Greek gods Hermes, Hades and Persephone.  One would also want to add Dionysus, Cybele, Circe, Orpheus, Isis and Osiris (from the mystery cult), and most importantly, Hecate, to the assembly of gods, goddesses and demigods as well.

To alter and exchange the demonic princes with these three Greek gods is a startlingly revelation, certainly one that could begin an entire process of reclamation. I have long sought to encourage this kind of complete rewriting of the goetic magickal tradition using a completely pagan perspective, since dealing with the infernal princes through their ambassador (Scirlin) assumes that one has bought into the whole Judeo-Christian theological premise of demons being evil fallen angels. Some proponents of goetic magick have maintained that only those who are piously associated with the “Abrahamic” traditions should have a right to work this magick. At least I can agree with this approach, since I am not a adherent to this tradition.

What all of this seems to mean is that Jake is in the process of creating a whole new tradition, starting at the top and working on down to the very foundation. When he is finished, in my opinion, he will have created a completely new and unique magickal perspective, not unlike others who espouse either a chthonic pagan perspective or outright demonalotry. Jake will then take the Grimoirium Verum out of it’s Christian environment, and put it into a newly derived context, one that will integrate old and new elements together. Thus, we can expect that the end result will be a whole new approach to goetic magick and very likely, a new set of grimoires to replace the ones that were first printed in the previous epoch. I very much look forward to that day, since that will certainly end the debate in various magickal circles between Neopagans and Christian occultists, both of whom claim the goetic tradition as their own.

So we can look forward to the publishing of Jake’s new book “Geosophia: The Argo of Magic,” regardless whether we agree with the whole of his premise, or not. 

Frater Barrabbas

Bornless One Working

This is a brief article that will attempt to explain the nature and importance of the Bornless One rite and its suit of rituals that are part of the Bornless One working.


The Bornless One working has now been incorporated into the newly designed and structured Abramelin Lunar Ordeal, representing the rites performed in the second half of that working. The purpose of the Bornless One invocation rite, regardless of what larger ordeal or working it is deployed in, is the one great ritual that is designed to invoke and manifest, to a lesser or greater extent, the higher self of the celebrant and magician who performs it. In the Order there are four different versions to the Bornless One rite, and the greater ordeal uses the more advanced version, which incorporates ritual structures and geometric prismatic powers associated with the seventh degree. Therefore, this overall working is the primacy of the seventh degree, and initiates who are either already working at that level, having achieved their consecration to the Hierophant degree, or if they are working closely with someone who has achieved that degree of spiritual and magickal development.

The Abramelin Lunar Ordeal has already been covered, and so, too, has the Bornless rite been examined and explained to some degree in previous writings. So what needs to be explained is the Bornless one working, which includes a total of four rituals. Previously, the Bornless rite stood alone and had no other associated working in which to develop a context and to utilize the powers and visions that may have been experienced. Now there are three ancillary rituals, and the complete working is performed as the major part of the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal.

The Bornless working consists of the following rituals in the order that they are to be performed. All of the new rituals have been distilled from the Greek Magical Papyri, identified in notation by the letters PGM. These new rituals were developed from source material analogous to the Bornless One rite, which the Golden Dawn first promoted and Aleister Crowley lionized in Liber Samakh and Liber VIII. Also, for a more detailed explanation of them, I would recommend consulting the rituals in question.


1. Bornless Ring Consecration rite. This particular rite is from PGM XII, lines 201 through 350, and is distilled and appropriated from that original Greek manuscript. The purpose of the ring consecration rite in the original was to forge a powerful magickal ring that would be able to act as a focus for the projection of magick power, much as a magick ring in legend and myth would be so used. The ring was to be of a particular kind, a band of gold with a semi precious beveled stone, minutely carved with magickal characters and words of power. The ring was then consecrated in a specific rite so it would be imbued with the powers of an absolute deity, a veritable god of gods. There are actually a pair of rites in this part of the manuscript, next to each other, so I was able to distill material from both spells. These rites, like many others in the papyri, are set down in isolation and there is little to indicate to the practitioner that these rites, or any others, are valuable if appropriated and placed into a context, such as I have attempted to do.

The purpose for the ring consecration rite in the Bornless series is to formulate a magickal trigger or tool (link) to materialize the magickal power of the Higher Self and project it into the world. The ring is therefore a linking device, and not to misconstrued as representing anything more than the symbolic and mythic quality that it represents. Once it is forged and formulated, it continues to live in the mind and soul of the magician. Stealing the ring or destroying it will in no way eliminate it, since it actually exists in the inner planes - the material ring is nothing more than a physical representation for it. If by chance, the magician shall lose this ring or have it stolen, he or she may create a new one at any time. The old ring cannot be used to either attack or work black magick on the magician, since it symbolizes the bond between the magician and his Holy Guardian Angel or Higher Self, and nothing can disturb that connection except the foolish actions or impassioned pathos of the magician. So because the ring is actually a symbolized tool, it can neither work for another nor can it profit anyone else who might attempt to use it.

While one could spend a small fortune to produce an elaborate and expensive ring, made of gold, and the gem stone cut and engraved with words of power (making it something of a magickal artifact and worth something to someone besides the magician), it is my recommendation that the ring be made of either gold or silver and have a beveled semi-precious gem stone affixed to it. There should be no etched words of power, sigils or characters - just a simple ring with little or no special qualities to it. It would also be smart for it to be rather quite common looking and also inexpensive, since it is the symbol that’s really important, not the ring. By charging and wearing a modest ring, the magician insures that he or she will always know that the true ring exists in the inner planes and is merely represented in all its glory by a simple device.

The consecration ritual is easy enough, since it is done immediately following a special mass and a benediction. The sacraments are used to directly bless and empower the ring, and the powerful invocations distilled from the Greek Magical Papyri supply the verbiage. Little else is required for this simple rite, other than a careful and fixed concentration on the difficult but sonorous words of power. The charging the of ring is done, and then a vigil is performed until just before the first dawning light, which should shine upon the ring and further words of power said over it. There is also an invocation of the godhead Ouphōr, which is used the first time that one wears it. From that moment onward, all one needs to do is just say the name when slipping the ring on the finger. I felt that this was a critical part that was missing from the Bornless One ritual, and it was well documented in the Greek Magical Papyri. This rite has an all-night vigil, and is completed through the dawning light of the next day.


2. Bornless One rite - also, Bornless One Invocation Rite - Stellar Gnosis version four. This is a greatly enhanced version of the Bornless One rite, using the corrected and recovered words of power from the original PGM spell (specifically, PGM V 96 -172), and being deployed with five levels of concentric magick pyramid vortex structures. These five steps or levels represent the power of ascendancy and the imbuement of a multi-tiered level of Godhead manifestation. The center core of this rite is where the actual Bornless One rite is performed.

The Bornless Rite IV consists of three ritual levels. The first level is the Tetramorphic Archetypal Power Vortices for all four of the Qabbalistic Worlds, resolving the combined forces in the fifth power, which is called the Jewel of the Gnostic Stellar Rays. The assumption is that the Higher Self (the Bornless One) resides in all four of the worlds, from Assiah to Atziluth. Within these unified vortices, the Celebrant invokes the Bornless One, using the classical English translation as found in the rituals of the Golden Dawn (with corrections made from the original Greek Papyri). The final ritual action is where the Celebrant  erects his own formula to establish the third level which is the Gate of Light, where he projects outward the powers and profound insights found from summoning the Bornless One. This structure should represent the Celebrant's personal spiritual directive at that point in his life.

The Invocation of the Bornless One establishes a permanent manifested link to one's higher self. Therefore, it is necessary for the Celebrant to fast, say mass, undergo rigorous purification and other ascetic practices to facilitate the process. The Celebrant may also need to change the masculine pronouns in the ritual to feminine if her gender requires it.

The Celebrant performs the consecration of the Temple of the Goddess, the Mass of the Goddess, and performs all four Elemental Worlds of the Tetrapatronis, completing the power vortices with the fifth power vortex, in the order Assiah through Atziluth. This progression is the opposite as presented in the original ritual, so we have included them in the correct order in the following sections 2 through 6. However, the student is urged to read over the original ritual and to become familiar with the structures of the power vortices of the tetrapatrons. In addition, there are invocations or calls from the Ars Notoria of Solomon the King (a 13th century grimoire of great repute), seven of which are used to profoundly empower the four power vortices, and to unveil the mystery of the Eye in the Triangle, which is the new central Mystery of the Bornless One rite.


3. Bornless One Assumption Rite. This particular rite is from PGM IV, lines 154 through 285, and is distilled and appropriated from that original Greek manuscript. It is used for the assumption of great powers and is performed immediately following the Bornless rite. It is used to assume the powers, authorities and to quicken the manifestation of the Bornless One as the Higher Self. This rite is based on a simulation of death and rebirth, and therefore, invokes the dark god of the underworld, who is Typhon. The body of the subject is wrapped in three yards of gauze and lays upon the floor as if dead, but crowned with ivy and blindfolded. Then a long incantation is said, and the subject arises, is vested in pure white robes of linen and says an affirmation. Then another incantation is read, this time before the rising sun. Later, in the temple, the subject performs divination to see the image or imago of the godhead assumption, and speaks a final set of incantations. It would seem that the subject would have to perform a great deal of memorization in order to complete this rite, to adorn oneself with the gauze wrapping, etc.

Therefore, to aid the performance of this rite there should be two individuals performing it - one, the candidate who is to undergo the process and assume the godhead of the Bornless One, and two, the initiator, who performs the incantations, guides and assists the candidate. If two people are performing this rite, then they can take turns going through the death and resurrection ordeal and being the one who does the incantations and assists the other. If one is performing this rite alone, then I would recommend that he or she perform the incantation first, then wrap up in the gauze covering and perform a deep trance based meditation to simulate the process of death and resurrection.

The papyrus spell advises that the assumption of great power be done at midnight, and then the candidate may properly greet the rising sun as the resurrected and empowered one. I would recommend that the rite be performed immediately following the Bornless One rite. The period of being wrapped up in gauze can last only as long as one can assume the deepest trance state, and then it is followed by the resurrection. However, one should then assume an evening vigil, with light sleep and trance, and then to arise and go outside to witness the rising sun, where additional incantations are said. Once that is accomplished, the candidate should immediately return to the temple to perform the mirror divination, and thereby perceive the nimbus and vision of the Bornless One surrounding one’s person.

The empowered magic ring should also be deployed for this rite, the candidate having assumed it and invoking the sacred godname (during the Bornless One invocation) before being wrapped in gauze, so that on awakening, he or she shall be fully bonded with the power and glory of the Bornless One.


4. Bornless One Envisioning Rite: This particular rite is from PGM IV, lines 850 through 1,226, and is distilled and appropriated from that original Greek manuscript. This rite takes a total of three days, and requires three masses to be said, with an accompanying incantation to be read, known as the Hidden Stele and Death Delivering Stele. The third evening is when the actual rite is to be performed, begun with another magical mass and a benediction rite. The preceding two days are a time of reflection, meditation and purification, with special baths and the elimination of all worldly concerns, which might distract one from the work. The main operator should be crowned with a garland, and have prepared a special phylactery that is to be worn around the waist. White robes are the preferred adornment, as is the controller crystal, to be worn around the neck. The Bornless rite ordeal should have been performed previously just before or on the full moon, and this rite should be performed for the next full moon that occurs.

The purpose of the envisioning rite is that it is to gather up the powerful visions that the Celebrant experienced while having invoked his/her higher self into manifestation, and these are used to project into a dark mirror as potent questions for the higher self, to be resolved as visions of confirmation as to the destiny and ultimate purpose of the Celebrant. Having this knowledge, the Celebrant can more unerringly live his/her life and proceed to accomplish the great work in a more clear and efficient manner than would be otherwise. Therefore, this rite is not only a divination rite, but it’s an active and powerful one that literally generates the future for the Celebrant, so that he/she may revel in the glory of knowing and following one’s spiritual and material destiny, however that is revealed.

The specific ritual begins with a circle consecration rite, a mass and benediction. After a suitable period of deep meditation, the Celebrant then proceeds to build up a powerful cross roads in the temple, using incantations from the PGM and the device of the inverted rose ankh. This is done in a widershins manner, starting in the Southwest and completing in the Southeast, with an arc joining the Northeast with the Northwest. The center of the circle is set with a great inverted rose ankh in the infra-point, and all of the four angles are drawn together through it. There are five specialized incantations taken from the PGM to empower this cross-roads vortex ritual structure.

At this point in the rite, the Celebrant puts on the magic ring, summons the associated godhead, and then performs the macro-rite for the Bornless One. The Celebrant pauses to complete a full assumption of that entity before continuing.

The lamp and black mirror is placed on a small altar in the center of the circle, and the lamp is lit, the phylactery is put on along with the garland crown and the controller crystal around the neck. At this point the Celebrant intones four incantations: light bringing charm, the light retaining spell, the summoning of the Godhead (to the Bornless One, said three times), and then performs the envisioning using the black mirror.

Once the envisioning with the black mirror is completed, the Celebrant performs the dismissal of the Godhead, the dismissal of the brightness, and then performs an all night vigil, greeting the sun’s first light as it dawns in the morning.

These four rituals represent the complete suite of rites used in the Bornless One working, which has now fully enabled the Bornless Rite with a complete array of functionality that was missing in the  various and many previous iterations. The Abramelin Lunar Ordeal gives the Bornless working its complete context and will therefore insure that a much more powerful effect will be realized when it is used by appropriately trained members of the Order.

Frater Barrabas

Necromancy - Dark Art Exemplar?

This is an expanded article that appeared in the Samhain edition of Rending the Veil. I hope that you find the topic in keeping with the weekend celebrations.

Amongst all the various names for magical practices, the word necromancy is probably the most foreboding and sinister. No doubt that such a practice was diabolical and associated with the blackest forms of magic. Popular folklore and belief defines necromancy as divination performed through the conjuration and manipulation of the spirits of the dead. The most outrageous form was the exhumation and reanimation of a corpse, which many often think of today when defining this term.

Necromancy has a long history, but during the Christian era it became confused with the conjuration of demons, which was called nigromancy or black magic. Necromancy in the middle ages was defined as a system of sorcery that gained its power and knowledge from conjuring spirits, whether angels, demons or ghosts. Nigromancy, or goetic magic, was a term that meant working sorcery through the conjuration of demons. Christian leaders believed that since only the Lord had power over the dead, sorcerers who performed necromancy were actually conjuring demons. After a time the two were used almost interchangeably, which caused the practice of necromancy to lose its meaning. However, spiritualists and mediums who sought to contact the dead and gain from them information about the future were actually unwittingly practicing a form of necromancy. Yet no one ever called them necromancers, which would have meant that one was evil personified. This confusion has not helped to clarify or define this system of magic, instead it has become something of topic of horror stories and low budget films. 

The origins of necromancy occurred in the far distant past, long before the time of antiquity. It was a system of divination that was ultimately derived from the pious observances paid to the dead at their tombs. It isn’t hard to imagine a person going to the grave site of some great kinsman and in addition to giving offerings and oblations, to ask for assistance with some family crisis. So the practice of necromancy probably stemmed from a natural desire to seek help from one's departed ancestors. Thoughts about the value of advice or prophecy given by the dead varied considerably in antiquity. Some believed that the dead has resources beyond the ken of the living, others (like Homer) believed that the dead knew no more about things than when alive. Necromancy may have derived innocently enough from funeral observations, but it’s also possible that it had a separate shamanic origin. Shamans in primitive societies were reputed to not only be able to heal the sick, but also to enter into the underworld and talk to the departed ancestors - shamans were an important link between both worlds.

Necromancy in antiquity, although not considered a legitimate public procedure for gaining intimate knowledge, shadowed the greater centers of divination, such as the Oracle of Delphi and the Temple of Asclepias. It was based upon a number of procedures that were well represented in folk tradition and literature, going back to Homer's Odyssey. We will briefly look to the Obyssey for a classic example of the rite called nekuia.

The Greeks had terms for this kind of magic, they called it nekumanteia (rites of divination from the dead) and psuchomanteia (divination from souls). From the Greek word came the Latin version, necromantea, from which we get necromancy. Typical places where these rites were conducted were tombs, cemeteries or even old battlefields. Such locations were called psuchagogion, which were drawing places of ghosts. Individuals who summoned ghosts or shades were called psuchagogoi, or evocators of ghosts. (These and other quotes and information were distilled from the book Greek and Roman Necromancy, most notably, from the introduction.)

Greeks and Romans believed that the spirit or shade departed the body at death. It wandered around the burial site, visited places habituated in life or ended up in the underworld of Hades, or more rarely, the Eleusinian fields. These visitations of the dead to places of the living occurred only at certain times of the night, when most of the populace had gone to sleep. People of antiquity loved life, so the perception of death was dismal, lonely, a heartbreaking end to everything good. Shades of the dead often were harbingers of gloom and doom, sometimes directed to curse other living people with their unhappy blessings. The most accessible of the dead shades were those who were prone to restlessness, such as the ghosts of untimely or violent deaths.

Archaeological traces have been found at certain locations where necromancy was practiced as a kind of permanent oracle. These special places were called by the Greeks, nekuomanteion. They were usually located in places such as natural mephitic caves or lakes where water and brimstone appeared to mix; offering clues to an intrusion of the stygian underworld. Four famous locations were Acheron in Thesprotia, Avernus in Campania (Italy), Tainaron, which was located on the Mani peninsula of the southern Peloponnese, and Heracleia Pontica, located on the south coast of the Black Sea.  Two of these locations had caves, but Avernus was a deep lake formed by a volcanic cone and Acheron was a lakeside precinct with indications of vulcanism. Both lakes were reputed to be without birds, since the mephitic fumes would have killed or driven them away.

Petitioners who visited an oracle of the dead would undergo certain kinds of rites performed in dimly lit caves or at night next to turgid lakes, guided by a leader who would conduct the rituals and speak the incantations. Offerings were given and the petitioner would spend the night in that place to obtain what he sought through incubation, by dreams, visions, or a ghostly visitation. The guide also had the responsibility to explain the dreams and visions later on, helping the petitioner to understand their meaning. Incubation was only one of many different ways of contacting the dead, it was the most prevalent method.

In Homer's Odyssey, book 11, a classic rite of necromancy is performed by Odysseus under the direction of his lover, Circe. Odysseus and his men dig a pit with their swords, around it pour libations to the dead consisting of milk, honey, sweet wine, water and then sprinkling barley over the mixture. He prays to the dead and sacrifices a pair of black sheep so the blood collects in the pit. The carcasses of the sheep are flayed and burned, then he prays to Hades and Persephone. He and his men ward the pit with their swords keeping out any unwanted spirits who are drawn to the offerings. They allow only those to whom Odysseus wishes to speak a draft from the fresh blood. After drinking it, a shade can assume a temporary visible appearance and converse with the living. Odysseus talks to several ghosts, but the real purpose of the rite is to consult with the dead prophet Tiresias, seeking to learn the future and the way home. Circe is Odysseus's divine guide and instructor in the necromantic rite, she assists him in analyzing and deciphering the experience, acting as the archetypal witch. Also, the location of the rite is important, too, for it resides next to a cave leading into the underworld. Many other characters who acted as mediums of the dead in antiquity, both real and fictional, were female practitioners of witchcraft. Necromancy was not their specialty, it was rather one of many different techniques that they could use.

This tale was followed by other examples, but it would seem that the necromantic rite, as described by Homer, was already fully formed and traditionally established. By the 5th century, there were professional necromancers who were called goetes - sorcerers, derived from the Greek word goos, which was the mourning wail of the dead. Such individuals were reputed to have the ability to manipulate ghosts. Pythagoreans also had a reputation of being a kind of Greek shaman who not only used necromantic spells as their stock and trade, but could travel to the underworld themselves. Another kind of magic that was practiced and related to necromancy was a divination called lecanomancy, which was a ghostly scrying into a bowl of liquid.

The Greek Egyptian Magical Papyri also had some representations of necromancy, particularly papyrus PGM IV (Paris Papyrus), which contains a group of spells associated with an individual called 'Pitys.' These spells extracted prophecies from corpses or the heads of corpses, bringing to mind the kind of magic performed by the classic witch. Such an individual might have had skulls or heads that talked, but they would have been animated by one's familiar spirit rather than a spirit of the dead. There seemed to be some differences between the places and individuals who acted as oracles of the dead, and individuals who practiced sorcery and witchcraft. The latter typically acted in a manner that exploited the dead rather than treating them with reverence.

Finally, the actual description of necromancy as a method of reanimating and interrogating corpses was first introduced by the poet Lucan, who made it part of the repertoire of the evil Thessalian witch Erictho. She uses it to gain information from a hapless dead Pompeian soldier. Erictho first pours hot blood and a concoction of herbs into the dead body, and then conjures the shade of the soldier, forcing it to enter the corpse to question it. This was a fictitious literary work, and it was followed by others, most notably by Apuleius and Heliodorus. However, there seems to be little evidence that this type of working ever really occurred, that oracles of the dead and necromancy usually had much greater respect and veneration for the deceased than what is depicted in these satirical stories. Later on they may have become the primary impetus for judging the necromantic art as nothing more than the conjurations of demons. It passed into the Christian era completely debased and more the stuff of horror stories or propaganda against the practice of witchcraft.

So what would a modern practitioner of paganism, magic or witchcraft want with the magical system of necromancy? First of all, to a modern pagan, necromancy would represent a legitimate system of divination for the honored dead or ancestors. Secondly, one should consider that a magician will conjure whatever spirit serves his or her needs, but that it be done in fashion that doesn’t dishonor the dead. There isn’t any need for the use of actual bones and skulls, or exhuming some burial and pilfering body parts for use in magical spells. Scrying with magic mirrors or bowls filled with dark fluid would also be useful, as well as establishing a kind of temporary nukuomanteion or oracle of the dead at an appropriate place, such as at the entrance of a cave or in a cave, an underground grotto or a shallow and swampy lake. Learning to obtain visitations through incubation and the use of a conjuration language, like that found in the Greek Magical Papyri, would also be quite appropriate. Offers to the dead would be a requirement, although sacrificing animals could be replaced with food and drink offerings, perhaps given in a triple manner, through burial, burning in a fire and pouring libations into a lake, stream or river. There are many options available to the modern pagan who seeks to work necromancy as it was done in antiquity.

For this autumn season of All-Souls and Samhain, I leave it to the curious and the ambitious to discover the ancient means to contact the dead and to gain their wisdom. May the shadows bless you and fascinate you as they have me.


Bibliography -

Ogden, Daniel (2001) Greek and Roman Necromancy Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ

Frater Barrabbas

Thoughts About the Bornless One Invocation Rite

Perhaps one of the most compelling rituals that I have ever studied or attempted to perform is known as the Bornless Rite, which I have called the Bornless One Invocation rite. It’s part of the extended Golden Dawn lore, but has little or no documentation accompanying it. In fact, it doesn’t even fit in with the rest of the extended Golden Dawn rituals and writings, it’s just there, alone and seemingly completely out of context. However, it was not at all ignored, since the language that it is uses is remarkable, powerful and profoundly relevant even today. It is most likely the crown jewel of the Golden Dawn tradition, but the question remains - where’s the rest of the jewels that go with it - and where is the crown? These questions have been in my mind for years, but there really wasn’t any ability on my part to answer this question, because it wasn’t until a few years ago that I discovered the source material for this ritual. I admit that I have been a bit slow in making that connection, since other magicians have been examining that source material for over a decade or more.

Aleister Crowley was quite taken with this ritual as well, since he published a version of this rite in the Equinox, which is called Liber Samakh. This article has been used and studied for quite some time. However, whether Crowley knew the source of this ritual, or like me, accepted it as is (with modifications and re-working) is unknown. He does mention revising the ritual with corrected versions of the god-names and barbarous words of evocation, but careful examination shows that he may not have known the actual source of this ritual.

Later occultists identified where the ritual came from, although I am at a loss to state exactly who first made this discovery (was it Stephen Flowers?). Needless to say, I myself didn’t discover it until I checked my assumption that the ritual was taken from the Leyden Papyrus located in the British Museum. Of course, I didn’t find it there, and further research revealed a much larger work that was both obscure and significant, and that is the now famous Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (Chicago University Press - 1992), released in an edited format by Hans Dieter Betz, but the translations have been accomplished by many different scholars since the scrolls were first discovered in the early 19th century.

The Greek Magical Papyri have their own unique history that is quite interesting. According to sketchy historical records, the different sections of papyrus were originally a single massive scroll, buried in the tomb of some unknown important and wealthy person in Thebes, perhaps sometime in the first or second century of the common era. This tomb was discovered, illegally entered into and its contents pilfered by professional tomb robbers, of the kind that have been stealing the contents of tombs great and small since dynastic times. The massive scroll, however, deemed to be worth less than the artifacts, eventually found its way to Cairo, to be sold along with a myriad of other stolen artifacts to European collectors who had ready cash for such priceless pieces.

When all this occurred is unknown, however, the scroll was sold to a foreign collector named Jean d’Anastasi, who was an ambassador to the Egyptian pasha in Alexandria, and from there, in 1820's, the collection of papyri found their way to several European museums, where they continue to be examined and studied to this day. Apparently, seeking to maximize his profits, d’Anastasi cut the papyrus scroll into smaller sections. Each of these museums had their own section, and each, apparently, thought that their section was unique. It wasn’t until almost the end of the 19th century that scholars, by accident, noted that the different sections of papyri were in fact from the same massive scroll. They began to translate and pull the different sections together so that once again, at least in translation, the great work is once again whole - or at least more so than it was previously.

This collection of scrolls contains perhaps the only extent copy of magical practices and spells as they were supposedly used in Egypt in antiquity. It’s possible that the collection spans a long period, and the original collector pulled together a very heterogeneous batch of magical spells, recopying them into a scroll that was apparently continually added to. The text is written predominantly in Greek, but other parts are written in Coptic and even Demotic. The spells incorporate magical ideas and practices from all over the known world, including Greek, Egyptian, Jewish, Persian, Chaldean, Christian and Gnostic god names, techniques and materials. The magical spells are representative of what magic probably was like from that time period, incorporating the religious beliefs, practices and esoteric notions of all of the peoples of the Graeco-Roman world. This shouldn’t be too surprising, since other rare sources of magical writings (Hermetic, Gnostic or Christian) show a decidedly heterogenous mixture of nearly every religious creed and belief in antiquity. However, these rare glimpses show that magicians were anything but strict sectarians, and would use whatever worked for them.

These spells cover the gamut of typical magic, such as various kinds of divination, love spells, money and buried treasure spells, curses, healing spells, exorcisms, the creation of magic artifacts and the summoning of spirits, whether gods, powerful entities of obscure origin, or even souls of the dead. Yet the most intriguing thing found in all of these spells are the collection of powerful and barbarous words of evocation, a seemingly plethora of what historians call “verba ignota” (unknown words). Some of the magic words are obvious corruptions of identifiable god names from various religions, others are more obscure and even indecipherable. But these words of power and magic, even after all these centuries, when properly pronounced and intoned, still have a remarkable effect - so this is the value that these spells have, the words of power.

The Bornless rite was taken from one of these scrolls, pulled from its source context and given a name remotely like it’s original. The section of scroll that it was liberated from is known to scholars as PGM V, lines 96 through 172. The full blown ritual is actually an exorcism, where the magician invokes his highest godhead in order authoritatively order the spirit out of the body of the victim. The name of this godhead is the “Headless One”, and that functions as a rubric for the spell. It could be surmised that Mathers, having been introduced to the British museum’s section of the scroll and an 1850's translation of it, expropriated the interesting part of the ritual to be used in the advanced lore of the Golden Dawn. It may have been his intention to liberate other parts as well, perhaps to build a magical system based on that which was practiced in antiquity, but this never occurred, and the Bornless rite was stored alone with other bits of ritual lore until Aleister Crowley published his own version of it in the Equinox. Some editions of the Golden Dawn published by Israel Regardie had this ritual in its original form included, other editions omitted it for unknown reasons. Needless to say, this is what the practitioners of modern ritual magic have to work with, at least until recently.

A question about the name that the Golden Dawn chose for this rite has rankled a number of occultists, who have said that the original title for this ritual is the “Headless One”, which is not the same thing as the Bornless One. However, I have a theory that would explain why the title, Bornless One is actually a good one. In Hebrew, the word head can have the additional meaning of "beginning", and an example is the first word of Genesis, which in Hebrew is "Brashet." This word means "in the beginning" - or literally, "in the head", since "rosh" means head. Similarly, Rosh Hashanna - beginning of the Year - New Year (literally "head of the year"). I suspect that the Hebrew word Rosh has cognates in Arabic and even Hamitic languages (such as Egyptian). So perhaps, with that being said, the Greek translation of "Headless" might actually be from the original Egyptian, which would have meant, "Without Beginning", or "Bornless", similar to the Greek "Autogenes" - self-begotten, which is a powerful Gnostic name for an aspect of the Godhead. I believe that the term Headless has this meaning and is comparable to Autogenes. But, that's just my opinion. The proof would be to trace the word to either Coptic or Egyptian, and see if it's used in a similar manner to the way it's used in Hebrew and Arabic.

After learning about the real source of the Bornless rite, and purchasing a copy of Hans Dieter Betz’s book, I decided that I should at least look over all of the rituals in that massive tome and see if there were any other rituals that might be useful. My premise was that if one could expropriate one very powerful ritual from it, then why not repeat the exercise, especially since I had a resource that was much larger than Mather’s had over a hundred years ago. So I looked over the collection of spells and began to pick anything that really grabbed my attention, knowing that such an exercise would have to be done many times and in minute detail to give the massive collection a fair assessment. So, I performed this exercise, going over all of the known spells in the Greek Egyptian Papyri collection. I found several excellent additional sources that can be used as additional lore to the Bornless Rite, producing, what I think would be a complete set of rites for that type of magick. What I found required some extensive rewriting and reinterpreting, but it was not any more difficult than what the Golden Dawn did 120 years ago to produce the Bornless Rite. I am quite tickled by the whole process that I found additional cool ritual lore, and I am looking forward to adding more rituals to the lore of the Order.

So has anyone else done magical work with this extensive collection of rituals and spells? The answer is, of course, “yes”, but no one  (that I am aware of) has actually thought of adding companion rites to the Golden Dawn Bornless rite. Other authors have actually done the task of reclamation to make some of this lore available to practicing magicians, most notably, Tony Mierzwicki’s book, Graeco Egyptian Magick (which I very highly recommend). Then there is the book Hermetic Magic by Stephen Flowers, a lesser work in my opinion, but also of value to the practitioner. These books assemble a workable system of magic from the extent source materials, but I do wonder why no else has come up with the idea of looking for additional rituals to accompany the Bornless rite? Certainly, GD students and high magick practitioners have known about the source for the Bornless Rite for some time, but no one thought of producing additional lore. The loneliness of this rite does scream for additional companion rites, or at least that is how I interpret it. I guess no one else saw the insular-ness of the Bornless Rite but me.

I would, therefore, assume that the Bornless rite is part of a suite of rites that would include rituals that would assist the magician in assuming the spirit of the Bornless One. Other tasks would be consecrating a magical ring, which would act as a powerful link to deploy the magic of that assumption. A rite of envisioning would also be appropriate, one that would allow the magician to perform a kind of active divination, projecting his true will into the present or future, and so fulfill the will of the godhead. So, to recap, I have deduced the following rituals to be part of the Bornless One suite of rituals, making for a total of four rites in all. In addition, I have also decided to merge the Abramelin ordeal with the Bornless rite, but perform it using one and half lunar cycles instead of the traditional six or eighteen months. I would also perform the Bornless rite as a climax to the ordeal and not at the two to four times a day that Aleister Crowley proposed in Liber Samekh. This is the list:

1. Bornless Rite and the temple stairway of four Qabbalistic Worlds and Ante Chamber of Ultimate Spirit (this is already done)
2. Assumption of the Bornless One and vestment of powers and wisdom of the Monad (extension of the existing Bornless Rite)
3. Consecration of the Magician's Ring (the ring is used as a physical link to the Bornless spirit)
4. Rite of Envisioning (Bornless Spirit vision quest)

These rituals were taken from PGM IV (the Paris Papyrus), PGM VII and PGM XII, and they should be completed in the very near future, since I am currently working on them as I write this article. Much of this material hasn’t been used in over two thousand years, but they are still very valuable and quite powerful, requiring only an extraction and integrating them into a modern ritual structure. (I have also found that Stephen Flowers had also identified some of the spells in his book that I have chosen, but since I am using them to create companion rites for the Bornless One, they won’t be used in a similar manner at all.)

Reclamation has many different approaches. Some might seek to reconstruct the rituals in some manner, perhaps skipping the animal sacrifices and other dubious practices, and others will just pull out the words of power and use them in an analogous rite. I respect both of these approaches, and in fact, my workings tend to give justice to both, since I am more faithful to the actual original use and purpose of these spells.

While I was pouring through the various spells, I found something quite interesting. There is a pseudo Egyptian-Jewish Eighth Book of Moses (PGM XIII)  that I would like to carefully examine, and I suspect I will find more gems amongst the thousands of mundane spells as well. I also invite others to carefully look over the Greek Magical Papyri to find yet other gems and useful spells to reclaim and bring into a 21st century context. I suspect that in time, there will be more rituals culled from this collection than what I am presently proposing, or what previous authors have already done.

Frater Barrabbas