I’ve taught several people everything I have to offer in terms of my necromantic knowledge. Every time I teach, I gain strength in my own abilities, which is why I continue to do it. As with everything, teaching solidifies the information in your own head. Finally, I decided to create a blog to teach anyone who is interested about necromancy.
This first lesson, isn’t really a lesson. What it does is, it covers what I call the “prerequisites”. These prerequisites are: know yourself, know what you’re getting into, and get into the groove.
What I will cover is knowing yourself. This is more important than most people would think. It’s most important to be completely aware of your fears (especially if you are afraid of Death). If you deny these things, they will come back to haunt you while you’re practicing. Many people, including a surprising number of people who wish to get into necromancy, have a fear of Death and of dying. It is important to eliminate this fear, as it will interfere with your work for obvious reasons. Also, the way I started out was by practicing under the Azrael Project branch, which is all about showing the Angel of Death that you love him and that you aren’t scared. I think for the purpose of getting rid of your fear of Death, it’s a great place to start. There’s a huge website dedicated to the Azrael Project, which I highly recommend checking out. http://www.westgatenecromantic.com/ There is a lot of good information, a ton of amazing quotes, great art, and lots of relevant links. After you’ve at least given that a look, you may continue with this guide.
So now you have some idea of how important it is to become familiar with Death, and how important it is not to be afraid. This probably leaves you wondering, so how do I do that? How do I get rid of my fear? Well, that’s the first thing I’m going to teach you.
What we’re going to do, is lie in a completely dark and silent room. Pick a time when you are less likely to be disturbed by family or roommates, turn off all the lights, and lie on your bed without blankets on (blankets tend to bring comfort, and we want none of that). If it is possible, you should do this in your underwear. I say this because the less you are wearing, the more vulnerable you feel, and that’s exactly the feeling we’re trying to create.
Now that you’re all set up, it’s time to start. What I want you to do is to simply think about your own death, by whichever means you like. You could be suffocating, you could be drowning, hit by a bus, or simply passing in the night from heart failure. Whatever way you want to think of it is fine by me. Once you’ve imagined that, these are the questions I want you to ask yourself: what does it feel like to die, how do you know when you’re dead, and do you notice the separation of body and soul? Of course, your answers will be just guesses, but that’s all I need from you is a guess. The answers are less important than the thought processes behind them.
After you’ve done that, it is time to call Death. As an angel, he can be in as many places at once as he wants to be, so you’ll never have to wait simply because he’s busy. Ask for him nicely, and he will come. This is how I do it. I imagine I am about to die from some natural cause or other. I imagine that Death is coming for me any minute. Then I say out loud, “I’m ready for you, Death.” Ideally, you want to semi-convince yourself that you really are going to die. This can be scary, but try to understand the fear and work with it. You’re scared because as a living organism, you have a survival instinct. Try to move past that, try to see the beauty and opportunity in Death. Think of dying as an adventure!
When Death comes, you’ll know it. You may get a chill, you may feel an overwhelming sense of fear, you may simply feel as if you’re being watched. No matter what, you will notice a change in the bedroom’s atmosphere. Once he’s there, it’s important to show that you’re at least trying to extinguish your fear. Now just talk, you don’t have to say anything out loud if you don’t want to. But talk with him, about anything really. You can even just talk about your day if you want. Though I would suggest talking about something relevant. With Death, I talk about my fears of dying, what I think it will be like, how I look forward to it and dread it at the same time. Just go with the flow of the conversation, and try to make yourself comfortable in his presence (that’s what’s most important here).
This exercise is something you can (and should) do over and over again, no matter how experienced you get.
The next two lessons (one on knowing what you’re getting into, and one on getting into the groove) will be posted sometime tomorrow night (January 30, 2012).
What does it mean to be a necromancer?
First I want to explain that everyone’s definition will be different. The answer to this question is simply my view on things, but be aware that this is not all there is to it. To me, being a necromancer means many things. It means being respectful to the dead and dying, more than anything. It also means being rational yet open minded, cool and collected. It means taking time to give things a lot of thought, and always thinking before acting or speaking. It means communicating with the world’s beloved departed for unselfish purposes. And perhaps most importantly, it means being respectful and understanding toward the angel commonly called Death and being able to see the beauty in him.
What are the practical uses of necromancy?
If one is going into necromancy for the sake of being practical, I get the feeling they’re in it for the wrong reasons. Part of its beauty is that it’s not extremely practical, because it runs so much deeper than this world. What I mean by that is, you get so much out of it, but it’s uses are subtle. For example, after you’ve been practicing for a while you’ll find you’re more compassionate towards the sick and dying (and to people in general, because we are all mortal), I personally felt myself become more logical, and I thought about things more deeply and thoroughly.
How do you dress when practicing?
I went back and forth between wanting to post this and not wanting to post this, because I think it’s very much what you would expect. In the end though, I decided I needed to be honest about my dress and why I choose to dress the way I do.
First of all, I practice constantly, so I always dress this way. I wear a lot of black. Shocker, right? I usually wear black dress pants over a black unitard in the winter. Or the same pants with a black tanktop in the warmer weather. I paint my nails a dark grey color. I do my makeup to look like I haven’t slept in days. Why do I do this, you ask? The answer is simple actually! I dress this way because it keeps my mind in the right place. I find if I dress in other colors, or get too fancy with my outfit I get distracted from my daily practice. I try to always keep one side of me in life, and one side of me in death, and that’s all about concentration. If I dress the way I expect a necromancer to dress, I find I have a much easier time concentrating on what I’m supposed to be doing. I also tend to get bad headaches, and by looking down and focusing on the black I’m wearing, it soothes my eyes and eases the tension in my head.
That being said, I’m not against other people or even other necromancers dressing in different ways. I’m a firm believer in the whole “whatever works for you” attitude.
How does one know if they are a necromancer?
You have to explore to find that out!
If you have any additional, serious questions you may leave them in my ask and I will update this page with my answer as well as sending you a copy it!
This blog is about my life as a modern day necromancer. Through my blog I hope to teach others what the necromantic arts mean to me, what necromancy can be, what necromancy is not, and most importantly I wish to share my discoveries and experiences. I’ll also set up hugs guides on how to get started if you wish. The most important thing I want to teach is respect for the dead; necrophiliacs, grave robbers, and cemetery vandals are not welcome here.
