Something About Necromancy

'Till the mourning comes.

I was thinking of new things to try during my stay-at-home time, and someone recommended - as a joke, I believe - to go for necromancy.  It seemed too hard, and I didn't know a straightforward way to do such a thing based on what I read.  There was a lot written on the subject, of course.  Including this gem from the Raven Report and how many ancient civilizations shared a fascination with the dead. I genuinely think they would have been blown away by Garcia's playing style and would have welcomed American Beauty.  I digress:

The first literary mention of necromancy appeared in Homer’s Odyssey when the powerful sorceress Circe traveled to the underworld with Odysseus to determine the success of his impending voyage home. By raising the spirits of the dead, they hoped to gain insight into his future and learn the wisdom of the blind prophet Tiresias, who was known for his clairvoyance. As was the case with other depictions of necromancy, Odysseus followed the explicit rituals of his culture by building fire and performing a blood sacrifice with which to make a special drink for the ghosts. In this way, Odysseus pandered to the dead as a way to ensure his future success and gain insight into a realm where humans had no vision.

Finally, here are some tips for those who want to give this a try (but mind the warnings - safety first here at Bellairsia):

As one would expect, the best time to perform necromancy was at midnight, especially if the night were particularly inclement and filled with wind, rain, and lightning. But this wasn’t just for effect—spirits were believed to show themselves more readily in stormy weather. Although practices varied from place to place, the majority of rituals involved lighting the scene with torches and creating a backdrop of deep contemplation and morbidity. For example, if a necromancer wanted to raise a corpse from the cemetery, magic circles would be drawn around the grave and certain powerful plants like hemlock, aloe, mandrake, and opium would be burned.