I am starting this thread to foster discussion about animal necromancy, a topic which is understudied in the occult. By animal necromancy, I mean working with the shades of animals.
Reasons to take up the study that I can think of:
Interested in therianism (shapeshifting into an animal, like a werewolf)? Work with the animal spirits.
More legal than human necromancy. Many people have a pet buried in their backyard, which can serve the same purpose as a human graveyard. And it is better to dig up fluffy for relics than fluffyās owner, most places.
Most of the skills are transferable. Shade summoning and death essence manipulation is the same, so it can be an easier place to begin.
In my own practice, I have found that graveyard dirt taken from my dogās grave works just as well as human grave dirt.
I also want to give you a recipe for a necromantic elixir so power, and specifically honed toward animal necromancy, that it has become a cornerstone of my practice. Warning: while not as bad as Serpentās Blood, the manufacture is physically and spiritually dangerous, not to mention incredibly disgusting.
The elixir mortis animalis is made with the following recipe:
Find an animal which has died in situ. Roadkill works well. The body should be sufficiently decayed that many of the bones are exposed and bleached white by the sun.
gather the remains in a vessel, which has been consecrated to that purpose. A plastic pale works very well. You may need to do a little dis-articulation to get the remains to fit.
Leave the pale in a graveyard right before it is to rain. Allow the pale to be filled with the rain water.
Allow the water to remain in the bucket for at least nine days, but it is much better to wait until the water has turned stagnant and murky and has mosquito larvae in it. It may smell putrid.
Take a measure of the water (it is not only fine but preferable if little bits are left in the water) and place it on the necromantic altar. Charge the water with the death essence.
death essence sticks to this stuff like glue. pour some on your tools (outdoors) or on the altar or on the ground or in the manifesting triangle.
Now, If you donāt want to make this stuff yourself, I have some extra. Email me or friend me on facebook and Iāll see if I can hook you up. Donāt PM me here. Unfortunately due to labor and time cost I canāt afford to give it away, and I canāt sell it here under the new rules. What I can do for free is give you advice on making it yourself.
Iām putting up a series of videos on my youtube channel to continue the conversation. The First one is here [url=http://youtu.be/GUjGOjnx_Hs]Animal Necromancy part 1 - YouTube
So, Iād love to know what experiences you all have had in the field.
The only experiences Iāve had have been more along the lines of psychopomp work to check on the shades of animals Iāve had put to sleep, which is a slightly different thing to necromancy and arguably deals with a different aspect of the animalās soul.
From that work, and healing work done on living animals, I concluded that:
animals have a Higher Self in the same manner that humans do, and not (as human arrogance often leads people to state) merely a species Oversoul, though that probably exists as well;
animals have beings who look out for them in a similar manner to the way some spirits look out for humans, there have been at least 3 seperate occasions when a being has made itself known to me and passed judgement or offered advice on my actions towards a certain animal;
a pet animal can merge a part of its essence with the owner after death, when both animal and human are not ready to be parted - I have a part of one of my pets inhabiting me because we really loved each other, and she didnāt want to let go after death, and I wasnāt ready to let her go - this was from long before I understood about psychopomp work, and weāre kind of symbiotic by now.
I think thatās all I have on this, but itās an intriguing line of practice you have there.
I think about this often. I have lots of birds that come around my house and I find myself entertaining the thought of using one of their souls as a kind of servant. Now, i donāt want to step on anyoneās toes but i donāt actually have the patience to wait for bird to drop dead in my yard, and for some reason i have a very strong desire to get my hands dirty ( i hope you see where this is going) anyways, Iām thinking of taking the heart of a bird and use it to summon the birds spirit. I donāt expect for the spirit of a pigeon to retaliate after being bound to some object. Imagine, someone upsetting you enough to send a flock of spirit birds to torment their dreams. Forget about the crazy lady with all the cats, right?
Of course, what I should have said was Iām not expecting the spirit to retaliate VERY MUCH, this is part of the reason I havenāt worked with human spirits. I would never consider binding the spirit of the dead if I knew he or she was unwilling. I feel that its much easier to impose my will on a small creature than on human being. Alive or dead. From here in sure we can get into a debate on whether or not the animal spirit wants to be bound but thatās not my concern. I never think about if my dog wants to go outside or not, it doesnāt matter because I said go outside. Now my dog might try to turn the other way so she doesnāt get put out but all it takes is for me to raise my voice slightly and she knows Iām serious. Try forcing another person to go outside and youāre likely to get hit the face.
If you are wanting to work with the spirits of birds start making offerings to them, theyāll usually answer in kind. You may not get a heart to work with but a bone, skull or talon or even feathers would work just as well to bind or seat a spirit.
Binding a spirit against itās will can be done but safeguards need to be taken and forces put in place to assist in the binding.
Road kill? Gross, I was gonna buy a pellet gun haha, Although cutting open a bird may get a bit messy, its a certain aesthetic that makes me feel more witchy.
Pigeons mate for life so you might really piss the whole pigeon community off that way. At least make a payment and continue to feed them as a way of ameliorating this, though I agree with Euoi and -TWF- that a pissed off and coerced spirit (even ājustā a bird) is likely more trouble than itās worth.
I see what you guys are saying, I would prefer to avoid trouble with the dead anyways. Synchronicity was the word of the night though. I was outside smoking a cigarette when my dog walked up to me with a dead pigeon in her mouth. A cat had killed the poor thing in my yard not moments before so I took a feather and did what -twf- recommended. Some water and bread was all it took and the spirit immediately responded to the offerings. I use the Tarot when I communicate with spirits so I asked if the spirit was actually the spirit of the bird from earlier. I pulled out four cards and found them all to be in suit of swords which corresponds to the element of Air. I feel like that was definitely a truthful answer. He still here by the way, so I plan on building a relationship with the creature in hopes that perhaps i found my familiar. Thatās whole different topic in and of itself but like i said, the word of night is Synchronicity.
Animal spirits appear to gain merit which helps them in future incarnations when they assist humans, I donāt really understand this system but it happened for one of our pets, a cat who helped me a lot, and was given some kind of favoured future because of it, so this could be great for all involved.
I havenāt used this specifically for the purpose of gathering animal artefacts (that usually happens spur of the moment rather than purposefully) but when Iām able to go hunting for fresh meat and enjoyment, I will first take a meditative moment and āsend outā a clear call throughout the area where I will be hunting, honestly and respectfully sending out my intentions to hunt an animal and kill it cleanly. Killing and struggling to survive happen in Nature, it it ābeyond good and evilā to make use of whatās now perhaps a cliche. Essentially, I āsound the hunting hornā, give fair warning, and āask for volunteersā to be killed by me for my nourishment. If you have trouble understanding why on earth an animal would do that, well, I believe they honestly feel differently about the whole matter, and I also have gotten the intimation that doing this kind of āserviceā does somehow benefit them in some way after a given death.
They know from me that I will only take a clean shot, I will make their death as easy as possible and spend their last moments with them, I will respect them - and Iāve never had to come back empty-handed or felt that Iāve ever hunted an animal was resentful over being killed.
Iām sure that sounds weird as all hell, but thatās one perspective. Donāt put it out of the question in the future to actually negotiate with the animal about your intentions, if killing really is necessary for whatever artefact youāre trying to attain for yourself.
