Over the course of a few months I practiced Saturnian Necromancy, from the book Necromantic Sorcery by Dante Abiel.
I had realized in my quest for physical magick that the dead, and the necromantic current are closer to physicality than the beings usually operated with in western magick. I could get closer the the sort of magic portrayed in modern media by working this current.
Shortly after this realization, during an evocation with Azazel, he shouted at me to “practice necromancy”! Knowing Abiel’s book to be the most advanced information on the subject apart from getting an initiation into a secret society, I began.
Reading the text, I found some of the information downright sickening and repugnant. I was extremely offended by some of the rituals described, yet chose to keep reading and finish the book, regardless of the mental distress it caused at the time. I could sense the entities of this current observing me, and my willingness to finish the book in-spite of my ego gained me favor and respect with them.
At the time of writing I have progressed as far in the initiations as Sacred Baron 2nd Degree, in that I have acquired the Seal, Altar, Dagger, Staff, and Skull; but not have yet acquired the circle, triangle, chalice, and my work with Azrael is too limited to comment on Him. I also have not practiced any of the African Diaspora magick. My comments will be focused on the magickal powers and experiences that I attained while practicing this sorcery.
Constructive vs Destructive Interference
One of the first lessons the dead taught me was that the altar produced by the ritual within this text can be used to connect with both life and death energy. When I did the initial consecration and burial I was in excruciating pain driving home, despite not having injured anything. Three days later, after exhuming the altar, its sublime presence caused me to weep from peace and joy while driving home. Such is the duality of the necromantic current when approached as a current of life, death and rebirth, rather than solely a death current.
Using this tool I could manipulate the energy at the altar and in my body along this life-death spectrum, and the most useful application was to reset my body to the life state after doing necromantic work in the death state. Because of this I did not have to live with the physical pain and ailments typical of necromancy. Furthermore I did not have to spend months inoculating myself to the death energy in order to avoid problems.
The key here is the physics principle of constructive interference. When two vibrations or waves occupy the same location in space time they interfere with each other. If not mathematically harmonized, they will disrupt each other, and neither will work. However, if they are compatible, they can combine with each other to create a new vibration or wave-form which did not exist prior.
Applying this knowledge, I worked with the altar, moving into death and feeling the body go into pain, the organs churn, the joints ache; then moving into life and feeling the relief and vigor. I did this over and over until I was able to raise both life and death energy simultaneously, at the altar and in the body. This synthesis gave me the power and potency of the death energy with the painless-ness and vitality of the life energy.
There was also a period of time where having any item linked to death or a dead spirit on the altar would move my flesh into the death state. For example one night I could not sleep and was in pain. I got up and removed a skull from the altar, and immediately felt relief, comfort, and was able to then sleep.
Binding and Conquest
The primary focus of the European-tradition portion of the text focuses on binding and use of the Dead in magick, and initiations to gain powers over the Dead in cooperation with Akasha-Subterfuge and Azrael. This includes the development of potent tools to be used this the sorcery.
Dagger
The dagger when produced with the same ritual process as the altar will have a portal to the death current imbued in it. After many hours of meditating with it in hand and hundreds of evocations using it, I found it to be an unlimited well of death energy. I have meditated on top of bones, in graveyards, and even on pieces of animal corpses, but have not found even a hundredth of the power that came once I learned how to access the portal in the dagger.
It can be used to work around or ignore magickal fatigue by drawing power from it and directing that power toward a goal or entity aligned with the necromantic current. I used to become tired or worn out over the course of serial evocations but in one of my last necromantic workings I evoked ~40 dead consecutively and found I grew in vigor and energy with each evocation. This state was not realized until after months of training and study and a profound tolerance to death energy.
Staff
The staff makes raising shades from graves very easy, and can be used to direct or move entities. Strangely the greatest use for the staff I found was to lean on it or use it to support my body during ritual deep in the death state when the pain and exhaustion became sore.
Skull
Where I live it is legal to purchase and possess a human skull. I bought an old medical skull that was missing bits and pieces and had some holes in it from use over the years. It worked just fine. I consecrated my skull using the rituals under the ‘Baron’ degrees of initiation. It creates a potent link between the possessing spirit and the sorcerer, and does force Dead to answer your questions truthfully, making it really good for getting information. For example, I once used it to divine through a Dead within the skull whether any cars would approach the remote graveyard in an abandoned town I was in. I received vision of car headlights up on the ridge line. Further questioning revealed that the headlights would not show up that night. Indeed, that night nobody showed up, and it was the next night that I saw the same headlights at the same ridge line as in the vision.
Binding Incantation
I found this to be the bread and butter of the magickal system. When you perform the binding ritual, take some graveyard dirt or a coin from the gravesite. I would bring loose change and ask the Dead if they wanted me to leave a coin in exchange for the one I was taking as a fetish link. I found once the 14 day period of connecting to that Dead was fulfilled, all that was needed to evoke that Dead was the dirt/coin, and the use of the incantation while at some shade so the dead could use shadow as a base of manifestation.
Using the above simple technique I can summon a cool breeze instantly to within minutes, and have that breeze last all day, which is very useful living in the desert without air conditioning.
I can summon clouds to cover the sun, while this can take a few hours to manifest, it has never failed, even when I used it daily for 13 consecutive days in the midst of summer.
If I encountered a venomous snake where I was living or camping, I would use the technique to have one of the Dead keep the snake away, and not observe the snake again.
Early on in my necromantic practice I made a mistake by gathering graveyard dirt from the grave of a Dead I had bound without acknowledging or placating the guardians of the graveyard. Later that day I had extremely painful constipation- despite a healthy body and diet. I applied two different magickal techniques that I had used in the past to clear constipation but neither worked and my pain only increased. This was not the first time I had been attacked by an entity in a physical manner, however I could not detect it, so I summoned one of my bound dead using only name and incantation. After a brief discussion of the situation, the Dead stepped forward into somewhere I could not yet observe, and the constipation instantly ended.
All the above only required one Dead to work.
There was also a time where heavy rain had poured all day, and I wanted it to clear so I could cook outside without getting wet. I summoned multiple Dead and they opened a hole in the rain, blue sky now visible, and I cooked and ate in that sunshine. The ‘hole’ closed as I was finishing my meal.
Another time I wanted to stargaze, and see the moon but clouds, rain and lightning storms blocked most of the sky. After a lengthy ritual process the clouds parted in a perfect oval wide around the moon. I turned around to see the light of the moon interacting with the falling rain creating a moonbow, basically a silver and grey rainbow, which I had no clue existed until then.
I was doing ritual in an area prone to flash flood. The sky was half stormcloud and half clear. I had summoned and directed a dozen or so Dead to keep the inclement weather at bay. At one point I asked the Dead if they were able to keep the rains and lightings at bay. For ten seconds, rain fell in a perfect ‘magick circle’ shape around me- not on me, not outside of the graveyard I was working in- a literal circle of rain. I acknowledged the Dead and that they had control over the elements. Indeed, as the night progressed the sky cleared all up.
Other Magickal Benefits
After practicing Saturnian Necromancy for several weeks, I realized I could purify alcohol by simply asking the powers within the amulet of the 1st gate of the Book of Azazel. Prior to this I had to open the gate and push energy/intention/will. One time I did not even need to wait for the transmutation to take place, I could just start drinking.
Deep into my practice I had the first experience of physically seeing spirits in evocation without any base other than the shadow of a tree.
I also had in a different ritual the first instance of physically hearing the entity, again with only darkness as a base of manifestation.
Dealing With Advanced Problematic Side Effects
This is a catch-all section for issues I think people need to know.
When working this system, the dead would vampirize me, but only that amount of energy required to complete the task I had issued them, and only when issued tasks. I strongly recommend finding a good source of energy that can be used instead of your life force, such as the ritual dagger.
One time I was too lax with how I treated my ritual relics/tools. I used the dagger to prop up a laptop, and immediately one of the entities told me he was now against me- an enemy. I did not initially make the connection and was perplexed but was able to communicate and learn, then make repairs for my mistake. If I did not have the ability to communicate on the fly this could have resulted in some serious negative consequences for me.
At a certain point in my practice I encountered a strange death energy that was wholly different from that which came from my altar, the dead, corpses, ect. It was also more painful than ‘normal’ death energy. It originated in the thighs, was black and wispy, and I could not transmute it to a life state. The Dead showed me an orange and black chakra in the head that is located where the occipital, temporal and parietal lobes meet. If I moved the energy into that chakra it was absorbed and all negative side effects ceased.
I began to experience earthquakes occasionally after initiating into this current. Minor tremors. Prior to practicing Saturnian Necromancy I never felt any. Since moving on to other systems of magick they have stopped.
While not really an issue, the Dead would cause auditory poltergeist in the form of ringing tones that could be at my ear, in the air, or zipping through the air. I think they were just expressing themselves.
When I went through the gate of the cemetery (a ritual, not to be confused with walking into a cemetery irl) I did not loose anyone in my life. When I entered it a second time for another ritual my father ended up in the hospital due to a heart attack scare. After some testing it was determined that there was no heart attack, but I still am not going to go through that gate again. Going through that gate really can get people killed.
Spinal degeneration and skin shedding will be covered after discussion of Akasha-Subterfuge.
Akasha-Subterfuge
Akasha-Subterfuge serves a special function within this system. Within the practice of necromancy two main side-effects occur: insanity and death. This probably relates to the lunar and solar nadis within the energy body: Ida and Pingala, which when overstimulated during kundalini practice cause lunacy (lunar side effect) or over-heating of the body (solar side effect) if not properly balanced. Because the necromantic current modifies the manifestation of kundalini, the side effects are modified too.
As an example, Shiva wears a crescent moon on his head, has the cold waters of the Ganges flowing through his hair, and meditates high in the cold himalyas, all to correct for the side effect of bodily over-heating that arises from his yogic practice.
Similarly, Akasha-Subterfuge has three inverted crosses on his seal (solar), is a black serpent (more solar symbolism), and protects the necromancer from lunacy, but is notorious for actively participating in the deterioration of the body (extremely solar). Despite this his primary role is as a protective and guiding spirit. I have observed him ward off entities with ill intentions, place armies of protective spirits around me and my dwelling, and act as a mediator if any misunderstanding or rift happened between the dead and myself.
Mercurial Necromancy, or applying Mercurial principles to Saturnian Necromancy
This video explains middle pillar symbolism and Mercury better than any other source I have found. Essentially anywhere twin pillars are found there is a hidden or implied third pillar. Furthermore, anywhere duality exists or opposing categories exist, there is a hidden middle category that has attributes of both categories.
The interplay of Ida (lunar channel), Pingala (solar channel), and Shushumna (hidden central channel) is one modality that applies these Mercurial principles. Christ separating the righteous and wicked on his right hand and left also applies this. Using the altar to merge the death and life currents in constructive interference is one application of Mercurial principles in necromancy.
In working this necromantic current one can take a purely Saturnian approach, diving into the river of death and swimming into its depths until you drown. This is what Dante did, embracing the death and deterioration of his body. However, you can also swim back, surface, and rest on the shore, analogous to what happened to Achilles. And as Achilles was made impervious to physical death by submerging in the physical current, the spiritual and energetic descent and resurfacing builds resistance to the death current, and its side effects for the necromancer.
When examining Akasha-Subterfuge we observe his two fangs, and the maw between them which swallows his prey (middle pillar). All imply death, but we also know through adaptation to death energy that there is a category between life and death, which has aspects of both. When Akasha-Subterfuge bit my spinal discs and injected his venom, materializing his presence within me it created (at least what felt like) two wounds, and I could feel two fangs enter the flesh of my body. It hit me then that I was to create the middle pillar, or in this case the middle fang, and inject my power, my energy into the spinal disc. I was later shown in vision a white form of Akasha-Subterfuge, which had only one big fang in the middle of his mouth.
When Akasha-Subterfuge would bite my spine, and I would feel my discs disintegrate, I would create (invoke?) this alternate version of him in my body, and have him bite and insert his fang between the two. I would then pump golden energy into the disc from his body through the fang. The narrowness of the fang coupled with injecting all that energy into a single point helped densify the energy, allowing it to affect the physical matter of the disc.
It felt like the spinal disc degeneration was the loss of disc material in the body, and that using the above described process restored the disc material.
Akasha Subterfuge loved to do this during ritual, one night he was doing it so much that I did not finish all the work until the light of dawn because I had to keep going in and correcting the spinal degeneration. I should also mention that I could feel the venom he injected course through my veins, I would liken it to having a cold IV drip where you can feel the liquid move through your bloodstream. Furthermore I would get restless leg syndrome in all four limbs.
Skin Shedding
Within the same week as Akasha-Subterfuge biting my spine I began to ‘shed my skin’. Whenever I would lay down to sleep if I rubbed my skin entire layers would slough off. I typically had to spend an hour removing skin from my upper body every 24 hours. I would sweep this skin up in little piles and throw it out. No skin sloughing occurs below the belt, and on the upper body everywhere but the ears, eyelids, and under the hair sloughs (including under armpit hair). Even the palms and fingertips slough.
Thankfully it doesn’t come off in sheets, isn’t visible in normal everyday interactions with people, and only occurs at night.
At the time of writing the only lasting negative side effect from practicing this magick is dealing with this skin shedding. Its very occasional now.
Effects Upon the Character of the Magician
The death current led to the death of many aspects of my character that I did not like. I became detached to political happenings and events. In the first half of this year I drank nearly daily- but I stopped drinking altogether, and am still sober even though I always have rum with me. I stopped craving fast food, internet, and ice cream. I faced the reality of physical death, not in an intellectual or symbolic manner, but by experiencing pain, deterioration, loss of proper function of body parts. I am grateful for being taught how to return to life, rather than living with those side effects to this day. I have not yet overcome fear of death, but have viscerally faced a portion of it.
Conclusion
This magick is extremely potent, both in its side effects in the life of the practitioner, and the abilities and powers it conveys. I consider Dante’s work half-finished. He wrote much on the death aspect of the necromantic current but almost completely neglected rebirth and life in its advanced disciplines. For example, he does not discuss the transmutation of death energy into life energy, how to properly deal with the side effects of insanity and bodily deterioration that will occur when practicing Saturnian Necromancy, or how to regenerate the spinal discs in harmony with operations involving Akasha-Suberterfuge.
This left me on my own to figure out how to navigate and remedy these side effects in a manner harmonious to the current.
Dante also does not discuss any operations for corpse reanimation, transference of consciousness into dead bodies, or controlled re-entry into a new body post-mortem, despite these practices being found amongst various necromantic traditions.
I came into this current seeking instantaneous physical magick. Through invocation of death energy causing immediate pain, and transmutation unto life energy causing immediate relief I have lived a small portion of how magick is portrayed in media. For this I am grateful,
Hail Akasha-Subterfuge!
Hail the Dead!