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NECROMANCY

Necromancy is the magical science of working with the dead and with death.

More practically: it involves influencing the dead, commanding legions of corpses, and working with Death itself. More theoretically: necromancy can take different forms, but it is always directly or indirectly connected either to working with the dead (corpses, restless spirits, etc.) or with Death itself.

A corpse feeds on the energy of the living, just like any spirit that is fueled by people. If you constantly feed it with your grief and endless thoughts about who it was and what it used to be, that creates a channel between you and it. As a result, it starts to devour you. This is one way that parasitic entities attach themselves to people.

A necromancer learns to manipulate the dead in all their grim glory: send them on errands, scare someone, make them shit themselves (figuratively), and so on. Of course, just studying and actually mastering this are wildly different things — especially in the context of necromancy.

First and foremost, necromancy should only be practiced by people with nerves of steel, insane self-control, and a well-developed mastery of planetary and elemental magic. Otherwise, you'll end up dead yourself. Why? Just try accidentally seeing a corpse in your own apartment one day, with the feeling that you're drinking non-stop while on antidepressants.

Necromancy is not cool cemetery aesthetics or looking dramatic with a book by a grave, summoning someone's ghost. If you're inexperienced, the nearest spirits will kick your ass before you even reach the graveyard.

A corpse devours everything living — literally everything. Any energy from a living being that stands within a meter of it. In fact, a corpse is an energetic shell with an endless stomach, and if you keep feeding it, one day it will eat you too. Kind of like that green thing from the movie Ghostbusters.

So if you mishandle the dead, everyone is completely screwed.

In 90% of cases, a corpse no longer has the personality it had in life. It's like factory-resetting a phone — the shell remains, but the data is wiped. This, by the way, only applies to direct communication with the dead. The astral realm, dreams, and so on are a different story, because the dead don't actually need to transition from the immaterial world to the material one (which is why corpses at gravesites almost always appear in the form of something else, like a bird or an animal).

Charge of the Goddess Traditional by Doreen Valiente, as adapted by Starhawk:

Listen to the words of the Great Mother, Who of old was called Artemis, Astarte, Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite, Cerridwen, Diana, Arionrhod, Brigid, and by many other names:

Whenever you have need of anything, once a month, and better it be when the moon is full, you shall assemble in some secret place and adore the spirit of Me Who is Queen of all the Wise.

You shall be free from slavery, and as a sign that you be free you shall be naked in your rites.

Sing, feast, dance, make music and love, all in My Presence, for Mine is the ecstasy of the spirit and Mine also is joy on earth.

For My law is love unto all beings. Mine is the secret that opens the door of youth, and Mine is the cup of wine of life that is the cauldron of Cerridwen, that is the holy grail of immortality.

I give the knowledge of the spirit eternal, and beyond death I give peace and freedom and reunion with those that have gone before.

Nor do I demand aught of sacrifice, for behold, I am the Mother of all things and My love is poured out upon the earth.

Hear the words of the Star Goddess, the dust of Whose feet are the hosts of Heaven, whose body encircles the universe.

I Who am the beauty of the green earth and the white moon among the stars and the mysteries of the waters,

I call upon your soul to arise and come unto me.

For I am the soul of nature that gives life to the universe.

From Me all things proceed and unto Me they must return.

Let My worship be in the heart that rejoices, for behold, all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals.

Let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you.

And you who seek to know Me, know that the seeking and yearning will avail you not, unless you know the Mystery: for if that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without.

For behold, I have been with you from the beginning, and I am That which is attained at the end of desire.

This video that I’m about to show you all is something that really hit home for me. As a practicing witch who uses technology and a wide range of things that could be considered pop culture, I have found that no matter how one looks at witchcraft, there is always going to be those that turn passion into power. That is what pop culture witchcraft is about. Turning passion into power. It’s often said that magic comes from emotion, so why not use those things in life that helped shape you to form your practice and embrace your power. Who cares if you turn gaming into your grimoire and altar setup? Who cares if you throw down Magic and Pokemon cards for divination or for summoning? Witchcraft is personal and as someone who has not only forged her own identity in witchcraft without paying attention to how others see me (yes I have searched for communities that accept me and by and large there’s always someone who will disagree and yes it hurts), there is something to be proud of in saying that this is who I am and this is how I channel my power. I also find that pop culture magic is actually more potent given the current world we live in because it also allows us to shift our viewpoints and bring two different realities together.

SG1'S 1K CELEBRATION ☆ @starrybouquet requested ↳ Sam Carter & Kathryn Janeway comparisons

+ Bonus:

I will forever love that episode for the beauty of it. From the mention of DS9. The use of Barclay and brining in Deanna for him to talk it out with. It all being primarily on Earth and random Starfleet people bonus Admiral Paris. Voyager is a holodeck up until the end. It's an entire episode where we don't have our actual crew till the end so we are engaged with other characters all while eager to see this work because we've been watching this crew go through so much that we want Barclay to succeed. And that's such a powerful little thing to do for Trek. To have him go from the who he is in TNG at first - the awkward guy you aren't sure about - to who he is here in Voyager - the still awkward yeah but you KNOW he's brilliant and have hope in his plan.

Like, she and Chakotay are adorable as they make little "haha that was totally in our logs" after realizing they both messed up a bit and her little touch to him. But why is she ALWAYS also immediately right on top of Tuvok? There is no where for her arm to reach when he is at tactical, her doing that would be putting it in his back. She deliberately touched him as well. You know he immediately probably picked up in her "I messed up" thoughts and had a moment of "we are having tea later for gossip aren't we"

Janeway: I rarely lose

She really tried to run away from flirting with a hologram only to be pulled back in because she can't resist being challenged. This entire time all Chakotay had to do was challenging her to a game of velocity and she'd have been done.

Starfleet must not involve themselves in the goings-on of species whose abilities or technologies make them god-like to us, unless those species interfere or involve themselves significantly with us first.

On today's episode of Meet the Characters:

The Admirals

Carter Vaughn

Frank Zullo

Eric Bennett

Matti Jalo

Greg Huff

Look here for an overview of all our past Meet the Characters and Pairing Guides.

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