Necromancy and Demonaltry: What it is and What it ISN'T!

 

Necromancy is a word that has been dragged through centuries of fear, suppression, and now, misuse. Once regarded as a serious and often dangerous form of magickal practice, it has been reduced in modern circles to an aesthetic, a buzzword, or worse, a misunderstood label attached to any spiritual work involving the dead. As someone who actively practices necromancy and rarely shares this publicly, I’ve watched with growing discomfort as the true meaning of this work has been diluted, romanticized, and commodified by trends and superficial interpretations. Many of it's self proclaimed practitioners attempting to replace old tools with comfort visuals to keep their spaces safe. (think: blood makes them squeamish and bones are 3D printed)

In contemporary Western magick communities, particularly those influenced by TikTok spirituality, Wicca, and New Age frameworks, necromancy has become shorthand for ancestor veneration, spirit communication, or shadow work. While these practices can hold value in their own right, they are not necromancy. The true art involves evocation, command, and ritual precision, not simply lighting a candle and whispering to the air. What’s more concerning is the growing conflation of necromantic symbolism with demonolatry, where spirits of the dead are often misunderstood or replaced entirely with infernal entities like Lucifer, Belial, or Murmur. These modern interpretations lean more into personal power aesthetics than into the disciplined and often grim path of necromantic devotion.

It is important to understand that demonolatry and necromancy can, in fact, complement each other. They are both paths of spirit work that demand deep reverence, long-term commitment, and the ability to operate within the unseen. Many serious practitioners incorporate both in their workings, blending the wisdom of the dead with the force of the infernal. However, they are not the same. Necromancy is focused on the dead, on ancestors, spirits of place, and the human souls who have crossed the veil. Demonolatry centers around divine infernal beings who were never human and who operate on entirely different currents of power. These distinctions matter. Failing to recognize them leads to confusion, spiritual instability, and a loss of the sacred seriousness that each path deserves.

True necromancy demands unwavering commitment. Altars are not decorative or seasonal. They are sacred spaces permanently devoted to death and the spirits who dwell beyond the veil. They are not cycled out with sabbats or filled with flowers and festival colors. Instead, these spaces are stark, solemn, and functional, dedicated solely to communion, offering, and sometimes coercion. Working with the dead, and especially with demons, requires more than curiosity. It requires a life built around respect, protection, and a kind of spiritual austerity that few modern practitioners are prepared to uphold. This blog exists not only to explore the true history of necromancy but also to challenge the misinterpretations that have become so common in today’s mystical circles.

Now, let's go back to the origins and history of Demonolatry and Necromancy, and how we got where we are today:

Definition of Necromancy
 

Necromancy is a form of divination that involves communication with the dead, often for the purpose of foretelling the future, gaining hidden knowledge, or influencing the living. Traditionally, necromancers attempt to raise spirits, interrogate corpses, or conjure apparitions of the dead. The practice straddles the boundary between magick and death rites, often blending ritual, invocation, and taboo acts. It is a deeply rooted spiritual discipline concerned not with the peaceful remembrance of the dead, but with direct interaction and power exchange.

Origins of Necromancy

Necromancy has roots in the earliest civilizations. In Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, the dead were believed to possess hidden truths and influence over the living world. In ancient Greece, necromancy was closely tied to the Nekromanteion, sacred oracular sites where practitioners entered ritual darkness and used narcotics or ecstatic trance to speak with the dead. The word “necromancy” itself comes from the Greek nekros meaning "dead" and manteia meaning "divination." It was always seen as dangerous, liminal work requiring careful technique and spiritual authority.

Common Historical Practices

Some of the oldest recorded rituals involved physical and symbolic acts meant to draw practitioners into the liminal space between life and death.

• Wearing the clothing of the deceased was done to bridge the worlds. By wrapping oneself in the garments of the dead, a necromancer invited spiritual possession or affinity with the soul they sought.
  
  

• Eating moldy or “black bread” was another rite. The mold, a natural sign of decay, symbolized the necromancer’s willingness to consume death and absorb the wisdom hidden within it.
  
  

• Consuming Rotting flesh, whether literally or symbolically, was meant to embody the spirit of the deceased. In some instances, animal flesh stood in place of human remains, allowing the ritual to be performed without desecrating graves.
  
  

• Summoning the recently dead was a crucial limitation. Necromancers would rarely call on a spirit whose body had decayed for more than two years. After this time, the soul was believed to either move too far from the physical realm or lose its clarity and usefulness to the living.
  
  

Church Interception and Co-optation

As Christianity spread, necromancy was labeled heretical, threatening the Church’s claim as the sole spiritual mediator. Early Church leaders condemned the practice as both demonic and fraudulent, but the reality was more complex. By the 13th century, the Catholic Church had begun to integrate and control aspects of necromantic and ritual magick through what became known as clerical necromancy.

Educated clergy, especially Dominican and Franciscan monks, studied forbidden texts and engaged in ritual work, not with the dead, but with angels and demons. This spiritual authority was cloaked in theological justification and framed as exorcism, divine command, or scholarly investigation into spiritual hierarchies. The Church restricted these practices to men ordained and protected by God. Laypeople were forbidden from engaging with spirits under threat of severe punishment.

Suppression of Lay Necromancers

Once the Church had absorbed and legitimized these magickal practices under a Christian veneer, it began to criminalize their use outside ecclesiastical control. By the 14th and 15th centuries, necromancy performed by non-clergy was prosecuted as witchcraft, a capital crime in many regions. Manuals such as the Malleus Maleficarum classified necromantic acts as demonic pacts, and those accused were often tortured and executed. This dual approach, sanctifying spiritual work under Church authority while demonizing and destroying independent or folk traditions, allowed the Church to consolidate power and sever communities from their ancestral and spiritual roots.

Modern Practice

Fast forward to current society, and these practices are still very much alive. Despite the misconceptions and aesthetic-driven interpretations found in mainstream spiritual circles, necromancy and demonolatry continue to be practiced authentically in specific regions and among closed or culturally protected groups. In parts of Africa, South America, Eastern Europe, and among certain diasporic traditions, these practices are not only alive but are considered essential aspects of spiritual survival, community justice, and ancestral continuity. In these contexts, necromancy is not a performance or a tool for personal branding, but a serious spiritual vocation passed down through lineage or acquired through rigorous initiation. Communication with the dead serves functions such as retrieving lost knowledge, breaking generational curses, resolving unfinished ancestral business, and even enforcing spiritual consequences on the living.

In these societies, the boundaries between demonolatry and necromancy are often fluid but remain clearly defined. Demonolatry involves the veneration and invocation of specific demonic intelligences, often aligned with planetary forces, elemental domains, or ancestral lines of power. These beings are not perceived as evil, but as powerful allies and teachers who demand discipline, truth, and reverence. Necromancy, on the other hand, involves the conjuration or communion with spirits of the dead. This may include ancestors, historical figures, or even restless spirits whose aid can be compelled through binding pacts or sacrificial offerings. Some practitioners, especially those in African Traditional Religions and South American syncretic paths like Quimbanda, blend these two disciplines in intricate ways, working with the spirits of the dead while also honoring demonic entities who govern or protect the threshold between life and death.

These practices are not open to outsiders and are rarely taught outside of trusted spiritual circles. The rituals involved are often kept secret and maintained through oral tradition, spiritual trials, and direct experience rather than published texts. Altar spaces are constructed permanently for the purpose of these workings, devoted entirely to the spirits and entities being served. There is no seasonal rotation or aesthetic display. Bones, offerings, black candles, ancestral relics, and ritual tools fill these spaces, and every object holds spiritual charge. These traditions demand consistency, sacrifice, and humility. To walk this path is to embrace the reality of death, not as a metaphor, but as a living current of power and wisdom.

Misinterpretation in Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Pagan Circles

In many contemporary witchcraft spaces, particularly those shaped by Wicca, New Age ideologies, and social media trends, there is a growing trend of labeling basic spirit work or ancestral offerings as necromancy. Likewise, the invocation of dark archetypes or shadow work is often mistakenly equated with demonolatry. These misinterpretations stem not from malice, but from a surface-level engagement with older practices and a strong emphasis on aesthetic symbolism over disciplined spiritual commitment. Lighting a candle and speaking to one’s ancestors is a valid spiritual act, but it does not enter the realm of necromantic art. Similarly, invoking the name of a demonic figure during a ritual of personal empowerment does not constitute true demon veneration or pact work.

Many modern practitioners adopt the imagery and language of darker traditions without fully understanding the spiritual consequences or the historical roots of what they are referencing. Spirit communication is a broad practice found in almost every tradition, but necromancy involves a depth of engagement that requires risk, skill, and intimate knowledge of death currents. Ancestor veneration is not the same as spirit domination. Binding, compelling, or bargaining with the dead demands a different kind of ritual, one that often includes offerings, sacrifices, and protection rites. Likewise, demonolatry is not simply the inclusion of demon names in spells or sigils. It is a devotional path rooted in trust, hierarchy, and a long-term relationship with specific spiritual entities, many of whom demand acts of devotion, blood pacting, or ceremonial rites that exceed the scope of casual ritual.

The romanticization of these paths in online communities, especially through platforms like TikTok and Instagram, has created a diluted and often misleading image of what these disciplines entail. Aesthetic displays of bones, dark altar setups, or invoking demonic names in trendy rituals might appear compelling, but they lack the structure, danger, and commitment inherent in actual practice. This confusion not only weakens the understanding of these spiritual systems but often disrespects the gravity of working with the dead or infernal forces. What was once sacred and feared has been reshaped into a fashionable accessory, devoid of its original potency and danger.

There is great risk in cosplaying either of these practices. If you are not ready or able to save space and devote total commitment to working with spirits and entities as part of your daily life, then you are not ready for the heaviness that comes with it. When you strip away your black clothes, your curated playlists, your tarot deck, and your crystals, will you still attempt to practice with the same commitment? The answer is: probably not. 

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Be Blessed, 

Dena