Mors et Veritas
A Critic of 'The Necromantic Ritual Book'

® Caput Mortuum ~ Ayin Quadma'ah-Movement ~ Febr. 2004

Quotation: "I killed them as I would like to be killed myself,
enjoying the extremity of the death act itself.
If I did it to myself I could only experience it once.
If I did it to others, I could experience the death act over and over again."
- Serial Killer Dennis Nilsen

 

There is a certain trend in the nowadays occult scene, and its warning signs are alarming. Not that I am harping around with the fact that most (self-professed) 'insight knowledge' is nothing but dabblery and distortion of genuine ancient occult wisdom. More do I speak about an utter vile & depraved cowardness when it comes to the point when a magical system needs to be 'earthed', that is, to be lived out - in order to earth it from the 'idea' into 'Physis'. The answer to some seems to simply justify such enterprise away with some false and twisted logic, mostly based upon anti-Satanic (hence irrelevant) morals or spiritual untruths. The following critic shall expose such enterprise:

Mrs. Leilah Wendell did publish a short pamphlet [The Necromantic Ritual Book] in which, once again, phantastical mind-games are played, misinformations are promoted, and the author does even dare to imbue the (feared) nothingness of death with some passive sentimental emotion (sadness etc) - which has nothing to do with death at all. Her false ideas are the following:

According to the book´s preface Mrs. Wendell wants to accustom the dear reader with a certain "death energy", which is also described as being the "lifeforce" of Azrael, the Angel of Death, which may be the "current of transition". More is not written about it, neither on the metaphysical aspects of such an 'energy', nor the mythological aspects of its bearer. On the later it is to say that Azrael, in Islamic myth (sometimes also in the Hebraic one), is the Archangel of Death, the one who comes to sever the Spiritus from the Corpus. This does not mean much in this case, for most Muslims believe in eternal life, even of a more attractive quality than other prudish monotheistic religions... And the former argument is an absurdity: Death is neither an 'energy', nor a spiritual 'being' or whatever. To die simply means to loose what in Hebrew was termed 'Ruach' - those essences, which do drive life itself. After this the Corpus begins to slowly transcend the Cosmic Order, and returning to the Primal Chaos, from which it, in the first movement, did sprang from. In exoteric terms, this means that the body looses the ability to willfully change and falls into stagnation and decays. What should be clear is, that death is fundamentally associated with a loosing of something connected to life - until a state of voidness is reached. Until a person becomes like nothing again. Hence how can death be anything when death is in fact the abscence of all? Such a misunderstanding (applying an anthropomorphical identity to something which is not existing) is mostly caused when esoteric terms are used in an exoteric way. Therefor all the epithets for death, from whom is reported in this book, become obsolet; including the sheer unnerving parts in which Azrael is being described as a never-ending crying angel, to whom we have to attribute love in order to understand his eternal grief...

In fact, mythologically, Azrael is a more ruthless entity than the other angels: After Michael, Gabriel, and Israfel failed to bring God seven handfuls of dirt, from which Adam should be formed from, Azrael was handed over this task. The earth´s objection against God´s decision to create the human race (men will bring only sorrow) weighted not so much in his eyes, hence he succeded. As a reward for this God made him the angel to separate the spirit from the flesh. So it does absolutely not look like he would possess such a sentimental or sad mind as described by Mrs. Wendell. There is also no reason for this, as death is simply naturally. All things who are born carry their inbred death within them - if this wouldn´t be so, one day or another the cosmos, which is of a limited space underlined by causal laws (Physis), would face an overflow. An angel so near to the divine light as to reside in then seventh heaven will know this, and where shall be the sense in being sad about an unavoidable necessity?

The 'terminology' part then brings nothing but mis-terminology. First, it is tried to re-define the term 'Necromantia' in such a way as to state that it hasn´t anything to do with foretelling of the future. But this is fundamental to necromantical practices, for the word 'mantia' 1 exactly means this. Further the traditional necromantical practices 2 are proscribed as being "the antithesis of reverence....trappings of fear and ignorance". It is a world-wide and many centuries/ cultures crossing phenomenon 3 that

  1. sacrifice (a 'giving') is normally understood as being the greatest reverence & tribute to the 'gods', and
  2. the 'Angel of Death' under his many different faces and names is one of the most-feared entity.

Those attributes are traditional within Western Occultism.

She also contradicts herself by stating that the "hosts 4 will not be violated", as one of the rituals includes a stabing of a corpse into the chest using a dagger. And on page 40 we are told that criminality renders the rituals impotent. This is, of course, not the case, as the Other Side is not bound by the worldly order and/ or man-made things 5, but a blind believer and follower of this book may condemn his own undertakings by this, for most laws may see some of the described practices as being (slightly) illegal. Maybe the ignorance is on Mrs. Wendells side.

One of the most annoying contents of this book is that the emotional aspects of the rites are dictated by the book itself. Of course this is not realistic at all, as the emotional world is not based upon what is standing in a book or elsewhere. Normally a ritual lets the Anima decide what kind of emotions do stir the person up during a ritual - only in this way a genuine and efficient magic may be produced. But when certain emotions are proscribed in a negative way, and the Occult Seeker does adopt such an ignorant view, the only thing that´ll happen is (when then such 'forbidden' feelings do arise), that the karcist may not become one with the ritual and the forces behind it, as separating motivations arise out of the cognitive mind which may hinder this. As a matter of fact, the suppression of specific traits is a trademark of the Right-Hand Path, while the Left-Hand Path grants a being the freedom to fully acknowledge & exalt the own identity. The same goes also for the visual contents - which proceeds even into such ludicrous phantasy in which "star-gates" 6 are encountered, amongst other fictional and moderndays rubbish ("psionic energy") which is not, and never was part of Western Occultism.

In an rather futile attempt to dissect necrophilia from these rites (Mrs. Wendell reduces necrophilia to a simple sexual intercourse with a corpse while necrophilia has in fact many more (sublime) aspects. In fact all necromantic practice is necrophile to a certain point) the reader is informed that "One can 'make love' to Death on many levels, providing they all emerge from the core of the soul and not the seat of the libido." Ment is a mere sympathy. Followed physical demands would "offend" the Angel of Death and result in punishment. What must be understood is, that 'love' as such is also arising from libidinous urges and forms therefore a part of the Anima. To attribut love to the Spiritus would mean that

  1. mans feelings are dissected, with some parts here, some parts there, while, in fact, Western Occultism enclothes the whole emotional world in the idea of the 'Anima', which is bound by the body 7.
  2. animals would possess also a Spiritus for they love the same way than we do. But the Spiritus is in fact this trait which is, per definitionem, separating the human existance from animal kingdom 8.

The generally purpose of all these rituals seems to bring the Occult Seeker in touch/ near with the (personalized) energies described as the "current of transition" to gain an understanding of it. Thus a spiritual travel is in order to near oneself to Azrael, and then take this wisdom back home. But what is not clear, and this is a major argument against all the various claims of 'divine knowledge through revelation' etc..., is why aren´t the appropriate informations not simply written down in the book? Why must everybody´s spirit fly up to the Death´s Angel when Mrs. Wendell has done this before and is in possession of this wisdom?

The point is that knowledge is logic 9 in essence, which can be re-considered and found truthfully by all rational minds, irrelevant of the how this thinking is brought upon one´s mind.

If we take a look upon the complete process of dying we may find that it sometimes starts slowly, long time before an individual looses consciousness. In fact, the human body starts to reduce his revivifying processes in his mid-twenties. After death it may take severall centuries until a corpse has become entirely earth again, and in the bespoken book earth is even described as being 'influxed' with this current. What however must be logical, is, that this transition (the passing away from life to death) is the greatest in the moment when a life-form looses its own identity and consciousness. This is the moment when Mors himself is actually standing behind the respective individual, when the Spiritus is severed from the Corpus; and the more profound or developed the mental/ spiritual abilites of this individual are, the more the 'Angel of Death' has to sever - the greater are the energies belonging to this transition. This fact, which is entirely ignored, renders most of these alleged "high necromantical" rituals as being of a lower potency.

Strange is also the idea to catch this alleged "death energy" in the making of a Golem. The fashion of one bases upon the belief that the Creator brought Adam Kadmon 10 to life by a joining together of clay and then imbueing this structure with Ruach ('divine breath'). Such a life-force, however, constitutes the perfect opposite to the "current of transition", for in the creation of a Golem the life-force is given, while Mors means a fading away of this force. In the end the work turns so out that, with the help of the 4 Archangels, a cojoined mass of dead things is imbued with this breath, in order to be ready for Azrael to become manifest therein.

All this is highly contradictive.

 

References

  1. "From the Greek word 'mantis', meaning 'seer'. Mantic (lat. divinatio) is a major occult art.
  2. They involve sacrifice of certain substances like e.g. milk, honey, flour, milk, water and the blood of killed animals (qv. Odysseus) in which the spirit of the deceased may materialize themselves. Other practices involve shamanistic rituals (dancing, fire, narcotics) or the killing and mutilation of people (esp. pregnant woman) to have a look at their inner organs. This was very famous in the Roman Empire, also some Mesopotanian folks undertook this.
  3. Whenever occult traditions, systems of belief, ideas, etc.... manifest themselves in the same way or pattern within different mythologies and folks, folks who are unaware of each other (due to time or natural borders), then the reason for this may be that something is stated or given form which is fundamentally immanent within the human nature.
  4. In agreement with the foregoing arguments it would be wiser to refer to a living being as to a host .
  5. The greatest difference (and argument for this) is that the Cosmos is subject to change, whilst the spiritual world isn´t necessary following this movements. In essence the first and highest divinity is described in most Esoteric Arts as being indifferentiated and unchanging (qv. Paracelsus:'Paragnum', Claudius Ptolemy on the Primum Mobile, orthodox Kabalah on Ein Sof, etc...)
  6. The influence of the stars upon the sub-lunar world is a sometimes considered to earth through such a 'gate'. This, however, is only important in Astrology, and normally the astral influence is to be seen as emanating down along the earth-axis (qv. Plato). The famous 'astral travelling' (OBE) consists mostly of exoteric distortions of ideas to be found within Eastern Occultism, and are therefor irrelevant.
  7. All feelings are subject to an evolutionairy purpose, that is, their reason to exist thrives upon worldly order. Emotions are nothing but the successors of instincts, while rationality is now the successor of the emotions. The basic goal of them is to guide/ aid the appropriate lifeform in its survival.
  8. Therefore it is wise to seek after spirituality within those mental regions, which possess the ability to rationalize, to abstract, to be as the divine truth (qv. 'the negative theology of Moses Maimonides'). It is also worthy to note that these qualities have been at last attached to us by the evolution, and they have given the human race the power to conquer the earth.
  9. Logic is onefold, and functions according to set rules. Mathematics may be a good example for this. On the function of logical induction & deduction qv. Aristotle 'Organon'.
  10. The 'Primal Man', Adam translated means 'earth' or 'clay'. (qv. Genesis 3,19)

 

 

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