Current research concerning divination and its connection to mourning practices.
Artefacts – objects wielding otherworldly force we don’t believe we possess. A help in believing in the unreal and magical.
Lanterns – guides through darkness, companion on the journey.
Flame within like a being
Fire as sacred, symbol of god, power, cleansing.
Flame ever changing – a life and a transformation.
Magic mirrors and other reflective objects as catalyst for intention of the user.
captoptromancy – divination from reflections
lecanomancy – divination using a dish (usually of water)
scyphomancy – divination using a goblet or a cup
molybdomancy – divination using molten metal dropped in water
pyromancy – divination from fire or flames
Scrying, an unconscious or conscious connection to hopes, fears desires. Created by the act of gazing or looking for signs. Noticing the unseen glimpse by glimpse.
Divination as a call of grief
Magic and miracles as final resort of desperate longing
Legend of Faust and how far will we go to get what we want
Designer of objects as a sorcerer crafting artefacts. Need and solution.
Master Twardowski, a sorcerer and maker of many magical things and acts, as necromancer: using the powers of demons to perform miracles
Transformation of grief and mourning as a katabasis into oneself and their feelings. witnessing the inner Hades in deepest despair, resurfacing to live a life seen through the lens of life after loss compared to life before loss.
SUBJECT MATTER:
Mourning in everyday life – “subjecting to transformation” (paraphrase of J. Butler)
Helping tools as next step after accepting grief as part of inevitable change
Current reads:
Necromancy for the Masses? A Printed Version of the “Compendium Magiae Innaturalis Nigrae”
A History of Magic and Experimental Science
NECROMANCY IN THE CLERICAL UNDERWORLD. Magic in the Middle Ages
The Munich Handbook of Necromancy
The Key of Solomon
Performing Mourning: Laments in Contemporary Art
The Medieval Imagination