Karolina Rusak » Necromancy, Grief and Miracles

Necromancy, Grief and Miracles

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