It is true that Wiccans honor those who have gone before. This includes blood relatives who have passed on, as well as coveners and friends.
I think Wiccans and Neo-Pagans are capable of developing their own sense of the apprpopriate involving the ghosts of those who are deceased. This may not fit their practice, but here is an example of what calling up the dead may involve.
Other than reading it and typing it here, I have never done any of this. So I can provide you with no practical advice. My guess is necromancy practitioners would probably warn: "Kids...don't try this at home without help from mom and dad."
Excerpt from The Book of Ceremonial Magic by Arthur Edward Waite, Chapter IX, concerning Infernal Spirits.
The first verse is to compel spirits into obedience:Following is another spell I stumbled across awhile back. It may even came from the same book. I photocopied it from a source in the library at least a year ago. I do not remember the source.Where the process is given, as in the Fourth Book of Cornelius Agrippa, it is confined to the evocation of those souls who might be reasonably supposed to be damned, and it involves revolting rites. It assumes that the evil liver carries with him into the next world the desires which have depraved him here, and it allures him by his persistent affinities with the relinquished body. In this way the use of blood came to be regarded as indispensable, because blood was held to be the medium of physical life; so also a portion of the body itself, whether flesh or bone, was prescribed in the rite. There is not any need to say that evocations involving the use of such materials belong to Black Magic…
"It is also to be understood,” says pseudo-Agrippa, “that those who are proposing to raise up the souls of any deceased persons must do so in places with which it is known that they were familiar, in which some special alliance between soul and body may be assumed, or some species of attracting affection, still leading the soul to such places… Therefore the localities most suited for the purpose are churchyards, and, better still, those which have been the scene of the execution of criminal judgments.”
-The Ritual of Necromantic Evocation and Exorcism-
The ritual of Necromantic Evocation is indicated but not given by the authority just cited; we must seek it in Ebenezer Sibley and in the supplementary portions of the Grand Grimoire and the Red Dragon. The astrologer Sibley does not give account of his sources, but they were evidently not in printed books. It is, in any case, not an invented process; it develops the principles laid down in pseudo-Agrippa and is quite in harmony with the baleful genius of Black Magic. It is here given verbatim:
But if, instead of infernal or familiar spirits, the ghost or apparition of a departed person is to be exorcised, the Magician, with his assistant, must repair to the churchyard or tomb where the deceased was buried, exactly at midnight, as the ceremony can only be performed in the night between the hours of twelve and one. The grave is first to be opened, or an aperture made by which access may be had to the naked body. The magician having described the circle, and holding a magic wand in his right hand, while his companion or assistant beareth a consecrated torch, he turns himself to all the four winds, and, touching the dead body three times with the magical wand, repeats as follows:
— “By the virtues and torments of the damned, I conjure and exorcise thee, Spirit of (Name of Deceased), to answer my liege demands, being obedient unto these sacred ceremonies, on pain of everlasting torment and distress…
BERALD, BEROALD, BALBIN, GAB, GABOR, AGABA.
Arise, arise! I charge and command thee, return to the Mortal Coil. Arise!”
-If the Spirit Be Obstinate-
— “I conjure thee, Human Spirit, be thou obedient unto me. Answer me exactly, without enigma or pretence. Make known the power which aids thee.
COLPRIZIANA, OFFINA, ALTA, NESTERA, FUARO, MENUET.”
When the Spirit makes visible appearance, say inwardly:
— “ALLEY, FORTISSIAN, FORTISSIO, ALLINSON, ROA.”
-To Evoke the Spirit of One Who Has Taken Their Own Life-
If it be desired to put interrogatories to the spirit of any corpse that has hanged, drowned or otherwise made away with itself, the conjuration must be performed while the body lies on the spot where it is first found after the suicide hath been committed, and before it is touched or removed. The ceremony is as follows:
The exorcist binds upon the top of his wand a bundle of St. John’s Wort or Millies Perforatum, with the head of an owl; and having repaired to the spot where the corpse lies, at twelve o'clock at night, he draws the circle and solemnly repeats these words:
— “By the mysteries of the deep, by the flames of Banal, by the Power of the East and the silence of the night, by the Holy Rites of Hecate, I conjure and exorcise thee, thou distressed spirit, to present thyself here and reveal unto me the cause of thy calamity, why thou didst offer violence to thy own liege life, where thou art now in being, and where thou wilt hereafter be.”
Then gently smiting the carcase nine times with the rod, he adds:
— “I conjure thee, thou Spirit of this (Name of Deceased), to answer my demands that I propound unto thee, as thou ever hopest for the rest of the holy ones and ease of all thy misery. I conjure and bind thee to utter unto me what I shall ask thee.”
Then, cutting down the carcase from the tree, they shall lay its head towards the East; in the space that this following conjuration is repeating, they shall set a chafing-dish of fire at its right hand, into which they shall pour a little wine, some mastic and some gum-aromatic, and lastly a vial full of the sweetest oil. They shall have also a pair of bellows and some unkindled charcoal to make the fire burn bright when the carcase rises. The conjuration is this:–
"I conjure thee, thou Spirit of (Name of Deceased), that thou do immediately enter into thy ancient body again and answer to my demands; I charge thee, I conjure thee, I command thee; on pain of the torments and wandering of thrice seven years, which I, by the force of sacred magic rites, have power to inflict upon thee; by thy sighs and groans I conjure thee to utter thy voice.“
This ceremony being thrice repeated, while the fire is burning with mastic and gum-aromatic, the body will begin to rise, and at last will stand upright before the exorcist, answering with a faint and hollow voice the questions propounded unto it. Moreover, it can answer very punctually concerning the places where ghosts reside, and of the manner of communicating with them, teaching the nature of Astral Spirits and hellish beings so far as its capacity alloweth.
-To Discharge the Spirit-This is certainly very different from Wicca.— "OMGROMA, EPYN, SEYOK, SATANY, DEGONY, EPARYGON, GALLIGANON, ZOGOGEN, FERSTIGON.”
All this when the ghost hath fully answered, the Magician ought out of commiseration and reverence to the deceased, to use what means can possibly be used for procuring rest unto the spirit, to which effect he must dig a grave, and, filling the same half full of quick-lime, with a little salt and common sulphur, must put the carcase naked into it. Next to the burning of the body into ashes, this is of great force to quiet and end the disturbance of the Astral Spirit.
But in this, and in all cases where the ghosts or apparitions of deceased persons are raised up and consulted, great caution is to be observed by the Magician to keep close within the circle; for if, by the constellation and position of the stars at his nativity, he be in the predicament of those who follow the Black Art for iniquitous purposes, it is very dangerous to conjure any spirits without describing the form of the circle, and wearing upon the heart, or holding in the hand, the Pentacle of Solomon. For the ghosts of men deceased can easily effect sudden death to the magician born under such a constellation of the planets, even whilst in the act of being exorcised.
Posted 9/21/2023