Speaking with spirits and the dead
Mediumship, ancestor rites, possession and the offerings made to the unseen.
Speaking with spirits and the dead is the aim of mediumship, ancestor rites, possession and necromancy. It runs from the spirit mediums of Korea and Brazil to Vodou possession, Chinese ancestor offerings, the Mexican Day of the Dead, Victorian spiritualism and the Witch of Endor of the Bible. It is a central practice in some living religions and a frequent target of fraud in others. This page covers who speaks to the dead and how they are judged.
Ways of contact
Methods differ. In possession, a spirit or deity is said to speak through the body of a medium, as in Vodou, Candomblé, Haitian and Brazilian rites, and in Korean gut. In trance or dream, a shaman travels to the spirit world. In offerings and festivals, families feed and talk to ancestors, as in the Hungry Ghost month in China and the ofrenda in Mexico. Spiritualism added the seance and the table-rapping of the 1840s.
Who may
In many societies, women lead: Korean mudang, Okinawan yuta, Brazilian mães de santo and the Western spiritualist mediums of the nineteenth century, who found in mediumship a public role denied elsewhere. Elsewhere, the role is for elders and ancestors' descendants. Some traditions require initiation, and some say contact with the dead is not for outsiders to attempt. Spirits and ancestors are not always friendly: mediums report angry, hungry or lost beings, and rites exist for settling them, such as offerings for neglected ancestors in China and Vietnam.
Authority and fear
Religions disagree. Christianity, Judaism and Islam each forbid certain contact with the dead while honouring prayer for them. Spiritist movements around Kardec in Brazil and France treat communication as a doctrine. Colonial authorities banned possession cults in many places, often labelling them devil worship, and some Pentecostal churches today condemn them in the same terms. The rites are widely found in Africa too, where ancestors are consulted at the family shrine and are held to watch over the living.
Fraud, grief and study
Grieving people are vulnerable. Fraudulent mediums, from the Fox sisters, who confessed in 1888, to modern cold readers, have taken money by exploiting loss. Researchers point to cold reading and to the ideomotor effect behind the Ouija board. Many bereaved people also report real comfort from rites that keep a bond with the dead, and counsellors acknowledge that continuing bonds are common. Doctors and psychologists note that a grief reaction can include hearing or sensing the dead, which is common and not in itself a sign of illness.
Speaking with spirits and the dead on EveryJaadu
The entries written up so far, best known first.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreJohn Dee
An English scholar and advisor to Elizabeth I who pursued angelic communication through scrying.Tradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇪🇬 EgyptTheurgyθεουργία
A Neoplatonic ritual path to unite the soul with the divine through sacred actsTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Change and initiation Historical
🇬🇧 United KingdomHermetic Order of the Golden DawnOrdo Hermeticus Aurorae Aureae
A late-19th-century British magical order that shaped modern Western occultismTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Change and initiation Historical
🇮🇹 Italy and 3 moreRenaissance magic
A 15th and 16th century revival of magical arts blending philosophy, astrology, and hidden knowledge.Tradition · Power and authority · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇪🇬 Egypt and 1 moreCorpus Hermeticum
A collection of Greek writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus that shaped Western esoteric thoughtText · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Change and initiation Historical
🇫🇷 FranceThree Books of Occult PhilosophyDe occulta philosophia libri III
A Renaissance treatise on elemental, celestial and divine magicText · Healing · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇪🇬 EgyptScrying
A divination practice of gazing into a medium to receive visions or guidance.Oracle · Seeing and foretelling · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇫🇷 FrancePlanchette
A wooden device for automatic writing used in Victorian spiritualist séancesCharm · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Seeing and foretelling Historical
🇫🇷 France and 2 moreÉliphas Lévi
A French writer who shaped modern occult thought and ceremonial magic.Text · Power and authority · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇬🇷 GreeceEleusinian MysteriesἘλευσίνια Μυστήρια
Ancient Greek secret initiation rites honouring Demeter and Persephone at EleusisTradition · Change and initiation · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇮🇶 Iraq and 5 moreGrimoire
A textbook containing instructions for spells, rituals, and the creation of magical objects.Text · Protection · Healing Historical
🇬🇧 United KingdomGrimoire (sample)
A handbook of rites and names.Text · Power and authority · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇻🇳 Vietnam and 2 moreVietnamese numismatic charmsBùa Việt Nam
Coin-shaped charms used for protection, luck, and ritual in Vietnamese cultureCharm · Protection · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇪🇬 EgyptAeonαἰών
Emanations of the divine source in Gnostic cosmologyBeing · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇪🇬 Egypt and 1 moreAiwass
A voice that dictated a foundational occult text to Aleister Crowley in 1904Being · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇮🇳 IndiaWater (classical element)
A classical substance linked to emotion and intuition in Greek, Indian, and Western esoteric traditions.Substance · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Historical
🇮🇹 Italy and 2 moreOsirian Egyptian OrderOrdine Osirideo Egizio
An Italian esoteric society tracing its roots to 18th-century Naples and ancient Hermetic traditions.Tradition · Power and authority · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇮🇷 IranBalaibalanباليبلن
An early constructed language from the Islamic world, likely created for sacred or poetic purposes.Text · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇨🇭 SwitzerlandArbatel de magia veterum
A 1575 Swiss grimoire focused on celestial spirits and Christian ethicsText · Power and authority · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇮🇳 India and 1 moreAstral body
A subtle vehicle of emotion and dream said to travel beyond the physical formBelief · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Change and initiation Historical
🇮🇹 ItalyUR Group
An Italian esoteric circle studying magic and traditional philosophy in the late 1920s.Tradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Change and initiation Historical
🇫🇷 France and 4 moreEctoplasm
A substance said to be excreted by mediums during séances, later exposed as common household materials.Substance · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
🇮🇷 Iran and 5 moreAxis mundi
A concept describing a central point connecting the earthly and heavenly realms.Belief · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Historical
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Grimoire: Bengt A. Lundberg, CC BY 2.5, source
- Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa: Jean-Louis Durant (1654-1718), Public domain, source
- Éliphas Lévi: Eliphas Lévi [1810-1875], Public domain, source
- Mediumship: Harvey Metcalfe, Public domain, source
- Marsilio Ficino: Marsilio Ficino, Public domain, source
- Eleusinian Mysteries: No machine-readable author provided. Marsyas assumed (based on copyrig, Public domain, source
- Renaissance magic: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Scrying: John William Waterhouse, Public domain, source
- Vietnamese numismatic charms: Jean-Michel Moullec, CC BY 2.0, source
- Astral body: Rad el Baluvar, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- John Dee: Unidentified painter, Public domain, source
- UR Group: Gruppo di Ur, Public domain, source
- Three Books of Occult Philosophy: Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Public domain, source
- Axis mundi: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Aeon: Jacques Matter, Public domain, source