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, Candombl茅, 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 m茫es 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.
馃嚫馃嚲 Syria and 5 moreBaetyl
A sacred stone, often a meteorite, believed to house a deity in ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean traditions.Charm 路 Power and authority 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
馃嚦馃嚨 Nepal and 1 morePrayer flagLung ta
Cloth banners printed with mantras, hung in high places to spread blessings on the windCharm 路 Protection 路 Cleansing and purification Living
馃嚥馃嚦 Mongolia and 1 moreOvoo芯胁芯芯
A stone or branch cairn used as a shrine and boundary marker in Mongolic folk practice.Tradition 路 Protection 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚜馃嚞 Egypt and 2 moreAnkh
Ancient Egyptian hieroglyph for life and the amulet that carries its meaningCharm 路 Protection 路 Power and authority Historical
馃嚫馃嚦 Senegal and 5 morePentagram蟺蔚谓蟿维纬蟻伪渭渭慰谓
A five-pointed star figure used across history for protection, ritual, and cosmologyCharm 路 Protection 路 Binding and oaths Living
馃嚦馃嚞 Nigeria and 2 moreOpon If谩峄宲峄嵦乶 If谩
A carved wooden tray used by Yoruba diviners to read signs and consult spirits.Charm 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚠馃嚦 India and 4 moreDzi bead嘟傕綗嘟侧紞 (gzi)
An agate amulet worn in the Himalayas for protection against the evil eye.Charm 路 Protection 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚜馃嚞 EgyptUshabtiw拧btj
Ancient Egyptian funerary figurines believed to work for the dead in the afterlifeCharm 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
馃嚞馃嚘 Gabon and 2 moreMbulu Ngulu
Wood and metal figures guarding ancestor relics in GabonCharm 路 Protection 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
馃嚦馃嚳 New Zealand and 1 moreManaia
A composite guardian spirit in M膩ori art and beliefBeing 路 Protection 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚠馃嚛 Indonesia and 1 moreSandung
A house-shaped ossuary for the bones of the deceased among Dayak peoples in Borneo.Charm 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Power and authority Living
馃嚡馃嚨 JapanMagatama鍕剧帀
A curved Japanese bead used as jewelry, status symbol, and sacred object in Shinto.Charm 路 Power and authority 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚥馃嚦 Mongolia and 1 moreOngon
Ancestor spirits in Mongolian shamanism, represented by consecrated idols and talismansBeing 路 Protection 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚛馃嚧 Dominican Republic and 5 moreZemi
A Ta铆no deity or ancestral spirit housed in a carved object used for worship and protectionBeing 路 Protection 路 Healing Historical
馃嚘馃嚭 AustraliaTjurunga
Sacred objects of the Arrernte people, embodying ancestral power and clan identity.Charm 路 Power and authority 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
馃嚥馃嚱 Mexico and 1 moreGod's eyeOjo de Dios
A woven yarn cross believed to grant spiritual sight and protectionCharm 路 Protection 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚬馃嚪 TurkeyHittite sun disk
An ancient Anatolian bronze symbol used in Hattian and Hittite religious ceremoniesCharm 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 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.
- Ushabti: Unknown author, CC0, source
- Sandung: Wibowo Djatmiko ( Wie146 ), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Prayer flag: Wotan, CC BY 2.5, source
- Ongon: Vyacheslav Kirillin, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Ovoo: Bouette ., CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Ankh: Soutekh67, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Pentagram: Tomruen, Attribution, source
- Opon If谩: Unknown author, CC BY 3.0, source
- Dzi bead: Benjwong, Public domain, source
- Manaia: Sarang, Public domain, source
- Magatama: Kakidai, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Zemi: Unknown author, CC0, source
- Tjurunga: No machine-readable author provided. Sepu~commonswiki assumed (based o, CC BY-SA 2.5, source
- God's eye: Douglas P. Perkins, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Hittite sun disk: Noumenon, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Mbulu Ngulu: Sailko, CC BY 3.0, source
- Baetyl: Jusepe de Ribera, Public domain, source