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.
馃嚨馃嚫 Palestine and 1 moreRachel's TombQever Ra岣l; Qabr R膩岣ツ玪
A shared holy site near Bethlehem revered by Jews, Christians, and MuslimsTradition 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Protection Living
馃嚫馃嚧 Somalia and 5 moreFrankincense
An aromatic tree resin harvested for incense, perfume, and religious ritualSubstance 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Power and authority Living
馃嚠馃嚤 Israel and 5 moreTetragrammaton讬讛讜讛
The four-letter name of God in the Hebrew Bible, written as YHWH.Belief 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚠馃嚤 Israel and 4 moreIsaac Luria讬执爪职讞指拽 讘谉 砖诇诪讛 讗砖讻谞讝讬 诇讜旨专职讬指讗
A sixteenth-century rabbi who founded modern Kabbalah through oral teachings in Safed.Text 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Change and initiation Living
馃嚠馃嚤 Israel and 5 moreTefillin转职旨驻执诇执旨讬谉
Black leather boxes containing Torah scrolls, worn by Jewish men during weekday prayers.Charm 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Protection Living
馃嚠馃嚤 Israel and 2 moreMezuzah诪职讝讜旨讝指讛
A scroll of Torah verses placed in a case on Jewish doorpostsCharm 路 Protection 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚚馃嚟 SwitzerlandMagic circle
A ritual boundary drawn or visualised to create sacred space and protectionTradition 路 Protection 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚠馃嚤 Israel and 3 moreCleromancy
A divination method that uses random chance to reveal divine willOracle 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚠馃嚤 IsraelShekhinah砖职讈讻执讬谞指讛
The divine presence of God dwelling among people in Jewish and Islamic thoughtBelief 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Power and authority Living
馃嚠馃嚤 Israel and 1 moreAna BeKoach讗谞讗 讘讻讞
A medieval Jewish liturgical poem linked to the 42-letter name of GodText 路 Power and authority 路 Protection Living
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Tetragrammaton: Lakisletter.gif : derivative work: Filii Henoch ( talk ), Public domain, source
- Isaac Luria: Louski1, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Tefillin: Brooklyn Museum, CC BY 3.0, source
- Mezuzah: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl, source
- Magic circle: John William Waterhouse, Public domain, source
- Cleromancy: Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Public domain, source
- Ana BeKoach: Baruch Zvi Ring (c. 1872 - 1927) Details on Google Art Project, Public domain, source
- Frankincense: No machine-readable author provided. Gaius Cornelius assumed (based on, Public domain, source
- Rachel's Tomb: Lane-Poole, Stanley, Public domain, source