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.
馃嚥馃嚱 MexicoAztec religion
The polytheistic and monistic belief system of the Aztec Empire in central MexicoTradition 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Historical
馃嚤馃嚲 Libya and 4 moreTraditional Berber religionAmazigh religion
Ancient beliefs of Northwest Africa centered on celestial bodies, caves, and ancestors.Tradition 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Luck and prosperity Historical
馃嚪馃嚭 RussiaOssetian mythology袠褉芯薪 屑懈褎芯谢芯谐懈
The beliefs and supernatural beings of the Ossetian people in the Caucasus.Tradition 路 Protection 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
馃嚤馃嚬 Lithuania and 1 moreLithuanian mythologyLietuvi懦 mitologija
The ancient polytheistic beliefs of the Baltic people, preserved in folklore and early chroniclesTradition 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Luck and prosperity Historical
馃嚞馃嚪 GreeceAncient Greek folklore
The oral stories, music and rituals of the ancient GreeksTradition 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Power and authority Historical
馃嚨馃嚜 Peru and 2 moreInca religion
The polytheistic beliefs and rites of the Inca Empire across the AndesTradition 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Historical
馃嚨馃嚟 PhilippinesBabaylan
Spiritual leaders of pre-colonial Philippines who mediated with the unseen world.Tradition 路 Healing 路 Seeing and foretelling Historical
馃嚦馃嚧 NorwaySami religion
The animist and polytheistic beliefs of the S谩mi people across northern ScandinaviaTradition 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Historical
馃嚜馃嚞 Egypt and 1 moreAncient Egyptian religion
Polytheistic worship, divine kingship, and funerary rites along the NileTradition 路 Protection 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
馃嚠馃嚩 Iraq and 3 moreAncient Mesopotamian religion
The polytheistic beliefs and practices of Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia from 6000 BC to 500 ADTradition 路 Power and authority 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
馃嚭馃嚫 United States and 2 moreSpiritualism
A nineteenth-century religious movement focused on communicating with the dead.Tradition 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
馃嚚馃嚦 ChinaReligion of the Shang dynasty
The spiritual system of ancient China's second dynasty, centred on ancestor worship and oracle bone divination.Tradition 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Historical
馃嚚馃嚟 SwitzerlandSegen
A German term for blessing, charm, or spell rooted in Christian and folk traditions.Belief 路 Protection 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Rabisu: editor Austen Henry Layard , drawing by L. Gruner, Public domain, source
- Traditional Berber religion: Potymkin, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Lithuanian mythology: Prussian historian Christophorus Hartknoch (1644-1687), Public domain, source
- Inca religion: Chronicler Mart铆n of Mur煤a (Cronista Mart铆n de Mur煤a), Public domain, source
- Spiritualism: Rossington, W. W. and Garrett, J. Ellwood, Public domain, source
- S谩mi drum: Zouavman Le Zouave, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Religion of the Shang dynasty: Unknown author, CC0, source
- Ancient Egyptian religion: Moh hakem, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Aztec religion: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Babaylan: Hptina24, CC BY-SA 4.0, source