Lee Morgan

 “All of you sitting here now are in constant  intercourse with the dead, only ordinary consciousness knows nothing of it because it proceeds in the sub-consciousness." 

- Rudolf Steiner

The dead are part of us, our ancestors and those who have contributed to our lives in a variety of other intricate ways are manifesting through us all the time, without us usually being aware of it. This is another important aspect of the folk magic approach to working with the dead. There is an instinctual understanding of what is needed, a gut knowledge that the dead remain with us that sings through folk magic relating to the dead. In many places in the world we come across scapulimancy, divination with a scapula. Often this practice is linked to the idea that the dead see things coming in a way we cannot. Their advise is asked on matters as diverse as the location of game, the right decision to make in business, or whether to trust someone. Omens that are noticed, or signs that arise due to the cracks which form in scapula, are a signal that the dead operate in a world that isn’t bound by Time, which means they are able to see differently to us. They can see things coming before we can.

As Martin Coleman puts it in his book on working with the spirits, skilful dead people are able to watch the future-you developing, just the way we can see a car coming down the road towards us. Not being caught up by Time often means the ancestral dead can sometimes be very patient with us. After all, unlike the living they have gone through the most simple of initiations already, they know what it feels like to have your identity come undone.

What the dead lack that we have is our ability to form understanding through the human senses, they often miss the senses they had in life during feasts and conviviality and love to borrow our senses. This can happen quite by accident when you find yourself craving a particular alcohol, brand of tobacco or food stuff you wouldn’t usually take an interest in, as a dead worker this isn’t the ideal way for it to happen, as allowing this level of flow-through can entrench bad ancestral habits that get stronger over time. When this sort of thing is done consensually though it is quite powerful, and increases our sense of inoculation. This is called drenching the ghosts, and it is also where we get concepts like the Dumb Supper from. While we eat for them we are still ourselves during such a drinking or a supper, but we agree to eat for them as well. As we have mentioned before, regular processes of this sort, based on agreements with that spirit are a good way to start appeasing the very spirits in your ancestral upline who might influence your behaviour in negative ways.

Steiner’s book on maintaining communion with the dead, which I quoted at the beginning of this lesson, talks about how dead people are closer in some way to the animal element of things. As he’s not a witch he doesn’t have the language to describe what he means clearly, though it is obvious he doesn’t mean it as an insult. What he means is that the dead are closer to a fetch force, their use of their reason or their senses, but they come alive through the faculties of other creatures, such as us. The regular flight of witches in the forms of animals makes the idea seem quite natural to a lot of us, this notion of the dead taking on animal form, that we can swap around to at one point use our own sense of reason and somatic or physical mind, then swap over to that of a bat, a cat, or a rat. The more connections one has the wider one’s mind scope. So therefore keeping connections with worthy dead people is a great boon to them. It is not just ‘what is remembered lives’ it’s also what is engaged with, spoken to, eaten for, read to, educated, drenched in drinking water, pushed, worked and loved. To be trapped in the brain of a rat would be a loss of a lot of human faculties and feelings, but to ALSO have the brain of a rat available as well is a boon.

In my own ancestral story I am descended from one Lewis Bayley who was the author of ‘The Practice of Piety’ in the 1600’s, a nice little Puritan book, that to both my distaste, and his own, is still popular with evangelicals today. I had remarked one day, rather rudely I suppose, that I had no ancestors who were well educated or wrote books. Lewis showed up in my room that night to let me know I was wrong about both of those claims. He was immediately obvious to me as someone more lively and attentive than any of my more recent family dead, including the ones I’d known. Though my grandmother is more powerful I’d say he as the most engaging to talk to. He gave me three facts that checked out that I didn’t know before as proof he was who he said and then began to tell me about his doubts on the topic of what he used to believe. He gave me significant insight into the way time doesn’t seem to exist for the dead, and yet in some cases they are aware of it at the same time. He isn’t sure if he’s still so awake because people read his book, because of his prominent burial position in the cathedral or because his name is recorded.  In this way the dead engage in fruitful exchange with the living, when all is flowing well. So you want to make sure there is an exchange of some sort done between offerings for them which can be visualisations where you create a beautiful place to walk them through, supplying them with sensory information via your own ability to feel such sensations, and even reading to them. We can nourish them with our attention and they can unknot our own ancestral challenges, and leave us with new Virtue.

A good helper spirit seems well adjusted, they have learned lessons from life but are able to consider themselves as existing beyond the identity they had during life, whilst still retaining some positive aspects of who they were. For instance, many ex-military people retain protective properties in death and healers will try to heal in the after life, lawyers will help other spirits to deal with legalities. A beneficent soul is seen to avoid destructive behaviour loops that caught them during life. They are capable of LEARNING new things and growing in their perspective and power. They appear to long for the opportunity to do so. From a witch’s perspective it is helpful if they have some skills in an area. Some spirits may be talented at divining the truth, Finding lost objects or telling you the identity of an object someone else has placed in a circle in another room, or they might be better at making things happen, or changing atmospheres in ways that influence the living. At the beginning of the relationship these demonstrations of power are crucial. Not only do they show you what the spirit brings to the relationship but the offerings you then give them when they succeed will empower them and the working relationship far more than an un-earned offering. Spontaneous signs of loyalty are demonstrated when the spirit volunteers helpful omens, divinations, or protection to you when you haven’t had to ask or offer anything for this service. If a witch has a connection like this it is worth its weight in gold. Just like a human friend who is life-and-death loyal a familiar of this sort will handle a lot of your warding for you.

If you struggle to find a friend among the dead of this sort there are many forgotten graves, many great contributors to the arts, science and activism who are all but forgotten in death. You could go out to your local cemetery with a pendulum or dowsing rod and ask to be led to such a one. Or instead you may wish to trawl through local history figures and dead heroes or artists. When you find someone and think nostalgically ‘I could have loved you if we were around at the same time as me’ then this is worth pursuing. The importance is the door being open for affection. The beneficent dead tend to respond well to being approached with a loving feeling, and the loving feeling also makes it less likely that your working will attract any malevolent dead. As much as it might be tempting to work with the ghost of Mary Wollstonecraft or Marie Laveau it is important, at least in the early stages of this practical work, you will need to access the grave, and grave dirt of that person. Being able to go to a place sacred to their memory will also allow you to obtain consent to work with them as a giver of divination and omens.