its not about the word necromancy, it is about death magic.. which most people tent to call necromancy. there is another bit on the curse of language i can suggest
Necromancy isn't exactly denominational and as such there are many different forms of it. Yes, it is mostly used for communication with the dead but it is also the working with the energy, force and spirits Death.
I like how it brings up the Bible and then Aristotle, both out of context.
It's ironic how it starts off saying that the Christian Church tainted the association of necromancy, then states that necromancy is beautiful. But continues the article in a way that continues to maintain the discriminations of the Church and describes it in a very false and ugly way.. This article looks as if it's been based off of fiction and video games.
True necromancy can find it's origin in Greek, Egyptian, African, and Shamanic practise. It's understanding the soul and death and interacting with the deceased. That site is new age junk.
To prove my point here are some quotes from two sites.
"A mage of the undead, the Necromancer raises the living dead to fight for him. His dark powers can call on zombies and skeletons to inflict fear and death on his foes. Clad in robes, he puts enemies to sleep, poisons them, and can even steal the life from their souls."
"Necromancers are spellcasters whose magics manipulate the power of death. In calling upon this power, necromancers risk being consumed by it — until eventually they join the ranks of the undead. Necromancers twist arcane magic to manipulate the power of death. Commanding the undead, generally in the service of the Scourge, they gradually take on the characteristics of the dead — hollow eyes, shambling gaits, pallid and sunken skin..."
The first one is from Lineage II a popular mmorpg (massive multiplayer online role playing game). The second is from another mmorpg, World Of Warcraft. I actually used to play Lineage II and had a Necromancer. It's key skills were "curses" "vampiric claw" "death spike".
Remarkable how similar these descriptions are to that website isn't it?
The reason why necromancy was believed to make people ill was because ancient necromancers used to touch and even consume corpses. Just the fumes that come from a decaying corpse alone can cause illness. That would make anyone ill or sickly. Necromancers of old didn't live very long. People would say "its because they were practicing the black arts *gasp*" when in reality it was because they were poisoning themselves with harmful gases and bacteria that comes from dead bodies.
In modern times, it is difficult if not impossible to have access to a corpse. So anyone who becomes pale or looks ill from practising necromancy today is only suffering from the backfire of using energy and ritual incorrectly or from their own mind (mind over matter) believing they will. It is known that believing you are ill can cause you to gain any symptoms, and there is a name for this, it is called hypochondria. Many other mental illness can cause physical symptoms, such as other anxiety disorders, depression, and personality disorders which are so very common, nearly everyone experiences one in their lifetime. The power of suggestion is extremely underestimated. Our minds have far more power over our bodies than most know.
Traditional necromancy is based around the thought that the dead have access to the past, present and future. To me, this seems ubsurd,how could the dead see into the future any better than the living can. Todays necromancy involves the use of death essence to enter and call entities from the netherworld. Another aspect of modern necromancy is using death essence to fuel spells that focus on decay and death. Because necromancers use their bodies as meduims for death's energies, repeated exposure has certian side-effects: reuced longiviy and what not. Necromancy is more than just learning to cast a few spells trhat wither people, it is a system of compicated beliefs that would be inpossible to condense into however many words tomekeeper has. To call necromancy as just a form of divination shows how much research you've done on the topic (im not saying everyone has to be an expert just dont pass judgement on something just because you know what the name means).
