Special:Badtitle/NS104:The Dead Magician

The Dead Magician is the name often given to a ritual performed by Éliphas Lévi at the request of a wealthy member of a secret society to summon the spirit of Apollonius, an ancient sorcerer, in order to answer her question as well as one of Lévi's. The details of the ritual can be found in his book, The Book of English Magic:

"The cabinet prepared for the evocation was situated in a turret; it contained four concave mirrors and a species of altar having a white marble top, encircled by a chain of magnetised iron. The sign of the Pentagram, as given in the fifth chapter of this book, was graven and gilded on the white marble surface; it was inscribed also in various colours upon a new white lambskin stretched beneath the altar. In the middle of the marble table there was a small copper chafing-dish, containing charcoal of alder and laurel wood; another chafing-dish was set before me on a tripod. I was clothed in a white garment very similar to the alb of our catholic priests, but longer and wider, and I wore upon my head crown of vervain leaves, intertwined with a golden chain. I held a new sword in one hand, and in the other the 'Ritual'. I kindled two fires with the requisite prepared substances, and began reading the evocations of the 'Ritual' in a voice at first low, but rising by degrees. [...] I commenced the evocations, and placed myself within a circle which I had drawn previously between the tripod and the altar"

- Éliphas Lévi, The Book of English Magic

The reported effects of the ritual were immediate, before the ritual was even finished. The ground seemed to shake and the figure of a large man faded in and out of view. Upon invoking Apollonius three times, the figure stabilized; it was lean, melancholy, and beardless, wrapped from head to foot in a faded grey shroud. He was unable to verbally ask the two questions, but received their answers mentally, both with the same answer: "Dead!". The lady wished for information about a man, while Lévi "ought to know whether reconciliation and forgiveness were possible between two persons who occupied [his] thoughts.

Lévi performed this ritual two more times with the same results.