The Witches' Book of the Dead (22 page)

The Italian benandanti were a cult of sorcerers who professed to protect the fertility of the land from being blighted by the malandanti—or evil
Witches. This didn't stop them from being charged with the crime of Witchcraft themselves, since the priestly authorities of the Church typically didn't differentiate between good magic and bad—unless they themselves were the ones doing it. The benandanti were accused of attending the infamous Witches' Sabbath, a feared event where Witches were said to meet at festive bacchanalias in celebration of the Devil. True Witches know that this was actually a time for gathering and bringing life to the land through ceremony and magic, so the benandanti were not so far off in their practices. It took decades of torture to convince the benandanti to “admit” to participating in the Witches' Sabbath, as stories can certainly be altered under the duress of untold agonies. However, before this point, the men of the benandanti claimed to battle Witches and wizards for the supremacy of the crops. The women of the benandanti claimed to witness “processions of the dead.” Both men and women claimed that they entered into a dreamlike trance during which they left their bodies in the form of animals to enter into the otherworld. The benandanti compared their journey to a “temporary death,” and it is likely that they entered the spirit realms with help of the various flying ointments often associated with Witches. The benandanti claimed that they had this power because they were born with a caul—a thin membrane that can sometimes cover the face of a baby as it emerges from the womb, also often associated with natural Witchcraft and the second sight. Historian Carlo Ginzburg theorizes that the so-called sorcerers who the benandanti fought against were in fact the “unappeased dead,” spirits only blighting the land because they have not been honored.
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While the benandanti are perhaps the most obvious example, scholar Éva Pócs, in her groundbreaking work,
Between the Living and the Dead: A Perspective on Witches and Seers in the Early Modern Age
, refers to many examples from European trials where the dead factor into the work of the Witch. The appearance of both Witches and the dead in dreams occur in a number of these trial accounts.

Bringing it back to my home here in Salem, we have only to look to the first Witch accused—the slave woman Tituba. When asked by Judge John
Hathorne what sort of apparition had persuaded the slave to give herself over to Witchcraft, Tituba replied, “One like a man just as I was going to sleep came to me.”
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This blurring of the lines between dreams and waking consciousness, the living and the dead, is prominent in the story of Witchcraft through the ages.

Finally, my mentor, hereditary Strega Witch Lori Bruno, pointed me to my favorite tale of dreaming Witches, a magical community that Lori's Sicilian family has long believed they were descended from. In 500 BCE, along the southern slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily, was Hybla Geleatis, a town “dedicated to the cult of a pre-Greek goddess, a chthonic or underworld divinity.” The people of the town of Hybla Geleatis, and Lori's family in particular, earned fame “throughout the whole of Sicily and beyond” not only for remaining devout to their uniquely non-Greek religion, but for their masterful ability as dream prophets. It is likely that the prophecies of these seers were deeply connected to the spirits of the dead; not only was their deity a goddess of the underworld, but also the crater of Mount Etna itself, long a center of volcanic activity, was believed to be a direct entrance the underworld. This ancient legacy survives in Lori and in all of the Witches today who have learned to listen to the whispers of the dead in the shadowy currents of their dreams.
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Tribal Dreams of the Dead

Many of the tribal cultures existing in remote areas today hold the legacy of the ancient shamans and medicine people from whom Witches also evolved. To further see how the Witches and sorcerers of earlier European cultures may have viewed the dead in dreams, we have only to look to some of those tribal groups still practicing the ancient magical ways.

When a person dies among the Yoruba of Nigeria—whose ways came to America long ago in the form of Cuban Santeria and other Afro-Caribbean magical traditions—attendees of the funerary rites will often tell the deceased that, from now on, they shall see him in their dreams. Among the
Zulu tribes of Southern Africa, the people embrace the ancestors into their dreams. Among the Tiv people of Nigeria, the people are more apprehensive of dreams of the dead. But there is a thread that runs through all of the peoples of Africa who believe that the ancestors can come to us in dreams, and that is that the dead are able to “offer advice to the living, warn them, give them insight into the future, correct their conduct, and admonish them for neglecting spiritual duties.”
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Native Americans of the southwestern United States, such as the Zuni and the Navajo tribes, have a deep-rooted fear of the dead. However, the medicine people of these tribes will often seek out the dead in their dreams, trances, and shamanic journeys. Like the ancient Greeks, the Zuni believe that the dreamer journeys outside the body and is not bound by time or place. Able to travel through past, present, future, or anywhere he wishes to go, the dreamer is able to join the dead in the realms of spirit that he may receive the imparted wisdom of his beloved ancestors.
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The people of the Xavante tribe of Brazil perform their own variation of dream incubation through sacred cylinders of polished wood believed to have the power to make contact with the dead. A tribal elder hangs the cylinder over the grave of the person with whom he wishes to communicate and, as he sleeps that night, he will meet the spirit of that person in his dreams. The Xavante express their dreams differently, depending on gender and age. While women will tell of their dreams of the dead in songs of lament, adolescent boys will observe the dead from a distance, and old men will communicate with the dead directly, narrating the images of the dead into stories for their people.
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Spirit Visitation Dreams in Modern Times

The emergence of psychology and psychotherapy restored the dream to importance in so-called modern society. Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung were the primary pioneers, and Jung especially reestablished the otherworldly and mystical nature of dreams. Dreams were seen as highly symbolic and
compensatory; that is, they were expressions of the deep part of the Self that sought a balancing out of the stresses of life. Even dreams of the dead were interpreted in symbolic ways, or viewed as part of a grieving process that enabled people to have closure.

Spirit visitation dreams, however, resist complete assignment to symbolic interpretation. Freud himself even acknowledged this difficulty, stating, “… dreams of dead people whom the dreamer has loved raise difficult problems in dream-interpretation and that these cannot always be satisfactorily solved.”
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As researchers delve deeper into the study of consciousness, the afterlife, the soul, dreams, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, and the like, the evidence points to spirit visitation dreams as truly genuine experiences. If the dead do come to you in a dream, it is important to consider the symbolic meaning of the experience, but you should also regard it as an actual visit, and one with purpose, be it a message, a warning, or merely an opportunity to be close to you.

Characteristics of Dream Visits by the Dead

As I mentioned earlier, there is a sharp reality to dreams of the dead that sets them apart from ordinary dreams. The dreamer usually feels a heightening of the senses. The dream environment often manifests as a bridge, a crossroads, a strange landscape, or a meeting place on the Other Side, all suggesting that the dreamer is now between the worlds of the living and the dead. The atmosphere of the dream is likely to feel highly charged, almost electrical, while colors, scents, and even touch are enhanced, and the overall tone may seem quite surreal.

The ancient Greeks typically saw a more somber dead in their dreams, reflecting their beliefs in the afterlife as a gloomy place. The dead would appear as they had looked at the time of their death. If a man had been killed in battle, by murder, or in an accident, his appearance would be wounded, mangled, and bloody. In modern experiences, the dead are usually related as being radiant, vibrant, happy, youthful, and, if they had been ill or injured,
are completely healed. People who die old often appear younger. This is generally my own experience, though I have found that those who died when they were older sometimes come to me in that form, perhaps to seem more relatable as this would be how I most recently remember them.

Communication with the dead in dreams can be verbal or telepathic. Often, the visiting dead say they have only a limited time, or that they had difficulty getting through, implying that the conditions of such a dream visit might be hard to arrange.

Who do the dead tend to visit in dreams? It might seem obvious that those closest to the dead—spouses, family, lovers, and good friends—would be the most likely people to see their departed in dreams, and that is usually the case. But sometimes spirits will visit people who know them but were not particularly close to them. Such people are left to wonder why they were visited. No one knows the exact mechanics behind spirit visitation dreams, but they may follow a path of least resistance, reaching out to whom they can.

Paranormal author Rosemary Ellen Guiley recalls a woman who received a vivid spirit visitation dream from her dead mother-in-law, who had a message for her son that she was always with him. The wife said she would be happy to relay the message, but asked why the mother did not tell her son directly herself. The dead woman replied, “I can't because of the way that he dreams.” She could get through to her daughter-in-law, but not to her son. I love Rosemary's example here because it confirms, once and for all, that you can never truly escape your mother-in-law.
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When the dead come to call in dreams, there is generally a purpose for doing so. Proper burial has remained a theme since ancient times. The dead can be restless without having had a ceremonial sendoff to the afterlife. Even when there isn't a body—such as in natural disasters, disappearances, wars, and so on—a memorial service is often still required to bring closure, for the dead need it as much as we do. Other common purposes are to say a final good-bye and to reassure those left behind that they have survived death and are doing okay. The dead also return to address unfinished business, especially concerning their estates, and to offer advice
and guidance to the living. Sometimes, the dead can come for vengeance against those who have wronged them, so remember, those you do evil to may have the last word in the spirit world. Once you begin to honor the spirits at your altar of the dead, those you honor will likely make more frequent appearances in your dreams, sometimes with messages, sometimes with warnings, and sometimes just to help maintain the relationship that you are mutually building.

Ritual: Summon the Dead in Dreams

Most spirit visitation dreams seem to originate from the realms of the dead, but sometimes it is possible to summon the dead to your dreams with ritual, just as the Greek necromancers, the Xavante elders, and countless other magical people have done through the ages. Here is a simple yet effective ritual to do so. I created this ritual with Rosemary Ellen Guiley, combining my knowledge of ritual magic with her extensive research into dreams. It draws on both the wisdom of the ancients as well as sound methods of modern dream incubation popularized by such films as the 2010 blockbuster,
Inception
.

You will need:

• A white candle
  
• Anointing oil (see
  appendix A
  )
  
• A human skull or substitute to act as a catalyst (see
  chapter 3
  )
  
• Bronze dagger
  
• Yew wand
  
• Spirit incense and burner (see
  appendix A
  )
  
• Spirit powder (see
  appendix A
  )
  
• Jar of honey
  
• Chalice of libation filled with spring water
  
• Dream journal (can be a writing journal or even a simple notebook)
  
• A photo or memento of the person or persons you wish to contact
  

Before you conduct such a ritual, it is important to know whom it is you wish to contact. I cannot stress this enough. If you go into your dreams with a psychic neon sign saying, “come one, come all,” you may not be happy with who shows up. The inexperienced can sometimes be weaker in dreams, and there's no sense in opening the doorway to the spirits of serial killers, rapists, and other such ne'er-do-wells.