One of my proudest achievements within the bounds of occulture to date was partnering with Erebus Society to publish an entire book designed to describe my personal necromantic path for a wider audience. As such, The Accelerated Necromancer hit the shelves around Yule of 2024, and began to weave a subtle thread through my already weird life. Hypersigils and similar processes, just like Grant Morrison used to make, though on a much smaller scale so far. What follows here is part of the first section, the more foundational essays which lay the background for the rest of the intricately etched work.

Embracing Life
An Excerpt From The Accelerated Necromancer
By Gavin Fox

More so than earthy witch or heavenly sorcerer it is mindset which truly sets the accelerated necromancer apart from others who look for answers in the dark. The mechanics of spell and ritual aside, how those potentially damned spiritual explorers stand to face another day is what makes them who they are. Many outsiders to the art watch those upon the cemetery path with a mix of confusion and disgust. The dead sleep soundly, they say. The spirits of the ancestors only come back to help the living in times of need. The Otherworld, Heaven, Hell, those are immutable concepts. To fixate upon the afterlife while still drawing breath is a waste of time.

Nothing could be further from the truth. A healthy respect for the Veil as a barrier that permeates every inch of the material plane and understanding of the final journey which all are eventually destined to make across it can only bring solace to those that willingly accept the weight. Opening up to that inevitability is the first step to accepting the transience of all things. This too shall pass, and not always quietly. It does not help that necromancy tends to get a raw deal in popular culture. Indeed, characters associated with this most misunderstood paradigm fall into two distinct camps. The horror film villain with an army of the resurrected dead and almost eternal lifespan, or the unlikely hero who utilises the fallen in a last ditch effort to do evil for the greater good.

The modern adept is actually far more concerned with life force in all its myriad forms than either of these fantasy stereotypes. Especially skilled practitioners will instinctively recognise the energy inherent in bodily fluids, bioelectric fields and even the everyday environment, bending a fragment of it to their will. Coupled with years of esoteric study this understanding allows them to manipulate said flow of power to either heal or harm as desired, albeit by very small amounts at a time. It is not an easy process, nor is it guaranteed to generate results. But when it does work it works miracles, and sometimes that is exactly what they need to keep going.

Those toiling within a more classical necromantic paradigm may seek exclusively to compel spirits to appear at their behest as did the infamous historical sorcerers of old. Lusting after either treasure or wisdom, those egoistic sorcerers pester the discarnate with questions and demands, rarely getting the vastly unimportant answers that they seek from those who dream beyond the Veil. It is a dangerous misconception that the dead are any more honest or wise than the living, one that stems from incorrect religious ideas about the nature of the afterlife. Despite new age claims otherwise a good portion of the recently deceased do not become undergrads at some infinitely vast cosmic university while they await a new posting within the material plane.

Many never completely cross to the afterlife, remaining here in a state of confusion instead. These ghostforms and echoes are the majority of the entities that the priest or priestess of the Veil will encounter on a daily basis. In light of this, a few more socially minded adepts might prefer to dwell where the forbidden arts shade into modern mediumship, serving as a tool for reunion between the living and the lost. The caustic influence of spiritualism, with its dual vices of heretical Christianity and blatant falsification of evidence, has done much to damage this branch of the esoteric family tree. Still, there is nothing inherently wrong with training to become a clairvoyant or similar if approached honestly.

Yet anyone with a truly balanced viewpoint should realise that to narrow their interests in such a way is to also drain much of the positivity from an already unfairly maligned paradigm. And those who push on past this point will inevitably become so attuned to the ebb and flow of life force that they can instinctively recognise its ever ticking drumbeat running through all living things. The suitably skilled necromancer easily notices when the tempo is speeding up or slowing down, and can make educated guesses as to when someone is about to make their final journey beyond the Veil. Such a power can become a burden, however, especially as it only provides insight into the basic health of the target and cannot be used to predict random or accidental deaths. It remains a grim responsibility in any case.

With dedicated practice an adept may even become powerful enough to alter the Reaper in her path, though this can only ever be done at a heavy price and never for more than a few days at most. The balance can be swung only so far in one direction before it returns to right itself. Truths always out in the end. Death is a force much more powerful than even the most advanced student of the necromantic arts. Its darkly cowled avatar can rarely be bargained with and will not be denied forever. Sadly, this is not a path to immortality, and even the best among the priests and priestesses of the Veil will never become a kingly lich or lowly revenant. Only medical science can grant such boons.

As such it is no surprise that accelerated necromancers strongly support the case for singularity, the inevitable blending of man and machine that has become a staple of science fiction. Unfortunately, this advance is staunchly opposed by the blinkered religious majority who see the idea of improving upon the human form as somehow Satanic. But those damned few who are willing to push the limits of what is socially acceptable understand that all magick is an invasive and violent discipline wherein every advance in knowledge must be paid for through blood and toil. When such a cemetery path has already been chosen the logical next step was always going to be altering the body through science. Any means necessary to live to fight another day.

Yes, the necromancer has a reputation in popular culture for being a dark character willing to do whatever it takes to extend their already unnaturally long lives. Unethical experiments, bloodletting, the torture and draining of others to retain as much as they can of their mortal shell long past its sell by date. Fiction states as much, and while those tools are available in the real world they do not work how the majority think. Though a heart of ice can aid the adept in weathering the storm of pleading spirits and painful personal losses it is not mandatory. There is no rule that states emotional connections are forbidden, not should there be. Lives well lived bring joy to the Reaper when she comes to claim them, after all.

All things will end. This includes those loved and hated, good deeds and bad are both forgotten should enough time pass. Cultures rise and fall, millions upon millions of stories told and retold and then rendered silent by the weight of years. On a geological scale entire countries are no more than specks of dust in the wind, even less when cosmic time shows the Earth itself to be inconsequential alongside its peers. Nothing really matters except that which the adept chooses to invest with such personal meaning. This should not be seen as a rallying call to live as an ascetic outside of material concerns, of course. Bills must be paid, relationships fostered, a balance between the living and the dead who flow like competing corpse choked rivers through the necromancer’s life maintained.

In the end there is no single initiation into service of the Veil. No grand ritual nor sacred rites associated with taking the mantle of priest or priestess of those solemn mysteries. But those very same personal connections which the fictional necromancer usually avoids are in truth the key to understanding how that unseen world should be approached. The death of a loved one, mass slaughter witnessed or sickness eating silently away at those who the adept truly cares about. The failure of the mortal shell, arthritis deforming joints and greying hair. A quick and bloody passing or slow descent into old age. Bleary eyes opening for yet another day as the body resists the urge to move. Gravity crushing paper thin skin into the bones beneath. Quiet release.

These, then, are the initiatory lessons of the Veil, each a bittersweet tale of prior connection and fleeting flesh. And as the ticking slows and the life force ebbs from those the necromancer has built their world around, therein will they find their true calling. Loss is inevitable, but never the entire story. To feel that pain is to remember the pleasures of yesteryear, after all. And it must be understood that this art is not one of sorrow. The burden of acceptance is in truth a boon, for once the inevitable end to the adept’s mortal frame is welcomed then nothing but wide eyed adventure can wait for them as they walk across the Veil. Balance is the nature of things, after all, and without the prospect of death the experience of life would itself be meaningless.