Necromancy and Ancestral Veneration in Naples 

To hear the words Necromancy and Italian Culture in the same sentence might not make sense to some, but for those who have been immersed in the traditional practices of Italy all of their lives Necromantic practices are deeply rooted in to every day life. For us Italian Americans across the ocean we have grown into a society that has changed spiritual practices to fit a more “modern world”. The practices that have been so desperately held onto for generations have been changed so much over time, from prayers, chants, healing, folk magic, festivals, dance, and music but when we look close we can still see the ancient practices poking through.

When we look deeply into the traditions we have honored for generations it becomes very clear just how much the ancestors try to keep us engaged and just how truly dedicated we are to keeping them around. The practices of Italy are old, some of them seem to have been recreations of older rituals. Take The Cult of The Dead in Naples for example, The Cult of The Pezzentelle  Souls which seemed to have started around the late 16^th century. The women of the area would go to Fontanelle Cemetery  to worship and honor “The Lost Souls”, they would spend time there connecting and honoring the dead, bringing them offerings that have been traditional in Necromancy within Italy and Greek legends like milk, honey, wine, grains, but especially water. It was important to bring the Souls water, more so then anything else because they said the “refreshment”, Refrigerium, Refrische, was the water given to The Pezzentelle Souls to help cool them for they burned in purgatory. Now this was not as simple as going to a grave and giving the dead a glass of water in a pretty glass, no, this was a complex ritual that started before any offerings where given.

According to some there are multiple ways to go about these rituals, the most familiar is that the Women, since this has seemed to be mainly “Women’s Work”, would either go to the ossuary and say a devoted Neapolitan prayer to the Souls and before leaving take the Capuzzella (Skull), home with them. When they returned home they would pray to and for the Pezzentelle Soul and go to bed where they would be placed in a trance to communicate with the Souls of Purgatory. Another tradition is that the Pezzentelle visits the devotee in their dreams first and tells them what they need and also where their Capuzzella is located so they may go to it, clean and polish it, and give the Pezzentelle blessings and offerings.

As one built a close intimate relationship with the Soul they would give offerings like saint cards, rosary beads, oil lamps, candles, and water. The devotee would also of course ask for blessings and material objects to help better their lives. If the devotees needs where not met, then the Capuzzella would be taken back to the ossuary and left there with no offerings since they did not meet the wishes of the devotee.

When the bond between the “adopter” and the Pezzentelle grows, the devotee would take the Capuzzella and build  a Scarabatola around it at the ossuary placing a white handkerchief under it and adding a rosary around it as a symbolic “refreshment” and offering, also stating the Souls status and importance. The Scarabatola is similar to a wooden box usually with beautiful woodwork and engravings. The offerings and refrische where placed on top of it.

I find every thing about this tradition to be fascinating and beautiful, one of the most interesting things to me is the fact that all the main contact the devotee would have with the Pezzentelle is through dreams. It is very similar to a lot of other Necromantic practices around the world and fairy traditions. Let’s look at the practices of communicating with the Lare and the Lasa, they are spirits of Italian descent, one is said to be spirits of the land and the other are ancestral sprits of the hearth and home. The way to commune with them is first you must build a shrine and give plenty of offerings of honey, milk, and wine, another similar offering that is said to be a tradition in some of the most ancient of sources in the Greco-Italian world. After your shrine is built go to bed and you will dream of one or both of these spirits and they will show themselves to you, teaching you secrects of the craft of the wise and telling you how to honor them.  Usually after this step is when you can begin working with them regularly.

There is evidence of many more Cults of The Dead like The Anima Sola in South America, which has similar practices and customs of devotion as the Pezzentelle Cult. I find that interesting because there is a legend that states the worship of Dea Jana (Diana), travelled to Portugal, in Evora there was a large temple dedicated to her worship. The worship of Diana became connected and intertwined with a legend of a Deified Witch named Bruxa Evora (Witch Evora), the legend of this witch travelled all the way to Brazil and other parts of South America. Diana was the Goddess of Witches, witchcraft, the wild, the night, and so much more, she was even seen as a pschopomp in a few legends which would make sense due to her hunting nature. One of the main ways women would say Diana would contact them was in their dreams, in the middle of night she would take them to the woods and teach them the secret art of the craft, healing, casting with Plants, and speaking with the dead.

A Goddess who I feel strongly needs to be mentioned in this article is the sadly almost forgotten Libitina.  Libitina is the Etruscan Goddess of the Dead and Funerals, her very temple was used as the funeral home and where all the sacred tools for burial and grave work where held. She is one if the first visions of the Grim Reaper and Angel of Death. Libitina was envisioned in a black rope covering her face, she had huge black wings that would help her hover and circle over her prey before she would strike. Now I cannot find any evidence on her being connected to either of these cults directly or sites of worship, but I will say that means nothing to me since all of her myths and stories have been lost, so unless we can uncover something that says she is not I feel she strongly is connected to the cults of the dead. There is another Goddess of the dead that is worth mentioning, the Italian / Etruscan Goddess Mania, Goddess of the Dead and mischievous spirits, mother of the Manes and spirits known as lemures. The Manes are spirits of the dead that usually were worshiped as a whole instead of individually. They where seen as Ghost, sometimes beneficent, other times they where feared and worshiped just so they wouldn’t hurt or mess with the living. Still to this day these spirits are revered and honored to keep them happy, if the Spirits are happy and content then they are more likely to help the living with their request.

As we pull apart and look deep into the numerous Cults of The Dead, we can find so many similarities, the practice of Necromancy is not as far away from our daily lives as we think. Think of Saint worship, you are ultimately calling on the dead and praying to them so they may help you in return. Death is a huge part of life for a lot of Italians, mostly Neapolitans. Fontanelle Cemetery is not the only place in Naples that the Cult of The Dead was and is active, the church Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco is still a very active spot for people to come pray and leave offerings to these souls. This is a tradition that will live on forever, especially if the ancestors have anything to say about it.

If you decide you would like to work with the Spirits of the dead like the Pezzentelle or any other, there are a lot of different prayers you can find to call on them. On the website Italian Folk Magick by Mallorie Vaudoise, has a beautiful traditional Neapolitan prayer that can be used at the cemetery. I am a huge believer in our guides will guide us to what we seek and what will fit our needs, speak to your guides and ancestors and they will either show you a prayer you can use to call on them or they will visit you in your dreams and tell you a prayer or instructions on how to proceed with this type of worship and ritual.

I hope this opened up a whole new but old work view for you, things that might seem to be dark and unusual are all very close to our ancestors and lineage traditions. That is what makes the world and all the cultural aspects of it so beautiful. Opening ourselves up to our ancestors and the Spirits of the dead is a sacred an old practice that we should never let die.

The Medea mask

What is about being a strong Women that makes certain people act the way they do. Some Men and Women feel that putting a Strong Women down will some how stop them from taking up space in this world. The space they are meant to have. It’s almost like certain people are so scared to be outspoken and true to themselves that when they see a strong minded, wild and free Woman they get uncomfortable and jealous in a way so instead of doing better for themselves they choose to put her down and make her feel less then and turn against her. 

Now you’re probably wondering “What does this have to do with Medea, the Mistress of Magick?”, Everything! This has everything to do with Medea my dear. Let me explain why. Now when most people hear the name Medea they might think “isn’t that the Witch who killed her kids!”, that’s if people know who she is at all. Medea has become more popular over the years and with popularity comes misunderstood hatred. Medea is by far one of the Most Misunderstood Witches in history. She is hated on left and right. Which if you look at most Women it seems to be a reoccurring pattern if they were different in any way, then they got hated on. 

There are so many different versions of Medea’s story, most of them involve the killing of her children, but not all of them. There are a few that state sh0e was not the one to kill them and it was actually Jason’s men who stabbed the children. I have read and researched just about every version of her story I could find. One thing that always really struck me about her story is the amount of hatred I have seen towards her, when there are numerous Highly Venerated Spirits who where said to have done almost the exact same if not worse then what she was said to do. That being said one of the main things I had noticed was that most of the spirits who are venerated regardless of their awful acts were Men. Now why is it a Male spirit can get away with Rape, Murder, ect., and most people barely bat an eye, but a female spirit commits an awful crime and she is not suitable enough for veneration or honoring? It seems to me that we are all conditioned to believe in our society that a Women is only supposed to be seen as the Mother, the Wife, the forgiver, but Men live a life all their own throughout history and are seen as violent and cruel, and in some way Superior so no matter what they do it’s some how okay but for a Women she is doomed to live a life of failure and guilt for all eternity. 

My point is not in any way shape or form that the murder of children is alright, as a mother of two, I would do anything for my children. Medea is The Shaman and Sorceress who has challenged the status quo, she has shown that Women can be strong, sexy, smart, loving, fierce, and unapologetically afraid to get revenge. Medea holds space as a part of the Divine Feminine that is wild and untamed, fierce and knowledgeable, she is a destroyer and creatrix, she is a spirit within so many Women. To hold within ourselves the spirit of a Powerful Misunderstood Woman, and to hone the power that comes with it is to accept and find the path to your own Feminine Rage. 

It is said that after Medea owned her path and released the parts of her psyche that where holding her back mentally and physically, she ran off to Italy and changed her name to Angitia. There she lived as a Serpent Sorceress Goddess who was venerated and honored by the Marsi people. She was a Goddess of

Healing, Divination, and Magick. The Marsi People were Traveling Snake Charmers, Magicians, Sorcerers, and Healers. They come from the land of Witchcraft around Lake Fucin imagined o which was drained in the nineteenth century a.d., the area is now called San Benedetto dei Marsi.

When you really look at Medea’s story and life and you see where she started to where she ended up I’m sure I am not alone when I say she lives a life of many Women. Understanding the different archetypes in each of us is the key to our many powers. Medea started as a silenced young woman forced to live the life that was made for her. Then came something excitingly unexpected and she put all of her heart and power into having what she wanted, but being with Jason only ended with him betraying her. It would almost be crazy to assume that every one of us has not felt this kind of pain and hurt, to feel trapped all your life and think you have finally found your way out just to get screwed in the end. In our younger years we usually have some sort of path being laid out for us that we choose to rebel against for better or worse, as we rebel to take on a life of our own we don’t always make the smartest decisions. Those decisions we made no matter good or bad helped shaped who we are, the people we have interacted and chose to spend time with have even played a part in our energy. As we realize these things we see the mask we held on to for so long, realizing what mask we wear is the first step to releasing them. 

Medeas story is one of constant shedding and transformation, it’s no wonder she is so closely connected to the Serpent. To truly let go of our past we must come face to face with it, whether we choose to write things that happened down, or paint pictures of major events in our lives. No matter your choice of expression you are making art, art that will bring you closest to what is holding you back and let you release it. One of my personal choices of expression is to Dance. Dance, move, and gyrate, every incident and action of my life that needs to come to a head, everything I have never dealt with or expressed I was angry about, everything that has put me down and made me feel less then will no longer have control of me, I will control it!

As you get more used to expressing your crossroads in an art form, no matter what that form Is, you will feel almost instantly more confident about yourself and your choices. Do your art expression on a somewhat daily / bi-daily basis if you can, get in a groove solely dedicated to you. There is no step by step guide to removing these mask, it is a process and it will be hard at first but when you are able to fully embody every part of yourself it will be worth it. 

Medea has made it very clear in my path and life that it is not possible to be Fully Awake to the Other Realm with out having been through your share of pain and trauma, it’s what you do with this trauma that really counts. You can let it swallow you whole or you can use it to fight and go after what you where born to have. I choose to fight every day, I will dance, scream, paint, make music, spell cast, Channel my spirit guides, write, and grow everyday. I will declare what my day will hold. I will grow into my abilities as a Shape Shifter, and I will shift the energies all around me as I am guided by Medea. I declare these things to myself daily, sometimes twice a day so I stay in the energetic path I am supposed to immerse myself in.  Making sure you declare what you want will help attract the life you want to live and shed the life you don’t. Growing with ourselves and learning more about embodying every part of our being will transform us in ways you never would of possible. 

I wrote this because Medea is always with me, as she transforms into Angitia she works with and through me to transform every part into a powerful aspect of myself, to call on the ancient power. To call on Medea is to call on one of the most Ancient of Sorceresses, and she is ready to teach those who are worthy and put in the time to grow in every way. As you shed and stay true to you Medea will be watching over you, she will be drawn to you. 

May the old Feminine Sorceresses grow and the Old Goddesses help us through so we too can one day  transform in ultimate wisdom and knowledge. 

Plant charming for the wild soul

 I’ve spent so much time obsessing over plants,

about how to grow them, or how to connect with them, that I ended up not actually spending enough time with them. It’s been quite a few years since I started my path and I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for my extreme devotion to the plant realm. It runs deep in my blood, Italian Shamanic Healing is very centered around plants, and we don’t want to get me started in how much they are used in cooking. I remember being a young girl helping my mom in the garden, my mother taught me everything I know about plants and how to care for them. I would even spend my days at my baby sitters house playing “Witches” in her huge garden while picking blueberries right off the bush and eating them.

Every moment I spent in a garden or in the woods as a child was a Magical time for me, it opened up a whole new world for me. As I got older I cared less and less about the “Weird” side of myself, and focused on partying and hanging out with friends. In my teen years is when I was introduced to a whole new side of the Plant World. I had found a plant that literally washed all my problems away. That special magical plant took me all around the inner landscapes of my own mind! Spending time in my own head contemplating and judging everything. I think back at it now and I know my young mind was not able to comprehend the changes that where happening inside my very head, that being said I also know my experiences gave me an entire new outlook on life and how to live it.

Being older now and mother I look back and think about all my mistakes, but no matter how cringe worthy they are I would never take most of them back. One of my biggest mistakes was the day I stopped dancing. I was stuck in this mind set of “I’m too old to do things like dance and perform, I need to worry about being an adult, I need to let my never going to happen dreams fade!”. So that’s what I did, and let me just tell you I have never been so unhappy. The amount of loss I was feeling was something that couldn’t be named. I had no idea what I was searching for. I finally realized after a few horrible years of my life that I was searching for the Old Way, the way of my ancestors, the path of magic, mysticism, trance, ecstatic dance, healing, and spirit communication. Little did I realize that I had been practicing the Old Ways all along.

 Being on this path that I am on is what really made my connection with plants “Zesty”, from talking and singing to plants to using them in every aspect of my Magick and Ancestral Healing, plants are apart of my everyday life. That is what led me to My Spiritual Break Through, why not bring two of my most Spiritual Practices together? Why not Dance With My Plants!

I feel like it was such and obvious concept, like this has to be something so Ancient, so Untamed, so Wild. All over the world, no matter what Spiritual Belief, all of our Ancestors communed with plants, they honored them, worked with them, and prayed to them. So someone some where must already do this.

The more I studied, the more I Danced, and practiced the more I realized that this concept is So much bigger then I thought! It was like a huge download of information was fluttering through my Body for almost 3 weeks straight. This is not just about Dancing with plants for their healing energy, or to raise a vibration, this is the Whole meaning of merging with a plants energy and Spirit. It was about being one with the Spirits from all around and being at one with the plants that you are connecting to. Your connecting so much so that your body’s are moving in sync.

I have noticed over my years of study in Witchcraft, The Occult, and Spirit Work, that when most people think of communicating with any Spirit it involves being very still, quiet, and calm, which is fine and it does work especially if you are learning to shift your energy focus and connect. But what if I told you that since the beginning of time people, especially Feminine Identified People, found Trance states in Breathe work and Movement. Over the past few decades more and more people are finally realizing that connection with spirit does not have to only be sitting still in a quiet room with 10 candles, incense, and waterfall recordings, which again is amazing and sounds so divine, but it’s not the only way. Finding connection to the Spirit Realm in Music and Dance has been something just about Every Culture has done at one point in time. When we really look into Shamanic practices from all over the world we can see the connection and how it relates to Dance and The Plant World.

How do you start Plant Charming

Let’s say your really feeling what I’m putting down, great! I thought you would. To answer your first question, No you do Not have to be a professional dancer to start Plant Charming. The most important part of this work is your love, dedication, and fiery untamed soul. Plants have an energy all their own and they are able to communicate with other plants, so all’s you have to do is open that bridge of communication. This may sound a little easier then it looks at first, to open up the true path of yourself and unlock everything that is holding you back. What does that mean exactly? This means you need to get weird, raw, and wild. The more we learn to let go of our self judgements, the easier it will be to open up the blockages in ourselves. We truly are the one thing that can hold us back. So we need to let loose, even if you have to take baby steps like putting on the loudest craziest music possible and shake like no one is watching, or hang out naked or in your underwear for a little bit before you get dressed in the morning, go skinny dipping, scream, howl, growl, and hiss while you practice breathing and being in your own body which will also bring you to an altered state of consciousness. Whatever you decide to do, know that every time you stop judging yourself, every time you don’t criticize yourself you are one step closer to healing your inner spirit and getting closer to the Spirit Realm.

After you’ve started to let loose then start thinking about having a Plant that heals you on or around you while your doing these wild letting go practices. You can pick any plant that resonates with you, gives you healing energy, empowers you, or a Plant that you just want to get to know better. A little more each day you will start to notice a difference, you will be building a connection. This practice does not necessarily need to be done every single day but the more you do it the more you get out of it.

When a connection is built between you and the Plant/Plants you will notice subtle ways your Plant Spirit Guides start to communicate with you, they will start guiding you in your life, your decisions, and teaching you things that you have never heard before. Plant guides can tend to be subtle at first, in my experience it seems as if they are making sure they can trust your intentions first for the amount of ancient wisdom they are going to share.

When Charming comes in

Having a relationship with your Plant Spirit Guides are no different then any other relationship, you care for them as they do you, you honor and respect them. Giving offerings and asking your Plant Spirit Guides what they like and want is always a good idea. They will answer you. The more time you spend with them and the more time spent practicing you will start finding out what ways you feel drawn to moving your body, and what type of music is calling you this will also help you decipher what type of healing you are in need of. Paying attention to how you feel in your body and where you’re the most reactive to the dance movements and music will show you a lot about yourself and the Plant Spirits. When we are “Charming” It’s to have done something as if by Magick. The word “Charm” originated from the Latin Word “Carmen” which translates to “Song, Verse, or Incantation”. We are literally Charming the Plant Spirits into Manifesting whatever healing and desires we need.

Charming a Plant is using Music and the Energy of Dance to Manifest changes in the Astral Realm. As we are Charming the Plant we are honing that energy to Manifest our desires as well as contacting the Plant Spirits and letting them know we are open to receiving what we are asking for. As Women and all People who have connected with their Divine Feminine side, we have this indispensable amount of Knowledge and Wisdom from our Ancestors and Lineage Bearers. Thousands of years ago, Women were the ones who kept everyone going, we knew how to find the healing and nourishing herbs in the forest and we knew how to gather them, while still appeasing the Spirits of the land. In today’s society Women have been knocked from The All Healing and Destructive Mother Earth to the companion or lover of a man. I truly know deep in my heart that we as Women and all Feminine Identified People, we have a choice to either Raise our Vibrations, connect with the Ancient Source of Knowledge and Wisdom, grow and learn from our shadows, and Manifest the best freaking life we deserve! Or live a lower vibrational life, not accepting our power or fulfilling our greatest desires.  I know and believe fully that it is All Possible, growing and connecting with the most Ancient of Spirits of them all, the Plant Spirits and Mother Earth. I hope that this brief introduction to Plant Charming sits with you well and will spark and Ancient Primal Fire within you so deep, that’s never to be put out again. Blessings to a new Era of Wild and Charmers.

From Tract Marks to trance states

     The Beginning 

You’re probably wondering why I chose this as the title for the first blog. I feel that in order for you to really understand why I believe so strongly in these practices you have to see where I was without them. This is not the beginning of my path because like I said magick and witchcraft have always been a part of my life even when I wasn’t aware of what to call it. I didn’t have the most “normal” life as a child, that is to say what is normal though. It was just me and my mom but because of that one of the first things I learned was Female Empowerment and that no one is going to take care of you, you are responsible for making your self happy! As I got older a lot of not so great things had happened to me, I was sexually assaulted on more then one occasion over the years and bullied very badly. From the age of 10 I started to “skip” meals which turned into a full blown eating disorder which landed me in the hospital, I started partying very young and using different substances to numb my pain. The older I got the worse every thing got, the only glimpse of beauty I had at the time was giving birth to my amazing son when I was 17 years old. I thought everything would change and turn around after but the saying goes you have to hit bottom before you can crawl up. I made a lot of mistakes, I had an uncontrollable substance abuse problem that no rehab seemed to fix and I made mistake after mistake, my eating disorder got increasingly worse and I knew that if things didn’t change I would die very very young. When I decided I wasn’t going to live like this anymore for me and my son I ended finding out I was pregnant with my daughter a few months later. I decided right then that I needed to get back to my roots, my calling, who I always was but afraid to accept it or show it because of fear of judgment. I was always a Witch. Growing up my mother taught me alot about gardening and the earth, she even had numerous books on herbalism and Native beliefs and spirituality, she said she likes them because it’s a connection to our family since she is part Cherokee, part Crow, and part Irish, but never in a million years would my mother ever classify herself as anything other then a Christian, even though she was the first Wise Woman I ever met. The day I told my mother that I believed in so much more then what our patriarchal religions teach us and that I was following the path of the Ancestors, she was less then thrilled, she was actually very angry and kicked me out of her room and told me she couldn’t look at me. I have to say it was very confusing to me because my mother was an Independent Woman who relied on herself. She listened to the earth in ways, and she interpreted signs, she listened to her dreams and her intuition. My mother was a Witch, even if she refuses to admit it. It’s been 8 years since I decided to listen to the Spirits that where calling me, to follow the path of those who came before me and it has been a wild ride. The most exciting part is that I’m no where near done learning, I will always be learning and listening to the Spirits and Ancestors. I have always felt a deep connection in my bones to my ancestors and the path I’m being lead down, and knowing that my Great Grandparents on my fathers side came over here from Naples, Italy I’m starting to see that the practices, even though hidden, are there and very much alive in my blood. I have manifested THE SHIT out of my life, and it all started in my blood and from the very beginning, but from addiction, eating disorders, abusive relationships, PTSD from things I have been forced to see, anxiety, and whatever else life is throwing at me I know I can take it! I can handle all of it, dust myself off and keep moving because I have found my Rage in Power. We all can overcome ANYTHING, we just have to learn to use the tools we are given. From daily chants and prayers to weekly breath embodiment work and ritual trance dance, everything is possible.