The issue of necromancy is one that is difficult to answer flat out as it will greatly depend on the querent’s definition of the term. What is necromancy? If your vision of necromancy is hollywood-style “raising the dead” to perform tasks commanded by the Ngangulero, then most definitely not! However, if for you – as for me – necromancy encapsulates ancestor veneration, communication and forming working relationships with the dead; then indeed Palo has necromantic elements. As I have discussed in The Ancestors and the Dead and Honoring the Ancestors, our beloved dead are our strongest allies, teachers, and guides in spiritual matters.
I have no problems with the term necromancy. I also firmly believe that necromancy – in its base etymological meaning from the Greek νεκρός (nekrós), “dead” and μαντεία (manteía), “prophecy”, “oracle”, or “divination” is at the core of nearly all magical and mystical religious systems. It is that ancestral component that links the physical world of the living to the spiritual world of the dead; thus, even mainstream religions are necromantic in this sense. What do Christians do? They venerate the spiritual ancestor of their religion, who just so happens to be represented as a dead man on the cross. Through prayers directed to him – in other words, by speaking to the dead – the faithful seek wellbeing for themselves and their family in this life and the next. Catholics take this one step further and venerate the dead through the cult of saints even storing their body parts as relics and objects of worship.
But here is the truth; there is nothing dark or sinister about death or the dead. It is part of the natural cycle of existence. In nature, death always births new life!
Death, as understood in Palo and by countless traditional societies, is a new beginning – one of eternal existence in the world of the spirits, not some unclean, detested and feared finality as viewed by modern western society.
However, brace yourself, for I am about to reveal a major secret…well actually not, it is just a simple truth. Palo does not focus on the dead, but rather on Nature itself! The word “Palo” literally means “stick” and is used colloquially to reference the sticks, roots and herbs used to make the sacred medicines of the religion. The dead and the ancestors are part of the natural spiritual landscape and thus form an integral component of the tradition, but contrary to popular belief, are not the sole focus.