Necromancy, spiritism, magic, diviner

See also: Possession (Divine, Satanic), Exorcism, Satan, Evil and Its Origins.

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Statue of St Michael the Archangel - Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels in Cartago, Costa Rica.

The resort to the dead, or to any entity likely to grant us a power over the Neighbor, is contrary to the virtue of Religion.

• Why summon the dead? They cannot speak. The saints because charity forbids them to: they would too often contradict you. The damned because Hell does not open its gates and the damned only open their mouths to curse and because every voice is muffled by the hatred of Satan and Satans since the damned are Satans.
• "You shall not practice divination or observe dreams."

• CEC § 2115: God may reveal the Future to His prophets or to other saints. However, the proper Christian attitude is to entrust with confidence the future to Providence and to give up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Lack of foresight may constitute irresponsibility.
• CEC 2115 § 2116: All forms of divination are to be rejected: recoursing to Satan or demons, necromancy or other practices wrongly supposed to "reveal" the future.- Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palmistry, interpreting omens and spells, clairvoyance phenomena, and recourse to mediums imply a will to power over time, history, and ultimately over men, along with a desire to win over hidden powers. They are in contradiction with the honor and respect, mingled with loving fear, that we owe to God alone.

Can one summon the dead with impunity?

The communion of saints, which unites the living and the dead in Purgatory and Heaven, is a reality. Pope Francis recalled this truth in one of his audiences:

From the Christian perspective, the distinction is no longer made between those who are already dead and those who are not yet; rather, it is between those who are in Christ and those who are not! This is the determining and truly decisive element for our salvation and for our happiness."

This communion, however, does not legitimize spiritism, which summons the spirit of the deceased and other forces that do not come from Heaven, therefore from Evil.

Maria Valtorta testifies to this in her Autobiography. It was even one of the experiences where she confronted and triumphed over Satan.

She was settled in Viareggio where her family had retired after her father's early retirement. A wealthy doctor rented part of the family home for the three summer months. The usual tenants had defaulted that year. The doctor asked permission for a young man, who would occasionally visit him, to give consultations. On July 1, 1930, the young Moustapha arrived: he was a young man of handsome appearance and good morality. He settled in the ground floor lounge, later to become Maria Valtorta's room. He requested the crucifix be left in the room. He was discreet, calm, courteous, and silent.

But the next day, Maria Valtorta felt unwell, a malaise that was not only physical. The air became stale and unbreathable, even in the courtyard. Her mother did not feel anything.

Entering the house became difficult, and even more so climbing to the upper floor where Moustapha and the doctor were: two invisible hands, very large and very strong, seemed to push Maria Valtorta back.

She understood then, without seeing anything, that the consultations taking place were spiritism.

Mother and daughter joined to order the tenant to cease these practices. He did so for a short time.

When suffocation resumed, Maria Valtorta understood the detested practices had started again. Her suffocation ceased only at the invocation of the Crucifix. The exorcism almost killed the young man, then in trance on the upper floor.

He eventually left, and later the doctor abandoned his occult practices. During that summer, Maria Valtorta had conquered the demon. She would meet him again on her path.

She notably had to struggle and suffer to save the Soul of her cousin Giuseppe Belfanti, addicted to spiritism and sinking into unbelief.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, following Scripture, condemns all these practices that try to arrogate the attributes of God and which ultimately revolt against Him, as Lucifer did. Likewise, the writings of Maria Valtorta highlight that recourse to occult powers brings about God's curse.

In "The Gospel as it was revealed to me"

• Why summon the dead? They cannot speak. The saints because charity forbids them: they would too often contradict you. The damned because Hell does not open its gates and the damned only open their mouths to curse, and because every voice is stifled by the hatred of Satan and of Satans since the damned are Satans.
• Commentary on the evocation of the spirit of Samuel by the necromancer (pythoness) at Saul's request.
• Necromancy: Jesus addresses this subject at the cave of the sorceress, a place Judas wished to visit, and said to him: "Son, do not reach out your hand to the forbidden fruit. Mere proximity to it is reckless. Do not be curious to know what lies beyond the earth, lest you fall victim to Satanic poison. Flee the occult and that which cannot be explained. Only one thing must be embraced with holy faith: God. But what is not God, cannot be explained by the forces of reason, and cannot be created by human forces, flee it, flee it, so that the sources of wickedness are not opened to you and you do not realize that you are 'naked.'" Naked: repulsive in humanity mingled with Satanism.
  Why do you want to amaze with obscure wonders? Amaze with your holiness and let it be luminous as something coming from God. Do not desire to tear the veils that separate the living from the dead. Do not disturb the deceased. Listen to them if they are wise, as long as they are on earth. Venerate them by obeying them even after their death. But do not disturb their second life. Whoever does not obey the voice of the Lord loses the Lord. And the Lord forbade the occult, necromancy, Satanism in all its forms. What more do you want to know than what the Word already tells you? What more do you want to do than what your goodness and my power permit you to do? Desire holiness, son, not sin."
• The evocation of spirits.
• The wife of this man said: "He is possessed by necromancy. It seemed to me that it was not my man, but the dead whom he evoked who were upon me."
• Truly I tell you that spirits can come to you. But how? In two ways: by order of God or by the Violence of man.

In other works by Maria Valtorta

In the Notebooks

• Catechesis of January 4, 1944: "Those who try, by histrionic displays, to simulate the Presence of God in them to fascinate the naive without true faith. Those who profit from their Satanism. They are cursed, and may they be cursed always more! … They are indeed simulators of God and his saints, worse than simulators, caricaturists of God and his saints - to whom they give a sacrilegious representation. They are the sons, subjects, ministers of Satan, his gullible traps. There is not a single word of truth in their mouths, not the slightest light in their Heart. Lies draw them, and those who believe in them, to the deepest abyss they seek. It cannot be otherwise because Satan himself cannot perfectly know the thought of God; and even what he knows, he does not say it, since he is always the Serpent who sings lying songs to bring ruin where his jealousy sees there may still be a dwelling for the Lord."

In fundamental Christian texts

In the Bible

• Saul asks a necromancer of Endor to summon the prophet Samuel.
• King Ahaziah, wounded, sends to consult Beelzebub at Akron (Ekron). Elijah warns, stops the messengers, and predicts that the wound will be fatal: "Why have you sent messengers to consult Beelzebub, god of Accaron, as if there were no God to consult in Israel? Because of this, you will not get down from the bed on which you are gone up, and surely you will die in your sin."
• "You shall not practice divination or observe dreams."
• "If anyone turns to mediums and wizards, and prostitutes with them, I will turn my face away from that person and will cut him off from the midst of his people."

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Divination and magic

• CEC § 2115: God may reveal the Future to His prophets or other saints. However, the right Christian attitude is to trustfully entrust the future to Providence and to abandon all unhealthy curiosity regarding it. Lack of foresight may constitute irresponsibility.
• CEC 2115 § 2116: All forms of divination are to be rejected: recoursing to Satan or demons, necromancy or other practices wrongly supposed to "reveal" the Future.- Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palmistry, interpreting omens and spells, clairvoyance phenomena, and recourse to mediums reveal a will to power over time, history, and ultimately over men, along with a desire to win over hidden powers. They contradict the honor and respect, mingled with loving fear, that we owe to God alone.          
• CEC 2115 § 2117: All practices of magic or witchcraft whereby one claims to domesticate occult powers to serve oneself and obtain supernatural power over the Neighbor—even if to provide health—are gravely contrary to the virtue of Religion. These practices are even more reprehensible when accompanied by the intention to harm others or whether or not they involve the intervention of demons. Wearing amulets is also reprehensible. Spiritism often involves divinatory or magical practices. The Church therefore warns the faithful to avoid them. Recourse to so-called traditional medicines does not legitimize the invocation of evil powers nor the exploitation of others’ credulity.

In other sources

On October 13, 1884, Leo XIII witnessed a dialogue between God and Satan. The devil boasts of destroying the Church within a limited time and power. God grants him a hundred years.

The pope then sees the century "wrapped in Darkness and the abyss," then a legion of demons scattered throughout the world until Saint Michael Archangel drives them into the abyss.

Following his vision, he composed a prayer to St Michael the Archangel prescribed at the end of every mass:  

"Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection Against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into Hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen."    

This prayer was later set aside after Leo XIII, but on Sunday, April 24, 1994, Good Shepherd Sunday, Saint John Paul II during the Regina Caeli prayer invited its regular recitation to "receive help in the battle Against the forces of Darkness and Against the Spirit of this world."  

"It is to this same battle that the Book of Revelation refers, says John Paul II […] Pope Leo XIII certainly had this image in mind when, at the end of the last century, he introduced a special prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel in the entire Church […]     "Even if today this prayer is no longer recited at the end of the Eucharistic celebration, I invite you all not to forget it but to recite it to obtain help in the battle Against the forces of Darkness and Against the Spirit of this world."  

He explicitly referred to chapter 6 of the letter to the Ephesians:    

"Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

Pope Leo XIII actually wrote a complete exorcism prayer, and this prayer to St Michael the Archangel (above) is part of it. The Church has always encouraged the laity to say it.
"This prayer composed to put the demon to flight can preserve great evils from the Family and society if, especially, it is recited fervently, even by simple faithful.
It will be used specially in cases where one can suspect a demon's action, manifesting: either by the wickedness of men, or by temptations, diseases, storms, calamities of all kinds."

This Exorcism can be particularly useful for people who are "polluted," even possessed, by one or more demons because they have had in the past practices of magic, divination, astrology, esotericism, table-turning or making the spirits of the dead speak, etc... (on the link is a copy of the exorcism of Leo XIII published in 1922 in Paris with the imprimatur of Cardinal Dubois).