OK K.! To save you a phone call I’m doing another Blog right now.
Don’t know what on earth I’m going to write about as I haven’t even thought about it. In fact, I never do. I never plan writing, and its just the same when I give Talks. Obviously with the latter, I have some idea of the basic subject but I never work from any script. So that still leaves me with not knowing exactly what to say now. The truth is I just don’t really feel like writing this evening; probably because I’ve been doing other things elsewhere.
Well, I could be boring, so how about the weather?! Well, I expect I’m stating the obvious, but the weather has certainly changed for the better now. I certainly felt that cold spell which lasted for well over two months. It didn’t stop me working; just slowed me down a little! But it couldn’t have slowed me down that much come to think about it. The book came out on time and so will the next one.
I’m seeing Gareth on Sunday this week (next week technically I suppose) and a couple of other people are coming over as well. I think I mentioned it, but I now have the 47-minute Talk I gave for a Community Centre on DVD. How I spoke for that long continuously with hardly short of a miracle – but I did! Hopefully you will be seeing a few short extracts from this film soon, but I have to get permission first.
What else? Well I started The Highgate Vampire Society online on Facebook. Its got 28 members already and its only been going about a week Not so sure that was a good idea at the moment as it means yet another commitment that I have to fulfil. If, or rather when, I take a break from the current book, then I also have to deal with that!
People may say a lot of things about me, but never let it be said I lead a quiet life. My friend Kurt Essex also invited me onto his website “Haunted Britain” and I’ve also written a couple of short articles for that Flossie has also said she will be posting me that American book over in which I believe I am mentioned. So looking forward to that (I think I am anyway – I don’t know what the author has said yet!).
Well after this, I’m really going to have a ‘night off’ tonight! No more writing, no more letters . . . no more nothing! Just a couple of glasses of wine will do! Do you know, it really is good not having a television. I’ve got so used to it now. Having said that, I never really was one for ‘getting hypnotized’ by things in the material world. Would you believe, I never buy newspapers either, and don’t even have a radio! Its true I get occupied by writing, but I really wouldn’t say that’s quite the same thing.
Well K., are you happy now!? One Blog completed in almost record time, and I didn’t even have to think about it! I didn’t really mean ‘don’t phone’ only you won’t have to if it concerns me doing a Blog now! ‘Done and dusted’, as my friend Barbara from Yorkshire would say! Incidentally Barbara, how are you getting on with my new book? I hope it didn’t send you to sleep too quickly!
So, everyone. That’s it for now. Will probably write something again on Monday.
For the moment though, David
6 responses
FOR FLOSSIE
Just to confirm your book was posted this afternoon. Please do make any comments here about it if you want after you’ve read it. As I said, I don’t mind genuine criticism. Its only the deceitful lies I object to; and I certainly don’t mean you Flossie! but ‘them two’!
I’ll be writing to Don tomorrow, and I’ll let you know what he says.
For the moment,
David
Sorry David for not getting on with the job but I keep falling asleep, simply due to all this work at the new house. Last week was the Chain Gang digging up hardcore for three days, today I was wallpapering again over a bit I made a mess of earlier! It has got rid of the old age w eight I had put on, also I decided to repaint my own kitchen and spruce it up, not that I am all that fussed as I dont like cooking but suddenly it got on my nerves, so it means I have fallen well behind with my important stuff–reading and writing! Once all this domesticity is sorted I will be writing my report ! You know how it is, after all, you have had all the hassle with your “house makeover.” Tata for now
barbara
David hi,
As the subject came up during your infamous 1974 trial with that often-cited quote ‘A body was needed to communicate with another world’ (or something like that which was attributed to you, whether rightly or wrongly) I was wondering about your current views on the subject of Necromancy?
Do you consider this branch of the Occult Arts to be something within the range of present-day magical practitioners and Satanists?
Also there is a distinction between Sciomancy which is the summoning of a shade of a dead person ( maybe as in Spiritualist seances) and Necromancy proper in which by elaborate magical ceremonies a dead body is temporarily brought to life and a spirit communicates through it. Do you believe this latter type of Necromancy was practised, with any success, at Highgate Cemetary for example?
I look forward to hearing your sage views on Necromancy and hope this finds you very well David.
All the Best,
Hesselius
Hi Hesselius,
The famous police quote actually was . . . “A body was needed to communicate with the spirits of another world” and related to a 150-year-old skeleton which had been taken from a vault in Highgate Cemetery one night and placed behind the steering wheel of a doctor’s car parked in the lane outside. Students later came forward and admitted responsibility for this rather sick prank, which happened back in 1974. Whatever, I personally never made such a statement.
If you are asking me to define necromancy (and a possible similarity with spiritualism) both involve alleged ‘communication’ with the spirits oif deceased people. In olden times, eloborate rituals were utilisied for this purpose and were allegedly performed in graveyards by the grave of a dead person – if the ‘occult history books’ are to be believed. The same principle applies in spiritualism – only it is applied from the relative confort of a church or churches.
But the basic objective is the same; to communicate with the souls of the dead to gain guidance or knowledge about events in the material world.
This, in fact, is a common practice. The churches of the world frequently do it by acknowledging the souls or spirits of the departed; the Catholic Church is notoriously reknowned for this with all its saints and archangels, and so on. People pray (communicate) with these for spiritual guidance, and, in the case of churches, it is all deemed ‘highly respectable’; albeit categorised under a different label.
I think that basically defines it. Necromancy being really a need of the living to communicate (or pray) with the spirits or souls of those no longer living.
If you are asking me if I agree with this, the answer is simply ‘no’. To begin with, it is not possible to communicate with the souls of those departed as such exist on a different level of consciousness from the one being utilised by those trying to ‘reach’ them. So is it possible to communicate with the so-called dead? It is only possible when we come to understand the exact nature of Being or consciousness. But this can only be done through living – the answer to ‘death’ lies only in living; not in dying.
For the moment,
David
Thanks so much David, and I stand corrected on that quote! It’s definitely the kind of quote that sticks in your mind. Your remarks on Necromancy are spot-on and very interesting. I suppose the notorious Clophill Church incident might be interpreted as the remnants of a rite of Necromancy – so I was told years ago by an occultist anyway, who claimed to have been ‘in the know’ as regards that particular ceremony as it apparently also involved an attempt to incarnate a soul via an operation of sex magic.
Do you think the documented activities of Satanists in the catacombs at Highgate in the late 60s and 70s which you mentioned at points had any bearing on Necromancy?
As for the ‘occult history books’ which you mention, most of them show that famous picture of Edward Kelley and Paul Waring conjuring up the dead in a 16th century Lancashire churchyard.
Hope this finds you very well.
All the Best,
Hesselius
Yes Hesselius,
It is certainly the kind of quote that sticks in peoples’ minds and they just keep repeating it; even although I never said it! I don’t mean you – I really don’t – but there are such people who just keep repeating such quotes, even although they are fully aware they are not true. Very UnChristian!
There were a group of very weird people using HC back in 1969/70. I exposed their activities to the public view at the time which resulted in me getting a load of threatening letters from them.
I took these letters into the Ham and High together with photographs I had taken of the aftermarth of their activities. In fact, I was invited to do so by the then editor of that newspaper and I still have a copy of his letter. The point is, that I alerted people at the time as to what was going on (circa 1970) yet ironically, I ended getting the blame for much of it! Helped, of course, by certain opther people who were attempting to try and use my involvement as a means of attracting personal publicity to themselves.
Times have not changed!
For the moment,
David