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Unquiet Voices: The Magical Art of Laying Ghosts
Navigate the realms of the unseen with this practical resource for magicians, Pagans, and spiritual workers of all kinds. Drawing on thirty years of research and experience, authors Nonie and Rob Douglas combine classical necromancy and modern investigative methods to help you confidently identify spirits of the dead, know when they are present, and diagnose their effects.
Unquiet Voices presents paranormal investigation from a medieval witch perspective. Explore the historical legacy of necromancy, learn about diverse types of spirits, and avoid common errors and misconceptions. You’ll also find a detailed field guide, packed with reference tables and step-by-step techniques, to help bridge the gap between knowledge and action. Featuring illustrations throughout and a lexicon of arcane terms, this book offers compassionate and effective ways to understand and be understood by the unquiet voices all around us.
"The aim of the guide is not to provide ceremonial ritual, but to empower the reader with reliable magical knowledge that they can apply wherever they are, to safely and compassionately interact with the dead."—Nonie and Rob Douglas
Unquiet Voices presents paranormal investigation from a medieval witch perspective. Explore the historical legacy of necromancy, learn about diverse types of spirits, and avoid common errors and misconceptions. You’ll also find a detailed field guide, packed with reference tables and step-by-step techniques, to help bridge the gap between knowledge and action. Featuring illustrations throughout and a lexicon of arcane terms, this book offers compassionate and effective ways to understand and be understood by the unquiet voices all around us.
"The aim of the guide is not to provide ceremonial ritual, but to empower the reader with reliable magical knowledge that they can apply wherever they are, to safely and compassionately interact with the dead."—Nonie and Rob Douglas
- GenresWitchcraftOccult
275 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 8, 2024
8 people are currently reading
51 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 5, 2025
It's fine. This book is extremely Eurocentric, and I expected it to be so. However, my review of the book is going to be colored by my own Buddhist biases, so I'll attempt to catalog my feelings here.
I think this book does a very thorough job at looking at the structure of spirit through a Neoplatonist lens, and it takes great pains to define terms when necessary, which is excellent. The structure of the universe according to the authors is actually quite close to the conception of the universe according to Buddhists, which I thought was quite interesting. Aether, pneuma, and phasma could easily correspond to the dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya...
Except they don't. European Neoplatonists have discovered an approximation of the truth that allows them to perform ceremonial magick, but their view of realms as being actually physically existent is mistaken. Buddhists assert correctly that not even one iota of any phenomena is inherently established, and that no substance exists independently of anything else. Consequently, conventionality (name and form) is the only means we have of describing phenomena, and it is entirely based on the sense faculties that we have available to us. On an ultimate level, though, every phenomena is completely void; it is pervaded by emptiness. Everything that we come into contact with is a total reification of the mind, which is itself void and empty in its natural state.
Although Buddhism does affirm the existence of ghosts, demons, and revenants, the religion tends to emphasize the psychological causes that lead to hauntings from the viewpoint of the "victim" of said haunting. Karmically, most people experience hauntings that are only meant for them, which is why it's exceptionally rare to capture evidence of a haunting on a measurable device. Individual hauntings are quite common and can be dealt with in a number of ways. But hauntings that involve multiple unrelated witnesses and consistent patterns of phenomena are exceedingly rare, and must be analyzed with the utmost skepticism concerning their veracity.
Consequently, most people outside of very spiritually active cultures (such as African and Asian cultures) are not likely to experience true hauntings--Or at least, not verifiable hauntings. Our western world is so spiritually traumatic that most of the people who think that they are experiencing hauntings or revenants are actually experiencing their own delusions. I'm not saying that a true haunting *can't* happen in the western world; just that it would take a very skeptical, professional expert in order to verify it.
If that's what you're looking to do, then this book might be for you, although you may want to brush up on your psychology first. I wouldn't put a ton of faith in the rather rigid classifications in this book either--If you have a spirit, and you know that they need peace, the most important part of the investigation is to figure out what it is that the spirit wants. If you can give it to them, do it. If you give it to them and they are still obstinate, you continue to work until achieving the desired result.
I think this book does a very thorough job at looking at the structure of spirit through a Neoplatonist lens, and it takes great pains to define terms when necessary, which is excellent. The structure of the universe according to the authors is actually quite close to the conception of the universe according to Buddhists, which I thought was quite interesting. Aether, pneuma, and phasma could easily correspond to the dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya...
Except they don't. European Neoplatonists have discovered an approximation of the truth that allows them to perform ceremonial magick, but their view of realms as being actually physically existent is mistaken. Buddhists assert correctly that not even one iota of any phenomena is inherently established, and that no substance exists independently of anything else. Consequently, conventionality (name and form) is the only means we have of describing phenomena, and it is entirely based on the sense faculties that we have available to us. On an ultimate level, though, every phenomena is completely void; it is pervaded by emptiness. Everything that we come into contact with is a total reification of the mind, which is itself void and empty in its natural state.
Although Buddhism does affirm the existence of ghosts, demons, and revenants, the religion tends to emphasize the psychological causes that lead to hauntings from the viewpoint of the "victim" of said haunting. Karmically, most people experience hauntings that are only meant for them, which is why it's exceptionally rare to capture evidence of a haunting on a measurable device. Individual hauntings are quite common and can be dealt with in a number of ways. But hauntings that involve multiple unrelated witnesses and consistent patterns of phenomena are exceedingly rare, and must be analyzed with the utmost skepticism concerning their veracity.
Consequently, most people outside of very spiritually active cultures (such as African and Asian cultures) are not likely to experience true hauntings--Or at least, not verifiable hauntings. Our western world is so spiritually traumatic that most of the people who think that they are experiencing hauntings or revenants are actually experiencing their own delusions. I'm not saying that a true haunting *can't* happen in the western world; just that it would take a very skeptical, professional expert in order to verify it.
If that's what you're looking to do, then this book might be for you, although you may want to brush up on your psychology first. I wouldn't put a ton of faith in the rather rigid classifications in this book either--If you have a spirit, and you know that they need peace, the most important part of the investigation is to figure out what it is that the spirit wants. If you can give it to them, do it. If you give it to them and they are still obstinate, you continue to work until achieving the desired result.
September 5, 2024
This book is surprisingly technical. It is definitely not a "light" read. My background is in law and I found the focus on definitions and the precision of language to be, shall we say, familiar.
"Unquiet Voices" is the sort of book that will have different meanings for different people. I would not consider it a beginner's book and think that it will prove most useful to those who already have at least some concrete spirit-work experience.
My own reasons for unreservedly giving "Unquiet Voices" five stars is that--while I found the new terms and language quite a bit to wrap my head around!--this book absolutely surpassed anything else I have ever read in explaining how a broad swath of spirits actually manifest. The authors are clear that not all "hauntings" are from human spirits, and that not all sentient spirits were human. This is vital information, which--as a Polytheist and an animist--I feel tends to be overlooked or dismissed in too many current venues. The descriptions of various types of beings, such as Aqueous, Terrestrial, etc. are invaluable. It is also very useful to know how the varying classes of spirits can physically appear and that the classic glowing red eyes probably do not indicate a malevolent entity.
The authors bring a needed core humility into their text, reminders that their sort of work is not about feeding our egos, but rather about healing and co-creating in a world full of many spirits.
On a personal level, I cherish the knowledge I gained from reading this book. However, it also clarified for me that I do not feel especially called to Sciomancy, as my own abilities lie strongly in other directions.
Verdict: this is an excellent, timely, and powerful read.
"Unquiet Voices" is the sort of book that will have different meanings for different people. I would not consider it a beginner's book and think that it will prove most useful to those who already have at least some concrete spirit-work experience.
My own reasons for unreservedly giving "Unquiet Voices" five stars is that--while I found the new terms and language quite a bit to wrap my head around!--this book absolutely surpassed anything else I have ever read in explaining how a broad swath of spirits actually manifest. The authors are clear that not all "hauntings" are from human spirits, and that not all sentient spirits were human. This is vital information, which--as a Polytheist and an animist--I feel tends to be overlooked or dismissed in too many current venues. The descriptions of various types of beings, such as Aqueous, Terrestrial, etc. are invaluable. It is also very useful to know how the varying classes of spirits can physically appear and that the classic glowing red eyes probably do not indicate a malevolent entity.
The authors bring a needed core humility into their text, reminders that their sort of work is not about feeding our egos, but rather about healing and co-creating in a world full of many spirits.
On a personal level, I cherish the knowledge I gained from reading this book. However, it also clarified for me that I do not feel especially called to Sciomancy, as my own abilities lie strongly in other directions.
Verdict: this is an excellent, timely, and powerful read.
October 31, 2024
Incredible content, I hope they write more books for each school of thought. Definitely give it a read!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews