frequently used as the point of ceremony to invoke the dead, to seek their counsel. There are myriad stories of druidic rites invoked in the underground burial chambers of Europe. These rituals could range from the simplistic— chanting the names of the dead repeatedly while standing in a power circle around the bones—to more elaborate exercises of invocation, frequently involving the shedding of blood.
The Maldita sect, active in Britain in the late 1600s, sought to borrow arcane power from the dead to further their positions in business and political life. Once a month, during the high point of the full moon, they took torches into the catacombs beneath St. Smithwick’s in Brighton County and addressed the dead there in a particular fashion. They invoked the spirit of Peter Maldita, a man who in life held positions in parliament and whom many believed was the power behind the Duke of Pettigrew. They also believed him to have uncovered the darkest secrets of magic.
Maldita rarely appeared in public, but when he did, he was always accompanied by three beautiful young women. They attempted to mask their beauty with long robes and shawls and veils, but there was no mistaking the glint of health in the women’s cheeks, the fire of lust in their eyes and their shapely forms. And while age-wise the women could have been his granddaughters, it was well-known that they did not behave as his progeny, for many reported seeing the old man engaged in unseemly acts with the three in his carriage just before he exited to address parliament. (In some circles, Maldita’s family crest—two sinuous serpents surrounding a triangle—was altered to appear as the head of a goat.) The women walked proudly—and possessively—at Maldita’s elbow until his death, which was well into his nineties. The three never appeared to pass twenty years of age, and many believed that Maldita had found the fountain of youth through some dark bond with the women. Or perhaps he’d bestowed youth upon them.
Years after Maldita’s death, this sect grew up in secret, founded by P. Steven Gifford, an ambitious young man who had studied the dark arts himself and who believed that Maldita’s soul could be lured back to share its knowledge and power with supplicants through a dark ceremony involving the debauching of comely virgins. Gifford sought in vain to find the three mysterious young women who always accompanied the old man, but the trio had vanished; there were no clues about where they’d come from or where they’d gone.
Gifford’s next option was to find equally seductive women to bring to Maldita’s tomb, presumably to seduce the dark lord from beyond the grave. He enlisted the help of a handful of other practitioners of the dark arts, and together in the midnight hours they devised a blasphemous ceremony of sex and magic held every month for more than seven years. They hypothesized that there was power in repetition, ceremony and numbers. And so their devilish ceremonies continued.
While the full details of their final ceremony are unknown, the early days of the attempted invocations saw the group drug and blindfold a comely woman and keep her in one of their homes until nightfall. As the moon rose, they would lead her into the cold drafts of the underworld, stripping her naked upon the lid of Maldita’s tomb. When the victim awoke, she was made to engage in acts of extreme degradation with the druids, who called out Maldita’s name all the while promising to give the girl to him as his new dark bride.
Early victims of this cult were kept blindfolded but ultimately set free with the admonition to tell nobody of what had occurred upon pain of death. The fear and embarrassment of the degraded women no doubt kept the secret for some time. Eventually, however, word did get out, and it became more difficult to access the catacombs where Maldita’s old bones lay. Guards were posted outside the burial grounds.
The Maldita druids were not deterred. On the night of one full moon, the guards were overpowered by a group of dark, disguised figures. The following day it was discovered that the bones of Maldita had been stolen from the crypt, and after that the ceremonies of Maldita were reportedly performed by the druids atop the naked bones of the dead man himself. None of his new “brides” was set free afterward. It is assumed that each virgin was killed before her night was over.
Many in occult circles believe that Gifford ultimately achieved his goal in raising the spirit of Maldita, though perhaps not in the fashion he anticipated because stories of this particular druidic sect simply ceased. Gifford himself was neither arrested nor ever heard from again, and a handful of other men believed to have been part of that cult also vanished at roughly the same time. Nobody was ever able to discover Maldita’s new final resting place or the nature of the final ceremonies.
Some practitioners of the dark arts believe that Maldita accepted Gifford’s offerings and ultimately took the leader and his druids back with him to revel in the wicked pleasures of the other side. Others believe that Gifford and his men literally opened the doorway to hell and were sucked without succor into the everlasting fire. Regardless of Gifford’s final fate, his achievements are universally acknowledged and his tale is but one of the myriad stories of using the crypt as the focal point to contact the dead and break through the veil.
In Italy, where the catacombs stretch on for—
“Here’s what I got,” Nick said, interrupting her reading. He held up a black steel ring with four old-fashioned skeleton keys. In his other hand was a pile of alternatives, keys ranging from those with long black barrel shanks and thin bits extending from the end to more modern house keys of silver and gold. Lifting one of the shinier examples he suggested, “I’m guessing this is not what we’re looking for.”
Jenn laughed. “No, I’m thinking this particular lock wasn’t put in by the guy at Ace Hardware.”
“There are also some things in those kitchen drawers that . . .” Nick paused. “Well, I’m no chef, but I just don’t think they’re meant for cooking.”
“I don’t think Aunt Meredith restricted her kitchen activities to preparing food,” Jenn agreed.
“No. Most people don’t keep a drawer full of human skulls next to their pots and pans.”
“You don’t want to know all of the things she did in the kitchen.” Jenn grimaced. “Some of the, um, recipes in her journal do not sound at all edible.”
Nick made a face, too. Holding up the keys again he said, “Where there are keys, there are locks. Any idea where these might lead?”
Jenn shook her head. “The door in my room and that kitchen cabinet were the only locks I’ve seen. Of course, we haven’t exactly looked for any secret passageways.”
“I think we’d better,” Nick said. He nodded at the book in her hand. “Find anything?”
“Just some perverted ceremonies involving virgins and old bones that I think Meredith marked. I haven’t finished skimming the chapter yet, though.”
“Ah,” Nick said. “I’ll keep looking and leave you to it.”
As he disappeared back into the kitchen, Jenn leafed ahead a few pages and then settled back to read more.
More so than a graveyard, where bones are usually encased in wood and covered by many feet of earth, a crypt offers the best place to contact the dead. The veil here is extremely thin, especially those crypts housing the mortal remains of many, and the bones of the one to be contacted are likely only shielded by a thin layer of wood or stone. Many practitioners over the ages have insisted that, at a minimum, the lid of the coffin be removed before invoking a spirit, while still others have insisted that only through the physical handling of bones can full contact be achieved. (The disturbing of the bones of the dead can have other consequences, however. As the mortal remains offer a spirit’s sole tie to this earth, if they are altered or damaged substantially, that tie is broken forever.)
There are many ways to actually contact the dead, the most popular being the use of a spiritual medium, a person well versed in achieving trance states that allow temporary possession of the body by a spirit. This, however, can prove extremely dangerous. For, unless it is a ceremony involving a crypt and specific, segregated bones, a seance provides an open door for any spirit. Frequently the result is that a medium calls not the hoped-for entity but some other malevolent, willful force. Such possessions can involve demons.
One way to ameliorate the danger of medium possession is the use of the spirit board or witchboard. The witchboard allows a group of people to pool their mental energies to open a small window to the spirit world. Generally, no one member of the group gives up their identity or control of their body; rather, the spirit uses the combined energy of the group to move a small piece called a planchette across a wooden board graven with characters. The group can ask this spirit questions. If it is a cooperative soul, those questions are answered
