It is with certain seasonal celebrations in mind that we welcome back the one and only Dr. Al Cummins. Al, of course, is a professional diviner and historian, as well as a poet and consultant of all things magical. He was here not too long ago, back at the beginning of October in episode 105 where we talked about geomancy, cartomancy and other forbidden arts. And what a great companion piece that is to this chat that you’re about to hear. Al is going to rap about a book he published earlier this year called A Book of the Magi: Lore, Prayers and Spellcraft of the Three Holy Kings. And in the Patreon extension we’ll also get into one of those other forbidden arts - necromancy, particularly as it was practiced in 17th century England, which is a period Al has some serious interest in. One note on the chat: a couple Skype dropouts, which I did not notice live, but nothing that detrimental to the quality of the audio or the conversation, which is a rather jolly one.   PATREON EXTENSION Listen at patreon.com/occulture Defining necromancy in theory and practice Why Al is particularly interested in 17th century necromancy Death rituals and customs from the time period Sin eating Soul cakes Working with corpses and humoral theory The tripartite soul The relationship between necromancy and scrying Ghosts in early modern England Practical necromantic advice   RESOURCES A Book of the Magi at Revelore Press A Book of the Magi at IndieBound A Book of the Magi at Amazon Al’s website Al on Instagram Al on Tumblr Al on Twitter Al’s previous appearance   DONATE If recurring monthly support via Patreon isn’t your thing, we do accept one time-donations via PayPal, Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple. Every little bit helps.   MERCH Tees, tanks, hoodies, crops, hats. Check ‘em out on our website or at our Etsy shop.   SOCIAL Twitter Instagram Facebook Tumblr   MUSIC Vestron Vulture - “I Want to Be a Robot (Tribute to Giorgio Moroder)” Occams Laser - “Martyr Farker (Occulture Edit)”   PRODUCTION & LICENSING This podcast is produced in the Kingdom of Ohio and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International. Executive Producers: Mike K., Carter Y., Mauricio G., Alyssa S., Daniel R., Kelly C., Kaleb H., Bruce H., David G., Jeremy V., Marcelo T., Christopher B., Leonidas, Timothy W., Caleb C., Nick F., Michael Q., Jamaica J., Mute Ryan, John W., Paul S., Andy E., Colleen F., Ed O., Blake S., Catalina M., Raymond G., Elegwen O., Saliyah S., Michael W.   REMINDER Love yourself. Think for yourself. Question authority.