A Boston funeral director and witch named Christian Day published a book in 2018 that claims to teach the living how to speak with the dead through direct ritual practice. The Witches’ Book of the Dead is a practical grimoire of necromancy rooted in the author’s own tradition of modern witchcraft, offering specific techniques for spirit communication that he developed over decades of public and private work. The book sold out its first printing within weeks and remains one of the most controversial yet widely consulted texts on contemporary necromantic practice.
We keep a copy on our reference shelf between a 17th-century grimoire facsimile and a modern ethnography of Haitian Vodou. The fire is not decoration. It is the altar.
Where Did This Book Come From?
Christian Day is not an academic writing about historical necromancy. He is a practicing witch who has operated a public witchcraft store in Salem, Massachusetts since the early 2000s. His background includes training in multiple traditions: he was initiated into the Gardnerian tradition of Wicca, studied under Laurie Cabot (Salem’s “Official Witch”), and spent years developing his own approach to what he calls “the Witch’s Death Rites.”
The book emerged from a specific crisis. In 2016, Day’s father died. The author has stated publicly that his existing magical training gave him no framework for processing that loss or maintaining contact with his father’s spirit. He began developing the rituals that would become the book’s core content, testing them with clients and students at his Salem shop, Hex: Old World Witchery.
Published in 2018 by Weiser Books, The Witches’ Book of the Dead arrived at a moment when mainstream interest in necromancy was growing but reliable practical texts were scarce. Most books on the subject were either academic histories or New Age affirmations about “crossing over.” Day offered something different: a step-by-step manual written by someone who claims to do this work regularly.
The book’s reception was immediate and divided. Traditional Wiccans criticized its departure from Wiccan ethics regarding spirit contact. Some occultists questioned whether the methods were safe. But practitioners who wanted actual techniques bought it in numbers that surprised the publisher.
What Does the Book Actually Teach?
The grimoire is organized around a specific claim: the dead can be contacted directly, and the methods for doing so are learnable skills, not innate gifts. Day divides his system into three phases.
The first phase is preparation. The reader learns to establish what Day calls the “Ancestral Altar” a dedicated space for ongoing work with the dead. This is not a one-time setup. The altar requires regular attention: offerings of water, bread, and rum; candles burned in specific colors (black for the dead, white for the living, red for the ancestors); and a physical object that belonged to the deceased.
The second phase is the actual contact work. Day provides scripts for invocations, specific gestures, and timing protocols based on lunar phases and planetary hours. He emphasizes that the dead do not speak in human language. The practitioner must learn to interpret signs: flickering flames, temperature changes, dreams, and what he calls “the still, small voice” that sounds like one’s own thoughts but originates elsewhere.
The third phase addresses what happens after contact is established. How do you maintain the relationship? When do you stop? What do you do if the spirit becomes disruptive? Day offers protocols for closing sessions, dismissing spirits who overstay, and determining when a particular line of communication has run its course.
The book includes a full grimoire section with specific rituals for specific purposes: contacting a specific ancestor, opening a general line to the dead, and what Day calls “the Great Work of the Dead” a longer ritual for those who want to make necromancy a permanent part of their practice.
How Does This Differ from Traditional Necromancy?
The historical record of necromancy stretches back to ancient Greece and appears in medieval grimoires like the Goetia and the Ars Notoria. Those texts describe elaborate conjurations, circles, and seals often designed to compel spirits to appear and answer questions. The practitioner was typically a learned magician working in Latin or Hebrew, surrounded by protective circles and armed with divine names.
Day’s approach is recognizably modern witchcraft. The language is English. The tools are everyday objects: a black candle, a glass of water, a photograph. The protective measures are psychological and energetic rather than theological. He does not command spirits. He invites them.
This shift matters. Traditional necromancy assumed a hierarchical relationship between magician and spirit. The magician had power through divine authority. Day’s system assumes a relationship of mutual respect between living and dead. The dead are not servants. They are relatives, teachers, and guides who may choose to help or not.
The book also departs from the Wiccan tradition that Day was trained in. Most Wiccan texts warn against necromancy, arguing that the dead should be allowed to move on. Day explicitly rejects this position, arguing that the dead do not “move on” in the way living people imagine. They remain present and accessible, and denying that reality does no one any good.
What Are the Book’s Central Symbols?
Day’s system relies on a small set of recurring symbols that carry specific meanings.
The black candle represents the boundary between worlds. It is not a symbol of evil or death in the negative sense. It is the color of what lies beyond ordinary sight. The flame is the living presence of the practitioner. The wax is the body of the dead.
The glass of water serves as a medium for communication. Day teaches that water holds memory and that spirits can influence water in ways the living can perceive. The practitioner watches for ripples, bubbles, or changes in the water’s surface during ritual work.
The photograph functions as a anchor. A physical image of the deceased gives the spirit a point of reference, a place to focus its attention. Day recommends using photographs taken when the person was alive and happy, not funeral images.
The ancestor candle is a specific preparation: a candle dressed with herbs associated with the dead (rosemary, myrrh, sandalwood) and anointed with the practitioner’s own blood or saliva. This creates what Day calls “a thread of flesh” connecting living and dead.
What Do Critics Say?
The book has attracted significant criticism from multiple directions.
Some occultists argue that Day’s methods are dangerous because they lack the protective structures found in traditional grimoires. The medieval magician worked within a circle that was supposed to prevent spirits from harming the operator. Day’s system relies on the practitioner’s own psychic boundaries and emotional stability. Critics say this is insufficient for those who lack natural sensitivity or who are psychologically vulnerable.
Others object on theological grounds. Some Christian commentators have called the book demonic. Some Wiccans have called it unethical. Day’s response, stated in the book itself, is that the dead are not demons and that refusing to communicate with them is a form of abandonment.
A more practical criticism concerns the book’s reliance on the author’s personal authority. Day presents his methods as proven through his own experience, but he does not provide independent verification. The reader must either trust that Day knows what he is doing or test the methods personally. There is no middle ground.
How Does the Book Compare to Other Necromancy Texts?
For readers who want a historical overview of necromantic practice, The Witches’ Book of the Dead is not the right starting point. That reader should consult The Necromantic Ritual Book by Leilah Wendell or the academic work of Richard Kieckhefer, whose Forbidden Rites examines medieval necromantic manuscripts.
For readers who want practical instruction from a living practitioner, Day’s book is currently the most accessible and detailed option available in English. The closest competitor is The Art of Necromancy by Jason Miller, which takes a more ceremonial approach and draws more heavily on the Solomonic tradition. Miller’s book is more cautious and more structured. Day’s is more intuitive and more personal.
Both books agree on one point: necromancy is real, it is learnable, and it requires serious commitment. Neither book promises easy results. Both warn that the dead do not always cooperate.
Common Misconceptions
Misconception: The book teaches how to raise the dead physically. It does not. The book’s methods are for communication with spirits, not for reanimating corpses. The distinction matters.
Misconception: The book is Satanic. Day does not invoke Satan or any Christian demonic figure. His framework is pagan and animistic. The dead are not demons. They are people who used to be alive.
Misconception: Anyone can do this safely without preparation. The book explicitly warns that necromancy requires emotional stability, clear boundaries, and the ability to distinguish one’s own thoughts from external communication. Day recommends at least a year of meditation and self-work before attempting the core rituals.
Misconception: The book is only for experienced witches. Day writes for a general audience and assumes no prior training in necromancy. He does assume basic familiarity with witchcraft concepts like casting a circle and raising energy. A complete beginner would need to supplement this book with foundational texts.
FAQ
Is The Witches’ Book of the Dead suitable for beginners? Yes, if the beginner has some prior experience with basic witchcraft practices like meditation and circle casting. Complete newcomers should start with a general witchcraft primer first.
Does the book require expensive tools? No. The core tools are a black candle, a glass of water, a photograph, and offerings of bread and rum. Most practitioners already own these items.
Can this book help me contact a specific deceased relative? Yes. That is the book’s primary purpose. Day provides specific rituals for contacting named individuals.
Is necromancy dangerous? Day argues that the danger is psychological rather than supernatural. The risk is becoming unable to distinguish one’s own thoughts from perceived spirit communication. The book provides protocols for managing this risk.
Closing
The Witches’ Book of the Dead occupies a unique position in contemporary occult literature: a practical grimoire written by a working witch who treats the dead as ongoing presences rather than distant memories. Whether one accepts Day’s methods or not, the book raises questions that every practitioner must eventually face. What do we owe the dead? What do they owe us? And how do we tell the difference between a real contact and our own longing?
For readers who want to explore the broader context of death and the dead in magical practice, we recommend our guide to necromancy traditions and our glossary entry on ancestor veneration. The full collection of witchcraft grimoires provides further context for Day’s work within the larger tradition.