Consulting Spirits
Asking questions and receiving answers seems to have been one of the most common reasons for summoning the spirits. For example, the second ring of Saturn in De imaginibus sive annulis septem planetarum[824] [825] attracts spirits (spiritus) to an uninhabited building2[826] with the help of ritual candles, conjurations and prayers. After three days and nights of rituals, the spirits should appear on the third night and answer any questions that are asked. The anonymous De imaginibus (bml 89.38) places angels and spirits parallel to one another and connects both to the planets by following rather strictly the conventions of astrological magic: If you seek advice from someone: Make an image of tin or copper, Aquarius ascending, the Moon being in Cancer, in the hour of Saturn, under the name of its [Saturn's] spirit or angel, with the names of Jupiter and his characters, and put it under your head when you sleep.[827] A bit later, De imaginibus shows how to consult ‘evil shadows' (Ut habeas responsum a malis umbris): The person thirsting for knowledge is instructed to make an image of the astrological sign for Cancer, inscribe the characters of the Sun and the Moon thereon, and throw the talisman into the sea. Soon he or she will see ‘monstrous things' and receive answers without fear.[828] The Latin Picatrix (3.11.91) gives still creepier advice: ‘Make a bag out of a human heart; fill it with the blood of three different persons; heat it in a fire; call the demons, and they will respond.' Cases of demonic consultation seem to follow roughly the same guidelines. On every occasion, spirits are attracted with numerous instruments, including the means of using 1) astrological magic (invocation of heavenly bodies, astrological images), 2) natural magic and sympathetic magic (elemental things, heating) and 3) ritual magic (ritual spaces, candles, prayers, sacrifices). The process seems to be based on mere persuasion without commands or conjurations, and it seems that the demons and spirits are rather free to decide whether they appear.