Astrology & Necromancy for D&D: A Practical Guide

The Maniculum Podcast

We're getting into astrology this week! In part two of our final episode of necromancy, we explore the finer points of astrology and its importance in spell casting - so that you know exactly what moon phase is best to curse your enemies, conjure birds, or route an army.

Open Question to the Listeners: What should the metaphysically-significant insects be for each day of the week? (Arachnids, myriapods, etc. also acceptable, in the spirit of Medieval English’s “everything is worm” approach to small animals.)

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Citations & References:

• Forbidden Rites: a Necromancer's Manual online version here
• All of Richard Keikhefer's books on magic here
• The Munich Manual of Demonic Magic: info and get one yourself here
• Peter of Abano: Heptameron, or Magical Elements - read online here
• Watkins, Calvert. “‘god’.” Antiquitates Indogermanicae, edited by Manfred Mayrhofer et al., Innsbruck, 1974, pp. 101-10.
• Beekes, Robert S. P. “θεός.” Etymological Dictionary of Greek, vol. 1, Leiden, 2010, p. 540. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10.
• Beekes, Robert S. P. “God is Non-Indo-European.” Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik, vol. 54, 2000, pp. 27-30.
• The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, revised and edited by Calvert Watkins, Houghton Mifflin, 1985, p. 10.
• De Meyer, Isabelle. “L’étymologie du mot grec θεός « dieu ».” Revue de Philologie de Littérature et d’Histoire Anciennes, vol. 90, no. 1, 2016, pp. 115-38, 260-1.
• The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, revised and edited by Calvert Watkins, Houghton Mifflin, 1985, p. 14.
• The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, revised and edited by Calvert Watkins, Houghton Mifflin, 1985, p. 23.
• Kulik, Alexander. “How the Devil Got His Hooves and Horns: The Origin of the Motif and the Implied Demonology of 3 Baruch.” Numen, vol. 60, nos. 2–3, 2013, pp. 195–229.
• O’Shea, Stephen. The Perfect Heresy: The Revolutionary Life and Death of the Medieval Cathars. Walker & Company, 2000.
• Rau, Jeremy. “The Derivational History of PIE *diéu-/diu-´ ‘(god of the) day-lit sky; day’.” Ex Anatolia Lux, edited by Ronald Kim et al., Beech Stave Press, 2010, pp. 307-20.
• Storms, Godfrid. Anglo-Saxon Magic. Martinus Nijhoff, 1948.
• Hindley, Katherine Storm. Textual Magic: Charms and Written Amulets in Medieval England. U Chicago Press, 2023.
• Stanmore, Tabitha. Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024.