Praise for Magickal Mediumship “There is not a single soul more qualified to write on the relationship between mediumship and magick than Danielle Dionne. Magickal Mediumship masterfully weaves her experience and knowledge of Spiritualist mediumship and her necromantic and ancestral magickal practices in a manner that not only makes complete sense, but is bound to brings healing, empowerment, and closure for the spiritual practitioner. Chock-full of exercises, personal experiences, and Danielle’s great sense of humor and refreshingly affable tone—she lifts the veil on the closely guarded secrets of communicating with and partnering with those who have transitioned from this life to craft magick in one’s life … This is the best book on these topics that you could ever get your hands on and is sure to be a classic.” —Mat Auryn, author of Psychic Witch “Magickal Mediumship is an excellent portal of entry for any who wish to learn to be mediums. This book is more than a collection of techniques, it provides context and ways to integrate working with the dead into your life and spiritual practices. Danielle Dionne’s love and caring for this work and this path of service shines through in every chapter. This is a book that is wise, humble, and one that you will read again and again.” —Ivo Dominguez Jr., cofounder of Assembly of the Sacred Wheel and author of Spirit Speak “This is a beautifully articulated guide to the subtle yet powerful realms of Spirit and the ancestors. Danielle’s experienced hand takes you on a moving, challenging, yet inspiring journey to the edge of forever. What you hold in your hands is a delicate delight of contemplation, deep thought, instruction, and practice. It is a storehouse of impeccable wisdom.” —Kristoffer Hughes, head of the Anglesey Druid Order, coroner, and author of When the Last Leaf Falls and The Book of Celtic Magic “The master guide to modern mediumship! Danielle Dionne delivers a fascinating peek as to what’s on the other side of the veil and helps provide us with the tools and techniques to be able to light that darkness and make it known. More than just a practical education on how to work with the spirits of the
dead, Magickal Mediumship also gives valuable, real-world advice on how to spot a charlatan Spiritualist, prepare for your own or a loved one’s mortality, tips on what to do if your ancestors were awful, and a lot more!” —Tomás Prower, author of Morbid Magic “Magickal Mediumship is an incredible mash-up of two very powerful spiritual practices: mediumship and magick! This is a journey into understanding the many aspects of Spirit, from our departed loved ones to guides and other spiritual energies available to us. Danielle has also created some wonderful magickal practices designed to help you connect and honor the many ways you can work with your ancestors to enhance your life. This book has become a go-to guide for me to enhance my practices in mediumship, and I know it will be for you!” —Lauren Rainbow, medium and author of The Mediumship Training Deck
MAGICKAL MEDIUMSHIP
© Kelly Gilchrest
About the Author Danielle Dionne is a professional psychic medium, herbalist, and witch. Danielle has been connecting to the dead since the age of six and reading professionally for over a decade. She owns Moth and Moon Studio, a spiritual education center. Her eclectic practice draws upon a vast foundation in mediumship, occultism, healing arts, Spiritualism, witchcraft, herbalism, and folk magic. She trained under internationally renowned mediums, including John Holland and Tony Stockwell, and studied advanced mediumship at the Arthur Findlay College in Stansted, England. Danielle has also trained under prominent magickal and occult teachers, such as Christopher Penczak and Devin Hunter. Danielle is an initiate in the Temple of Witchcraft and serves as the Scorpio Ministry’s deputy minister for death, dying, bereavement, and ancestral connections. She enjoys hospice volunteering and hosts Death Cafés, helping people discuss death and make the most of their finite lives. She has enjoyed a successful career in healthcare quality, research, and data analytics. Danielle runs Crossroads Farm, a small, spirited homestead focusing on ancestral connections, magickal and medicinal herbalism, and raising heritage breed livestock. Visit her online at www.DanielleDionne.com.
Llewellyn Publications Woodbury, Minnesota
Magickal Mediumship: Partnering with the Ancestors for Healing and Spiritual Development © 2020 by Danielle Dionne. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. First Edition First Printing, 2020 Cover design by Kevin R. Brown Editing by Samantha Lu Sherratt Interior illustration on page 71 by the Llewellyn Art Department Llewellyn Publications is a registered trademark of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data (Pending) ISBN: 978-0-7387-6407-8 Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business transactions between our authors and the public. All mail addressed to the author is forwarded but the publisher cannot, unless specifically instructed by the author, give out an address or phone number. Any internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific location will continue to be maintained. Please refer to the publisher’s website for links to authors’ websites and other sources. Llewellyn Publications A Division of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. 2143 Wooddale Drive Woodbury, MN 55125-2989 www.llewellyn.com Printed in the United States of America
This book is dedicated to Danny, and his love of Jeannine. Thank you for believing in me.
Contents List of Exercises xi Acknowledgments xiii Medical Disclaimer xv Foreword by Christopher Penczak xvii
Part One: Mediumship & Magick Chapter 1: Introduction to Magickal Mediumship 3 Chapter 2: Magick Basics 13 Chapter 3: Mediumship Basics 21 Chapter 4: The Soul 31 Chapter 5: The Ancestors 39
Part Two: Connecting with the Dead Chapter 6: Ritualizing Mediumship 51 Chapter 7: The Mediumship Session 65 Chapter 8: The Mediumship Message 77 Chapter 9: Honoring the Ancestors 87 Chapter 10: Magickal Timing 97
Part Three: Partnering with the Dead Chapter 11: Spirit Guides 107 Chapter 12: Deities of the Dead 119
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Chapter 13: Plant Spirit Allies 133 Chapter 14: Stone & Bone Spirit Allies 157 Chapter 15: Divination with the Dead 173 Chapter 16: Spirit Vessels & Hallowed Grounds 185 Chapter 17: Ancestral Magick & Healing 197 Chapter 18: Spiritual Hygiene & Protection 211
Part Four: Death Comes for Us All Chapter 19: Confronting Mortality 223 Chapter 20: Crossing Over 233 Chapter 21: Natural Death Care & Home Funerals 239
Conclusion 249 Recommended Reading 251 Bibliography 253 Index 257
Exercises Chapter 4 Exercise: Explore Your Soul Parts 34 Exercise: Soul Alignment 38
Chapter 6 Exercise: What Is Your Mission Statement? 52 Exercise: Body Scan 59 Exercise: Energy Center Opening 60 Exercise: Tree Breathing 61
Chapter 7 Exercise: Evidence, Essence & Message Prompts 74
Chapter 9 Exercise: Making a List of Your Beloved Dead 91
Chapter 11 Exercise: Meet a Spirit Guide 113
Chapter 13 Exercise: Communing with Spirits of Green & Plant Allies 135 Exercise: Making a Flower Essence 147
Chapter 17 Exercise: Forgiveness Ritual 208
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Chapter 19 Exercise: Write Your Own Obituary 226 Exercise: Pumpkin Pie & How Do You Want to Die? 227 Exercise: Formalize Your Advance Directive 230
Acknowledgments To the ancestors—I stand upon your shoulders. May we continue to partner for a better world. Thank you for making this magick possible. To Santa Muerte—Holy Death, you who walk beside me every day. Thank you for this most excellent miracle. To my partner, Austin, thank you for holding space for me as I worked on this book. I appreciate your humor, support, love, and ever willingness to live this strange existence with me. To Mat Auryn, thank you, thank you, thank you for your friendship and support, our adventures, and for being the best cheerleader. To Chris Morris, your guidance, support, wisdom, and insight are deeply appreciated. You helped forge this book and tempered me through the process. To my friends and folk who have supported me on this book endeavor, thank you for the love, humor, lessons, support, guidance, and patience with me through this process. My sincere gratitude to Renée Des Anges, Matt Collins, Elizabeth Graham, Allison Charron, Rory McCracken, Adam Sartwell, Jeffrey Warren, Julie Humphreys, Teresa Baker-Opland, Laura Wooster, Katie Bennett, Michael Woods, Talia Eisenberg, Tara Tzimopoulos, Jason Sylvester, Chi Chi Ogwulu, Robbi Packard, Chris Giroux, Elsa Elliot, Devin Hunter, Stephanie Grimassi, Matthew Venus, Steven Kenson, Alix Wright, Lisa Kaminski, Jocelyn VanBokkelen, Alfred McCarthy, Sonia Medeiros, Mike Patterson, Jason Gamache, Debbie Stellhorn, Bethany Beauregard, Dragon Witchfyre, Oceana LeBlanc, Dawn Costorf, MT Torres, Jason Nadeau, Tamara Sienna, John Thorton, Tomás Prower, Ivo Dominguez Jr., Kristoffer Hughes, and Tony Stockwell.
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To my parents, Rick and Joan, and sister, Julia Laroche. My roots and rocks. To Lauren Rainbow, from England to India, and back again. Thank you for your support and motivation. Look at what can be accomplished from the magick of mischievous mediums! To a group of quality women—Ashlie Shea, Beth York, Jane Meadows, Julie Abbott, Paula Frederick, Lisa McNerney, and Eileen Keefe. You helped make this dream a reality. To my beloved Temple of Witchcraft community, you are a blessing in my life. May we all continue to walk a crooked path in love, will, and wisdom. To my teachers, mentors, and elders that have deeply shaped the woman I’ve become today, even if they didn’t realize it at the time. I honor you. Special thanks to Silver Lyons, Irma Hackett, Bob Hackett, Alix Wright, Wendy Snow Fogg, Devin Hunter, Tony Stockwell, and John Holland. To Christopher Penczak, thank you for giving me the courage to open doors and walk through them. Your brilliant work as a community leader, priest, teacher, and mentor is an inspiration. Thank you for your friendship, guidance, humor, and support. The world is better with you in it. I am a better witch and human because of you. To Ben—my first spirit contact. Freckled little friend, you are still so loved.
Medical Disclaimer This book contains information regarding the use of herbs and poisonous plants. If you are pregnant or taking pharmaceuticals, do not ingest or work with plant material without the supervision of a trained medical professional. This book also contains information that may be sensitive to those who are grieving the loss of a loved one. While the objective is to be helpful and empowering while honoring your dead, mediumship, magick, healing, and the contents of this book are not a substitute for grief counseling or clinical therapy.
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Foreword s I read Magickal Mediumship, my thoughts drifted to the old myths where the division between our human world and the otherworld was not such a hard line. We are told in these old tales that the spirits and gods once walked among us in the very first days of creation. That the dead were not in some faroff heaven, but walking beside us, on their own journey, but watching and guiding us. Speaking to the beloved dead required no special procedures. And in all these tales, there came a time of separation, of division, between the world of flesh and time and the world of Spirit and eternity. The spirits haven’t turned from us, but we appear to have lost our way to them. They are still there, but we have grown spiritually blind, more so since the rise of industrialization and modern technology, divorcing us from that magickal world of trees and roots and the cycles of light and dark, life and death. It is no coincidence that in a time when we grow divorced from the world of Spirit, the world would give rise to the Spiritualism movement in the hope of reconnection. The Soul of the World is wise, and she brings forth what we need as we need it, planting seeds of consciousness in the mind of her children. Spiritualism is a rekindling of our oldest cults of the dead in a way modern people could understand. I also find it no coincidence that today, in a time of further disconnection, an interest in the union of magick and mediumship has risen so strongly, and found its voice in the work of Danielle Dionne. Never before have we had access to such wisdom, lore, and traditions as we do today, yet the very information we have can itself be quite a hindrance. Where do we begin? What is true? How does this apply to me? To have so much is both the great blessing and great curse of our time. We often lack context, and guidance, and spend a lot of time haphazardly moving from one thing to the xvii
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next, with no deepening of wisdom or experience. We have the voice of knowledge, but need to find the voice of experience—the voice of wisdom. We look for a guide. On one level, we seek the mysteries of magick, of spell craft. As more of us find ourselves in places of marginalization and disempowerment, magick becomes the remedy, as it has in times past. Magick grants power over the self first and foremost—the knowledge of the self—but can be used in the process of changing your reality. Yet we are also rootless from the traditions and cultures of the magick that came before, or we seek our own way without taking formal training and initiation into other groups and traditions. We seek guidance, the guidance of our own ancestors and spirits. We have so many questions about where we came from and who came before us. We can only figure out where we are going if we individually and collectively understand where we have been. Who better to truly teach us than our ancestors, starting with our most recently beloved dead, to help transform our worldview out of the strictly mechanistic to where one is living, breathing, and in cooperative partnership with the unseen world. We are seeking the remedy for our spiritual blindness. Without giving up all reason or discernment, we also have to be willing to experience what others would call the nonordinary—the esoteric, the supernatural—to walk this path. With both this magick and guidance, we have to craft our own way for ourselves. Danielle has been there, and she continues to be there, in that liminal space in between, helping guide us by sharing her experiences. One of those old myths I think back to is from the collection of Celtic tales called The Mabinogion. The collection is four distinct “branches” on four different families of gods, depicting a time and place where the otherworld wasn’t necessarily above or below, but between. Cross a hedge, enter a clearing, or move through a stream, and suddenly here becomes there, and you enter a world of fantastic bright white creatures, gods, spirits, and mystical heroes, and you might not even realize you have done it. In one of the tales of the second branch, entitled “Branwen, Daughter of ,” Branwen marries the King of Ireland, and is sent from Wales across the sea to live in that seemingly far-off land. She is separated from her brother, Bran. Here we have a division. Though not dead, as we consider both Branwen
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and Bran deities, different worlds are divided by bodies of water, with mythic lands as islands off to the north or west. Did she leave the eternal realm to go to a mortal world, or simply another realm of spirit, farther away from her family? Branwen is mistreated by her new husband and his family, so she trains tiny starling birds to deliver a message to her brother. Once word reaches Bran, he mounts a rescue operation. Bran is a gigantic being, able to easily walk across the dividing sea between the two realms, carrying his company upon his shoulders. The King of Ireland retreats over rivers and destroys bridges so Bran cannot follow. Bran, displaying the wisdom of his status, says, “He would be a leader, let him be a bridge,� and literally becomes the bridge for his company to cross these divides. This wisdom has become a proverb among the Welsh in regard to their leaders. Becoming a bridge is the work of the medium. Though that is not the obvious teaching from Bran and Branwen, we can see it on some level. Her sending of starlings with messages is like our prayers, meditations, and simple ceremonies, seeking the aid of our beloved ones across a divide. When we call, they come, but the conditions of our circumstance, the things that appear to rule us, like the King of Ireland or our own modern worldview, can try to create further division and separation even when we are sincerely seeking help from beyond. Bran becomes the bridge, linking his company of allies with the realm where Branwen resides. Mediums and spirit workers become the bridge, connecting both sides and relaying messages, blessings, and healing. The bridges are leaders. That is key and cannot be forgotten. What does leading look like? Just as many Spiritualists have been on the cutting edge of social change and civil rights, guided by their inner world contacts, those of us who are spirit workers today must also listen deeply and be a voice for change in the material world, from the perspective of the spirits. From that perspective, we are all in this together, and we want to create a world that is beautiful to return to once again. Individual mediumship is wonderful to create moments of healing within a person, a situation, and a family line. But leadership goes beyond just the personal. Danielle’s ministry with the ancestors transcends just the focus upon her mediumship. While she has been a wonderful bridge to the spirits for myself, my friends, and my family, as a leader, she seeks to empower. Some mediums
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jealously guard their “secrets” of technique from both the public and potential students in an effort to hold on to fame and fortune as a celebrity medium. Danielle seeks to educate and empower her clients, students, and community. This book and her educational work are the first way she leads, by honestly and open-heartedly sharing her experiences and wisdom so you can do this on your own. She doesn’t hold back and it shows. As an educator, she teaches us to have both discernment and to be open, bridging the gap between the modern world and the mystical. With her esoteric studies, she also bridges between what many perceive as dark and occult—the magickal world—and those who are often considered of the light—the Spiritualists of the New Age. There is great misunderstanding between both schools of thought, and Danielle deftly bridges them in her work—a particularly noteworthy feat. Her second ring of leadership is in having the difficult conversations that none of us want to have and making them fun. She has a foot in the modern, the practical, and the administrative, and realizes that, while people love the seeming glamor of the ancestors and mediumship, if we are going to be authentically real, we have to talk about the end of life, about funeral arrangements, and about last wishes and wills. Do you know what you want done with your body? If not, you might want to figure that out as you journey into mediumship and not shy away from death, for it comes for us all. Danielle helps facilitate these difficult conversations in our community and beyond to get people more comfortable with the idea of death itself. Lastly, her leadership is truly by example. She is the one willing to sit with the dying at the end and with the family as it happens and afterward—in hospital, hospice, and home. She is willing to facilitate end-of-life rituals for the dead and for the living, navigating the difficulty of honoring a loved one even when it might be in a religious worldview outside of her own practice. You cannot plan for these acts of service or schedule them out between your work. A leader just knows they have to show up, because that is part of the job of one who serves death and life. I have been supremely honored to watch Danielle’s already considerable talent and knowledge grow in the time since first meeting her, watching her become an amazing teacher and priestess and a true leader in our community. Her dedication to both the holy arts and the community is inspiring. It is my fervent belief that this book can transmit the essence of her teachings at this
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time to serve as a bridge for you between the living and dead and empower your practice, no matter if you are coming from a magickal side seeking to understand mediumship or a mediumship side seeking to understand magick, or you are simply new to both. Christopher Penczak Author and Cofounder of the Temple of Witchcraft
PART ONE
MEDIUMSHIP & MAGICK
Chapter 1
Introduction to Magickal Mediumship aybe you’ve felt it before. It might have been a subtle, energetic rush and feeling of deep love in a quiet moment of need. It could have been the smell of familiar perfume in the air, or a gentle whisper in your ear. Perhaps it was a quiet stirring as the season’s first daffodil conjured the sights and smells of your grandmother’s garden. It could have been the sudden delight of a cardinal perching on the fence the moment you remembered your aunt. It might have been a stream of synchronicities quickly unfolding after asking your deceased grandfather for guidance. Perhaps it was a louder call, with whole crowds of ancestors visiting your dreams and revealing a clear path ahead. Whatever it was that moved you to realize a connection to someone beyond the veil, I welcome you! The dead are here, and they still commune with the living. When we pause in our busy lives to listen, make space, and seek that connection, magick is possible!
Why Mediumship? Mediumship is communication with the spirits of the dead. There is a process to mediumship, but it is more nuanced than just following steps. You will sometimes hear folk using the term medium to encompass all types of spirit communications and spiritual messages. As I was taught, and for ease of use in this book, mediumship refers to communication with the dead. However, many of the techniques discussed in this book are applicable to enhance psychic ability and to connect with other types of spirits, entities, angels, deities, and beyond. Exploring mediumship can also be beneficial for oracular work with deities and channeling messages from higher vibrational beings such as the Mighty Dead. 3
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For me, my first experiences with the spirits of the dead were comforting and helped me grieve and process the death of my best friend. Many people who seek to develop their mediumship ability come to it after experiencing a significant loss. This is certainly what caused me to explore what was happening. When I was six, my childhood best friend died unexpectedly, and in a short time following his death, another childhood friend died from a brain tumor. These deaths were followed by the death of my grand-mère. These experiences made deep impressions that shaped me psychologically and spiritually. I can see the threads of their stories have woven into themes for me to explore throughout my life. Sudden, tragic, and unexpected grief from a medical mistake. Dealing with terminal illness and acceptance of mortality. And nearing the end of a well-lived life and the hospice experience. I am grateful for these early experiences with death. And I’m grateful that the spirits of my loved ones began to connect with me while I was so young. Whether you have had experiences all your life, just once, or never before, you still have the ability to connect with the spirit world. I’ve heard various schools of thought on this, and I must say, what I feel in my heart—what I have seen from holding development circles for over ten years—is that anybody can connect to the spirit world and has probably done so before. We are conditioned to tune it out, to doubt our ability and the messages we’re receiving from our loved ones in Spirit. It does seem that some people are more wired naturally for mediumship, whether that is from something that has been experienced in this lifetime or perhaps from a past life. It is possible some people, much like those who are prodigies with instruments or sports, pick it up rather quick and progress in their development faster than others. That does not mean that one can’t progress their mediumship with practice. As I’ve mentioned before, oftentimes people come to mediumship after experiencing a loss, hoping to be able to feel closer to their deceased love one. What I tend to find is mediumship does not actually bring them closer in the way they expected, but it does help heal their grief, mourn their loss, and process the death and their feelings on death. One thing I do my best to convey during mediumship demonstrations is that while you may not receive a message as it’s impossible to bring one through to everyone’s deceased in the room, just witnessing and holding space for folk in similar situations can be helpful, healing, and empowering. This is why mediumship demonstrations and gallery sittings (where a
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medium delivers messages to those gathered in a crowd) are so sought after, from post–Civil War times to the here and now, especially following events of mass death.
Practical Application & Spiritual Development Why would anyone want to put in the work to communicate with the spirit world? First off, continuing to immerse yourself in spirit work and spiritual development will allow you to make progress in your ability to communicate with the dead and strengthen your own intuition. I’ve been connecting since I was six and formally sitting in development groups since my early twenties. I’ve now been teaching for over a decade. The more I immerse myself, the more I feel it. The more I know it. Actively developing my ability led to a gain in confidence and trust in my process, the spirit world, and myself. This opened doors for me to follow my intuitions, psychic perceptions, and spirit connections and to access my higher self for guidance and aid. The purpose of writing this book and sharing information in a compiled and accessible format is to create the guide I wish I had when I was starting out. Over the years, I’ve seen many people developing their mediumship while approaching it as if it were a hobby. I’m not shooting down that idea as that’s a fine way to open the door and start exploring. My advice and what I’ve truly found to make a difference is to reframe the work to focus on spiritual development and growth while living a magickal life in partnership with the spirit world. When referring to “spiritual development,” I’m talking about your connection to your own soul—your own spirit and way of living in relation to the gods, creation, and the divine. This could be through a religious affiliation or your connection to the universe. We could go down a rabbit hole assigning what it means to be spiritual, but for me and my practice, spirituality centers on my mind, heart, and soul connections. The best place to start is in your mind. Yep, my mind and mindset make or break it. Contemplative practices have been key to understanding how I work internally and function in the world. Knowing myself deeply helped me expand and continues to do so. And while I’m certainly still working on this process, I’ve grown from it. Finding a daily contemplative practice such as prayer, meditation, devotionals, and divinations can help us examine our truth and universal truths. It helps us develop our ability to discern,
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which is imperative in this work. You’ll hear me state this repeatedly because it is one of the keys necessary for spiritual development, exploration, and progress.
To Walk the Crooked Path Magickal practitioners often refer to “walking a crooked road” or “crooked path.” This means you must seek out and develop your spiritual practice and work to change your world, inside and out. The path may be long and winding, leading you to places you could have never imagined. Your path may include straight and narrow parts where you feel you’ve mastered it all before it suddenly bends off into somewhere new and unexplored. This journey is no easy task and unique to each person who pursues it. Walking the crooked path is a beautiful analogy for forging your soul and your relationship to self, the spirit world, and the divine. One place to start as you set foot onto your path, or perhaps as you round this next bend, is to explore what it means to connect with the spirit world. What called you to this work? Have you had curious experiences? Are you working in tandem with spirits but seek a deeper relationship? Do you want to work with the dead to change your life and make magick? Does your ancestral lineage need healing? All are reasons we walk farther down the crooked road. And sure, a medium is someone who connects with the spirits of the dead. We think of séances and Spiritualist mediums bringing through evidential information from your grandmother. That’s one way of being a medium. Yet connecting with your own dead—your ancestors and those who have inspired you on your path—can provide such a powerful partnership that can outweigh and surprise you when you reflect on why you wandered here in the first place. Rich relationships and allies are waiting to guide you, guard you, and inspire you as you walk your own crooked path. And being a medium can be much, much more.
What Is Magickal Mediumship? When we talk about magick, we’re talking about the ability to create change in the world around us. One of the more commonly referenced definitions comes from Aleister Crowley, who states that magick is “the science and art of caus-
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ing change to occur in conformity with will.” 1 That includes the formalized ritual magick you may be imagining when you think of ceremonial magicians, witches, or sorcerers. It also includes the more practical and common acts of magick. Think of the vision board on your wall and stating affirmations while gazing into the mirror. These are forms of magick. Who knew you might already be rocking a magickal practice? Another goal of writing this book is to introduce you to some of the basic concepts of partnering with the spirits of the dead and how to then enact change and bring magick into your life. This idea doesn’t sound so novel, but you’d be surprised. I’ve been actively sitting in and leading mediumship and psychic development groups for over a decade. Many of those attracted to learning mediumship don’t have a foundational spiritual practice. Heck, it took me a few years before I began incorporating my knowledge of ancestral work into my mediumship practice. It is that divorced in mind. When I finally realized I could deepen the connection with the spirits of the recently deceased and the long-dead ancestors, my practice shifted dramatically for the better. Not only could I be a communicator for the dead, but I could focus on receiving my own messages and practice listening to the guidance that was being offered to me. This is quite different from the hobby-style table tipping and spirit circle experiences that were my introduction to mediumship development back in my early twenties. I hope to blend the teachings I have integrated from multiple traditions into something useful and practical to the newcomer or somebody who has studied mediumship for some time but wants to deepen their spiritual practice in communion with the dead. I hope this book will guide those seeking something more meaningful than basic evidential mediumship messages. So what is magickal mediumship? It’s the partnership with the dead to enact your magick and enhance your life. Remember, magick is the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with your will. By allowing the dead into your life, you can open the doors for connection, intercession, energy, wisdom, and an abundance of magickal support. I challenge you to explore this and see what I mean!
1. Aleister Crowley, Magick (San Francisco: Red Wheel/Weiser, 1997), 126.
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How I Came Upon This Work For most of my life, I’ve felt a deep connection to the dead and have known they can make an impact on the living. When I was a child, I had several significant losses that catalyzed my connection and curiosity about what happens when we die and the potential for communication with the dead. Stemming from these early experiences, I’ve continued to study, practice, experience, and devote myself to mediumship, magick, ancestral practices, and death work. I’ve been a professional psychic medium for more than a decade and run a spiritual education center in Bedford, New Hampshire. Prior to taking the plunge and pursuing my full-time spiritual work, I enjoyed my journey through collegiate studies, odd jobs, volunteerism, and a successful career in healthcare. The threads of my death work connections have been woven since my initial start of spiritual work and jobs that helped me pay my bills. For example, when I became a Reiki practitioner at the age of seventeen, I performed my first Reiki session on an ill iguana in my care at the Petco where I worked. The iguana sighed and died in my hands. Reiki is a Japanese healing practice that utilizes universal life force energy, so, naturally, being new to it, I was alarmed by this occurrence. While it was a peaceful death, I remember crying to my first spiritual mentor that I had killed the reptile. She assured me that I had done no such thing and told me what a gift I was able to bring this creature as it transitioned. Prophetically, she casually mentioned that some of us are more aligned with death work and that we may find ourselves in situations to serve the dying, just like with the iguana. Her words proved true again and again with sick or injured animals as well as with people. While in college, I pursued a degree in healthcare management and policy and public health. My morbid fascinations led me to excel in epidemiology, the study of diseases and death in populations. To put myself through college, I continued to work at the pet store, became the teaching assistant for epidemiology courses, and began working at an assisted living home on the weekends. Working as a personal care assistant was hard work, but I loved it! Elderly folk hold a special place in my heart, and caring for them was rewarding, challenging, heartwarming, and heartbreaking all in one. It was here I had my first opportunities to walk beside those who were making their way to death’s door. The experiences I had in the time I worked there showed me that death wasn’t to be feared and how much of a difference one person can make during
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that transition time. It offered me comfort and a sense of purpose to provide support to the person on the physical level but also on the level of healing and spirit work that came with this role. I had begun noticing patterns when someone was closer to the end of their time here. The room would grow crowded as the ancestors came forward. I began witnessing the experiences I’d heard about from other hospice and healthcare workers where the patient would call out to a loved one who was already in the spirit world. While taking care of the woman whose death several days later would be the first I attended, she appeared to catch something out of the corner of her eye. She gave it a startled, then strange but comforted, look. I asked her, “Did you see someone?” to which she only nodded and smiled mysteriously. On the day prior to her death, I heard the woman speak Polish to what seemingly was her deceased sister, only recognizable by the name she repeated. This first death was such a privilege to be part of and prepared me for the many similar experiences that would follow as I became more involved in this work. I remember feeling my young twenty-year-old heart weep with joy and sadness throughout the process, and I was so humbled by witnessing the labors of death. It shaped me so much that after I graduated and no longer worked at the home, I became involved with hospice volunteering so I could continue to support others and serve in this capacity. In my mid-twenties, I landed a job as a data analyst in the quality department at a local hospital. Through this work, I found myself working in tandem with some of the smartest, most ambitious and dedicated women I know. As a data person, my role was highly visible and touched many departments. As I made acquaintances and developed friendships with the employees, the eventual word of my work as a medium spread. At that point, I had been working for several years as a psychic medium at psychic fairs and shared an office where I would read and teach on weeknights and weekends. This began to open new doors and conversations of experiences from workers: unexplained phenomena, possible haunted rooms, death tales, and the like. It seemed everyone had a story, and I find that this holds true for most humans who have encountered death. Spoiler alert: if that’s not you yet, inevitably it will be someday. My role in the hospital grew and opportunities for involvement in death work opened up for me. I was trained to help the community understand and fill out advance directives, living wills, and Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment
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(POLST) forms, a New Hampshire initiative that dealt with honoring medical decisions in the final year of a person’s life should they become incapacitated. I became the community liaison for local healthcare stakeholders who played a role in the care of the dying. It is by no coincidence I’ve landed in this role, and the spirit world has guided me and my decisions on this journey at every step of the way. From my extensive training in healing modalities, ceremonial magick, herbalism, witchcraft, core shamanism, ancestral medicine, and folk magick, to my formal initiations and certifications, they’ve guided me to what I’ve needed to pursue. While my interests have evolved and changed over the years, my core spirituality has remained the same. At the heart of my studies is the vast work I’ve undertaken for psychic and mediumship development. I’ve had the tremendous fortune of studying with many well-known mediums and spiritual teachers from around the world, including at the Arthur Findlay College in Standsted, England. Arthur Findlay College has deeply influenced my work from the time I was a child to present day. The school is a prominent Spiritualist college for psychic sciences and what some might consider the Hogwarts for developing mediums. At present, my focus of study and expansion is within the Temple of Witchcraft, a tradition of witchcraft cofounded by Christopher Penczak, Steve Kenson, and Adam Sartwell. Over the past six years, I’ve found deep resonance with the cosmology and mythos of the Temple’s tradition as well as with its focus on spirit work and partnership, inner transformation, and public service to the greater community and the world. It’s been a beautiful complement to the work, knowledge, and skill set I’m cultivating, and it provides sustenance for continued learning, growth, and service within a large, well-established, and functional community. In addition to working my way through the Temple’s Mystery School and initiations, I serve as the deputy minister for the Scorpio Ministry, which focuses on death, dying, and bereavement, sacred sexuality, and ancestral connection. Having the opportunity to embrace death work in a witchcraft and Pagan framework and serve this community has been an exceptional joy! By partnering with the dead, my life has been enhanced. The comfort, guidance, and wisdom they have shared with me in my mundane life as well as in my spiritual practices have sustained me and pushed me farther on my path.
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When I experienced the loss of my childhood best friend, having visitations from him and receiving messages made me feel comforted in my grief and less alone. It normalized death for me in a beneficial way. My sense of self and understanding of the world have been deeply shaped with the assistance of the ancestors. We’ll cover more in detail about who the ancestors are and how to work with them, but in quick summation, I characterize the ancestors as the distant dead who died long ago as well as those recently departed who have integrated with the ancestor collective. They may be your blood ancestors or ancestors of spirit with whom you feel a resonance. By listening to their guidance and messages, I’ve become more in tune with the living. My intuition and psychic ability have been heightened through our connections. Sensing the energies of people, places, animals, the land, cultures, and more has given me greater perspective of how we fit into the context of the whole universe. Spirit work has been humbling and awesome as I find my place in connection to the ancestors from across time.
About This Book I’ve organized this book into four parts that all have practical application if you choose to pursue magickal mediumship in your life. In the first part, “Mediumship & Magick,” we’ll introduce the basics of these practices and how to begin your own practice. We’ll go on to explore what makes up a soul and the types of ancestors whom you have access to in your practice. In part two, “Connecting with the Dead,” we’ll discuss ways to ritualize your mediumship and how to conduct a mediumship session. This section goes into how to honor the ancestors and create an altar to connect with them in your home as well as when and how to connect with the dead. In the third part of this book, “Partnering with the Dead,” there will be information on how to connect with your spirit guides and the types of guides you may choose to work with. We’ll go into some of the deities of the dead you may feel drawn to in your personal practice and how to go about honoring them. This section will also go into working with the spirits of plants, stones, and animals as allies for your ancestral work. Divination techniques will be explored and give you some ideas for how you may begin incorporating divination into your magick and spiritual development. We’ll cover ways to heal
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with your ancestors and work magick with the dead. Techniques for spiritual hygiene and protection will be explored in this section, too. In the final part, “Death Comes for Us All,” we’ll discuss ways to prepare for a good death, assisting the dying and bereft, crossing over, the journey to the spirit world, and ideas for natural death care and caring for the deceased. I’m grateful for this opportunity to share my knowledge and wisdom, thoughts and experiences, and trials and tribulations from my partnership with the dead. My hope is that this book will give you a foundation and jumping-off point to dive deep into communion with the dead and to recognize, heal, know, and be guided by the ancestors for a better life and death!
Body, Mind & Spirit / Witchcraft “Chock-full of exercises, personal experiences, and Danielle’s great sense of humor and refreshingly affable tone, [Magickal Mediumship] lifts the veil on the closely guarded secrets of communicating with and partnering with those who have transitioned from this life to craft magick in one’s life.” —Mat Auryn, author of Psychic Witch
Make Contact with Your Beloved Dead for Personal Transformation & Powerful Magick This invaluable resource weaves together mediumship, magick, spiritualism, and ancestral reverence to help you forge strong connections to your deceased loved ones. Professional medium Danielle Dionne provides hands-on exercises and accessible techniques for honoring your ancestors and working with them for divination and healing. Magickal Mediumship shows you how connecting with the spirits of the dead enhances your spiritual development and empowers your magickal practice. You’ll explore recipes and rites to aid communication and psychic ability, rituals to strengthen your relationship with spirit allies and deities, methods for spiritual hygiene and protection, and much more. Death comes to all of us, but it is not an end. This book helps you partner with those beyond the veil and face death as a positive and natural part of your magick.
Includes a foreword by Christopher Penczak Danielle Dionne is a professional psychic medium and witch. She trained under internationally renowned mediums, including John Holland and Tony Stockwell, and under prominent magickal and occult teachers such as Christopher Penczak and Devin Hunter. Additionally, she studied at the Arthur Findlay College, a spiritualist college in Stansted, England. Danielle is an initiate in the Temple of Witchcraft tradition and serves as Scorpio Deputy Minister for death, dying, and bereavement. She has been teaching psychic mediumship development since 2009 and runs Moth and Moon Studio, a spiritual development center. Danielle lives on a farm in Chester, New Hampshire. Visit her online at www.DanielleDionne.com.
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