Alexander Cummins, PhD is an historian, poet, and consultant whose practice centres around religion, philosophy, medicine, and magic. In particular, his work focuses on folk magic, necromancy, and divination.
His doctoral thesis from the University of Bristol explored the history of magical approaches to the emotions: from mapping personality with astrology, to managing emotionality with herbs and amulets, to the manipulations of aphrodisiacs, the evil eye, and the conjuration of spirits. His areas of research span topics such as folklore and sorcery, ghost stories and ancestor veneration, and handbooks of demonology and ritual magic.
Dr Cummins writes for both academic and esoteric publishers, facilitates a range of workshops and lecture series, teaches in both universities and and virtual classrooms, consults privately with clients and organisations, and speaks at a wide variety of events. Consultations, bookings, and inquiries can be directed to consultantsorcerer@gmail.com
Al is a proud member of the Grasping Kairos research network. He co-hosts the podcast Radio Free Golgotha with Jesse Hathaway Diaz of Wolf & Goat, and moderates the Facebook group Folk Necromancy. His favourite animal is the octopus.
A self-contained one-off class on necromancy in early modern Britain (1500-1700), combining a long-form illustrated lecture with access to full scans of the thirteen primary sources cited and explored, with a full set of suggested reading to follow up this class.
The material focuses on three main areas of necromancy: death, dying and funerary contexts in the early modern British Isles; the uses of corpses as spell components; and nigromancy, 'Geocie', witchcraft, and ghostlore.