Necromancy in ancient Greece could definitely end poorly, as it did for Periander, the tyrant of Corinth. He summoned his dead wife to find out where she’d buried some money, and while she told him, she also reminded him that he’d gotten too frisky and violated her corpse. She demanded a sacrifice of clothing, which resulted in his orders that the women of the city publicly strip and hand over their clothes.

Biblical Archaeology says that Periander wasn’t the only one to find out that dabbling in necromancy could backfire in a terrible way. Pausanias of Sparta was credited with leading Greece to victory over Persia, but after the battle that kicked off the Classical Age of Greece, he descended into tyrannical madness and a bit of treason. He headed to Byzantium, where he fell in love with a girl named Cleonice and had her brought to his chambers one night. The lights were off to protect the modesty he was about to take, and when she arrived, knocked over a lamp, and woke him from a tormented sleep, he leaped up and killed her.

Now harassed by her ghost, Pausanias consulted with an oracle, who revealed that her spirit said all he needed to do to be at peace was to return home to Sparta. Easy! So, he went back. Unfortunately for him, Sparta was waiting to bring him up on treason charges, which they did … then, they bricked him up inside the wall of a temple.

Some ancient Greek sources say their necromantic knowledge came from the Middle East, and here’s where things get extra surprising. Andrej Kapcar of Masaryk University’s Department of Archaeology and Museology says (via ResearchGate) that while some — like Moses — warned against communing with the dead, those who were actually doing it really didn’t see anything weird, creepy, or evil about it.

The magi — sometimes called Sha’etemmu, or the Chaldeans, or the Manzuzuu, depending on the area — held some major sway in Egypt, throughout the Middle East, and into India. They were widely respected and often consulted by rulers who wanted to know what the future held. And it makes sense: The souls of the dead were said to be closer to god and to have access to a wealth of information about the past, present, and future. The idea that the living could ask them about things was perfectly normal.

In Egypt, necromancers were associated with the cult of Osiris, and here’s the weird thing: Today, we might think of necromancers as raising the dead, but in ancient Egypt, they were behind the rituals and incantations that prevented malevolent spirits from possessing a body and reanimating it. Meanwhile, the magicians of the Sabians were said to get their powers from their influence over the stars and turned that power into prophecy, conjuration, and necromancy.

While Christian writers like Isidore and Thomas Aquinas were talking about how necromancers were busy summoning demons, actual necromantic texts were telling a completely different story. Sciencia says that there’s not a single surviving necromantic text that says anything about making a pact with Satan, mocking God, or ridiculing Christianity. In fact, the opposite is true.

At the core of a necromancer’s power was the ability to command spirits to obey and answer them, and that power, it was believed, came directly from God. The 14th-century Catalan magician Berenguer Ganell wrote, “Magic is the art that teaches one to exercise coercive control over good and evil spirits through the name of God […]”

Necromancers, it followed, tended to hold a deeply profound belief in God and prepared for their rituals with fasting, prayer, and washing with holy water. Texts suggest that the general thought among necromancers was that they were something outside of good and evil, capable of achieving a “holy state” that spirits of all kinds had no choice but to obey. So, it shouldn’t be entirely surprising that monks and clerics were among the foremost practitioners of necromancy, with alchemists, astrologers, and medical professionals close behind.

According to “Medieval Magic,” the necromantic rituals that are preserved in historical texts suggest there were actually two parts to the act. Not only were rituals designed to summon the spirits of the dead or demons, but there were parts — like the drawing of circles — that were solely to protect the necromancer from whatever he might end up summoning.

Sometimes, specifics got pretty dark. It wasn’t unheard-of to have a component of an animal sacrifice, but sometimes, Sciencia says, “sacrifices” were more along the lines of offerings like honey, milk, salt, or ash. Circles — which have long been believed to have protective powers — were common, along with the inscription of astrological characters and the use of magic items like candles and swords. Spells were often recited, and, strangely, these often called out the names of Christian figures like Christ or involved reciting prayers or psalms.

At least one form of ritual required an assistant, and that was prediction. Prediction was usually done with mirrors, glass, or liquids in a receptacle that formed a reflective surface, and the images that would form on the surface could only be seen by a young virgin boy.

Folklore Thursday says that while things like the Ouija board and spiritualism have their roots in necromancy, there’s one religion that is still based around the entire idea. That’s Quimbanda.

According to Learn Religions, Quimbanda is practiced mostly in Brazil, and it’s described as one of the “African diasporic religious belief systems.” At the center of the religion are spirits called Exus, Pomba Giras, and Ogum, which practitioners call upon during rituals called trabalhos.

The Exus are a group of male spirits, and they’re typically consulted by practitioners hoping to get otherworldly intervention in material matters, like bringing someone to justice or signing business contracts. The female spirits are the collective called the Pomba Giras, and they’re typically called on to settle relationship issues, or they’re often asked to bring some good, old-fashioned bad luck on a rival. The final spirit, the Ogum, is associated with mediation and crossroads.

Rituals have similarities with medieval necromancy in that they typically involve an offering — particularly rum for the Exus and beer for Ogum — along with food, flowers, and candles. The spirits are then asked for help according to specific rituals, which only the initiated are allowed to conduct.