In 1456, a man named Johannes Hartlieb wrote a published a book that featured the forbidden arts. These arts would later be known as black magic, and this was the beginning of a resurgence in popular culture amongst those interested in the craft.

Scientism arose in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, becoming a pastime for scholars in which they would substitute hard chemistry for more arcane practices like transmutation or alchemy. While the acts themselves were based in the supposed science of the era, they were no doubt the roots for modern black magic. The mere definition of scientism, in that it indicates the improper usage of scientism, lends itself easily to the bending of right into wrong. This principle is also the basis for all black magic, since even though it does not necessarily have to harm someone, it undoubtedly converts good will and fortune into something that can aid and benefit someone’s private obsessions.

The seven artes prohibitae, or arts prohibited by canon law, are as follows: geomancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, pyromancy, chiromancy, scapulimancy, and nigomancy (demonology). These arts could be considered disciplines for those who take the craft seriously, relegating their beliefs into actual scientific study. Is this scientism, or actual occult fact?

The most renowned discipline of these seven is the last entry, nigomancy. Taken from the term “necromancy”, this specific study deals with the spirit or vessel after assumption of death. Demonology as a whole is the most closely associated practice dealing with black magic, in which the negative aspects of the afterlife are focused on. Summoning spirits, whether it be for good will and inquiry or not, is classified as a dark art and thus belonging to the realm of black magic.

To raise the dead is a blasphemy against nature itself. In a sense, death is the end of nature’s rule over an individual, and the forced manipulation of that spirit or dead vessel is the epitome of black magic. Debasing what would normally slumber silently, either be bending it to a user’s will or commanding it to release knowledge, goes against the free will of both the spirit or vessel, and the natural order of the universe. Why else would a practitioner attempt to exert control over another spirit or vessel but to satisfy the user’s own desires?

These practices have been absorbed by popular culture once again, but mostly as fiction. Necromancers have become nothing more than slightly scary characters in today’s modern fiction stories, as opposed to the inquisitive users they once were in antiquity. Great education was undertaken to perform the complicated acts of black magic, whereas now it is seen as waving a magic wand and exerting a minimal amount of effort.

Does this remove some of the social power of black magic? Perhaps. But the science behind the seven artes prohibitae is still very real. It does not matter if the abilities promised by the study of the craft are attainable or not; the simple fact is that legions of people over the years have devoted themselves to the study of something they believe to be true. The entire world once thought the Earth was flat, and their so-called study into those so-called facts was still rendered as hard science.

The point is simply this: regardless of the outcome, the science of black magic is intact. It is meticulously studied and researched, even to this day.