Bitten by Books
What if we had the power to bring back the dead? I’m not talking about zapping someone with defibrillators and restarting his or her heart. I mean really raise a corpse from the ground and give it a second chance at life.
Necromancy, the act of summoning and reanimating the dead, is neither a new concept nor one that is looked upon favorably. The practice dates back to ancient Greece, Rome, and Persia and is most associated with the Black Arts. It was used as a method of divination, is mentioned in the Bible in more than one spot, and was used by occultists and magicians during the Middle Ages and Renaissance as well. Leonardo da Vinci was actually accused of necromancy in 1514 and brought to Vatican officials where his notebook pages and drawings on human anatomy were closely examined.
Some necromancy rituals involved sacrifices, blood-letting, protection spells, meditation, incantations, abstinence from sex, eating and drinking special items, and wearing certain clothes. Most rituals took place in cemeteries, with practitioners preferring to raise the newly dead because these reanimated corpses were thought to have fresher, more clearly spoken revelations. Actual necromancy called the spirit back into the dead body. When the ritual was over, the spirit would be allowed to leave the body again usually by staking the corpse’s heart, burning the body, burying it in quicklime, or eating the flesh.
Hungry? I didn’t think so.
So, even the raised aren’t truly brought back to life though, and they don’t get to have that full second chance. Their reanimated time is usually short and serves the purpose of giving the necromancer requested information.
Bummer.
I would love to see someone cheated out of life get a do-over, wouldn’t you? Imagine being young and vibrant, in the prime of your life, and by accident or sickness, you die. End of the
road. You’d be pretty pissed. I know I would be. Especially if I hadn’t had the chance to do something truly important yet.
I believe that a big part of our purpose on this planet is to make a difference in some way. This can come in many forms from the grandiose gestures to the small ways we touch people’s lives. Each of us has a different contribution to make. No two of us will change the world in quite the same fashion, and that’s what makes it all so beautiful. We all have different gifts to share, and the most selfish thing we can do is hoard those gifts. Humans are a community-oriented bunch, therefore the Universe is demanding we interact, we grow, we help, we love.
And we need to do it before we croak.
Not trying to rush you or anything, but let’s face it, not many of us can put necromancer on our resume nor do we have the phone number for a good dead raiser programmed into our cell phones. If we check out before we’re ready (and are you ever really ready to die?), we’re not coming back for another shot at doing it right. We only get this one life. We have to make it count. Every day. Every moment. No opportunity wasted.
I dabbled with bringing the dead back in my paranormal romance, Abra Cadaver, published by The Wild Rose Press. You can learn more about Abra Cadaver at my website.
What do you think? Should we get a second chance if we don’t make a difference the first run through this life? Would you want one? What would you be willing to sacrifice to get it? Or have you already made a difference and have nothing to fear?
Leave me some comments, let’s chat, and you will be entered to win a free e-book of Abra Cadaver
About Christine:
Christine DePetrillo tried not being a writer. She attempted to ignore the voices in her head, but they would not stop. The only way she could achieve peace and quiet was to write the stories the voices demanded. She also has been teaching fifth grade for thirteen years where she inspires young people to love writing. Today, she writes tales meant to make you laugh, maybe make yousweat, and definitely make you believe in the power of love.
She lives in Rhode Island and occasionally Vermont with her husband, two cats, a big, blackGerman Shepherd, and a lizard.
Other paranormal titles by Christine include Lazuli Moon, The Last Stallion, and Alley Cat. FIREFLY MOUNTAIN is coming in October.
Find Christine online at her Author website, on Facebook, on Twitter, at Night Eternal (where she writes poems as Drake, the vampire), and at The Roses of Prose Blog on the 4th and 14th of every month.
You know, fantasy is all about wish fulfillment. Well, a lot of fiction is, but especially those genres with fantastic elements, including the paranormal. One of the significant differences between the fantasy and horror genres is the price of a wish. In both genres, the cost of resurrection is usually pretty high, but one of the great things about reality is that no one can break the rules to that extent. In that way, real life is actually pretty fair. I think if anyone got a second life do-over, everyone else would go apeshit with envy pretty fast.
As for me, I’m an adult. You don’t get to be a grown-up without changing the people in your life, and therefore the world. I suppose some people probably feel like they haven’t influenced anyone significantly, but I cannot imagine that ever being the case.
But if I failed to make an impact the first time around, I can’t imagine it would be any different in overtime.
I agree, Logan, that it’d be pretty difficult to live life and NOT influence other people. What if all of a person’s influences have been terrible ones? Should they get a do-over?
I daresay those would be the worst people to offer a 2nd chance!
I was trying to talk to you on twitter but it kept freezing up my pc. I don’t know what was going on with that!!
I think alot of people would love a do over but in the long run I bet not much would change. That includes me also, I would probably do the same thing
and screw it up some how.LOL
I do hope that I have influenced my children in some good way and for that matter my grandchildren.
Would I want a chance to come back and fix what ever was broke, good question! It would all depend if I had to live it from birth on up. If it meant saving one of the grandchildren then of course I would want to come back. So in this long and bumpy paragraph, yes I would come back!
Lisa D. USA
Thanks for commenting, Lisa. I’ve been having trouble with Twitter and FB today. Must be the heat! The Internet is taking a beach day! LOL.
I like your comments on whether or not you’d come back from birth. That’s an interesting notion. In my book, ABRA CADAVER, the main character comes back at the age she died. She doesn’t completely re-do her life. I guess for me, if I could pick an age, I’d come back in my thirties. Definitely don’t want to do high school a second time! Good Goddess! That’d be awful.
I wonder if I’d prefer coming back with all my previous memories from the first life or would I want a total clean slate? Hmmmm…Thoughts?
That’s something I’ve always said,”If I knew then what I know now things would be so different”. I’m great with hind sight! So I vote for coming back
with all memories no matter how painfull some can be.
I think the idea of “getting a second chance” is a good one but I would say there would need to be rules for it.
For instance, it should only be used in certain circumstances/ There would need to be a “council”of some sort who decides. They could hold a meeting to determine if a person should be brought back. Families could retain lawyers. Not everyone should just be brought back. No offense, but the elderly over a certain age should probably stay dead. Same goes for murderers, rapist and criminals killed in the act of committing a crime or if they dies in jail. Babies, children and younger people that die too young would be good candidates. . Anyone who holds a major government position (the President, VP or High Officials) Murder victims. Imagine being able to solve a murder by bringing back the victim?! If the person dies of a terminal disease and there is little chance that a great idea for a novel - The President of The United States is assassinated and we live in a time where we have the power to bring him back to life. Oh, I should probably stop writing here and start making notes. and Nobody steal my idea! Just kidding. But not too much. If I see a book come out next year with that storyline I will be very suspicious haha
I like your ideas, Lisa M! Just one question: What if the murderers, criminals, general bad guys agree to come back as good guys for the second time around? Should they get a chance to correct the mistakes and bad choices they made?
I don’t think they should because imagine how painful it would be for the victims and their families. I think it should be a form of punishment that you couldn’t come back if you were a criminal of that sort even if you could try to do good instead of evil.
I’m firm believer in Karma and reincarnation, so I try to live my life now hoping I do some good so my next life isn’t hell.
Of course I didn’t always feel this way, so I admit to being an ass in my early 20′s, but since then I hope I’ve changed some people’s lives for the better. It’s a deep question, the whole ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ scenario where what would the poeple around you be like if you were never in their lives at all? One small action can have many ripples and all.
As for coming back, I’d totally be into it. Maybe to right a wrong, finish unfinished business. For what I’d sacrifice…a lot. I don’t think I could make the call till I was in that position.
Thanks for commenting, Joani. As for me, I think I’d be most interested in trying out parallel lives instead of coming back for a do-over. You know, find the timeline where things are going just as I want them to and live in that Universe, with the option to hop into another Universe when things get boring or scary.
It would be cool to see all this fantasy to life
If I had a chance to change anything it would be to read more books, I can sit and read a book and see in the back of my mind what it should all look like.
I think that it is a nice thought to give someone a do over but I’d find it difficult to decide who should come back. I mean you wouldn’t want everyone to have a do over, especially criminals. If you could bring a crime victim back to tell us what happened it might be okay but maybe there should be a time limit to that person’s return. I think you’d have to weight the amount of time they’d already had on earth and decide the time period. For example, a small child that dies should have more time than my 91 year old mother in law. I’m not so sure my mother in law would even want to come back. There would have to be a council to decide who could come back, I guess.
Wow, I started typing got distracted then came back to it and looks like I wrote exactly what Lisa wrote. Great minds and all that…
What do you think? Should we get a second chance if we don
I don’t believe that we have just this one life, I believe in reincarnation. Therefore, if we don’t do something right during our current lifetime or have a chance to make a difference in the world were someone’s life, then we’ll get that chance in our next incarnation.
I think the idea of a second chance is a good one but I am not so sure that people would really make much use of it. I do love the thought of being able to tell some people that I love them one last time.
Getting a second chance would be awesome! Whether it’s for people who died too early or people who want another chance to do something right or better. It’s the whole ‘if you knew then what you know now’ thing.
But then do you start over with the memories of the fact that you lived before? So then maybe you can make better decisions. Or do you start fresh with the idea that this is the first time that you’ve lived and you hope to do better with out the previous knowledge? Sort of a take on reincarnation.
There are so many variables to this, but honestly if it were me, whichever way it leaned, I think I’d like another shot. Whether I could remember and do better, or I just get a new, fresh start. I’d welcome it. And depending on the circumstances of how long I lived before, on what I’d do for the chance, I might do a lot!
I’m not sure about second chances on life, I haven’t really thought about it. I think that we should/could have a chance at living again but I’m not sure we should be aware of how things played out the first time. Maybe after we have died again, we would have the memories of both visits and be able to compare notes.
I’m not sure if I’d want to live again, it’s a tough question. Ask me again in 50 years and I may have an answer to it but right now I am not sure.
The same thing goes for whether I have achieved any great ‘thing’ in my life. I’m sure I have greatly impacted someones life somehow, but I think everyone is bound to do that.
I can’t answer all of your wonderful questions, but they did make me stop and think, which I believe is one of the main pints in asking questions. It’s not necessarily the answer but how it makes you think in a new light.
I think you should live your life knowing it is your only life. Make your choices based on this fact and know you will have to deal with the consequences of your actions whether they are good or bad. You shouldn’t need a second chance at life if you have lived this one as should have, right?
Oh, yea. I vote for a redo. As one person said, “If I knew then…”
I’d love to see if I and others I knew, choose a different path. While there are things I don’t exactly regret, I’d like to think I’d make a less hurtful decision in some cases. However, had not some of these things come to pass, I might not have met the guy who is my hubby going on 32 years and and raised some of the most awesome kids in the world.
Wow, some interesting discussion on this topic here! This is a tough crowd on the criminals, I see. No do overs for them huh? Interesting. I love the idea of a council to decide and oversee people getting a second chance.
I also think that if people got second chances, they shouldn’t know ahead of time that they’re getting one. What’s to stop someone from completely blowing his/her first attempt at life if they knew a second one was in the pipeline, right? That’d be no good.
Bottom line, live each day to the fullest and go to bed each night with no regrets.
Who’s with me?
A second chance? If I could change something about the people, I’d stop them hating each other and I’d encourage them to bring others a second chance!
Just like anything else there is good and bad in it. Even with rules for who would get a second chance, someone bad could still sneak through. I don’t know, I think I’d be for it. I would probably think it was pretty cool. Never know.
Although having a do over would be very nice, I think we might tend to do the same things repeatedly. It is a nice thing to think that we learn from our mistakes, but unfortunately it seems like we repeat them more often than not.