A Primer on Necromantic Treasure Hunting

[The Nehor]

Was enjoying one of my favorite YouTube channels and found a breakdown of how magic was used to aid in the search for buried treasure. I kept wondering if Joseph Smith was going to pop up and he did briefly towards the end.

This is good background for understanding the history of magical treasure hunting, how it worked in practice, and can possibly shed some light on Joseph Smith’s treasure hunting and also the treasure hunting bands that tried to acquire the gold plates and how they might have functioned.

It also sheds some potential light on why buried treasure in the Book of Mormon was described as slippery. The treasure was often believed to be opposed to being found and there was a kind of magical duel fought to defeat it.

Warning for some dry sarcasm about the LDS faith but it is just the creator’s normal wit that he aims at every faith including his own. Also a warning for a few really nerdy references.

 

[Robert F. Smith]

Some may recall King Saul’s infamous inquiry made to a dead Samuel the Prophet via an unnamed female medium/necromancer (“mistress of an ‘ob”) at ʿEn-Dor (I Sam 28:7), erroneously called a “witch” by some. This was a classic case of necromancy (consultation with ghosts), which has been with us for thousands of years, and which is regularly practiced in modern times by John Edward, James Van Praagh, Sylvia Browne, Suzane Northrop, and many others.  However, when the unnamed woman sees Samuel, she tells Saul that she sees “an ‘elohim rising from the earth” – ‘Elohim being a classic plural Hebrew term for “God” which nowhere else is used for “ghost” (I Sam 28:13 = LXX Θεοὺς), and for that reason very obscure of meaning here, although Murray Harris defines it in this case as a “spiritual being.”
    
However, it is at least clear that the Jupiter medallion which Joseph Smith supposedly had on his person at the time of his death, also had at the center of the reverse side a reference to Hebrew 'el'e[b], "god of the father (patron of ancestors & ghosts)" – misspelled in this case.  Since Hebrew ʾob = Ugaritic ʾeb (Hittite a-a-bi, ayabi, aybi, Hurrian api, Neo-Assyrian apu) originally meant “ritual pit, mundus,” i.e., “a pit dug in the ground, which served as a means of access between infernal spirits of gods or deceased persons and the upper world,” and involved oracles, offerings, and blood libations (including dogs, cats, and lambs).
    
Moreover, “in Greco-Roman necromancy, blood sacrifices were believed to reanimate the dead,” and Oracles of the Dead were often delivered via “a ritual sleeping-and-dreaming now known as incubation,” as well as by “skull necromancy.”  Of course, the exorcism of ghosts is also a specialty of necromancers.  In the Greco-Roman world these functions were performed by a psychagogue (ψχἄγωγός) meaning “soul-conductor (like Hermes), necromancer.”

[SeekingUnderstanding]

On 4/26/2025 at 2:41 PM, The Nehor said:

Was enjoying one of my favorite YouTube channels and found a breakdown of how magic was used to aid in the search for buried treasure. I kept wondering if Joseph Smith was going to pop up and he did briefly towards the end.

This is good background for understanding the history of magical treasure hunting, how it worked in practice, and can possibly shed some light on Joseph Smith’s treasure hunting and also the treasure hunting bands that tried to acquire the gold plates and how they might have functioned.

It also sheds some potential light on why buried treasure in the Book of Mormon was described as slippery. The treasure was often believed to be opposed to being found and there was a kind of magical duel fought to defeat it.

Warning for some dry sarcasm about the LDS faith but it is just the creator’s normal wit that he aims at every faith including his own. Also a warning for a few really nerdy references.

 

That was interesting. Thanks!