The study of the nature of the soul is an integral part to absolutely any necromantic practice. It is the manipulation of the soul itself which defines the art of necromancy at its most fundamental level and, as such, each necromancer takes great interest in learning about the condition of the soul in every state. To first define what it is we refer to by speaking of the "soul", however, is of utmost importance.

The definition of soul takes many forms but, for necromantic purposes, it must be a clearly defined aspect of the living animal. The flesh composes our material body, which is the corporeal aspect all humans deal with on a daily basis and that which seems to be our primary plane of interaction. Many can carry through an entire lifetime and never consciously interact with any facet of existence other than the corporeal material world, thus it would seem safe to assume that the material level is fundamentally our native arena of influence. The necromancer sees further into life though and also acknowledges the influence of death on all living creatures. This death is not seen directly on this level. It is seen through effects made readily apparent by the loss of vitality and onset of conditions resembling lethargy, any number of diseases, and many general forms of physiological malady. The powers which induce these conditions can be preemptively felt on the instinctive and intuitive level. Keeping in mind this fact and compounding it with testimonies of spectral visions or the materially visible ghost, the necromancers, mediums, diviners, spiritists, and religionists of all kind have come to the eventual conclusion that there is more than one layer to this world. Those concerned with OBEs and astral projection would also concur with this notion, and furthermore there is now speculation from the scientific communities studying quantum physics that there may indeed be other levels to this existence. Multi-layered reality is becoming a fairly popular physics theory. Necromancers came to this conclusion long ago, though with far less decorum, and have made use of what abilities were readily available within the human psyche to interact with that level.

Keeping the dimensional nature of reality in mind, the definition of what exactly a "soul" is becomes immensely important. But first, let us digress slightly to address a common and unfortunate association: the soul, as defined by necromancy, is not the same as "spirit". It is possible, and even very likely in some cases, that there are necromancers who believe in the existence of the soul that do not believe in the existence of the spirit. Soul and spirit are proposed aspects of the human, potentially as essential emanations which manifest in a corporeal body, which are commonly thought to be respectively ascendant in dimensional reality models (like the Gallean conical model) usually finding their apex at gnosis or some similar concept. With regards to necromancy now, spirit tends to be considered a convention used almost exclusively by religions or those speaking of afterlife with religious connotations. Its nature is unknown and it is not known how humanity ever came to the conclusion that spirit exists except to attempt to validate various religious beliefs. The spirit is considered an immaterial thing which is beyond manipulation or control, travel, and ultimately beyond all comprehension supposing it even does exist. The soul though, by necromantic definition, is similar to what has come to be known as the "ethereal body". The soul is the intangible essential emanation of our material body, which mirrors us on the corporeal level. It is the life force that flows through our body and serves as the embodiment of the individual at the most essential level. Its traits are identical to the mind (not brain) and is usually considered to be the same thing.

Why does this matter?

Knowing the nature of the soul -- an ethereal body emanating the structure of the material body -- allows us to understand the mechanics of soul as well. The revelations of the nature of soul allow us to assume a few things about it to base a practice on. The first of these is that the soul may be tangentially affected. Aura reading, which is a technique some necromancers learn to develop, shows that the metaphysical body is in a constant state of flux yet is assumably trying to achieve equilibrium in the very same way that the material body does. We may catch a flu, or cut ourselves, but the material body continually tries to negate these effects and return to its normal course of growth and maturation until prepared for death. Even Shakespearean plays, Greek burial rites, native American burial rites, Roman Catholic last rites, and Egyptian burial rites emphasize that the soul must be properly set to rest rather than separating from the body as result of sickness or premature destruction of the material body. Such an event would theoretically be a premature interruption of the soul's incubation period, throwing it back into a dishevelled state of chaos before being fully prepared to cope with the realm of the dead. The soul is naturally maturing to pass on to noncorporeality once capable of surviving as a self-sufficient entity. In this sense, the "meaning of life", to a necromancer, is to condition the soul during one's lifetime for as long as it takes to become strong enough to survive the rigours of the body to spirit transition (death) and competently adapt to the soul's realm without the aid of a physical anchor. The necromancer can be considered a psychopomp, in this respect, capable of preparing the dead for their final (?) voyage.

Many consider such a view of life as a harsh and fatalist viewpoint. The macabre skills developed and the necromancer's general attitude towards life is less than joyful, often overtly labelled as morose, but the cowardice of those who shy away from truth because they do not appreciate or understand it are not worth paying heed to. The role of physical death is the end of our preparation period. Many necromancers default to reincarnation theory to explain what happens to the unprepared soul (such as the Greeks, in particular). Others simply say, in honesty, that they do not know, and this is perfectly allowable. The destiny of prepared souls is unknown, though the process of conditioning the soul focuses on conceding movement and volition to the necromancer. If the art of necromancy operates as it is intended to, the destination of the soul is up to the individual. The prejudice of the fearful and weak in no way detracts from the utilitarian value of necromancy.

The necromancer's intimate knowledge of the mechanics of the soul has not only earned them respect as psychopomps, but also as hierophants. Knowing that communication between the living and the dead is possible leaves the key to knowledge in the hands of the cunning necromancer. Being able to traverse the material world as any other human is a fine skill itself, but the ability to traverse also the lands of death offers knowledge and power untapped by the general populace, or verily even the majority of magicians. Filling the role of hierophant, the necromancer understands the realm of the dead by their own direct experiences during necromantic trances or through communication with others that have found enough clarity within that realm to be able to attempt to call back to the realm of the living which we currently reside in. What could be more fulfilling than complete knowledge of where you are and where you are going?

With more security than any religion could ever provide, the necromancer rests assured of their position in this world and the next allowing them an unprecedented degree of security coupled with moral liberty. Moreover, navigations through the void of death are not a sterile and disjunct skill which the necromancer must feebly hope will pay off one day. The skills and abilities available through the netherworld are directly applicable to this realm as well through manipulations performed on the soul of a selected target; the necromancer is also capable of targeting their own soul for manipulation as well. Related to the hierophant aspect, the necromancer's knowledge of soul, acquired through personal experience and testing the capacities inherent in the realm of the dead, allows them to also retain the awesome ambience of a seer and diviner of the arcane future. Much like turning over a bit of woven tapestry, the necromancer can analyze the threads that bind reality from a reductionist standpoint. Souls of the dead and departed have had time to gather information and some would be willing to share this information. In life as in death, personalities come in all flavours and there will always be every strain of spirit available for communication. The necromancer can find solace and advice in calling for like-minded geists, familiar demons of the nether as "interpreters", or, to the delight of the antisocial, one can even partially detach their own soul from the body to trek the underworld on their own.

The power of understanding such a superficially simple concept as the nature of the soul has profound implications which the wise necromancer learns early to exploit.