Death Apparitions, part 2

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In other cases, spirits are summoned, usually accidentally, often by people they loved, and the spirits just do what they think people want them to do. The problem is that they pick up on all the wrong signals, and one thing about spirits is that they kind of lose track of whatever moral compass they might have had in real life. We worked a real strange case not too long ago in which the spirit was a pastor who was causing problems (read: killing people) because in the spirit world it was no longer able to distinguish right from wrong.
Spirits just understand desire.
So what we had to do was talk to it. In other words, perform a séance.
Now when we say séance, we don't mean the circle around a table where some John Edward type fishes around for clues about what his audience might want to hear. There are real rituals for contacting the dead in most religious traditions, and we've learned a few of them. The one we used to contact the dead pastor came from a primitive Christian rite. We found this version of it in Dad's journal:

On a clean altar cloth inscribed with the symbols as above, place a small bowl filled with fresh herbs. Around the perimeter of the cloth, place black and white candles, alternating and equal in number. When all of the candles are lit, recite the following:
AMATE SPIRITUS OBSCURE, TE QUAERIMUS.
TE ORAMUS, NOBISCUM COLLOQUERE, APUD NOS CIRCITA.
At the finish of the incantation, pinch a tiny amount of frankincense, sandalwood, or cinnamon powder over on of the candle flames.

We chose that one because we were working in a Christian framework that time. You want voodoo? We've got voodoo, too. Winchester and Sons is a full-service outfit.

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