Bones Of Murmur Still Speaking To The Dead
By James Donahue
Yet another colorful spirit now portrays itself as a human skeleton. This time it is Murmur, the entity that could always speak with the dead.
In the early years the magicians saw Murmur thus: "He appears as a warrior riding upon a gryphon and wearing a ducal crown, as those before him sound trumpets." His specialty has always been channeling so that humans speak with the dead.
Those who now evoke this spirit are likely to find him to be no more than the skeletal remains of his former self. But the crown is still on his head, even though it is cock-eyed for lack of a body to hold it in place.
Murmur has neither wings nor arms. He stands behind something twisted and broken, looking out over a graveyard head stone.
Murmur "leans against a divided and broken wing." In death, then his wings have fallen to the ground. "Below a blank tombstone shines bright. The background is of the earth.
"The exorcists may command Murmur to bind the dead," one writer explains. "One may write the name upon the stone thereby limiting the deceased by name. Once bound, the dead shall speak..."
Even though he presents himself with a death mask, Murmur seems to still be on the job.
Listed as the fifty-fourth spirit of the Goetia, Murmur is a Great Duke with 30 legions of demons under his command. He teaches philosophy in addition to making contact with the dead.