This article is about Resurrections occurred in Salem. You may be looking for Dead Raising power.
Resurrection is an umbrella term that can refer to different acts related to the idea of coming back to life after death in many different forms depending on the used technique.
Description[]
Since the dawn of time death has been the dreaded eternal companion of mankind. Over the centuries wise connoisseurs of arcane secrets, later labeled as witches, have found different techniques to control the veil between life and death.
Back from the dead[]
Resurrection and reincarnation are the conventional concepts about coming back from the dead, with resurrection being the more effective of the two. These terms, seemingly synonymous with each other are the basis for understanding the different ways in which a soul can return to the mortal remains through magical means. A mild form of resurrection is that involving necromancy, allowing witches to momentarily summon forth spirits from beyond the grave. It has a limited period, ranging from a few minutes to a twenty-four hours window. Witches can then resort to their darkest power (referred to as divine power over life and death by John Hale) in order to bestow life unto someone, whether they are recently deceased or old corpses, thus literally bringing them back to life in flesh and blood. Said act is accomplished at a high price for the one who performs the incantation, especially when the resurrection is designed to last. There are an array of rituals and incantations to resurrect someone. However, it is important to note that one thing is to revive someone who is between life and death, another to resurrect a corpse. Said act requires a life to be given in return, be it a lesser sacrifice like that of a familiar or the sacrifice of a human life depending on the kind of resurrection to be obtained. To conclude, reincarnation is the rebirth of a soul in a new body. Such an act is yet to be revealed as the only witch known for her reincarnations is Countess Von Marburg, although it has not yet been fully explained how this process occurs. Hereinafter are given examples worth mentioning.
Consequences[]
Those who return from the dead differ from one another according to the methods used for raising them. While reanimated corspes, employed as subservient seem like empty shells animated by the willpower of a witch, fully resurrected people and ghosts retain memory of their earthly life and experiences in the Afterlife. An eerie Essex elder warned Tituba that when raising the dead one never knows what may be rising up, giving to understand that a person back from the dead could return somewhat different from the way he or she was before the demise, perhaps damaged by traumatic experiences in the Afterlife.
Notable Examples[]

Deaths of Countess Von Marburg's various incarnations through history.
Countess Von Marburg: Born thousands of years ago at the dawn of mankind in biblical terms, this evil witch has found a way to keep a spark of life in her original body, known as The Relic, that allows her to have a connection with the material world. Over the millennia the Countess has assumed identities and different aspects, reincarnating after longer or shorter periods in different parts of the world. It is not known how exactly the Countess rises again, since her mummified remains are kept in a sarcophagus and she reincarnates in a new body and does not come back to life in the old one. To further complicate the whole processs, her relic also acts as a talisman. The Countess, indeed, can only be killed permanently by destroying the mummified body. She also keeps a youthful and healthy appearance by regularly bathing in human blood as her appearance resembles that of the mummy that she jealously guards.

the desperate attempt to revive a recently deceased George Sibley
Reanimated corpses were raised by Rose Browning by means of a sacrifice of her own blood sprinkled on the graves to awaken the rotting corpses as if they were puppets.
Increase Mather was briefly raised from the dead beneath a ghost appearance by Mary Sibley with the purpose of being interrogated and used for his knowledge about the Countess.
George Sibley was briefly revived by Mary and Tituba by means of an elaborate ritual involving the sacrifice of a familiar, but as the spell that killed him was too powerful, it was impossible to resuscitate him entirely.
John Alden was resurrected by a nearly dying Mary Sibley, making it clear that the offering of a human soul can wring another from the clutches of the Reaper. The side effects of this resurrection are yet to be discovered.
Mary Sibley was resurrected by Tituba and the other Essex witches through the Tree of Life in order to stop the Devil. To accomplish this miraculous resurrection, Tituba and the Essex witches bound Mary's soul to the Primordial Tree so that Mary can never leave Salem.
Memorable Quotes[]
- Increase Mather (about Countess Von Marburg): No manner of execution - drowning, burning, beheading - can quench the infernal flame of the witch. You can't keep an evil witch down for long.
- -- The Beckoning Fair One
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- Tituba (to Mary Sibley): Risking necromancy without my aid is dangerous enough, but to raise Increase Mather from the dead...
- -- Dead Birds
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Trivia[]
- As previously described, resurrection is not a power but the result of different rituals. Depending on the ritual employed, more or less known or explained in the show, the results are different (reincarnation, apparition, resurrection).
- This concepts is strictly linked to the dark arts of Necromancy and Dead Raising.
- Resurrections will play an important role in the third season of Salem.
- At San Diego Comic Con 2016, Janet Montgomery revealed that Mary Sibley will be glad to be back to life as the Afterlife was not what she expected.
See Also[]
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