In many artistic depictions of witchcraft and sorcery, observers may notice some common visual themes which appear in these paintings. In this case, the image of a skull, placed in the middle of a circle, sometimes accompanied by oil lamps, candles, playing cards, incense, an hourglass, a rose or carnation, etc. Examples of this can be seen in “Preparation for the Witches Sabbath” and “Witches Taking Off for the Sabbath” by David Teniers II, or “The Witches Sabbat” by Frans Francken the Younger. At a glance, this is clearly meant to be a form of necromancy, or the skull acts as a spirit-house for a familiar, or both. I’m curious if anyone thinks these artistic depictions of witchcraft could potentially be used to create actual spells in a similar way. Theoretically, everything in these pictures makes sense: the skull placed within a circle to trap its inhabitant, flowers and incense as offerings, candle/oil lamp to draw in energy, cards to question the skull, etc. I say yes, but was curious what the community thought.
Furthermore, do you think there’s any grimoiric precedent inspiring these images? Or is it pure artistic fiction? The closest thing I can think of comes from the Hygromantia, which describes how a skull can be turned into an oracular device, but even that isn’t an exact parallel. Thoughts?