This book is inspired by goetic tradition and goes into great detail about how to engage in spirit divination. While this work is more geared towards demonolatry, the general practices work for necromancy. I highly recommend this book if you are looking to become a medium, which is a pivotal requirement in necromancy. Connolly has ideas in her work that are clearly taken from an oral witchcraft tradition, such as the concept of dark gifts. This makes her claim to a family lineage of demonolators seem more legitimate to me.
This book goes into further detail about how the goetic tradition can be practiced in the modern age. It demonstrates this approach with the infamous "Ars Goetia" from the Lesser Key of Solomon. The general approach can be applied to a variety of other goetic and necromantic grimoires of the past. Opus also provides details about the chthonic plane that is highly relevant to the aspiring necromancer. Specific demons listed in the Ars Goetia are explicitly said to be capable of facilitating communication with spirits of the dead.
This series of books goes into detail about the relationship between necromancy and goetic tradition. It is a great resource for approaching older ceremonial grimoires.
This is a historical rather than theoretical text. I think it is worth looking into alongside "Geosophia" for a deeper understanding of the history of Western necromancy. Some of the practices are detailed enough to inspire the creation of similar chaos magick rituals for similar purposes, which I recommend experimenting with.
This also focuses primarily on the Ars Goetia from the Lesser Key of Solomon, much like the above two books. It provides a framework for all of ceremonial magic and Western spirit work in particular. Alongside "The Psychonaut Field Manual," this should be required reading for any occultist, in my opinion.
A general overview of grimoiric tradition.
A general historical overview of Western magic.
An influential body of texts that influenced occult tradition. Long before Eliphas Levi, Samuel Lidell MacGregor Mathers, Helena Blavatsky, Dion Fortune, Israel Regardie, or Aleister Crowley. Agrippa is arguably as important as John Dee and Paracelsus to the Western occult canon. Agrippa's third book of Occult Philosophy even explicitly discusses necromancy (briefly) in Chapter XLII.
A cartoonist's general how-to guide on performing various kinds of magick, primarily from a chaos magick perspective. It's free. If you only ever read one work on magick or occultism, I think it should be this one. If you're new and need an introduction to occultism, read this with Crowley's "Initiated Interpretation of Ceremonial Magic."
Similar in tone to the Psychonaut Field Manual and the most thorough book on Qabalah that I have ever read.
After reading the Psychonaut Field Manual and familiarizing yourself with Qabalah, the Golden Dawn will round out your understanding of Hermetic occultism.
After you have read everything else here, this book will allow you to finally begin the path towards completing the Magnum Opus through Hermetic Qabalah. This book has an ordered reading list for each section, many of which have more books than I have on this one reading list. Occultism takes a lot of bookwork.
This online resource is an archive of notable and influential messages sent during the Y2K era on a chaos magick electronic mailing list. It covers theories of magick in general, definitions of chaos magick, definitions of chaos magick concepts such as egregores and paradigm shifting, and it has practical exercises. This is a veritable treasure trove of modern occultism.
This is a decent philosophical primer on what magic is and how it works. It is similar to my own primer, but with a more practical focus and it covers some aspects of magic that I did not. The ideas expressed in this essay closely align with oral witchcraft tradition. This essay is hosted on the Cantrap site, which has additional resources, including other theoretical essays as well as practical exercises.
This site has many useful eclectic resources, but I think the "basic magick" section is superb. It deals primarily with the energy model of magick, and I think the "basic magick" section is very useful for anyone who is new to the practice. If you read only my site, Real Magick, Cantrap, Chaos Matrix, and the Psychonaut Field Manual, then you will have a very solid foundation to build any type of practice that calls to you. I recommend the "basic magick" exercises right next to the Psychonaut Field Manual.
Plato
Aristotle
Plotinus*
Pythagoras
Johannes Trithemius*
Paracelsus
Hermes Trimegistus*
Nicolas Flamel
Basil Valentine
John Dee
Jakob Bohme*
Emanuel Swedenborg*
Franz Mesmer
Phineas Quimby*
Eliphas Levi
Arthur Edward Waite
William Robert Woodman
William Wynn Westcott
Samuel Lidell MacGregor Mathers*
Swami Vivekananda
Helena Blavatsky*
Alice Bailey
Dion Fortune*
Israel Regardie
Austin Osman Spare*
Rudolf Steiner
Carl Jung*
Gleb Botkin
Franz Bardon
Maharishi Maresh Yogi
Gerald Gardner
Oberon Zell
Linda Goldman
Ram Dass*
Timothy Leary
Terrence McKenna
Robert Anton Wilson
Philip J Carroll*
Ray Sherwin
Phil Hine
Damien Echols
*=These are, in my opinion, the central figures that are the most important for understanding occultism and the New Age movement