Saul and the Witch of Endor, by Benjamin West Postcard

In the First book of Samuel (an ancient Jewish prophetic book included in the collection of texts known to Christians as the Old Testament and the Tanakh to the Jews), chapter 28:3–25, the Witch of Endor was a woman who possessed a talisman through which she called up the ghost of the recently deceased prophet Samuel, at the demand of King Saul of Kingdom of Israel. After Samuel's death and burial with due mourning ceremonies in Ramah, Saul had driven all necromancers and magicians from Israel. Then, in a bitter irony, Saul sought out the witch, anonymously and in disguise, only after he received no answer from God from dreams, prophets or the Urim and Thummim as to his best course of action against the assembled forces of the Philistines. The prophet's ghost offered no advice but predicted Saul's downfall as king; Saul calmly accepted his doom and fell in battle the next day, his sons dying with him as well.