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Try to bind me again, you'll die before you start. Nice Pickle Chips, by the way.
— Death to Dean, Sam, and Bobby
in Meet the New Boss

Binding or summoning Death can be achieved via magic, like any lesser reaper, albeit it's more complex. It can be broken by killing or imprisoning the caster or casters of the spell.

Practitioners[]

Binding by Heaven[]

Death has been bound by Heaven at least twice, and their method was one of the more effective methods. He was completely bound in his coffin on both occasions, before and after the great flood, until the fallen archangel Lucifer broke the binding ritual and cast his own binding ritual on Death.[1]

Bobby described the binding by Heaven to have trapped Death 600 feet under the earth. The exact methods of this ritual is unknown.

Binding by Lucifer[]

Deathtribute

Lucifer killing demons as a tribute to Death.

The bind Lucifer cast on Death was one of the weakest forms, as the archangel did not fully control Death's location and methods. However, the ritual performed by the Archangel broke the bind cast by Heaven and placed a new bind on the horseman. With his ritual, Lucifer could force the horseman to kill people or create severe weather anomalies in a certain area, but he could not enforce the horseman's exact timing or schedule. In fact, even when bound by Lucifer, Death was able to delay himself and made side trips to communicate with Dean.[2]

This ritual required the angel of death be brought forth into the world at midnight through a place of awful carnage. Lucifer chose Carthage, Missouri, where an intense battle occurred during the Civil War. The soldiers called the Battle of Carthage as the Battle of Hellhole.

This ritual required a tribute, specifically demon sacrifices to release Death. The tributes had to recite "We offer up our lives, blood, souls to complete this tribute," after which they were killed by Lucifer.

Binding by the Winchesters[]

Binddeathspell

The spell to bind Death.

This spell, according to Crowley, required an extreme amount of power to pull off. The demon was reluctant to perform the ritual but he gave the Winchesters the spell and its requirements. Although performed by mere humans, the binding worked to great effect, with Dean being able to command Death to kill any being the hunter wished.[3]

7x1 Castiel releasing Death from the binding spell

Castiel releasing Death from the binding spell.

The spell demanded the performer to assemble several materials, which Bobby described to be common to hunters, and a fulgurite— 'an act of God crystallized forever'. All the materials had to be mixed together in a bowl. Like most spells, a sigil had to be drawn and several lit candles had to be aligned with or around the sigil. Blood must be poured into the bowl with the ingredients, which had to be placed atop the sigil. The following Latin invocation then had to be recited:

Te nunc invoco, Mortem. Te in mea potestate defixi. Nunc et in aeternum!

Rough translation:

O Death, I now summon thee. I bind thee under my power. For now and ever!

Once completed, Death immediately appears in the immediate area, and under complete control of the performer or performers of the binding spell. The spell was easily broken by Castiel, whose power was vastly increased by the souls in Purgatory.

Summoning by Dean Winchester[]

In 2015, Dean summons Death, offers him homemade Mexican food, and asks Death to kill him because he can't fight the Mark of Cain. Death says he won't kill Dean, as it is impossible even for him, so Death offers to relocate Dean with the Mark far away from Earth where he will no longer be a danger in exchange for Dean killing Sam. However, Dean killed Death with his own scythe instead in order to save Sam.[4]

Appearances[]

Trivia[]

  • Although Death was one of the most powerful beings in the Universe, he has been bound several times by beings weaker than him.
  • Bobby's books contain a note that labels releasing Death as the seventh seal.
  • War said his "beeper went off", and Lucifer said the Horsemen in general were very demanding, appearing to indicate Lucifer summoned War and there are rituals to bind the other Horsemen.

Gallery[]

References[]

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