Resurrection

Dean climbs out of his coffin after having been mysteriously pulled out of Hell

“	This ain't the first time you've been here. You boys die more than anyone I've ever met.	”
	— Ash in Dark Side of the Moon

“	I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition.	”
	— Castiel in Lazarus Rising

Resurrection is the power to revive the deceased. It is an extremely difficult power to harness. Shortly after Death was killed, the reaper Billie announced that what died will stay dead.

Overview

The Darkness, God, Death, and the archangels could do this effortlessly. Normal angels could do this too, but only via the power of Heaven. Seraphim and archangels possess the power even without being connected to Heaven, but need all the atoms of the individual to do so. When angels resurrected beings, any kind of nearby vegetation was destroyed. Death, as a general rule, did not resurrect people as such acts disrupt the Natural Order. Archangels, namely Lucifer and Raphael, used resurrection in their torture, killing their enemies and continuously resurrecting them time after time. Even Gabriel, while posing as the Trickster, made Sam and Dean re-live a day over again repeatedly making Dean die while Sam watched. Months after stopping the cycle, Sam begged him to bring Dean back, and Gabriel returned Sam to the morning before Dean died, bringing him back to life again despite Dean having been dead and in Hell for months. Michael once resurrected Sam when Sam and Dean travelled to the past to save their parents from rogue angel Anna Milton during the time of the Apocalypse. Castiel, moments after his own resurrection and promotion to the rank of Seraphim was able to effortlessly resurrect Bobby Singer. After recharging his grace by feeding on several other angels, Lucifer was able to resurrect Sam Winchester and later Maggie. When angels use the power, even archangels, they are required to touch the subject on the head as seen with Bobby's resurrection by Castiel, Sam's resurrection by Michael and Maggie's resurrection by Lucifer. In the case of Lucifer, his eyes glow red when he uses this power. When Jack was resurrected by Castiel, Castiel had to locate his soul in Heaven and touch him, causing Jack to glow and wake up in his body on Earth. However, Castiel lacked the power to bring him back for long or cure the condition that killed him, bringing Jack back still ill. Lily Sunder was able to use a ritual to cure the condition, making Jack's resurrection permanent.

Demons can also use this power, but only in the context of a deal. Demons achieve this by channeling the power of the human soul from the deal made, able to grant almost any wish. This can be done even without selling a person's soul to the demon as long as a deal was made, such as when Azazel made deals to individuals when he went to make the special children without taking the souls of the future parents like Mary Winchester. A demon only needs to make a deal to harness the souls power to grant a wish, though most choose to take a person's soul to Hell upon death from the end of their contract. In order for someone to be resurrected, the practitioner must have all - or at least most of - the subject's molecular components available. Anna Milton planned to spread Sam Winchester's cells all across the universe in order to stop him from being resurrected. Resurrection can be performed with a spell: when Dean Winchester possessed the soul of the vampire Benny, he was able to travel to the graveyard where Benny was buried, dig up his body and cast a spell over the body, dripping blood with Benny's soul in it onto the bones. This resurrected Benny and he came back as a vampire.

The Thules, known for delving deep into necromancy, have managed to resurrect their dead members. Whether or not they actually possessed the ability to resurrect people or were simply practicing an extremely powerful version of necromancy was unclear, as their subjects were more than mindless zombies but actual resurrected humans. It is possible that 'necromancy' was only mistakenly used to describe their occult practices. However it should be noted that there subjects weren't completely natural humans, as afterwards they became immortal and could only die if shot in the head, and then had their body burned.

God possessed the ability to resurrect any being he wanted to, but almost never did due to his stepping back from Heaven. However, he resurrects Castiel three times: to help stop The Apocalypse, apparently as a reward with greater power for helping stop the Apocalypse, and Castiel believes the last one was a punishment for his actions in declaring himself God. He is also able to do this despite Castiel's body being completely destroyed each time. God himself later confirms this, telling Metatron that "I've rebuilt Castiel more times than I can remember and look where that's got me." He resurrected an entire town of humans with no problem. However, even God's resurrection ability has a limit and he cannot resurrect the Archangels in any sort of timely fashion due to them being primordial entities. Even after being weakened by a shot from The Equalizer, he was able to resurrect Lillith.

The Darkness also possesses the power of resurrection. After Dean reunited her and God, the Darkness resurrected Mary Winchester despite it having been 33 years since she was killed and Mary having left behind no body.

The Mark of Cain possesses the ability to resurrect the wielder and will do so if they die. However, the Mark resurrects them as a demon without their souls spending time in Hell, more specifically, a Knight of Hell, and grants them true immortality as a demon to the point where not even Death could kill the bearer of the Mark.

The Shadow, the being that controls the Empty possesses the ability to resurrect those who are trapped in the Empty if it so wishes. The Shadow resurrected Castiel with no problem, despite the latter's body being destroyed in a hunter's funeral.

Using a ritual involving Jack's blood and his own, Nick almost succeeded in resurrecting Lucifer from the Empty before Lucifer was sent back by Jack. However, at the time of this attempted resurrection, Lucifer was already awake and the blood used was from his son, a stated necessary component and his vessel.

Though Rowena MacLeod created a spell to bring the dead back to life by making spirits flesh, the Witch Mother stated that such a spell would only work once before Billie discovered it and closed the loophole to prevent it from working again. It's later revealed that God led Sam to the spell so that Eileen would be resurrected as part of his plans. However, God admitted that it wasn't all him: all he did was give Sam half of the spell and Sam did the rest.

Billie, as the new Death, has shown the ability to resurrect beings from the Empty, bringing Jack back from the dead with all of his Nephilim powers intact.

Characters with this ability

• Primordial Entities
  • The Darkness
  • God
  • Death
  • The Shadow
  • Archangels
    • Michael
    • Lucifer
    • Gabriel
• Jack Kline
• Seraphim
• Angels (through the power of Heaven)
• Some Demons (by deals)
  • Crossroad Demons
  • Princes of Hell
• Reapers
  • Billie
• Magic Practitioners
  • Witches (through the Resurrection Seal)
  • Necromancers
    • Thules
  • Sam Winchester (through a spell)
  • Dean Winchester (through a ritual)

Known resurrections

The list below documents individuals who have been brought back from the dead.

Canon

• Dean Winchester: Resurrected by Azazel, pulled out of Hell and resurrected by Castiel, resurrected by Joshua, resurrected by Billie, resurrected again by Billie as Death.
  • Later, in Do You Believe In Miracles?, he was resurrected again after being killed by Metatron via the power of the Mark of Cain. However, he came back as a demon.
• Sam Winchester: Resurrected by a Crossroad Demon, resurrected by Michael, resurrected by Joshua, resurrected by Billie, resurrected by Lucifer.
• Adam Milligan: Resurrected by Zachariah as part of a plan to force Dean to say "yes" to Michael.
• Bobby Singer: Resurrected by Castiel after his own resurrection as a Seraph.
• Castiel: Resurrected three times by God and once by Gadreel. He was resurrected another time by the Shadow.
• Samuel Campbell: Resurrected by Crowley.
• John Winchester: Resurrected by Azazel as part of a deal with Mary Winchester.
• Benny Lafitte: Resurrected by Dean with a spell as part of a deal to help him escape Purgatory.
• Prometheus: Due to a curse that Zeus placed him under.
• Oliver: Due to Zeus' curse being passed down to him by his father.
• Charlie Bradbury: Resurrected by Gadreel after being killed by The Wicked Witch.
• Josie Sands: Resurrected by the Human Body Restoration Ritual to act as a vessel for Abaddon.
• Dorothy: Resurrected by an unknown party after The Wicked Witch killed her in Oz.
• Young woman: Resurrected by Metatron in order to get humanity to worship him.
• Cain: Resurrected by Mark of Cain after committing suicide, as a demon and a Knight of Hell.
• Rowena: Resurrected by her Resurrection Seal after Lucifer broke her neck; resurrected by the Resurrection Seal a second time after Lucifer crushed her head and burned her body.
• People of Hope Springs, Idaho: Resurrected by God after choosing to fight the Darkness.
  • Wes Cooper: Resurrected by God with the people of Hope Springs.
  • Jan Harris: Resurrected by God with the people of Hope Springs.
  • Art Harris: Resurrected by God with the people of Hope Springs.
• Mary Winchester: Resurrected by the Darkness as a "thank you" for Dean helping her reconcile with her brother.
• Adolf Hitler: Resurrected by the Thule.
• Nick: Resurrected by Crowley to act as the vessel of Lucifer.
• Kelly Kline: Resurrected by Jack following her suicide.
• Billie: Resurrected as the new incarnation of Death following her death at Castiel's hands due to the rule stating that the first Reaper to die after the old incarnation of Death becomes the new incarnation.
• Arthur Ketch: Resurrected by his Resurrection Seal after being killed by Mary Winchester.
• Luther Shrike: Resurrected by Barthamus after blackmailing Barthamus with his human bones.
• Maggie: Resurrected by Lucifer on Jack's request after being killed by Lucifer.
• Lora - Resurrected by Jack smashing the amulet holding Lora's life force, returning the life force to Lora and immediately resurrecting her.
• Jack: Resurrected by Castiel long enough for Lily Sunder to use a ritual to cure the condition that had killed Jack in the first place. Resurrected by Billie to kill God.
• Lilith: Resurrected by God from the Empty.
• Eileen Leahy: Resurrected by Sam using a spell created by Rowena MacLeod.

Non-Canon

• The Forty Year: Spirits resurrected every forty years by Elizabeth Claire Marbrough's spell cast in revenge against her son and the town of Cedar Wells, Arizona. Amongst those resurrected were Neville Stein, Harmon Baird's father, Stu and Howard Patrick. Ended when Dean broke the spell with the help of Harmon Baird and Juliet Monroe.
• Sam Winchester (Anime Series): Resurrected by the Crossroads Demon through a deal with his brother Dean Winchester.
• Dean Winchester (Anime Series): Resurrected by the demon Azazel who possessed the Grim Reaper through a deal by John Winchester.

Gallery

Trivia

• A person who sold their soul to a crossroads demon who died before the deal was complete will be forced to continue the contract once they have been resurrected as seen with Bobby Singer.
• The last person killed by Lucifer before his own death was a young woman named Maggie. Ironically, Lucifer resurrected Maggie afterwards himself at the request of Jack.
• In All Hell Breaks Loose - Part 2 and Let the Good Times Roll, Azazel and Lucifer state that a person who has been resurrected may not come back the same as they were before they died. This fact worried Dean through Season 3 following Sam's resurrection after being killed by Jake Talley. Sam later stated that he was trying to become more like Dean due to the threat of Dean's deal hanging over their heads. Though Sam came back the same when Lucifer resurrected him in Beat the Devil, Lucifer suggested that Sam was simply a special case. However, it should be noted that when Lucifer made this comment, he was resurrecting someone he personally killed and was trying to dissuade the resurrection as he knew she could identify him as her killer when she came back to life and Azazel had been enjoying taunting Dean before trying to kill him.
• Following Castiel's resurrection in The Big Empty, he refers to what happened as Jack bringing him back despite the fact that it was the Shadow that sent him back to Earth. It is unclear why Castiel considers Jack as the one who resurrected him since Castiel forced the Shadow to restore him to life, but Castiel's resurrection started with Jack awakening him in the Empty which is possibly what he means.
• In Family Matters, Crowley reveals himself as the one who resurrected Samuel Campbell after pulling his soul out of Heaven and claims that he can now resurrect someone at will due to his new status as King of Hell. However, it is unclear if Crowley was actually telling the truth at the time as he also claimed to have pulled Sam out of the Cage which was a lie and Azazel, while holding the same position and in general far more powerful than Crowley, told Dean that "demons can't resurrect people unless a deal is made" which he calls "red tape." As a result, Azazel could not resurrect Sam following his death at the hands of Jake Talley. Due to Crowley's deal with Castiel who did possess the power to resurrect the dead at will, its possible that it was in fact Castiel that resurrected Samuel for Crowley, but this is unconfirmed. Dialogue in The Man Who Would Be King also shows that Samuel's resurrection did not happen before Crowley and Castiel created their alliance.
• After Castiel lost his grace and the Fall of the Angels, it was left unclear if he retained this power. As seen in Season 14's Byzantium, Castiel can still resurrect people, but this power is now much more limited. He could only bring Jack back for a very short time and an outside force had to cure the condition that had killed Jack in the first place with Jack coming back from the dead still sick. Additionally, Castiel had to travel into Heaven to retrieve Jack's soul while with Bobby Singer he could resurrect him with just a touch. Notably, in Season 13's Beat the Devil, Castiel and Gabriel, who was low on grace at the time, stated that they weren't strong enough to resurrect the recently deceased Sam in Apocalypse World.
• Though Jack has displayed this power from the womb in Season 12's The Future, he never displayed it again after his birth. Notably, Jack relied on Lucifer to resurrect Maggie instead of trying to do it himself in Season 13's Let the Good Times Roll.
• It's been claimed that Lucifer can resurrect angels and demons from the Empty, but this theory has yet to be tested.