death cult

plural death cults

1. A religious movement that worships death or the dead.

   We meet the same pattern at the Panathenaia dedicated to Athena, because death cults both in the Agora (market place) and on the Acropolis were of major importance in connection with the cult of the goddess.

   2008, Evy Johanne Håland, Women, Pain and Death: Rituals and Everyday Life on the Margins of Europe and Beyond

   2 more examples

   Although this Death-Cult calls itself scientific, we have not yet heard of any careful or other collecting of statistics about appearances through mediums of the same deceased person at more than two places at once.

   1889 February 28, The Path, volume 3, page 351

   As regards the significance of the use of plants in the death cult of the Egyptians, we must make a distinction between the edibles which were ordinarily placed in earthen vessels on the floor of the sepulchre […]

   1892 August 13, The Literary Digest, volume 5

   Synonyms: thanatolatry, necrolatry

2. A religious group that requires demonstrations of faith involving the risk of death.