Mercury in Nutmeg: Gold Edition

June 29, 2026 ~ B. Key ~ Leave a comment

It is hard to imagine that this is the sixth release of my take on the Mercury in Nutmeg luck talismans, and moreover the fifth year in a row that I’ve offered them for public sale. Over the past half decade, I’ve been experimenting with my fascination and love for these beautiful and reliable charms across the board, programming them for different purposes and at times dedicating them to different spirits. I initially encountered them within the genre of magical books known as the Black and White Magic of Marie Laveau as “The Best Gambling Hand (Toby)” and worked them extensively for fast luck, fortune, gambling, and other such currents. My initial runs of them have focused largely on these properties, crafted under the auspices of St. Expedite, who has been an enduring foundation for their creation. Now, I’m especially excited to release a brand new instantiation of the Mercury in Nutmegs, intended to compliment the previous ones while also working beautifully on their own: the Gold Edition.

This is a new innovation on the Mercury in Nutmeg charm, born of mastery, sovereignty, and riches of treasure hunting. I was especially inspired by the alchemical natures of mercury and gold, as well as the many legends I’ve encountered across American and Mexican folklore of mercury being used to hunt for gold in treasure hunting expeditions, with the substance seen as inherently seeking out gold like a magnet. Those who have followed my work for the last few years know I have a special affinity for magical treasure hunting across spiritual traditions. I am excited to finally marry my love of treasure hunting, alchemy, and the nutmeg charms in one form, blessed once more at the hands of St. Expedite, as well as several of my most trusted spirits in all these arts.

The “Toby” from *The Genuine Black and White Magic of Marie Laveau*.

The Gold edition is born from the same base of Indian nutmeg filled with mercury and sealed with wax, such that when physically shaken you can feel the liquid metal moving within. In addition to the usual properties of bringing luck and fortune to their bearers, these are especially fine tuned to remove ambient misfortune and convert it into fortune, alchemizing base substances into gold. Those who tested the prototypes described them as “toothier”, possessing a more aggressive ability to hunt down and convert malaise, an absence of passion, motivation, and willpower, as well as evil eye into sources of luck. They are called upon to convert any time the names of their owners are spoken of negatively into blessings, such that even idle gossip and jealousy can become a fuel for victory and mastery.

These nutmegs were laid on a bed of genuine, ethically-sourced lion skin fur to provide them with additional solar glory and mastery. They were fully enchanted and enlivened within yesterday’s Sunday solar hour, which also happened to be the Serbian Orthodox feast of Vidovdan so renowned for cultivating psychic sight and discernment. Sfinga actively assisted me in their construction, praying different bajalice (oral charms) over them as they lay at the feet of the saint. Upon nutmeg and lion skin were added the materia of black cat, five finger grass, a drop of every Expedite oil from my Saint of Many Colours collection (drawn from a personal not-for-sale Rainbow Oil), High John the Conqueror root, real gold flakes, and more. Each is bound in gold-coloured fabric resembling its innards and tied with gold thread.

This edition works beautifully with any previous incarnation of my Mercury in Nutmegs, ensuring that all fortune drawn is also protected from and also fed by the envy of others in recognition. These charms passively consume and convert maledictions, and as such they are especially fruitful when carried on the person to events, presentations, work meetings, and any area in which you expect to confront the projections and misconceptions of others. With their vigilant feline protection and alchemical mastery, they proudly proclaim “let them talk!”, devouring each ill thought and utterance into a newfound source of power for the cultivation of fortune and authority. While these are excellent allies to anyone down on their luck, they are also phenomenal for those already well-grounded, as they magnify the protection and success of other surrounding blessings and charms present in one’s life.

The nutmegs may be carried alone or together, or kept in the workplace, by the home office, or in one’s purse or everyday carry bag for maximum effect. They may be given whiskey, brandy, or dark rum along with tobacco and candles of the colour of their cloths in thanks. Additionally, they may be used and manipulated by your spirits as tools for their own arsenal, and similarly may be kept on their person at their shrines to passively boost them.

Only 11 are available for sale, and it is unlikely that I will make this specific edition again for some years. Each year, these charms have sold out within 24 to 48 hours of release, and it is always an absolute delight to hear back from everyone about how they feel and respond to their unique energies and courts.

All nutmegs will be shipped within seven business days of purchase. My thanks go out to each and every one of you for your patronage and support of my work. May they bring you success beyond your wildest dreams.

The Devil in the Details: A Familiar of Tomorrow

June 24, 2026June 27, 2026 ~ B. Key ~ Leave a comment

They prick and preen at the fraying edges of memory, ripping out threads of vigour like worms. They darken the eyes of perception with their wings, bringing shadows to even the most illuminated foregrounds. They steal the most vital and precious of treasures, time itself, and retreat them into their nests of delays.

They are the Familiars of Tomorrow: the Devils in the Details.

In my Saint of Many Colours collection for St. Expedite, I teased that an additional “CRAS” themed addition would be coming, ever so thematically, “later”, and that time has finally come. These are individual familiars from within the retinue of the Crow Devil of Tomorrow under the Holy Martyr’s foot, contracted to become familiars to witches, sorcerers, karcists, and any manner of worker in need of a more malefic ally. These are not for the faint of heart, being little devils that bring destruction, delay, procrastination, and forgetfulness to enemies. They may be set over pictures of rivals, business competition, or others requiring domination to ensure they forget important deadlines, dates, and obligations, to corrupt divination results and blur the truth within them, to ensure one delays and neglects their own spiritual hygiene, protection, and offerings, and to break oaths and promises through neglect. These are primarily malefic spirits, best suited to aid those in need of humbling enemies and preventing them from having power over them. If you are in need of a superior at work to forget your mistakes and overlook them, a parent-in-law to no longer wish to visit and prefer the laziness of solitude, or a rival to lose their creativity and passion for productivity, these familiars will happily assist for a small price.

Much as with my and Sfinga’s earlier experimentations with the Crow Devil of Tomorrow as companion, adversary, and subjugated familiar of our holy martyr, every piece of this fetish charm, from conception to construction, was fraught with delays. The necessary ingredients and materia came slowly into my hands, resisting swift accumulation. The spirits themselves, each bound to their own vessels, continually followed me as I birthed their forms, stalking me whenever I was out gathering the materia as crows. While they continually tested me, as is their nature, I carried with myself a cloak of red fabric fed a rooster on the feast of St. Expedite as an emblem of the holy martyr’s mantle, at times tying it to my leg to trample over their influence, and at other times wearing it on my arm to brace myself for their handling.

In time, as the full recipe revealed itself to me, I was able to come across the final pieces necessary with their assistance. Their cores are made with a medley of ingredients sourced from the very same origins as Sfinga’s CRAS powder, with a head made from a devil pod that I foraged by hand at a lonely lighthouse where St. Expedite and his crows were propitiated. They are each crowned with a crow’s foot, embedded within black wax from candles dressed and lit in his name. The entire fetish bundle is wrapped tight in layers of black cloth and thread over clay in which the powder matrix is incorporated. Embedded within the clay beneath the thread are twelve guinea pepper seeds to bring heat and aggression, as well as six match sticks with their heads pointing outwards, which threaten to light themselves on the seeds should any misfortune come to their keepers. Additionally, together they form a clock of twelve sections, each having been prayed over to bring delays and misfortune to enemies.

Each familiar also comes with a set of three dice which were washed, fumigated, and perfumed during the feast of St. Expedite this year, as well as having been generously anointed with my Blue Oil of divination. You may use any three dice oracle of your choosing to speak with these spirits (a great example of which can be found on our good friend Matthew Venus’ blog); simply print off the instructions or rules of the chosen oracle and place it under a black candle lit to the fetish to allow them to memorize and understand its structure. The dice may be used to speak with them, as well as to ensure St. Expedite’s control over them is maintained even if you do not have an active St. Expedite practice.

The dice washed on St. Expedite’s feast.

When your fetish charm arrives, burn myrrh incense and inform your spirits that a new familiar is joining your home. Fumigate it in front of the shrine of your primary spirits and give your crow devil a name of your choosing that it will respond to from now on. Etch the name into a black candle and burn it before it. After it finishes burning, you may commune with the spirit any time by etching the name again into another black candle and rolling your dice in front of it while the flame is still burning. The familiars may be fed offerings of black candles, food just past its expiration (or “best before”) date that had been forgotten, any sort of sticky licorice candy, and anything shiny that corvids would enjoy (coins, broken jewelry, gemstones and beads), as well as broken or stopped watches.

It is my hope that these familiars find their new sorcerer companions and serve them well as rogues and spies. You do not need to have a practice with St. Expedite to work with them; they are consecrated under pacts with him to obey their keepers and not bring harm to them. However, if you do have a shrine to the saint, keeping these by his feet would be an auspicious placement. Otherwise, they may be placed near windows to fly freely and bring messages to you when not in active use. To set them upon a target, simply print off their photo, mark them up as a petition, and place it under the fetish while burning a black candle with their name inscribed before them. Additionally, you may knot the name of your victim nine times into red thread which you then wrap around the claw to further bind them to your familiar as its target.

May you always reign today while your enemies delay until tomorrow.

Only five are available. All familiars will be shipped out within seven business days of purchase.

Aphrodite’s Perfumed Attendant

June 10, 2026 ~ B. Key ~ Leave a comment

She went to Kypros, to Paphos, where her precinct is and fragrant altar, and passed into her sweet-smelling temple.
Homer, Hymn 5 to Aphrodite

This charm has been a work in progress for close to a year now, an offering in dedication to the Foam-born Queen whose hand has guided so much of my life over the past several years. Many of you who became keepers of the Venusian nymphs that Sfinga created a series of talismanic homes for in the shapes of the Eyes of Nepherieri have kept in touch with us over the past two years, updating us on your experiences with these incredible spirits we met on the shores of Aphrodite’s birth in Cyprus. It has been a true pleasure hearing each and every update, how these beings have helped you find the love of friends, lovers, spirits, and art, how they have become some of your closest familiars and spiritual allies, and how they have continue to teach you in dreams. Even though I was not responsible for their enchantment, I was privy to much of their process, and have continued to work with mine ever since.

Since that time, other spirits we have met on our travels, or who came to us directly via other patrons and relationships we have, have stepped forward to the both of us, asking to be given shape, form, and sustenance, so that they too may find their new sorcerers and homes. One of the most prominent that I have been working with over the past year has been a daimon or attendant spirit of Aphrodite who requested her one unique, one-of-one embodiment. Each step of this process was guided directly by her whim, from the ways in which her vessel was procured, to the sacrifices that gave her embodiment and form, and the bonds and pacts she had forged for me along the way, proving the tenacity of her will and the fire of her spirit.

The shape she chose for herself was that of a vintage perfume bottle. After much searching, she vetoed almost every potential construction I suggested, until she at last led me on a rather whimsical journey to a gorgeous antique store in which it laid, alone, at the literal feet of a larger statue of a fully moss green Venus de Milo that I also ended up purchasing independently. This bottle was ritually cleansed in waters sourced from mountains, churches, and fonts sacred to St. Petka directly by Sfinga, who is an ardent devotee of the saint. Its inside was smoked in my personal blend of incense for Aphrodite, as well as powders and dusts of Venus in Pisces.

In keeping with her vessel, her arcana is deeply entwined with scent, perfume, and subtler things carried on the soft winds of Spring and in the warm breath of a lover. Each step of her construction was similarly fragrant, with dozens of different blended incenses and scented oils burned in offering, the smoke of each captured in her bottle for her later use. I then created a sort of nest for her within her vessel, using the downy feathers from two pure white doves which had been given as offerings, again layering them with fragrant materials. I then purified, enlivened, and installed the core of the vessel, itself a bundle of of precious stones and herbal materia, the vitality of seven white doves, and my own personal Oil of Nepherieri, Oil of Philia, and Tincture of Agape. I constructed additional talismanic bundles enveloped in rose petals, each programmed to a particular function linked to the arcana of the spirit and added to the vessel. Finally, when approved by divination, I put the final seal on construction with lace used in a wedding and pinned it closed with a feather from one of the doves utilized.

Well before her vessel’s completion, the nymph herself revealed a wonderfully contagious energy, full of sweetness, levity, and deeply-felt joy whenever called. Across the months I spent with her, I tested her abilities, cunning, and efficacy as a working spirit extensively, and noted her unbounded ability to change the mood of a space along with the people and spirits in it was a great balm to the soul. Call on her presence with scent in the form of perfume or incense, keeping in mind that the quality of the scent will change and program her manifestation with almost kaleidoscopic intensity. I also find that she regularly distributed her offerings to other spirits nearby, both those enshrined in the home and those in the land, emphasizing a communal harmony born through lightness, play, and the pleasure of the sensorium. For those who cant easily burn incense or use strong scents in the home, contracting this spirit to tend to altars as a sort of elevated shabti on your behalf in exchange for perfumes or diverse forms of flavorful and fragrant food and drink offerings is an ideal workaround. She has a strong ability to cut through miasma and the lingering heaviness encountered in places of the dead, and to lift the spirits of the dead in need of council and resolution.

I will provide the individual who decides to become this Nymph’s guardian with additional specific information about this spirit, including the names and methods by which to call her, offerings and workings from her arcana for love, friendship, social harmony, enchantment, and even subjugation which I tested and found effective shortly after her construction, and records of the visions I had of the spirit throughout her vessel’s construction that reveal more of her personality and ways of working. My intention with providing full instructions on how to work with her, make offerings, and experience her personality is to ensure that the pact with this spirit transfers fully over to their new keeper, such that she may become a key spirit in their court and integrate in the promotion of the health and harmony of their other spirits.

Before purchasing at the link below, I ask that you please perform your own divination to see if this spirit is right for you and your court. I have a deep love and fondness for her and I only ask that she goes to the right person who will care for and appreciate her and her vast skills.

St. George’s Charms of the Red Shield

May 26, 2026June 9, 2026 ~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

The time between the feasts of Sts. George and Vitus on the Julian calendar is always a deeply special period in my practice, marked with the ushering in of the warmer months, the celebration of the land’s fertility, and the adoration of the Pleiades as they go on their voyage to greet the Mothers of the Sun, Moon, and Wind. Now for the third year in a row, this time has also heralded the creation of charms, made in compact with St. George, to celebrate the many powerful expressions of his current as divine horseman, solar prince, and warrior of the light half of the ritual year.

These charms are made each year in offering to the saint, to celebrate his many virtues and to give back to the community that has so lovingly supported our work and podcast, and shared so generously of their own traditions, spiritual encounters, and theurgic philosophies. In the first year, the divination that sets this course flagged the omen of victory and triumph; in the second, both saints anchoring this period stepped forward to guard against the evil eye. This year, the omen which arose in the favomancy reading was to create a kindred of charms steeped in the well-attested magics of St. George as a protector of love—the love of friends, romantic partners, parents and children, and the love of new and old bonds alike.

On Đurđevdan, as with many key saint days, I spent much of the day cooking and baking in honour of the martyr. A fresh slavski kolač was made, this time simpler in shape than in previous years, being a smaller and flatter loaf intended to represent the coins worn in many traditional Balkan bridal costumes. The yeast was grown with holy water taken from a church of St. Petka directly when a wedding was taking place inside, and the Thursday Salt which seasoned it was specifically isolated in its batch for the stoking of fertility and the protection of love in one’s life. Various bajalice or basme (oral charms) were recited throughout the process of its incubation, in dedication to the yeast, water, flour, sheep’s milk, and the oven itself as it proofed, rose, and rose again.

The herbs themselves which went into each charm were harvested directly on the eve of his feast. Rosehips and St. John’s wort were sung to over the course of the eve until the dawn of the new day, nestled in the fresh leaves of bigroot geranium, one of the primary plants of St. George in the Balkans. To each bundle was added a hagstone, wrapped up in the leaf of the geranium so that it does not see sunlight until the first crack of dawn on Đurđevdan proper. In this way, the very spear or sword of our saint, being the first ray of light to touch our serpent stones, is that which awakens them from the slumber they have been kept in since their finding.

With this light filling the stones, they were then offered to, given only those red gifts requested within the reading. The stones were fed rooster, red wine, and red ochre, and then kept within the mixture veiled before the icon of St. George for two full weeks. In the meanwhile, the herbs themselves were adored, anointed, and sung to, and laid out before him as his meal was prepared. In addition to the kolač, I prepared proja sa kajmakom, ajvar, and belmuž, a St. George’s day delicacy of sheep’s milk cheese and white cornmeal. After presentation, the whole meal was sprinkled with the red mixture given to the hagstones as well as holy water and sheep’s milk with sprigs of basil, plantain, and geranium from my own garden. Once complete, the red cloth on which the whole meal was given was divided into sections to be used for the charms at a later date.

Upon the day of their assembly, once the hagstones were sufficiently enlivened, the charms were swiftly fastened with a final favomancy reading thrown to confirm their strength. Every aspect of this charm needed to be red: red with life, blood, lust, love, desire, sex, and consumption; the need for the other and to be needed by the other in return. The chart was positive in every way but one, demanding that one last ingredient, far more ephemeral and difficult than the rest, needed to be sacrificed in order for them to be complete. In addition to herbs, dirts, powders, a trinity of squares cored from the slava bread at its base, petals of a rose held in the teeth of two lovers dancing at their wedding (many thanks to the couple for allowing me to keep such a token!), and many more ingredients left unnamed, the hagstones, garnets, and the very red string that ties each charm together needed to bear witness to what were determined to be three “moments of true love”: one of friendship, one of romance, and one of filial love.

This request, while more complicated to fulfill than I can even begin to write publicly, out of respect for all those involved, was by far one of the most beautiful aspects to a charm’s creation I have had to undergo in some time. I immediately recalled the lessons learned at Aphrodite’s shores, of the tenacity, endurance, and victory of love for love’s sake over all misunderstandings, confusion, and despair. I was forbidden from completing these charms until this was done, until these binding elements and their serpent-eyes directly witnessed the very intensity they are sworn to protect. Once this was done, the beans approved swiftly, and I was able to complete them fully.

Twelve of the kindred of stones were dedicated to these charms, who made themselves known to me in dream as the Red Shields. This charm protects long-term relationships, marriages, and even newer joinings with the ferocity of loves lived across lifetimes. Keep on your person, by your bed, or at your shrines and whisper to its stone precisely what you need nourished and protected. Set them atop pictures or by candles to boost workings of commitment, reconciliation, affection, and far more. Their eyes blink with awareness and knowledge; speak to them as an ally and they will respond to you in kind. Tell them if you need more sexual vigour and passion, more dedication and commitment, more publicity and pride, or more understanding and levity. Keep them over petitions, smoke them with incense and anoint them with oils programmed for each purpose, or simply give them frankincense and holy oil monthly to keep them active and alert. Whatever aspect of love in your life needs passion and longing, whoever’s heart requires softening so that they come to understand your needs and perspectives, or whatever lack in your relationship requires strengthening, these charms are eager to serve.

The red cape of St. George covers your heart and creates for it a banquet: may the beloved propose union, the lover propose marriage, the friend propose deeper nourishment and the spirit propose deeper initiation into their current. The cunning sorcerer will be aware that these charms follow the dedication of their keepers; they ask for the same commitment, care, and levity to be shown by those who request their aid. In this way, while they cannot be used to compel or control, or to force unearned forgiveness and dedication, they will happily assist their keepers in cultivating the character and vitality to be that which they themselves seek, and to further draw those to them who would best treasure those qualities.

Only twelve are available. Each will ship within a week of purchase.

All Charms of the Red Shield have been sold as of June 6, 2026. Thank you!

Additionally, ever since my last series of Man of Might charms against nightmares sold out, I’ve been frequently asked to bring them back. This year, I wanted to make the exact same charms albeit with a set of hagstones fed in the same manner for St. George in his feast day, being an even more boosted version of the previous iterations. White horse’s hair was braided through the loops while the “man of might” rhyme was repeated without ceasing. The stones were awakened alongside those programmed for the Red Shields above, though directed specifically to drink deeply of the red offerings and use their vitality to fight off any nightmares, night-demons, and attacks of malefica and witchcraft during sleep with the force of St. George’s spear. They are slightly more expensive than last year’s to reflect the effort and time that went into the supplication, sacrifice, and enchantment of each hagstone.

Ten were made in honour of the White Horseman. Each will ship within a week of purchase.

Tha mon o´ micht, he rade o´nicht
wi´ neither swerd ne ferd ne licht.
He socht tha mare, he fond tha mare,
he bond tha mare wi´ her ain hare.
Ond gared her swar by midder-micht
she wolde nae mair rid o´ nicht
whar ance he rade, thot mon o´ micht.

Additionally, there is a bundle offered for those interested in getting both charms, offered at a slight discount.

My deepest thanks to each and every one of you for your support and care. My St. George keep and protect all that empowers, revitalizes, comforts, uplifts, and reddens your lives.

The Ward of the Wisest Healer: A Charm of the Martyrs of Nicomedia

May 13, 2026May 14, 2026 ~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

On the eve of the May 14th Feast Day of Saint Cyprian of Antioch, as given in the pseudo-Baconian De Nigromancia, and in collaboration with the second iteration of the Vespera series with Jesse Hathaway Diaz and Dr. Al Cummins, I’m excited to reveal a new folk Orthodox charm made under the auspices of Saints Cyprian, Justina, and Theoctistus.

Across many traditions, both Eastern and Western, the walnut is an important tree to St. Cyprian. Prized in Balkan folk magic for its ability to conceal, protect, cause confusion, and both draw and repel the harshest of spirits, here is a tree interlinked with St. Cyprian as Sorcerer and Saint, Diabolist and Exorcist, Thaumaturge and Theurge. The design of these potent wards is simple: a humble walnut, soaked in holy water drawn from the three different Churches named after the saints in the Balkans and Mediterranean, then cleaved open with a black-handled knife enchanted with St. Cyprian. Each stage of their opening, carving out, and enchanting were laden with oral charms and exorcistic prayers of St. Cyprian from the Orthodox traditions, with the shell itself being enchanted to be as the skull of Adam, said to be a miniature world unto itself, and also the beheaded soldier Theoctistus, whose flickering eyes before death beheld Cyprian and Justina both, glimpsing the fullness of their gnosis with the outpouring of his own blood.

The powder set within the walnut was similar in nature to that which went into last year’s Sorcerer’s Goat Horn Fetish, featuring dirt from four Churches dedicated to the saints, dirt from nine churches visited over the nine days of the Cyprians, dirt from nine cemetery gates, nine priests, nine nuns, nine bishops, the grave of a dead sorcerer who worked with St. Cyprian in life, black rooster, black cat, black toad, serpent, and goat. To this were added additional herbs and materia, including dirt and brick dust from unconquered castles and fortifications, a powder against the Evil Eye, and spell for averting the vampiric gaze of the living and dead alike. Finally, a snake vertebrae washed for Cyprian and a freshwater pearl washed for Justina were nestled inside as the eyes of our saints, forming a complete skull to watch over its keeper vigilantly, staring back towards anything that may inflicts its harmful witnessing upon them.

These walnuts then underwent one final consecration, receiving a litany of Orthodox prayers to our saints, and were commanded to assist their keepers by neutralizing and recycling any harm sent their way. They were bound in beeswax and purple thread anointed with holy oil taken from one of his monasteries, and strung on adjustable cord with seven crosses formed within. As Cyprian subjugated the demons, Justina in turn subjugated his magic, and the walnut tree subjugates the spirits under its bow, these wards break—then take—bewitchments and misfortune sent at their keepers and repurpose their severity for their own. The name of the charm itself is drawn from an Orthodox Akathist to Sts. Cyprian and Justina, in which Cyprian is referred to as the “wisest healer” in Oikos 7.

Wear around the neck or around the belt loop, bind to backpacks and purses, or place in the inner breast pocket as a sentry. Alternatively, keep above the bed or around the rearview mirror of the car for safety in dream and travel alike. These wards do not need activation, but may be anointed with an oil of Cyprian or any other holy oil once a month on a Saturday of your choosing.

Only 12 are made available. All charms will be shipped within a week of purchase.

All charms have been sold out as of May 14th, 2025. Thank you so much for your patronage!

Seven Wards for Seven Destinies

May 5, 2026May 5, 2026 ~ B. Key ~ Leave a comment

I wanted to begin by first offering my sincere thanks to everyone who has generously supported by Saint of Many Colours St. Expedite collection. The tremendous support and feedback has been nothing short of uplifting and I’m so humbled by the interest this project has received. This year, I will be working on many other such offerings, from entire lines like this one, to one-off amulets and bespoke creations that will eagerly await their future owners. Rest assured, the Jupiter in Cancer collection is forthcoming, and Sfinga and I are putting the final touches on it this month. In addition to a set of oils and charms grounded in the Fourth Pentacle of Jupiter, we will also be offering bespoke spirit vessels crafted with the aid of its blessings and auspices. Stay tuned for more as this special project is due to release in June.

In the meanwhile, I’m excited to share a one-of-one charm straight from the workshop: Seven Wards for Seven Destinies. This design is born of a prototype I constructed a few months ago, a twisted hydra of padlocks and keys securing existing blessings in the life of the conjurer, and ensuring their amplification by locking away misfortune and closing roads to the poor decisions that often lead to it. This version is a new beast altogether, primed in many colours to hold and secure virtues untold.

The charm undergoing testing before release.

The core of the charm itself is a written pact with the hydra therein, bound to its oath with the central padlock’s seal. Chains augment this binding, as a cross-cultural tool to pin down otherwise slippery and tricky spirits. Two additional locks are affixed with representative black and red thread; the former absorbing and making more vibrant all other possibilities bound to this charm, the latter warning any spirit that would bring misfortune down an unfortunate road otherwise sealed by this charm. Each of these binds its own small packet of finely ground herbal materials, which feature prominent road opening and road closing herbs in corresponding measure atop the fundamental powder that brings life and adheres the spirit to the material body of the charm. With this, I affixed additional locks with this powder as each blessing was secured, each head of this hydra bound to maintain it in turn.

Each color, in turn, secures a particular blessing and prevents the charm’s keeper from moving towards misfortune, having been dressed in my own stocks of corresponding oils and powders as I manipulated and charmed each serpentine thread, knotting and unknotting possibilities, futures, and fates, and picking through the wards and locks of those even more fixed in time. Once these entanglements were resolved, the benefic fates were sealed in one final shackle of each lock, and the key that sealed this fate bound as the new nexus around which these events converge.

Red firmly secures a path of force, and vibrancy, the dance that makes life worth living, and blocks out the bloodshed of accident and harms that could come to the charms keeper. Red lacks a key of its own, as the prospective keeper should affix a token to one of these strands to secure a pact with this coiled serpent. I recommend an old key of your own, a hagstone, the feather or bone of a spiritually significant animal, or any such similarly inspired object.
Yellow secures the material wealth that we already possess and prevents unnecessary expenditure. The Key affixed to yellow unlocks the treasures we encounter, and allows us to have wisdom and discernment when we open our own coffers.
Green adds the Viriditas of Hildegard, in all its vitality, lushness, and growth. Green lacks a key of its own; in its place, conjurer should affix lucky coins and similar milagros that they may become green in turn, growing in a bed of fertility and possibility into the very key upon which to build other workings.
Blue secures the fundamental blessing of enduring health and locks away illness and the spirits that cause it. The key affixed to blue reminds the keeper that there is always hope, and there is always an option to begin anew once this blessing is secure.
Pink binds love in all forms to the charm’s keeper, be it found in friends, family, lovers, or muses, while keeping us bound from entering into self-destructive or otherwise harmful relationships in turn. The affixed key can be dressed with oils for the same purpose to unlock hearts sealed away from reconciliation or hope for a better future.
Black offers the protection of concealment, binding shut your own cloak of this charms protection while closing and locking shut the eyes and lips of those who would seek to trespass against or speak falsely about the keeper of this charm. The affixed key can be used to close images of suspected gossips and known adversaries alike, sealing their slander away in the inky darkness.
White offers the protection and stability of synthesis, while sealing off the access points that ambient dead and harmful phenomena would otherwise use to access and affect the keeper of the charm. The key affixed to white is a skeleton in every sense, wielded to unlock any magic or crossed conditions in the path of the conjurer, offering to open a door to ritual purity at any time.

To work this charm, anoint the colour of choice with a corresponding oil of intention. In a pinch, simple olive oil prayed over and consecrated to this purpose will do. Write out your petition and recite it to the thread while holding it in a loop, then pull the end through to seal it into a wish. In time, this hydra will stand as a nest of petitions and bound commands, keeping them taught and pulled into their grasp so that nothing can wrestle them from you.

This is a bespoke one-of-one piece intended to go to a home that will work it hard for their security and gain. Further instructions will be provided to its keeper via e-mail, including three herb recipes for each coloured “arm”. Hang above the door or keep at one’s shrine for for vigilant protection, or keep in a bowl over cash, petitions, and pictures of what must be locked down and secured. This charm is recommended for a skilled practitioner who will be able to speak to its spirit, work alongside it, and knot their desires into fruition through its arms.

May it open each road to success and close each door to ruin.

This charm is sold out as of May 5, 2026. Thank you so much for your patronage!

A Saint of Many Colours

May 2, 2026May 2, 2026 ~ B. Key ~ Leave a comment

St. Espidee is a saint of many colors, see […] Dat mean he wo’ many colors in his garments – many colors on his garments. Dat why yo’ use many diff’rent lights – red, yellah, green, blue. Each day he gits a diff’rent color light fo’ nine days. An’ each time yo’ light a light in front of dat lamp, yo’ ring dat bell an’ yo’ make dat wish…
Nahnee, the “Boss of Algiers”, as recorded in Harry Middleton Hyatt‘s Hoodoo Conjuration Witchcraft & Rootwork Volume 2

Blessed Beltane! Following the April whirlwind of St. Expedite’s feast day, a full-mooned Walpurgisnacht, and the corresponding third anniversary of The Frightful Howls You May Hear, the 2026 annual St. Expedite launch is upon us. In honor and devotion to our saint of many colours, and inspired by the multi-faceted view presented by the Boss of Algiers, I prepared six oils in his name, and revitalized the three primary.

This collection is a labour of love and adoration for this saint, and a desire to express his multitudes across conjure. Each oil was nourished and worked over the period of the last month to ensure that the colours expressed within their rainbow are clear and visible, using only natural ingredients and materia. My original three oils were further revitalized and nourished, and the other six were crafted at the feet of the saint using traditional hoodoo formulas as their bases, empowered by the light of the martyr to bring about swiftness and expediency in each of their actions. For example, the Blue Oil, built atop a traditional recipe for Psychic Oil, is tailored to smooth over the natural pauses and stutters of the medium, erasing the “ums”, and “ahhs” that can distract from a clear reading, in addition to its usual effect of increasing psychic clarity. The Purple Oil, being an Expedite-themed version of Dream Oil, brings dream recall to the user with swiftness and clarity, and can also be used to promote lucid dreaming. Seven star anise seed pods may be dressed with this oil and hung in a witch’s ladder above the bed to create a powerful charm for dream recall, clarity, and manipulation.

Even the ingredients that went into each oil (and charm!) were sourced under the light of the saint’s cross. I solicited and carried his blessing with me each time I set out to hunt my treasures, ensuring that I captured the cherry blossoms right at peak bloom for the Pink Oil, acquiring the coffee grounds used across the launch from specialty roasters and sourcing them based on their tasting notes and origin (from countries that have a known veneration to the saint), and acquiring each St. Expedite medallion in person as opposed to buying them online. The medals themselves I sourced from a craft store that has a dish out of various saint medals on display. I picked them clean and anointed them immediately with one of the oils I was working on to claim them for myself, and worked them diligently to transform them into the keychain charms you see below. I’m especially fond of these discreet little charms that can be worn as a pendant or placed on one’s keychain for protection against the evil eye. I wrapped heart-shaped red nazar beads behind simple keys to always watch over their wearers, and bound the medals over them so that the saint protects their back. I have a great fondness for knotwork and macramé in all its forms, and the red thread that binds these was itself prayed over in each stage of unwinding, measurement, cutting, and binding.

The three charms you see below were all made as hands of the saint. I keep a trinity of them on my own shrine, as does Sfinga, who generously tested them and worked them until we were both satisfied with their results. The purple and red Armour of Expedite is a joint collaboration between her and I, and feature a genuine four-leaf clover in each, as well as pieces of the pound cake Sfinga baked on his feast, the yeast having been risen with holy water collected from Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel in New Orleans on his feast many years ago, where his famous statue lies. I’m so delighted to release this collection in deep devotion to this incredible worker of miracles. Here is a spirit who has been fundamental in my own adventures, ever challenging me to move a little faster, bet a little higher, retreat a little wiser, and drink a little deeper of the passion, virility, risk, fun, and pure “magic” of life itself. I hope these gifts bring you as many delights as there are colours of this incredible saint’s mantle.

The products herein are made in limited quantity and offered on a first-come, first-serve basis as curios only. Please allow up to one week from the time of purchase for me to package and ship each order. Shipping is included in the cost of each item, and an email with tracking information will be sent automatically to the address associated with the PayPal account used at purchase. Oils are sold as 1 fl. oz. (30 mL) volumes in amber glass dropper bottles.

In addition to this suite of oils, I also prepared a handful of complimentary charms, including a protection charm in collaboration with Sfinga!

The next edition of my Mercury in Nutmeg charms are, at the time of writing, undergoing their final consecrations. Please keep your eye out for a post dedicated to these charms, as availability will be limited! Also, a CRAS-themed parallel to this collection will be coming ”Later”…

Thank you, St. Expedite, for guiding my hands.

St. Lazarus’ Decoys of Renewal

April 16, 2026April 19, 2026 ~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

Христос Васкрсе! The Lent season has finally concluded and we are steadily chipping away at what remains of Easter dinner. This is always a profound time of prayer, fasting, and spiritual obligations, with both Gregorian and Julian Holy Weeks, when they are separate as with this year, playing crucial roles in the honouring of numerous spirits, with some even receiving double the veneration (lucky them!).

One date which is a crucial center of attention is Lazareva Subota, also known as Lazarica or Vrbica in Serbia. A site of a number of remarkably preserved folk rituals for fertility, purification, and ushering in the resurrection of spring, this is a day of extreme importance for many South Slavic groups, falling on Lazarus Saturday while remaining its own distinct set of practices beyond the Eastern Orthodox celebration. Across the Serbian folk traditions I practice, and within the context of my initiation in bajanje, this is a day of deep significance for the protection of the home, renewal of household fertility, rainmaking, works of love magic, and protection, among many other applications unique to each lineage.

The Church of St. Lazarus in Larnaca, Cyprus.

After my visit to the Church of Saint Lazarus in Larnaca, Cyprus, I became deeply fascinated with the plethora of St. Lazarus Day traditions practiced across Cyprus and Greece. While I usually at least gather wax, holy water, and incense ash from an Orthodox church on Lazarus Saturday, this time around I also tried my hand at baking lazarakia, little cinnamon and cardamom buns stuffed with raisins and walnuts to represent the arisen saint in his shroud. Friends well versed in the Greek folk magical context reminded me that it is traditional to bake one for each member of a household, and I took the liberty to create some for cherished mentors and my house spirits as well. After perfuming, honouring, and celebrating the saint in his resurrection, the remaining dough used for the lazarakia was kneaded together with a set of 41 beans used in divination, ritually prayed over and mourned, and then blessed with a litany of oral charms for resurrection and protection within the oven itself. This final dough then rose into a version of lazarakia that was hidden from all sight, shrouded in a white linen cloth I had touched to the “second tomb” of St. Lazarus in his church (where it is alleged he died for the second time in Larnaca, according to oral tradition), and consecrated as a kind of relic of his second triumph over death: that of his own saintly salvation.

This bread-effigy, complete with the beans that approved its promised formula, was then given full veneration across Holy Week, receiving special sacrifices on Holy Thursday, Holy Friday, Holy Saturday, and Holy Pascha. Having been blessed in Church, perfumed and fumigated, anointed and kissed, it was enlivened with the reception of the Eucharist and merged with it into its heart. Then, across the beginning of Bright Week, it was divided up into squares of white and purple cloth and made into a sacred decoy, intended to absorb, “die”, become purified, and then resurrected with the grace of the Holy each lunar cycle.

In addition to key animal, mineral, and vegetal ingredients, as well as my newly-made Thursday Salt, these charm bundles were enlivened through a complex process that demanded absolute secrecy, included not being witnessed even by the eyes of the saints themselves. When they were worked indoors, they were enchanted outside the view of the icon corner, with any figures and statues nearby fully veiled. The divination that completed the process itself even had to be performed without light to witness it, and it even ruled out hinting to the oblique contents of the charms beyond the ritual bread-effigy and salt. When they were finished, their outer forms were bound tight with white hemp cord, howlite, and purple jasper.

Each decoy is meant to be bonded to its keeper to become a true ward. Once yours is with you, rub it across your entire body, especially over the eyes, nostrils, mouth, ears, nipples, armpits, navel, and perineum, passing it over the genitals and anus. Cup it in your hands and breathe three breaths over it, whispering your full legal name and date of birth over to it and sealing the pact with spit. Once this is done, fumigate it with frankincense and keep it hidden in your home, whether in a box under your bed or hidden in a pouch at your bedside table or cabinet. Once a month, remove it, pass it over your body again, breathe your name and date of birth three times over it, seal it with spit, and fumigate it with frankincense once more. As soon as it is bonded with you, do what you can to ensure it is not seen by others outside of your immediate family. While being witnessed will not harm their enchantment, secrecy is a tool that they use as they dwell in the darkness of the consciousness of others, being an unknown variable in your protection. If you choose to travel with them, keep them inside another drawstring pouch or cloth covering so that they remain unseen. For an additional boost, you may choose to present yours to your primary spirit guardians and house spirit, so that they are aware of its role in your everyday protection.

Use to ward away curses, evil eye, envy, illness, and harm from spirits and the living alike. These charms are intelligent and vigilant, absorbing malefica throughout the lunar cycle and acting as if their true target—their keepers—have already “died” and therefore cannot be reached by ill fortune. The monthly fumigation “resurrects” them, with the negativity they have devoured having been fully digested anew, having become as fresh yeast for its triumph.

Only 12 are made available. All charms will be shipped within a week of purchase.

All charms have been sold out as of April 19, 2026. Thank you so much for your patronage!

St. Theodore Tiron’s Charms of Household Vigilance

March 22, 2026April 16, 2026 ~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

One of the most frequent requests I’ve received for a charm release has been that of one born for the protection of the home and its fortune. With the success of the recent more specialized charms, and Great Lent upon us, I’ve been especially inspired to create a set of charms born of this impulse, but still fully within the spirit of the folk magical traditions I hold dear. I’ve been so deeply grateful for everyone’s support and excitement around my most recent shapeshifting charm, and am excited to finally make available my latest: a charm of household vigilance made under the auspices of St. Theodore Tiron.

Patrons over on our podcast’s Discord already got to see a preview of these when they were first consecrated after the successive feasts of Todorova Subota (Theodore’s Saturday, the first Saturday of Great Lent) and the actual feast of St. Theodore Tiron on March 2nd. These wards were fully born on Todorova Subota, a day steeped in folklore surrounding the enigmatic figure of Veliki Todor as well as his todorci riders. These spirits, well-attested across Serbia and Bulgaria, are spectral riders fused with their horses, who ride forth on the first week of Great Lent, followed by their master, Veliki Todor, who appears pure white and with a lame mount. These avenging wights are said to trample with their hooves any who disobey the taboos associated with this week, leaving their bodies black and blue with the tread of their horseshoes. Worse still, they may cut down with their sickles and blades those who have betrayed, lied, stolen, and refused to make amends before this perilous and fraught time.

On this day, I baked a set of traditional horseshoe shaped buns known as todorčići, made in offering to supplicate these dark forces. While they were baking, I ritually prepared a set of used horseshoes that I washed in herbal waters drawn from plant allies associated with these spirits, and anointed them in an oil of St. Theodore of Tiron, both a key mounted saint participating in the lineage of the Thracian Horseman, as well as the saint mask and namesake of this crucial period of time. Two strands of three serpent vertebrae and one hagstone each were woven to adorn the horseshoe to be the eyes of the saint’s vigilance, and a charm bag was prepared and suspended through the center as his holy lance. The core of the bag is, as with many Balkan folk charms, the bread prepared and risen on the day to capture its “election”, being one of the horseshoe buns divided across the exemplars. To this was added a Thursday Salt born for the protection of the home, the forty-one beans that approved the recipe, and an herbal powder born of those plant allies most conducive to the stalwart protection of t he home under the auspices of the saint.

These charms were then buried by a tree consecrated in the name and image of St. Theodore Tiron on Theodore’s Saturday, and then unearthed together from their box on his very feast. They were prayed over, anointed, adorned, and fumigated in fervent supplication, such that they may embody the dual abilities of both securing the health, wealth, joy, and fertility of the home, as well as aggressively banishing and dispelling any and all threats that might approach one’s door.

The todorci are formidable and terrifying beings, and their week is one of quiet supplication, offerings made in repentance, and debts and amends forged in sincerity and urgency both. These horseshoe charms are enchanted to be hung over the inside of a front door or back door of a home, store, or office (or, if living with roommates, a bedroom) to show any spirit that functions like a todorac that the dwelling space has already been “trampled” once, and therefore should be passed over swiftly in mercy. While the horseshoe itself promotes leniency from and invisibility before vengeful denizens of the otherworld, restless dead and wandering ghosts, and disturbed land spirits, the hagstone eyes are charmed awake to ceaselessly watch for threats, make ancestors and house spirits aware of them so that they can be relayed to their keepers in vision and dream, and neutralize gossip and the Evil Eye. All the while, the burning charm held between the horns assures for prosperity, protection, and the maintenance of luck.

I’m exceptionally pleased with how these turned out. Born of my training across Serbian folk magical traditions, these are powerful wards and stalwart protectors for your dwelling space. Anoint monthly with an oil of protection of your choice (holy oil will always work in a pinch) and touch it in prayer before you leave when you need to ensure that whatever you return with across the threshold remains a resolute force.

Only ten are available for purchase. All charms will be shipped within one week. Tracking information will be updated directly into your order.

All charms have been sold as of the 25th of March, 2025. Thank you so much for your support! May they serve you and keep you well!

An Oil According to Their Deeds

March 4, 2026 ~ B. Key ~ Leave a comment

Give them according to their deeds…:
In the wake of Episode 74 of the Frightful Howls, I composed this formula to meet the needs of this month’s first community ritual for invisibility from adversaries. Following the ritual, in dialogue with the spirits involved and with the spirit of the oil itself, we came to the decision to release this to the public to better facilitate the goal of granting additional forms of protection through concealment to those in need.

…And according to the wickedness of their endeavours:
The composition of the oil began with the sun and ended with the moon, each drawn down through sympathetic herbs and resins such that the eclipse of the solar powder with the lunar grants the same power of occlusion to those who wield the oil. I used fennel to “steal” any remaining fire from the solar materia, and conjured it to redirect the light and heat of attention, prying eyes, and inquisitive minds away from the bearer. A mixture of seeds was added in an uncountable sum to introduce confusion and redirection through delay, in addition to serpent sheds, that the bearer may shed away old guises and take up new ones at a moment’s notice. To further enliven and empower the quiet beast that is this oil, I constructed multiple distinct talismanic cores as “organs” to form the body of the spirit within: a written copy of Psalm 28:4 atop a petition and pact sealed with wax, specific shells and animal materia, resins collected from lucky and auspicious trees, and bundles composed of cloth and herb containing traditional formulas for law-keep-away work (including my personal law-keep-away powder) in the American folkloric context to grant distinct protective, evasive, and deceptive functions and frayed threads from old charm bags to unravel plots and magic against you like old cloth.

Give them after the work of their hands…:
Additional consecrations were completed on the oil under the dual lights of the recent eclipsed blood moon and the concurrent selenelion, at which time the now-pronounced redness of the oil was captured and augmented. I then brought the primary bottle of the oil with me to a place of conflict, a place of unjust law enforcement activity, a visible place, and a cursed place, and again tested the spirit’s ability to protect, to obfuscate, to distract, to hide, and to enact revenge. Each of the tests was passed with flying colors.

…Render to them their desert:
This oil’s functions are diverse, ranging from protection and invisibility to retributive and even vampiric functions, each use dependent on the creativity and interaction of the conjurer. As something slightly more enlivened than other oils I’ve produced, I suggest spending time contemplating the oil in various forms – on a candle, in a lamp, on petitions, on photos, on your hands, and in the environment to tease out mysteries and uses. The spirit of this oil is one responsive to need, and is hungry to right what it sees as wrongs. I suggest using the oil somewhat regularly, so that it does not get bored. It can be fed with a neutral carrier oil to extend its life, although I recommend not stretching it further if the scent of cinnamon is no longer detectable in your original bottle.

Each order includes 1 fluid ounce (30 mL) amber glass dropper bottle of the Oil According to Their Deeds. Shipping included. Please allow for up to a week from the time of your order for me to ship via the USPS.