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.

The White She-Wolf’s Charms of Witch-Power

February 23, 2026April 16, 2026 ~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

What a privilege and a joy it is to work alongside my dear friend Vanessa of Sword + Scythe again, whose artistry, dedication to their craft, and genuine love of the spirit world permeates each of their incredible pieces. Vanessa has created a truly exceptional set of new silver charms, completed on the Polish feast of Gromnica, Our Lady of the Thunder Candles, and Catholic Candlemas. Also known as the Divine Mother with Wolves, this Marian form preserves key aspects of the goddess Dziewanna or Devana, whose manifestation in the Balkan context can be most acutely found in the veneration of the Great White Wolf Mother or White She-Wolf, Bela Vučica. You can read more about their offering on their website [here].

In addition to supplying the powder that is set behind each amber stone, I created my own clutch of charms over the course of the winter progression of dark to light. The core mixture that sits at the heart of each charm was first begun on Sveta Varvara, a key saint mask for the White She-Wolf. As her Christmas wheat grew, so too did the prayers, offerings of wax, blood, milk, resin, and prayer. The core bundle was born of three different stellar mixtures arising from my training in Serbian folk magic and witchcraft, white wolf fur, powdered white wolf bone, serpent vertebrae, linden, dittany of Crete, eyebright, mullein, Greek sage, the beans that approved the recipe in divination, and a mixture born of the Mother of the Moon, along with many other unnamed ingredients. Wrapped in white first, the primary colour of this powerful goddess, whose nature as divine ancestor and Thracian remembrance was petitioned through numerous offerings and libations at her sacred trees over the past two months, they are protected in the red of her blood and adorned with a wolf metatarsal bone each drilled to hang over the body of the charm.

In many ways, these are the female counterpart of our charms made several years ago with the Master of the Wolves. Where those housed fully bound spirit familiars each, these are a witch’s second skin, intended to be used by those who draw on witch-power to slip out of their bodies in the night and join the revelry and hunt directly. The primary benefit these confer is that of a fully adoptable fetch form, being that of a white wolf, to shapeshift into in works of trance, night flight, dreaming, and acts of attack and defence. Through the intercession of the White She-Wolf, each charm was imbued with the fleet-footed ability to grant their user the spirit form of a white wolf, a child of the Great Mother, and to be recognized as such in full disguise when being communed with. This fetch is bound to an internal charge within the charm, wrapped in white and red, linked to the external metatarsal bone as the feet of the charm. In several lineages of Balkan witchcraft, charms and fetishes which grant a second skin are categorized along the lines of which limb of the new form they preserve, and these charms are made in the tradition of the Feet; intended to be stepped into and worn, as opposed to autonomous spirit-forms that operate independently of their witch.

In addition to this, the charms provide protection from restless dead, curses, and hags, as well as blessings of controlled dreaming. To use, set up your usual protections and undergo whichever procedures assist you in entering trance. Then, feed the charm with your dreaming or skin-turning incense of choice (your favourite resin will do in a pinch, for the charm eats any smoke that soothes you and lulls you into trance), anoint the external bone with a small drop of spring water, and drag the wet bone down the crown of your head, forehead, lips and chin, and all the way down the body to the navel, as if tearing the body open to create a slit to birth the new form anew. Once at your navel, mark the sign of the cross over its opening, and place the charm over it as you relax into trance. The charm will then begin its work, pulling your consciousness out to assume the eyes of one of the White She-Wolf’s children, so that you may stalk the night. The skilled worker will be able to use theirs to fly, dream true, receive oracles, and solicit the help of her wolves in divination, sorcery, and healing.

Today, on the feast of St. Charalambos, himself a negotiator and pacifier of wolves, Vanessa and I are proud to release this devotional collaboration. Only ten charms are available, intended for the intermediate to advanced practitioner and witch. Your creativity, cunning, and spirit alliances will only serve to enhance your experience with these second skins. May the Great White Wolf Mother protect and nourish you.

All charms are sold out as of March 6th, 2026! Thank you so much!

All charms will be shipped within one week of purchase! For Vanessa’s charms, please see their post [here].

The Light Returns: St. Barbara’s Ceromancy Bundles

January 21, 2026February 2, 2026 ~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

I am delighted to present a set of empowered tools for ceromancy, or wax pouring divination, worked from the long stretch of Sveta Varvara (Saint Barbara’s day on the Julian calendar, being December 17th) to Bogojavljenje (Theophany/Epiphany, the 19th of January). One tradition still observed by several of my teachers in Serbian folk magic is the care and cultivation around divinatory omens during this time period. As the Christmas wheat sown on Barbara’s day grows, eventually overcoming the winter solstice and heralding the return of the light on Christmas itself (January 7), so too does it imbue its fecundity to our collective attempts to seek light in darkness, understanding in ignorance, and clarity in confusion. Generally, outside of passive observation and scrying of omens, I refrain from divination purely for my own sake during the days between Barbara and Christmas—though Christmas Eve on the Serbian folk calendar is of course a renowned day for the scrying of fortunes in candles, in blessed water, and even in gravy at the dinner table! Rather, it is once this holy light itself briefly returns on Christmas, and then emerges once more after the perilous Nekršteni Dani (“Unbaptized Days” between Christmas and Epiphany) that we celebrate the manifestation and revelation of the Theophany through performing this art ourselves. In my training, this is especially done with ceromancy, or wax pouring divination.

Each key and wax pouring spoon is oriented around the Christmas Wheat, under the watchful eyes of St. Petka.

When I sowed my Christmas Wheat on Sveta Varvara, I set out the dishes before my spirits and asked them to lay their hands upon the germinating seeds, and bless them that as they grow and witness the return of the light, that so too may the instruments I had prepared similarly participate in this resurrection of insight, clarity, and oracular wisdom. The bundles themselves are composed of vintage skeleton keys bound to wax pouring spoons, such that beeswax candles can be melted directly into the spoons and then poured through the holes of the keys.

Each bundle was baptized in the four elements, being buried under the roots of an oracular tree, suffumigated in a personal divinatory incense blend, lit on fire using an alcoholic wash consecrated to Veles as god of divination, and then finally washed in a juice made of the very wheat grass they witnessed the growth of. The wheat was formally harvested on Christmas, after which they were each dried and tied with a red string as a new umbilical cord, binding each set and protecting them through the Unbaptized Days as a tether to the vibrancy and potency of life.

The keys and spoons bathing in freshly harvested wheat grass.

Once their consecrations were complete, the final step took place on Theophany (the Eastern church celebrates both the visitation of the three Magi and Jesus’ baptism at the hands of John the Baptist, so both of these events are celebrated on this day), at which point I performed the first ceromancy divination of the year using my own set. While ceromancy is usually performed with the wax dripping into water, on Theophany we use milk instead, so that the first “cast” is obscured to us visually fully behind the caul, needing to be retrieved in order to be fully witnessed. The shape that formed was that of a clothes iron, providing the final blessing needed for the other bundles and confirming their completion.

To perform ceromancy, prepare a vessel of water (ideally copper, though in truth any bowl will do) and light a beeswax candle. With the tools in hand, present them to your house spirit, or alternatively the primary spirit or force that protects your home, by witnessing the flame of the candle through each “hole” in the bows that form the knot tying the key and spoon together. Offer a prayer to your spirit that you bear witness to them through the red cord of life, and that as you untie the loose knot, you dedicate these implements to the betterment of your relationship with them and your ability to further communicate with their legions in better service to the cult of hearth and home. Anoint the red thread with some of your saliva, and then untie the thread, tying it instead around any item, idol, figurine, or object that you associate with the spirit of your home. If you do not have such an object, tying it around the base of the candle holder you have lit will do. Scry the flame once more through the keyhole and exhale through its opening, inhaling afterwards and drawing the flame’s essence into your heart. When you are ready, hold the spoon so that you may drip wax from the candle into it, keeping it steady over the vessel of water. Once the spoon is full, tip it gently through the keyhole so that the was passes through in order to enter the bowl, whispering: “Come, little master, drink and consume.” You may repeat this several times until the wax has fully emptied.

Allow the wax to fully cool before removing it from the water. Scry the shape by observing its form and casting it shadow against the wall. Different traditions assign meanings to the shapes according to their lore; my own teachers taught me their attributions in the context of lead pouring divination (molybdomancy), with the same applying to wax. There are many guides and books available out there, and I encourage folks to slowly journal down their own experiences and ciphers as they explore this art as well. Above all, experiment! Keep your wax shape and incorporate it into charms. Perform this rite with your house spirit at the equinoxes and solstices, or the important turnings of the year in your tradition such as key saint days and liturgical feasts. Make your set truly your own and use it for diagnostic purposes, to draw out illnesses and dispose of water and wax alike, or confer blessings through sipping the water and incorporating the wax into other workings as a charm or ingredient. When not in use, you may keep these by your house spirit or any other primary divining force in the cloth bag in which they come, or otherwise wrapped in fabric.

If you’d like to read more about one tradition of wax pouring divination, I highly recommend checking out the The Word and Wax: A Medical Folk Ritual Among Ukrainians in Alberta by Rena Jeanne Hanchuk.

All bundles have been sold as of February 2, 2026. Thank you so much for your patronage!

All bundles will be shipped within a week of purchase. Thank you so much for your support! It is my dearest hope that these will assist you in your oracular and charming practices.

5th Pentacles of Mars on Lion

December 31, 2025 ~ B. Key ~ Leave a comment

In continuing my experiments with Lion, I’ve been asked about one particular item more than any other – the belt. The lion skin belt itself is one of the most impressive, and thereby most elusive, instruments of art from the Lemegeton’s Goetia, which calls for the magus to prepare “The other materials [are] a scepter or sword; a miter or cap, a long white Robe of Linen, with shoes and other Clothes for the purpose also a girdle of Lyons skin 3 Inches broad, with all the names about it as is about the uttermost round Circle” (Peterson, 2025). Similar variations of the belt are found in other proto-Lemegetons such as Sloane 3824, and in Scot’s Experiment of Bealphares. Skinner, in his Techniques of Solomonic Magic, suggests that in each case, wearing lion is both to convey authority to the magician and to provoke fear and obedience in the spirits (for if the magician can have dominance and triumph over a lion, they can have the same dominance and triumph over a spirit). Due to the lack of abundant lion skin for what are hopefully obvious ethical and environmental reasons, many solomonic magicians substitute, or more commonly entirely omit, this garmet. This implement aims to bring the magician closer to the letter of the text, with an eye toward tested practical efficacy.

Enhancing the inherent virtues of the lion within the circle is the The 5th pentacle of Mars, which “…is terrible unto the demons, and at its sight and aspect they will obey thee, for they cannot resist its presence“, with its verse being Psalm 91, verse 13: Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. With lion, serpent, and spirit alike subjugated in the same manner as suggested by Skinner. In practice, both in my own experiments and in those of other Goetic magicians who I’ve compared notes with over the years, this pentacle serves as the ideal substitute for the belt in whole. Its hold on infernal spirits is jarring in its efficacy, as the grimoire describes, especially those lower in the infernal hierarchies. The use of lion is both prescribed, and for the aforementioned reasons, serves as an added layer of correspondence and sympathy in the performance of the art of Goetia.

I consecrated these pentacles in the usual manner described by the Greater Key, working only within the days and hours of Mars with blessed ink and consecrated tools. I performed additional consecrations and layered enchantments for personal power, subjugation of spirits, and subversion of entrenched powers in subsequent days and times, and finally sealing the enchantment before additional Angels and planetary spirits of Mars atop a tablet inscribed with the first pentacle of Mars.

The pentacles themselves are warm to the touch and have a tangible “buzzy” feeling, radiating their virtue if left exposed. Through this quality, I noticed a decrease in phenomena in spaces where this pentacle was left, in addition to prompting an exodus of astral larvae and other ambient parasitic spirits. In testing these pentacles, to say they were strongly repulsive to the infernal hordes conjured is an understatement – I have not encountered a tool so effective at demanding obedience and stripping infernal spirits of their ministers and attendants as when this was revealed within the circle.

5 pentacles are available as of 30 December 2025 in honor of Mars, and they will not be restocked once sold due to the rarity of the material. We wish you all a happy new year!

St. Nicholas’ Day 2025 Group Rite: For Luck, Joy, and Insight (Recap)

December 28, 2025 ~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

Once again, Key and I are so incredibly grateful for your generous support of our Nikoljdan community ritual. We were once again able to raise $2000 for our Cabula through the combined efforts of our Esteemed Initiate tier on Patreon and those who contributed directly through the blog. Thank you all so very much!

Here’s a brief recap of the workings as we completed them. Key and I began by throwing a small slava for Sveti Nikola in my home, inviting friends and family to visit and participate. From the early morning, we were up and baking bread, cooking sarma, preparing the fish, and baking Dutch pepernoten cookies. We prepared a small selection of traditional slava cakes and biscuits, as well as an apple strudel, and created small plates containing servings of each dish for the ancestors, protector spirits, land spirits, and spirits of the door and threshold. Having lit the slava candle, we offered prayers, veneration, and oral charms unto St. Nicholas as wayfarer of the paths to fortune, stability, and prosperity.

Just a couple days prior, on the 17th of December, I also celebrated Sveta Varvara (St. Barbara). As per tradition, I sowed wheat seeds to grow my Christmas wheat that I will trim on January 7th, and cooked a traditional meal of grains called a varica. This year, I opted for a sweeter version, consisting of wheat, corn, barley, honey, chopped walnuts, sliced walnuts, and raisins. “Varvarica vari a Savica ladi a Nikolica kusa” (Barbara cooks, Sava cools, Nikola tastes) is a saying encompassing the practices of this trinity of days, cooking the varica on Barbara, cooling it in the fridge for a full day during Sabbas the Sanctified, and finally consuming it with your family on Nicholas’ day. Several sorcerous projects were begun on her feast, and the varica, having been blessed for fertility and prosperity, was served on Nikoljdan and enjoyed by all present.

The lamps prepared and presented. The left-handed lamp manifested the omen we were looking for: the buildup of soot along its rim.

Once our guests had returned home, we set off to do our work on behalf of all patrons and named parties. Key and I prepared two oil lamps of St. Nicholas, one for the saint in his right-handed guise, and another for him as Devil, as Veles, as Master of the Wolves.

The right-handed lamp was built in several stages: for the first stage, the vessel of the lamp itself was prepared with an herbal wash, smoked out with incense, and lit on fire with some Florida water. Next, a little bit of the oil went in along with a wooden cross that was carved and blessed for the day, as well as crumbs from the slava bread baked that day and the full petition of names. Following this, we added our base of resins, including several kinds of Orthodox incense blends as well as frankincense, myrrh, Three Kings, and more. Key then took the grave dirt of nine different bishops to confer the blessings of those spirits unto the work. He also expressed some of the orange oil, harvested directly from the oranges we prepared as daughter-lamps, through a flame in order to consecrate it as the descent of the Holy Spirit into the lamp. Key then added a gold coin into the lamp as well as much more orange peel to code it for money, and then finished the lamp with a crown of rosemary.

For the left-handed lamp, every ingredient that went into the base was covered in charcoal and ash to “blacken” it with soot. The lamp itself was built over a black Joker card, specifically one chosen because it depicted the Joker riding a horse. This image coded the work both to the lore of the black Joker as a devil in a deck of playing cards, as well as calling upon his steed, which for our purposes also includes St. Nicholas’ boat. Additionally, in much of Dutch folklore surrounding St. Nicholas, the saint is depicted as riding a horse, or at least travelling alongside one. After each ingredient was added, pieces of coal were also put into the lamp, as well as pieces of tobacco from a cigar that fumigated the lamp, myrrh, and dirt gathered from the graves of 21 soldiers. Key then shotgunned a cigar into the lamp, shaking the vessel until the smoke infused into the oil, turning it grey. Sulphur, gunpowder, vetiver, and a final gold coin completed the work, built over the volatility and explosive nature of its ingredients, and handled carefully to bust open blocks, open roads, and ignite the raw power of luck in each named party’s life.

A pinch of the materia from both lamps, along with crumbs from the slava bread, then went into eight orange lamps which which were ritually born of their parents, and distributed to different crossroads to safely burn amidst the winter snow. A final pair of orange lamps, the youngest twins of the nest, were then taken to a nearby lake and left to float along the surface, carrying out the petitions crafted into the arms of the watery spirits that accompany St. Nicholas in both Balkan and Dutch lore. We completed the rite by offering one final battery of prayers to the saint, praising him for his potency and once more requesting that he open the roads to luck, fortune, prosperity, wealth, and new opportunities and horizons for everyone named. We are so grateful to each and every one of you who contributed! All proceeds from the rite are reserved for our Cabula as part of the charity of this working.

Srećan Nikoljdan!

St. Nicholas’ Day 2025 Group Rite: For Luck, Joy, and Insight

December 15, 2025December 20, 2025 ~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

Dearest Karcists! It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year since we last announced our St. Nicholas’ Day group working. We were incredibly touched by the success of last year’s St. Nicholas’ Day Candle Service, which allowed Key and I (Sfinga) to raise over $2000 USD for our Cabula as part of a winter fundraiser. This year, we’ve decided to continue in our newfound tradition of December Nikoljdan (the Serbian Orthodox feast of St. Nicholas on the 19th of December) workings and open up this opportunity again into an even more involved community rite. As the winter grows and the days approach the longest night, we intend to take up the banner of Sveti Nikola once more and build on this opportunity to instantiate a yearly tradition of workings by our hands for the community—both in magic and in proceeds.

By donating to this group rite, your name (or the name of a loved one—please contact us if you would like the name to be different from that which appears on the PayPal receipt) will be dressed in two different petitions: a ritual of fortune, levity, and joy from myself, Sfinga, and a ritual for road opening, insight, and wisdom from B. Key. The goals are closely aligned with the previous year’s rite, and they will likely keep these themes going forward throughout the years with some changes determined by divination, albeit the methodologies will vary in the spirit of St. Nicholas’ many traditions. This year, we will be working primarily with by the light of the sorcerous lamp, calling on the saint as both navigator amidst the stormy seas and devil perched on the perilous cliffs.

Key and I will once more draw on our familiarity of St. Nicholas veneration from the Serbian and Dutch folk traditions. Last year’s working was a candle service, and this year candles will only be one part of a greater whole, in which we will construct two complex oil lamps (one for the saint and one for the devil, as is tradition) with each name given directly to the herbal matter within. From these two mothers we will create many daughter-lamps which we will complete the feast with by floating them out into the lake to light the voyage for each named party’s prosperity, success, luck, and cunning insight into future possibilities in the new year. We will also prepare a feast for the saint and all the spirits that walk with him. In addition to a medley of Serbian and Dutch foods, a slava bread will also be prepared, whose crumbs, along with Thursday salt and a prosperity powder, will be added to the daughter-lamps we will float into the waters before midnight. We’re looking to double the offerings and double the effort for this year, and continue the momentum ever forward in love, honour, and gratitude to all the communities that have nourished us and whom we hope to continue nourishing in return!

This time will also mark the beginning of a series of workings on Sveta Varvara (the 17th of December on the Old Calendar for St. Barbara), linking the trinity of successive days of 17th (Varvara), 18th (Sava Osvećeni), and 19th (Nikola) for the growing of Christmas wheat and oracular power. Several charms will grow out of these workings which we will keep you updated on, including an exciting collaboration we’ll be able to speak more on in the new year.

A blog post containing pictures and our reflections on the ritual will go live in the days following the feast so that all who participated may have a record of its completion. The rite will be performed on the 19th of December.

If you would like to submit your name for this working, please use the link below. Subscribers to our Esteemed Initiate tier on Patreon are automatically entered into this rite at a discount as part of their monthly group ritual service.

All proceeds will go directly to our Cabula, as was the case last year, in the spirit of the Winter holidays. As always, we hope that this intersection of our traditions and communities serves you well in your New Year’s petitions and plans, and provides an ample boost to all you seek to grow and harvest in the coming months!

Thank you for participating in this year’s rite! A follow up post will be made available in the coming days.