Exaltation of the Holy Cross 2026 Group Working

August 26, 2026 ~ B. Key ~ Leave a comment

My magic has always paid a great deal of attention to the Ember Days, being the periods surrounding Lent, Pentecost, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and the Feast of St. Lucy. These four days were traditionally tightly linked to seasonal changes in the agricultural calendar, as well as divination, weather augury, fasting, and much folk magic for the preservation of fertility and fortune. In honour of these important tides, as we now process from the harvest periods into the beginnings of winter over the next three months, I am excited to offer a group working on behalf of any who register,

Following the success of our St. Nicholas group rituals over the past two years, as well as the monthly group rituals we perform for members of our Esteemed Initiate tier on our podcast’s Patreon, I’ve decided to offer another candle service to capture the strength and potency of this upcoming feast. I am hoping to do one of these per Ember Day, on the encouragement of my spirits, who already drive me to do this kind of work for myself during these cycles. It would be my great pleasure to make this work available to many more beyond just myself and my closest friends, on whose behalf I have prayed and offered these petitions over the years.

This working will take place on September 14th, being the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. For me, this feast is the ultimate expression of treasure hunting magic, as it is when the holy cross itself was literally found. Depending on local tradition, either the day itself, the following Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, or all of them combined, are important markers for divination, being interpreted as microcosmic representations of the months ahead via augury. In effect, everything which happens during these days may be interpreted as omens which foretell the nature of the following three months until St. Lucy’s feast. Dream auguries are considered especially powerful in these seasonal markers, and in the Germanic context, they are especially consulted for weather omens.

For each entry made payable below, I will bless one candle in your name or that of a loved one’s submitted on their behalf. In addition to praying over your name, I will anoint the candle in whichever of my personal oils best aligns with your petition. Capturing the potency of this day, I will call on my spirits to commune with the spirits of the winds and weather of this time and deliver the effects directly to their petitioners. The general style of this working will be for identifying and removing obstacles via intuition, augury, and somatic knowing, as well as the opening of paths to success such that the best plans for the next three months are identified and followed up on. This is something I do for myself each year around this time and it has been instrumental in my own career and life path. I highly recommend those joining along for this work to also light a candle on this day to their own spirits at home, asking for their intercession and to assist in further amplifying the magic done on their behalf. This rite will serve to empower your ability to focus on the most fortunate path forward in your creative, professional, social, and spiritual life leading up to the feast of St. Lucy on December 13th, and further capitalize on all blessings coming your way throughout. In addition to bringing clarity and decisiveness to your projects, I will also add an additional blessing of prosperity and open roads to the entire working at large.

Following the completion of the work, I will be making another post on the blog to recap the rite and provide an interpretation of the omens noted over the course of the three days (Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday) following. These will be made available in the public post and will speak to advice and spiritual counsel to note over the next three months.

If you would like to join me for this working, you may click on the link below. If you are purchasing a candle for someone other than or in addition to yourself, please be sure to specify in the field as well.

I thank you for your trust in performing this work on your behalf. It is my great honour to perform more of these public rites beyond the scope of our flourishing Patreon community (Esteemed Initiate tier members receive one such group rite from myself and Sfinga every month!) and to continue to share some of the tricks and timings that have helped me the most in my own path.

Mercury in Nutmeg: Gold Edition

June 29, 2026July 30, 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, 2026July 30, 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, 2026July 30, 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.

Seven Wards for Seven Destinies

May 5, 2026July 30, 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, 2026July 30, 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.

An Oil According to Their Deeds

March 4, 2026July 30, 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.

5th Pentacles of Mars on Lion

December 31, 2025July 30, 2026 ~ 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!

Oil of Helios’ Triumph

November 17, 2025July 30, 2026 ~ B. Key ~ Leave a comment

Those in our Patreon Discord server know that recently, I was able to legally obtain a good quantity of antique lion skin from an old, damaged wall hanging pelt. Listeners of the podcast know well that I’m exceptionally dedicated to treasure hunting, including the sourcing of rare materia as an offering unto itself to my spirits. Getting this pelt, after much searching, has opened the door to many forthcoming projects ranging from grimoiric tools to bespoke spirit-inspired fetishes. In addition to finally creating some long-promised artifacts for myself with my spirits, I’m especially eager to pay them back for their efforts by honouring this hunt through the creation of various tools for the sorcerer and witch alike, born of my hands to serve your practices.

The first of these implements, which all but demanded to be crafted immediately, is the Oil of Helios’ Triumph. Drawing on and invoking Helios’ lion-faced form, this oil bears a triple enchantment drawing from two sources of solar magic: the Greek Magical Papyri and the Faustian Key of Necromancy Volume 1.

The core strip of lion skin prepared for consecration.

This oil is driven by a four-armed crossroads of solar cunning in honour of the journey to obtain its ingredients. The first component is the consecration born of PGM XXXVI. 211—30, one of the famous charms to “restrain anger” that Sfinga had written about previously. The original charm is an oral recitation performed seven times towards the sun, after which you anoint your hand with an undisclosed oil and wipe it on your head and face. In addition to mellowing and diminishing the anger of humans and spirits alike, this charm also secures favour and glory by the power of Helios and the Agathodaimon. The core barbarous words from the prayer were written on a strip of ritually-prepared lion skin and fumigated in an incense prepared for Helios, which was itself ritually consecrated using the PGM IV.1596—1715 “consecration for all purposes”. Having presented the strip to the twelve faces of Helios to gain his favour, it was ritually entombed in a mother bottle that was also found through the auspices of the same treasure-hunting spirits, being shaped as a hermit’s lantern.

Next, having fumigated some genuine vellum with the same incense, I copied out the “Sigil for Sunday” from the Faustian Key of Necromancy: Volume 1 with a ritually prepared solar ink. The grimoire notes that all works through the planetary spirits associated with each day should be performed under its proper rulership, having employed the sigil of the day. As this is one of my most-worked grimoires within the Faustian tradition, from which several of my primary treasure-seeking familiars originate, it was explicitly requested during the divination process for the recipe of this oil that this seal also be fully prepared and included. Much like the Key of Solomon pentacles which suppress the pride of each planet’s spirits, this seal, in my experience, serves much the same purpose, while also serving as a knowable point of contact to yet-unidentified solar spirits brought under its fold.

The spirits that govern this oil were called upon through the microcosm of a hexagram encoded with the characters of the sun drawn on the floor with chalk, also derived from the same Faustian text. With a light lit at each corner of its hexagram, they were called into the mother bottle to pray over, charge, and attest to the potency of each vivified ingredient. The oil itself was built brick by brick, through herbal, mineral, and animal powders prepared independently and blessed for each of the named functions of the Prayer to Helios. Powders of conquest against enemies were blended with seeds that germinate and celebrate victory alongside seen and unseen allies alike, then unified through a Greco-Egyptian solar powder that brings peace through unyielding strength and the force of regency. Once composed, the final powder was bound in local honey, and finally brought together with very good quality olive oil. The bottle, already humming with spirit activity, was prayed over using the Prayer of Helios, Consecration for all Purposes, and a selection of spirit-derived oral charms and petitions taught to me directly by my solar familiars.

The oil receiving blessings alongside a dagger belonging to a solar familiar.

Following its blessing, the enchantment was sealed through offerings of beeswax candles and the oil was allowed to incubate until dawn to receive the first rays of light, that Helios-as-oil might complete his underworld transit and arise triumphant once again. Use with the PGM incantation to wipe your face for favour, triumph over enemies, and victory in all things. Anoint your crown and hands before crossing borders, passing through security, or undergoing background checks to move swiftly and easily through all bureaucracies. Use as a holy anointing oil to suppress the pride of arrogant spirits and protect yourself from those easily offended. Include a drop into an oil lamp for communing with spirits you do not yet have a name or character of. Anoint your temples for easier scrying, or slick your thumbnail for divining directly into its surface. Anoint your luggage and car to move more easily through crossings.

Each order is for a 30 mL (1 fluid ounce) bottle of oil and includes free shipping. Orders will begin shipping through USPS on November 26th. Sold as a curio only.

To Hold a Spirit Up: St. Christopher’s Charm Bundles for Spirit Manifestation

September 6, 2025July 30, 2026 ~ B. Key ~ Leave a comment

A few years back, I wrote a post about about a matrix of herbs and powders that came together to better presence St. Expedite and those spirits that dance in his blazing footfalls in a particular loci of devotion. The everlasting quest to help my spirits meet me somewhere in between this world and the next by finding ways to ensoul, manifest, and anchor them in this world that they may have more ingress and presence, and resulting experiments, lead me to making this new set of charms. In technique a spiritual companion piece to the charm bundles affixed to Christopher’s Protection Chaplets for Travelers, these bundles draw from the life of our beloved dog-saint, in which he bore the entire world upon his shoulder (in the form of the Christ-Child). It follows that if he can uplift, make safe, and most importantly make manifest the world, he can do so with anything therein. In lifting up spirits all the same, he provides both a gentle hand elevating and aiding the manifestation of our allied spirits, bringing closer those distant and forgotten, and, as needed, a mechanism of control against unruly, wild spirits.

Like most of my charms made at the foot of St. Christopher (and one might argue like the saint himself!), they are simple in construction, but blessed through labour and repetition. Each bag contains an herbal blend, with plants selected to share breath with spirits to rouse their presence and increase their strength, pacify disagreements among those they encounter, send roots and stems and seeds into other worlds to secure and germinate the means of ingress, and to mediate and nullify imbalances that need to be navigated in the environs of the spirit. Like following a long and desolate path, each component was selected to navigate obstacles and hindrances without being so heavy or distracting as to over-encumber the bearer. Tobacco, Sage, and Dittany of Crete feature heavily, with celandine, mullein, and many members of the mint family mediating.

Each plant was called forth to the table of his catholic feast, and united under the celebratory banner of the dog-saint, with an exhortation of his virtuous qualities delivered over corresponding herbs. Candles lit for the saint and each of these allies were used to apply a small drop of beeswax on the reverse of each metal, to deliver their fire and seal the initial enchantment. Following their initial consecration, they were continuously prayed over, offered to, and further empowered through charm and incantation, until they satisfactorily eased the production of spirit phenomena (being sustained and visual or auditory, beyond the usual capabilities of the distant and forgotten spirits contracted to test the charms).

I suggest affixing this charm to the leg of an altar table or shrine, or keeping it beneath a table of practice during use, that they may participate in, and themselves osmose the virtues to bear up spirits. The bundles can also be given to spirits to use as toolboxes, with each component potentially easing the burdens to travel between their world and ours. I encourage communion with your own spirits at the locus of the charm to determine further idiosyncratic uses, as the composition is meant to be a kaleidoscope through which these encounters are had.