Angelic Staves of the Devil’s Gorge

July 27, 2026July 30, 2026 ~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

Key and I are so humbled and overjoyed by the reception of our The Celestial Body the Greater Benefic release. We wanted to extend our very deepest thanks to everyone who has purchased a powder, taken in one of the familiars into their own courts, and reached out already to communicate the kinds of experiences they’ve been having with their spirits as they’ve received them. I will be emailing each recipient out this week with further instructions for care and suggested ritual praxis. For now, everything is in the mail with tracking updated. Our powder stock is almost out, so if you’re interested in securing some of the very limited materia we worked on over the last year together to birth these daimones, you can check out the final link at the bottom of the original post.

With our Jupiterian friends out and on their way to their true homes, it was time to complete another project that’s been in the making since earlier this year—this time, a collaboration between myself and our very own beloved Maria the Green Dragon Healer. Listeners of the podcast know she’s one of our closest friends, a fellow folk Orthodox sorceress, and a deeply learned healer in the tradition of classical Chinese medicine. We’ve been seeing each other weekly for materia gathering, divination practice, and magical experimentation for over a decade, and in addition to our Orthodox training, one of the most common features of our mutual work has been planetary and angelic. These fields of spirit activity were an easy bridge between our individual courts, allowing for an immediately accessible meeting point for traditions. While we haven’t discussed it together on Frightful Howls yet, these celestial spheres are some of our most mutually researched and practiced together, precisely because of our mutual interest in grimoiric conjuration, working with planetary intelligences, and folk Orthodox reverence for the angels themselves.

It is in this vein that we’re excited to reveal a project we’ve been working on since the Spring Equinox: a set of Angelic Staves designed for immediate use by conjurors and karcists. This was a highly fluid and syncretic undertaking, drawing on our experimentations with the Armadel, Orthodox devotion to the four archangels of Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, and Uriel, my own ongoing projects with the Sixth and Seventh Book of Moses, as well as our mutual training in folk Orthodox healing practices. This confluence of influences was not random in the slightest, as each element was divined on ahead of time by the both of us, with only a mutual affirmative result from both of our spirits allowing us to proceed further. The project was guided at the hands of multiple spirits whose instructions we followed closely until the final result was at last ready to be unveiled.

The staves are themselves a set of spiritual weapons, each made under the guidance of our spirits through calling on the influence of the four primary archangels. Every part of their construction, much like Key and my Greater Benefic series, required us to gather the materials entirely by hand. Their primary bodies are in the form of railroad spikes, gathered at what is known as “The Devil’s Punchbowl,” one of the most famous and folklorically rich landmarks of the Niagara Escarpment. In addition to its lore as a site of moonshiners and bootleggers, this beautiful area is the host of many spirits and folk devils, which were propitiated ahead of time prior to the gathering of these spikes. Each spike was thoroughly cleaned and then consecrated with a medley of oils crafted for angelic communion. Part of their power is derived from the angelic reclamation of the very spikes lining the railroad track into this numinous gorge.

Maria then sewed together small pouches of leather we fumigated with incense dedicated to each individual angel, while I inscribed the pouches with the angelic seals from the Armadel. While the Armadel specifies which colours are to be used for which seals (including partially, with some lines being green and others red, for example), the seals produced on the leather are all white per the request of our spirits, and the colours assigned to each angel being only one each. These attributions were not, as might be initially presumed, elemental in nature. Rather, they arose from the specific purposes of the staves under each angel, with the colours themselves being an ingredient as much as any of the other materia. Each was affixed with coloured leather cord to the spike, in addition to an ornamental chain upon which its spirits gather and affix themselves to ease in communication. Their swaying and movement also produce oracles for the discerning karcist to commune with.

Our divination unveiled the following four natures: the promotion of peace, harmony, communication, and love via Gabriel, the increase of necromantic authority and command with Michael, the conjuration, negotiation, and alliance with spirits of land and nature with Raphael, and the promotion of financial prosperity, luck, and fortune with Uriel.

Each leather pouch was stuffed with a medley of materia we gathered by hand, pre-determined by divination. The initial consecrations were carried out during the Vernal Equinox, with additional work carried out throughout the ensuing months. We took our time finding the necessary materia for the chains of the staves—hanging pendulums off each side which call spirits to them and serve as oracular omens and tools. Gabriel’s took the form of yak bone beads and bison tooth; Michael’s were pearls, a redwood skull bead, and crow claw; Raphael’s were maple wood beads with real jade and fossilized deer toe bones; and Uriel’s were citrine, matte onyx beads, and a golden skeleton key each.

The platform of their consecration was similarly revealed to us in the form of their Armadel seals, connected together with the General Citation of Moses on All Spirits pentacle from the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses. A seven day candle was given unto each angel, charged with our own angelic oils, which had to burn down fully while daily supplications and offerings were given unto the Mosaic pentacle within, such that they were fully charged and activated.

This was an exciting experiment, challenging us to adapt to the very specific instructions of our spirits lay at our feet without trying to make them conform to the strictures of the grimoires they drew on. This is in every way a kind of fusion work, borrowing the symbology from particular texts but not grounding itself fully in them, rather adapting each element which had to be gathered, washed, and fed by hand into a greater symbiotic whole. Each may be used as a wand, driven into the ground to promote their effects, consecrate dirt before gathering, pull up spirits from the ground and ambient air to speak clearly, and serve as lighting rods for focus. We’ve tested them extensively and found them each to be especially reliable, but their true secrets lie in what each new holder will make of them in their own courts and practices. An existing relationship with each angel is not required to make the most out of these tools—they are weapons of the angels, which may be used to arm other spirits in your court as well. The descriptions below for each provide some suggestions for use, though the only limit is one’s imagination.

Only three of each were made for a total of twelve across the angels and will not be made again due to the limitations of the rare materia and the specificity of this project as a singular unit in time. All staves will ship out within seven business days of purchase. We thank you so much for your support of our work! It’s thanks to you that we can continue making time to create more tools to protect, uplift, and empower our communities.

The Celestial Body the Greater Benefic: Eight Daimones of Jupiter’s Exaltation

July 12, 2026July 30, 2026 ~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

Ever since Jupiter entered Cancer last year, we have spoken multiple times about our excitement to capitalize on this transit, which is essential to crafting the most powerful version of the Fourth Pentacle of Jupiter. Throughout the year that the Greater Benefic has been in his exaltation, many of our dear friends and colleagues have put out excellent releases based in this pentacle, including their full manifestations on silver. Initially, Key and I planned to make our own versions available, though as with many projects we have engaged with together, spirit quickly unveiled a whole litany of new requirements and possibilities.

From the outset of our journey, one of our primary guiding spirits instructed us to honour Jupiter throughout this transit each Thursday in a Jupiter hour, and that through this practice a series of celestial daimons would be revealed unto us. This is an oath we have kept throughout the year, with one of us ensuring each week that it would be completed if the other was indisposed. Over the year, this became a kind of mantric practice that saw its accumulation as a kind of celestial capture, wooing and honouring the light of the planet’s rays in each performance. Our initial impressions of the work at hand was to create a series of fetish bundles, whose ingredients would draw from the correspondences attributed to Jupiter across medieval and Renaissance texts. Instead, as we spent the first three months of the transit gathering materia, true to our guide’s words, a series of spirits did indeed begin to appear with their own demands and assertions.

The fruit of this project is a project that rivals the work and intensity of our Foam-born Aphrodite collection. What started out as a desire to capitalize on the Fourth Pentacles of Jupiter grew into a series of eight familiar daimons, each with their own names, preferences, personal abilities, wealth-drawing specialties, and manners of working. Each familiar, over the course of the year, revealed their own unique arcana of working and specified their desire to be granted physical form through sacrifice, bounty, and alchemical processes, each painstakingly revealed to us through dreams, divination, and shared auguries. Even the form of their bodies, each being housed in a cobalt blue glass bottle, were specifically required to be found locally and not via online purchase. As such, we were preparing the cores, powders, and matrices of their interiors for some long before we ever found their actual bottle. In the end, it took almost the entire year to find the perfect ones across various antique and thrift stores within our cities, as it was not enough for them to just be blue (otherwise this would have been a simpler task indeed), but the right sizes and shapes for their related forms.

This practice continued throughout their construction: each materia had to be sourced locally, with us purchasing them in person with our money exchanged by our hands. We would even wear elected Jupiterian colognes specifically when out shopping, and anoint each other with the scents in the appropriate Jupiterian hour before heading out on our way. From the cloth covering some to the threads and beads, as well as the engraved hearts of lapis lazuli that thrum in each bottle, every aspect of this undertaking was done locally and with our resources directly traded by hand, building on the abilities of these spirits to draw meaningful and lasting economic success.

Before introducing each of the familiar daimons below, we would first like to take a moment to note some of the scope of work that went into their overall creation as a group.

These spirits demanded a great deal of numerological attention. Each bottle was cleansed in a series of four washes, each itself born of four Jupiterian herbs for a total of sixteen, placed upon a kamea of blue chalk whose powder was swept into the baths and distributed. Their insides were similarly fumigated by an incense of Jupiter crafted to the specifications of Agrippa by our friend Idlu Lili Regulus, who generously sent it to us to experiment with. While the Fourth Pentacle of Jupiter featured strongly in their construction, being included in full within each familiar’s vessel, all seven pentacles of the planet in effect are contained with their bodies as parchment talismans reduced into ashes, reconstituted into powdered incense form, and burnt again over coals along with additional elected Jupiter in Cancer and Jupiter in Pisces incenses, thereby undergoing the full alchemical process. The “hearts” of each spirit, being their true vessels, are precious lapis lazuli cores with hexagrams inscribed upon them, each washed, enlivened, and fumigated in the same combination of powder, incense, water, and even fire for the full geomantic expression of the planet. Additionally, the blood of dove and the fat of screech owl baptized these cores to fully enliven them to the thrust of Jupiterian life within.

One of the eight powders receiving its blessing.

Eight powders in total were created to arm each spirit, one for each element in active and passive forms respectively. As each powder was constructed, they were independently consecrated across different elections and then combined into a total mixture in which each of the eight spirit’s expressions were nourished and given form. The ingredients that went into these powders total to 160 unique materia, which were grouped in formations of active and passive elements (active/passive fire, active/passive water, etc.) so as to not conflict with one another, and then bound into service and mutual obedience and amplification by being reconstructed as the limbs of a body. It is by these means that plants, stones, dusts, animals, and blood came together under the light of the stars, which captured not only important Jupiter in Pisces elections from the previous transits, but additional Jupiter in Cancer elections throughout the year. Each element had to be divined on ahead of time, to ensure not only a fluidity of cooperation with the others but an overall harmony in the grand celestial body of the Greater Benefic.

In addition to these eight powders, which ensure that each familiar has the abilities of its siblings, special elements mark each aspect of the celestial body (for this is the term they used to refer to themselves as a collective of daimones). The titles each spirit took on as they expressed their fullest natures to us are none other than elements of that body: the Helm, the Breastplate, the Heart, the Girdle, the Right Hand, the Left Hand, the Right Leg, and the Left Leg.

After numerous consecrations, their final awakening was completed on the very final Thursday of the transit, drawn once more over a kamea of blue chalk with each familiar laid out in formation around a central plate of the First Pentacle of Jupiter, flanked by blue candles inscribed with the four names of its angels. The central candle inside was surrounded by sixteen beans used in divination and prophecy for the spirits, itself having been inscribed during four important Jupiter elections of its exaltation: two in Pisces from the last time it was in the sign, and two in the last year in Cancer. When lit, it released the combined flood of each election, from which each other candle consecrating and enlivening the familiars were themselves lit. In this way, the fullness of each election was bestowed unto the celestial fires which drew the spirits down into material form.

It is our very great pleasure and honour to introduce these spirits with you all. Their eventual keepers will receive far more information on their nature, forms, true names, personalities, manners of working, and preferred offerings. Below are some outlines of their general natures and what they are best suited for. While all were greatly tested and proven to be incredible at drawing money, accruing wealth, dignity, honours, and riches, strategic networking, healing the body, charming the weather, securing land and home, and warding against poverty, each have their own specializations. A tremendous amount of work over the course of a full year went into their birth, which cannot be replicated again for another twelve years.

Additionally, the very powders which birthed these spirits are available here for individual purchase, for those looking for a more affordable way to boost your own workings, fix your candles, and line your shrines with the power of this year’s worth of workings:

All prices include shipping with tracking. Please allow for seven business days for all packages to be sent. We will email you with the tracking number and additional information on the name, manifestations, manners of working, and preferred offerings once shipped.

We thank you so much for your kindness and support of our work. The year we’ve spent cultivating these spirits has been nothing short of incredible in our own lives and we are so excited to finally release these into your care. We will make ourselves available over email correspondence to continually assist you with any needs and feedback you may have concerning the care and upkeep of these spirits. It is our honour to midwife them into your courts and our great joy to see them received into the spiritual networks of their future magicians. May the Greater Benefic see each of your projects to fruition, recognition, and celebration.

St. George’s Charms of the Red Shield

May 26, 2026July 30, 2026 ~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May 13, 2026July 30, 2026 ~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

St. Lazarus’ Decoys of Renewal

April 16, 2026July 30, 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, 2026July 30, 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!

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

February 23, 2026July 30, 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, 2026July 30, 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.

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

December 28, 2025July 30, 2026 ~ 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, 2025July 30, 2026 ~ 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.