Category: Sorcery

Venus On High

~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

We have spent a lot of time pondering the curiosity of just how many of the most creative and life-changing undertakings in our lives all began with Venus. From the very inception of this website, with my appreciation for and desire to work the Libellus Veneri Nigro Sacer, or Tuba Veneris, to the sheer command and force with which an encounter with Aphrodite changed so much of my spiritual life, it is the Venusian impulse, whether in love, fertility, beauty, war, agriculture, trade, seafaring—and of course, in witchcraft among all the innumerable other fields—that has been a continual driving force of evolution, growth, expansion, and refinement. And it is now to her service we once again turn, this time not to expand upon a deeply personal experience of a specific instantiation of a goddess, but to take up the creative mantle alongside some of our dearest friends in contemplation of the greater cross-cultural and cross-temporal expressions of “Venus”.

The roots of this collection were born from many months of conversation with some of our closest friends and colleagues: Dr. Al Cummins, Jackson Walker of Haus of Ophidious, and our Tata in Quimbanda, Jesse Hathaway Diaz. Our desire was to offer a collaboration in honour of the many manners in which Venus—whether localized in a specific goddess, exalted as a planetary power, or flattened to merely an amorous force over and above her myriad other patronages—has been understood by sorcerers and witches across time. As we worked on our individual creations, we also shared materia amongst each other, circulating powders, oils, and gemstones between our hands such that a little of each of our creative force and dedication is present in each other’s. Additionally, we recorded a Frightful Howls episode all together, the first ever panel style episode featuring five speakers, which will premiere during tonight’s Venus cazimi. This post will be updated with its link during that very window!

The foam and the smoke arise.

It is our great joy and pleasure to, now more than two years after our Foam-born Aphrodite collection, unveil our newest offerings in service to that same impulse. We will be writing here in the third person together, as while we have our own individual contributions to the collection, we worked on each piece collectively and shared in both materia and labour.

The Pigment of Venus II

Our Lady reborn.

Key’s half of our effort emerged out of his ever-growing adoration of the Cypriot goddess. The guiding star of his inquiry begins and ends with an alchemical mirror of our Lady’s birth. This is the same pigment that sold out so quickly in the Foam-born Aphrodite collection, being a copper-based cerulean as vivid as the shores of her birth. He laboured extensively over its purity, spending hours washing and sanctifying the pigment itself, including with the natron produced as a by-product of its synthesis, recovered and given life anew. Even through the chemical reaction, as well as the many days it took to wash and dry it, Key continually prayed over the vats, worked only under candlelight offered to Aphrodite, and conducted his work only during Venus hours. This is the heart of his devotion to the goddess, who has so captured his alchemist’s heart in pursuit of her famed Cypriot mysteries. It was, after all, precisely in Paphos that she was so celebrated amidst the copper refineries, the perfumeries, and the temples overlooking the Mediterranean shores.

Each purchase comes with a 1/2 oz jar of the fully enchanted pigment. A little goes a long way—it can be mixed with carrier oils to form an oil paint, or used alone as a dust or with other adhesives to colour entire surfaces. As the pigment is our goddess born in foam, it carries the same vital Veriditas to any surface it is applied to. Use to paint statues, mark boundaries, and draw sigils of any Venusian impulse. Add to charms for protection, love, wealth in commerce and trade, and victory over competition. Its uses are limited only by one’s creativity, for it stirs her presence strongly and immediately. Consider anointing the eyes of statues with its cerulean command to summon forth the gaze of the goddess, or to anoint other charms in service to her familiars and daimones.

The Door, Aphrodite

One door awaiting its call.

These have been a long labour of love from Key’s hands, originating from a playful consideration of the “Amulet to protect the entrance of a house from vermin” translated in Marvin Meyer and Richard Smith’s Ancient Christian Magic collection. Evoking an image of fairy doors, these charms are made from Paulownia timber (being notably resilient to decay), infused with Key’s pigment and his personal Oil of Nepherieri. A fed hagstone, which had drank of seven pure white doves, rests tied at its door as its knocker, which, when rung, will mutually announce your arrival at the threshold of spirit, whose answer in turn will be to feast at your table. This is a portal in honour of Venus as the womb of possibility, the door which awaits its knock, the vaginal cleaving of encounter and the ingress of spirit into matter. Its threshold is coated in a copper-laden wax, enchanted to ease the passage of notoriously elusive spirits under Venus’ purview to arrive before you, ready for communication and compact. The threshold also contains a plug of each of our collaborators’ Venus powders (see Sfinga’s Shells of the Six Servants for more information on this matrix!) which Key loaded into the door by drilling a small hole on the side. Braided around its inner gate is a rope of weeping willow, anointed and ensorcelled through the serpents of Aphrodite’s gardens to create a lush oasis under its branches to welcome all who would step within. Additionally, three drops of wax infused with the essence of our work with Nepherieri dot the front, sealing the enchantments and its pacts in the trifold expressions of Aphrodite as Queen of Love, Queen of Life, and Queen of Magic.

These doors may be placed into a tree on your property, alongside a wall of your choice, or into any surface you divine on and see fit for this work. While these charms are ideal for those who have already developed significant pacts with their local land spirits, they may also be used to jumpstart such pacts for those who have recently relocated. Each door comes with a small charge to be buried on the property. The charge itself is based in soap, which will gradually melt and fuse into the land that you’re on, linking your door to a pre-existing web of spirit doors and pathways within Aphrodite’s realm. Once installed, these doors are not meant to be moved, so please divine ahead of time where they should rest. Should the need arise to move out, please feel free to reach out to Key personally for a second charge tailored to your situation via divination and consultation, which will then be sent to you at only the cost of shipping to reforge the same pact.

The uses of these doors are myriad. These are essentially tools for the spirits of Venus’ purview to continually passively bless and occupy your land with their grace. They are more worked passively than actively—once installed, they will naturally draw the various attendants, daimones, and spirits of place into the network of Venusian congress, bringing passive boons of luck, fertility, love, beauty, agricultural success (including flourishing gardens!) and oracular dreams. These are meant to form of a locus where offerings can be made in invitation, facilitating spirits that would otherwise take far more supplication to appear. Simply by knocking upon its frame with the fed hagstone, praying in your own words for what you wish, and opening the door, you may invite congress with legions of attendants and direct them as a group to your needs. The example door pictured above has a small copper Idol of Pomos in place of where you would place any stone or knowable point of congress between you and your land spirits. This could be as simple as a pebble you find yourself attracted to, or a a pre-existing figurine or statue you wish to serve as intercessor. Petitions may be read aloud or burned to ash and tucked behind the door, such that after you have made your offerings and thanked the spirits within, its closing may be understood to be its issuance, dismissing the hordes of whispering voices and setting them through their many pathways into manifestation.

Ultimately, these charms are meant for witches who work animistically with their lands and who wish to conjoin the earth upon which they reside with the well-worn walkways of Venus’ gardens, connecting them to become one node among the myriad blooming paths. The tree that you install this on will inform the character that the spirits who pass through will take on.

Seven are available for purchase and will be shipped along with the soap charge to bury into your earth.

The Seals of Venus from the Tuba Veneris

Sfinga’s contribution is sourced from her many forays and continued fascination with the Libellus Veneri Nigro Sacer, or “The Consecrated Little Book of the Black Venus”—also known as the Tuba Veneris. Over the past seven years of working the grimoire and its spirits regularly, she has been continually updating her own “little book” with her investigations, experiences, and understandings of the six spirits it features under the command of Anael. Many readers have reached out with their own experiences, as well as their questions, concerns, and frustrations over the narrow timing of the construction and consecration of the grimoire’s prized tools, being the Seal and Horn of Venus. We completely understand how difficult it is to finish engraving everything (and burying them at a river!) in just two nocturnal Venus hours on the one Friday new moon of the entire year, and even more so the frustration of having to wait another year entirely to finish whatever is incomplete the following year.

It is with this in mind that Sfinga created a set of fully consecrated Seals of Venus, completed to the exact specifications of the grimoire. These were engraved, perfumed, and consecrated fully within the two nocturnal Venus hours of the last Friday new moon, then buried at a river overnight and recovered during the first nocturnal Venus hour of the Saturday following. Her aim was to produce a fully consecrated set of Seals—the very control mechanism by which the spirits are called and compelled into obedience—such that anyone wishing to engage with this work would be able to save a significant amount of time during the next Friday new moon finishing the rest of the tools.

In Teresa Burns and Nancy Turner’s translation of the text, the instructions given for the Seal are as follows:

The first thing we need for our Negromantic work is the Seal of Venus, which is to be made in the following way: One takes a Piece of new Copper ore and from it makes a Plate the size of the figure drawn below; one must cut this [Plate] according to the number appropriate for the Planets, that is, with six Angles: the Character should be engraved using a new and pure iron or steel instrument on the day [of Venus] in the third or tenth hour of night, counted from the time the [sun] sets. If the span of one hour is not sufficient, one must wait until the next hour, i.e. the tenth hour, since work is only permitted in the hours of Venus (we emphasize again) on the new moon, which is why, if one cannot complete the Seal during one night of [Venus] in the two prescribed hours, one must wait in the same way until the next new moon. After it is finished, one consecrates the Seal with smoke on the same day and in the same hour of [Venus].

Let the Consecration be done with these Materials: Verbane, Myrtle, and Musk.

Afterwards one wraps it in new linen and buries it likewise at the aforementioned time of the day of the New Moon, at night next to a flowing body of water, then unburies it on the following night at the hour of [Venus], and preserves it for the opportunity of the work.

Translation by Teresa Burns and Nancy Turner

These are the exact procedures which these Seals, here on offer, underwent, including being engraved with a completely new and previously unused engraving pen purchased just for this project. After being retrieved from the river during the nocturnal Venus hour of Saturday night, Sfinga presented the Seals to her household shrine of the Cypriot Aphrodite, who has, over the last three years, come to increasingly influence her work with the Tuba Veneris, and performed an additional blessing and consecration over them to not only function as the controlling mechanisms of the grimoire itself, but as talismans directly funnelling the virtues of Venus into all they are applied to. They may be used to begin your own work with the Tuba Veneris as well as to empower other Venusian works you are engaged in. Simply layer them over other talismans, enchantments, and any materia being consecrated, or wrap them all in the same linen, leaving them bundled from the first Venus hour of a Friday morning to the last at night, with a green candle burning nearby, in order to bring forth Anael’s presence and power into anything you do. These serve as excellent batteries of power in addition to their multivalent uses within the grimoire itself.

Sixteen are made available for the karcists interested in working the grimoire proper, as well as the witches more interested in taking its power for themselves.

The Shells of the Six Servants

While the Seals themselves are fully made to the specifications of the grimoire, these next offerings are an outpouring of Sfinga’s work with its spirits, drawn on her on personal experiences and pacts she has forged with them over the last seven years. Much like the Wards of the Wisest Healer, these charms are made in walnut shells split apart in the day and hour of Venus. From their inception, being presented to the six spirits of the Tuba Veneris, they were worked alongside their direct intercession, whose voices were called through Sfinga’s own Horn in order breathe their enchantments and weave them within the fabric of the shells. Each walnut was presented to Sfinga and Key’s joint shrine to the Cypriot Aphrodite, as well as perfumed in Key’s Star of Aphrodite Incense within the Circle of the Tuba Veneris. Each walnut is filled with a complex load of materia, including Sfinga’s personal powder to Aphrodite, Key’s Star of Aphrodite incense, Tata Apokan’s powder of Venus, and Jackson’s Venus Rising in Pisces powder. Freshwater pearls, which were (in addition to other materia featured in this collection) fed seven pure white doves lie at the heart of each walnut, nestled into rose petals upon which seven different pairs of lovers had lain over in union.

The materia list that has gone into these is extensive, including sheep, goat, rabbit, dove, white coral, rose, apple, jasmine, hibiscus, damiana, rosehip, lady’s mantle, myrtle, red clover, linden (and linden honey), red storax, sumatran benzoin, copper carbonate, and far more. Finally, these walnuts were caked in Key’s pigment and sealed in a matte varnish.

These may be carried with you in a small pouch or kept on your person to bring the favour of Anael and her servants. These are charms of pure Venusian fortune and luck, bringing beauty, admiration, appreciation, and victory in competitions, disputes, and battles. Whisper to them what graces and favours you need and carry them with you to allow for Anael’s legions to compliment your own and significantly empower the potency of your own spiritual court in bringing you these favours. When we tested these in the wild, we found them to be remarkable at being lightweight, easy to carry tokens of pure Venusian virtue, radiating from within their shells the whispers of myriad celestial choirs eager to advise, guide, and empower your graces. Roll them in your hands and rattle the pearl within to call them to your service and grant you significant boosts in charm, admiration, and fortune before interviews, dates, negotiations, uncomfortable meetings, or flirtatious encounters.

Fourteen are available and will come with a complimentary drawstring pouch to be carried within.

The Stygian Sojourner’s Earthenware Thrones

One vessel amidst the shells of Aphrodite’s shrine.

Finally, Sfinga has prepared a limited set of only three vessels in direct pact with the familiars of Venus themselves. These are one of a kind vessels, each fully enspirited with their own familiars that come with names, preferences, and manners of working to be revealed only to their new keepers. Held in unglazed terracotta pottery, these clay bowls are painted with the seals of Anael in the Venus hour and day and rubbed in Key’s copper carbonate pigment to enliven its flesh. Inside is an exceptionally complex load held within a terracotta clay matrix which was painstakingly created in layers, each being wrapped in real copper leaf. In addition to the same powders featured in the walnut charms above, each of these vessels contains a full dosage of Sfinga’s personal Balkan folk magical oil for Danica, the morning star of Venus, as understood to be a kind of dragon-power itself through that star’s marriage to the earth.

Here is Venus as She-Dragon, having fallen to the very Earth to marry its flesh! Each clay load essentially contains its own “mother oil” of this recipe, being fully contained without other pacts and allegiances to a source other than itself. Pressed into its heart is a hagstone birthed with seven doves through the holes of her own hagstone cairn sourced from the beach where Aphrodite herself was said to be born in Cyprus, its spirit pulled through each successive stone as the rays of the seven planets under the domination and dominion of Venus’ creative fecundity. The feet and feathers of these doves were divided between these vessels in pairs, with the seventh remaining on Sfinga’s shrine, in order to link them fully to the Mistress who Bore Them.

The inside of these vessels cannot be photographed for the public, but will be shared via email in private with their new keepers, in addition to the unique names of the celestial daimones that inhabit them. These spirits are intercessor and nymph, though unlike those nymphs once offered via the Eyes of Nepherieri, these spirits take their graces from the work of Tuba Veneris as nocturnal familiars suited to witches interested in both the celestial and subterranean sojourns of our Lady.

The throne awaiting.

Only three of these are available. These are versatile familiars ready to guide their witch companions through celestial and subterranean worlds alike, and teach them of the mysteries of the Dark Venus far beyond the grimoire of their origin. Their keepers will be emailed photographs of their complex cores, as well as the true names of their new spirit companions and instructions for care.

All our offerings will ship in two weeks, as the two of us will be away shortly for ritual observances. We will be packaging and shipping everything out the first week of November.

We thank you so much for your kind support and excitement for all of our work with Our Lady of Laughter. Please stay tuned for tonight’s cazimi for a special treat on behalf of all five of us taking part in this collaboration! This page will be updated with a link to a special episode of Frightful Howls once it is live during the cazimi proper. In the meanwhile, please check the beautiful offerings our dear friends have created:

The Pact
Haus of Ophidious
Dr. Al Cummins’ Artful Bracelet of Puella and Heart-Healing Bracelet of Amissio

May all your loves be reborn in the fires of their becoming.

An Offering Unto the Martyrs of Nicomedia

~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

Since the beginning of the various calendrical feasts of Saints Cyprian and Justina of Antioch, Key and I have been hard at work on our first-ever shared collection in honour of these beloved holy figures. I’ve been deeply moved by all the support my various releases in honour of the saints have received, and now, in gratitude for some of the important recent developments in our shared practices, as well as our own growing understandings and relationships with these saints, we are delighted to unfold a new collection for the two martyrs. Born through and between the crossings of the Gregorian and Julian feasts of the saints, and released now on the Miholjske Zadušnice, we present an Offering Unto the Martyrs of Nicomedia comprised of four gifts—three charms, two of which are standalones, and one oil.

A Garland for the Field of Nicomedia

The rope in repose.

The first offering is a prayer rope, born in honour of all three martyrs of Nicomedia. At its core is a yak bone skull whose eyes have been filled with obsidian and moonstone, the former having been anointed in an oil of St. Cyprian, the latter in an oil of St. Justina from our dear friend and godfather, Tata Apokan’s store The Pact. This skull’s cavity is stuffed with a complex matrix of powders, including the core powder which loaded The Sorcerer’s Goat Horn Fetish, three small amethyst chips which had been macerating in Tata Apokan’s Oil of St. Cyprian for over a year and had been ritually fed and consecrated, and a new powder born of ritual sacrifice on the saint’s Catholic feast by my hands. The aforementioned core powder of the goat horns included: dirt from three churches dedicated to Cyprian and Justina from three different countries, dirt from nine churches visited over the nine days of the Cyprians (the novena between Cyprian of Carthage and Cyprian of Antioch’s Catholic feasts), dirt from nine cemetery gates, dirt from nine priests, dirt from nine nuns, dirt from nine bishops, dirt from the grave of a dead sorcerer who worked with St. Cyprian in life, black rooster, black cat, black toad, serpent and goat materia, tears collected from their enshrined icons within an Orthodox church dedicated to them, and an entire burnt Livro de São Cipriano, in addition to many more ingredients. It was further compressed down and given new life and purpose through the new powder which eclipsed it, such that the three elements, when placed together, came to life as the teachings of Sts. Cyprian and Justina both renewed within the eyes of the skull of their witness and co-martyr, St. Theoctistus. This skull is intended to be his very severed head, his eyes filled with the light of his mentors who, despite his very brief encounter with them, became his fulfilment in ecstatic transformation, in baptismal fire, and in beheaded glory.

The rope is constructed out of alternating job’s tears, half of which are dyed purple in honour of St. Cyprian, and anointed in three oils made in his honour—one being Tata’s, one being Maestro’s, and the final being my own. Nine beads terminate in roses made of bone, anointed in three different oils of St. Justina, one being Tata’s and two being personal recipes I have received from teachers. In this way, the whole prayer rope reaches a hundred beads, with the job’s tears being enlivened for St. Cyprian, the roses for St. Justina, and the skull for their perfection in St. Theoctistus. From the skull protrudes a cross affixed via clay, marking the rope as a kind of shadow of Golgotha in the three crosses of these martyrs.

This is a one of one piece, created once and not to be replicated again. It is enchanted to bind spirits into service, clarify divinations, allow for mystical congress with the saints, and facilitate deeper learning between its wielder and their many spirits. Wear over the breast when conjuring spirits of any kind and allow it to be a mantle of their authority and wisdom. Place it over cloth and perform divinations within them, speaking your questions into the skull itself before setting it down to create a field of inquiry fine-tuned to receive their guidance for the question at hand. This is an offering entirely for the three martyrs, channelled through the contemplation of Theoctistus as student, scion, and recipient of the wisdom of both of the saints—in the fullness of both their holiness and their magic—through his witnessing of the glory of their martyrdom. This prayer rope is best suited in the hands of someone whose devotion to the saints aspires to that of learning to act in capacity as their hands, privileging neither one over the other, but synthesizing the diabolic and holy through prayer, conjuration, exorcism, healing, and binding.

A Brazen Head for Golgotha

The brazen head in repose.

Several years ago, I was gifted a broken statue of St. Cyprian by a client who had retired his practice with the saint. When I unwrapped the packaging and saw that the statue had in fact broken off at the head, I knew I had to save it for a future project, for it is precisely by beheading that both of our saints were martyred. Over the past two years, this head has received countless prayers, supplications, and offerings, especially on the various feasts dedicated to them on the Julian and Gregorian calendars, but also over the course of different novenas and Saturdays wherein I continued my work and deepened my relationship with the saints.

This is amulet is a unique, one of one piece that I will not be able to replicate again. It consists of this head, naturally broken off (meaning, without being intentionally removed) a statue of St. Cyprian, loaded with the same powders mentioned above in the prayer rope. The halo of the saint is filled with amethyst chips gifted to me by my Tata, which had been macerating in his Oil of St. Cyprian and had been ritually fed over the course of the last year’s worth of devotions, from one Gregorian feast to the next the following year. Affixed to the head is a set of genuine black cat tibia, affixed in a skull and crossbones position, with a small charm consisting of a two-holed hagstone (chosen to represent Cyprian and Justina both in the holes, with the stone being Theoctistus), two amethysts, and one fossilized snake vertebrae dated to roughly 25,000 years ago. Key and I put this together over the course of the Gregorian and revised Julian calendars, feeding it offerings of Orthodox St. Cyprian incense, wine, and bread, and enlivening its lips to speak with the authority of the various sorcerous students working under St. Cyprian’s tutelage. The eyes of the head were anointed with tears collected from their icons, sourced from their church in Meniko, Cyprus. Finally, we affixed a small hook to the back of the halo, so that this may be hung on a wall or from a nail if one chooses.

The head watching over its companions.

In addition to providing fierce protection against intrusion, psychic attack, evil eye, and witchcraft, this charm brings luck, prosperity, and sorcerous power to its owner. It is enchanted to be its own brazen head, providing oracles, insights, and communications via the various students of St. Cyprian, who animate this head as an amulet of Golgotha and speak through its lips via dreams, psychic communications, and divinatory oracles. Hang it on a wall before where you divine and offer it incense below by which it may speak to you. We performed several rituals already to ensure it may speak with clarity, having ritually “opened its mouth”—all that is needed from its owner is to perfume it with incense (preferably a blend of frankincense, myrrh, and dragon’s blood) and to conjure it, in their own words, to speak. You may recite any prayer of St. Cyprian that you prefer—what is essential is that you speak to it from the heart, asking that the saint allow you to contact his disciples through his authority to inspire your magic, provide you with protection, explain secrets and mysteries to texts you are studying, and further grant you prestige and authority in your work. Hang the amulet between two black candles anointed in a St. Cyprian or Black Cat oil of your choice and enter trance while gazing into the head in a dark room, lit only by these flames.

Whoever purchases this amulet will receive a complimentary 1oz vial of Key’s Oil of the Black Cat, also available for purchase below. This amulet will not be made again and is intended to be a unique tool for a karcist who will work it diligently as their own oracular brazen head of the saint. Let it be a companion to illuminate the darkest depths of hell and the loftiest heights of heaven.

There is an additional familiar spirit attached to this amulet in the form of a black cat, who will serve the amulet’s owner as guide and interpreter. Their name, nature, offerings, and protocols will be revealed only to whomever purchases it.

A Companion for the Wise Disciple

A charm of the gifts of the Sorcerer and Virgin.

Each offering in this collection, it turned out, was born at least in part from a gift. The severed head of the St. Cyprian statue was a gift from a client, the amethysts which were macerated in Tata’s Oil of St. Cyprian and ritually fed on the saint’s feast were a gift from him, and the cloth which bundles up these charms were lovingly donated by the hands of a dear friend and fellow devotee of the saints. This is cloth is actually a special tweed cloth called Harris Tweed, spun by the hands of this friend’s uncle under the strictest conditions of its fulfilment. Please consider reading the Wikipedia article linked [here] which details the production process required for the creation of this fabric, from the shearing of specific sheep to their dying and cleaning. I am deeply grateful and honoured to have been able to use this fabric for these charms.

In contrast to previous charms I’ve made in honour of the saints, these cloth bundles are not just creations for the the cultivation of a relationship with these saints (although they absolutely may be used for this end!), they are batteries for favour and insight from spirits across traditions. In essence, they are literal companions for one’s journey into studying magic itself, and may be placed alongside a shrine for cultivating relationships, insights, and learning across traditions, regardless of religious or cultural origin. They are meant to be left on a shrine for three months at a time, sharing in the offerings its spirits receive, and allowed to absorb the prayers, mantras, cultivation, and effort—from every glass of water cleaned and refreshed to every candle or incense stick lit and replaced—as a witness and testimony to discipline. Through this, the enchantment within the bundle will promote clearer communication, deeper insights, more acute gleanings, and sagacious revelations, accelerating one’s ability to not only connect with and receive assistance in their training, but to excel in their progress.

The core is born of the same amethyst chips and primary Cyprian powder above, but renewed and enveloped in a new powder and blessing specifically for the cultivation of learning in the manner of the saints, not specifically only of their traditions. Even if you do not have a relationship with these saints and do not plan to cultivate one, this charm is intended to assist you in learning like them—meaning, through travel, pilgrimage, extensive apprenticeship, oral pedagogy, the acquisition of broader language skills, and via the financial, physical, and mental capacity to expand your studies. Every three months, change the shrine the bundle sits on, or place it over a different book that represents something you are actively studying or are in need of assistance retaining. You can switch between the same two topics back and forth, but the three month period is intended to assist you cultivate via the seasons and trinities of lunar revolutions, allowing for a genesis, integration, and renewal of each skill.

The companions awaiting their homes.

These are, after all, “companions”. They have been prayed over and enchanted to be as the travelling satchels of the saints, both for Cyprian alone in his numerous treks around the Mediterranean to initiate into the various mystery schools of his upbringing, as well as for him and Justina both as they journeyed to preach the Word. Carry them with you to conferences, to places of intellectual inspiration, universities and libraries, language learning centres, and botanical gardens to retain information on whatever it is you need to grow within your soul. Perfume them with incense and speak to them your needs, and let them either rest at a shrine to bring you closeness with elders, mentors, and spirits, or take them along with you to absorb that which you need and blossom it in your mind as you sleep when you return.

Only thirteen are available for purchase. These are a deeply special charm for me, reflecting on much of my work with the saints as well as my philosophy towards learning, in prioritizing relationships with people over and above the potential knowledge that may arise from studying with them. May they bless your efforts to be as a luminary in how you learn.

An Oil for the Black Cat

The oil in prowl.

Key has created a traditional black cat oil formula to compliment this collection, born on the Gregorian feasts of the saints in 2025 and fully enlivened this year on the Julian. It contains a genuine black cat bone which had been macerating in the carrier oil for the full year, having been prayed over each Saturday both via St. Cyprian and the spirit of the black cat itself. In addition to ingredients traditional to American Conjure, such as clary sage, myrrh, and some form of abrasive metal (in this case, steel wool), this oil itself was ultimately born of pact and prayer, having been worked continuously for a full year, from Cyprianmas to Cyprianmas, in dual conjuration of both the saint and the spirit of the black cat with whom Key has an ongoing relationship with. Each vial is its own essence of distilled black cat, bringing luck (good and bad, depending on what you petition it for and for/against whom!), the breaking of curses and jinxes (especially the removal of stubborn hexes that have resisted other forms of exorcism and cleansing), the revival of spells that have not worked (because cats have nine lives!), and protection.

This is about as multi-purpose an oil as one can get within the tradition of conjure as Key was taught it. It is as versatile and cunning as its keeper. Anoint old spell remnants and candles that have not brought you success to revive them with newfound strength. Affix the butt of a new candle onto the stump of the old with this oil to charge old petitions with new life and remove any obstacles the first pass may have encountered. Anoint poppets and representations of others to bring them luck or to completely cross their path from fortune. Anoint it upon yourself for resilience, cunning, insight, and protection, especially the hands and wrists before you embark on a project. For hexing, mix a few drops of the oil with castor oil before using it on candles. For blessing, mix it with any other pure carrier oil, such as a mineral or neutral vegetable oil.

Thirteen 1oz bottles are available for purchase. May the black cat grant you the upper hand in all your endeavours.

May Saints Cyprian, Justina, and Theoctistus guide your hands into ever expanding agency.

The Blood of the Thornless Crown

~ B. Key ~ Leave a comment

I have told you that I am He: if therefore ye seek Me, let these go their way: Of them which thou gavest me, have I lost none.

Longtime listeners of the podcast and the Patreon-exclusive Q&As at this point have heard me reference a moment in which I created a set of vampiric vessels, all of which sold to the people they were meant to be with before I was able to make a public post about them. For the entirety of 2023, my literal blood, sweat, and tears had been poured into the brokering of pacts, the sculpting of bodies, the feasting on dreams, and the answering of calls to increasingly outlandish magical excursions in order to bring to life a group of charms embodying the Children of Judas, a grouping of vampire spirits I had come to know through my witchcraft pacts. The trusted companions who came to inherit them have since worked them for their own ends, each obtaining a moth familiar laid to rest in a coffin with a lead cross that had come to weep genuine blood into the snow as part of its consecration process. I have been asked many times to tell this story as much as I am able to, secrecy taboos being respected, especially in light of it being more than three years now that these were fully brought to life. Over the course of the Lent of this year, I began to set out to see what shape this attempt might take; be it a post, an episode, or even a chapbook of arcana itself.

The weeping crosses in the snow.

What emerged instead was a renewed pact with these same spirits, this time in the form of a completely new embodiment. There are some spirits which simply demand flesh, charms which mandate form, cantrips which require utterance – this offering is all three. I was not given much of a choice in what to create, as this fetish was, in essence, also a proof of the ongoing tenure of this pact. From Theodore’s Saturday this Lent, through Holy Thursday and Friday, up unto the Transfiguration of Jesus on the Eastern Orthodox Julian calendar, I worked on the bundle at the heart of this fetish, as a witch’s answer to a witch’s riddle: how to speak about something which demands articulation but refuses voice?

By giving it justification in form.

The thornless crown.

This fetish is born of three influences that lead my hands in how I sculpt spirits into being: my enduring appreciation and love of Congolese sorcery, especially as expressed in Afro-Brazilian Quimbanda and African-American conjure and hoodoo, my encounters with Balkan and South Slavic witchcraft via Sfinga and my travels throughout the Balkans, and my lifelong flirtations and experiences with vampiric spirits, both of the human restless dead and the supernatural, non-human varieties. Throughout these periods, the core was made to witness the Passion of Christ, to experience the grief of not being able to intervene in its suffering as well as the joy of understanding its prophecy’s completion, and to birth the many spirits that arose from the tears, blood, and seed of Judas as he hung on the tree of his penance. Born of a dove given in ceremony, which itself was christened as the Logos, this fetish is made of a complex of my personal vampire powders, bones personally rendered clean, and the pieces of a crown of thorns I obtained from Jerusalem. I was greatly inspired witnessing Sfinga’s private work with her own crown of thorns and my spirits tasked me with developing my own take on this sacred object within the context of the Children of Judas: restless spirits risen from the fluids of his penance.

The bundle’s core also includes the heart of the dove, the wishbone from a hen given to an important vampire ally, and thirty pieces of silver to pay off the various beings who orbit the fetish itself and lent their blessings to its construction. Tied up in layers of blessed cloth laden with my own powders, the fetish takes its shape in black and white, with the feet, feathers, and thorns of its spirit arising outward. Four skull beads adorn the sides, watching the directions of the mournful winds whipping the hangman’s tree. A fifth skull, operating as the locus of whispers, resides within the bundle. A fed hagstone taken from a volcanic gorge sits at the apex, channeling the voices of the mournful wights subservient to this charm.

This is probably the most unique charm I’ve offered and I ask that anyone who wishes to buy it first divine with their spirits if their court would accept it. Its functions are myriad: in addition to empowering and cultivating communication with vampiric spirits, serving as a satellite for their manifestation, articulation, and binding – such that the restless dead obey your requests and bring ruin to your targets – they work along the mysteries of projection, blame, forgiveness, and penance. The skilled witch, in offering any clear alcohol which has been doctored or had something infused into it by your own hand, thereby dirtying it, can ask it to send forward a representative from among its cohort to receive requests on behalf of the entire fetish. It is essentially like a kind of radio tower to these spirits, and in time you may find that one among the Children of Judas begins to remain with you, becoming your primary intercessor with these spirits and also forming a pact via the fetish with you as familiar. Needless to say, a level of spiritual mediumship is required for this charm, as it is an advanced piece. These spirits are ambivalent at best towards humanity and make excellent companions to witches who have need of domination work and are repeatedly experiencing slander, having their reputation harmed by envy and projection, and are adept at glamours that allow them to triangulate these perceptions for their own gain. These spirits will take the pressure off your own court to do this work for you, freeing up the rest of of your familiars to tend to more important matters.

I will be in contact with whoever receives this fetish to communicate rituals and various ways of use with them that I cannot speak publicly about. Upon shipment, we will schedule a brief Zoom or phone call to discuss how to receive the charm, what to do with it in full, and how it may be integrated into your existing protections and glamours. We will also discuss the nature of their vampirism and how to harness it, as well as what kinds of vitalities these spirits may retrieve for you. These spirits are particularly adept at manipulating vital forces as well as coordinating the attention spans of others around you, and there are additional workings to be done with them to send them forth and implant them into your places of work.

As much as I am exceptionally proud of how this charm came out and has come to prove its functions, it is not something I intentionally set out to create. Despite my desires to initially reflect on the experience I teased earlier, it seems clear to me that these spirits certainly do wish to be spoken of and intimately shared, only within a select group of similar witches through the creation of additional charms and workings through their auspices. The muse of this working, as it were, made itself physical through the next iteration of its incarnation. For those for whom this calls to them, who hear what is being both said and unsaid, I invite you to contact me personally via the usual channels, especially if you have questions about how to integrate these spirits into your existing practice, or if you simply hear their call in your dreams and want to know how best to proceed.

This is a one of one charm, and once it is claimed it will not be made again. Again, I ask that you divine first before purchasing. These spirits have a tendency to grow and fester in their pacts, so unless you are already well versed in their way of working, do check with your existing court first to ensure that this practice is sustainable for you.

For those intrigued by the flavour of this witchcraft but less interested in fully submerging themselves in its depths, I’ve also created a far more manageable charm that can be used by almost anyone regardless of their magical persuasion. The Prick-Moons are small reservoirs of vampiric power born through the auspices of the moon itself. Their shape is that of a butter lamp painted black and constructed to be ever-burning with pale moonlight, channeling the rays of the devoured stars through the principles revealed by those same spirits. In addition to the same matrix of powders that went into the main fetish, here nestled in black wax under a lunar shell baptized during an eclipse, each Prick-Moon has one thorn from the original crown painted white and one piece of silver at their base. These charms are excellent for protection, turning the plans of adversaries, enemies, the envious, and those who plot against you against them – the more they fight and struggle and plot, the more it pricks them deeper. These are satellite charms that may be kept near a wall of the home such that the thorn is just gently touching it, that it may be the first force encountered by those who would trespass against you.

A Prick-Moon.

Each charm may be sustained through offerings of black or white candles. burnt in supplication on the nights of the full and new moons, respectively. Gazing into the moon-disk embedded in each charm in contemplative silence, while focusing on the space between heartbeats, can reveal sources of slander against you, and will just as easily reveal gaps in your own defenses against envy and the evil eye. I personally found these charms to have some affinity for the mysteries of the crows and ravens sustained by the flesh of Judas hanged, so it is appropriate to, in time, adorn them with feathers or limbs from these same beasts.

10 are available for purchase, and each will be shipped within one week of your order. With the current tariffs affecting global shipping, each will be sent via Canada Post, the USPS, or UPS depending on your location to ensure the best chance of a timely and cost-effective delivery.

I’m deeply grateful for the continued interest in this arcana as it grows and develops at the urging of my spirits, and to finally give voice to the history of this project. I anticipate more Children of Judas making themselves known, be it through unspoken word and whispered shape, or simply the hunger that, ultimately, gives them form.

Prick-Moons standing vigil over the Blood of the Thornless Crown.

Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.

Exaltation of the Holy Cross 2026 Group Working

~ 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.

Tears of the Crowned Serpent: An Eclipse Offering of Dragon Power

~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

Making an aspect of my work with dragon beings available publicly requires an alignment between difficult circumstances and irritable spirits—a confluence which yesterday’s eclipse finally allowed to converge. My work with the star serpent lords and their earthly kin is the primary influence of my witchcraft, necessitating a great deal of caution in its delicate nature. As much as I delight in speaking on magic in its myriad forms, sharing about my primary initiations and traditions, which themselves draw not only on secrecy, but on transfers of power that can only ever take place once—is generally an impossibility.

Yet this year has given way to new shifts and the shedding of old skins once thought too tight too lose. Certain spirits have stepped forward and asked to be nurtured and fed through the sharing of their gifts with others. Even as they hold fast to their own taboos of the three tongues of illumination—silence, serpent speech, and the nemušti jezik—their hissing takes hold in the form of other heads still yet being born. In skin. In root. In valour.

In gold.

The clutch is born.

In honour of these guiding influences, and in the names of the zmajevi who made this work possible, I’m honoured to unveil this brood of serpent eggs: a set of charms made of and for the harnessing of crowned serpents and their power. Their outer forms were crafted from eel leather painted gold on the outside—a key animal for the star serpents that are my closest allies. Adorning them on the outside is a thread of lava rock, clear quartz, and pyrite beads. Within is a core of holy bread loaves prayed over and birthed throughout the course of the “fiery saints” of July to August, from Sveti Prokopije to Sveti Pantelija, and fully invoked on Ognjena Marija, Ilija Gromovnik, and Blaga Marija. My personal Hydra powder and Draco powder were mixed into this center and enchanted into their proper alignment against each other, then wrapped in serpent skin fragments that had spent seven full years adorning my primary nest-shrine to my zmajevi. To this additional stellar powders were added under the direction and attunement of the zmajevi who blessed this work, including Alcyone, Regulus, Spica, and Aldebaran, as well as myriad herbal allies such as tarragon, calendula, and eucalyptus among many more. The powder was prepared using only tools made of lightning-struck oak, and given two doves in honour of its two primary patron spirits as their combined eyes on this last new moon eclipse.

One tear from the brood.

I do not know when I will next be able to make dragon charms for the public. My hope is that other opportunities will arise in time, but for now these mark a very limited release. Through the embers of the Fiery Saints of Ognjena Marija (St. Marina of Antioch), Ilija Gromovnik (St. Elijah the Prophet), and Blaga Marija (St. Mary Magdalene) commingled with the golden tears of old drakes, these charms are loci of dragon power, providing protection, wealth, victory, and spiritual mastery and authority. In addition to these virtues, they are especially attuned to mediating contact with serpents of land and stars, attuning to prophetic visions, and allowing for easier spirit flight and shapeshifting. They are mystery teachers, providing in mediation, divination, and dream deeper penetration into the heart of what we call sorcery, mantic trance, and transformation. They are charms of witchcraft for witches, guiding the thorn of the heart-bramble and sharpening the knife-point of the mind into ever cleaving new discoveries of spirit contact, sorcerous possibility, and escape from the tangled skins of self-restraint.

Put more simply, these charms allow for deeper ingress into land and star mysteries. Their forked tongues provide a rooted sympathy to dragons of sky and of land, allowing for their whispered oracles to descend on wind’s spine, lightning’s tail, and meteor’s heart within the oneiric and ritual space alike. Their presence acts as a kind of radio, continually translating knowledge, mysteries, correspondences, insights into how to better arrange the home and its shrines, interact with the land, the dead, and the non-human beings beyond its reach, and sudden somatic knowing for how to most effectively carry out rituals and enchantments for the embodiment of witch power. They allow for the more physical manifestation of spirits conjured into practice through the intercession of local land serpents, which these charms nourish and communicate with passively simply by being offered to. They may be offered dragon’s blood, frankincense, or benzoin incense monthly, especially on new moons, as well as milk or cream with honey next to it if a significant boost is needed.

Keep them next to the primary working altar or by the bedside table and continue to speak with them what you wish to learn, and hear them respond in the body and breath, in sudden knowing placed within the mind, in hissing, in licking, in dream ingress, and in spontaneously louder communication from your own spirits now amplified. Petition them for money, authority, and protection by writing your desire on paper and burning it to ash, passing the charm over the smoke and calling to it to mobilize its forces and your own spirits to bring it to fruition. In addition to empowering spirit manifestations, they also amplify the efficacy of other charms and amulets. Welcome the tears into your home with incense and feed t hem your ambitions, your wildest goals, your most audacious desires. A dragon’s pride ever rises from the farthest horizon, its hunger slowly pulling reality towards its gradual approach.

These are truly some of my most tender offerings yet, born of my heart, adoration, and frenzied devotion. Some of my prized powders from my witchcraft went into these and I am so grateful to be able to offer them with the permission of my dearest tutelary spirits.

Thank you all so much for your patronage, these charms are sold out as of August 15, 2026!

All orders will be shipped within seven business days of purchase.

May you ever slough off what no longer serves you and ascend to the highest stars.

Angelic Staves of the Devil’s Gorge

~ 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 consecration begins.

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.

The Peace of Gabriel
The Command of Michael
The Dominion of Raphael
The Joy of Uriel
The Conjuration of the Staves

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.

Mercury in Nutmeg: Gold Edition

~ 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.

Filled with mercury, adorned with gold.

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.

One amidst many.

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.

A light within the mine.

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

~ 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.

A familiar in waiting.

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.

A crow in a nest of dice.

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.

All familiars have been purchased. Thank you so much for your patronage!

Aphrodite’s Perfumed Attendant

~ 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.

A Saint of Many Colours

~ 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.