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

May 13, 2026May 13, 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.

St. Lazarus’ Decoys of Renewal

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

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

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

The Church of St. Lazarus in Larnaca, Cyprus.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

St. Theodore Tiron’s Charms of Household Vigilance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Light Returns: St. Barbara’s Ceromancy Bundles

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

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

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

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

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

The keys and spoons bathing in freshly harvested wheat grass.

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

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

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

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

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

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

5th Pentacles of Mars on Lion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

December 28, 2025 ~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Srećan Nikoljdan!

St. Michael’s Charms of Spirit Valour

December 1, 2025April 18, 2026 ~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

On the Eastern Orthodox feast of St. Michael the Archangel, Maria of Green Dragon Healer and I continued our work of producing charms adapted from the folk Orthodox tradition. We are deep in the Wolf Days now, and St. Michael the Archangel is one of the foremost wolf saints, known in Serbia as the Dušovadnik or Soul-Taker. It is to him that we light the final candle upon a dying person’s bed to guide their soul into the afterlife, and his sword that touches the water that bathes the corpse upon rest. Drawing on Serbian and Greek traditions, Maria and I celebrated his feast with koljivo, pear liquor, incense, and light. While koljivo is typically given only to those saints that have experienced an earthly death, typically excluding angels as well as the likes of St. Elijah, in this case we prepared the traditional dish in honour of the many ancestors and souls supplicated in this work.

These charms are born of a recipe Maria and I divined on, drawing on our shared training and familiarity in Orthodox folk magic. Their purpose is primarily that of protection—against evil eye, curses, vengeful spirits, and outright spiritual assault—as well as the cultivation of spiritual valour, being the bravery, confidence, and raw might that helps one conjure and command, and make effective one’s petitions and prayers. Created under the aegis of St. Michael, who gave unto Solomon the very ring of fealty that allowed him to command the demons, we crafted our charms with the guidance of our spirits to empower those who hold them with increased authority, that their prayers are amplified by the celestial choirs and chthonic wolves alike; that each oral charm and prayer uttered have more vigour, tenacity, and power in manifestation, dragging others into being with every repetition.

A close up of the miniature icons Maria created.

These charms are primarily born of earth and fire, each housing a complex matrix of dirts gathered from cemeteries, churches, and places of power across Serbia, Greece, Croatia, Cyprus, England, Canada, and the United States. In addition to dirts of nine nuns, nine priests, nine bishops, and nine cemetery gates, these charms also house dirt taken from the temple of Olympian Zeus, nine Orthodox churches dedicated to St. Michael, a Serbian ruin linked to the Master of the Wolves, and the banks of the river Acheron gathered by a dear friend who is also a traditional Balkan witch. Divination beans, rosemary, frankincense, Syrian rue, and a powder dedicated to St. Michael as Wolf Shepherd and Psychopomp are nestled within the heart of the charm along with many other unnamed ingredients, bound together by thread, gold sheen obsidian, yellow quartz, and custom miniature icons created by Maria. These icons were ritually prepared and anointed with a trinity of oils for protection, command, and necromantic power throughout the Wolf Days, while the core matrix was empowered from St. Demetrios’ Day to St. Michael’s, receiving an additional boost on Sts. Cosmos and Damian.

While the bulk of this work was carried out during this winter season, its inception was first born far back in the dregs of the old winter. Each charm contains a potent base of powders composed of burnt offerings, paper money, and talisman papers offered during the four most important days of the fifteen days of the Lunar New Year. While this custom is not Balkan in origin, Maria’s own fusion of practices from her training in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Taoist folk practices contributed to these charms heavily, as any practice that involves paying one’s debts to the ancestors, regardless of cultural and religious system, ultimately is one that will be recognized by the Master of the Wolves. During these days, Maria and I made offerings of fruit, cooked foods, rice, candies, alcohol, cakes, incense, and far more, with Maria reciting mantras she was given the transmission to use from her lineage in China to empower and uplift each prayer. It is the burnt offerings and talismans of these rites that were saved and incorporated into a powder for the charms you see here, ushering in additional protection, prosperity, and command by providing proof of previous pacts honoured, ancestors supplicated, and celestial guardians of the dead honoured in their own right during the turnings of the seasons.

These charms may be carried on one’s purpose for protection, authority, command, bravery, and an increased sensitivity to the celestial and chthonic guardians of the seasons. They may also be left on shrines, hung over doors, or placed with one’s ancestors for clearer messages, additional protection, passive increase to one’s authority in conjuration, and additional fortune in all ventures. One key boon these charms bestowed is an increased ease and levity when dealing with cemetery guardians, celestial judges, and any spirit of authority in charge of taking account of proper etiquette in liminal spaces. By relying on St. Michael’s command, the various priests, nuns, bishops, and mighty dead called on by dirt, spit, blood, and golden resin, and the additional lineage holders in both of our magical practices that attest to the efforts made to honour the seasons and their chthonic-solar emissaries, these charms assist their wielders in having increased luck, communication, and ease when entering cemeteries, churches, places of transition, and in the acquisition of raw authoritative power. While they pair well with our previous charms to Cyprian and Justina, they ultimately work on their own to increase authority, spiritual vigour, instil bravery before adversaries, soothe anxiety that can lead to spiritual offences, and instil command over the spirits of in-between spaces. Wield on your person when engaging in grimoiric work, hold when petitioning saints and angels, and deploy especially when you wish to move your ancestors to work for an intended goal in unison without fracture and disagreement. These charms are especially helpful to those who deal with ancestral resistance and blocks towards life decisions, as it soothes their worries through the authority of St. Michael and the memory of previous petitions, offerings, and supplications honoured and promises kept; encouraging them to keep their end of the same bargains.

Anoint with any holy oil heavy with frankincense weekly, especially on Sunday if possible, or burn the same incense below it.

All charms will be shipped out within a week of purchase. We thank you so much for your patronage and hope that they bring you luck, power, and vitality in the cold months ahead!

Oil of Helios’ Triumph

November 17, 2025 ~ B. Key ~ Leave a comment

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

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

The core strip of lion skin prepared for consecration.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sts. George and Vitus’s Charms Against the Evil Eye

July 29, 2025April 18, 2026 ~ Sfinga ~ 1 Comment

After many months of prayer, supplication, and consecration, these charms, born of the fiery hands of Sts. George and Vitus, are at last available.

I’ve teased the mention of these for some time both on the podcast and on our official Discord server for our Patreon supporters, but the origin of these vigilant eyes began early in April of this year, when I first began to flesh out the shape of what my yearly offering to St. George would involve. While not always resulting in a public charm to share with the world, this practice has been one that has helped mark the triumph of the spring and summer seasons through the auspices of St. George, Jarilo, and all the spirits that follow under his red banner. This year, the thematic motif elected through divination was that of St. George’s lance, specifically in its capability to blot out that most difficult and tenacious foe: the consuming voyeurism of the evil eye. So when my great friend Vanessa of the illustrious Sword + Scythe informed me that she was working on a charm for St. George’s lance as well, I was absolutely over the moon.

We spent the “George season” of his Catholic to Orthodox feasts workshopping what a collaboration in honour of this mighty saint might look like. Divination revealed that my own charms would require a base of three different powders, each prepared at a different point of the season between Đurđevdan (St. George’s Day) on May 6th and Vidovdan (St. Vitus’ Day) on June 28th—a time period associated with the vanishing of the Pleiades from the night sky so that those seven sisters (or brothers) may consult with the Mothers of the Sun, Moon, and Winds respectively. The first would be a powder of St. George’s lance, born of herbs traditionally harvested on his day for vigour, stamina, potency, and protection, united under the image of his spear to seek out, identify, and neutralize the evil eye. Born, fed, and sealed on his day, this was the same powder I mailed Vanessa to include under each garnet faceted in their gorgeous sterling silver necklace charms.

Slava bread made on Vidovdan presented to my icon corner.

The second was a St. Vitus powder created and fed on Vidovdan from traditional herbs and materia under his watchful gaze, birthed to lend these charms the ability to detect, identify, and anticipate sources of malefica, Evil Eye, intrusive scrying, and magical attack. I offered and prepared a full meal to the saint including fish, projara, ajvar, olives, cheese, a slavski kolač, and many more offerings as part of this work. The kolač itself would become an integral part of the charms to come, as each charm bag includes three dried squares of this bread to represent the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (as well as George, Vitus, and the Mother of the Moon as a folkloric figure invoked in this work).

The third is an anti-evil eye powder to anticipate, nullify, and deflect three traditional sources of the eye: jealousy, awe/admiration, and spite. This formula was born out of several recipes and herb lists I collected across Croatia and Serbia, which were then confirmed and added to through divination. A brief list of some of the most vocal allies that went into its creation include: blackthorn, hawthorn, garlic, red pepper, fulgurite, salt, hyssop, dogwood, wheat, mica from a prominent witch mountain, yew, rosemary, valerian, fur of a black wolf, ground pearl, and much more. Additionally, powders I created with the instructions of my mentors in Balkan witchcraft for the Pleiades, the Mother of the Moon, and the Forest Mother were also included in this dust to further augment its virtues to the task at hand.

Each charm was tied up in cloth with red thread anointed in an anti-evil eye oil, and adorned with a glass nazar bead washed in seven holy waters sourced from sites of power in the Balkans, to watch for gossip, lies, threats, possessiveness (over one’s own work and spirits), and jealousy. I am immensely proud of these and have already given some out as gifts to close friends to test their abilities to great effect. The red threads are tied in a loop so that they may be hung in one’s home, facing the door or a prominent window of one’s choosing, so that their burning eye may blot out the venom of adversaries and intrusions with the might of St. George’s own spear.

The charms writhing beneath my tree of St. George.

Vanessa expertly made their own charms in the spirit of St. George’s immense ability to protect the weak and deliver decisive action in the face of danger. In addition to housing my powder, their charms include garnets that were prayed over on his Catholic feast day, washed with holy water, and placed with a St. George relic medal until they were set into the beautiful lances. I have been wearing mine faithfully in devotion to him and have already noticed its benefit as a protective amulet, especially in its precision and virility.

Vanessa’s photograph of our charms together.

I am immensely proud of our work together as the first of many other collaborations to come! Three dozen are available for sale below. Hang them above your doors and windows, or situate them to watch over where you sleep or work. These are slightly larger charm bags made to be hung in the home, in the car, or wherever the Eye’s consuming gaze watches you most. Vanessa has seven of their excellent charms available on their website available [here].