Angelic Staves of the Devil’s Gorge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One of the eight powders receiving its blessing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Devil in the Details: A Familiar of Tomorrow

June 24, 2026July 30, 2026 ~ B. Key ~ Leave a comment

They prick and preen at the fraying edges of memory, ripping out threads of vigour like worms. They darken the eyes of perception with their wings, bringing shadows to even the most illuminated foregrounds. They steal the most vital and precious of treasures, time itself, and retreat them into their nests of delays.

They are the Familiars of Tomorrow: the Devils in the Details.

In my Saint of Many Colours collection for St. Expedite, I teased that an additional “CRAS” themed addition would be coming, ever so thematically, “later”, and that time has finally come. These are individual familiars from within the retinue of the Crow Devil of Tomorrow under the Holy Martyr’s foot, contracted to become familiars to witches, sorcerers, karcists, and any manner of worker in need of a more malefic ally. These are not for the faint of heart, being little devils that bring destruction, delay, procrastination, and forgetfulness to enemies. They may be set over pictures of rivals, business competition, or others requiring domination to ensure they forget important deadlines, dates, and obligations, to corrupt divination results and blur the truth within them, to ensure one delays and neglects their own spiritual hygiene, protection, and offerings, and to break oaths and promises through neglect. These are primarily malefic spirits, best suited to aid those in need of humbling enemies and preventing them from having power over them. If you are in need of a superior at work to forget your mistakes and overlook them, a parent-in-law to no longer wish to visit and prefer the laziness of solitude, or a rival to lose their creativity and passion for productivity, these familiars will happily assist for a small price.

Much as with my and Sfinga’s earlier experimentations with the Crow Devil of Tomorrow as companion, adversary, and subjugated familiar of our holy martyr, every piece of this fetish charm, from conception to construction, was fraught with delays. The necessary ingredients and materia came slowly into my hands, resisting swift accumulation. The spirits themselves, each bound to their own vessels, continually followed me as I birthed their forms, stalking me whenever I was out gathering the materia as crows. While they continually tested me, as is their nature, I carried with myself a cloak of red fabric fed a rooster on the feast of St. Expedite as an emblem of the holy martyr’s mantle, at times tying it to my leg to trample over their influence, and at other times wearing it on my arm to brace myself for their handling.

In time, as the full recipe revealed itself to me, I was able to come across the final pieces necessary with their assistance. Their cores are made with a medley of ingredients sourced from the very same origins as Sfinga’s CRAS powder, with a head made from a devil pod that I foraged by hand at a lonely lighthouse where St. Expedite and his crows were propitiated. They are each crowned with a crow’s foot, embedded within black wax from candles dressed and lit in his name. The entire fetish bundle is wrapped tight in layers of black cloth and thread over clay in which the powder matrix is incorporated. Embedded within the clay beneath the thread are twelve guinea pepper seeds to bring heat and aggression, as well as six match sticks with their heads pointing outwards, which threaten to light themselves on the seeds should any misfortune come to their keepers. Additionally, together they form a clock of twelve sections, each having been prayed over to bring delays and misfortune to enemies.

Each familiar also comes with a set of three dice which were washed, fumigated, and perfumed during the feast of St. Expedite this year, as well as having been generously anointed with my Blue Oil of divination. You may use any three dice oracle of your choosing to speak with these spirits (a great example of which can be found on our good friend Matthew Venus’ blog); simply print off the instructions or rules of the chosen oracle and place it under a black candle lit to the fetish to allow them to memorize and understand its structure. The dice may be used to speak with them, as well as to ensure St. Expedite’s control over them is maintained even if you do not have an active St. Expedite practice.

The dice washed on St. Expedite’s feast.

When your fetish charm arrives, burn myrrh incense and inform your spirits that a new familiar is joining your home. Fumigate it in front of the shrine of your primary spirits and give your crow devil a name of your choosing that it will respond to from now on. Etch the name into a black candle and burn it before it. After it finishes burning, you may commune with the spirit any time by etching the name again into another black candle and rolling your dice in front of it while the flame is still burning. The familiars may be fed offerings of black candles, food just past its expiration (or “best before”) date that had been forgotten, any sort of sticky licorice candy, and anything shiny that corvids would enjoy (coins, broken jewelry, gemstones and beads), as well as broken or stopped watches.

It is my hope that these familiars find their new sorcerer companions and serve them well as rogues and spies. You do not need to have a practice with St. Expedite to work with them; they are consecrated under pacts with him to obey their keepers and not bring harm to them. However, if you do have a shrine to the saint, keeping these by his feet would be an auspicious placement. Otherwise, they may be placed near windows to fly freely and bring messages to you when not in active use. To set them upon a target, simply print off their photo, mark them up as a petition, and place it under the fetish while burning a black candle with their name inscribed before them. Additionally, you may knot the name of your victim nine times into red thread which you then wrap around the claw to further bind them to your familiar as its target.

May you always reign today while your enemies delay until tomorrow.

Only five are available. All familiars will be shipped out within seven business days of purchase.

St. George’s Charms of the Red Shield

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5th Pentacles of Mars on Lion

December 31, 2025July 30, 2026 ~ B. Key ~ Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

December 28, 2025July 30, 2026 ~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Srećan Nikoljdan!

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

December 15, 2025July 30, 2026 ~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

St. Michael’s Charms of Spirit Valour

December 1, 2025July 30, 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!

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

July 29, 2025July 30, 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].