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

December 15, 2025December 20, 2025 ~ 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. Nicholas’ Day Candle Service (Recap)

December 24, 2024 ~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

On behalf of Key and myself, we truly cannot thank you all enough for your overwhelming support of our first foray into providing a group ritual service. With your generous support, we were able to raise over $2000 USD for our Cabula‘s furnace, all while giving back to the wonderful people who listen along to our podcast and follow our various lectures and online offerings.

As promised, we wanted to share a brief recap of the workings as we completed them. On my end, I and a good friend and fellow practitioner of folk Orthodox magic, Maria (recently featured on The Frightful Howls!) put together slava bread, koljivo, red wine, and baklava for Sveti Nikola before one of the several icons I have for him as the patron saint of my patrilineal grandmother’s family. For the over a hundred people who participated in the rite, I prepared one pure beeswax candle for each name, which I wrote across a piece of paper and anointed with holy oil, prosperity oil, and a protection oil specifically made to avert the Evil Eye. Crossing the names with a longform prayer to St. Nicholas in Serbian, I placed it at the bottom of a large, terra-cotta dish and filled it with Thursday Salt, flour, sorcerous powders of prosperity, and multiple kinds of grains to nourish the saint and his horse on their journey to fulfill each spoken and unspoken desire.

Each candle was individually anointed with the same combination of oils and placed within the dish, with a separate name spoken over each as they were lit. Maria and I stood vigil over the flames until the last extinguished, scorching the flour mixture until it was the same texture and appearance as the Thursday Salt. We then emptied out the bowl into a cloth bundle, over which we laid the bread and petition, and tied it up to be taken to church. After the mixture heard the mass, a bean divination was performed to elect where it should be buried for the greatest efficiency in manifestation, with the answer generated being by a riverbed. The day after Nikoljdan proper, I carried the bundle to the very same river I had consecrated all my tools for the Tuba Veneris, and let it lie there with an additional helping of rakija, incense, and prayer.

Sfinga’s candles reducing into the powder.

On Key’s end, he prepared a wash of fresh and dried citrus peels, cloves, star anise, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves inscribed with prayers, and allspice berries by boiling them all together, and allowed the aromatics to fumigate the candles used for the rite. This water was then allowed to cool, and mixed with holy water taken from three churches. A portion of this water was then used to wash the items on the shrine, the offerings of fruit, and the candles in the names of each respective donor, while the remaining two portions were divided into glasses and offered after receiving additional prayers and blessings to serve as vessels of refreshment and direction to the spirits inevitably called by the offering.

Key then hydrated a fireproof basin full of sand with another blend of holy waters from three churches, orange blossom water, and a splash of the herbal wash, then prayed over it a rosary dedicated to St. Nicholas, asking for his intercession. Each candle was then lit, naming each donor while doing so, then placed in the basin after pausing to interpret the omens that emerged from the candle as it pertained to each person’s condition. Appropriate oral formulas or prayers were offered to overcome corresponding blockages, uncross conditions, or wash away other forms of spiritual detritus.

Oats were then offered to provide sustenance to St. Nicholas’ horse, such that it may have the strength to bear each patron forward along their desired path, and the fruit offered before the saint with a prayer that he confer blessings of foresight, clarity, and prosperity on each patron. Incense was also offered to the Saint and the spirits present, and vigil was kept over the candles as further omens for the collective were observed and individual candles were maintained with additional remedies.

The candles burning down, each with their personal petition.

Each successive candle built off of the momentum of the last, eventually feeding into the sensation of the blustering squalls that drive the ships patroned by this saint forward, until the enchantment itself was caught by this wind and carried forth to each recipient.

Once our work was complete, we sent all the proceeds raised by the working to our Cabula, and gave the good Saint one final battery of prayers in thanks for his swift intercession, praising him for his good works and petitioning him once more over to elevate the wealth, prosperity, and luck of all those who submitted their names and the names of their loved ones to our group ritual. We are truly so grateful to each and every one of you who contributed to this first group offering, and look forward to offering more in the future for more good causes!

St. Nicholas’ Day Candle Service

December 13, 2024December 19, 2024 ~ Sfinga ~ Leave a comment

In honour of the holiday season, and the continual procession of some of the most important feasts and saint days shared in common by all three of our cultural backgrounds and magical services, we’re pleased to announce a special candle service held by Sfinga and B. Key on the Serbian Orthodox slava of Nikoljdan: St. Nicholas’ Day.

Recently on our podcast, The Frightful Howls You May Hear, myself and Key interviewed their Tata in Quimbanda de Angola, Tata Apokan (Jesse Hathaway Diaz), on the ins and outs of initiation, priesthood, and what it means to commit to a lifelong study in an oral tradition, especially in matters of co-creating community alongside elders and spirits alike. This was an exceptionally special episode to the both of our hearts and we’re absolutely delighted to continue having our Tata back on the podcast for many more to come! With the winter season fast approaching, and our temple in need of a new furnace, we wanted to contribute to our Cabula and our beautiful community at The Frightful Howls alike by offering our very first candle service fundraiser, in honour of an important saint at the heart of all of our practices.

By donating to this candle service, you will receive two workings performed on your behalf, or on the behalf of the person you wish to name: a prosperity ritual from myself, Sfinga, steeped in the association of Sveti Nikola as the Gospodar Vukova (Master of the Wolves), drawing on Serbian folk magical techniques, and a road opening and insight ritual from B. Key, drawing on Dutch folk magic and sailing lore. Combined under the auspices of the Serbian Orthodox slava of Nikoljdan on December 19th, both rites will be cast for you to bring fortune, as well as the clarity and vision to acquire and maintain it.

With St. Nicholas being perhaps the most important and celebrated slava in Serbia, it is no surprise that his cult inherited many of the qualities of the pre-Christian Dabog, the chthonic deity of healing, magic, death, wolves, mining, watermills, agriculture, and far more. Just as St. George, St. Michael, St. Sava, and St. Demetrius inherited many of the same qualities of Dabog through the cult of the Master of the Wolves, so too did St. Nicholas most prominently, as explored by the great ethnologist Veselin Čajkanović in his important work O srpskom vrhovnom Bogu. His cult is well-known throughout the Balkans and across its many religions, heralding reflections on divination, prosperity, travel, and seafaring.

It is these aspects that will be highlighted and honoured in my portion of the service. Each donation will allow you to submit your own name or the name of a loved one to the ritual, which will comprise of an offering of koljivo, slava bread, and red wine presented to the saint in the traditional manner of a Krsna slava, and a pure beeswax candle anointed with holy oil, prosperity oil, and protection oil. Each name will be added to the group petition and burned down into ash, which will be added to a charm of Thursday salt, holy bread, dirts from various Orthodox and Catholic churches of St. Nicholas from across the Balkans, and key powders prepared for this purpose. Once completed, the bundle will be taken to a mass for further blessing and then interred safely in one of three potential places of power, as bean divination performed on the feast proper will elect.

Key will draw on his own knowledge of Dutch folk magic and seafaring magics to open the roads to that same prosperity and grant the insight and divinatory ability to capture, retain, and protect the blessings to come in the New Year. Each name will be etched into candles fumigated with and asperged by an aromatic wash of citrus, clove, anise, holy water, world currencies, and other herbs for insight and security of received boons, blessed with prayers and recited formulas for the same purpose. Each candle will be presented to the shrine alongside an offering of citrus fruit to recollect the gold St. Nicholas so famously distributed in order to avert an unlucky future, and various grains associated with prosperity, diversion of misfortune, and a gentle nourishment of the senses, as to match the provisions of his journey by sea and to strengthen his guiding horse before travelling the road ahead. All of the edible components will then be donated to a nearby food bank in his name to continue this charity and distribute this enchantment to the world.

An Instagram post containing pictures and our reflections on the ritual will go live in the days following the feast so that all who participate may have a record of its completion.

All proceeds will go directly to our Cabula. 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!

Our sincerest, heartfelt thanks to everyone who donated to this fundraiser! We not only met but exceeded our initial goal by double! A follow up post on the ritual as it was executed will be posted in the coming days. We’re so grateful to each and every one of you who contributed to this first group offering.