solomonic magic – With Cunning & Command

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.

One of the recent demons I’ve been working more with is the Marquis Forneus. When he first manifested for me, he appeared in the form of a giant sea serpent, thrashing in the waves as lightning flashed and thunder broke the sky, breaking a thousand ships and devouring their cargo in a display of his power. When I bid him to take the form of a man, he appeared with wild, long hair and with blackened skin. In his serpent form, he seems to move about through underground lakes, slithering with and rattling with miasma. In all my experiences with him he has appeared quite obstinate and rebellious, and so it may perhaps be beneficial to approach him with the Second Pentacle of the Sun, which is known to suppress the pride of certain spirits. Other options for compelling him include the citation of his superior King, which was told to me to be Amaymon of the South.

His opinion of men is not one that is kind, in fact it seems that he loathes to serve the magician. Interestingly, this is actually a fact noted by the author of the Meergeist, in which he complains to Lucifer about relinquishing the infernal treasure obtained by the smashing of ships upon the waves. Upon appearing to me, he claimed proudly that it was the ribs of a Sea Serpent which Moses had used to cleave the sea in two. Although he appeared and with haste, Forneus did not swear the oath of my Book of Spirits easily—he only relented after a long and exhausting binding. Like Phaethon of Greek myth, with whom he is associated with in the Meergeist, he is a particularly proud and defiant spirit, yet it is not just raw power and pride which is his strength, for this spirit is also cunning—as serpents of all stripes are prone to be cunning and slippery like the eel, seeking to evade the traps of the magician and karcist.

When I conjured him he appeared within the crystal shewstone, showing me his webbed visage amidst a dreadful backdrop. Yet at the same time, it is easy once you have seen him to understand how he can obtain for the magician friendships and graces. He causes admiration in the hearts of the weak, and in strong men he instills a sense of kinship—working through shared prides and boasts which create bonds. Yet one must be cautious, for deceit is not unfamiliar to him. In my own conjuration, he asked me to grave his character and seal on my scourging rod (which I keep as a defensive measure against unruly demons). This was not intended to be a generous action, even though that is how he framed it. Instead, he wanted to make it so that he could never suffer its subjugation. No doubt, the power he promised would be gained by engraving his seal upon the rod would actually be a power that is lost, as sovereignty over the whip would be given to the demon instead. The shackles would be turned upon the master. Having rebuffed this offer, I then demanded from him a number of things which he agreed to, which is how our first encounter finished.

The next time I conjured him, I asked Forneus what could be done with the rib bone of a human man. This was because Sfinga had just gifted me such a rib bone a while back, and I was eager to use it. The demon appeared in the scrying implement promptly, and he gave the following short experiment which I shall share here. The ritual is brief, for it requires that the magician has already bound the spirit and caused him to swear an oath.

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The Rib Bone of Forneus

Call the demon according to the method he has been sworn to appear by when he signed your book. Then, you should take a human rib bone engraved with the seal and name of Forneus down to the river at mid-day, during a clear and rainless afternoon. Wash it in the river, saying:

I wash this bone of the human spirit who dwelt within it, so that he goeth unto Forneus as a sacrifice to the insatiable sea beast, whose kind’s ribs parted the sea at the command of Moses. O Forneus, I conjure you by the oath thou hath made and by all the authority which is given to me by Christ who conquers the spirits of hell. So devour thou the spirit of this rib bone as he is released from his cage upon the condition that you put yourself within it in his place, so that it might be thine own rib bone now which is in my grasp and power; the rib bone of the gurt sea monster, and thus empowered to tear apart the sea and the sky as Moses did and as you have done for your own pleasure and malice, you dreadful breaker of ships. So enter into this bone, by means of these waters; for my coercion is upon you, by Gabriel, by Raphael, and by the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

And the demon shall enter into the bone through the river and he shall reside partly inside of it. So when you wish to use it, you should draw his seal in the earth with it (it need not be heavily indented) and say to him:

I command you to appear, Forneus, for I conjure you by the side of Christ, wounded by the spear of Longinus; may that same spear of Longinus pierce you until you appear before me with all haste and speed, so I command you to do [such and such] by the rib bone of yours I hold in my grasp.

And it shall be done.

You may do this upon some ground and command him to make it rain a great storm over the location and it will do so until his character is washed away. You may also draw his character upon the place where you wish to have men and women honour you and love you as a friend. Not only this, but you can even do it upon the graves of the dead so that they be moved to obey—the graves of sailors in particular can be compelled to move by this method. Alternatively, one can feed the devil within the rib bone with the ghosts dwelling beneath the ground. And when you have drawn the sigillium, his influence will be exerted over the place it has been drawn for a time and it will be under his power.

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A second ritual I received recently is one I will probably never use, but is fascinating nonetheless to record. It is an experiment to destroy a particular ship and its crew, and similar to the previous ritual, it does require the magician already have bound Forneus and constrained him to swearing the oath. The experiment follows here.

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The Experiment of Forneus to Break Ships Apart

Get a large snake or eel, and kill it, saying:

O thou serpent; by the serpent hung up in the wilderness I sacrifice thee unto the devil Forneus of the sea, just as surely as I sacrifice the ship [so and so]. O Forneus put yourself in this serpent, I command thee by he who is the Alpha and the Omega and by the never ending wrath of God which tamed the dreadful Leviathan thy father. So submit!

Put a single silver coin in the serpent’s mouth. Then you should take it to a tree, ideally one beside a beach, and you should write the name and information of the ship such as its location upon a branch of the tree with the snakes blood as ink. Then, you should wrap the serpent around the branch of the tree as if tying a knot with its body, saying:

I put the body of Forneus about the ship [such and such]. Forneus is upon the crew of that ship which is fated to die. Yea, the ship shall break upon the waves and a shall serpent be coiled about it, bringing it & its crew thus to ruin and drowning. Belzebuth shall feast on them, and they shall rest in the mouth of Leviathan.

You shall then pull on the snake from head and tail, so that the branch snaps under the leverage and pressure of the snake tightening. Thus it is wise to choose a thin or weak branch—as if the branch which is the significator of the ship in this work is weak, then so too shall the ship be weak.