It’s just three more sleeps until the BC Shamanic Conference! I’ve been trying to remain relaxed but busy and productive. There have been various bones, skulls, and organs soaking in jars of a reddening liquid, hydrogen peroxide, and a vinegar brine for the past few weeks. There is a pile of finished animal skulls upstairs, a pile of animal reliquary prayer beads on the table, and a few woodwork pieces in the workshop. Currently, the kitchen is full of salve-making equipment and newly poured Aves, Forest Spirit, March Hare, and Forest Healing salves. After this post I’ll have a lovely evening of labelling and packaging incenses, oils, and waters.
I skinned the duck for the Aves Salve in record time. I took all the fat off in two pieces and then spent a few days rendering it all down and infusing it with the entheogens, owl bone, and crow feather ashes. I saved the meat for a stew and put the tongues and heart I found in the duck’s cavity in a vinegar brine. The tongues can be used to stop gossip and lies and the heart can be used as a poppet. The lovely liver, a tasty prize, I gifted to the crows who were much obliged.
There was a minor detour in my productivity today – a distraction fitting for a dark moon. When sweetie and I went out for lunch I saw a dead bird just down the hill from our house. So after we returned from our meal I grabbed my wildcrafting supplies to gather ingredients for a salve and a bag for the bird and went to collect it. On my way down the hill I saw tiny metallic orange hummingbirds feasting on red-flowering currant bushes, false lily of the valley shoots, fern fiddleheads, and many other bits of forest magic. Right now the air is perfumed with sticky sweet poplar buds and all the blooming flowers. Among the lilies and the fiddleheads in a grove of cedars I found owl vomit – looked like it had a nice black squirrel for dinner last night.
When I got to the bird I saw that a cat had killed the poor thing, but everything was intact except the head which had been bitten clean off. I gently carried it home with my herbs and heard the hushed flapping of a crow’s wings following me. Now and then I saw a large sleek crow hiding in the trees watching me. Jealous of my own carrion or a messenger of Old Woman showing her approval. I managed to save the wings, the tail fan, and the feet which are now in cornmeal. I buried the rest in a pot deep in one of my planters to dig up again in about a month for the bones. During that time I’ll keep leaving the spirit of the bird offerings and libations to court it.
Once I’m ready to pack everything up for the conference I’ll post pictures of all the festival goodies I’ve made on either Sunday or Monday. I’ll probably pre-date a few blog posts so you all will still have something to read while I’m gone for a week in the forest. Until then, here are some photos of the forest as it is right now – full of gorgeous flowers and scents.
I’m in a very snarky mood today and I’ve decided not to censor myself with diplomatic politeness. My bullshit detector has been going off a lot lately. This is your requisite sarcasm warning.
I don’t know if anyone else noticed or not, but the NeoPagan publishers have just “discovered” that plants are sentient spirits to be worked with and not just used for spell correspondences. They’ve also just figured out plants can be familiar spirits just like animals and ancestors. Expect a whole slew of NeoPagan and New Age books on the subject, but don’t buy them! There are dozens and dozens of works that have been around from years to decades that weren’t riding a fad and so are full of worthy lore. The latest to jump on the green bandwagon is Raven Grimassi with his upcoming title Old World Witchcraft — or aka “new lore and practices never seen before that are really ancient” (red flag, red flag!). Is it just me or have all his recent titles just been a repackaging of traditional witchcraft and European shamanism as if they were brand new and marketing it to Wiccans? Grimassi, really Weiser, really? You’re better than that Weiser, tsk tsk.
Another usual suspect bandwagon-riding fad follower doing the same thing is (surprise — not!) Christopher Penczak with his book The Plant Spirit Familiar just released this April. It really doesn’t help that the cover looks like a bad acid trip. Maybe self-publishing wasn’t the way to go… I love it when people say Penczak’s books are advanced, I get my weekly quota of laughter out of it.
News flash fellas: shamans, healers, and traditional witches, and yeah, Wiccans too, have known and practiced this shit for decades, and plain ol’ humans for centuries and centuries before that. We don’t need you to tell us how to do it and we certainly don’t need you telling us its new, but ancient, but long forgotten, but you solely remembered it and are presenting it to us ’cause you’re awesome like that! Don’t kid yourself, I know you probably just read about it from Emma Wilby, certain blogs, and certain forums. Anyone with basic internet access can have a look at works like the Carmina Gadelica and know how revered plants were by our not-so-distant ancestors and how they were used spiritually and medicinally as powerful spirits in their own right.
Just wait, the next trend will be on working with the dead as familiar spirits… Wait, what? Raymond Buckland already beat everyone there? Why am I not surprised it was Bucky? Solitary Seance: “contact spirits anytime you wish—easily and safely in your own home”. There’s no such things as safely when it comes to the dead Bucky! Have you never watched Ghost Whisperer or Paranormal State?! This looks an awful lot like some old spiritualism works… let’s not even get into his new age Spirit Book, let’s just not go there.
Any witchcraft author who says “it’s easy, anyone can do it!” is lying to you and to themselves. This shit is hard and can be very unpleasant, but those of us who do it stick with it because, for us, the rewards outweigh all the dangers and hardships.
The moral of this snark is, read books written by actual magical practitioners who actually practice, live, and breathe their subject material. Don’t read books written by people looking to cash in on a supposed trend or books written by people who read books and then write a book on the books they read. Someone who is truly passionate about their subject area and who is constantly learning and growing within it from personal experience will never run out of material to write about.
There is a very fine line between magic and madness. Some who follow this crooked path believe they go hand in hand and you can’t have one without the other, but I say that is an unhealthy view point. For magic to work, it is best to be a sane functional human being grounded in this world. That is what I was taught. Too often sanity is thrown without caution into the gutter and people run head first into madness not even thinking for a second of the consequences. So, let’s go over the consequences, shall we?
Mental Illness in the Pagan Community
Mental illness still carries a taboo in Western society. We don’t want to talk about it, we don’t want to see it, we don’t want to admit we are affected by it – we just want to hide it under a rug and forget about it. Almost everyone in the Pagan community has suffered from a mental illness at some point in their life because 20% of the general population (in Canada) has had mental health problems during their lifetime. If I use my fingers to count all my Pagan friends who have suffered from depression or bipolar disorder alone I would quickly fill up both hands and need to move on to my toes. The majority of them sought help and took the steps necessary to reach a level of mental health they were happy with. There were also a few that spiraled down in the other direction who refused to admit they had a problem and lost everything and everyone they loved because of it.
Sometimes the (online and physical) Pagan Community is too accepting and accommodating of everyone’s own personal level of crazy. Because we are on the fringe, many think we have to accept anyone who identifies as one of us and take them as they come. Sometimes we are too afraid to tell someone they are crazy (this is especially hard to do when the person in question is in a leadership role). After all, who is a Pagan (believing in many gods, spirits, and magic) to tell someone they’re nuts or are taking something too far? But when no one calls a stop or calls bullshit, then things do get taken too far and people with real mental illnesses end up being accepted as sane. This never ends well. Have you ever watched an untreated schizophrenic, bipolar, or someone with a delusional disorder try to run a group? I have and I can tell you it is not a pretty sight. If people believe them in the beginning, they certainly won’t by the end, and by then it’s too late to do the right thing in an amicable way. The mentally ill person will have a breakdown when they feel their delusions are being attacked. They will threaten and drive everyone away who questions them, sometimes even trying to physically hurt, verbally assault, or magically attack people they once treated as friends and family.
What can you do? Inform yourself about mental health. Maybe something you thought was normal actually isn’t and there is easy help for it. Admit to yourself that you have a problem if you are the one suffering from mental health issues and then seek professional help and guidance to deal head on with those issues. If it is someone else in your magical community, gently confront them about their issues, ask if they have sought help or if they plan to, and offer your support. Have online and local resources ready in case they do choose to accept help. If the person denies there is a problem and denies help then all you can do is walk away and leave it alone. Forced mental health treatment is an option for family members and professionals alone and is still considered on shaky ethical ground in the legal system. The bottom line is, if someone doesn’t want help, they don’t have to accept it. Respect the person’s decision either way.
I once met a wonderful and beautiful witchy woman who was beginning to show negative symptoms of schizophrenia like her mother before her. Me and all her friends, including one who also had a schizophrenic mother, offered to support and help her, but she became verbally violent and completely rejected the idea she could be mentally ill. We kept trying to support her as friends anyway, but she pushed us all away one by one and we had to let her go her own way as much as it hurt to do so.
Determining Your Own Reality & Sanity
You need to draw a line. I believe everyone needs a boundary line for what they consider sane and to agree with themselves that everything beyond that line will not be considered sane. The danger of believing everyone and everything is never finding out what you yourself believe and consider part of your reality. This can lead to one getting burned, getting hurt (don’t drink the kool-aid!), or becoming disillusioned and leaving the path all together out of bitterness. Sit down and decide where it stops for you – does it stop at conspiracy theories, apocalyptic prophesies, aliens? At what point do your hackles raise, doubts surface, and disbeliefs set in? Everyone has their own reality and it will not be the same as your own personal view of reality and sanity. That is why it is so important to find your own so people can not impose their reality upon you. Don’t ever let anyone bully you into validating their own sanity (or lack thereof).
I have met a Pagan man who thought he was the reincarnation of the last Japanese samurai. Good for him, but he felt it was his duty to inform everyone of this upon first meeting him as well as trying to convert everyone to his own twisted personal manifesto of life, the universe, and everything. With him I didn’t draw the line at reincarnation, I drew it at his crazed eyes and his need to make that fact the first thing everyone knew about him. Whether what he said was true or not, he took his beliefs to a place that was not sane in my reality. He wanted other people to treat him as special, but only succeeded in being ostracized by all the local Pagan groups who thought he had lost all of his marbles and then some.
I once met another middle-aged Pagan man who believed he shared his brain with the spirit of an ancient nineteen year old princess who was a priestess and could talk to aliens and relate the information back to him to tell the world. According to the aliens via the princess, the world is going to end and it is his duty to warn us. I drew the line when I realized he had taken the story from a video game and twisted it into a grand delusion he believed was real and not part of a game.
I once met a Pagan I thought was a woman, but who turned out to be a man who had been repeatedly turned down for sex change surgery due to mental health issues. They told me they were really a woman, but they weren’t really even a human being because they were really a cat. This person told me if I didn’t go out on a date with him/her, they would kill him/herself. I didn’t draw the line at gender identity or even at them being a possible reincarnation of a cat – I drew the line at their attempt to manipulate me and others with the threat of suicide.
I met a witchcraft teacher online who told me she was everything I wanted. She told me she had been a nurse, a teacher, and a foster mother. She told me she was in an active coven and a practicing witch in her community. I went to meet her and even ended up living with her for a short time. Nothing was as she had said. She genuinely believed every lie she told me, but none of it was true. She had deliberately surrounded herself with weak-minded people who wouldn’t question her so she would not have to face her issues. Her delusions had gotten to such a level that when I finally untangled her lies and confronted her, things ended very badly for both of us. I wrote of that experience here: Apprenticing with Baba Yaga.
Respecting Yourself and Others
belief 1. something believed; an opinion or conviction
I choose to believe what I see and what I experience for myself as well as what those I trust in truth and character have seen and experienced. I acknowledge others may have had different experiences. I don’t expect people to believe what I believe. Just because some people do, doesn’t change that I don’t expect it from them. I have had good and safe experiences for the most part, minus a few very bad and dangerous situations. I have had sane and grounded mentors who believe maintaining a healthy dose of skepticism about everything is important to keep you sane and grounded in the physical realm.
I respect other people’s reality and beliefs to a point. If they go too far and try to impose their own views upon me, start a war when I disagree with them, or inappropriately step on my territory, then my respect for them turns off and the finely sharpened sword comes out. I will defend myself if needed, but I’m not going to go out of my way to hurt that person especially not publicly, anonymously, or emotionally. I respect myself too much to lower myself. Respect yourself first and others second. Keep your priorities straight.
The Dangers of the Internet
The internet is not reality. It is a place much like the imagination. Anything is possible online if you desire it so, but it can all come crashing down and disappear too. You can be anyone and anything you want, but it doesn’t make it true in reality just because it is so on the web. Online you may be a powerful archpriestess who people bow and scrape to, but in reality you flip burgers at Wendy’s and bow and scrape to your greasy assistant manager.
Our modern Western culture lives so much within our minds obsessing about our individuality that the internet is a dangerous place where even mentally healthy people can fall victim to delusions and loose themselves to unreality. I remember back when I first started looking for witchcraft on the internet. I remember all the sites for “are you a vampire?” or “are you a fairy?” with their lists of signs that prove you are which actually describe every single teenager and insecure person out there who just wants to feel special and different from everyone else. Everyone wishes they were Harry Potter and to be pulled away from their mundane life to something special and magical. Feeding into these natural desires and insecurities has become an entire market on the internet. Role playing has become confused with reality.
Anonymity has caused people to run loose doing and saying things they would never say face to face with people and therefore consequences. The internet is a big city where the power just went out at night masking faces and everyone is running around looting, raping, and killing reality thinking no one will notice and no one can stop them.
Whether online or in real life, it is up to you and you alone to rely on your own ethics, your own sense of right and wrong, your own self-control, and for you to show the respect to people you desire from them in return. No one is going to hold your hand and do it for you on the Pagan path. This is not an organized religion with everything dictated to you by someone who you give the authority to determine what reality is. You have to set your own compass to navigate the world and the internet with. If you don’t stick to your morals and call out people who are acting unethically, then you can’t complain later when you and others get hurt because of inaction.
Owning Your Shit Online and in Real Life
A blog is one person’s soap box. It is their safe territory for expressing what they believe and experience in an environment within their control. If you don’t like what someone believes, then why waste your time reading their blog and getting upset over it? If things incite you, why dwell on them? Why let them needlessly fire you up? There will always be people and opinions who upset you. Just stop feeding them your attention and move on away from the drama. Don’t dwell. The same thing goes for different forums and online groups who share beliefs as well as different traditions and organizations in the real world. Hate all druids or just witches who wear crushed velvet robes? Why dwell on it and attack them? Find something you don’t hate instead.
If something really upsets you, ask yourself why? Did it make you feel threatened? Did it make you feel ashamed? Did it make you feel angry, hurt, sad? Why? Where did that feeling come from? Was it that an idea or opinion expressed threatened your view of reality? What past experiences, unconscious judgements, or issues of your own caused the reaction? Did you let the emotion override your capacity for rational thought and action? If you feel such things about a person, don’t try to respond to them while you are under the sway of your emotions. Deal with your issues yourself, don’t dwell on what or who upset you and made you aware of your issues.
There is a huge difference between just not liking someone and not liking someone for being crazy or unethical in some way. In the first instance you just need to own up to your dislike and move along, and in the second instance you might feel morally obligated to say or do something. But, once again, it’s all subjective to your own view of reality and your own moral compass. One person may think something is okay while another person thinks harm is being done by thinking it’s okay. Neither person is wrong and that is the paradox of being human. Life’s not fair and then you die. Did I mention not to dwell?
Own up to your own darkness in order to move ahead along the path. Own up to your own issues and don’t blame them on others. Know yourself and the rest will follow.
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…and now back to your regularly scheduled programming on gardening, wild harvesting, mead making, and crafting. Oh, and comments will now be moderated forever more.
There have been many responses to my Oversharing Witches blog post, some agreeing about secrecy and others preferring to be more open and inclusive with their beliefs and practices. I noticed those tending to agree were Witches and those who preferred to be more public and forthcoming tended to be Druids, Reconstructionists, and Polytheists. In the comments I stated why I think that is:
“I think it’s different for pagans and recons then it is for witches as pagans are coming from the older heathen point of view when everyone believed in and shared the same gods and used their names in daily speech. Even in preChristian times, the gods of witchcraft were feared and not spoken of and avoided by the general public for the most part. Back then, to state who your witchcraft god was would lead to persecution and possibly even death by mob – even back then (it was a superstitious time when bad weather, illness, and bad luck could be blamed on anyone). This attitude can still be found in fairy and folk tales. I think people forget that even in ancient Pagan literature, witches were the bad guys or at least a bogeyman.“
It is not because of fear of persecution that I stay silent. I’m definitely “out of the broom closet” as they say. The reason I keep silent about my practices, spells, and rituals is because I think Witchcraft can be dangerous in the wrong hands. As a blogger, not knowing who my readers are, I don’t know who is new to Witchcraft and who’s been around a while and knows their shit. I tend to write for the more experienced practitioner, but I’m always happy to answer questions to those newer to the path seeking to understand. There are some practices and rituals I would never write about publicly and that I even hesitate to include in the books I want to publish. Why? Because to me it would be like giving a bandsaw to a four-year-old and expecting them to have the knowledge and experience to use it without seriously hurting themselves. It would irresponsible of me to do so. I’d rather give the bandsaw to an experienced adult who knows how to use it properly (no offense to the four-year-olds).
The teachers of my teacher were the real deal. They’ve since passed, but they had the sight and could travel between worlds and talk to gods and spirits like you drive to the mall and talk to your friends. They could heal people of physical or emotional illness and even had powers most think only belong to witches in the movies. I remember my teacher grumbling that they were very tight-lipped with visitors and the students of others within the trad. They would rarely share full lore and taught different things to different people so no one ever seemed to get the whole package. The public tradition they formed ended up being more “Witchcraft for everyone” than what the two of them actually practiced themselves. From all the stories I’d been told about them, I told my teacher why I thought that was –because the tradition wasn’t for the founders, it was for those outsiders who came to them for teaching.
If people came to you for training because they saw you were the real deal and you in turn saw that they did not have the abilities to be able to do what you do, you would not teach them how to do those things. Instead, if you didn’t have the heart to turn away sincere seekers, you would teach them things they could do and did have a talent for. Often times such teachings become more Pagan religious worship than Witchcraft. Everyone is different and no magical practitioner will have the same abilities and talents as any other. There is no “one size fits all” Witchcraft, but anyone can worship and pray and give offerings.
I used to struggle with calling myself a Witch. I didn’t think it fit. I preferred “folk magic practitioner” because I love and eat dirty nature-based low magic for breakfast. But over the past decade or so of practicing I’ve come to admit to myself that I’m a witch in every connotation of the word both good and bad. I’m not a Witch because I work with herbs, worship gods and spirits, talk to animals and plants, or have an altar. I could just be a Pagan or an Animist with such things. I’m a Witch because I can leave my body, I can speak to spirits, I can speak to gods, I can shapeshift into animals and the elements, I can see the future and tap into the past. I’m a witch because my gods are the terrifying gods of Witchcraft and they don’t give hugs or speak sweet words to me. They like to scare me for fun and to test me. If I wallow they give me a smack and remind me I have the power to change my situation if I don’t like it. I am a necromancer and I don’t mean ancestor worshipper (though I am that too), I mean it in the ancient sense like the feared Witch Medea who wandered through graveyards harvesting bones and roots for her magic calling upon the great Hekate and the Witch Circe who summoned up shades of the dead to glean lore and prophecy.
Witchcraft and death are closely linked you see, to travel between worlds you must be half-dead. When your body is empty due to this little death, if it is not protected, other things can take it, possess it, hurt it. If your spirit travelling in those otherworlds is unprotected, guideless, it too can be harmed, trapped, collected, or destroyed. Just like our world, the otherworlds are dangerous, unpredictable, and nothing is free or easy. Summoning spirits into our world is just as dangerous as they can posses you, harm you, haunt you, or escape your circle and harm others because you let them into this realm. Sometimes inexperienced people open doors with no protections and don’t know how to banish what they summoned or how to close the door (i.e. why I hate ouija boards).
What’s the worst that could happen practicing Witchcraft? Madness, soul-theft, involuntary possession, death, or being in a permanent coma. The best thing that could happen is nothing. Somewhere in between those two extremes is the spirit worker and, trust me, it ain’t no picnic. Occasionally we get rewarded with the rush of “OMG this shit is real!” But mostly the benefits are quiet, earned, and only meaningful to the individual. Witchcraft can be very personal as a large portion of it is about personal development and getting to truly know, love, and be comfortable with oneself before going deeper into the abyss. To be honest I wouldn’t wish the abilities of Witch upon anyone. There are things you don’t want to see or know and you cannot unsee or unlearn them once it’s happened.
“[H]e would not advise him nor any man to learn it; for had he once learned, he would never be a minute of his life alone but would see innumerable men and women night and day about him…”
“The apple cannot be stuck back on the tree of knowledge; once we begin to see, we are doomed and challenged to seek the strength to see more, not less.”
An illustration of the ram skull from my kitchen sitting on a nice fat cauldron with a stang intersecting both which has black nightshade vines growing from it. Simple, imperfect because it was done by hand, and darkly witchy. This is for the new shop banner, badges, and business cards, etc. I rather like it, but then I am biased being the artist. The black and white work reminds me of pyrography and I want to do more illustrations like this in the future. If anyone wants a copy I’ll upload it to the print shop (one day I’ll be able to afford to print and sell my own art, but until then there’s the print shop).
I’m back from the lake in the mountains and its hosts of ravens. The pirates didn’t run off with me and the fairies didn’t kidnap me for seven years of servitude, so now I’m busily getting the new shop Stang and Cauldron ready to open. I leave you with some gorgeous witchy verse while I find my bearings again in the mundane world with my head buried in html and shopping cart codes.
From thy forehead thus I take
These herbs, and charge thee not awake
Till in yonder holy well
Thrice, with powerful magic spell,
Filled with many a baleful word,
Thou hast been dipped. Thus, with my cord
Of blasted hemp, by moonlight twined,
I do thy sleepy body bind.
I turn thy head unto the east,
And thy feet unto the west,
Thy left arm to the south put forth,
And thy right arm to the north.
I take thy body from the ground,
In this deep and deadly swound,
And into this holy spring
I let thee slide down by my string.
Take this maid, thou holy pit,
To thy bottom; nearer yet;
In they water pure and sweet,
By thy leave I dip her feet;
Thus I let her lower yet,
That her ankles may be wet;
Yet down lower, let her knee
In thy waters washed be.
There stop. Fly away,
Everything that loves the day!
Truth, that hath but one face,
Thus do I charm thee from this place.
Snakes that cast your coats for new,
Chameleons that alter hue,
Hares that yearly sexes change, Proteus altering oft and strange,
Hecate with shapes three,
Let this maiden changed be,
With this holy water wet,
To the shape of Amoret! Cynthia, work thou with my charm!
Thus I draw thee free from harm,
Up out of this blessed lake:
Rise both like her and awake!
My awesomely bearded friend Grant who I met at the shamanic conference came over today with a massive hunk of bear fat for me along with house-warming gifts of a bonzai tree and a salvia cutting for me to root. He gave me feathers, a talon and heart of owl, and claws of wolf and I gave him a good bundle of magical woods along with bottles of my salmonberry and ginger-lime meads. I taught him how to render fat and he showed me his style of drum-making with the two bear hides he brought. The hunk of bear fat is so huge that I didn’t get to show him the straining part before the sun sunk below the sea. It’s still on the stove melting and melting until tomorrow (my whole apartment now smells pungently of bear). After pulling apart the huge hunk of fat we found a tail, the penis bone, and both balls inside – extra bonus like a prize in a cereal box! Well, a prize to a shaman and a witch with a fondness for dead things anyway…
Right now the rendering fat looks like a really gross bear stew of bits of skin, tendon, and hair. But it will be dark liquid gold after I strain it a few times and cook the water out of it. The local natives used it for medicinal salves and to protect their skin from the cold in winter. It’s also supposed to be good for oil lamps so I’m going to use a little of it for tallow candles with beeswax and the rest for a shapeshifting salve.
While the fat sat on the stove for hours, and we were fueled with copious amounts of tea, we set to work making drums with the black bear hides and maple frames I rubbed with beeswax; cutting, hole punching, weaving cord in and out of flesh, tightening, and crafting the handles. I really like his method. It is quicker and simpler than the other methods I’ve done and has a nice “finished” look. Instead of using rawhide lacing he uses waxed vegetable sinew. It’s easy to work with, doesn’t destroy your hands, and you can burn the ends so knots don’t slip out.
He made two larger drums and I made the two smaller ones. I am very interested to see what the hide looks like when it’s dried in a few days. I kept one of the smaller twelve-inch ones and haven’t decided whether to paint it or leave it natural. Grant kept the massive one, I can’t remember if it was sixteen or eighteen inches, but it is impressively big. Now I have lots of leftover bits of bear rawhide – maybe I’ll make rattles or other tools with it.
After we finished our crafting and had cleaned up, he went off to visit another friend, a bone collector, to look at her animal skulls and the lovely Holly, my awesome fellow witch, came over to visit me. We had tea by candlelight at my table discussing magic, dreams, and life. It was a good day. Now to wash the bear out from under my nails, my skin, and who knows what else…
Saturday belongs to Saturn, patron of witches, magic, death and darker things. My Saturday was very fitting. In the morning I made a big jar of Florida water for a client and weighed and packaged native herbs for the botanica (oh it is good to have rowan berries and devil’s club again). In the afternoon Grant returned to bring me a mountain lion skull (requested by Old Woman) from the bone collector and a turtle shell he couldn’t use for his crafts. He also brought a spirit for me to meet, a raven he’s been processing for the clan – the massive skull and fanned out wings. It dwarfed Grandmother Crow and my girly little hands.
Then he helped me strain the bear fat three times and watched as I added handfuls of balm of gilead to the clear blood-red liquid and heated it again on the stove (pictures of the finished product and the dried drum forthcoming). We talked of fly agaric, foraging, woodwork, and animal necromancy until it was time for me to get ready for the Samhain ritual that night. It is a blessing to be able to talk to someone in the flesh who crosses the hedge, shapeshifts, walks with spirits, and crafts the tools of our art. It is how I feel about the lovely Nikiah as well. The more I do so the more I find it doesn’t matter the name we give these abilities and practices – it is what we do that truly matters.
Dressed fittingly in black and purple linen, that night I walked to my fellow witch and neighbour Saturn‘s and we hopped in her car and headed to our ritual group’s Samhain. I knew almost every face and name there in the full hall of witches, pagans, and heathens. There were many hugs and catching up with everyone, some I only see at ritual, but I’m just as happy to see them when I do. I think I smiled and laughed almost the entire time. The ritual was hosted by a local NROOGD group (including one of the trad founders, Fritz) and it was beautiful; beautiful altar, beautiful costumes, beautiful choreography, and beautiful words well-rehearsed. There is always singing and dancing and mystery plays with the NROOGD.
Our community is so full. As Cinnawitch says, elders sat next to newbies, solitaries by coven members, new lineage by old lineage; all chatting and feasting and drinking and laughing together and getting along. Where else does one get to do that and find that but community? The ancestors would be proud. There was so much energy in the hall that my camera only took pictures of the light and the magic instead of what the eye can see.
Shit’s been getting real. I don’t know if it’s the solar flares, the spring equinox, the dark moon, and retrogrades of Mars, Mercury, and Saturn all happening this week or if it’s my Saturn return really starting to kick in. Welcome to the crossroad folks. I’ve spent the past half-year in a dark night of the soul (albeit a rather cheerful, social one) trying to accept everything the Fates throw at me with the grace and balls of a Lady. I like to think I’ve been doing quite well at it, but some things have suffered a bit while I was figuring out who I am, who I want to be, what I want to do, and what direction to take my art and businesses (you know, the light stuff). My blogging and writing have definitely suffered. I’ve been so introspective and some of my spiritual practices have felt so private that I’ve had a hard time wanting to write for public consumption. But… Saturn and I have been chatting (it’s much easier to go along with the Old Man than to resist) and he somehow crushed all my fears so that I was left wondering why I let them stop me in the first place.
Saturn says own your shit: I am a bone collector and scavenger of the dead. I am a poisoner and a ritual user of entheogens. I am a healer and cleanser of the soul. I am a seer who sees the future in dreams, visions, cards, tea leaves, and omens in nature. I am a dream walker and shaper. I am a shapeshifter of the flesh and the spirit. I am a witch who consorts with the spirits of animals, plants, and the dead – in this world, in the otherworld, and in the underworld. I am a priestess of Light, Intoxication, Fate, Death, and Sex. This is who I am now.
This is how I became a witch…
I was baptized Catholic so you know I’m definitely going to Hel. I had grown up in Sunday school from when I was born until the age of fifteen – Catholic, Anglican, United… they ran together after a while. In my early teens I had the best Sunday school teacher ever – he taught us all to think for ourselves, to question everything, and to do the right thing instead of what we were told or expected to do. When I was fifteen we were going to a Baptist church (who pretended the Old Testament was a figment of their imagination) and I realized I wasn’t feeling full of God’s love like the others, I had no patience for guilt or shame, and I believed in sex before marriage with anyone you chose. So I left. At the time I thought witches were mythological creatures, cool, but not real.
After that it started innocently enough with my early love of dreams, fairy tales, and folklore escalating into a passion for herbs, astrology, and palmistry. I started lighting candles on the full moon for prayers of blessing upon my family and friends. I started doing bits of sympathetic magic like writing problems on a piece of paper and burning it, wishing things to sort themselves, and then having it work. I found a book of Druidry at my grandmother’s and copied out the symbols into notebooks and as protection runes over the doors and windows of my first dorm room at college. It was then that my roommate admitted to me she was Wiccan. She was a gorgeous sexy Scorpio with dark eyes, skin, and hair. She told me she was a witch, worshipped the moon, and performed rituals. “Wait, witches exist? I must investigate this further.” A successive roommate was also Wiccan and she used to read tarot cards for me. The naughty Libra I was seeing at the time was an energy worker and told me he’d started to practice as a Wiccan. I figured all these Wiccans couldn’t be coincidence and finally researched what it was all about for a few months. I read, I went to local Pagan pub moots, I chatted up the Wiccans, I went to covens’ rituals…
Nope, not my cup of tea. I wanted to be like Malcolm Bird‘s witches and Baba Yaga instead. I wanted the darker more folkloric witches of my favourite childhood fairy tales. It took me a while to find them. In between I found occultism, chaos Magic, energy work, and grimoire magic. I was very good at chaos magic – especially glamouring, curses, energy manipulation, and calling spirits. Sigil magic and Osman Spare turn me on. I consorted with shapeshifters, energy vampires, necromancers, chaos magicians, and a sexy wild witch who’d never read a book on magic or heard of Wicca, but could do things beyond most adepts. She and I were sirens and maenads together in the streets of Toronto; finding magic and making mischief wherever we went. I was a line cook on Bloor St. back then. If you were there at the time, maybe you would’ve seen 20-year-old me in the shady Green Room after a night shift talking about magic with the other cooks over a pint of beer and then sneaking into the alley after to smoke a joint. I read tarot and palms in cafés and did rituals in parks at midnight under the full moon with the crack heads looking on in amusement.
And then I found Traditional Witchcraft. Bells went off, Demons sang, fiddles played… It was dirty and practical – based in the folklore and fairy tales I loved so well. It was folk magic and I fell completely in love. It was pretty much everything I believed and practiced up to that point. I loved that darker, more secretive, devil at the crossroad, dirty blood and bones style of witchcraft. It really turned me on in a way I hadn’t experienced before with magic. It was sexy to me and more alluring than the subversiveness of chaos magic and the dangers of energy work. As you can see I never really went the Goddess-loving route. When I found my “inner goddess” she was Pompa Gira, Lilith, siren and succubus, chthonic devourer of sexual energies… I thought it best my inner goddess should remain inner (unless behind consenting closed doors). Some occultists ritually cut ties with the Church by saying the Lord’s Prayer backwards – I had sex with a girl in front of a church during Sunday service – potayto potahto (did I not mention I’m bisexual?). Now my background and associates may be darker than your average Pagan woman, but I assure you I am a good, honest, sweet, moral person… just more hedonistic and foul-mouthed than most (I did say I was once a line cook). As one of my favourite local singers once said: “one man’s evil is another man’s amusement park.”
We just lost some of the men for a minute so I’ll speak of my less titillating adventures in the Pagan community. Cooks travel. A lot. After working in restaurants and practicing magic in Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto I moved back home to British Columbia – to the Pacific Ocean and the mountains upon mountains of my childhood. After a horrible experience with a teacher who taught me nothing, but from whom I learned much, I joined local Pagan groups and I went to the rituals and parties of local covens. I attended the local Pagan festivals and Pagan Pride Day. I dated Wiccans. I hung out with more Wiccans, Druids, Heathens, Thelemites, Heremeticists, Hellenic reconstructionists… I started hosting rituals for 20-50 people in my ritual group. It was really good practice and experience – kills stage fright and teaches you how to be practical, entertaining, and facilitate the spiritual experiences of others. I was invited to join a few covens but I turned them down because, as much as I loved the people, I knew Wicca wasn’t for me.
I met my witchcraft teacher by accident (there are no real accidents with Fate, however). We bonded as friends over our love of reading and snarking occult books. We shared our spiritual beliefs and practices almost exactly. I didn’t know who he was. I just thought he was a very cool, wickedly intelligent, and darkly sarcastic man and witch. Our quick minds, sharp tongues, and darker leanings matched perfectly. It was uncanny and wonderful – like being the only philosopher in a small village and suddenly another philosopher comes to visit and you speak for hours upon hours on all manner of things you never could with anyone else around you. We would talk so much and so long sometimes we would forget to eat or sleep. I’m sure his husband thought we were a bit mad. At the time he wasn’t accepting students and I wasn’t looking for a teacher. Some things are just meant to be. He initiated me and trained me. Those rare non-Wiccan witchcraft lineages do exist in North America my friends – they’re just quiet and keep to themselves so as not to draw attention. Most of the great magics going on right now are by those who quietly go about their business consorting with spirits.
My teacher believes in studying paths and beliefs outside of your own and out of your comfort zone. He is wise. I studied Haitian Vodou, hoodoo/rootwork, and shamanism. They seemed so foreign when I first approached them, but after passionate research doors opened, spirits sang, drums sounded… The elements I loved in Traditional Witchcraft were there too. The common elements that screamed at me were spirit work, sympathetic magic, folk magic, and ancestor worship – the working with blood, bones, plants, and dirt. I am not a practitioner of Vodou or Hoodoo, but I know them well and still talk to and feed some of the Lwa. It was at this time I realized and accepted I was an animist and spirit worker, not a god-worker like most modern Witches and Pagans I knew. Learning outside my comfort zone allowed me to return to my craft with missing puzzle pieces and a better understanding of my own path. I found balance in working with the animal and plant spirits of our world, the spirits of the upperworld, and the spirits of the dead in the underworld. I found the World Tree. I learned how to navigate the other worlds. I returned to witchcraft with a cosmology of my own understanding.
Suddenly every fairy tale, folk tale, myth, and ancient symbol I read made sense on a deeper level. Something clicked and I understood the symbolism locked away in some primeval ancestral part of my brain. My abilities as a mystic, seer, and dream walker evolved and strengthened. I suspended disbelief and decided to just go with my visionary experiences and interactions with spirit. Shit got real – fast. I am glad I worked through my fears and went with it. I am grateful I had someone to tell me I wasn’t crazy and what I was going through was normal (for a mystic-witch-seer). And so here I am now; a sane, adept, ever-learning, ever-seeking witch.
I still consort with chaos magicians, energy workers, necromancers, and shapeshifters, but now I’ve added seers, shamans, traditional witches, and rootworkers to the pot. We run wild in forests under the moon and stars beating our drums and calling on spirits. We pass bottles of our home-brewed meads around the bonfires in reverential offering. We ingest leaf and mushroom to open doors to the other world. We whisper to each other of futures seen and deeds not yet done. We live magic.
There are many books of magic, ethnobotany, and cooking in my living room, staring at my lonely unwarped loom, but hidden away in the darkness of my room is a seldom-seen collection of books. Some with ratty linen spines and some of softest leather and finest gilt, the pages filled with poetry, ancient tales, folklore, witchcraft, incantations, pagan gods, and beautiful art. All of them are old or rare, smelling of dust, attics, basements… You see I’m a collector, collecting the bones of trees and fragments of souls of long-dead authors. Together they weave a skeleton of the world tree as the tree of knowledge; whispering the wisdom of ancestors from printed bones. I’m an animist and so every book has a spirit. Sometimes I dream inside their pages, whispers instructing me on how to use the lore in my practice. Is it the spirit of the book itself, its long dead author, or the fragments of souls of those who read it? Perhaps it is all of them and more — for reading can be an act of necromancy — of communing with the dead. Such a thought brings new meaning to “reading the bones,” does it not?
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Lewis Spence rubs shoulders with Evans-Wentz. Gardner and Valiente fight over reading Thomspon’s History of the Devil, (but mostly Gardner pretends to read The Golden Bough while peeking at the filthy engravings in The Worship of Priapusand Valiente reads my century-old copy of the Gospel of the Witches and winks at Gardner). Thiselton-Dyer‘s botanical folklore weaves into the herbal incantations of the Carmina Gadelica volumes. There’s Longfellow, Tennyson, Stevenson, Kipling, and Yeats all in a row – such handsome men (well, maybe not Kipling). An old folk magic and rootwork manuscript by Gamache hides inside the dark cave of a cardboard sheath to prevent it from crumbling like autumn leaves.
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Cloth-bound tombs of Irish, Scottish, Polish, and Scandinavian folktales and myths tell their stories to each other, acting out the voices and the sound effects in a ghostly chorus. On the shelf of Scottish folklore The Silver Bough is strung with Rowan Tree and Red Thread, but it’s James Napier’s Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland who is their source… and a humble minister’s essay an inspiration to them all (cha bhithidh a leithid ami riamh).
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Old rubs shoulders with new, the dead with the living, leather with cloth, rag with tree pulp, and tarnished gilt with the shiniest gloss. The bookshelf is a place where the ghosts of all centuries, classes, genders, and trades dwell together in harmony for the noble purpose of seeking and sharing knowledge. If the Tree of Knowledge is a library then let us pluck its ripe fruit and eat of it until our bellies are full with learning so we must digest it and think on it until there is room for yet more. Let us feast on the bones of trees and the words of our ancestors. Folklore, religion, philosophy, botany, history… there is so much to eat. But in our feasting, let us not forget the older tarnished tomes hiding in the deep shadows of the tree’s heart, almost forgotten and almost dead, until plucked and read by living eyes like it were something newly birthed. May what is old plant new seeds inside of us so it lives once more. Innsidh na geòidh a ‘s t-Fhoghar e.
Why is writing spells so hard? Why can’t there just be some magical formula that makes it easy and idiot-proof? Oh wait, there is! This formula is ancient and can be found used in the folk magic of just about every culture around the world throughout history:
Intent + Spoken Spell + Sympathetic Act = Magic
When separated, each component isn’t very effective, but when combined your spell is released into both our world and the otherworld with significant power and energy. The formula can be applied to rituals and ceremonies as well. Too many modern magical practitioners only focus on intent and a spoken, written, or “thought” spell. It’s lazy spellwork and it’s not very effective. Magic is not just psychological, it’s not all in your head and you can’t do it all in your head! Let’s break it down and make it even more idiot-proof:
Intent – Your intent is your focus and purpose for performing a spell. The danger of intent is how easy it is as anyone can think, pray, and wish, but intending to do something and thinking about doing something ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING. I can wish and pray and meditate on taking out the garbage, but the reality is that, unless I physically pick it up and take it outside, nothing is going to happen. Intent is an important part of spellwork because, without focus and direction, the formula’s other components are meaningless. Consider intent a meditation on the purpose of the magic you’ll be performing. Clear your mind of other thoughts and focus only on what you are doing and what you wish to accomplish. Intent should come first. Know what materials you will need and why and how you will use them. If you will be using plant or animal parts or spirits, make your intent clear to them before performing any spellwork or ceremonies. Be pure of heart and pure of mind and the otherworld will respond in kind.
Spoken Spell – Spoken as in OUT LOUD and NOT IN YOUR HEAD. Spoken spells, charms, runes, phrases, chants, and songs for magic are found in all cultures, religions, and time periods. There is rarely a ceremony or action found without a corresponding phrase to repeat while performing it whether it be for healing, cursing, or blessing. Many are lost with time as they survive only via oral lore. Thanks to folklorists who painstakingly documented certain cultures’ oral lore some of these charms and runes have survived today in the works of Alexander Carmichael and Charles G. Leland. Many Greco-Roman spells are still known today thanks to the ancients’ decent literacy rate. Even though many still exist, their traditional applications are often lost so you will still need to rely upon your intuition. Don’t be afraid to make up your own! Speak your charm or sing your chant at the same time you focus on your intent and before or at the same time you perform the physical part of the spell. Speak or sing loudly and clearly. Some charms are meant to be written or inscribed, but you still need to speak them as you write them. Some charms and runes require a steady monotonous tone reminiscent of a Catholic mass in Latin. Many also require repetition anywhere from three to nine or more times even for very long charms.
Sympathetic Act – This is the oft forgotten step in magic. Sympathetic magic is simple. Ancient cultures understood that performing a physical action or creating a physical representation of their desire would cause that desire to physically manifest. This is the part where you create a poppet, a witch bottle, prick a heart with pins, scatter dusts, rub on the magical salve, craft an amulet, draw a sigil, burn an effigy, sacrifice a chicken, put to work your ritual tools, burn down that dressed candle, or eat the bread and wine that is the flesh and blood of a god. The sympathetic action is usually performed last or at the same time as the other two components of the formula.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.he Poison Path involves the study of traditional ritual entheogens and their use in magic and witchcraft to aid in the achievement of ecstasy, trance, shape-shifting, soul-flight, spirit-sight, sex magic, prophetic visions, and mystic communion with deity. These plants are also used in incense, ointment, oil, potion, and sabbat wine recipes to aid in ones magical workings and sabbat rites. This path is not for everyone and requires extensive research to prevent harm. Besides reading, one of the best ways to gain knowledge and experience is to grow these herbs yourself from seed to better understand them as well as have the raw materials to work with. I would even go as far as to suggest becoming successful at growing them before using them in recipes and rituals as it is my belief the plant spirits are less likely to cause you great harm if they have a good personal relationship with you.
In searching for a reading list of books focused on poisons, entheogens, and witchcraft, I came up empty-handed and so decided it was high time I come up with a list myself for others to use for reference. I hope within this list you find books that call to you and best suit the focus of your interests. If you have any favourites that aren’t listed here, please feel free to add them in the comments!
If you are mainly interested in incorporating ritual entheogens into your magical practice for sex magic or you specialize in love and lust magic – this is the book for you. It’s gigantic and it’s pricey (it is an encyclopedia after all), but the research that went into each plant profile is worth it. It is full of traditional rituals, preparations, dosages, folklore, history, scientific data, as well as full-colour images.
If you wish to follow the poison path, this is your bible. Within this encyclopedia you are sure to find plants native to your bioregion or used by your ancestors for magic, ritual, and intoxication. I’ve spent many a weekend curled up in a chair lost for hours within its pages. Christian Rätsch is a German anthropologist (with a doctorate in Native American cultures), an ethnopharmacologist, and a prolific author on the subject of psychoactive plants (though many of his works are only available in German). Each entry is full of scientific data and research which is balanced with folklore, magico-religious uses and traditions, as well as recipes and dosages (a rarity among books on entheogens).
Whatever your opinion of Michael Harner, this early work is a very academic collection of articles on traditional hallucinogenic plants used by pre-Christians of Europe as well as animistic cultures who practice shamanism. It is often the only book you will find in a public library on entheogens. If you have no issue wading through academia to get to the gems of lore and experiences, you will be able to glean a lot of knowledge from this book.
Jeanne Roses’ Herbal is an unexpected treasure that would’ve been lost to the magical community if not for its recent reprint due to her current success as a professional herbalist and author. This unconventional herbal has a good section on aphrodisiacs where she’ll teach you how to make a marijuana tincture and a sweet cocaine oil alongside the more conventional recipes using damiana and yohimbe. Have insomnia or a lot of trouble sleeping? Jeanne recommends tisanes which have belladonna, mistletoe, or hash as ingredients. Within the encyclopedic Materia Medica section you’ll find entries on all the well-known poisons and entheogens and even some you’ve never heard of. Each entry covers medicinal usage and nuggets of lore. Hidden in the back of the book is a section titled “The Secrets” which is full of recipes for poisonous flying ointments (most without dosage), amulets, incenses, as well as rituals for summoning spirits and the devil. An excellent and entertaining book for students of both medicinal herbalism and the poison path.
Look past its slimness and tacky cover and you will find a book full of psychoactive and aphrodisiac herbs with scientific data on the chemical constituents, effects and side effects of each plant followed by magical and ritual uses and sometimes dosages and recipes. Worthy of special notice here is Miller’s damiana liqueur recipe – I’ve made it to his specification and, even though my damiana wasn’t the freshest, the liqueur tasted divine and disappeared quickly! I highly recommend it as an aphrodisiac to share with your lover at least 30 minutes before getting down to business. The smoking blend recipe called “Yoruba Gold” is also worthy of attention with its easy to obtain ingredients and euphoric cannabis-like effects. I used to make the blend for sale as an aphrodisiac and many a male customer reported a happy wife and a happy life for him. An excellent book to start with for those wishing to explore plants to use for sex magic.
This innocuously titled book was once subtitled “A Magical Text on Legal Highs,” and is a perfect beginner’s book to the poison path. Its one flaw is that its focus is mainly on exotic and New World herbs many people may not be able to obtain or be interested in using. What sets Miller’s books apart from others are the sections for each plant on its chemistry, effects, and side effects as well as sections on preparation and ritual use — he goes much further than most authors in his research. At the back of the book is a very useful reference chart which lists the active chemicals, the best preparation methods (tea, tincture, external, etc), and the type of effect (euphoric, hallucinogen, sedative, etc) of many more plants than are covered in the materia medica section (including the solanaceae family). Overall, this book is a practical guide one can actual apply to their magical practice making it worth tracking down a second-hand copy.
Some people are just mandrake people, enamoured as they are with this plant, they enter into a monogamous relationship with it as their only poisonous plant ally. As someone who works with mandrake, I can see why, it is the most pleasant and less dangerous herb of the solanaceae family. If you are in love with mandragora officinarum, this is pretty much the only book in existence dedicated solely to its study. It is not a practical book, so do not expect dosages, recipes, or rituals. The Mystic Mandrake is a purely academic work focusing solely on Mandrake’s history and folklore written by the once curator of the Royal College of Surgeons Museum. Despite its impracticality, it is still an excellent source of lore on ancient uses of the mandrake in magic and medicine that will take you on a global trek of this infamous root’s history. The only other book devoted solely to the mandrake is Scarlet Imprint’s Mandragora anthology mentioned below.
Pharmako is the root of pharmacist from the ancient Greek – the Greeks used it to mean herbalist or witch. I describe Dale Pendell’s Pharmako trilogy as an alchemical poetic treatise on the psychoactive properties of plants. In Pendell’s world plants are living breathing sentient beings much wiser and older than ourselves who should be treated with respect and honoured as elders. This trilogy is about Pendell’s own trip down the rabbit hole speaking from the point of views of the shaman, apprentice, and plant spirit. These books themselves are mind-altering — you must change your perception of a book to read them — and you do not come away from reading them unchanged. I consider this series essential to those who would be green or hedge witches and walk the path of poison as they will make you question if you truly wish to do so. As Victor Anderson said “everything worthwhile is dangerous”.
Alcohol is its own poison. If you are a home brewer on top of being a herbalist and follower of the path of poison – this will likely be your favourite book. Being all three myself, I couldn’t put it down as soon as I bought it from the bookstore, ignoring the friends that were with me and randomly shouting out things like “oh my gods, there’s a mandrake beer recipe!” There’s actually an entire section on “Psychotropic and Highly Inebriating Beers” full of recipes using clary sage, henbane, mandrake, wild lettuce, and wormwood. This book isn’t just about beer, it also covers meads and wines, the recipes and rituals of surviving indigenous cultures, as well as a good chunk of lore on the history of fermented beverages used as ritual intoxicants. If you like beer and mead, herbs and magic, get this book.
I haven’t read this book yet, but it’s high on my wanted book list as a work focusing on the ritual and spiritual uses of psychoactive plants by prehistoric peoples. From the back cover: “Using a slew of disciplines – including archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, ethnobotany, biology and other fields – The Long Trip strips bare the evidence for the psychedelic experiences of various prehistoric societies and ancient, traditional cultures. It is probably the most comprehensive single volume to look at the use of mind-altering drugs, or entheogens, for ritual and shamanistic purposes throughout humanity’s long story, while casting withering sidelong glances at our own times”
This is a coffee table quality of book for lovers of toads and poisonous mushrooms filled with beautiful colour illustrations and more lore than you can handle. It is full of information on poisonous and hallucinogenic mushrooms, their magical and ritual use, witchcraft associations, and folklore. The toad also gets its own chapters which are the most comprehensive and detailed magical and folkloric sources on toads that I have found. Fly agaric receives its own chapter as do the toadstools of the Old and New Worlds. There is an entire section on flying ointments as well. The added bonus of this book is that the author covers their own experiences in working with the poisons of toads, mushrooms, and ointments on top of covering historical and magical lore. I wish this were available as a hardcover, but the paperback is so beautiful I easily forget my wishful thinking.
This is purely an academic reference book, not meant to be read cover to cover, but to use when looking up a specific plant. It is a slim and pricey hardcover, but, if your poisonous interests lay more in the crafting of incense and smudge, it is worth owning. I’ve found some gems of traditional European incense recipes used for magic. It is also full of the historical uses of witches’ favourite psychoactive herbs as incense and fumigations.
This is one of the very few works out there purely focused on the poison path and the use of poisonous plants in witchcraft, written specifically for practitioners. That said, it is not a functional grimoire like Schulke’s other works, but a book exploring the history and lore of the poison path as well as some of the author’s own experiences (Schulke is known for his love of belladonna). Of particular interest to me is the highlight on Hekate and the poisons associated with her and her worship. Veneficium could be better organized and it is a difficult read, following the tradition of sabbatic witchcraft authors (you may need a Latin dictionary), but I believe it is meant to be more abstract than practical with each chapter presented as a unique essay. However, if you are a fan of works by members of the Cultus Sabbati, this will be a must-own book for you.
This book is a witch’s dream, especially those who practice ancient Greek magic as the authors give full correspondences from the ancient Greeks for their deities along with traditional ointments and incenses used in ritual to invoke and give offerings to gods. Witchcraft Medicine doesn’t just focus on the Greek however – it also focuses on Celtic and Germanic plant medicine – on the whole, the book covers animism, shamanism, and witchcraft and how they are related. The gem of this book for me are the sections that detail which herbs (including many poisons and entheogens) were sacred to which ancient deities as well as how they were used and descriptions of the rituals. All of the authors have Ph.D’s in their respective fields making this book as full of excellent research as it is beautifully laid out with illustrations and photographs. The only issues with this book are some goddess-worship fakelore incidents (mostly in Storl’s chapters) and a tendency of the authors to make leading or opinion-based statements as facts — though these are few throughout the book. This is more of a coffee table book on witchcraft and ritual entheogens, but much lore can still be gleaned from it and applied to one’s practice.
This is a swoon-worthy collection of essays, poems, and prose by various well-known authors in the occult community focusing on datura, ecstasy, intoxication, and the creative process. I have to admit I’m not the biggest fan of modern poetry, I prefer my Tennyson and Keats, but the poems within Datura had my spirit soaring, heart racing, and mind swooning. This is an anthology for artists, poets, magicians, and lovers of the datura family. You will not go unmoved.
Because I fell so in love with their previous poetic anthology, Mandragora is at the top of my list for the next book I purchase. I even wish I’d found out about it in time to submit a piece of my own. From the publisher: “the poetry in Mandragora drives deep into the humus heart of experience – spellwork, praise, story, song. From the breathless brevity of haiku through the humming rhythm of the long meditation the thread of hidden history runs, telling in mosaic the story of the occultist, the witch, the worshipper, the scholar and the celebrant.”
by Jane, Duchess of Northumberland, illustrated by Colin Stimpson (Harry N. Abrams, 2007)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.A gorgeously illustrated children’s book that is just as delightful for adults. It tells the story of a young orphan boy named Weed who is taken in by his uncle, a very unpleasant man who happens to run an apothecary. Weed discovers his uncle’s secret garden full of poisons and the plants proceed to teach him about themselves, their uses, and the different ways they kill people. The author also happens to run the Alnwick Poison Garden and her love and familiarity with these plants shows through in her writing. I was impressed with how she portrays each plant’s personality, which were pretty accurate for me — friendly and helpful, but still willing to kill you for shits and giggles if you don’t keep your wits about you. The talented illustrator Colin Stimpson does an amazing job with each plant — creating one traditional botanical illustration and one of the plant’s spirit for each poisonous herb. It is recommended for ages 8 and up, but the content is pretty dark and it is not a happy tale with a happy ending, in the gothic Victorian tradition, so it’s up to you to judge if your child is mature enough to read it.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.This little book is not useful or witchcraft-focused, but it is still a cute and enjoyable read (I get the impression this is the book poisoner’s keep in their bathroom). It is largely anecdotal, but would be a good way to begin teaching children about poisonous plants and just why they shouldn’t touch them or put them in their mouths. It was given to me as a gift, and while there are some unsubstantiated bits presented as facts, overall it is a good read with good research and the bibliography gives you many more resources to track down. If you’re a home brewer this book also has a companion volume by the same author titledThe Drunken Botanist.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.itch, pharmakon, demi-goddess, princess, niece of Circe, fierce devotee of Hecate, and beloved sorceress of ancient Greek and Roman literature. Whether a fictional or historical figure, Medea has always fascinated me. Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.My favourite tale featuring the witch Medea is Apollonius Rhodius’ The Argonautica from around 200 BC (though its sources are so old as to be indeterminate). This famous tale of Jason and the Argonauts is the only surviving Hellenistic epic. It is hard to say if it is legend or myth, fact or fiction, but the tale has enchanted mortals for millennia.
Today it exists in the form of numerous movies, tv episodes, children’s books, and even as a video game. The beauty of the survival of such an ancient epic from pre-Christian times are the rituals and magic that have survived along with it. Enshrouded within the pages of The Argonautica is Medea’s ritual of the Mandrake. It is in fact two rituals — one of the harvest and one of the consecration of this famous magical root. Combining the ritual fragments from this epic with other knowledge of ancient Greek magic, one is able to reconstruct these rites so they may be performed today.
The Ritual of the Harvest
In the following excerpt from The Argonautica the witch Medea has fallen in love with the foreigner Jason and decides to betray king and country to aid him in his quest for the golden fleece by preparing a special liniment for Jason to anoint himself with:
“And she called to her maids. Twelve they were, who lay during the night in the vestibule of her fragrant chamber, young as herself, not yet sharing the bridal couch, and she bade them hastily yoke the mules to the chariot to bear her to the beauteous shrine of Hecate. Thereupon the handmaids were making ready the chariot; and Medea meanwhile took from the hollow casket a charm which men say is called the charm of Prometheus. If a man should anoint his body therewithal, having first appeased the Maiden, the only-begotten, with sacrifice by night, surely that man could not be wounded by the stroke of bronze nor would he flinch from blazing fire; but for that day he would prove superior both in prowess and in might.
It shot up first-born when the ravening eagle on the rugged flanks of Caucasus let drip to the earth the blood-like ichor of tortured Prometheus. And its flower appeared a cubit above ground in colour like the Corycian crocus, rising on twin stalks; but in the earth the root was like newly-cut flesh. The dark juice of it, like the sap of a mountain-oak, she had gathered in a Caspian shell to make the charm withal, when she had first bathed in seven ever-flowing streams, and had called seven times on Brimo, nurse of youth, night-wandering Brimo, of the underworld, queen among the dead,—in the gloom of night, clad in dusky garments. And beneath, the dark earth shook and bellowed when the Titanian root was cut; and the son of Iapetus himself groaned, his soul distraught with pain. And she brought the charm forth and placed it in the fragrant band which engirdled her, just beneath her bosom, divinely fair.”
It is amusing to realize that Medea and her twelve handmaids make a “coven” of thirteen at the shrine of Hecate – though having a number of thirteen isn’t stated to be important to this ritual. Comparing this passage to other bits of Greek mythology we find that the “charm of Prometheus” is in fact the mandrake root (Mandragora officinarum). The Titan Prometheus was known as a teacher of plant knowledge and medicine. According to myth, the mandrake sprung up from the ichor (poisonous god-blood) of Prometheus as it soaked into the earth during his torturous punishment by Zeus for gifting humankind with intelligence and wisdom. To the ancient Greeks and Romans, mandrake was sacred to Hecate and believed to grow in her garden, so Medea’s invocation of Hecate before harvesting the root makes perfect sense.
Before harvesting the mandrake root, Medea bathes in the waters of seven ever-flowing streams. Bathing before approaching or working with nature spirits or supernatural spirits is a common practice in animistic and pre-Christian cultures throughout the world. Not only does the water purify the bather spiritually, but physical cleanliness is also a sign of respect and common sense. Many spirits were believed to be offended by the stench of humans and would be able to easily locate and strike down a smelly person. The loophole one can take here is that the passage doesn’t specify the seven streams must come from different sources. I was lucky enough to find a small nearby mountain with more than seven streams, which never dry out, flowing from its top from the same artesian source. To make this process easier on myself I collect water from each stream, asking each spirit for permission first, and bring the waters home for later use. Don’t skimp out – make sure you collect the waters of all seven streams as seven is an important and repeated number in this rte.
Now that you’re shiny clean and have waited until the last of the sun’s rays have disappeared leaving the world in darkness, Medea instructs to go to the site where you will harvest the mandrake root wearing “dusky raiment” or darkly coloured clothing. Medea’s favourite harvesting haunts usually involve graveyards, but it’s more likely you’ll be harvesting from a pot in your yard or living room. Invoke Hecate seven times, clearly and loudly.
“Hekate Einodia, Trioditis, lovely dame,
of earthly, watery, and celestial frame,
sepulchral, in a saffron veil arrayed,
pleased with dark ghosts that wander through the shade;
Perseis, solitary goddess, hail!
The world’s key-bearer, never doomed to fail;
in stags rejoicing, huntress, nightly seen,
and drawn by bulls, unconquerable queen;
Leader, Nymphe, nurse, on mountains wandering,
hear the supplicants who with holy rites thy power revere,
and to the herdsman with a favouring mind draw near.”
— Orphic Hymn to Hecate (2-3rd Century BC)
After the invocation, Medea pulls up the mandrake root. If the ground is dry and hard, water around it first to make the root more easily let go of the earth. Once pulled from the ground, Medea stores the root whole in a “hollow casket” — a chest or box to keep it in a cool, dark place for storage. When needed, Medea takes it out and juices the root. Mature mandrake roots are tough and not so easy to juice so it’s likely she used a mortar and pestle of some kind. She puts the juice in a shell from the Caspian sea, but any non-metallic vessel would do. It’s likely she also places it in a sealed vessel after for easier storage and transport to deliver it to Jason.
And so ends the first half of the ritual. I have also used this part of the rite to cleanse myself before handling dried mandrake root to be used after in the making of magical potions and ointments. I recite the Hymn to Hecate once and then call her name seven times. The concoction is set to infuse that same night and the following night (or a few days or weeks later) the second half of the ritual is performed to consecrate (or “activate”) the magical substance for use.
The Ritual of Consecration
The second half of the ritual is no less easy and a lot more gruesome. The rewards, Medea says, are power and strength to match the Gods themselves. From my own experiences with mandrake, I can say with certainty that it does give one unnatural stamina and energy making it excellent for sex magic or ecstatic rituals lasting all day or all night. Medea gives the fresh mandrake juice “charm” to Jason with the following instructions:
“Take heed now, that I may devise help for thee. When at thy coming my father has given thee the deadly teeth from the dragon’s jaws for sowing, then watch for the time when the night is parted in twain, then bathe in the stream of the tireless river, and alone, apart from others, clad in dusky raiment, dig a rounded pit; and therein slay a ewe, and sacrifice it whole, heaping high the pyre on the very edge of the pit. And propitiate only-begotten Hecate, daughter of Perses, pouring from a goblet the hive-stored labour of bees. And then, when thou hast heedfully sought the grace of the goddess, retreat from the pyre; and let neither the sound of feet drive thee to turn back, nor the baying of hounds, lest haply thou shouldst maim all the rites and thyself fail to return duly to thy comrades. And at dawn steep this charm in water, strip, and anoint thy body therewith as with oil; and in it there will be boundless prowess and mighty strength, and thou wilt deem thyself a match not for men but for the immortal gods. And besides, let thy spear and shield and sword be sprinkled. Thereupon the spear-heads of the earthborn men shall not pierce thee, nor the flame of the deadly bulls as it rushes forth resistless. But such thou shalt be not for long, but for that one day; still never flinch from the contest.”
Again, dress yourself in darkly coloured clothing and venture out alone at midnight. Bathe in a stream or river that never dries up or use the waters of seven streams you have collected. The Argonautica passage does not say so, but I would highly recommend invoking Hecate again, seven times, before proceeding. It doesn’t have to be at a crossroad, but one would be a perfect location for an offering to Hecate. After bathing and invoking, dig a round pit in the earth and slit the throat of a female sheep so that its blood flows into the hole and then place the body on a “funeral” pyre of wood right next to the pit. Light the pyre and let it burn well.
I realize this part is very unlikely to happen today unless you should be a sheep farmer devoted to Hecate. In records of other rituals and offerings to Hecate, it is clear she simply likes blood. You could spill a few drops of your own or some pig or cow’s blood from a butcher, burning it on a charcoal in a censer with an incense made with juniper (a traditional ancient sacrifice and funerary wood – also sacred to Hecate) instead of a large pyre. If you’re still too squeamish for that, try red wine or pomegranate juice instead, though the results may not be the same. Next, pour a cup of good unpasteurized honey into the pit.
I add another step here when I am making potions, ointments, or charms from mandrake root using Theocritus’ words from his 3rd century BC poetry to consecrate the creation. I present it to the pit and recite:
“Moon, shine brightly; softly will I sing for you Goddess, and for Hecate in the underworld — the dogs tremble before her when she comes over the graves and the dark blood. I welcome you Hecate, the grim one, stay by me until the end. Make this magical substance as effective as that of Circe, of Medea, and of the blond Perimede.”
Now you fill in the pit and walk away without looking back. You must NOT look back not matter what happens or what you hear. This is a recurring theme in Greek myth and rites — especially when it comes to leaving offerings to underworld deities. Horrible things happen to those who look back… usually involving an untimely and gruesome death for insulting the Gods (remember what happened to Orpheus?). You might be lucky to escape with insanity, however. When the sun rises, Jason mixes the mandrake juice in a cup of water and covers his naked body in the mixture. Note that he uses it externally and does not drink it. With its help he succeeds in his quest to steal the golden fleece and bring it back to his homeland, taking Medea with him as his new wife. When the sun rises, use the mandrake potion or ointment you have made or wear the mandrake talisman. According to Medea’s instructions, the effects will last for the day until sunrise the following day. The effects of an external application of potent fresh mandrake could easily last for 12-24 hours.
Medea’s potion, being fresh with no preservative measures taken, had no shelf-life and had to be used right away. If you have used this ritual to consecrate a jar of mandrake ointment (usually with a shelf-life of 1-3 years), then the time period for its magical potency will be for whenever you actually use it, rather than only the day following the night you performed the ritual. Be careful what you use it for and be respectful and responsible in wielding the power of the mandrake which is also the power of the Titans Prometheus and Hecate.
“You scare me a little bit,” my friends say to me (even the Satanist and the Thelemite). So of course I was intrigued by the whispers in the ether saying “Ixaxaar scares me”. With so many books on Luciferianism, Traditional Witchcraft, Satanism, Chaos Magic, Necromancy, Goetia, and Black Magic all in one place I suppose the occult publisher and distributor can be seen as intimidating. You know deep down if it were a book store in the world of Harry Potter it would be down Knockturn Alley, not Diagon Alley. It’s like the goth-kink shop that some of you just can’t go into. You may flee from Ixaxaar and run back to the dream-catcher and fairy-bedecked metaphysical shops to comfort yourself (but hey, you read my blog so you are probably in the right place). If you’re like me, and you don’t run away, you will find Ixaxaar is a magician’s candy store of dark delights.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.It was love at first sight, touch even, when Clavicula Nox IV: Lilith arrived at my door. I remember it well: the beautiful textured paper, the bold ink of the woodcuts, the dark and twisted illustrations, the delicious fonts, the colour palette of black, white and red… Yes, Clavicula Nox is sexy and it only gets sexier when you start to read; like finding out the hot woman you just met has a ph.d in biochemistry and also practices witchcraft.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.I won’t tempt you much further, however, as Ixaxaar’s journal issues are only available in limited edition printings with no back issues or reprints available — meaning the Lilith issue and those before it have long sold out (unless you’d like to sell a kidney so you can afford to buy an overpriced second hand issue on ebay). The good news is that Ixaxaar has just released their fifth and final issue in time for the witch’s sabbat of Walpurgisnacht: Clavicula Nox V: Maleficarum Nigra - Magic and Mayhem.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.It is available as a regular edition 60-page paperback and as a special edition hardcover of 300 copies. I am eagerly awaiting both in the mail, not just because of the quality and the content, but because Clavicula Nox V contains my piece “Intoxication, Seership, and the Poison Path” and my venefic illustrations of skulls and poisonous plants alongside the writings of Gemma Gary and Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold. Other purchasing options include two special boxed sets of poisons and artwork along with the new issue — one of which contains prints of my artwork published in the journal as well as a half ounce sample of my Sabbat Flying Ointment.
“Honouring the Covenant to the forbidden teachings of Traditional-Diabolism & Sorcery. Witchcraft issue of Clavicula Nox is available now, containing 60 pages collection of articles, art and rituals pertaining to the darker forms of witchcraft and sorcery. This is a journal of lycanthropy, witchcraft and Devil Worship, outlining aspects of the Nightside Journey for those seeking to attend the Devil’s Sabbatic Congress, who are thirsty for the hidden knowledge concerning the arts of shape-shifting, who seek to commune with spirits, attain visions, experience possession, trance and liberating madness, shamanic death and rebirth, and other facets of Nocturnal Initiation, illuminated only by the Inner Flame. Intoxicate your senses with the Poisons of the Witches’ Art that will open the veils between the worlds and by entering through the Gates of the Underworld receive the Quickening of Spirit.”
“I walk the path of veneficium, of the poisoner. I do not call myself a poisoner because I seek to kill. I am a poisoner because I grow poisonous plants and brew poisonous potions. I eat, drink, inhale, and rub poisons on my skin, not to harm myself, but to absorb the powers of plants for my practices and rituals of magic. Many seemingly harmless substances can be poisons if used enough in excess. We poison ourselves every day with caffeine, cocoa, tobacco, and alcohol. I choose to poison myself in a sacred ritual manner to aid in inducing trance, imbas, visions, possession, and to enhance my abilities of prescience, dream walking, shape-shifting, and speaking with spirits.
Such poisons are known by many names: entheogen, hallucinogen, psychoactive, and intoxicant. We modern witches often hear whispers of flying ointments and mumbles of madness-inducing herbs like aconite and belladonna, but so few of us trace the lore to the pre-Christian ritual uses of these plants and their traditional preparations – let alone actually put them to use in our magic. We fear their misleading and incomplete descriptors of “poison” and “hallucinogen” more than the plants themselves. We fear death and madness, but more than that we fear letting go and losing control. For this is what such plants represent to us: surrender to another’s will, surrender to the loss of self and individuality, surrender to our primal nature, and surrender to the death of ego.
Within these poisonous plants lies a key to the mystery of shamanic death and initiation. With such complete surrender comes great knowledge and wisdom of ourselves, the world around us, and of the universe in its entirety – of the microcosm and macrocosm. Each plant entheogen is a key to an otherworldly door in the World Tree whether it be to the upperworld or underworld, within or without. The secret is to find which key, or combination thereof, opens your preferred door to the mysteries and the path of the mystic and seer. Do you seek a sensual Venusian key of intoxication and ecstasy or a chthonic Saturnine key of death and dismemberment? Often times we do not get to select which poisonous plant will by our ally and it chooses us instead; arriving in dreams, visions, from the hands of a friend, or invading our gardens uninvited.”
The Poisoner and I need to clear out some room in our overflowing bookshelves and have selected a number of works from our collection for sale featuring rare, antiquarian, and limited edition occult books. We are only entertaining serious offers. No reserves or partial payments – the first firm order gets the book or books of their choice. Payments by Paypal and credit card only – no exceptions. All prices are in USD and do not include the cost of shipping. The price of shipping is dependent on the buyer’s country of residence and how many books are purchased in one order and can range from $20-100.
To request a book email: blackartsfoundry at gmail dot com
Crowley, Aleister. The Equinox Vol. 1-10. Samuel Weiser, 1992.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Limited Edition of 750 sets. Very good condition – each volume is like new. Hardcovers with original mylar covers. Out of print since 1998.
“The Equinox (subtitle: “The Review of Scientific Illuminism”) is a series of publications in book form that serves as the official organ of the A∴A∴, a magical order founded by Aleister Crowley. Begun in 1909, it mainly features articles about occultism and magick, while several issues also contain poetry, fiction, plays, artwork, and biographies.”
$2000 USD or best offer
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Crowley, Aleister. The Equinox Vol. 3 No.1. Samuel Weiser, 1992.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Limited Edition of 1000 copies. Very good condition. Hardcover with mylar cover, torn in one corner.
“First published in Detroit in 1919, the legendary Blue Equinox was Crowley’s first attempt to publicize the principles and aims of the magical secret society Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) and its allied order the A.A. In it, Crowley laid out the esoteric, social, ethical, and philosophical ideas that he believed provided the framework for a new ethics and the liberated morality of the future. Upon publication, the book was threatened with suppression by the authorities of the day. Many of the papers in the Blue Equinox anticipated social liberties we tend to take for granted today.”
$230 USD or best offer
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Crowley, Aleister. The Winged Beetle. Teitan Press, 1992.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Very good condition, like new. Hardcover.
“The Winged Beetle is a collection of poetry by Crowley with some extremely memorable dedications whilst the ‘Glossary of Obscure Terms’ gives an alarming and rather blasphemous alternative meaning to the third stanza of the main dedication, which could probably have only been published in this encrypted form.”
$200 USD – firm
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Crowley, Aleister. The Vision and the Voice. Israel Regardie (Sangreal Foundation), 1972.
First Edition. Good condition. Hardcover, no dust jacket – spotting along top.
“The Vision and the Voice is the source of many of the central spiritual doctrines of Thelema, especially in the visions of Babalon and her consort Chaos (the “All-Father”), as well as an account of how an individual ego might cross the Abyss, thereby assuming the title of “Master of the Temple” and taking a place in the City of the Pyramids under the Night of Pan.”
$200 USD or best offer
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Crowley, Aleister. Astrology: With a Study of Neptune and Uranus. Samuel Weiser, 1974.
Good condition. Hardcover. Minor tears to dust jacket. Spotting on outside of pages – interior is in perfect condition.
Crowley’s major astrological work, Liber DXXXVI, annotated and with an Introduction by Stephen Skinner.
$100 USD – firm
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Crowley, Aleister. The Stratagem and Other Stories. Temple Press, 1990.
Very good condition. Dust jacket – very good condition.
“A small book of short stories. The book was originally published in 1929 and one of a series of Crowley’s works to be published by Mandrake Press after a difficult period in which Crowley found it difficult to publish due both to his lack of funds, and his notoriety.”
$80 USD – firm
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Crowley, Aleister. De Arte Magica. Sure Fire Press, 1988.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Very good condition, chapbook.
“This is Liber CDXIV (Book 414) and was originally written by Crowley between Sep 6 and Oct 8, 1914. Although this document was released and widely disseminated by Ordo Templi Orientis under the same limited license as the other text files, it is now considered by the Order to be under seal of a particular degree.” — The Hermetic Library
$70 USD – SOLD
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Crowley, Aleister. Absinthe: The Green Goddess. Contra/Thought, 1994.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Very good condition. Chapbook, fine paper.
An article on the Green Fairy by Crowley first Published in “The International” Vol XII No. 2 in New York in 1918 with experiences, prose, history and lore on the infamous liqueur made with wormwood.
$30 USD - SOLD
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Crowley, Aleister. The Banned Lecture: Gilles de Rais, to have been delivered before the Oxford University Poetry Society by Aleister Crowley on the Evening of Monday February 3rd, 1930. Black Moon Publishing, 1985.
Very good condition. Chapbook.
$20 USD - SOLD
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Crowley, Aleister. Tarot Divination: A Description of the Cards of the Tarot with Their Attributions; Including a Method of Divination by Their Use. Samuel Weiser, 1985.
Good condition. Chapbook.
$20 USD - SOLD
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Crowley, Aleister. Energized Enthusiasm: A Note on Theurgy. Samuel Weiser, 1979.
Good condition. Chapbook.
$15 USD - SOLD
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Crowley, Aleister. Konx om Pax: Essays in Light. Yogi Publication Society.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Very good condition. White chapbook.
“First published in 1907. The name Konx Om Pax is a phrase said to have been pronounced in the Eleusinian Mysteries to bid initiates to depart after having completed the tests for admission to the degree of epopt (seer).”
$120 USD – firm
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Frater Achad. Thirty-One Hymns to the Star Goddess Who is Not. Will Ransom, 1975.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Very good condition. Hardcover.
“This work contains thirty-one hymns to the Star Goddess who is not. The quotations attributed to the Star Goddess in this volume are from Liber Al vel Legis Sub Figura CCXX as delivered by LXXVIII unto DCLXVI. Charles Stansfeld Jones (1886-1950), aka Frater Achad, was an occultist and ceremonial magician. An early aspirant to A∴A∴ who “claimed” the grade of Magister Templi as a Neophyte. He also became an O.T.O. initiate, serving as the principal organizer for that order in British Columbia.”
$120 USD - SOLD
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Frater Achad. The Chalice of Ecstasy Being a Magical and Qabalistic Interpretation of the Drama of Parzival. Yogi Publications Society, 1976.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Very good condition. Hardcover.
“Achad’s analysis of Wagner’s Parzival as it relates to the Path of Initiation and Thelema. Charles Stansfeld Jones (1886-1950), aka Frater Achad, was an occultist and ceremonial magician. An early aspirant to A∴A∴ who “claimed” the grade of Magister Templi as a Neophyte. He also became an O.T.O. initiate, serving as the principal organizer for that order in British Columbia.”
$45 USD - SOLD
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Gamache, Henri. The Master Key to Occult Secrets: A Study of the Survival of Primitive Customs in a Modern World with Sources and Origins. Sheldon Publications, 1945.
First edition manuscript, typewritten rectos and bound with red string. Cover papers in acceptable condition, crumbling with age and sunned. Interior pages in good condition – darkening with age, one small tear on the first page.
Very rare compared to the 1984 reprint. Part of American Hoodoo history. For more information see these links:
Gardner, Gerald. High Magic’s Aid. Michael Houghton, 1949.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.First edition, rare. Very good condition with dust jacket. DJ has a tear along top and is scuffed at corners but is in otherwise good condition.
“The standard work on Wicca, Witchcraft and Paganism by ‘The Father of Wicca’ Gerald B. Gardner. Set in mediaeval times and told as an exciting adventure story in the manner of ‘The Lord of the Rings’, ‘High Magic’s Aid’ takes the reader on a quest to uncover the ancient, lost and forbidden secrets of Magic and Witchcraft. The word ‘wicca’ comes from the Old English ‘wise’. Gerald Gardner’s main achievement was the revival of the rituals and magical beliefs of Ancient Britain.”
$300 USD – SOLD
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Grant, Kenneth. The Magical Revival. Samuel, Weiser, 1973.
Very good condition, missing dust jacket. Hardcover.
“The first book in Grant’s “Typhonian Trilogy,” in which he analyses the links he believes exist between various ancient traditions and the occult practices of Aleister Crowley, Austin Osman Spare, Dion Fortune.”
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.First Edition. Very good condition. Dust jacket – very good condition.
“The first volume of the third of Grant’s ‘Typhonian Trilogies.’ In this volume Grant revists and develops the themes of his earlier works, and examines the reception of “The Book of the Law” and offers a reinterpretation of the work in the light of his own Typhonian mythos.”
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.First edition. Very good condition. Dust jacket – very good condition.
“An original survey of magical thought and practice, including explorations of the work of Crowley, Michel Bertiaux and others, drawn from experienced gained by Grant in the course of his workings with the New Isis Lodge.”
$200 USD - SOLD
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Huson, Paul. Mastering Witchcraft: A Practical Guide for Witches, Warlocks, and Covens. G.P. Putnam Son’s, 1970.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.First edition hardcover with dust jacket. Popular book club edition. Very good condition. Dust jacket – very good condition, minor wear at corners.
“Mastering Witchcraft is one of the best how-to manuals for those wishing to practice traditional European Witchcraft as a craft rather than a New Age religion. Starting from first principles, Huson instructs the novice step by step in the arts of circle casting, blessing and banning, the uses of amulets and talismans, philters, divination, necromancy, waxen images, knots, fascination, conjuration, magical familiars, spells to arouse passion or lust, attain vengeance, and of course, counter-spells to exorcize and annul the malice of others.”
$110 USD – SOLD
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Knight, Richard Payne. Two Essays on the Worship of Priapus. Dilettante Society, 193[?].
Limited edition hardcover, no. 311/625. Good condition, bumped corners on cover board. Reprint of the original text on phallic worship from 1786 complete with original erotic plates.
“An Account of the remains of the worship of Priapus, lately existing at Isernia, in the kingdom of Naples; in two letters, one from Sir William Hamilton … to Sir Joseph Banks … and the other from a person residing at Isernia; to which is added, A discourse on the worship of Priapus, and its connexion with the mystic theology of the ancients.”
Merivale, Patricia. Pan the Goat-God: His Myth in Modern Times. Harvard University Press, 1969.
First edition. Very good condition. Green cloth hardcover missing dust jacket.
“In this detailed thematic study of Pan, the god of woods and shepherds (and who has the hoofs and legs of a goat), Patricia Merivale chronicles the many appearances of Pan in modern literature, giving the main emphasis to English writing, where he is in fact most often encountered. Contains 16 pages of glossy B/W illustrations of Pan.”
$80 USD – SOLD
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Platt, Charles. Card Fortune-Telling. A lucid treatise dealing with all the popular and more abstruse methods. W. Foulsham & Co., 1925.
First edition hardcover. Very good condition. Red boards have not faded. Age spotting on paper edges.
A must-have for the playing card fortune-teller. Contains meanings, card history and folklore, different reading methods, and spreads. B/W illustrations.
Porta, John Baptista. Natural Magic: A Neapolitane in Twenty Books Wherein are Set Forth All the Riches and Delights of the Natural Science. Basic Books, 1959.
Very good condition. Third printing. Exact facsimile of a 1658 printing. Hardcover of partial cloth and paper boards with heavy slip case printed with the book’s original title pages, worn edges.
“A work of popular science by Giambattista della Porta first published in Naples in 1558. Natural Magic was revised and considerably expanded throughout the author’s lifetime; its twenty books (Naples 1589) include observations upon geology, optics, medicines, poisons, cooking, metallurgy and magnetism as well as cosmetics, perfumes, gunpowder and invisible writing. Natural Magic is a fine example of pre-Baconian science. Its sources include the ancient world learning of Pliny the Elder and Theophrastus as well as numerous scientific observations made by Della Porta. Natural Magic was translated and published in English in 1658.”
Schulke, Daniel A. Ars Philtron: Concerning the Aqueous Cunning of the Potion and Its Praxis in the Green Arte Magical. Xoanon Press, 2008.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Limited edition printing of 720. Second edition. Very good condition, new red hardcover.
“Ars Philtron was the incepting grimoire of the Verdelet of the Cultus Sabbati. Its primary foci are Sabbatic-alchemical gnosis as manifest through the medium of the Potion, and the applications of the principle formulae of Furnace, Vessel, and Water. Its method and praxis concern the principal Sabbatic philtre types, their arcana, pharmacoepia, formulation, and ritual use. As a grammar of the Art Magical, the work instaurates the Philtre as an emanation of the Vinum Sabbati, the manifest elixir of witch-power.”
$300 USD – SOLD
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Semple, Gavin W. A Poisoned Chalice: The Death of Robert Cochrane. Reineke Verlag, 2004.
Limited edition chapbook, no. 41/100. Signed by author. Very good condition, slight bend in cover but no crease.
An essay containing the details of Robert Cochrane’s (aka Roy Bowers) death. Collectible by those interested in Robert Cochrane and his teachings. Contains a photo of his grave site.
$80 USD – SOLD
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Valiente, Doreen. Where Witchcraft Lives. Aquarian Press, 1962.
First edition hardcover. Very good condition – some age spotting on edges. Dust jacket intact with protective mylar cover – very good condition minus mild humidity damage (bleeding of colour).
“Doreen Valiente was one of the most respected English witches to have influenced the modern day Pagan movement. In this book she examines Witchcraft in Sussex, the role of the Horned God, hares and the Moon, folk-rites and the powers of Witchcraft. She is hereby laying the foundations of the modern day Witchcraft movement. As Gerald Gardner is now commonly thought of as the ‘Father’ of contemporary Witchcraft, so Doreen is known affectionately as the ‘Mother of Modern Witchcraft’.”
It is warty, chubby, clumsy, adorable, and has a very long history of being associated with witches, the devil, and poison. The toad is a beloved symbol and familiar of we witches. I have long wanted a pet toad, just an ordinary little Western Toad (Bufo boreas, pictured), but have not wanted to tame one and keep it in a terrarium instead of its home in the wilds. I have instead been happy just to encounter them in nature whether saving one who was burying himself in the middle of a trail from being stepped on or catching a huge one by a river who was hiding under the large green leaves of false lily of the valley in spring.
“What d’ye lack? What d’ye lack? I can pound a toad in a mortar, and make a broth of it, and stir the broth with a dead man’s hand. Sprinkle it on thine enemy while he sleeps, and he will turn into a black viper, and his own mother will slay him.” ~ Oscar Wilde
“The toad is one of the shapes assumed by a demon when he sits upon a witch’s left shoulder. Thanks to the two tiny horns borne on his forehead, a toad was recognisable as a demon, and witches took infinite care of him. They baptized their toads, dressed them in black velvet, put little bells on their paws, and made them dance.” ~ Grillot de Givry
Once upon a time I heard a hint of a rumour that toads were used in flying ointments. Considering my reputation with flying ointments and my use of animal bits in magic, I of course found it necessary to research this curious idea and found not only documentation but modern scientific and experiential proof that the toxins contained within a toad’s skin and glands can indeed produce a psychoactive substance.
THE HISTORICAL EVIDENCE
In the Arras witch trials from 1459-60 clerics charged the witches with feeding toads wafers stolen from holy communion and then using the toads to make a sacrilegious flying ointment.
In 1487 the evil Malleus Maleficarum (“Hammer of the Witches”) was published and listed toads as one of the ingredients of witches’ flying ointments.
In 1606 William Shakespeare includes a toad in his witches’ infernal brew in Macbeth: “Toad, that under cold stone days and nights host thirty-one swelter’d venom sleeping got, boil thou first i’ th’ charnel pot.”
In 1611 an elderly Basque woman named Maria de Illara confessed the devil appeared to her as a mysterious man and taught her to pound toads with water and use the results to make an ointment which she and other witches rubbed on their chests, stomachs, and arm pits in order to fly to their sabbats.
In 1615 French doctor Jean de Nynauld noted in his work On Lycanthropy, the Transformation and Ectasy of Sorcerers that toads were often added to the flying ointment recipes of witches and lycanthropes.
In the mid to late 1600s this flying ointment recipe appeared (likely from a witch trial): make an ointment from belladonna, datura stramonium, monkshood, and celery seeds. Add to it one toad and simmer until the flesh falls off the bones. Strain and rub upon the body, arm pits, forehead, and broom to achieve flight.
Later witch trials tell of Spanish witches using toad blood in their ointments, English witches using whole live toads, Swedish witches using the toad’s fat, snake venom, and herbs, German witches frying whole toads in oil for ointments, and similar tales reaching into the far corners of Eastern Europe.
This is all only European evidence of the use of toads as a psychoactive and ritual substance. There is much more evidence of peoples from South America and Africa also using toads as poison and entheogen, but for the sake of specificity I will keep this piece focused on European tradition.
Yes, today we know that some species of toad produce an alkaloid called bufotenin which is closely related in chemical make-up to DMT and psilocin (a relative of psilocybin). More interestingly, it is also present in fly agaric (amanita muscaria) mushrooms which may validate our ancestor’s association of toads and toadstools. The bad news is that the common European toad contains only a very tiny amount of bufotenin (0.3% of the dried secretions) and a much large quantity of bufagin, a steroid not an alkaloid, which is an anaesthetic and not a psychedelic. It would still be useful, however, for creating a sleepy, dream-like state when combined with the traditional solanaceous flying ointment herbs. The toads containing the largest amounts of bufotenin are found in the Southwestern USA, Northern Mexico, South America, and China. The only toad which supposedly creates enough bufotenin to be a strong psychoactive is the Colorado River Toad (Bufo alvarius).
As with herbs, the preparation of the toad is very important. Bufotenin does not work when ingested so no amount of toad licking or potion-making is going to show any results. Bufotenin is excreted through the skin of the toad and so the skin must be dried, powdered, and either smoked, snorted up the nostrils, or rubbed on the skin. Researchers report that some remote tribes cut or burn themselves and then rub a live toad into the wound – though I would not recommend this method for health and safety reasons.
EXPERIENCE (THE GOOD NEWS)
Despite the disappointing evidence from the scientific community, experiential use has shown different results. One amateur researcher Adrian Morgan reports his successful, if unpleasant, experiments using the European common toad and the European green toad resulting in trailed images, light traces, colour saturation, saliva build-up, and general intoxication. Though he reports mild psychedelic effects with more pronounced anaesthesia, it is likely due to the species of toad used and also the sex as female toads produce twice as much bufotenin as males. He also reports that bufotenin and its relatives can survive temperatures higher than 125°C (257ºF) and therefore can survive being heated in a witch’s cauldron to make a flying ointment. This is very good news.
There are also those who have smoked the skin of Colorado River Toads and Cane Toads and have reported much stronger psychoactive effects. If one were to craft a flying ointment using a toad, it may be wise to use the species that have a larger amount of bufotenin over bufagin.
European witches and exotic tribesmen most likely scared or pissed off the toad as much as possible to get it to excrete as much toxins as it could before skinning it or boiling it for their concoctions much like the Haitian bokor would do in order to prepare the infamous zombie poison. One can also milk the glands of a live toad for the toxins instead of killing it, though I’m sure the toad is not appreciative of it. Toads are endangered in North America and increasingly rare due to habitat loss. It’s best to leave the living ones alone.
The most humane way to collect the bufotenin is to collect freshly dead toads. This isn’t as hard as it sounds if you go hunting for dead toads during breeding season or late autumn. Due to the way toads mate (in giant gang banging clusterfucking balls of male toads wrapped around a single female in a pond) many of them drown in the process (especially the female who they’re trying to impregnate but end up suffocating). In autumn, sudden cold snaps can kill off toads before they have a chance to hibernate and you can often find their frozen corpses. How do you know if a dead toad is fresh? Go by the smell.
Take your dead toad home, wash it, and carefully skin it. If the skinning is too much to handle, simply cut of the glands on each side of its head instead. Dry the skin completely and then grind it to a powder with a mortar and pestle. It is now ready for smoking, snorting, or infusing into a flying ointment. If you wish to keep the bones too, boiling the toad will be the quickest way, but also the smelliest – do this outside. The slow way would be to bury it wrapped in burlap in a pot of soil that will be left outside and well watered for 2-5 months (depending on the size of the toad). After this time exhume it, pick out the bones, and wash them.
Added (common sense) note:research the species of toad before you handle it with your bare hands and use it in any way. Some toads are very poisonous and contain more toxins than just bufotenin and bufagin, some of which can be very harmful.
Using my own knowledge of traditional flying ointment herbs and their dosages, I have taken the 17th century recipe mentioned above and brought it to life by infusing aconite flowers, belladonna leaf and berry, datura stramonium seeds, celery seeds, fly agaric caps (for the association), and poplar buds in sunflower oil and beeswax and to this mixture adding the skin of an already dead cane toad (which are killed by the hundreds as an aggressive invasive species in many countries today).
The result is an updated and more traditional version of my previous toad ointment recipe that can be used for soul flight, shape-shifting, and to aid in work with a toad familiar or any toad magic or rites. It should not, however, be used by those with a serious morphine allergy due to the belladonna content. If you are interested in this ointment it can be purchased here: Black Arts Foundry.
“Up on their brooms the Witches stream, Crooked and black in the crescent’s gleam; One foot high, and one foot low, Bearded, cloaked, and cowled, they go.”
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.he metaphorical witch’s broomstick is forgotten in the back of an old closet, covered in cobwebs and shrouded in darkness. No one has touched it in so long that it has forgotten its purpose. Those who have not touched it have forgotten how to use it, have even forgotten why they would ever want to. You could break your neck after all, falling from a broomstick oh so high in the sabbat-black sky. Thus the broom is often grounded and most of today’s witches no longer fly. Let us open that forgotten closet door a crack and let a beam of light shine in. Let us illuminate a past much more interesting than our present.
If today’s witches no longer leave their bodies in the ecstasy of soul-flight then it is fair to say they also do not believe in the soul, in hosts of spirits, in old gods, in other worlds, or in magic. Without such beliefs and first-hand experience of them, witchcraft becomes a farce of empty rituals with empty words performed in crushed velvet robes. It all becomes a role-playing game no more real or impressive than a group of acne-faced teens rolling dice in their mother’s basement.
Witchcraft is not neoPagan goddess worship, it is not secular weather worship, it is not tree-hugging, and it is not New Age fuckery. Witchcraft is not safe. Witchcraft is not good and kind. Witchcraft is the domain of the trickster, the outcast, the wanderer, and the crooked. It belongs to those who know every light casts a shadow; who have looked into the depths of darkness in their soul and accepted what they’ve seen along with all that is good. Witchcraft requires cunning, manipulation, self-awareness, adaptable morals, and dash of madness. Witchcraft is sharp pins pierced into a waxen image of an enemy, a lover’s hair plaited with one’s own, a Saturnine root harvested at midnight, blood spilled for hungry spirits, magical pacts made with daemons, a handful of dried henbane leaves burned and inhaled to talk to shades, an ancient incantation sung to become a wild hare, and witchcraft is sabbat wine imbibed while dancing wildly, intoxicated in the woods on Walpurgisnacht.
What is a witch without a host of familiar spirits? What is a witch without knowledge and experience of the otherworld? What is a witch who has never changed form? What is a witch who cannot reach ecstasy? What is a witch who cannot fly? Some would say no witch at all.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.If you want to be a witch, you first must die. Just like the child you were dies when you become an adult, your human self must die to become Witch. The initiated are half alive, half dead. We are souls stuck in between – not quite spirits and not quite human. We shapeshift between forms – now human, now animal, now spirit, now elemental force, now otherwordly being. We drift between past, present, and future knowing that time is a non-linear illusion and all is accessible. We travel between worlds knowing they are all one and we are present in all of them at all times. We are possessed by spirits and the ones who possess others with our spirits. We are the dream-walkers, shape-shifters, psychopomps, seers, mediums, mystics, visionaries, and miraculous healers. We see the unseen, hear the unheard, travel to unreachable places, and experience the impossible. We dwell in paradoxes within the suspension of disbelief. We dance on the dagger’s edge between life and death, waking and dreaming, magic and insanity. We are unnatural. Supernatural.
So few today achieve such a state with fear being the number two reason, coming after ignorance. We are afraid to fly because magic might be real. We are afraid to fly because it might not be. We are afraid to fly because we think the methods to achieve it are all dangerous. We are afraid to fly because we are afraid to die. Sleep is like death, a slight mimicry of death. Soul-flight is the little death. Your body lies as if dead, dead to this world, while your soul travels to frightening or wondrous places. Have you ever woken from vivid dreams exhausted, unrested? Perhaps you weren’t dreaming at all. I have heard the practice aptly named death walking and have been called death walker myself. I simply call it travelling. I leave my body, each time knowing that there is a chance I may not make it back – that my soul might get lost, stolen, trapped, eaten or collected by something or someone more powerful and dangerous than myself. I do it anyway. Sometimes of my own free will and other times I am taken places by spirits. It is always worth it and the more it is done, the easier it becomes, and the easier it is to remember your adventures and visions.
CROSS YOUR HEART AND HOPE TO DIE
“I shall say sooth, I shall fly By horse and hattock Through the Sabbat-black sky.”
Where does the soul go and what does it do when it leaves the body in ecstatic rites? Sometimes it visits other witches — seeking individuals for knowledge or groups to celebrate in sabbatic revels of intoxicants and passions. Other times it takes up residence inside another person for a hag ride, or an animal, or a tree – for the experience or to spy or to travel by land, air, or water. Who doesn’t long for flight feathers or an eagle’s far-seeing eyes? Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Perhaps your soul takes pleasure in riding the wind and the lightning instead or maybe it prefers to journey to the underworld to keep company with the dead and their secrets. Other witch’s souls keep company with stars, some of whom will whisper mysteries while others only respond with cold alien silence.
A seer’s soul will travel into the future and sometimes the past. A healer’s soul will travel inside the body of a patient to find the cause of an illness so it may be removed. A shape-shifter‘s soul will possess the physical forms of animals, insects, and plants or their soul will take their form in the otherworld. A dream-walker will travel into the dreams of others to deliver messages, send blessings or nightmares, or to lay a curse. A psychopomp will traverse the path between our world and the underworld, leading souls to the great below and bringing messages back to the living. There are even dark sorcerers who leave their bodies to steal souls, bring them back and bottle them up, bound into a fetiche to strengthen their own power with black magic. Presently such practices largely exist only in folk and fairy tales, unread by today’s witches.
How does one achieve soul-flight? Some have to work at it for weeks, months, or years. Some do it as naturally as breathing, without aid, and simply can’t help themselves. One witch beats a drum to mimic a fast heartbeat and falls into a waking trance. Another sings an incantation faster and faster to quicken the breath and flood the blood with oxygen. A group of witches rub themselves with a flying ointment and dance and sing all night around a fire more and more intensely until reaching ecstasy. Yet another calls her spirits, whispers her intent, and falls asleep under a bear hide holding a rowan wand, leaving her body through the world of dreams.
Transvection chants:
“Horse and hattock, horse and go, horse and pellatis, ho ho!”
“Thout, tout a tout tout, throughout and about.”
There are words and herbs and postures. There is music and dancing and singing. There is fasting and swaying and praying. Stand on one foot, close one eye, and raise one arm. Eat this mushroom, soak this herb in wine overnight, and infuse this fat with belladonna leaves and mandrake root. Sing these words, scream them, mean them. Beat this drum and shake this rattle until your wrists hurt, until you cannot feel your hands. Dance around the fire until you sweat and sweat, until you forget you are human. Shroud yourself in complete darkness until there is nothing but the world of visions. All these things and more can lead to the little death and transport you to the otherworld’s door.
It all sounds rather romantic until someone loses an eye, or a soul, or their life. Some don’t make it back, some don’t make it back in one piece, but most will never go at all because they fear death above all else. And we should fear it – we should respect death and fear. We should not be fools stumbling in the dark. We should know the danger that lies ahead, the pain that will come, and walk into it knowingly always pure of intent and heart. We should know why we choose to die. Is dying worth gaining power? No, it shouldn’t be about striving for power. We die to serve. Once we die we do not belong to ourselves. Spirit workers are servants to greater spirits than themselves and will always be haunted and hunted. Every spirit serves another and we too are spirits. Erase any romantic notions from your head – this is not about you or being special – you are one of many. Your body is on loan, a temporary vessel. As long as you serve, the vessel is protected from harm and from physical death. If you make it about you or about power there is no guarantee you’ll be safe or come back.
Do you really want this? Is it worth being able to see and hear spirits, to travel between the realms? Why do you want it so badly? Be honest with yourself and the spirits and maybe one day you will die and come back — joining this host of revenants called spirit workers.
An important question is not how one can fly, but how does one land? How does the witch protect themself during soul-flight and how do they ensure a safe return? Shamans of old would protect their abandoned body with blessed talismans and with a human or spirit guardian who would watch over their flesh until their soul returned from its journey. If there were signs of danger or they were gone for too long, a human guardian would try to rouse the shaman by burning special herbs such as yarrow flowers, by repeating an incantation, or by stimulating the body in the hope that it would cause the soul to return and the shaman to awake. Shamans and witches of old would also have familiar spirits who would travel with them in the otherworld and serve as various lookouts, protectors, and advisors. Disguise is another protection and one still documented in folk tales and myths: ashes rubbed on the face to mimic the dead’s appearance in the underworld, an animal’s hide worn to blend in among its kin, herbs rubbed on the body to mask the smell of humanity among soul-eaters.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Danger doesn’t just come from outside influences during soul-flight – a major challenge one may face is not wanting to return or forgetting to. If the witch decides they do not like the restriction of corporeal form they may knowingly or unknowingly cut ties with their flesh and lose the chance to return. The witch may get lost or trapped, finally returning to our realm to realize they are too late, a century has gone by and their body and all their loved ones have perished. The witch may lose themselves when shape-shifting and forget altogether that they are human and end up a wild hare in a fox’s mouth. When the soul does not return, the body can be left a vegetable, or worse, something else may take up residence inside it if it was not protected well enough.
Souls may be currency in the otherworld, to be stolen, collected, or eaten by more powerful spirits, but bodies are also much desired by noncorporeal spirits. Imagine a long-dead shade who yearns to taste the sweetness of wine and richness of food once more, who yearns to feel the softness of a woman’s breasts beneath his hands and all her other pleasures. Such a spirit may steal or kill to attain his desires. One must not be too trusting in the otherworld and not take spirits at face value or their word for nothing is as it seems. Trust your familiar spirits who have proven themselves time and time again and no others and they will do their best to keep you out of the lion’s maw.
Protect the room or space you will fly from, no, over-protect it. Weave a barrier with spirit traps, witch balls, witch bottles, mirrors, sigils, bindrunes, runestaves, conjure bags, strung herbs, and animals skulls, teeth, and claws. Paint protective sigils on your body or have them tattooed on if you are one who flies involuntarily, naturally. Always wear one protective talisman even if it is as simple as the innocuous ring, pendant, or earrings you wear every day that you have consecrated. When you wish to fly, call your spirits to you and have their fetiches close if they are not wearable so you can take them with you. Hold a wand or staff in your hand to protect your body and to take with you to the other realms. The Gaels and Norse believed Rowan gave one power over spirits – to enter their homes, to stop them from causing harm, and to blast, banish and bind them if need be.
To return from your adventures of witches’ sabbats, shape-shifting, and travelling sing or speak aloud an incantation that acts as a trigger to pull you back to your body. Tap your wand or staff three times. Stop beating your drum, stop swaying, stop chanting – stop whatever action you perform when straddling the worlds. Have someone watch over you and instruct them to touch you gently or shake you if need be to signal you to return from your spirit’s flight. If you are alone set an alarm to go off or play an album and train yourself to return when the music stops. When you return, eat and drink, touch a plant, touch a tree, touch the earth. Talk, laugh, sing. Do something ordinary and of this world to help ground you in the present and bring you fully back to yourself. If you are worried a spirit may have followed you back or your experience was not pleasant, take a bath with herbs and candles and spiritually cleanse yourself from your toes to your head to the depths of your soul and watch all the worry wash down the bathtub drain afterward. Lavender, rosemary, cloves, mullein, sage or yarrow will aid you. If they are not on hand, the needles from the nearest evergreen tree will do in a pinch whether it be cedar, fir, or pine – especially when combined with salt.
One either flies or one does not. It cannot be forced and can rarely be taught. The secret is in one’s ability to let go; to let go of expectations, of the body, of life, of the world you know and the people you love. Can you jump off the cliff into the unknown abyss with faith in yourself and your spirits? If not you will fail or you will fall. Do not leap until you are sure.
Originally published in “Pillars III” by Anathema Publishing, January 2015.
“Witchcraft is already dead as a hag, as barren as the moon, as contaminated as the tar sands. Yet Witchcraft is born again in this sacred despoiled landscape, and will be despised as an abomination by those who cannot navigate by the candlelight of guttering stars. Those who seek to escape the fates and furies will learn that they are inexorable.”
~ Peter Grey, Apocalyptic Witchcraft
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.odern witchcraft is changing its stripes. I need only to talk to elders and attend long-standing events to see this clearly. The young people are upsetting and delighting the older generations with their newly evolved beliefs and practices. One old-timer is horrified by an ecstatic ritual at a festival full of nudity, body paint, drumming, trance, possession, and ecstatic dance. They complain loudly to everyone and try to get nudity banned at an event that’s been clothing optional for twenty years because they don’t know how else to deal with their extremely uncomfortable reaction to the ritual itself. Another elder’s eyes shine with joy to see young people hosting a ritual the likes of which they haven’t participated in since they were taking amanita caps in the woods with their friends from college in the 1960s. They clap loudly in glee and ask for more.
An elder, trained in a well-known and well-lineaged witchcraft tradition, comes to my city to train students and form a serious practicing coven. They have good connections and intentions, but can’t get a single student. They lament to me over lunch how much things have changed in the past forty years and how surprised they were that no one wanted a serious commitment. They give up and go home and my local community doesn’t realize what it lost. As a member of the younger generation they were fishing from, they ask me why, what has changed?
The biggest issue of the previously mentioned elder was that they were trying to form a coven based solely on controlled external rituals, not wanting anything to do with internal process or personal gnosis. They did not approve of the path of the mystic and all the internal processing the younger folk were up to in ritual and were very vocal about it. I see this attitude more often than not in elders from the 60s and 70s. The younger generation did not agree with this attitude and were not interested. They wanted a spiritual path that would challenge them on a psychological as well as spiritual level, heal them, and help them face their fears and demons. They didn’t want to sing the same songs and perform the same actions at every ritual and have that be the extent of their group activity. It’s fun, but it’s not enough anymore. The new generation wants to go deeper and they want it from a group just as much as their individual practices. In other words, they don’t want a square dance, they want an ecstatic dance.
The elder mentioned above wanted to use the same ritual format for every type of ceremony performed in the group. Imagine the same ritual at every esbat and sabbat rite, every spell-working for the coven, and every handfasting and baby blessing performed by that coven. I’ve seen many Wiccan covens get stuck in this habit. A long, drawn out circle-casting method becomes the go-to for every single rite and it becomes similar to a Catholic service performed the same every Sunday with everyone droning the same words. It loses its magic and meaning over time becoming a formula, a procedure devoid of spiritual connection and experience.
“Without an experiential dimension any set of magical beliefs, however sophisticated, becomes little different from a scientific procedure – a manufactured means through which to manipulate nature and the objects within it.”
~ Emma Wilby, Cunning Folk & Familiar Spirits
It is good to learn a circle-casting ritual and learn it well, it will keep you out of a lot of sticky magical situations, but if it’s all a group does, people are going to start to get bored and frustrated and believe that’s all the group has to offer in the way of magical training. I’ve known a good handful of folks who have left covens and Wicca because of this. I’ve also known people who were kicked out of covens because they wanted to change up the static circle-casting ritual and the leaders believed they were no longer in keeping with the tradition and therefore were no longer members.
These are things we are going to have to deal with and consider if covens and traditions want to keep their members, gain new ones, and keep evolving and growing to continue on instead of fossilizing and dying off. It’s not going to be easy to break our habits and traditions in order to preserve it, many are going to fight it, but it’s something I believe is necessary and part of nature.
The big name initiatory traditions are no longer the be all end all of witchcraft. Younger generations of witches are putting less and less importance on lineage and formal initiation choosing personal gnosis, mysticism, direct ecstatic experience, and spirit initiation over the customs of previous generations. Many of them would rather follow a personalized spiritual practice than follow the dogma of a set tradition. Many of them do not agree with the hierarchical structure of witchcraft covens and the many interpersonal problems it can create. Many consider strict traditions to be as divisory to witchcraft and Paganism as the different sects of the Church are to Christianity (i.e. witch wars). Others don’t like the polytheistic restriction or the inexplicable focus of only the ancient Celtic and Greek cultures within traditions. They want more options, more flexibility, and a more involved, hands-on style to their craft.
I have heard all of these from many mouths, but when it really comes down to it, most are devoted to their families, schooling, and careers and are not in a position to give their time to training in a formal coven. Their spirituality becomes an important part of their life, but not its sole or even major focus. They have to opt out of the formal traditions of the older generations because those traditions don’t fit into their lives. Employers are no longer as generous with vacation time and holidays and many people now work on weekends. I have known so many who left formal training in witchcraft traditions because they couldn’t devote the time needed and had given up trying to juggle the training with their family and job. The world has changed since the heyday of our elders and, because of our current seemingly endless access to information thanks to the internet and globally connected libraries, individuals no longer need to rely on private covens for training, lore, and resources. The personalized path and/or an informal group become some of the most viable options.
Due to the vast amount of knowledge easily available today, modern witches are now aware of the huge body of fakelore existing in the beliefs, teachings, and traditions within modern Paganism. This has led to the abandonment and scorn of Wicca and its NeoPagan offshoots by the younger generations who know that the burning times, ancient Wiccans, ancient matriarchal goddess-worshipping cultures, and the maiden-mother-crone are modern myths propagated throughout the magical community by misunderstandings and insufficient research. Many belonging to this disillusioned younger generation are angry because these myths are still being taught as historical fact today. Leaders of witchcraft and other traditions have not kept up with contemporary research in the academic fields related to our beliefs and practices resulting in our elders continuing to teach fakelore that has been debunked in the twenty-first century.
This has created a large divide between the old and new generations of witches and prevents much fruitful discourse and collaboration. The younger generation needs to understand that many of their predecessors simply stopped reading and researching new material after a certain point along their spiritual paths. I know of too many elders and leaders who don’t know the sources of large portions of their teaching material, have never read The White Goddess, The Key of Solomon, or the works of Aleister Crowley, have never heard of Carlo Ginzburg, Éva Pócs, or Emma Wilby, and have never read Ronald Hutton’s game-changing Triumph of the Moon. The older generation needs to recognize that they must keep up with the research and works of contemporary authors just as a music teacher would keep up with modern music instead of staying stuck in the power ballads of the 1970s and losing their students because of it. When we don’t continue educating ourselves and increasing our standards we become a sad joke to our peers and students as well as outsiders.
“We are used to being unwelcome, hunted, blamed, raped, tortured, dispossessed, disappeared. Now we are an irrelevance, a harmless eccentricity, a fairy ball sporting stick on ears and dressing up box deviance, a social joke. Yet as witchcraft is filled with the spirit of the age we will become dangerous again, because witchcraft will have rooted meaning.”
~ Peter Grey, Apocalyptic Witchcraft
Witchcraft is no longer synonymous with Wicca like it once was, modern witches are no longer all Wiccans, and Wicca’s structure and beliefs have instead become equated with NeoPaganism, lay-Paganism, and New Agers even though this is not true for those who have preserved Wicca as an initiatory, oathbound witchcraft tradition. It is sad to witness the decline and dilution of Wicca and all it accomplished, to see it reduced to a target of bashing and ridicule, but it is natural, it is evolution. The young mock their elders, ignorant to the battles they fought so the youth could enjoy freedom. The younger generations have forgotten the witchcraft laws that had to be repealed, the previous lack of religious rights and freedoms, the stones thrown through windows, the hateful words spewed like venom, and how hard it once was to find information on anything to do with witchcraft. They don’t know that Wicca was once seen to be as dark, dangerous, primal, mysterious, and appealing as the newer forms of witchcraft being practiced today. They weren’t alive at the time – how could they remember? So few read our history and pick elders’ brains as I love to do. It’s not bad and it’s not good, it simply is.
It is a pattern I see: something new and wonderful is born into witchcraft — maybe it’s a tradition, a belief, a practice — it is taken up with a frenzy to its furthest extent. Over time it becomes overdone, stale, static, diluted, outdated, and forgotten. It dies or is killed. The newer generation abandons it and starts again with a new idea, a new frenzy. We are currently at the crossroad with both the old and new witchcraft generations co-existing. We are experiencing the death of what was and the birth of what will be simultaneously. The Witch is the sacred Yew Tree, never dying, always shedding her skin like the serpent so she may ever live on in one form or another. There is no unbroken lineage, no unbroken witchcraft tradition in history. There is only Witchcraft itself, a wild thing that can never be caught and contained but insists on its wildness and on constant transformation, constant death and rebirth (as with all things in nature). We beat our fists bloody trying to redefine it into something harmless and innocent, but Witchcraft doesn’t care. Witchcraft is a survivor. Witchcraft mocks our definitions, divisions, tidy boxes, and white-washing, leaving a trail of feathers and bones through forest and city alike.
We are breaking tradition. All of us, right now. After we are done with our axes and sledgehammers, Witchcraft will still be there, waiting patiently for us to finish our destruction. It is the tree that is ever cut down but ever springs forth again from the earth because its roots grow so deep. Now to see what form it grows into this time…
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This piece stems from long conversations I often have with a good friend and elder about the death of modern witchcraft. He bemoans the changes, losses, and white-washing while I try to cheer him up by telling him all the new and exciting things the young folk are up to and taking him to their rituals to see for himself. He is always surprised and delighted by how well-educated and experienced the younger generation is and how much they challenge and push the boundaries of the witches who came before.
From our long talks and attending and performing many rituals together, I’ve changed his attitude about the uselessness of young people and he’s changed mine about the stuffiness of the older generation of witches (oh, the crazy stories of witches in the 60s!). In the past few years of young and old mixing in my local community, I’ve seen us share our collective knowledge and experience and create rituals and events beyond what each generation would’ve accomplished separately. It’s funny what happens when we stop assuming and talk to each other and work together — magic happens! I hope it’s happening in your community too.
“I do not want to father a flock, to be the fetish of fools and fanatics, or the founder of a faith whose followers are content to echo my opinions. I want each man to cut his own way through the jungle.”
~ Aleister Crowley
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.am about to get heretical here. I’m going to admit to you why I do not take on students. It’s because I do not believe in gurus. I’m not talking about the original meaning of guru as counselor or mentor within Hinduism. I’m speaking of our tendency to seek out “perfect” teachers who we perceive as enlightened, above us, all-knowing, wise, infallible –all the things we believe when we put someone on a pedestal and give them complete power over our spiritual path. When we do this within modern magical systems we create cult leaders. I have no desire to become a cult leader and I have even less desire for the asshat I’d become because of it (I’m a Leo, I would so end up wearing my ass as a hat). If you already think I am an asshat, you may be confusing it with situational bitchiness. “Mess with the bull, you get the horns. Mess with the witch, you get the bitch.” I don’t know about you, but I haven’t met too many people yet who couldn’t be corrupted by being treated like a guru. It can happen to the best of people and they often don’t notice the change in themselves until it is too late. “Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely.” If you come across a teacher who very obviously wants to be worshipped and who desires to have a cult of glassy-eyed unquestioning followers at their feet, you should run in the other direction. Not sure? Try poking the dragon and see if fire comes out.
What if instead of creating and joining hierarchical organizations teaching one dogma originating from one mouth, we created groups where everyone shared their knowledge with each other? What if instead of creating and fostering a guru-worshipping spirituality we were all seen as equals with something of value to offer? Where each individual would take turns teaching a lesson based on their expertise or leading a ritual with a purpose they specialize in? Imagine how much experience each person would rack up from teaching and leading rituals? Imagine how much the whole group would gain from learning from not just one teacher, but from many?
From Wikipedia: “Open source refers to a computer program in which the source code is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its original design. Open-source code is meant to be a collaborative effort, where programmers improve upon the source code and share the changes within the community. Typically this is not the case, and code is merely released to the public… Others can then download, modify, and publish their version back to the community.”
I know it’s a bit of a utopic idea. The reality, like open source code, would likely be individuals just giving away their magical knowledge and time for nothing in return while the recipients run off with it and change or corrupt it before passing it on under their own names with a fake origin story. This is pretty much what happens in every forum, facebook group, email list, and blog and also countless times among traditions and teachers throughout the history of neopaganism (I’m looking at you Herman Slater). Other times it would be like hosting a free workshop that four people turn up to, but four thousand people download the recorded video of. Despite this, I think it’s still worth it; that the idea and the ideal is more important than the possible disappointments. I’ve had my writings stolen with someone else’s name put on them numerous times, but I still keep writing and releasing articles and stories to the public for free. I’ve had people tell me I should stop doing this and monetize all of my writings and I’ve alternately had people tell me I should stop because I suck and they hate me, but I don’t listen to either opinion.
Let’s take this open source idea further. What if we admitted we magicians have been magpies all along, both today and throughout history. We are only the sum of our influences, inspirations, books we’ve read, people we’ve met, events we’ve attended, paths we’ve dabbled in, and things we’ve done. We are all eclectics –every one of us. Even members of a strict tradition will have variances in belief, opinion, and experience among them because they are all individuals. We are not the Borg. We are not a hive mind. We are imperfect humans. We are unique snowflakes… just like everyone else.
If we admit this to ourselves it becomes much easier to strip away dogma and the need for fundamentalist segregation and perceived righteousness. Why can’t a traditional witch, a wiccan, a hoodoo practitioner, a thelemite, a Greek reconstructionist, a shaman, and a chaos magician all get along and all learn from each other? Why can’t they do magic and ritual together? I’ve seen it happen, I’ve seen it work among my friends. We all know and have experienced things others have not. We all have a skill or two others do not. It doesn’t make one better or more superior, it makes us different and it allows us to fill in the blanks, the gaps of knowledge and skills, that we and others may be needing for our personal practices. If we can get over the hurdles of prejudices and insecurities, so much magic would happen.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.We are animals who will always naturally try to establish a pecking order in physical groups, but members could be expected and encouraged to prevent one person from trying to dominate the others or stop members from having wand measuring contests simply by calling bullshit in a brutally honest, but humorous or kindly meant way. There would also be the opposite danger of members trying to appoint someone the leader so they don’t have to do the organizing or decision making. In that case, the unwillingly appointed person should call bullshit or walk away.
Most interpersonal drama and gossip in groups is caused by insecurities, but if those insecurities were communicated, and the group environment fostered that communication regularly, others would be more likely to have empathy and understanding when issues arise. If we’re not all busy clamouring to one-up each other or tear each other down, we’ll sure get a lot more done.
“I am not a priest, minister, or spiritual leader of that nature although I have performed their functions when I have had to. I do so only until I can find someone appropriate that I can assist to fill those roles. When I find them I gladly give the tasks of priest, minister, saint, and spiritual leader over to them. Those jobs are not my calling; they are not my specific and primary purpose. I am not that kind of an Elder. I am especially not an avatar and if anyone expects me to behave like one they are going to be shocked and disappointed. I am not an Elder of that kind.”
A group of magicians really is like a herd of cats… okay more like a herd of ornery, opinionated people who don’t want to be told what to do. The medicine men and women of the Pacific Northwest coast did not practice in groups, but every now and then they would all come together from near and far and share their skills with one another and perform rituals to speak to the spirits. Tool makers would bring custom pieces others had requested, medicine makers would bring medicines for those who didn’t make their own, and others would share knowledge and practices. They were all individual practitioners in their own villages, but they shared what they knew and what they could do with one another. Their collective knowledge, experience, and skills was their grimoire. An encyclopedia made of living people; of open source magic.
Maybe Suzy is a natural medium whose skill allows her group to directly communicate with spirits and deities. Maybe Johnny is gifted at helping others achieve trance and their objectives while in an altered state. Sally is the herb, garden, and wildcrafting expert whose knowledge has allowed the group to harvest their own plants and make their own incenses, oils, and flying ointments. Joan knows all the chants, their rhythms, their purposes, and the instruments that can be played with them, making rituals that much more awesome. Tom is the group’s resident tool maker and thanks to him the others have wands, staffs, knives, talismans, and can learn how to make their own.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Why not start a movement of open source magic or, if you see it as already existing, why not aid in its continuation? Of friends and strangers coming together to help and support each other to gain the knowledge and experience they seek. Of people sharing their stories so others can learn from their triumphs as well as their mistakes. Of workshops, classes, and open rituals instead of closed traditions. Of online groups and real life groups who share instead of bicker over who is right or wrong. Of practitioners being open to change, growth, and new additions to the traditional bodies of lore. Of individual bloggers and authors who share what they know for the sake of sharing alone rather than for personal gain or to be seen as a guru. We don’t need a hundred more websites copying and pasting Cunningham’s herbal lore without citing the source. What we need is individual practitioners sharing their personal experiences and their hard-won skills and knowledge. Let us make ourselves and our unique knowledge available too. You all have something of value within you.
Writing and hosting workshops is how I pass on the knowledge and skills I’ve gained from years of experience and practice. I’m not good at what I do because I’m just naturally awesome at it, but because I studied hard and practiced over and over until I became good at magic, writing, herbalism, and art. I became knowledgeable because I read and read until I my brain hurt and eyes stung and then spent years applying that knowledge. You have to use a muscle for it gain bulk and muscle memory. Flex those muscles! You earned them! There are enough “gurus” in the world. Some of us just want to be people because really, it’s all we are. All of us. Even the gurus and big name pagans. Now who wants to go to the pub and shoot the shit?
I am very much a “consecrate all the things” type of magician. I consecrate altars, ritual tools, divinatory tools, fetiches, talismans, charms, idols, candles, holy water, and even herbal preparations. To consecrate simply means “to hallow or to make sacred.” To me, it means to cleanse and bless something and charge it with a purpose. A skull is just a skull, but when consecrated it becomes a spirit house. A statue of Odin is just a statue until you consecrate it to be a vessel for deity. A candle is just a candle until it is anointed with oil and its purpose for a spell stated aloud. A stick is just a stick, but if you carve it, sand it, oil it, sprinkle holy water on it, smudge it with smoke, name it’s purpose as your wand of art, and imbue it with the desired powers of blasting, protection, and blessing then it becomes a potent tool of magic. To further the process of consecration, the more the object is actively used for its named purpose, the more power it will wield and the more it will simply “be” that sacred tool. There are as many ways to consecrate as there are witches. The following are my own practices and thoughts.
This can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. It can take five minutes, or it can take an hour. You can do it at midnight on a full moon on your altar with candles lit, incense burning, and chants sung while your loosed long hair cascades over your bared breasts glowing in the candlelight… or you can do it in the morning on your kitchen table with some water, salt, and olive oil and be back to watching Ellen before your blueberry bagel pops out of the toaster.
Step 1: Cleansing
Clean physically if possible with soap, water, and purification herbs (lemon, evergreens, rue, hyssop, mugwort). Then clean spiritually with incense smoke or smudge. If the object cannot be washed, sprinkle it with holy water then smudge with smoke. Move the object around in your hands so the smoke touches every nook and cranny. While cleansing the object think cleansing thoughts, or say out loud “I cleanse you”, or sing a purification or washing chant or song (pagan or from the top 40, it doesn’t matter).
Step 2: Anointing
Oil all the things. You don’t need to have a fancy oil as olive or sunflower oil will do just fine. Essential oils work great too, just dilute them a bit with olive, almond, sunflower, or jojoba oil first. You can use fairy or flying ointments to anoint with too, depending on what you are consecrating and to which purpose. Dip your index finger in oil and from the centre of the object swipe your finger up once. Go back to the centre and swipe your finger down once. You can use an equal armed cross instead. Ta da! Anointed! This works well with candles, jewelry, skulls, bottles, boxes, wands, staffs, statues, chalices, candle holders, etc.
Step 3: Rebirthing
Get a black cloth or piece of leather and wrap up the object. This will serve as tomb and womb. Your ritual goody is about to go through a magical initiation (I got this idea from Nigel Pennick who is awesome). Its old self will die so its new self as your ritual tool or fetish can start. Unwrap the cloth and welcome the object as a new born. Sprinkle earth on it, sprinkle holy water on it, pass it over a candle flame and through a plume of incense smoke –blessing it with the elements of earth, water, fire, and air.
Step 4: Charging
Now you name the object and charge it with its intended purpose. It is best to make it up so it can be completely customized to your needs and the particular purpose of the object. A protective ring and a tarot deck aren’t going to have the same purpose. “I charge you ring with the purpose of protecting my body, mind, and spirit from harm whenever I wear you, that I may be invisible and impenetrable when my enemy sends forth an attack, that I am safe when travelling in this world or in others, and that you send me warning when I am in danger by sending an itch to the finger you sit upon. I charge you to do my will. Let it be so!”
Don’t feel the need to do anything so elaborate for a candle, a bottle of sabbat wine, or a herbal sachet? No worries, keep it simple. Sprinkle water on it, anoint it with oil, or just blow on it. Then whisper a prayer of intent so the breath from your prayer touches it. Done. I consecrate my holy water with just a holey stone, a silver ring and then I blow on it three times “by silver and stane may the water be sained”. Boom, it’s instantly ready for me to sprinkle on people who forgot to take their glasses off. I consecrate new altar candles of beeswax by just rubbing some olive oil on them and lighting them while I say: “I consecrate thee in the Devil’s name, by oil and by flame may the candle be sained.” With the new candles quickly in place, I can get down to the business of a rite or a tarot reading.
Aftercare Tips
Well after your sacred objects are consecrated and used for their purposes, you should still clean them now and then. Make a gentle magical wash for items that can get wet and give them a bath – this works well for talismanic jewelry, skulls, swords, knives, stangs, staffs, statuary, and some divinatory tools. Things build up dust and grime over time. About once a year I will wash my altar and everything on it, shaking dust out of animal hides and off of feathers, and cleaning up any candle wax buildup and guck in the incense censer.
Wooden ritual tools that aren’t varnished will need some love throughout the year; altar patens, wands, staffs, stangs, carved statues, cups, boxes, etc. Wipe them down with a damp cloth, let them dry and then oil them with linseed oil or Danish oil. You can also rub them down with some beeswax or a wood balm like Clapham’s beeswax polish. Have any leather goods? Same deal only use a leather dressing or saddle balm after wiping an item down and massage it into the leather like you would with lotion on your skin – this will not work with synthetic leather. For wood or leather, let the oil or balm dry overnight before putting your ritual tool back on your altar or back to use.
For hides, furs, rugs, etc sprinkle a dusting of baking soda over them, let it sit for 15 minutes and then shake our and/or vacuum. This will both clean and deodorize the item. You can mix essential oils into the baking soda before use to make them smell lovely too as well as adding magical cleansing properties from oils like lemon and lavender.
For tarot decks or wooden runes a good smudge of smoke works well. I energetically cleanse mine by pulling out the energies from past divinings and letting it absorb slowly and naturally into the earth. Others place crystals on them and let them rest and charge for a week or a month. Others may even bury them or dig them back up.
Once or twice a year, replace sachets, charms, and talismans that are meant to be temporary. Brighid’s crosses are meant to be burned every year at Imbolc and a new one made and hung up for blessing and protection. Spirit traps can only take so much and are meant to be burned and made anew as well. Keep this in mind when making charms of protection or blessing for a room, house, or person. Don’t make them too nice or elaborate, as you’re going to have to dispose of them and craft another.
A Note of Caution Regarding Spirit Fetiches
I’ve quoted the German proverb “raise no more devils than you can lay down” before, but it also applies to “create no more fetishes than you can responsibly look after.” Fetiches should be kept clean, fed offerings, go with you when you travel away from home, and be honoured and worked with often. One ancestral fetiche plus seven animal familiar fetiches plus four plant familiar fetiches later and suddenly you have a dozen spirit houses to look after and take everywhere with you. It all escalated rather quickly. You might want to create one medicine bundle with a token for each spirit that is not fetishized instead. Or you could create one for ancestors, one for animals, and one for plants. Keep the tokens small, keep the container small and you’re good to go. Hold the token in your hand when you want to call and work with that particular spirit – this way it acts as an aid in spirit alignment rather than creating a permanent spirit house that will take up a lot of your space and time.
Consecration is pretty common knowledge. Most of us have our ways. But what do you do when you need to get rid of a fetish, a ritual tool, or a sacred item that has broken or needs to be thrown out? You’ve probably guessed right, the garbage can isn’t really an option. Your sacred items deserve ritual desecration as much as they deserved being consecrated in the first place. Again, there are many ways to accomplish desecration, here are some traditional methods and ones that I was taught.
Salt, Moon and Earth
This method I learned from first teacher who I’ve not-so-affectionately nicknamed Baba Yaga. To undo an unwanted consecration or a spell on an object that is not a curse: place it in a canning jar full of sea salt. Screw on the lid. Let it sit on a windowsill and soak up the light of one full cycle of the moon. Or, bury it in the ground for one full cycle of the moon. This is best for objects you do not wish to destroy, but either repurpose or undo someone’s good or not so good intentions. I’ve done this for a tarot deck that was gifted me with a love spell put on it. It also works for fetiches of skulls, bones, claws etc. which you no longer want to use as spirit houses. It’s also perfect to use for spelled jewelry, keys, or crystals and stones. Maybe you got a better one, maybe you want to use the item for something else, or maybe you want to gift the item to someone else.
Break, Burn and Bury
This is the classic method of desecration and coincidentally of how to leave votive offerings. Prechristian European and Mediterranean cultures believed if you broke and burned an object (including the cremation of the dead), it would go to the otherworld or the underworld. The Chinese still burn all their offerings today believing this sends them to their beloved dead. So, consequently, if you smash and burn a fetiche or spirit house it both destroys the object and sets free the spirit associated with it. Smash the spirit bottle, the spirit trap, the statue… snap in half the wand, the staff, the stang… take apart the knife, the necklace, the herb sachet. “I unmake thee, I unname thee, I set thee free. Bear no ill will against me and be released.” Throw it in a fire and let it burn up. Don’t have access to a fireplace, fire pit, or even a barbeque grill? Try an incense charcoal placed in a large stainless steel bowl which is resting on bare earth or cement. Add some sticks and newspaper to get a flame and then add the object of your desecration. It’s okay if some bits don’t burn up. Glass and metal aren’t going to turn to ash. Simple gather up any remnants as well as the ashes and then bury them –by a crossroad, by a stream or river, in a hollow tree, under a bramble patch where no one will disturb the grave. Are you an animist? Ask the place permission first before you bury your remnants. Ask for a sign that will signal a yes like a crow’s caw or a robin’s whistle.
Go Away / Get Lost Box
This method I found mentioned by Ray T. Marlborough, but haven’t found info on it anywhere else except some folklore of trapping evil spirits in boxes. If you have a ritual tool, talisman, or fetiche you don’t want to destroy or can’t destroy, you can make a go away box. Find any box that will fit the item and on each of the six sides draw a protective talisman. You can make them up, use ones out of old grimoires, or simply draw an equal armed cross on each side. I prefer to use red paint as it protects from spirits or magical interference, but black, blue, and yellow are suitable as well. Consecrate the box on your altar to its purpose: to seal in your ritual tool or fetiche so it no longer has any power and no being can use its power. That when the box starts to decay, so too will the object decay and lose its power. Wrap the item to be desecrated in a natural fabric like silk, linen, cotton, or wool and place it in the box. Seal the lid of the box with wax dripped from a candle (again, red is best) and then wrap thread (also a natural fibre) around and around the box and knot it up tight. Now bury the box by a crossroad, a stream or river, or somewhere it won’t be disturbed (farmlands and development sites are a bad idea).
Self Aftercare
After you perform a desecration rite you should cleanse yourself. Take a bath with sea salt and oils, smudge yourself with smoke, or spritz Florida water on your self and your hands and also clean your altar or work area with it where the rite was performed. Lemon water with salt consecrated as holy water will do in a pinch if you don’t have access to Florida water.
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