The witches’ night-flight – Musings on the soul flight

 “…It is also not to be omitted that some wicked women, turned away after Satan and seduced by the illusions and phantasms of demons, believe and profess that, in the hours of the night, they ride upon certain beasts with Diana, goddess of the pagans, and an innumerable multitude of women, and in the silence of night traverse great spaces of earth, and obey her commands as of their mistress, and are summoned to her service on certain nights.”
Cannon Episcopi, X century

In the last quarter of the XIV century the stereotype of the witch was already well established drawing from a number of sources and one of the most relevant powers of the witch was her ability to fly at night to attend the diabolical meeting that came to be principally known as the Sabbath, but, unlike what is described in the passage of the Cannon Episcopi transcribed above, from the XIV century onwards the flight was no longer considered an illusion caused by demons or a remnant of superstitious thought but a real phenomena caused by ointments the witches concocted at their nightly reunions. Despite academic brawls and polemics, there is a strand of commonness regarding the supernatural flight of the soul. It is present in mankind’s oldest structured religious forms, it finds its way along the classical age, continues onwards through the medieval and modern period and nestles itself in contemporary mystical experiences. It is not, then, surprising that in many of traditional witchcraft pathways the flight and consequently the Sabbat became one of the cornerstones of the officium.

Looking at historical sources we know for certain that this night travel forms a core part of European Witchcraft as described in the middle ages and modern period. Supported by the work of Tomas Aquinas and his contemporaries on the nature of Evil and the activities of the Fallen with their followers, it became one of the most sought after descriptions by later medieval and renaissance inquisitors, however, before the systematization of an otherwise reactive and eclectic Christian cosmology, several elements regarding the flight were already in place and being commonly attributed to witches. The Strigae, winged demons who vampiricaly preyed on humans and the Bonnae Mulieres, a Latin term used to refer to the company of women that escorted the goddess Diana and that needed to be placated with offerings of food and drink are two of the most prominent examples of this with both terms being commonly used to describe witches. In Apuleius novel Metamorphosis, Lucian sees Pamphile speaking incantations to a lamp and rubbing her body with an ointment that causes her to develop characteristics that make her resemble a strix: she grows wings, feathers, a beak and talons and, although not related and in a much later period of time, the motifs of flight, animal shape and the use of incantations come to us narrated by Emma Wilby on her work “The visions of Isobel Gowdie”.  Especially relevant due to its insular nature is also the case of the Benandanti, a group of men and women from the northern part of Italy who claimed to fly in spirit to wage a war against witches and secure crops or participate in a procession of dead souls and who also told of travelling on or in the shape of animals at times.

Nowadays, the iconic Witch is young, naked, and when preparing to depart to the Sabbath she is often accompanied by a broom. Although consistent with the crystallization of the witch stereotype timeframe, the broom is a later addition, dating from XV century and owing its existence to a marginal illustration of witches in the poem Le champion des Dames by Martin Le Frank. In this poem, the witches fly on several household items and also on farming instruments, something that maybe or may not be relevant symbolically and whose significance will rest on the eyes of the interpreter but before instruments were used, the witch required only herself, an incantation which is  used due to the metric/rhythmic properties to induce trance and occasionally her ointment,  to be on her way to cause mischief.

The examples related above are just a small drop in the ocean of sources that the movement of Modern Traditional Witchcraft drinks from. Understandably, there is high value on the experience of the flight. If you are interested in reading more about the nature of flight and how to achieve it I recommend reading The Witch of Forest Grove article on it. There she discusses the parallels between the flight and out of body experiences being an excellent initiatory reading. In addition she also provides several goods in her botanica that, although I haven’t tried myself, seem to be done with utmost care and devotion.

The Witch in Literature

In classical literature the witch either helps or endangers the hero’s fate, playing the role of everything that is untamed in the hero’s nature, or, if conquered, the role of revealed mystery and insight. On children’s books she is meant to personify fear, fear of everything that may escape their dominion – all the powers beyond the children’s conscious self are, therefore, not lost but living on the witch, and this is what’s most important for the attentive esoteric. Romanticism did turn the witch into a martyr. The hero becomes the poet, the romantic poet no longer meets the occult with a fight or a quest, but with an act of sacrifice and love-making, the quest becomes introverted and almost unnamable, the love of the burned witch for her sinister craft was a comfortable banner. The barrier between good and evil blurs. Thus, modernism, concerned with sales and the new morality of the sales-men, turns it into business, the witch is now one of the many anti-heroes (but really, there can’t be such thing as an anti-hero), the good, cool and brave woman with power and lovely spells. All that was hated shall now be loved and all that was loved shall be loved still, as progress tries to sell as much as possible for the advancement of science and technology. All shall be worshiped. Wasn’t that the motto of Babalon? There is no evil, only sickness, but sickness can be cured or taken care of with worth devotion and profit can be made, new ideas can be inserted into the major societies as subcultures and then profit can be made out of it. But as we open, I hear the world closing. What shall be of the true witch when all doors have vanished?

Babalith

Nightflight

It is sometimes ignored how what we may call by the name of “cerimonial magick” (tho inspired on renaissance) is but a romantic viewpoint of the Tradition, brought about by romantic orders such as the Golden Dawn, and many others of its likeness, thus, being initiation within them based on logic, moral values and certain routines, a virtual initiation, which is not, in truth, so different from witchcraft, except that witchcraft requires of the practiocioner, usually, that she be acquainted with the irrational and the immoral and also that she may be able to improvise.

Witchcraft has European roots, while magick draws its imaginaries from the oriental mastery over the self and the world therein and there-out, it being practical (as should be expected from Europe) as well as contemplative (oriental) but rational (greek) is but applied-philosophy, as somewhat in relation with the applied-sciences of today’s world. It is meant to separate, both by the expression of love or by the commandments of will, the pshyche from the conditional realms of the physical body, and from this state creating new realities to conduct the physical motions. On another hand, witchcraft, being of a most pagan nature, works the other way (if we are to understand it in respect to methods of divination, spells, and conjurations). It draws the spirit into the body (and all the emotions it keeps and contains) and from the body to the world of form, flesh, pleasure, agony and passion as to give perspective and power from within it, the mind staying as an echo chamber to whatever may come from this relationship and this metamorphosis. Modern witchcraft, tho, is also a spring of romanticism; and the average man cannot understand it any further than that, because the average man, in any case, did not understand romanticism in its fullness yet (it is still, apparently, in development).

Two things are to be said about high (ceremonial – dealing with celestials and symbolism) and low (sorcery or witchcraft – dealing with nature and demons) magick (if we are to admit into our vocabulary the stupidity of this division), that either one or the other must be understood in its primordial and less pragmatic aspects. And virtual initiation is to be, at some point, cleansed: for the only way left for real initiation (all traditional initiates being no more) is by actual contact, fleshly contact (in lack of a better cocept) with the gods or, if so be, the angels: the dissolving of the falsehood that seems to keep us away from the primordial self and the primordial self away from the soul of the world as well from its thousand shapes.

We seek to understand how, by practice and training, we can, somehow, invite this vampire into our bed at night and ask of him supernatural power and knowledge of the immortal self. We have all heard of the witches flight, as seen in the tenth century canon episcopi, where the witches ride upon certain beasts with Diana, and that Diana would then act as their mistress. Should this mean, as doctor Carl Jung would put it, that the consciousness of the witch is projected as a beast, and Diana signifying the impulses of one’s own nature? It means exactly what it says, and there is no other way to understand this at its core, for interpretation holds no other power than the one to interpret, and for this we do not need to meddle in occult affairs, tho esotericism is generally rich in intellectual foreplay and illusion. The same goes for the Bonae Mulieres, a latin term used to discuss the women or female creatures who flew at night and needed to be placated with offerings of food or drinks. These bonae mulieres are reflected in the women that flew to attend the gatherings of the goddess Diana but also encompassed demons such as the strix and the lamia, night flying demon (later a host of demons) that vampiricly preyed on children, both terms used commonly in medieval ages to call witches. Then, what is this nightflight? And do the witches really turn into cats, toads and hares, as well as knowing the goddess Diana face to face? Or is it but a term for oniric traveling experience? Should we think as anthropologists or as true believers? If you want to be a believer just join a religion, and if you want to think as an anthropologist, don’t lose your time with questions of such kind. The one who has not yet been able to tell, free of mistake, dreams from reality, and then utterly crush all the existing barriers between one and the other, so that reality and dream die a permanent death but a new awareness survives, is playing vulgar games.

Maleficium

We're all mad in here


A few years ago a friend of mine got involved in some serious witch warfare. With his group scattered and destroyed, he naturally wanted his revenge. Long story short, the antagonist group got away yet again with their actions unpunished and with an even firmer standing and the others receded and licked their wounds, one of them even changing country. Whilst I wasn't personally involved in such an event, it served as a lesson. In the magical community, especially when you come out of your room and start interacting with others and putting forth actions and words, there are going to be those who want you in their game or dead. Territorial law and magical supremacy, one rooster to fuck all the chickens and so on. Sometimes it seems you are powerplaying influence more than learning magic, or maybe the both just walk hand in hand. Also, if you are in working in group, your group is as strong as the weakest person. Always foresee that, when the shit hits the fan, your mates will gather their belongings and make a run for it leaving you alone to contend with the raging maniacs after your carefully built egregore. In the end, what counts is your ability to stand on your own two legs and protect your castle. 


Take a highway to the end of the night

A LOT of people seem to think that what I told just now are fantasies. Magical attacks don't exist and people don't use magic to hurt one another. You cannot believe my amazement when, having the internet freshly installed and thus access to the world, I read such things. You see, here in this little corner of land, sewing the toad's mouth to cause someone to wither and die is common. It is also common to go to the local knowledgeable person and get powders to mess your neighbor's life, bind a lover to you and witches do dance at night and tempt the unwary. To each cursing method there is a counter-curse and the Portuguese equivalent of cunning folk are still very much in business offering remedies to cure the evil eye and other enemy tricks. These people are still in business because what they do works. So yes, when I read in forums and in imported books that "if you don't believe, it doesn't affect you" my reaction was of surprise, mostly because this statement –however logical and even legitimate- was so against previous magical tradition and praxis. The surprise got even bigger at seeing the success that recent magical literature on cursing is having however mediocre and watered down those books are. I guess more and more modern witches are done with the "harm none" policy and are starting to warm up and even desire a closer connection with the hag that rides the night and who is a much more ambivalent moral character. 


Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live

Despite the poor translation work of Exodus 22:18, the sentiment displayed here is seen throughout European cultural history from the Greek Circe to long after the witch-craze of the Renaissance. Echoed by both African and Asian counterparts, the witch, more than the sorcerer, is an object of fear and persecution for she is like an arbitrary force of nature who, antagonistically, fulfils her tasks not with the greater good of the society in which she is inserted, even if on the fringes of it, in mind but with her own and in some stances, that of her master(s). Whether by worshipping perceived evil spirits or simply exploiting them to do her bidding it's the conjunction of the manipulation of natura and self serving motives that links the Witch across the globe. Of course, this is the perspective of those that, rightly so, fear her. I can assure you that, for good or for evil, witches know better than to go about flailing curse after curse simply because they can.

A tool rant

From the existing documents, the seeds for post modernism were planted some 26 centuries ago, when the Greeks decided to innovate by rational inquiry and research and thus Philosophy was born. It may not have been called by that name back then, when man was still trying his best to break from the conservative order and one may even argue that the status quo has always played the same controlling factor then and now but it still remains that the individual and rational search for truth, despite what that truth may be, as well as its discussion, critique and rebuttal, have seen their beginning in Greece. From then till now, many schools of thought emerged, revolutions happened and changed the social constraints but one thing remains constant: Humankind's search for truth, for meaning, for whys and hows. In that act of freedom many traditions got sacrificed as humankind replaced paradigm with paradigm, refined theories and developed laws and axioms. But, as with everything, that honest desire to understand, rethink and adapt, got severely misused by the pagan and occult community at large who used it to further a personal agenda based on disregard for hard work. To react against tradition, one needs to be a part of tradition first. There needs to be a living problematic requiring solution. Often times, in our enlarged community, what happens is exactly the opposite. And so we come face to face with 101 book readers, who read that "anything goes" and propagate that virus because, after all things considered, magic is psychological and there isn't really anything bad out there. It's all in your head, and following your relative belly button will wield better results than reading a bunch of books and talking to a bunch of people who might force you recognize that maybe you just don't know it all. Tradition gets a door slammed on its face without even being understood, or studied. In this depredation, tools got the sharp end of the stick and are now treated as minor mind helpers and glamour lenders to theatrical rites where one gets to play a witch or a magician.

The fashion accessory

If you have a similar experience to mine, you have seen this once too many times: random noobie read 2 or 3 wiccan books and got introduced to the notion of liturgical tools. He/She browsed the web for some shops and found some really cool Egyptian Athames and some sparkly wands. But it just so happens that, adding on, getting a full set of pretty ritual items (ahem, items that resonate with you!) is going to be quite expensive. And then he/she wonders if they are truly necessary.

• You don't need any tools to work magic/ You only need yourself to work magic
  

It's true. You don't. But typically, the people that say this are people that have very little experience in magic and even less with the tools themselves. Whilst not necessarily required to work all aspects of magic, and there are quite a few magical "practices" that dispose of them (the Evil Eye and several other actions of fascination for instance), tools always have had their place and their function, some of them accompanying you from the beginning of your magical lifetime to your grave. Tools marked the appearance of the genus Homo and the first hominid to bear it was a handy man. The importance of tools in our evolution and survival is directly translated into their importance in our mythic mind, thus we see gods and other archetypal images being equated with them and often times they are as formidable as the objects they wield, their very character being defined by the array of magical items they possess. Cauldrons and cornucopias of abundance, spears that never miss their targets, girdles that arouse desire have both powers by themselves and are an extension of the spirit they belong to. It is also not an uncommon action in mythology for gods to seal their tutelage of the hero offering or borrowing him their very own prized possessions, thus marking the continuous relationship between humankind and the sacred and initiatic, tools being that vehicle. Likewise, the hero often quests to the otherworld for a magical object that will enable him to complete his objective and without it he would be powerless to do so; in turn, the object lies awaiting the one soul capable of using its abilities. Looking at the iconographic tools of the Witch, one finds her accompanied by the broom and the cauldron just as the magician is often seen with a staff. Many others mark that elusive quality of witchdom. From the witch's ladder to the familiar, they all share a commonality: they are living, breathing entities with a life and a will of their own. In these subtleties of life and unlife, the witches tools have three main purposes that are revealed as she crosses the boundaries between worlds and as helpers and tutelary spirits reveal themselves: their ontological and practical purpose, their symbolic purpose and their transformative purpose. Each of these purposes are a testimony to the witches ability and progression along the liminary paths. The f<ct that many of them are common household items displays their ability to act as connectors between the seen and unseen world, thus a weaving tool is both a weaver of cord and also a weaver and manipulator of fatum . Blessed are the hands of the witch that craft a web of protection and success on the embroidery that embellishes a student's cape* and cursed are the hands that write wrongdoers doom on the parchment that fire will set free. The relationship of a witch with her tools is one of power. Power attained, power regained and power bestowed, multilaterally. These actions are not to be marked by sparkle or shine but blood, bone and soil. To obtain these items one does not go to ebay, one goes down the lonely road to prepare the gallows and hang. It's by dying that we birth our tools. We woo, we bargain, we take oaths that constrain and free us, we forge relationships and we are owned just as much as we own. By accepting these tools, and they come with a price, we are willingly taking a compromise with the path itself.

Likewise, if you use your tools to keep your focus, you need to put down the tools you own. 70%, if not more, of neophyte magical training is based on building mental discipline. This means hours of thought control, developing concentration and awareness, keeping the mind empty, creating and maintaining complex sceneries with sound, image, smell and taste, doing the previous whilst moving and so on and so forth. Adding to this, prior to ritual, there are ritual baths to soothe the mind, preparation of the ritual space, meditation, introspection, contemplation, communion, prayer, grounding and centering. All these actions enforce and maintain focus. If you need your tool kit to keep your mind from wandering about what's on TV or what your boss told you earlier on, you don't need tools. You need to allot yourself one hour per day to develop your focus. When you stop relying on sticks and stones to work that's when you will be able to actually use those sticks and stones to do what they are supposed to.


"…they forget that the ceremonies they perform have function, have purpose simply beyond tradition pr habit of worship. When ceremonies and rules become all important"**..then magic is forgotten.



This leads me to one last point. When magic is not magic but a theatre. I have emphasized this before, but will do it again. When our actions are empty, when they are devoid of actual necessity and real action, we are not doing magic. We are staging magic. Magic comes from the interconnection between operator and the world. When we need to rationalize and think that a certain something symbolizes fire and is basically a portable phallus, then we aren't operating the thing but the idea of the thing. Of course that, in itself, there's nothing wrong with operating ideas. Ideas are what drives the world, but what drives ideas are emotions and needs and I take after the axiom that what better represents a cutting knife is a cutting knife, born out of the need to cut. None of my tools represent anything other than themselves and what they do or did at any point in my life. For me there are no goblets representing water and the feminine principle or non-cutting letter knives representing air or fire or anything that anyone had in mind. Tools are to be operational and truly representative of what they are. In this, I hope to achieve both a nod to tradition and a rejection of the past aristotelic based ideas that plague and cloud coming into being and our awareness of being. But my motives aside, and pardon me for the drunkenness, what I mean to say is that only that which is rich and full of the "sound and fury" of itself will accomplish its bliss. Bliss folks, it's all about bliss and effectiveness. Nailing the nail, kicking the universe's ass.


*In Portugal college students use a traditional garb that usually has embroideries about what school they belong to, about their gf's and bf's and all sorts of stuffs from charms to ladies boobies and beer brands.

** From some random horror story I read.

Deipna Hekates

"Infernal and earthly and heavenly Bombo, come. Goddess of waysides, of cross-roads, lightbearer, nightwalker, Hater of the light, lover and companhion of the night, Who rejoicest in the baying of hounds and in purple blood; Who dost stalk among corpses and the tombs of the dead thristy for blood, who bringest fear to mortals Gorgo and Mormo and Mene and many formed one. Come thou propitious to our libations."
Hippolytus

Tradition requires that when the moon is dark, the house must be cleansed in the name of the daughter of Asteria. The garden was dully cleansed and consecrated to the arts of rhizotomoi and pharmakeia; a small apotropaic figure of Her placed at a corner. One needs Rue to fashion such figure and enshrine it in Laurel gathered in the wild. The fumes of incense made with 3 small crushed lizards mixed with myrhh, frankincense and storax purify and vivify it on our, most holy, circle of exile.


"You see Hecate's faces turned in three directions, to guard the crossroads branching several ways"
Ovid

For the supper, a plate of food was placed at the meeting of the three roads. Chopped leaks, garlic, goat's cheese as well as the remnants of spells covered in olive oil ended this month's offerings. Tomorrow she's rising in the sky, and I have tasks to complete.

Trioditis, Triformis, Enodia.

A witch in the city

 It is all too frequent to hear and read about the great virtues of the wild land and the untamed places, where the green genii dwell unrestricted by human hand. Exalted such as they are, these places would no longer be "wild" or "untamed" if a host of well-meaning hippies and other "nature-inspired" folk would make such areas their favorite and frequent dwelling place. Bearing this in mind, and even if we are conscious in our trips to the wild, it isn't always affordable or possible to do, especially if you live in a city that occupies a large area. What to do then? For years, on and off, as i tip toed from magical system to magical system i wondered about this. A few questions lingered on my mind, fueled by a romantic understanding of the wild grove. Are those trees we commonly find on the street cognoscente? Or have they gone dormant, their dryad leaving them for greener grass? In my mind, those questions were perfectly logical. As logical as any mystical reasoning, that is. After all, those great and proud trees were no longer in their element, grown out of nature and by nature's own devises of ecosystem practicality and homeostasis. Instead, they were used for beautification purposes or to wage a silent war against pollution and noise. I saw those trees being cut down when their branches stretched too far or sawed down when their roots threatened the evenness of the sidewalk. Not alive, they couldn't be. It was in the midst of this belief that I had my first communion with a tree. It was a huge maple growing in a near a gas station, right in the intersection of several highways. I was walking home from work, worried sick about something that didn't really matter when a certain buzzing was felt in the air, gently pushing itself into my awareness. It is a hard task to explain, but as you feel that certain tension that tells you that someone is looking at you and you turn only to find a person staring, so did I turn, but only to find a few houses, grass, cars driving by and the night to keep me company. The buzzing, however, didn't lose its strength because I couldn't identify its source. It merely became stronger and different as I moved forward until at last I discovered its source. Shining like a beacon was a tree and when I approached it something happened and the novelty of it left me in awe. Like a stream, another consciousness poured into my own, ordaining my own thoughts, giving the answers I was seeking, reassuring me and comforting me in an absolute kindness. During that congress, my spirit dissolved and responded to that foreign, so complete and infinite emotion for goodness knows how I long. For a moment, brief or not I cannot say, there was no clear line between me and the tree, just reciprocation. Eventually I came to my own senses and realizing that it just wasn't wise to stand at that particular crossroads at night I went away. Today I really wish I hadn't for no more than a week later there was only a stump left. I guess when I look back, that the tree knew it was marked to die. That would surely account for the melancholy I sensed within her, or maybe wisdom and age is tempered a bit by it. I don't know. It aids my sadness, however, when I think on it, that Maple saw fit to, before departing, to open my eyes to the wonders that are hidden in plain sight.

How is that story relevant though? To me, it showed that a city is much alive. It's different, certainly, than the life that fills a wild place, but a witch is formed by the land where she lives, not by the land that she visits and where she will always be, at best, a guest no matter how welcomed she might be. This reciprocation is what marks witchcraft. To know and follow the flow of the web and tide of place, chasing it and learning it in the midst of centuries old stones and bones. So know your city, city witches. Woo the trees that know you well for they have seen you and the ones that came before you, make allies within the graveyards that hold your ancestors bones and will one day hold your own, greet the river and the ocean that saw much misery and brought much fortune to the ones courageous enough to brave them. Parks, gardens, fountains, churches, financial buildings and courthouses, markets and other places of trade, theaters and brothels, all of this plays its part in our very own human life. A city and its surrounding places are worlds unto themselves. They have their own threshold guardians, their own taboos, and their own requests to make and gifts to give. There aren't guide books to its mysteries, only direct instruction from its guardians, if it so pleases them. 

Ink Woes

"1 teaspoon Dragon's Blood Resin (powdered)
15 teaspoons alcohol or vodka
1 teaspoon gum arabic (ground)

Soak the powdered resin in the alcohol until dissolved, then add the ground gum arabic. Filter through a cloth and store in a dark bottle."

 

This is one of the many examples of the magical ink recipes that proliferate through the internet and chances are you will find it repeated in numerous websites. If you follow this recipe with no knowledge of what you are doing, you will achieve nothing. There are no words to describe the contempt I felt when earlier this week I received a much expected formulary on the mail regurgitating the same misinformation one can find on any website. People that have successfully crafted inks understand that the folks who copy-paste said recipes have never attempted to do them themselves by the sheer mistakes in the instructions given or the ingredients used but those that are freshly arrived at the fine art of ink making and that in their naivety trust these sources (and yes, I was one of them), will find that their efforts will only be met with frustration at the failed attempts, the time spent and wasted ingredients. There is also a difference between creating an ink and creating a magical ink. The first is devoid of spirit and flame, made according to the commercial principle of monetary profit and only a vehicle for writing; the second, however, is an entity in itself and a celebration of the witch's skill with fruit, plant and resin as well as her knowledge of the light and shadow world. Being one of the chief tool in the scriptorium, done well, its purpose will be crystallized for several years and all the while it will absorb and augment power of its own, however, like with all living tools, it's crafting requires art and care so that all the spirits and menstruums involved in its fabrication are propitiate to its birth.

The simplest of inks requires only the soot of burnt wood, water and a bit of Gum Arabic to stabilize the ink and allow fluidity of pigment. Because one can use virtually any kind of wood to make inks and shrubs and trees are amongst mankind's oldest allies and companions, this simple process makes very interesting inks. Graveyard Cypresswood ink for rites of Necromancy, Midsummer 7 Wood Bonfire ink for glorious tales of success, perhaps even ink from an old household item whose importance is now continued in this new form to which you can add ash from relevant items. Since this type of ink is water based and thickened with a water soluble agent, there is virtually no end to the combinations you can do so long you pay attention to what you harvest, where, how and if those things are actually water soluble.

Despite the simplicity of the method detailed above, three inks gained popularity amongst magicians. They are the Dove's blood ink, to be used in the affairs of the heart; Bat's Blood Ink for acts of malecifium and Dragon's Blood ink, a general empowering ink. Because these inks require two types of menstruums, alcohol and water, they are trickier to make, unless, of course, you decide to go with the animal's blood on the first two and discard the botanicals and oils that compose the modern recipes. As wrongly detailed on the first recipe given, you can't mix gum Arabic to alcohol and get a workable result. These three famous inks rely on essential oils, resins, ashes of botanical allies; each of these dissolves in different menstruums. As a rule of thumb, oils and resins dissolve in alcohol (in my experience, Ethanol is the best alcohol to keep the oils in solution without having to add oil emulsifiers to the mix and complicate it a bit more), whilst gum is water soluble. Since alcohol mixes with water, after the initial (di)solution of the oils and resins in the water, the dissolved gum Arabic is later added. This stage is tricky and the best teacher to overcome it is experimentation. One tip that was given to me was to add liquid gum Arabic – sold in art stores – to the solution. When all is mixed and workable, all is left to do is to strain and store in a well corked bottle.

As you can guess, there are many more ink crafting methods. From the pre-historic ochre based to the XIX century sepia ones. Some involve only soot of botanicals, others also include soot of burnt animals; some use only water and a gum thickener, others include different greases and oils; ink making is a rich enough craft that allows for years for experimentation.

HOODOO HERB AND ROOT MAGIC - A Materia Magica of African-American Conjure by catherine yronwode

 I still don't have a camera available - and I blame C. for that - so I can't show the nifty stuff that has been boiling and rolling from the cupboard to the cauldron, so, here’s another book.

 For those that don't know, Hoodoo is a syncretic African-American folk magic tradition - do not mistake it for Voodoo, which is a religion - that has, at various points in its development, mixed African beliefs and practices with Native American, European- as the Medieval and Renaissance Grimoires became available to the general public in the beginning of the twentieth century- and, more recently, Mexican Brujeria and Espiritismo.With the advent of the Internet and the subsequent spread of information, interest in Hoodoo has grown exponentially in the Pagan community, an interest that, I believe, can be partially attributed to the fascination of actually learning a tradition that is living and thriving as opposed to trying to resurrect a certain religious movement that has been dead for centuries with all its difficulties and the large amount of guess-work that naturally ensues. Other than this obvious allure, Hoodoo is also a completely pragmatically paradigm that lacks any of the home-made makeshift morals that plague the Pagan community and that render nearly any magical activity pretty much ineffective due to the extreme amount of watering down whilst still maintaining, in itself, enough flexibility to be detached from any theological links and adapted to -if any exist at all - religious flavour that the practitioner might require.

 One of the main public figures related to Hoodoo - and a traditionalist to boot - is catherine yronwode (no, there is no typo, miss catherine really does prefer not to capitalize her name; yronwode reads as ironwood). She started to learn Hoodoo in her teens, being taught by people who used it on a daily basis near the place she lived and that weren’t shy to share. Nowadays she maintains a very large webpage full of resources for people who want to know more about this tradition. In her webpage you can find her store "Lucky Mojo", but also thousands of web archives that relate to the subject at hand. I highlight Hoodoo in Theory and Practice , an online book which is not yet completed; her correspondence course ;  her Hoodoo radio show, complete with archives from previous years and finally Southern Spirits - A scholarly online resource . There is much more to be found in her webpage. This lady truly does it out of love and devotion.

One of the names are that are used to refer to Hoodoo is Rootwork. Whilst Rootwork doesn't necessarily imply a different or more specific set of practices within Hoodoo, it does point to the importance of plants in conjure. Following the doctrine of signatures, which basically attributes magical significance to a plant's appearance and modus vivendi, Rootworkers build their formularies with a fix, or trick, for nearly any situation that may arise. This book focuses precisely on that. It contains nearly 500 herbs as well as animal and mineral curious which are also largely employed in conjure. Organized as a reference encyclopedia, each herb entry features its taxonomic name, its popular name/s, what its used for and how its employed, recipes and/or spells connected to it and, finally, other herbs that it interacts with together with the "how" and "where" that particular herb was first introduced to Hoodoo. But this is not all. catherine goes one step further in the series of herbals that are published each year and actually explains the context where those herbs are used and i am not referring to the black and white definition of uses but the practices and folklore behind it. Whilst not a how to book in anyway - praise the lord! - if this is your first contact with Hoodoo your basic education won’t be negliged. You will learn about Mojo Hands and how and why they are fixed; the importance of body fluids and what they are for and in what context they are used; how and what types of clothing play a part in conjure as well as other personal concerns such as nails, hairs, skin scrapings; measures, foot tracks, disposing methods et all.

Do not miss this one. It is certainly worth the money.

Happy conjurin'

Magic and Witchcraft - From Shamanism to the Technopagans

Not always is quantity synonym for quality, but there are exceptions. Nevill Drury has authored more than 40 books on subjects such as Art, Anthropology, Shamanism, Western Magical Traditions and Music. It is also from him that we get, possibly, the most comprehensive and up to date documentary on the Pagan community : "The Occult Experience", featuring personalities such as Margot Adler, Selena Fox, Alex Sanders, the Farrar's, amongst others. To add to his already impressive Pagan and academic résumé, Drury has also extensive experience as a book publisher and editor. Is this not enough to keep you interested? Then let me get to the juicy stuff.




In 2005 I was privileged enough to find the only copy available on my usual bookstore of the book "Magic and Witchcraft - From Shamanism to the Technopagans". It took the better part of 4 years - and I'm sure there are still many more to come - to fully appreciate the value of this little "encyclopedia" of occult themes. Written in a historical appreciation of magic (both in its high and low forms) throughout the ages, Drury writes in a holistic manner bringing together myth, religion, mysticism and the more pragmatic aspects of magic and witchcraft in different cultural contexts. In a very user friendly manner this book is arranged chronologically for better understanding and it's extensively noted as well as beautifully put together with an incredible amount of illustrations, which, on their own, act as historical documents of the data being presented. He begins with Shamanism treating it as the primal expression of a magical tradition and goes on exploring the classical world, Medieval and Renaissance magic, Tarot and Astrology, the witch trials, the Hermetic Tradition, Gnosticism and the Kaballah, the emergence of the modern Satanism and the revival of Witchcraft, Goddess cults and Druidism. No stone is truly left unturned and no persona of relevance is left without at least a reference. Both for the experienced and the new pagan/occult interested person, this will be one of the first works to check for quick references and/or bibliographical resources for more in depth studies.