#hood-working

This is a Witch’s Ladder of Domestic Protection that I ritualistically constructed, and which I am now listing for sale here.

I utilized thirteen magically significant components, including three Feathers from a Roosting Hen (a potent symbol of both domestic welfare and steadfast nurturing,) three hand-gathered Hazel Nuts (a tree known historically for warding against evil, and whose nuts represent tokens of safe-guarded life,) three Hagstones (traditionally held to posses powerful protective capabilities,) three Snail Shells (long associated with luck, preservation, and the domestic abode,) and an Antique Brass Key (to signify domestic security and personal agency over the home.)

After the construction was complete—having lovingly worked a blessing into each knot tied—I proceeded to fumigate the piece with a mix of Dragon’s Blood, Vervain, and Hyssop. I then proceeded to hallow and ratify the talisman by the power and receipt of the Sidereal Spider.

I am selling this ware for $39 + shipping—though I try to be flexible whenever I can—so please feel free to reach out if you find yourself interested in purchasing it.

Along with the other four Hooworking Oils Ive talked about here, I now add Wisefool’s Oil to the mix. Each of my Hoodworking Oils are made using a different high quality carrier-oil that has been steadily infused with a wide variety of ritually gathered, magically germane, natural materials. The recipes I use have arisen from a mixture of folkloric knowledge, personal experimentation, and spiritual communication, with each having proven themselves as potent Craft aids when properly utilized.

Wisefool’s Oil is a highly specialized Oil blend, which was ritually amalgamated from a number of synergistic constituents bearing sorcerous and spidereal significance—which include, but are not limited to, Acorn Oil, Storax, Mandrake, Vervain, Crocus, Fly Agaric, and Blue Amber. It was carefully curated under the guidance of the Old Spider, over the course of a Lunar Month, and then further refined over the course of several more weeks.

It has a singularly unique scent, as anyone who has purchased or otherwise received this oil from me can attest to, which makes it quite difficult to describe. However, I would probably best describe the smell as being somewhere between sweet, nutty, resinous, floral, and herby. It manages to take me a little by surprise each time I smell it, but I also find it to be a thoroughly pleasant scent.

I have one method that I’ve had success with, and it’s not very complicated, but it’s also not necessarily easy. It depends one the practitioner I suppose. Either way, I will share it here:

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Having raised your power and called upon any pertinent allies, use a gray ink to inscribe a piece of paper with a pertinent sigil, such as the Sign of Unmasking, and then place a black pillar candle upon the sigil.

Next, take two pins with differently colored heads (the specific colors don’t matter much, so long as they are distinguishable from one another,) and hold one in each hand. Speak a lie you’ve told, out loud, and then draw a bit of blood by pricking your tongue with one of the pins. Using the remaining pin, repeat the same process, but start by speaking a truth you’ve shared, out loud. Proceed to pierce the candles’ sides with each of these pins, making sure that they are diametrically opposed to one another, and that you keep track of which one is which. As you do this, say;

“By pin that drew blood from a lying tongue,

And pin that drew blood from an honest tongue,

I pin back the shroud of my uncertainty

And draw forth the heart of the matter at hand,

That it might be laid bare by the Light of Revelation.”

Follow up the incantation by saying the thing it is that you doubt the veracity of, lighting the candle as you do so.

Thereafter, having closed the rite in a way pertinent to your Craft, keep close track of the candle to see which pin drops first as it melts down. The pin which remains in the wax after the first has fallen indicates whether you are being lied to or not.

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For Rites and Rituals of Cultivation

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This recipe entails the steps necessary for the creation of an oil meant for use in rites of blessing, cultivation, and/or luck.

On the evening of a New Moon, combine together in a sealable vessel:

3 parts Blessed Milkthistle ,

1 parts Mint Blossoms,

3 parts Pearlwort,

2 part Clover,

1 part Wild Plantain,

3 parts Fern,

& 13 parts Safflower Oil.

Seal the mixture and then place it atop, or secret it within the hollow of, a Nurse Log. A Garden may also servevvas a suitable location for steeping. Before taking your leave, recite over it an Orison to the Snail, who oversees the Arcanum of Cultivation;

“In the name of the Dodman—

Cardinal of the Wild,

Emissary of Verdure,

and Fertile Warden of the Bower—

I sanctify and ratify the working of this Oil.

By the Helical Sanctuary of Your Shell,

Sīe”

On the third and final day of the Full Moon cycle, reopen the vessel and strain the contents of the mixture, before bottling the oil and storing it for later use in a shaded spot. Retain the materials from the oil, and take them to an old tree on a Sunday, along with a libation of Mead. Give thanks, aloud, to the wights of that place and the spirit of that tree, before digging a hole at its base and placing the remnant materials within it. Pour out the Libation over the residual materia and fill in the hole with earth again, then leave the site of the burial without looking back.

An Amulet of Footsurety

This is a talisman I constructed over the course of a month, for the purpose of bestowing its possessor with surefootedness in their dealings. While I don’t plan to reveal the entirety of its conception, I’ve been feeling compelled to share it here, following efficacious demonstrations of its abilities.

Each piece used for the charm corresponds to a natural feature associated in some way with footsurety. The wreath was constructed from the roots of a Hemlock Tree, which grows heartily throughout the entirety of this region, managing to grow just about anywhere water is found. The central “trekking pole” was made from an Oak Tree on our property—with Oaks long being held as one of the most sturdy and steadfast trees across multiple cultures, and trekking poles serving as a symbol of moving nimbly through rough terrain. The hoof of a Mountain Goat—arguably the most surefooted animal on land—was speared through with the trekking pole and fixed in place with melted Dragon’s Blood. The feet of a Varied Thrush (given us by a wandering goblin,) were adhered to the base of the trekking pole using Dragon’s Blood, with the feet of songbirds being specially shaped to firmly grasp and traverse the branch from multiple angles and positions. Finally, I made an oil from Wild Plantain (being an herb that has naturalized itself in every inhabited continent without disrupting or harming any existing ecosystem it integrates into,) which I gathered and used to anoint the amulet each night of the Waxing Moon, culminating in a consecratory rite on the evening of the Full Moon that officially ratified the implement.

Additionally important to the physical components used in the talisman is the fact that it subtly reveals the shape of a Hood-Working Sigil used to promote surefootedness.

Devotional Beads of the Wending Way

As some of you may remember, towards the end of 2020 I talked about creating a strand of devotional beads that I consecrated to the Wending Way on the evening of Hallowmas—day of the Moth, emissary of the Ancestors. What I share now is an evolution, so to speak, of the tool I first shared here.

On the Spidereal Sabbath of Darkening Day, I was instructed to use the beads in one last, potent rite, and then deconstruct them again for the purpose of metamorphosis. After that, I began the process of gathering any new materials—and learning the new pattern they would take on—with all the pieces having fallen into place by the Sabbath of Thawingmas. I spent the next 49 days putting everything together in the ways I was shown, with the physical construction finished on the Sabbath-eve of Burgeoning Day. The remaining 49 days were spent Hallowing the implement in a number of different ways—weaving the myriad of virtues I work with into the rosary, one after the next until finally, on the Sabbath of Amplemas, I completed the Hallowing process and accordingly ratified the Hagstone Rosary as a tool of my Craft. From their original birth on the Day of the Ancestors, to their rebirth on the diametric Hood-Sabbath, and Day of the Fae (a journey through the looking glass, so fittingly mirrored by the 181* days it took to accomplish,) these devotional beads have taken on a life and trajectory of their own that has been wonderful to witness and partake in.

It is dedicated to my Craft, and to all of the powers and forces—Empyreal, Telluric, Aqueous, and Chthonian alike—which have conspired to teach, guide, and mold me as I tread the arcane passages of the Attercob’s Labyrinth. It is used, as it was in its previous embodiment, for prayer, trance-induction, and spell-weaving.

This new incarnation is made from:

16 Blood Stones beads (Heliotrope); a tribute to the Ancestors and the blood that ties us together across generations and realms.

16 Tempest Stone beads (Pietersite); a tribute to the Wyrding Web and its progenitor, Old Mother Spider.

16 Blue Elvan beads (Preseli Bluestone)—a tribute to the Faerie Folk, and my ancestral ties to their Gloaming legacy.

13 Local River Stones; to honor my connection to the Living Landscape.

1 Prehistoric Amazonite bead; to honor the Mighty Dead.

A centerpiece of East Anglian bronze-work from circa 450 BCE - 1 BCE, depicting a simple triquetra.**

And an Iron Ore Hagstone from the beaches of the West Country as a focal pendant

For a total of 63 stone beads (a number which holds personal, magical significance.)

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* The number 181 is a palindromic syzygy of the mystically significant number 81

A picture of our Quietus Altar from last evening’s Spirit Night (Walpurgis.)