art – Journey Through The Obsidian Dream

Beltane 2025

Satyr Magos16/05/202510/05/2025Leave a comment

My crew and I celebrated Beltane at the end of April. I’ve been struggling to find something to say about it ever since.

It was a great weekend, overall. The air was cool and the sky was overcast. I took several cameras and made some fun photos. Good times were hand, despite the rain that came Saturday night, and the failure of my sleeping mat. But only half of us made it out, and it was not a particularly dramatic year, ritually speaking.

With the first of May landing in the middle of the week, we did a bit of divination to determine whether the weekend before or after would be better for us. Some weeks later, too late to change folks PTO, we learned that our usual spot was booked for an event we wanted no part of, leading us to try an alternate location: Oak Spirit Sanctuary, in central Missouri. Most of us had heard of OSS before, some time over the years, but we’d never gotten around to checking it out, so we were excited for the excuse/opportunity to try someplace new.

OSS is about twice as far from KC as Gaea Retreat Center, and my partner and I hit the road at just the wrong time, so the drive out was a bit of a slog (the way folks drive on I-70 is … questionable, sometimes). But we arrived safely and in plenty of time to set up and chill out before the sun set. The site is a bit smaller and less developed than Gaea, but that made it easier to find each other without already knowing where we were going. We did a bit of exploring, Saurday morning, and got to meet a couple members of the Board of Directors while they were working to get the site ready for their official Beltane festivities the following weekend. They were super hospitable, which was really nice, telling us about a handful of groups that use the land and explicitly inviting us to use the main ritual circle if we wanted. Then, that evening, they made a point of letting us know when they left, and that we had the land to ourselves.

We had our traditional Fuck You Fire on Friday night, burning off the ends of old spells then purging ourselves of winter and our frustrations as we threw expired herbs and other materia into the fire. For whatever reason, we didn’t quite muster the catharsis of some other years, but that’s not unprecedented: we’ve found other ways to vent our spleens, this spring.

Saturday night, we accepted our hosts’ invitation to use the main ritual circle and renewed our vows as Black Goat Brides. It was my turn, again, to lead the ritual, which I haven’t done in … several years. My companions assure me that I did well, but I still feel that I struggled to rise to the occasion. Still, it was good to renew our vows: we weren’t able to do so at either Beltane or Samhain, last year, due to weather and scheduling conflicts and other drama.

Saturday night’s rain ran into Sunday morning, but cleared in time for us to pack up our camp (however sopping) and get back on the road in time for lunch.

It was good to get out into the woods, again. It was good to celebrate Beltane again, especially after missing last year. And it was essential to make sure that all of our equipment was in working order for next month’s big road trip. But, as with so many of our adventures, lately, I feel like I had more fun than my companions, which always leaves me feeling a little weird.

Because I was ritual leader, and because an incoming storm led us to tear down the altar earlier than I would have liked, I didn’t take any photos of the altar. Fortunately, Kraken was kind enough to get some pictures of the altar while I was winding myself up. The images below are from Friday and Saturday afternoon, and from Friday night’s fire, shot with my d5600 using a Nikon 18-300mm zoom lens and my Tamron 150-600mm telephoto lens, and with my Z6 and my Nikon 24-300mm zoom.

The overcast was perfect for photography. I wish that any of my companions had brought fun clothes, or that any of us (myself included) had felt photogenic enough to do portraiture or something more elaborate.

I still haven’t gotten geotagging to work. Hopefully I’ll figure that out before the road trip. I’d really like to be able to plot this adventure’s photos

In art

Picatrix Image of the Sun According to Apollonius

Satyr Magos04/05/202501/05/2025Leave a comment

The image of the Sun, according to the opinion of the wise Apollonius, is the shape of a standing woman, placed on a chariot drawn by four horses, holding a mirror in her right hand and a staff bound above her breast in her left hand; above her head she has the likeness of a flame. – Picatrix Book II, Chapter 10, Paragraph 22 (Attrell and Porecca, 2019)

This image was interesting to me in that it features the thing I do best (figure drawing) AND one of the things I do worst (animals, especially horses). I also, probably obviously, picked it because I get uncomfortable when an image set I’m working on is so wildly dominated by images of men.

Following a suggestion from @gildedragon on bsky, I have interpreted the “staff bound above her breast” as the charioteer’s whip. His suggestion also gave me the keyword that found me references for the horses: quadriga. If I make another bid at this image, I will probably look to one of the many “helios and his chariot being pulled by four horses” images that have survived in the form of red and black figure vases, and make a super explicitly femme!Helios version to scandalize the astrobros.

As always, you are welcome to download and print this astrological image for your personal magical use. A higher resolution version of this image is available on Patreon. You can also support me and my work on Ko-Fi if, for whatever reason, you don’t like Patreon.

In art, witchcraft

Experimental Magic: Image of the Sun According to Baphomet

Satyr Magos19/04/202520/04/2025

The image of the Sun according to Baphomet is a serpent with the head of a woman, or of a lion, or with a beard, wearing a crown. To her left is a crescent moon; to the right is a shining star. Over her head is the sun; in metal, a citrine.

These images came to me in a vision some weeks ago: sitting quietly at my altar on a Sunday morning, making my usual offerings of fire, frankincense and myrrh, and strong black coffee. Being the first such visions I’ve had in over a year, I was … hesitant to share them. I feared, more than usual, that they were hubris or delusion. They are, after all, somewhat derivative: clearly an elaboration on the iconic image of Chnoubis.

In the weeks following the vision, though, I received further elaboration on the images. They became clearer in my mind, and as I contemplated them, I felt like I was reminded of a certain solar invocation from the Greek Magical Papyri. When I finally sat down to draw them, they came through to the page with a clarity that confirmed I had something substantial.

The moon was waxing, and (though the image did not specifically call for astrological timing) the sun was in Aries, and I decided to strike while the iron was hot. I made another copy of the image – the woman-headed snake, for myself – this time on watercolor paper (my current favorite basis for hand-drawn text and image magic), and inked it in black and gold, and set it aside for the next Tuesday morning (the Solar second hour of the day of Mars being an ideal time for me, personally, to invoke the Sun in Aries).

I did my usual daily ritual in the dawn hour, then showered and donned my ritual garb. I set the image upright on my altar with a candle and brazier, and gathered a vial of Helios oil made by one of my friends during our trance-possession experiments.

When we crossed over into the Hour of the Sun, I performed my usual frame ritual, then sat down to contemplate the image and perform the ritual.

I consecrated the image using PGM XXXVI 211-30 (Betz, p. 274):

Rejoice with me, you who are set over the east wind and the world, for whom all gods serve as bodyguard at your good hour and on your good day you who are the Good Daimon of the world, the crown of the inhabited world, you who rise from the abyss, you who each day rise a young man and set an old man
HARPENKNOUPHI BRINTANTENOPHRI BRISSKYLMAS
AROUR ZORBOROBA MESINTRIPHI NIPTOUMI KHMOUMMAOPHI
I beg you, Lord, do not allow me to be overthrown, to be plotted against, to receive dangerous drugs, to go into exile, to fall upon hard times.
Rather, I ask to obtain and receive from you life, health, reputation, wealth, influence, strength, success, charm, favor with all men and all women, victory over all men and all women. Yes, Lord,
ABLANATHANALBA AKRAMMAKHAMARI PEPHNA
PHOZA PHNEBENNOUNI NAAKHTHIP OUNORBA
Accomplish the matter which I want, by means of your power.

I repeated the incantation four times. The first time, I put incense on the charcoal and anointed myself with oil: hands, feet, and head. The second time, I suffumigated the image in the frankincense smoke. The third time I anointed the image with oil: first the sun, then the frame, then the moon, then the star, then the serpent, starting at the tip of her tail and working up to her face. The fourth time, I anointed both the image and myself with oil, again, and called upon the Sun to empower me and the image as the spell describes.

I completed the ritual by sitting and contemplating the image and basking in the power I had conjured. I was immediately filled with a strong sense of calm and vitality, and my partner reported that my energy felt improved. My Chnoubis signet, which had been sitting on a nearby table with my other jewelry but not specifically involved, felt particularly tingly when i put it on, after.

The PGM spell includes no timing; it just says “face the sun”. Based on my results so far, and my personal relationship with Solar powers, the ideal timing for me has been a Solar hour of Day on the day of the Sun, Mars, or Saturn. Because this, like Chnoubis, is obviously a Solar-cthonic image, I imagine people with a different relationship with the Sun than I have will get solid results from a Solar Hour of Night.

I think that I will want to repeat the rite for a few Sundays and see what manifests before calling it an unqualified success, but I am sufficiently pleased with the initial results to share the images and the ritual for you all to experiment with. My only complaint, so far, is that this spell-image combination does seem to exacerbate my tendency to overwork, and I have to be even more disciplined about clocking out at night and taking days off.

High resolution versions of these images can be found at my Patreon, where you will also find all my work before anyone else gets to see it, as well as things that I hold back from more public forums and all my other arts. If you like my work, but don’t like Patreon for whatever valid reason, you can also support me on ko-fi.

In art, witchcraft

Picatrix Image of Mars According to Apollonius

Satyr Magos08/04/2025

Behold, another completed Picatrix image for your mystical contemplation and thaumaturgic application.

The image of Mars, according to the opinion of the wise Apollonius, is the shape of a crowned man holding an inscribed sword in his right hand. – Picatrix Book II, Chapter 10, Paragraph 19 (Attrell and Porecca, 2019)

I chose this image for Mars despite having already used it as the image for my Mars jewelry talismans because I felt like there was more for me to learn from it. For the sword’s inscription, I chose a seal of the archangel Kamael (I chose the version from The Magus because it was the first to fall to hand).

I have also, I think, finally decided on a size format for (most) forthcoming images: 2.75×4.75 inches, 600dpi, which – if you recognize them, will immediately give you a clue about at least one forthcoming application of these cards. That is, for the rest of us (I’ve looked it up, like, fifty fucking times, now), the dimensions of a “standard” tarot card. (I’ve seen too many tarot decks to name a standard without laughing; but that is the size of my magpie decks, which was the deciding factor for me.) With that decision made, I can now begin serious work on developing borders for these images and the cards they will eventually become. Once I’ve developed that border, I’ll go back and reformat and re-release my previous images.

A high resolution version of this image (and an alternate version with some lurid red) is available on my Patreon.

In art, witchcraft

Astrological Image: Jupiter Acording to Mercurius

Satyr Magos03/04/202503/04/2025

Behold, friends, the latest in my ongoing series of astrologial images for study, contemplation, and enchantment.

The image of Jupiter, according to the opinion of Mercurius, is the shape of a man covered in a single linen cloth, riding upon a dragon, holding a lance or a dart in his hand.

-Picatrix Book II, Chapter 10, Paragraph 17 (Attrell and Porecca, 2019)

Some of you may recall, I shared the pencils of this image back at the beginning of September. I’m pleased to now share the digitally inked version.

This is my third attempt to work within a frame to make the images a little more artistically sophisticated (see also this Saturn and the Third Lunar Mansion), and I’m really pleased with the results so far. Eventually, as I develop my visual language through this and other projects, I plan to go back to add Art Nouveau and Arabesque frames to those that don’t have them.

Almost a dozen images into this series, I honestly feel like I’m making deeper connections to the planets and powers these images represent, and confirming (at least in my own mind) my long-held assertion that the images hold power of their own, which can be tapped outside the narrow constraints of Medeival and Renaissance astrological timing techniques.

You can find a higher resolution version of this image up on my Patreon, as well as links to collections of higher resolution astrological images. As a patreon supporter, you’ll get to see everything I do before anyone else, and a lot of things that I don’t share publically. If you’d like to support my work but don’t like Patreon for whatever reason, please consider dropping a tip in my jar at Ko-Fi.

In art, scholarship, witchcraft

The Image of Saturn According to Other Sages

Satyr Magos01/03/202528/02/2025

At long last, I return to you with a new astrological image:

The image of Saturn, according to the opinion of other sages, is the shape of a man standing upon a dragon, holding a scythe in his right hand and a spear in his left, dressed in black and tawny clothes.

-Picatrix Book 2 Paragraph 13, (Atrell and Porecca, 2019)

This is the same image I used for my triangular Picatrix Saturn talisman, but very differently executed. I’m very pleased with how it turned out.

In art

Ritual Glam with Luxa Strata

Satyr Magos24/02/2025

Like most digital photographers, I take a lot of pictures when I do a photoshoot. Small differences in framing and lighting, tweaking settings, trying to get just the right shot. I’m not as uninhibited as some – I usually try for a one usable photo out of every four shot (I’ve seen other photographers online talk about ratios like one in ten or one in twenty). As such, when Luxa and I did the Conjuration of AOS ZOS, I inevitably ended up with some photos that didn’t quite make it into the official set but that I thought were too fucking cool not to share.

These are those photos.

A couple of these are likely to wind up as post headers for the blog, others are destined to be desktop backgrounds as patron rewards. All of them are worth your time and attention.

Enjoy!

In art

Conjuration of AOS ZOS with Luxa Strata

Satyr Magos19/02/202520/02/2025

As you may or may not recall at this long removed date, over the summer I did a series of four photoshoots with two friends from the Green Musheen Discord. I got the first two, a Conjuration of Alkes and Wizard Rizz with Lavender Laura, out in a … halfway reasonable timeframe. The third, Devotional Images of Aphrodite with Luxa Strata, came out in October. And, now, finally, I have finished processing the fourth and final of those shoots: the Conjuration of AOS ZOS, my second shoot with Luxa.

The Conjuration of Alkes and this Conjuration of AOS ZOS were/are both attempts at spirit photography, a classic genre that has always been at least half grift. For these shoots, I recruited competent practicing magicians who were willing to be photographed while performing a conjuration ritual in the hopes that, in addition to whatever the primary purpose of their enchantment was, we would capture some photographic evidence, however ephemeral, of the spirit contact taking place.

As with our Aphrodite shoot, the day before, Luxa was a delight to work with. The ritual, conjuring the spirit of Austin Osman Spare for communion and instruction, was of their own design. They constructed the altar at which they worked from my collection of ritual bling. The costume was from his own collection.

The set we built pushed the limits of my camera equipment. Even using my 35mm prime lens opened up to f1.8, there was just barely enough light for my d3600 to focus. I had hoped that working at the extreme limits of my camera’s sensitivity would create more opportunities for uncanny artifacts and apparitions. It absolutely made for some phenomenally dramatic images.

Luxa’s ritual was incredible. As desensitized to magical energy as I seem to have become over the last few years, it was fucking palpable in that room and, I think, can be felt through these images. You can certainly see it in her face.

From the two hundred plus images I shot that night, I whittled the set down to these twenty-two in order to tell the story as concisely but completely as possible. There are another seven, which I’ll share tomorrow, that were too good to delete but would have been redundant here, and a few more that were just good altar porn that I’ll use in future projects.

Unfortunately, ritual efficacy did not seem to translate into apparitions in the photos. None of the three orbs I managed to catch that night were even half as impressive as those in the Alkes shoot with Lavender Laura. The best of the set can be seen here, hovering by Luxa’s armpit near the center of the photo:

Luxa, herself, had this to say about the project:

I do some necromancy work with Austin Osman Spare as an ancestor and magical teacher. The ceremony being conducted here was for the purposes of conjuring the shade of AOS so that a communion could take place, and so that we could attempt some spirit photography. I used the “Formula of the White Sabbath as first told me by a Witch” by Spare as part of the ceremony I designed, along with sigils, hand gestures and symbols divined for the purposes of the operation. The ceremony had the effect of inducing a strong feeling of spiritual ecstacy, which I think is evident in the photos. It was a fun and successful operation, and it felt sexy as hell when ZOS joined the party. I appreciate the opportunity to get weird!

They were also kind enough to offer us an excerpt from the ritual, itself:

The Prayer of Communion by Austin Osman Spare

We who are about to partake of each other shall walk past all amorous sickness and deaths, for we are within the magical equinox.

Amen.

We who proudly make unto ourselves every graven image shall have great copulations and are allowed to love our Gods, for we know the Sacred Alignments.

Amen.

We who do not crucify- nothing shall hurt us that is of the ‘Nature’, neither our comings and goings from the womb, for we have the Key to all aesthetics.

Amen.

In this, the sacred moment (here occurs the symbolic eating of flesh and blood) we forget our enemies: therefore, let our dead children sleep. And let our dead loves arise, so that they too may watch and enjoy our ecstasies. Let their animation be power to our memories and so resurge all ecstasy, for in this day there shall be no inhibitions. Amen. Thou insatiable peripheral quadria of sex.

Amen.

I am so grateful to Luxa for volunteering for this project, and for flying out to KC to work with me, and for bringing such power, authenticity, vulnerability, and sincerity to the work. I very much hope that we will be able to work together again.

In art

Devotional Images: Luxa Strata as Aphrodite

Satyr Magos11/10/2024

Behold, friends: Luxa Strata as Aphrodite.

Luxa Strata, on the off chance that you don’t recognize the name, is a chaote, artist, magician, and community leader. She is the host of the Lux Occult podcast and runs the Green Musheen Discord server and is knee-deep in a stunning number or related and unrelated magical projecets. You can check her various works out for yourself via her Linktree.

I’m so excited to finally be releasing these images from the third of July’s four photoshoots, the first of the two that I did with Luxa. As you may recall from my last two two, the Lavender Laura images, this adventure started with a post in Luxa’s Green Musheen Discord server, in which I asked for magical collaborators for a few occult-themed photoshoots. Of the themes I suggested, Laura was interested in showing off her “Wizard Rizz” and in conjuring spirits for me to try to capture in some old-school spirit photography. Luxa was also interested in spirit photography, and in embodying Aphrodite in this, my second devotional image shoot for that goddess.

Luxa visited me here in Kansas City in the last week of July, flying in Thursday afternoon and leaving Tuesday morning. The whole week was an adventure in and of itself, including a meet and greet with my Lunar Shenanigans Crew, a trip out to Gaea Retreat Center, a great deal of good food, and a whole lot of absolutely fantastic conversation and comradery.

We shot these images on Friday night, using two sets and four-ish costume changes. As usual, I shot with my trusty Nikon d3200; that night I used my Nikor 18-140 zoom lens. We shot in my home studio which was … just a little warmer than was comfortable, that day, at least for me. The lighting was more of a challenge than it should have been because I had misplaced the stands for my studio lights. I ran out of stamina before Luxa and I ran out of ideas, so I’m a little sad about all the images we could have made, but we also shot enough images – 218 – that editing them down to the final 54 was a more than adequate challenge.

Luxa called the goddess Aphrodite into herself. We opened with Armed Aphrodite, with a red cloak and a gladius for a bit of a Roman vibe, and just got slowly more sensual and less dressed over the course of the shoot.

Overall, I’m very pleased with how the shoot went. Luxa was a delight to work with, and the images came out fantastically. Culling the set was a real challenge. I’m still learning to use my new software (you may remember that I ditched Adobe back in April and started using DXO PhotoLab7 in July), so there’s the frustrating knowledge that these could be better if I were only a little more familiar with my tools, but … that’s the artist’s life in the age of subscription software, I guess.

Luxa, herself, had this to say about the shoot:

“When these pictures were taken, I was going through a transitional period having to do with leaving several toxic relationships. I had joined a magic group which turned out to be incredibly abusive and misogynistic. Although I had escaped that situation, I was still dealing with the heatbreak and other fallout. The experience of posing for these pictures helped me reconnect with something I had been suppressing; a “golden shadow” I’d been hiding away for safety’s sake. It was an important thing to rediscover, and I feel deep gratitude for having had the opportunity to do so. My overall takeaway from the shoot is that the Goddess is real, She is powerful, and She is here; in this world.”

I hope you all enjoy these images as much as we do.

In art, sorcerer's workbench

From the Sorcerer’s Workbench: Samhain Line 2024

Satyr Magos10/10/2024

Behold, friends! The first four designs from my 2024 Samhain line! A saint-style devotional pendant featuring Hekate Trimorphis; Three-Winged Gorgoneion; a Memento Mori skull pendant, and the seal of Belial.

Hekate Trimorphis

Hekate Trimorphis is my fourth Hekate devotional image. This one, based on images found on Roman magical gemstones, is in my oval “saint’s pendant style”. It depicts Hekate with three overlapping bodies: three faces, six arms, six legs, all bound within a single peplos, and holding a whip and torches and daggers. I’ve been planning some version of this image for a while, and I am very proud to be presenting it at last.

I have cast up these exemplars in sterling silver and shibuichi. I will also be making it available in bronze. Probably not brass, though, since I just don’t think it will look good in yellow.

I’ll be selling the silver for 149, the shibuichi for 127, and the bronze for 122.

Three-Winged Gorgoneion

The Three Winged Gorgoneion is based on ancient shield designs. I’m super excited to finally be releasing a second Gorgon image. This one in particular has actually been sitting on my bench waiting to be molded and released for most of the year. I’ve cast up these exemplars in sterling silver (bottom), as a pin, and shibuichi (top), as a pendant, and will also be making it available in brass and bronze, and with rosary fixtures and as a bolo tie.

I’ll be selling the silver for $173, the shibuichi for $140, the brass for $89, and the bronze for $122.

Momento Mori Skull I

Momento Mori: remember that you will die (in Latin). This metal skull pendant is the first of several designs that I’m calling Momento Mori. Again, I’ve cast my exemplars in sterling silver and shibuichi, and I will also be making the pendant available in brass or bronze. The hole through the skull is suitable for a 2-3mm chain, but could be made larger upon request.

This will be available as a pendant or as a solid altar-piece.

I’m selling the silver for $255, the shibuichi for $206, the brass for $156, and the bronze for $190.

Seal of Belial

Finally, least for this first round, is the Seal of Belial from the Lesser Key of Solomon.

“The 68th spirit is called Belial, he is a mighty king and powerfull; he was Created next after Lucifer, & is of his order; he appeareth in ye forme of a Beautiful angel sitting in a Charriot of fire, speaking wth a comly voice, declaring that he fell first & amongst ye worthier & wiser sort which went before Michael & other heavenly angels; his office is to distribute preferments of senatorships, and to cause favour of friends & foes, he giveth Excellent familiars & governeth 80 Legions of spirits.” (from the Peterson translation on Esoteric Archives)

Currently available in silver, as a coin or pendant, for $159 US.