The Spellcaster's Source Hoodoo and Voodoo Witchcraft Blog of Talia Felix

The angel on the modern candle label artwork — soft-focus, usually blonde, wearing flowing white, willowy figure, gazing serenely — has nothing to do with the angels of the texts these systems claim to draw from. When angels appear in scripture, the first thing they generally have to say is "do not be afraid" — which suggests the people they're appearing to are very afraid, and not without reason. This isn't a pedantic objection, the entire framework of modern "angel magic" — the pastel oracle cards, the channeled messages of unconditional love, the assumption that working with angels is the safe alternative to anything else — rests on a sanitized image that doesn't survive contact with the actual textual tradition. (The angel that wrestles Jacob in Genesis 32 dislocates his hip.) The historical practice of angel magic is one of the most thoroughly documented strands of Western esoteric work and it is also stranger, more demanding, and morally weirder th...

  In the summer of 2025 I had just completed one of the most stressful projects of my life by producing a stageplay, a production of W.S. Gilbert's musical comedy  Ages Ago . I probably got 5 hours of sleep in the entire week before showtime and I lost 10 lbs from the stress. I was always fighting with the director and I was starting to have forms of out of body experiences.  After the show had completed its run, I performed a Cut and Clear spell  to release me from the relationships formed during the show (and to limit the likelihood of my holding grudges) but even after this, I was still very stressed out, sleeping badly, feeling disordered chakras . What to do?  Well, I could have used traditional hoodoo or folk magic spells and uncrossings for alleviating the problem, but, instead I decided to try a more simple and more mainstream solution: a spa day. In Santa Fe there's a very famous Japanese style spa, but which is also quite expensive. Spending a lot of m...

One beginning in the tradition of hoodoo should know about the importance of baths. They are vital tools in hoodoo work and cannot be dispensed with.  Many people nowadays don't have bathtubs, and some adaptation can be achieved by way of showers. Other people use a large bowl or bucket of water to pour on themselves in place of a spiritual bath. In olden times, and also in some places today where water on tap isn't common, people will perform their spiritual baths in a river or pond outdoors.  A spiritual bath is similar to a regular bath, but with certain key differences. Spiritual baths are not meant primarily for physical cleansing and so washing items like soap might be taboo depending on the exact bath type. However there are some types of magical bath that do use the multitasking property of soap or other cleansers, and in those cases the cleaning aspect is appropriate to the work. There is some controversy around washing the hair in a spiritual bath. Many people don...