The Raven's Crucible

A blind raven

The Raven’s Crucible

Musings on magic, divination, and the occult.

  • Building an Alchemical Incubator: Modern Heat for Ancient Work

    In our series on spagyric alchemy, we mentioned the benefits of letting an alchemical preparation extract or mature at a consistent temperature. In herbal spagyrics, and doubly so for more advanced types of alchemy, there is a distinct benefit to being able to hold the work at some prescribed temperature for a long period of…

  • Planetary Hours: Unlocking Celestial Timing for Magic

    I’ve referred a couple times now to planetary hours, or doing a working “in the day and hour” of a particular planetary power. What is a planetary hour, and how do we find them? In short, a planetary hour is a particular time that is viewed as having a special affinity for some celestial power.…

  • Ink Making II: Carbon Black Ink Revisited

    In the last ink-making post, I shared an experiment making carbon black ink – specifically with vine charcoal. The results were disappointing; the ink was pale, and struggled to flow evenly from a glass dip pen. This time I tried a couple different things. First, I doubled the amount of pigment in the ink, increasing…

  • Materia: Echinacea – Echinacea spp.

    Overview Of all the plant medicines in my home, a tincture of echinacea is perhaps the most used. When I wake up with the beginnings of a scratchy throat, or notice that my lymph nodes are swollen, echinacea is the first thing I reach for. It is a plant of resilience and fortification, standing as…

  • How Does Magic Work? Five Models of the Occult

    A large source of friction in occult communities is the lack of consensus on how magic works. Even at a basic, fundamental level. Throughout history, different communities have posited different theories about the mechanics of magic, but every individual practitioner ultimately comes to their own conclusions about what they believe, in response to the results…

  • Spagyric Alchemy III: Bringing It All Together

    Over the course of the last couple posts, we’ve been discussing the field of alchemical spagyics: the application of alchemical principles to create plant-based medicines. In the first post, we talked about the high level theory of alchemy – solve et coagula – and different theoretical models for how that separation can be effected in…

  • Spagyric Alchemy II: The Selection of Ingredients

    In last week’s post, we talked about the general theory of alchemy – solve et coagula – and how it relates to the vegetable kingdom in the form of spagyric alchemy. We covered a number of different theoretical frameworks for how alchemical separation can be effected, but stopped short of actually delving into the specifics…

  • Spagyric Alchemy I: Theory of Herbal Transformation

    For centuries, alchemy has been seen as a transformative art – a mystical science wherein base lead is turned into gold, the mundane elevated into the extraordinary. While the scope of alchemy as a whole is huge and sprawling, many texts recommend students start first with spagyric alchemy: the application of alchemical principles to extract…

  • Materia: Lemon Balm – Melissa Officinalis

    Overview Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) is an herb of gentle power, offering profound rejuvenation to body and spirit alike. Its cooling, drying energetics, combined with its uplifting nervine properties, make it a soothing remedy in times of turbulence. It calms the anxious mind, brightens melancholy, and eases digestive discomfort born of stress, embodying the nurturing…

  • Divination for Beginners: A Practical Guide to Getting Started

    I’ve previously discussed the importance of divination. It’s a great entry point into the occult arts for a number of reasons. First, it’s a phenomenal way of generating spooky coincidences; if you’re just starting out and trying to figure out whether there’s anything worthwhile to be pursued here, it can help quickly answer that question.…