Ted is having knee surgery on Wednesday morning, and will be out of commission for a few days. During this time, BPTP will be dark. He won’t be able to take care of customer service emails during that time, but orders will still be going out, though perhaps a bit slower that usual.
Happy Valentines Day!
We have a few chocolates, just for you.
Limited to 100 each, when they are gone, they’re gone.
DARK CHOCOLATE WITH SUN-DRIED TOMATO, PINK PEPPERCORN, THYME, AND COMFREY
DARK CHOCOLATE WITH TULSI, TUMERIC, AND WHITE GINGER
MILK CHOCOLATE WITH MACADAMIA NUT, COCONUT, BUTTON MUSHROOM, AND MARSHMALLOW
WHITE CHOCOLATE WITH LEMONGRASS, CORIANDER, AND ALMOND CREAM
THE SISTERS of the Cross of Shame,
They smile along the night;
Their houses stand with shuttered souls
And painted eyes of light.
Their houses look with scarlet eyes
Upon a world of sin;
And every man cries, “Woe, alas!”
And every man goes in.
The sober Senate meets at noon,
To pass the Woman’s Law,
The portly Churchmen vote to stem
The torrent with a straw.
The Sister of the Cross of Shame,
She smiles beneath her cloud—
(She does not laugh till ten o’clock,
And then she laughs too loud.)
And still she hears the throb of feet
Upon the scarlet stair,
And still she dons the cloak of shame
That is not hers to wear.
The sons of saintly women come
To kiss the Cross of Shame;
Before them, in another time,
Their worthy fathers came.…
And no man tells his son the truth,
Lest he should speak of sin;
And every man cries, “Woe, alas!”
And every man goes in.
- Dana Burnet
(American poet, born 1888)
The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915. Upton Sinclair, ed.
Due to a component issue, the Antikythera Mechanism is temporarily on back order. We expect to be able to start shipping it again by the end of February.
If you place an order for it, your order will be held until it is available. If you have an outstanding order for it, our customer service department should have already contacted you.
Questions? Contact answers@blackphoenixalchemylab.com
Our garden’s first strawberries of the year!
A little bit about strawberries in very!pisces stream-of-consciousness format…
The strawberry is elementally tied to Water, sacred to Venus and Aphrodite, and is governed by the planet Venus. When Adonis was gored by a wild boar, the tears that Venus shed became strawberries when they fell onto the earth. They are also sacred to Freyja, particularly in her aspect as fertility goddess, and to Frigga in her aspect as mother goddess.
In hocus pocus, strawberries are most often used in work that promotes friendship, love, kindness, sweet temperament, sensuality, beauty, and good fortune. Strawberry fruit is believed to possess a gentle aphrodisiac effect, and the leaves are often used as good luck charms. Strawberries are commonly consumed during Ostara and Lughnasadh as part of the Sabbat celebrations.
Sharing a double strawberry induces love and lust, and forms a bond between two souls. In medieval France, a soup of borage, soured cream, and strawberries was traditionally served to newlyweds at their wedding-day feast in order to bless the union with sweetness, fertility, and love.
One of the TAL incenses for enhancing physical beauty includes lavender, rosemary, red rose petals, and dried strawberries soaked in a mixture of honey and red wine.
A decoction of lemon, grape, and strawberry juice can be used to bring abundance and peace to a home.
The wood nymphs oftentimes would busied be,
And pluck for him the blushing Strawberry,
Making from them a bracelet on a bent,
Which for a favour to this swain they sent.
– BROWNE’S Brit. Past., i, 2.
European rural folklore holds that strawberries are much-loved by the Fair Folk. The fruit is laid out to appease mischievous fairies, and as offerings in the hopes that the happy fae will assist them by strengthening crops and bringing good health and fecundity to the domestic livestock.
Strawberries are also symbols of innocence, peace, and spiritual purity. During the perpetual spring of the Age of Chronus, when men walked in peace with the gods, mountain strawberries grew wild, feeding mankind:
This was the Golden Age that, without coercion, without laws, spontaneously nurtured the good and the true. There was no fear or punishment: there were no threatening words to be read, fixed in bronze, no crowd of suppliants fearing the judge’s face: they lived safely without protection. No pine tree felled in the mountains had yet reached the flowing waves to travel to other lands: human beings only knew their own shores. There were no steep ditches surrounding towns, no straight war-trumpets, no coiled horns, no swords and helmets. Without the use of armies, people passed their lives in gentle peace and security. The earth herself also, freely, without the scars of ploughs, untouched by hoes, produced everything from herself. Contented with food that grew without cultivation, they collected mountain strawberries and the fruit of the strawberry tree, wild cherries, blackberries clinging to the tough brambles, and acorns fallen from Jupiter’s spreading oak-tree. Spring was eternal, and gentle breezes caressed with warm air the flowers that grew without being seeded. Then the untilled earth gave of its produce and, without needing renewal, the fields whitened with heavy ears of corn. Sometimes rivers of milk flowed, sometimes streams of nectar, and golden honey trickled from the green holm oak.
– Ovid’s Metamorphoses
The strawberry is sacred to the Virgin Mary, and plays a prominent role in Marian Theology, and in medieval Christian art and folklore, the strawberry symbolizes spiritual purity, decency, righteousness, and perfect nobility of spirit.
The Virgin is said to accompany children as they go strawberry-picking on St. John’s Day.
The leaves of the strawberry plant are trifoliate, and thus they also symbolize the Holy Trinity.
Strawberries make an appearance in the center panel of Hieronymous Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, likely symbolizing fleeting fleshly pleasure. Conversely, strawberries have also represented the incorruptible spirit —
In tilling our gardens we cannot but admire the fresh innocence and purity of the Strawberry, because although it creeps along the ground, and is continually crushed by serpents, lizards, and other venomous reptiles, yet it does not imbibe the slightest impression of poison, or the smallest malignant quality, a true sign that it has no affinity with poison. And so it is with human virtues, Theotime, which although they are in a heart that is base, earthy, and engrossed by sin, are nevertheless infected in no way by its malice, being of a nature so frank and innocent that they cannot be corrupted the society of iniquity.
– Love of God Book XI ch 2, St. Francis de Sales
In the Elizabethan Era, it was commonly believed that plants affected their neighbors in a very particular way: the scent of a plant was thought to reveal the plant’s true nature, an indication of the plant’s essential nature, and the spirit of each plant would affect the growth, health, and spirit of the plants that surrounded it. As an example, sweet-scented flowers were planted neat fruit trees to enhance their flavor, while onions, garlic, nettle, horehound, dog fennel, and other plants with objectionable (evil, diabolical, unwholesome, stinky) scents were kept far away. The strawberry was the exception to the rule, and it was said that they would thrive even amongst the foulest of plants.
The strawberry makes an ill-omened appearance as part of Iago’s manufactured evidence:
Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief
Spotted with Strawberries in your wife’s hand?
— Othello, act iii, sc. 3
A little bit more strawberry-related Elizabethiana (did I just make that word up?) –
A recipe from A Boke of Cookrye, 1591:
Tarte of Strawberies
Seson your Strawberyes with sugar, a very little Sinamon, a little ginger, and so cover them with a cover, and you must lay upon the cover a morsell of sweet Butter, Rosewater and Sugar, you may Ice the cover if you will, you must make your Ice with the white of an egge beaten, and Rosewater and Sugar.
In Ayurveda, strawberries are considered astringent, sweet, and cooling. Strawberries decrease vata and increase pitta and kapha.
BPAL General Catalogue Strawberries:
Bon Vivant (Bewitching Brews Series)
Hollywood Babylon (Wanderlust Series)
Maenad (Diabolus Series)
Mania (Excolo Series)
‘Tis the Voice of the Lobster (Mad Tea Party Series)
STRAWBERRY HERBAL INFUSION FOR LOVE
10 oz fresh strawberries
1 ½ quarts boiling water
½ oz hibiscus leaves
½ oz fresh mint
½ oz fresh strawberry leaves
½ oz fresh rose petals
1 teaspoon anise
2 cinnamon sticks
Honey to taste
During the Hour of Venus, puree the strawberries and set aside. Place the mint, hibiscus, rose petals, anise, mint, and cinnamon into a cheesecloth or muslin bag, and steep the herb mixture in the water for fifteen minutes. Remove the sack o’herbs, squeezing gently. Add the honey and strawberry puree to the water, cover, and chill.
Please use herbs and berries that are as fresh as possible, and have not been treated with pesticides.
Caveat: BPAL and I are not responsible for any averse reactions you may have if you put info that I’ve presented here to use. It is presented as lore. Please exercise caution and prudence.
… and with that, I am done yapping about strawberries for the moment.
CANDLES MOON 2012
To-day is the Day of Bride,
The serpent shall come from his hole,
I will not molest the serpent,
And the serpent will not molest me.
The serpent will come from the hole
On the brown day of Bride,
Though there should be three feet of snow
On the flat surface of the ground.
Moonlight shining on the Quickening Tree, the heat and wax of sacred candles, the milk of ewes, Brigid’s blackberry, the sting of keening wind, and the last flutter of the Cailleach’s winter snow.
THE IDES OF MARCH 2012
The Ides marked an auspicious time in the Roman calendar. Depending on the month in question, the Ides fell on the thirteenth or fifteenth, and usually marked the Full Moon. As we all know, it was not an auspicious day for Julius Caesar, nor was it fortuitous for H.P. Lovecraft, who also met his maker on this infamous day. Tu quoque, Brute, fili mi! A mixture of springtime greenery and classical Roman cologne: rosemary, bergamot, lemon rind and vervain with costus, benzoin, coriander, rosewood, gray amber, cardamom, white narcissus, dark musk, and iris.
THEOTOKOS
Άξιον εστίν ως αληθώς
μακαρίζειν σε την Θεοτόκον,
την αειμακάριστον και παναμώμητον
και μητέρα του Θεού ημών.
Την τιμιωτέραν των Χερουβείμ
και ενδοξοτέραν ασυγκρίτως των Σεραφείμ
την αδιαφθόρως Θεόν Λόγον τεκούσαν,
την όντως Θεοτόκον,
Σε μεγαλύνομεν.
It is truly meet and right to bless you, O Theotokos,
Ever-blessed and most-pure mother of our God.
More honourable than the Cherubim,
And beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim,
Who without corruption gave birth to God the Word,
True Theotokos: we magnify you.
Calla lily, Egyptian amber, frankincense, chrysanthemum, daphne, and red roses.
++ THE BARDS OF IRELAND 2012
Irish bards were members of a hereditary caste of learned poets. They were officials of the courts of their chieftains and kings, and served as historians, storytellers, and satirists. They were immersed in the rich history of their clan and country, and learned the intricacies of their craft from birth. Their words held so much power that it was believed that a glam dicing, or satirical incantation, spoken by a bard held the magic of a curse.
THE FAIRIES
Up the airy mountain
Down the rushy glen,
We dare n’t go a-hunting,
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl’s feather.
Down along the rocky shore
Some make their home,
They live on crispy pancakes
Of yellow tide-foam;
Some in the reeds
Of the black mountain-lake,
With frogs for their watch-dogs,
All night awake.
High on the hill-top
The old King sits;
He is now so old and gray
He’s nigh lost his wits.
With a bridge of white mist
Columbkill he crosses,
On his stately journeys
From Slieveleague to Rosses;
Or going up with music,
On cold starry nights,
To sup with the Queen,
Of the gay Northern Lights.
They stole little Bridget
For seven years long;
When she came down again
Her friends were all gone.
They took her lightly back
Between the night and morrow;
They thought she was fast asleep,
But she was dead with sorrow.
They have kept her ever since
Deep within the lake,
On a bed of flag leaves,
Watching till she wake.
By the craggy hill-side,
Through the mosses bare,
They have planted thorn trees
For pleasure here and there.
Is any man so daring
As dig them up in spite?
He shall find the thornies set
In his bed at night.
Up the airy mountain
Down the rushy glen,
We dare n’t go a-hunting,
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl’s feather.
- William Allingham
Supping with the Queen of the Fae: apple blossom, white clover, huckleberry wine, dandelion sap, milkweed, primrose, thyme, pink moss, thorny thistles, and opium pod.
IN THE FOREST
Out of the mid-wood’s twilight
Into the meadow’s dawn,
Ivory limbed and brown-eyed,
Flashes my Faun!
He skips through the copses singing,
And his shadow dances along,
And I know not which I should follow,
Shadow or song!
O Hunter, snare me his shadow!
O Nightingale, catch me his strain!
Else moonstruck with music and madness
I track him in vain!
- Oscar Wilde
A wild, passion-inflamed skin musk with black pine pitch, brown leather, black clove, copal, white sage, oakmoss, patchouli, and saffron.
LIADAIN AND CURITHIR
When thou art hidden fears throng into my heart:
I am as one who has found a treasure of gold
Whom the stars watch
And the winds threaten
And swords wait in the dark.
Or can the dream break, Curithir, into the cold dawn?
Do not even the angels tremble gazing on us?
For only within God’s Dún such joy can live.
Come let us dream, love, that we sail to the west
And in enchanted islands are free of the sun
And the cold blind eyes of the years that pass unheeding sorrow.
O by the sweetness of love and joy like the piercing of spears
I have known the vain life that dies beaten back to the sod,
And the moan of all impotent things cries in my heart;
For that which can wither the budding trees can wither love.
O Curithir hast thou bidden the birds to sing of thee?
They have awoken me to the grey sweet skies
And the out-breathed light stealing over the stars.
There is no bird whose song is not of thy love
No laughter of sudden dawn winds whose joy thou art not –
O that the world could know thou lovest me, Curithir!
- Moireen Fox
An hour of love, all-too-fleeting, set against the tumble and crash of the somber seaside: honeysuckle, ivy, white moss, and salty spray.
STRINGS IN THE EARTH AND AIR
Strings in the earth and air
Make music sweet;
Strings by the river where
The willows meet.
There’s music along the river
For Love wanders there,
Pale flowers on his mantle,
Dark leaves on his hair.
All softly playing,
With head to the music bent,
And fingers straying
Upon an instrument.
- James Joyce
White sage, white musk, honey myrtle, galbanum, lilac, and everlasting flower.
This weekend, Pink Lace and Mourning Lace go live at Dark Delicacies.
MOURNING LACE
A contemplation of death: fragile vanilla blossom with polished oak, bitter clove, frankincense, myrrh, and green cognac.
PINK LACE
A sweet prelude to grief: delicate tea rose and strawberry-laced vanilla stained by tobacco, champaca incense, and white cognac.
The west coast will call event will be held on Tuesday, February 7th from 6 to 9pm at Dark Delicacies.
Dark Delicacies
3512 W. Magnolia Blvd
(1 block east of Hollywood Way)
Burbank, CA 91505
____
The Seattle Will Call will be held at knows perfume on Tuesday, February 7th from 7:00 to 9:00pm.
knows perfume
4536 California Ave SW
Seattle, WA 98116
___
New England Will Call will be held at Healthy Living Market on Sunday, February 19th from 5:00 to 8:00pm, in the Learning Center.
Healthy Living Market
222 Dorset Street,
South Burlington, VT, 05403
—
The blends that will be available for purchase include those that went live on the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab website up to and including the Blackbear Moon update. This includes the Lupercalia scents Forum only scents will not be available at Will Call.
We will no longer be accepting preorders at West Coast Will Call, with the exception of orders for Twilight Alchemy Lab oils. We will do our best to accommodate all orders, but sales will be based on availability. At this time, Twilight Alchemy Lab oils will only be available at Dark Delicacies via preorder. Items from Black Phoenix Trading Post will be available at Dark Delicacies, subject to stock on hand.
If you have any questions, please email us at willcall@blackphoenixalchemylab.com.
Where/When:
West Coast Will Call at
Dark Delicacies
3512 W. Magnolia Ave
Burbank, CA 91505
Tuesday, February 7th, 6:00 to 9:00pm
Seattle Will Call at
knows perfume
4536 California Ave SW
Seattle, WA 98116
Tuesday, February 7th, 7:00 to 9:00pm
New England Will Call at
Healthy Living Market (inside the Learning Center)
222 Dorset Street,
South Burlington, VT, 05403
Sunday, February 19th, 5:00 to 8:00pm
Today the USPS increased its prices for both domestic and international shipping.
While the domestic increase is small enough for us to absorb, the international increase is pretty hefty.
As of today, our shipping rates are as follows:
Domestic shipping rates for the US are as follows:
Orders totaling up to $150.00: $7.50
…up to $300.00: $12.00
…up to $500.00: $14.00
International shipping costs vary depending on the location we’re shipping to and the weight of the package. The latter is determined by the number of bottles that we’re sending out.
We use USPS Flat Rate on most international shipments. The Flat Rate service offered by USPS features a fixed price per package, regardless of weight. As a rule, we can fit up to 20 items in International Flat Rate packaging with occasional exceptions.
The International Flat Rate shipping fee is $19.00 for all orders up to 24 bottles; the rate jumps to $43.00 on orders containing more that 20 items that won’t entirely fit in the Flat Rate box. Shipping is free for all orders that exceed $500.
For Canadian orders, $15.00 will cover shipments up to 20 items; the price is $28.00 for shipping over 24 items.
For Eastern European countires, such as Russia, Czech Republic, Moldova or Poland, $20.00 will cover shipments up to 24 items; the price is $50.00 for shipping over 24 items.
Shipping costs will be waived for all orders over $500.00, both domestic and international.
This pricing applies to both Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and Twilight Alchemy Lab. Because Black Phoenix Trading Post’s shipping grid is more complex, they will be issuing their revised shipping scale within the next few days.
Colophony (Pix græca, rosin) is a product of conifers, primarily pine trees. In the esoteric arts, it is used primarily for purification rituals, binding spells, and rites that bolster courage and strength, and it is of significant importance in Egyptian magick, as it was used in the embalming process. The essential oil is usually steam distilled from the heartwood.
Colophony is tremendously useful, and is has a wide range of applications within the fields of music, dance, construction, visual art, electronics, medicine, cosmetics, and prestidigitation.
It is an effective tool in the Art of War. Roger Bacon provides instructions for creating Flying Fire with colophony:
Flying Fire (ignis volatilis in aere) may be obtained in the following manner: take one part of colophony, the same of sulphur, and two parts saltpeter.
A fourteenth century recipe for Greek fire called for a mixture containing colophony, sulphur, and Roman glassa to be distilled in an alembic. Bombax was then soaked in the mixture, and the resulting missile was hurled from ballista.
Conversely, it is also a tool in the Art of Healing:
A remedy for scratches taught me by the Herald to the King of France. 4 ounces of virgin wax, 4 ounces of colophony, 2 ounces of incense. Keep each thing separate; and melt the wax, and then put the incense and then the colophony, make a mixture of it and put it onto the sore place.
- Leonardo DaVinci
It can be used for dressing blisters, in drawing salves, and as a balm for bleeding piles.
Its volatile nature and its applications in warfare have scooted colophony into Fire’s jurisdiction, ruled by Mars, though some hold that it is governed by the Sol and Air.
The scent is resinous (surprise!), though a bit green.
Colophony has been known to cause contact dermatitis, and burning this resin in excess may cause occupational asthma. According to the 1888 edition of the American Journal of Pharmacy, powdered colophony may spontaneously combust. Please use caution.
Disclaimer Time! Also, please don’t try to make Greek fire or flying fire or anything else nutty with this info. I don’t want anyone using information that I provide for horrible, horrible crazytimes. I also can’t be responsible for Leonardo DaVinci’s questionable medical advice.
Botanical Name: Dorema ammoniacum
The plant grows to height of about 7 feet and in spring and early summer contains a milky juice. It is visited by numbers of beetles which puncture the stem and thus cause an exudation, part of which dries on the stem, the rest falling to the ground where it becomes mixed with stones and other impurities found in the gum collected by the natives. The gum resin is found in special cavities in the tissues of the stem, root and petioles of the leaves. The name of the drug is said to be derived from the Temple of Jupiter Ammon in the Libyan Desert where it was collected by the ancients. The gum resin occurs in commerce in two forms, tear ammoniacum and lump or block ammoniacum. The former alone is official in England and consists of pale yellow nodular masses varying in size from a pea to a walnut, brittle when cold but softens on warming, fractured surface, milky white or pale brown in colour. The lump ammoniacum, which is that collected from the ground, is used sometimes but is not official in medicine. The odour of the drug is slight, taste acrid and persistent.
- M. Grieve
Gum ammoniac is ruled by Jupiter (the planet), and is useful in rituals that honor Jupiter (the Sky-God), Zeus or any of his sons, Amun, or Zefs-Ammon. It is very suitable as an offering for any of these deities.
Gum ammoniac is one of the components used in an incense employed in protective magick of a Jupiterean nature: fortification of community and kingdom, benevolent rule, and just law. It can also be employed in rituals that create prosperity through expansion and as a countermeasure to Saturnian works. This resin can be burned to honor all of the archangels, but is sacred to Gabriel in particular.
It has been cited in Coptic texts adjuring the powers of the divine realm against malevolent, demonic forces, particularly during ceremonial evocation and invocation rituals:
Draw the four angels in front of the curtain of the father, while you are wearing a wreath of roses, with a branch of myrtle in your hand, with gum ammoniac in your mouth.
Offering; frankincense, storax, stacte. Nest; slay the six doves. Cinnamon; rose oil, charcoal from white wood; olive wood.
- Di alcuni manoscritti copti
Gum ammoniac is also the traditional adhesive used in gluing parchment and gilding with gold leaf.
Agrippa recommends the following recipe for Mars incense:
For Mars, take ephorbium, bedellium, gum ammoniac, the roots of both hellebores, the loadstones, and a little sulphur; and incorporate them all with the brain of a hart, the blood of a man and the blood of a black cat.
It has a pungent, peculiar aroma when burned on its own, and it sticks with ya.
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab