Pre-order Sanguis Veneris powder, made only once a year

If you read my older post about Sanguis Veneris, you know it’s a medieval love and healing formula, and I gave it a go even though it’s European and I no longer work too much in European herb-lore, because it has uses in conjure as well and because the astrological event for its creation happened to be coming up. So I went ahead and took the astrological opportunity to make up a batch of Sanguis Veneris oil (HIGHLY concentrated, quite thick and full of powdered resins and herbs, so dilute, dilute, dilute) and powder (pure, 100% powdered herbs and resins, NO base or filler or mineral ingredients). The oil can be worn (see caveats below), used to dress candles, mojos, objects, etc, just like any condition oil. The powder can be burned as incense on a charcoal block, added to mojos, added to a base oil to make your own oil, etc. Caution: MAY STAIN SKIN if a lot is used, WILL STAIN FABRIC etc so handle with care, especially in concentrated amounts.

Sanguis Veneris oil and powder can only be made once a year, when the astrological conditions are right. Last time I made this, the powder sold out really quickly, so this powder has been out of stock for nearly two years. The ingredients are very expensive, so I don’t want to make more than there’s a demand for this year, so I’m taking pre-order to assure that I order the right amount of raw materials to make enough for everybody who wants some. The powder will be created towards the end of February 2013 and will ship when it’s finished, during the first week of March.

One order of Sanguis Veneris powder will contain app. one ounce; if you’ve ordered from me before, this is the same amount you get with my usual powders and bath salts. I’m going to package this year’s batch in glass bottles instead of plastic packets.

Sanguis Veneris is a medieval love/lust and drawing/healing blend; ideally it is to be made under certain astrological conditions. I make up a batch when the conditions were right, using an appropriate ritual framework, and leave the blend to absorb the light of the full moon before sealing up the mother container. Once it’s gone, it’s gone, until the next appropriate astrological event rolls around (no more than once a year, and if I happen to be busy during the very narrow window of time in which it can be made next year, then there won’t be any until the following year).

This blend would be especially appropriate when you’re trying to draw a lover with the means and desire to give you lots of gifts, attention, money etc, or to get your current lover to loosen up on the purse strings a little bit. It’s also appropriate for situations where you are concerned that people NOT gossip or spread rumors about your relationship, if for any reason you need to keep it under wraps, so in that particular area it has a protective quality (though it can’t be expected to totally hide crimes or affairs all on its own!). If people are gossiping about you because they are jealous of your looks or love life, this can help with that sort of thing. Finally, it can be used in spellwork to cool off hot tempers in a relationship and put the love back in the center – it’s not a reconciliation oil exactly, it won’t just heal up all difficulties and it wouldn’t work alone to return a lost lover, but it can turn the volume down on the anger and turn the volume up on the love and remembering why you got together in the first place.

This is a medieval “high magic” blend, not a conjure oil. But from a hoodoo perspective, the ingredients in this blend are healing, relaxing, protective (especially from those telling lies), good for sensual love, and good for money-protection and money-drawing. So this isn’t a “true sweet romance” love formula, and it’s not a “Fiery Love” blend exactly, but it definitely has sexual/sensual overtones, and within a certain sphere, it’s definitely a multi-purpose oil. Read more about Sanguis Veneris at my blog – follow the tags.

This formula does NOT contain actual blood, just plant matter and essential oils. It’s made in a ritual context under the appropriate astrological conditions and set under the light of the full moon. (My initial formal hands-on training in herblore was in European traditions, so I do know how to do this stuff even though I work primarily in African-American herblore, and I spent nearly two decades as an initiate in a couple of formal hermetic, ceremonial magic, wand-waving and robe-wearing and qabala-using traditions and do know my astrology, sigils, grimoires, K and C of the HGA etc as well, so I broke out some of the old altar implements for this one).

It does not contain anything that is not theoretically safe for use on skin, and I tested it on myself after I made it the first time, but as with ANY ritual oil, you might want to dilute it and do a spot test before wearing it, and you wouldn’t use it as a perfume but rather as a ritual anointing oil. It *may* stain your skin – there is no way to avoid that given the ingredients – but if used in small enough quantities and away from white clothing, you should be alright. You might not want to dab it behind your ears, of course, but you could use it similarly to body paint (though it’s not *that* thick) and paint symbols or sigils on yourself, or dab it at appropriate spots (at the heart and right above the pubic bone below your navel would be good places) or, if your lover is adventurous, on him or her. However, please note that it is not edible and would taste absolutely horrible, and should not be used as a personal lubricant nor on any areas where you want someone’s mouth to go.)

You can also use it to paint your lover’s name on the soles of your feet to put a little “commanding” action into your love workings. (You can use a toothpick if you don’t have a paintbrush that’s that small). I tried the foot-painting trick and it did not stain the bottom of my foot, and I dabbed a bit on my wrists and it did not stain my skin, but I can’t promise that it won’t stain your clothes. If you wanted to dilute this in a carrier oil I would start at no more than half a dropper per half ounce of oil – you can always go up drop by drop if you want to. This is highly concentrated, so it will work just fine if you dilute it to make it go further. At that level it may still stain light clothing. You could also just add a few drops to a carrier oil for a lighter blend, and/or add a few drops to another type of love or lust condition oil, or to a bath salt base or incense powder base, to convey its properties to your base formula.

The scent is very lightly sweet. If you dilute it you may not smell anything, so it becomes a matter of personal preference. Just because you can’t smell it doesn’t mean it’s not working though. If you prefer, you could add a drop or two to your favorite ritual or anointing oil if you use such on your skin (please note my usual caveats about my own oils – they are generally not designed for use on skin unless the listing specifically says so, and will nearly always need to be diluted to proper skin-safe levels if you decide to risk wearing them – I do not make cosmetics and none of my items are cosmetics unless they are listed under “body products” like the lip balm).

This thick mixture makes a fabulous candle dressing and the powder makes a fascinating, unusual incense. You can certainly add a pinch of it to a less expensive incense blend to stretch it out (and I would advise it – uncut, this can be almost too thick and heady, and it does have a slightly bitter undertone and lots of resins in it). A little of this goes a long, long way. You could also dress your candle with another condition oil or plain olive oil and sprinkle the powder on the candle, or roll your candle in it. Rolling might be overkill – I think I’d sprinkle, or else mix it with another powder first and then roll.

Limited edition – once it’s gone, it’s gone, at least until the next appropriate astrological event comes around.

You can pre-order it here. I will make a little bit more than is pre-ordered, but I can’t afford to buy a whole hell of a lot of the raw materials, so the quantity will definitely be limited. I’ll make a new batch of Sanguis Veneris oil, too, but that didn’t sell out as quickly, so you shouldn’t need to rush on it. There is still a couple of bottle’s worth left from last year.

New items at ebay and bonanza – jewelry and Sanguis Veneris

Somebody wrote me asking for a goat horn, and I said I’d order one from my "animal bits" supplier. I also said I was not likely to recall who asked me for it. Sure enough, I forgot. But I have a polished, hollow goat horn up on ebay for you. ETA: they found it and got it!

Santisima Muerte altar spell bottle, FIXED, customized, and chock full of herbs, roots, curios, etc. Perfect for a spell of the Intranquil Spirit variety.

St. Expedite rosary bracelet with customizable spell pendant

Custom love-drawing mojo rosary bracelet – non-denominational, but Erzulie Freda approved, and can be customized for her

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Limited edition Sanguis Veneris oil and powder.

If you read my older post about Sanguis Veneris, you know it’s a medieval love and healing formula, and I wanted to give it a go even though it’s European and I no longer work too much in European herb-lore, because it has uses in conjure as well and because the astrological event for its creation happened to be coming up. So I went ahead and took this astrological opportunity to make up a batch of Sanguis Veneris oil (HIGHLY concentrated, quite thick and full of powdered resins and herbs, so dilute, dilute, dilute) and powder (pure, 100% powdered herbs and resins, NO base or filler or mineral ingredients). The oil can be worn (see caveats below), used to dress candles, mojos, objects, etc, just like any condition oil. The powder can be burned as incense on a charcoal block, added to mojos, added to a base oil to make your own oil, etc. Caution: MAY STAIN SKIN if a lot is used, WILL STAIN FABRIC etc so handle with care, especially in concentrated amounts.

This formula does NOT contain human blood, just plant matter and essential oils. It was made in a ritual context under the appropriate astrological conditions and set under the light of the full moon. (My initial formal hands-on training in herblore was in European traditions, so I do know how to do this stuff even though I work primarily in African-American herblore, and I spent nearly two decades as an initiate in a couple of formal hermetic, ceremonial magic, wand-waving and robe-wearing and qabala-using traditions and do know my astrology, sigils, grimoires, K and C of the HGA etc as well, so I broke out some of the old altar implements for this one). It does not contain anything that is not theoretically safe for use on skin, and I tested it on myself before listing it, but as with ANY ritual oil, you might want to dilute it and do a spot test before wearing it, and you wouldn’t use it as a perfume but rather as a ritual anointing oil.

It *may* stain your skin – there is no way to avoid that given the ingredients – but if used in small enough quantities and away from white clothing, you might be alright. You might not want to dab it behind your ears, of course, but you could use it similarly to body paint and paint symbols or sigils on yourself, or dab it at appropriate spots (at the heart and right above the pubic bone below your navel would be good places) or, if your lover is adventurous, on him or her. However, please note that it is not edible and would taste absolutely horrible, and should not be used as a personal lubricant nor on any areas where you want someone’s mouth to go.) You can also use it to paint your lover’s name on the soles of your feet to put a little "commanding" action into your love workings. (You can use a toothpick if you don’t have a paintbrush that’s that small). I tried the foot-painting trick and it did not stain the bottom of my foot, and I dabbed a bit on my wrists and it did not stain my skin, but I can’t promise that it won’t stain you.

If you wanted to dilute this in a carrier oil I would try about half a dropper per half ounce of oil. At that level it may still stain clothing (when I say it may stain, I don’t mean it won’t ever wash off with soap and water, but it may take a few washings to fade completely if you use it undiluted, or it may not wash completely out of whites). You could also just add a few drops to a carrier oil for a lighter blend, and/or add a few drops to another type of love or lust condition oil, or to a bath salt base or incense powder base. The scent is very lightly sweet. If you dilute it you may not smell anything, so it becomes a matter of personal preference. Just because you can’t smell it doesn’t mean it’s not working though.

If you prefer, you could add a drop or two to your favorite ritual or anointing oil if you use such on your skin (please note my usual caveats about my own oils – they are generally not designed for use on skin unless the listing specifically says so, and will nearly always need to be diluted to proper skin-safe levels if you decide to wear them).

From a hoodoo perspective, the ingredients in this blend are healing, relaxing, protective (especially from those telling lies), good for sensual love, and good for money-protection and money-drawing. So this isn’t a "true sweet romance" love formula, and it’s not a "Fiery Love" blend, but it definitely has sexual/sensual overtones, and within a certain sphere, it’s definitely a multi-purpose oil.

Limited edition – once it’s gone, it’s gone, at least until the next appropriate astrological event comes around.

Finally, remember that everything you see at ebay can also be had at bonanza, often at a discount (chicken, turkey, and alligator feet excluded).

sanguis veneris, alkanet, fistulae, medieval medicine, and an upcoming astrological opportunity

In an otherwise fairly unappetizing medieval manuscript (though of great interest to historians of medicine), I ran across a description of an herbal remedy called Sanguis Veneris, literally “the blood of Venus.” This is a work largely dedicated to methods for treating what was a usually untreatable and very, er, delicate problem that I won’t go into here (if you must know and have some rudimentary Latin, it’s called Practica de Fistula in ano, and if you don’t have some rudimentary Latin and are not currently eating dinner, you can see an illustrated page from an actual manuscript version of this widely-copied work that will show you, in a nutshell, what sort of surgery this was. Don’t say I didn’t warn you). Surgery for this condition was generally fatal in the 14th century, but the untreated condition was often fatal too. But one John of Arderne not only treated it, but apparently treated it with some success and wrote a book on his methods.

In the interest of time, I’ll quote from an edition of a 15th century Middle English translation of his Latin work instead of trying to translate the Latin, which I won’t do all that well in a few minutes. All quotations and page numbers are from Treatises of Fistula in Ano, D’Arcy Power, ed., London, Early English Text Society, 1910.

Sanguis Veneris was one of a few different preparations that could be used several days after surgery to clean and dry the wound. It was so-called because of its redness and sweetness, and was known (says our author) to ladies by the French name “sank damours or sank de pucels” (p. 89) [blood of love, or blood of ladies/young women/whores depending on context]. There is a sense here that it is well-known among women and perhaps sought out by women, but all that isn’t spelled out here. There were two different ways to make it, depending on what you had access to and how much your patient could pay. One was to combine an ounce of powdered alkanet with a quart of oil, blended or boiled together (either way). It’s to be kept in an earthen or pewter pot. Because its properties are cold and dry, it’s good for drying up many kinds of wounds or ulcers and preventing infection (I’m rather freely paraphrasing here). Blended with vinegar and applied to the head, it’s good for headache (still p. 89).

The second way to make it goes something like this: take blood from a virgin (or, if one cannot be found, of a damsel of about 18 or 19 years old who was never with child). The blood is to be drawn during the full moon, when the moon is in Virgo and the sun is in Pisces.[1] To this blood, add equal parts “aloes cicotrine,” myrrh, and dragon’s blood; then add powdered alkanet in an amount equal to the aloes+myrrh+dragon’s blood combo. Muddle all this together to make a paste, and then dry it in the sun, storing it for your use.

To use it, take a chunk of it, powder it, and seethe it in olive oil, one ounce per two pounds of oil, or “a quart of a galon,or more if it be nede” (p. 90). Boil it together until the oil is red. When it’s red, pull it off the fire, and the resulting mixture is what is applied for medicinal purposes to cool, dry, disinfect, and heal.

N.B. This is medieval medicine, which most medievalists are grateful not to be subjected to, and I am not an herbalist, and there are probably a hundred good reasons not to go mucking about trying to recreate these formulae for use on open wounds, not least of which is the fact that not everybody agrees as to which regionally-available (or available-by-import) plants are being referred to in texts like this. In short: DO NOT MAKE A BATCH OF THIS STUFF AND PUT IT ON AN OPEN WOUND. If you are even *thinking* of trying this based on a blog post you find on the internet, please go above and click on the link to the illustrated manuscript page for a vivid reminder of how different, and how much more unpleasant, medicine was in the middle ages. However, by medieval principles of sympathetic magic, the doctrine of signatures, and humoural theory, you could certainly make a case for using such a mixture as a spiritual or magical oil as part of spell or altar work to effect healing of conditions brought upon by an excess of heat and moisture (fever, for instance, maybe gout, other types of “hot, wet” illnesses). If the subtext I perceive here is really meant to be here, this could also be used in any type of working to draw love, incite lust, and gain romantic attention.

After surgery, flesh could be regenerated and scarring induced by using various preparations, including myrrh, aloes, dragon’s blood, Arabian gum, something called sarcocolla, pomegranate bark, and/or flour, mixed with egg-white and sanguis veneris or mel rosat. Mel rosat is made by mixing honey and the juice from red rose petals, and is smeared onto cloth and laid on the wound. (84-87 and passim)

[1] I am not advising anyone to go around poking 18-year-olds with lancets, but just for the sake of interest, this Friday, Feb 18, 2011, you will have a full moon with the Sun in Pisces and the Moon in Virgo. Where I live, the moon is officially full on the 18th, the Moon enters Virgo at 4:40 am, and the Sun enters Pisces at 7:26 pm, so you would have to make your Sanguis Veneris after 7:26 pm EST and, I think, ideally before 3-ish a.m. on the 19th. Now, if you’re a client or customer of mine, you may have written me before with questions about moon phases and astrological signs in your rootwork and had me give you short and even dismissive answers – if the astrology suits your needs, feel free to time your work this way, but in general, I make the timing fit my needs rather than holding off on my work to wait on some moon phase or conjunction, and I rarely advise clients to wait around for the moon if their work really needs doing. The exception would be the preparation of some kind of ultra-special, preplanned talisman, amulet, or formula that you can only make every once in a while – like my Three Kings Oil which I make annually at the Feast of the Epiphany, or a gambling luck charm made on 7/7/2007, or some complicated astrological talisman designed to get success flowing in your life, which has to be done at a certain time of the year or even during a rarer astrological event, for which you have planned in advance as something “beyond the scope of day-to-day conjure remedies.” But I offer this as a curiosity for those of you interested in reading such things, and mention the upcoming perfect timing for those who like to make their own preparations.