“You scare me a little bit,” my friends say to me (even the Satanist and the Thelemite). So of course I was intrigued by the whispers in the ether saying “Ixaxaar scares me”. With so many books on Luciferianism, Traditional Witchcraft, Satanism, Chaos Magic, Necromancy, Goetia, and Black Magic all in one place I suppose the occult publisher and distributor can be seen as intimidating. You know deep down if it were a book store in the world of Harry Potter it would be down Knockturn Alley, not Diagon Alley. It’s like the goth-kink shop that some of you just can’t go into. You may flee from Ixaxaar and run back to the dream-catcher and fairy-bedecked metaphysical shops to comfort yourself (but hey, you read my blog so you are probably in the right place). If you’re like me, and you don’t run away, you will find Ixaxaar is a magician’s candy store of dark delights.
It was love at first sight, touch even, when Clavicula Nox IV: Lilith arrived at my door. I remember it well: the beautiful textured paper, the bold ink of the woodcuts, the dark and twisted illustrations, the delicious fonts, the colour palette of black, white and red… Yes, Clavicula Nox is sexy and it only gets sexier when you start to read; like finding out the hot woman you just met has a ph.d in biochemistry and also practices witchcraft.
I won’t tempt you much further, however, as Ixaxaar’s journal issues are only available in limited edition printings with no back issues or reprints available — meaning the Lilith issue and those before it have long sold out (unless you’d like to sell a kidney so you can afford to buy an overpriced second hand issue on ebay). The good news is that Ixaxaar has just released their fifth and final issue in time for the witch’s sabbat of Walpurgisnacht: Clavicula Nox V: Maleficarum Nigra - Magic and Mayhem.
It is available as a regular edition 60-page paperback and as a special edition hardcover of 300 copies. I am eagerly awaiting both in the mail, not just because of the quality and the content, but because Clavicula Nox V contains my piece “Intoxication, Seership, and the Poison Path” and my venefic illustrations of skulls and poisonous plants alongside the writings of Gemma Gary and Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold. Other purchasing options include two special boxed sets of poisons and artwork along with the new issue — one of which contains prints of my artwork published in the journal as well as a half ounce sample of my Sabbat Flying Ointment.
“Honouring the Covenant to the forbidden teachings of Traditional-Diabolism & Sorcery. Witchcraft issue of Clavicula Nox is available now, containing 60 pages collection of articles, art and rituals pertaining to the darker forms of witchcraft and sorcery. This is a journal of lycanthropy, witchcraft and Devil Worship, outlining aspects of the Nightside Journey for those seeking to attend the Devil’s Sabbatic Congress, who are thirsty for the hidden knowledge concerning the arts of shape-shifting, who seek to commune with spirits, attain visions, experience possession, trance and liberating madness, shamanic death and rebirth, and other facets of Nocturnal Initiation, illuminated only by the Inner Flame. Intoxicate your senses with the Poisons of the Witches’ Art that will open the veils between the worlds and by entering through the Gates of the Underworld receive the Quickening of Spirit.”
Excerpt from my article Intoxication, Seership, and the Poison Path:
“I walk the path of veneficium, of the poisoner. I do not call myself a poisoner because I seek to kill. I am a poisoner because I grow poisonous plants and brew poisonous potions. I eat, drink, inhale, and rub poisons on my skin, not to harm myself, but to absorb the powers of plants for my practices and rituals of magic. Many seemingly harmless substances can be poisons if used enough in excess. We poison ourselves every day with caffeine, cocoa, tobacco, and alcohol. I choose to poison myself in a sacred ritual manner to aid in inducing trance, imbas, visions, possession, and to enhance my abilities of prescience, dream walking, shape-shifting, and speaking with spirits.
Such poisons are known by many names: entheogen, hallucinogen, psychoactive, and intoxicant. We modern witches often hear whispers of flying ointments and mumbles of madness-inducing herbs like aconite and belladonna, but so few of us trace the lore to the pre-Christian ritual uses of these plants and their traditional preparations – let alone actually put them to use in our magic. We fear their misleading and incomplete descriptors of “poison” and “hallucinogen” more than the plants themselves. We fear death and madness, but more than that we fear letting go and losing control. For this is what such plants represent to us: surrender to another’s will, surrender to the loss of self and individuality, surrender to our primal nature, and surrender to the death of ego.
Within these poisonous plants lies a key to the mystery of shamanic death and initiation. With such complete surrender comes great knowledge and wisdom of ourselves, the world around us, and of the universe in its entirety – of the microcosm and macrocosm. Each plant entheogen is a key to an otherworldly door in the World Tree whether it be to the upperworld or underworld, within or without. The secret is to find which key, or combination thereof, opens your preferred door to the mysteries and the path of the mystic and seer. Do you seek a sensual Venusian key of intoxication and ecstasy or a chthonic Saturnine key of death and dismemberment? Often times we do not get to select which poisonous plant will by our ally and it chooses us instead; arriving in dreams, visions, from the hands of a friend, or invading our gardens uninvited.”
Purchase Clavicula Nox here: Ixaxaar.com