Inner Circle

The Baneful Archive

A record of harmful workings as historical texts actually set them down: quoted from the edition they were printed in, with the page they stand on. Baneful is the older word for magic worked to harm.

These are documents, not instructions. Midnight Spellcraft neither recommends nor condones the use of anything recorded here. Where a working called for something this site will not put in front of a reader, the Archive says what the text asked for and goes no further.

Every source is public domain, and so is every translation used. Where a passage has been rendered into modern English, the original is printed beside it.

What it does All To harm To accuse To bind To ruin
Source Any Reginald Scot 1584 Henry Cornelius Agrippa 1651 Theocritus 1889 S. L. MacGregor Mathers 1889 Charles Godfrey Leland 1899 S. L. MacGregor Mathers 1904
Or start from a thing sympathetic magic6 theft5 Goetia4 Lemegeton4 spirit4 Solomon4 binding4 conjuration3 wax2 pins2 psalms2 fraud2 false accusation2 curse2 vessel of brass2 poppet1 image magic1 needle1

Every entry, oldest source first

Reginald Scot · 1584
The Waxen Image
To injure or kill a named person by working upon an image made in their name.
To harm
poppet image magic wax needle
Reginald Scot · 1584
To Put Out the Thief's Eye
To injure an unknown thief until the pain makes him give himself away.
To harm
theft footprint nail blinding
Reginald Scot · 1584
The Boiling Stone
To identify a thief from among named suspects, by a sign the operator produces himself.
To accuse
theft ordeal threshold pebbles
Reginald Scot · 1584
The Sieve and the Shears
To name a thief from among suspects by the turning of a suspended sieve.
To accuse
theft sieve shears divination
Reginald Scot · 1584
The Hazel Wand
To beat or maim a thief or any other enemy at a distance.
To harm
beating hazel substitute body barbarous names
Reginald Scot · 1584
The Hundred and Eighth Psalm
To kill, by reciting a psalm against a named person.
To harm
death psalms priests imprecation
Theocritus · 1889
The Magic Wheel
To compel a man who has left to return, and to poison him if the compulsion fails.
To bind
compulsion love magic wax Hecate
Charles Godfrey Leland · 1899
The Lemon and the Black Pins
To make evil befall a named person, by giving them a lemon stuck with black pins.
To harm
lemon pins Diana Italian witchcraft
S. L. MacGregor Mathers · 1904
The Spirits' Chain
To punish a summoned spirit that will not appear, by burning its seal.
To bind
seal Goetia Lemegeton spirit
S. L. MacGregor Mathers · 1904
The Constraint
To force a summoned spirit to appear by threatening to imprison it.
To bind
Goetia Lemegeton spirit constraint
S. L. MacGregor Mathers · 1904
The Vessel of Brass
To imprison a summoned spirit in a brass vessel instead of letting it go.
To bind
Goetia Lemegeton vessel of brass imprisonment
Henry Cornelius Agrippa · 1651
Of Fascination
To harm a person by looking at them.
To harm
evil eye fascination the eye binding
S. L. MacGregor Mathers · 1904
The First Conjuration
To summon a named spirit before it has refused anything.
To bind
Goetia Lemegeton conjuration spirit
S. L. MacGregor Mathers · 1889
The Hours of Hatred
To time a working of ruin, discord or death.
To ruin
Key of Solomon planetary hours Saturn Mars

The texts themselves are for the Inner Circle.

What each source says, in its own words and in modern English, with the page it stands on and the commentary that goes with it. Everything above is yours to read whoever you are.

See the Inner Circle

← Membership