Venefica Magazine

02/05/2020

Blessed Beltane, witches 🔥

07/03/2020

Inspired to share my favorite iteration of the Moon card from any tarot deck- here in Caroline Smith’s Elemental Tarot as Illusion. A stone arch inscribed with planetary symbols, zodiac markers and sigils, against a clear night sky under a bright full moon. A hand arises from the ground before the threshhold, raising high a mask before the face of the moon, casting a distorted shadow upon the ground. Fear is a perspective and not a reality, but of course the Moon card makes her home in these unrealities, and calls us to consider which illusions we allow to control us, and which biases guide our actions 🌙✨

26/02/2020

The yellow tendrils of witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) are the first sign of spring where I come from- just behind the crocuses, these shocks of vibrant color are some of the first on the land as the sun begins his slow return. Infinitely useful to us as both astringent, pain-easing medicine and divining rod, it’s interesting to think about these as the first lessons of Spring- purification, and the stirring of the psychic mind, as the greening earth floods the senses with stimulus once again 🌿💛

24/02/2020

Me and the rest of the feral planet coming into spring like ⚡️🌱✨ Detail from Briton Riviére’s Aphrodite (1902), in a very uncommon scene that doesn’t focus on her erotic potential but on her compelling nature, as packs of wild princes flock to her side. The artist attached a verse from the Homeric hymn to Aphrodite to the back of the painting, which reads “Aphrodite, there clad herself in garment beautiful, the laughter-loving goddess. Gold-adorned, she hasted on her way to Ida’s Mount. Ida, the many-rilled, mother of wild beasts, and in her train, the grey wolf and the bear, the keen-eyed lion and the swift footed pard, the hungers for the kind, all fawning came.” 💗🐺🔥

07/02/2020

Escaped to Seattle this week for a gallery & lecture with Cody Dickerson at Mortlake & Co; well worth the cross-country trek, even just to count goat skulls with old friend and finally meet new ones ✨ Here pictured, some scenes from the gallery, a sighting with John Dee, some moments from the Mortlake shelves, and a vision of Michelle Anderst with Venefica Vol 3 ⚡️⚡️ Seattle’s occult community blows my mind, and I’m grateful to be snuggled up with it any chance I get. Follow along with the rest of the trip in our Instagram story! 🌙 @ Mortlake & Company

05/02/2020

🍄 I’m so inspired after finally seeing last night 🔥 It’s a fascinating look at the research of Paul Stamets, as well as an overview of mycological discovery in medicine, magic, and understanding the human condition. My biggest takeaway was the key role of fungi as the primordial ancestor for life on earth, the beings responsible for pulling life out of the sea, and the possible catalyst for evolving humans to be as dynamic as we are. The documentary cites that early humans would have encountered psilocybin mushrooms as they tracked the animals they hunted, and that these mushrooms would have provided a synesthesia that gave us a sharper edge in survival. This same kind of synesthesia- perceiving one sense as emanating from another, such as hearing colors or tasting emotions- could have played a role in the development of human language and symbolic storytelling, where one image or sound corresponds to a separate, complex idea. Nevertheless, we have always evolved alongside mushrooms, having split off from their branch of the evolutionary tree billions of years ago. We very literally come from them, and are returned to them again when we die, as fungi’s incredible power of creation and destruction transforms us once more. Truly deserving of worship and veneration, mushrooms have always been present in human spiritual development, from ancient Mayan mushroom stones (pictured here) to modern experiments with expanding consciousness. During the Q&A last night, our moderator asked “Why is it that fungi produce compounds that fit perfectly into human brain receptors? Is it because we’re supposed to be working with them?”🍄 Anyway, let’s run to the woods and become mushroom priests, and commune with our oldest ancestor, the primal rot and rebirth of the planet, once more ✨

02/02/2020

The serpents are stirring in the belly of the earth, the final wolf-ravaging moon has arrived, and with eyes toward Spring’s dawn, we light the quickening flame 🔥 Happy Imbolc, witches! Snakes are one of my favorite Imbolc symbols, more than crocuses or wheat-knots or bowls of ewe’s milk. The snake represents the life of the earth, stored overwinter in the depths of the mineral kingdom, the underworld, beginning to slowly coil and uncoil as her hungry body tastes warmth and makes its way toward the surface again 🐍 I hope you all feel that returning pulse of the planet again today! ✨

28/01/2020

A vision from Volume 4 (from “The Soil to Which We’re Bound”) in good company with Peter Grey’s end-of-the-world banger, Apocalyptic Witchcraft 🖤 It’s good to be in league with others who are using their magic to confront the anthropocene head-on. What are your other favorite radical / activist occult texts? ⚡️ photo by

26/01/2020

Marie de Naglowska (1883-1936) was a Russian occultist, author, high priestess, and “Satanic woman” of 1930s Paris. She was heavily linked to the surrealist movement in Paris, and taught and wrote about sexual ritual practice. She founded the Confrerie de la Fléche d’Or (Brotherhood of the Golden Arrow) and also appeared under the name Sophiale de Montparnasse. She’s our witch of the day, may she raise hell wherever she is 🔥

24/01/2020

On the eve of this new moon, we’re finally ready to share the next phase of our plan for world domination 🔥 We’ve thought for a long time that NYC deserves a radical, impactful, and accessible occult conference, where witches can gather to learn and network and explore, and the time for this gathering is now ✨ We’ll be releasing more details as those mysteries are revealed to us, but mark your calendars for Spring Equinox 2021, and we’ll meet you at the veil between worlds ⚡️

20/01/2020

Hi witches! This is .jayne 🔥 the editrix @ Venefica Mag. I wanted to say hi to all our new followers 👋🏼 and give you all some exciting updates! If you’re wondering why you haven’t seen much of us lately, we’re currently on a gap year between Vol 4 and Vols 5 & 6 (coming March and September 2021), which is giving us a moment to breathe and strategize. That said, we have some incredibly exciting announcements coming later this month about *huge* projects in the works ⚡️ The mysteries of the future are still being revealed to me, but from where we’re standing, it looks pretty powerful ✨ Stay tuned for more!

15/01/2020

Summer dreaming on this beautiful winter day, remembering the black henbane flowers from our garden two years ago, gorgeously photographed by 💛 A terrifying and baneful beauty, as any poison-plant-nerd can attest, but with the power to hurl one into a feral madness as well. Of henbane tripping and toxicity, Alexander Kuklin says in “How Do Witches Fly?”: There were animals which looked at me keenly with contorted grimaces and staring, terrified eyes; there were terrifying stones and clouds of mist, all sweeping along in the same direction. They carried me irresistibly with them. Their coloring must be described - but it was not a pure hue. They enveloped in a vague gray light, which emitted a dull glow and rolled onward and upward into a black and smoky sky. I was flung into a flaring drunkenness, a witches' cauldron of madness. Above my head water was flowing, dark and blood-red. The sky was filled with herds of animals. Fluid, formless creatures emerged from the darkness. I heard words, but they were all wrong and nonsensical, and yet they possessed for me some hidden meaning. 🔥

06/01/2020

🌿 The more we learn about the environment and feel its many heartbeats, the more we realize that the call to action on behalf of the verdant world is not one we can ignore. The earth is on fire, is shrouded in toxins, is prey to human greed and human apathy. How are you strengthening the spirits of the wilderness today? How is your belief in the spirits of nature informing your environmental activism? The two are truly the same magick after all ✨

27/12/2019

✨The 12/26 solar eclipse as visible from Singapore 🔥 big haunted sun energy 🖤 Eclipses are often viewed as ill omens or psychic poison, and many witches choose to lay low and not perform any spellwork on these days. That’s a valid perspective, but maybe harnessing that cosmic poison is useful to your work. Don’t be afraid to get creative with forbidden magicks! Remember, it’s not the poison that kills you, it’s the dose. Happy eclipse witches ⚡️

25/12/2019

My holiday wish is to be captured by the goat spirits of the woods and never return 🐐🖤✨ We have one more folktale to share in our Insta story today, stay tuned, it’s a treasure 🔥

24/12/2019

✨✨ STORY TIME ⚡️ During the holidays, it’s traditional to share stories with one another as we gather to feast and celebrate with one another. Storytelling is a large part of our mission too, and our past four volumes of Venefica have examined myth and storytelling in a variety of ways. In the spirit of the season, we’re sharing three beautiful folktales in our Instagram story between today and tomorrow (12/24-25). We have two traditional tales from Russia and Japan, and one especially captivating modern narrative. Check our story to watch them unfold and join us in continuing the ancient tradition of winter storytelling 🔥✨ artwork by Kay Nielsen, “Hansel and Gretel”

23/12/2019

Some fragments from Salvator Rosa’s 1646 banger, “Witches at their Incantations” ✨

22/12/2019

One of the first poisonous flowers I fell in love with was an uncommon candidate- the hellebore, the Lenten or Christmas rose, a war poison of Ancient Greece, which brought the daughters of Argos back from madness and has helped many witches summon many demons. In ancient Pontus (modern day Turkey) wild ducks would feast on hellebores, which would leave the ducks unharmed but would kill any humans who ate their flesh. The bashful little blossoms won’t arrive til spring, but hellebore’s large, deep green leaves are some of the only winter foliage that survives this deep into the year. Here on the darkest night of the year, this baneful bb is a good ally to have 🖤

21/12/2019

A verdant allegory of Winter, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1573. Cloaked in ivy, dried cane, mushroom, we welcome the darkest day of the year- dark like the silent machinations of roots deep within the earth, dark like the new moon, dark like hibernation. Happy winter solstice, witches ❄️✨

20/12/2019

Detail of The Man of Sorrows by Hans Memling (ca.1480), in which the nâchâsh —“the ancient serpent known as the devil, and Śâṭân”— springs up from the wound of Christ. Composition by Robin Isely. Shared from 🔥

11/12/2019

🌙 As the moon waxes toward her peak, we have much to look forward to. This full moon in Gemini is the last of the decade, in conjunction with Venus, Saturn, and Pluto, but in opposition to Gemini’s ruling planet, Mercury. An odd mix, to be sure, spelling head/heart tensions on the surface, and deeper, the possibility to uncover hidden gifts and treasures of the earth. Venus, Saturn, and Pluto form three rising octaves of earth energy- Venus being the fecundity of the surface, Saturn the timeless minerality of mountains, and Pluto the deeply hidden treasures within. The moon, illuminated by the light of the Sun in Sagittarius, the hunter, shines in Gemini, which serves as the communication axis between the virtues of Venus, Saturn, and Pluto, all while our home planet quietly slips from one decade to the next. This mix is loud, tense, potent, and fleeting, and while there’s a lot of ways to engage with this complex web of correspondence, one thing is certain- as we stand on the precipice of another ten years, with so much possibility ahead, this is certainly no time to be shy.

09/12/2019

As we race through brisk winter toward the Solstice, I’ve been researching and exploring the costume and iconography of pagan winter festivals. One of the richest contemporary resources for these costumes is the work of Charles Fréger, a French photographer whose images catalogue the traditional festival dress from 21 countries around the world. When asked about the similarities between the costumes, noting the use of primal symbols of wilderness- bones, animal images, tree branches- he says “It is not about being possessed by a spirit, but it is about jumping voluntarily in the skin of an animal. You decide to become something else. You chose to become an animal, which is more exciting than being possessed by a demon.” Whether or not it’s a better time than demonic possession, here are images from his travels in Switzerland, Portugal, Slovenia, Northern Ireland, Italy, Japan, Germany, and my motherland of Croatia.

06/12/2019

👹 Merry Krampusnacht, witches! I’m late to the party but have a devilish holiday, I love you all & hope you get carried off into the woods and beaten with switches for your crimes 🖤

03/12/2019

“With the witches I dance around you, naked, snake-necklaced, hair in the wind, gashing blood from arms: sex-crazed hags with false teeth and hair, young girls gloriously pornographic, stir the cauldron of ugly oddities, throw in magic salads gathered in the graveyard- a brew with power to draw babes screaming into existence, or hurl them howling hence. The witches lay hold of you, Hekate, World-tree, shake, make tremble on your branches the planets suspended like rare and fragile fruit.” - Jacob Rabinowitz, To Hekate 🔥

13/11/2019

A vision of last night’s ritual altar to the full moon in Ta**us, courtesy of 🔥

11/11/2019

✨ Shoutout to our poison plant creeps with this cemetery hedge datura ⚡️ Now that NYC has torn up most of the streetside datura plants amid panic about plant toxicity, this queen is one of the last remaining bushes in Brooklyn. Visit her by the gates of and sing her praises- Datura, beautiful moon-facing spirit of the night, we will avenge you 🔥

03/11/2019

✨ Still coming off that Samhain energy. A treat for the eyes, here’s Les sorcières allant au Sabbat. Carbon print, presumably a studio sketch of the oil painting on canvas ‘Brujas yendo al Sabbath’ (1878), by the Spanish painter Luis Ricardo Falero. Paris, école nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Until the next sabbath, witches 🔥

30/10/2019

Being caught between the Scorpio new moon and Samhain got me feeling like 💫 Happy Witching season, you magical creatures. May your fires burn higher and hotter than ever 🔥

25/10/2019

💫 Now that V4 is in the rear view, we’re mobilizing for what’s in store next year. While we’ll be taking a gap year between printing new issues of Venefica Mag, that doesn’t mean we’ll be staying silent! We’re offering a limited number of paid writing opportunities through our blog during our sabbatical ✨ Consider this our open call for article submissions, op-ed pitches, and artwork collaborations! Contact us at [email protected] with all of your wildest ideas 🌟

22/10/2019

A look at of “Visualizing Q***r Heresy” by from V3, courtesy of 🖤💗🖤💗

20/10/2019

Oh hey, we finally have a website ✨
https://www.veneficamag.com/

Venefica is a conversation with ancient archetypes, an offering to forgotten gods. It is an invocation of the venefica- the poisoner, the witch as outsider, agitator, and revolutionary. Through education, ritual, scholarship, and art, we seek to conjure a definition of the witch as rebel and arch-tr...

20/10/2019

20/10/2019

🔥 In the Homeric hymns, Hecate is mentioned as an assistant to Persephone, queen of the underworld, guiding her by torchlight in her descent. By Hesiod, whose differing version of events finds Persephone essentially kidnapped by Hades against her will, Hecate hears Persephone’s cries and assists Demeter to search for her missing daughter by torchlight. In any case, the mythological figure of Persephone, while often formidable in her own right, moves between commitments to her husband, Hades of the underworld, and her mother, Demeter of earthly abundance. Hecate, as Persephone’s companion and es**rt through these realms, represents a kind of detached self-possession. She descends with single-pointed focus on the path, secure in her ability to pass with ease through the permeable membrane between worlds.🔥 Io Hekate! Words by Nicole Schild from the brand new V4 ✨

19/10/2019

✨ Thanks to everyone who voted in our poll yesterday! As the year winds to a close, we’re thinking ahead to what’s in store for 2020. We’ll be taking the year off from producing new issues of the magazine, but that doesn’t mean we’ll disappear! We’re partnering with some incredible witches, educators, and artists to bring you a full calendar of events, in an effort to build community and put our scholarship & art into the world. We’re dreaming up lecture series, open rituals, and immersive art experiences for the new year, so definitely stay tuned for more updates as these ideas begin to materialize ⚡️ photo by Riv Tea / Damon Stang

17/10/2019

✨ “My thesis is not that we anchor the witch in history, but that we understand that witchcraft is a set of relationships whose rhythm is that of the moon, the stars, the sun, and earth. A witchcraft that adapts to the state of the world as it is, not backing into an imagined past.” Peter Gray, Apocalyptic Witchcraft. Hope you’re enjoying the reaping, witches 🔥

14/10/2019

Just a dreamy, gorgeous moment from our V4 launch party ✨ Happy moonday, witches ⚡️

13/10/2019

🔥 “Of manly form, erect, of bounteous mind, illustrious dæmon, nurse of human kind:
Immortal, earthly, bane of monsters fell, 'tis thine; blest maid, on woody hills to dwell:
Foe of the stag, whom woods and dogs delight, in endless youth who flourish fair and bright.
O, universal queen, august, divine, a various form, Cydonian pow'r, is thine:
Dread guardian Goddess, with benignant mind auspicious, come to mystic rites inclin'd”
✨ From the Orphic hymn to Artemis, here depicted in a 16th century painting from the Emilian School. Happy full hunter’s moon, witches 🏹

12/10/2019

⚡️⚡️ We’re still coming down from our V4 launch party, swimming in gratitude for everyone who came out, joined in ritual, called, texted, and showed us love this week 🖤 Here’s just a few teasers from and .jayne as we slowly return to the material plane, but thank you to everyone who made the launch of this magical issue so special and transformative, who helped us build out this space, and who honored us with your presence 🔥🔥 @ The Deep End

10/10/2019

It’s party time, witches ⚡️🔥✨ (yes, this is a giant powder blue coffin) 💙 See you all tonight!