Supernatural: John Winchester's Journal

by Alexander C. Irvine

amulet inscribed with the initials of the three Magi—Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar—is said

nearly universal folk-magic tradition that crossroads are gateways between worlds. Robert Johnson: “I went to the crossroads / trying to flag a ride.” And then he writes “Hellhound on My Trail,” too. Wonder if he knew something…

Another medieval note: criminals and suicides used to be buried at crossroads. A sacrifice to the spirits

Papa Legba in voodoo magic is the loa of

crossroads. You go to him if you want to talk to the iwa, the gods (going back to Yoruba traditions). He is the gatekeeper, also perhaps a psychopomp—like Eshu (sometimes called Ellegua in the Yoruba/Lukumi, later Exu in Brazilian folk magic). Eshu is the patron of travelers, god of crossroads. He’s also a trickster, sometimes a cruel one. Both Eshu and Papa Legba must be the first ...

Veve is inscribed on the floor in some kind of powder. It can be anything from flou...

The houngan (man) or mambo (woman) is the priest. You need them to talk to the loas, also called orisha

Orisha are said to be beings who manifest aspects of the natural

world, and aspects of a nameless god. So they straddle the physical and spirit worlds. The bokor is a magician-priest who can do both divination/séance magic and darker magi...

Bokor are the ones who ma...

Ogun is t...

of iron, smithy, hunting, fire, etc. He’s a wa...

veves: Baron Samedi, loa of the dead,

Eros and Thanatos, all in one, dressed in tux and top hat. If you want to talk to him, bring plenty of booze and tobacco.

Maman Brigitte, Baron Samedi’s wife, vulgar like her husband, likes to drink hot peppers. Protects gravestones if they are sanctified to her. She and Baron Samedi are related to the Ghede, a family of spirit...

Pseudomonarchia has much in common with the first book of the Lemegeton, called Goetia. A lengthy catalog of demons, with variations on their names, notes on their appearances, and brief instructions on conjuration and abjuration. Translated

Goetia has better diagrams, and is more useful for actual conjuration.

In Islam,

"Azrael" does not appear in any versions of either the Bible or the Koran).

beings that can change their shape at will, or who undergo recurrent changes.

After living 1000 years, kitsune acquires its ninth tail along with the ability to see and hear anything happening anywhere in the world. They hate dogs, and the presence of a dog sometimes

makes them revert when they have assumed human form.

Kitsunetsuki

term for possession by a kitsune, which causes the sufferer to behave like a fox and speak strange languages. Exorcism must take place in a shrine to Inari. Kitsune often carry round balls alight with kitsune-bi, foxfire. A human who gets one of these balls has leverage over the kitsune. As tricksters, kitsune often target pride and greed, taking people down a peg. Sometimes they’re just malevolent, but this is rare. More likely to find them in abandoned houses, where

RAKSHASA:

TENGU:

All this be guarded here in time, and there in eternity.

Tanakh.

Determined will is the beginning of all magical operations…. It is because men do not perfectly imagine and believe the result that the arts (of magic) are uncertain, while they might be perfectly certain.—Paracelsus

Qliphoth?

Who that beareth it upon him shall not dread his enemies, to be overcome, nor with no manner of poison be hurt, nor in no need misfortune, nor with no thunder he shall not be smitten nor lightning, or in no fire be burnt soddainly, nor in no water be drowned. Nor he shall not die without shrift, nor with theeves to be taken. Also he shall have no wrong neuther of Lord or Lady. This be in the names of God and Christ † Messias † Sother † Emannell † Saibaoth †

Bloody Mary:

Either it will kill you, gouge your eyes out, or mutilate your face. Why the hell would anyone do this? In

Aztecs created tezcatlipoca, “smoking mirrors,” out of mercury poured into a bowl.

at the moment of a death, all of the mirrors in a house should be covered so they don’t trap the departing spirit.

bad luck to break mirrors because they’re reflections of the soul, but also because they hold the future. That’s why the seven years of bad luck. You’ve broken your future.

Witch bottle:

Apotropaic:

acheri.

creeps “beside the men who pass along among the tombs, and in untimely season I assume the form of the dead;

Torah or Talmud about red strings, also no mention in written Kabbalah. But an old folk superstition states that tying a red string around the body is a segulah, a protective act.

first Sephirah, Keter, is the Ayn Sof Aur, the beginning point that no mind can comprehend but that we need to grant so that there can be a beginning point. With Keter, Binah, Chakhmah, time and space begin. These are the Crown, Wisdom, and Understanding—rest of creation comes from these.

quincunx

nahual

yenaldooshi attacks in two ways: it sprinkles a toxic powder made from corpses,

which causes lingering and ultimately fatal sickness, and it uses a blowgun to shoot a small pellet of bone into the victim’s body. This also causes a sickness that will eventually kill the victim. Yenaldooshi

Abraxas,

From his name is derived the magical word Abracadabra.

Finding that the seven Greek letters contained in his name amounted to 365, the number of days in the year, they placed at his command several spirits who presided over the 365 heavens and to whom they attributed 365 virtues, one for each day.