How to Use It
Witchcraft & Folk Magick
- Black salt: blend a pinch into coarse salt to make a darkened salt for thresholds and windowsills, then sweep it out after a set number of days.
- Absorption bowl: set a small dish of the powder in a room after an argument or an unwelcome visitor, then discard it outdoors.
- Petition ink: stir a little into gum arabic and water for a rough black ink to write banishing petitions.
Demonology & Black Magick
- Hexing powders: charcoal gives many black powders their colour, mixed with graveyard dirt, sulphur or pepper and laid where the target will walk.
- Binding jars: a layer of charcoal over a name-paper smothers and darkens the person bound beneath it.
A Simple Working
- Measure three tablespoons of sea salt into a small bowl.
- Add half a teaspoon of activated charcoal and stir counterclockwise until the salt turns an even grey-black.
- Add a pinch of black pepper.
- Say plainly what you want gone from the house as you stir.
- Lay a thin line across the inside of your front threshold.
- After three days, sweep it out the door and away from the house.
Pairs Well With
- Sea salt, the base of any homemade black salt.
- Black pepper, for bite in banishing mixes.
- Gum arabic, to bind the powder into ink.
- A black chime candle, for banishing on the same night.
What You Receive
Activated charcoal, fine black powder, available in 1 oz, 2 oz and 1 lb.
Origin & Lore
Charcoal is one of humanity’s oldest materials, used for fuel, smelting and drawing. Activated charcoal is made by heating carbon-rich material with steam or gas, which multiplies its surface area. Its everyday purpose is filtering: water, air and liquids are passed through it to strip out impurities.
Charcoal is what fire leaves behind: wood taken past burning into something black, light and porous. Activated charcoal goes further, opening a honeycomb of microscopic pores that grip whatever passes through.
Charcoal is among the oldest pigments on earth: much of the black in Palaeolithic cave art, including the paintings at Chauvet in France, is charcoal. The witch’s black salt is a modern recipe, usually made from salt with cauldron scrapings, ash or charcoal.
Did You Know?
Activated charcoal was the filter in the first effective gas masks, developed in 1915 during the First World War.



