Sulfur powder (Brimstone)

After Odysseus killed the suitors in his hall, Homer has him call for sulfur and fire to purge the house of their deaths.

Origin & Traditional Use

Sulfur is a yellow mineral found around volcanoes and hot springs. It was burned to fumigate houses, ships and wine barrels, and became one of the three ingredients of gunpowder and the tip of early matches.

Uses by Tradition

Witchcraft & Folk Magick

• Fumigation: burned on charcoal to drive spirits and bad influences out of a house.
• Banishing powder: mixed with salt and pepper and sprinkled where you want something gone.

Hoodoo & Rootwork

• Hot Foot powder: sulfur is a common ingredient with red pepper and salt, laid where an enemy walks to drive them away.
• Enemy and crossing work: added to goofer dust and similar powders to bring trouble on a target.
• Jinx-breaking: burned to fume out a jinxed house or object.

Ceremonial & Occult Magick

• Fumigation of the circle: sulfur appears among the materials used to purge a space before an operation.

Demonology & Black Magick

• Spirit compulsion: in the Lesser Key of Solomon, a spirit that will not appear is threatened by placing its name and seal in a box with sulfur, asafoetida and other foul-smelling things, and holding it over the fire.
• Cursing: sulfur is laid in hexing powders and burned over a target’s name-paper to bring them pain and trouble.
• Binding: added to a jar with a name-paper to hold an enemy in a burning, stinking condition.

A Simple Working

• Light a charcoal disc in a heatproof dish filled with sand.
• Open a window to let what you drive out leave.
• Sprinkle a small pinch of sulfur onto the charcoal.
• Carry the dish from the back of the house toward the front door.
• Command whatever does not belong to leave.
• Finish by laying a line of salt across the threshold.

Pairs Well With

• Asafoetida, the classic partner in Goetic compulsion and exorcism fumes.
• Cayenne pepper, for Hot Foot and enemy powders.
• Coarse sea salt, to seal the house after fumigation.
• A black chime candle, for banishing and cursing.

Lore & History

The fire and brimstone that rained on Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis made sulfur the smell of hell in Christian imagination. Pliny the Elder described its use in religious rites to purify houses.

What You Receive

Sulfur, fine yellow powder, available in 1 oz, 4 oz and 1 lb.