She made that annoying throat noise when she tried to hold a laugh in, then got quiet. I really didn’t understand the late call but she asked,
“Have your consultations fees changed?”
“No, same price as always.”
That’s when she started telling me about a friend of hers who had a creepy ex that was stalking her. Guy was a mean drunk from Tennessee that people said was a “witch”. Now in the American South, specifically people who practice Appalachian Mountain magic or Powwow from Pennsylvania, a witch is not a healer like me. To them, a witch is a Satanist. And if he or she is a Pagan, they fall under the same heading. And by “pagan” they mean any non-Christian faith.
I study and practice Powwow and Appalachian folk magic as well, I’m still a novice at it. But I have never subscribed to that ignorant Christian bias about witches. The word witch comes from a variety of backgrounds in Europe. But the most accepted origins state that the word comes from English and German. The brothers Grimm actually believed it came from the German word “wikkōn” (sacred).
Others claim it comes from the word hægtesse or “hedge rider” which is the original version of the word hag. For we ride the hedge or intersection between this world and the next. Regardless, even though what a lot of these folk healers in the mountains and in Pennsylvania practice is magic, they don’t see it as witchcraft (confusing right?). Instead they view it as an extension of God’s power. They view what they do as something separate and witchcraft as always black magic.
Her friend lives in one of these old Southern areas where they still practice the ways of their ancestors. She started to suspect this man was a (Black) Witch sometime after dating him. Gabby told me that he had the uncanny ability to know what she was thinking.
“So, he’s intuitive, that could be anything. Lots of people are good at figuring other people out, especially when you date.”
“She says that he sends something to spy on her.”
That one made me stop. “Okay, start from the beginning.”
“She says that after she stopped answering his calls, a crow would just show up in the night or the day and spy on her through her window.”
“Animals often do things like that. A lot of local animals do that with my neighbors.”
“Yeah but it doesn’t even caw. It doesn’t look for food, and it’s there whenever she doesn’t answer his phone calls,”
I looked at my nice, warm bed and thought “fuck my life.” I really wasn’t in the mood for this shit. However, if something happened to this woman later on I would never forgive myself. Gabby wouldn’t either.O
“Okay, give me a few hours.”
After hanging up with her. I got dressed. Put on my Key Charm. And then I took a Lyft over to one of the local cemeteries on Flagler street. I waited till it was open after dawn.
Got some breakfast, bought a few offerings and I pretended to go there to “grieve”. I dropped nine coins at the gate for Orisha Oya for her blessing. After I got in, I left food under a Tree. Then I walked the cemetery going deeper down into it. People mistakenly believe that you need to do this at night. The dead are active all the time.
The offering was for the Ghede or Guardian of the Cemetery (Haitian Vodou). I’m not an initiate but I know enough to ask the keeper of the dead for permission to talk to someone there. After leaving the food and a cigar as well as pouring a libation of rum over the tree, I let myself be guided by the Ghede. “Protector the Dead, child of Papa Ghede, reveal to me the dead who will answer my questions,” I walked deeper and finally found three Graves that called me to them. A family grave.
Two parents and one child. I felt a deep sadness that made tears run down my cheek and then realized it wasn’t me. It was residual. I started using the Key Charm I consecrated to Papa Legba to shield. The sadness left me.
I sat down with the flowers as an offering, pretended to be praying, or rather I didn’t pretend. I was calling on the family to rise and speak to me. Their spirits rose. I didn’t see anything, but I felt them. I felt them ask what I wanted and I sent the feeling to them that I would aid them if they aided me.
A nice old lady walked around me with her granddaughter and said, “Pobre Niño,” (Poor Boy). She thought I was in prayer for my family. As bad as I felt I might as well have been. I think all three of them died in an accident. But I can’t be sure.
I just felt them having a normal day. Nothing special. Mother was conversing with the father about what they needed to buy. I think groceries. Kid was playing with a toy.
Then, suddenly, someone plowed into them. I am not seeing any of this. Just feeling it. Feeling the extreme shock in my chest like a bullet. One minute you’re going for groceries or whatever, next minute you’re dead.
It happened quickly. None of them felt it. They were in the dark void somewhere. They didn’t know where they were and hadn’t figured out that they were dead. Or that it was 2018 and not 1980.
It was sad. They felt my sadness. They asked what was wrong and I replied again with feeling rather than thought,
“Nothing, I just need some help. Think you can help me find answers?”
“What do you need?”
The feeling came from the woman this time.
“A lady is in some kind of trouble. But I don’t know what. Can you take a look for me?”
I realized the strangest thing. The way they saw me in the spirit world was that I was a lost child. They thought they were alive and helping out someone’s stray kid. I suddenly saw the family in detail. I saw the little girl too.
And I could hear them and talk to them. And I realized that this was limbo, because the void was gray and stormy with a ball of light behind the clouds that looked like the sun in the air.
“¿Qué necesitas papi? ¿Estás perdido?”
(What do you need Papi? Are you lost?)
The woman cuddled my face close to her and for that moment I almost cried in my physical body. So sweet and so kind. They should never have been taken from this world. I realized how I needed to do this.
“Tengo miedo, creo que el nuevo novio de mami es un hombre malo. Creo que está haciendo magia negra. ¿Cómo puedo saberlo?”
(I’m scared, I think Mommy’s new boyfriend is a bad man. I think he’s doing black magic. How can I tell?)
I felt so dishonest doing it like this. But they saw me as a child, and I knew then that if I told them the truth they wouldn’t believe me or they would have a violent reaction. I needed to wait till afterwards. The woman looked through my mind. It was weird, like someone using the internet.
She ignored everything else and then finally found the piece of information she needed. She used my ex as a connection to find the young model and her ex. She pulled free of my mind and she asked her husband for help. He held her hand and then we were Astral projected from limbo to the girl in question. She has nice curly dark red brown hair.
Pale skin with a dimple. Beautiful. She had that Southern style accent that I had only heard a few times in my life. We had gone across time and space to see her sleeping. This couldn’t have been happening right then and there.
I saw her going to sleep scared every night. I felt her heart beat extra fast like a cardiac arrest. And by her window was that crow. Only it wasn’t the poor crow. The animal was being used as a vessel for something else.
It was entering her dreams at night. Giving her nightmares. It fed her fear to the man. Like her fear was nourishment for him. Then the crow stopped, it looked around as if it felt someone watching it.
And I heard a man’s voice say,
“Ain’t polite to stare right?”
I saw the thing smile with human teeth and we were suddenly back in limbo. The little girl looked at her Mom and said.
“Mami, ¿qué fue esa cosa fea?”
(Mommy, what was that ugly thing?)
I already knew what it was; the parents as well, they just weren’t going to say it in front of the child or me because they saw me as a child. I interrupted and said,
“Do you want to talk to my older brother about it?”
They shook their heads yes. I prayed to Legba to send a spirit who looked like the child me, to play with the little girl and to change my form to my adult self. I sent the children away to play. I asked what was wrong and they told me. The woman spoke to me in English this time.
“That man is a Satanist. The thing he has with him is a demonic helper. We used to hear of things like that in Cuba all of the time. In the old days, my grandma used to say that the helper was an extension of the witch’s soul. It’s always done with a pact. You need someone strong to break this from your mother. Maybe a priest or a Babalawo or…”
“A Palero” the man interrupted, “A good strong Palero,” The woman didn’t like the suggestion, but she nodded.
Palo Mayombe is a religion originally from the Congo area in Africa. The Slaves brought it to the Americas. Palo is a Spanish word for “stick” because of the magic sticks they use. Most people have a nasty opinion of them because a lot of people misuse the religion. Of course I have seen Christians misuse Christianity for a long time.
Killing or maiming in the name of Jesus. I told them I knew someone who could help and they seemed to sigh in relief. The woman told me to talk to him fast or my “mother” could die or go crazy one day and kill herself. I prayed to Legba again and asked him to open a gateway to cross them over. He did, and it looked like the mirage of a supermarket.
“Sorry for taking so much of your time, I need to get my brother home. Weren’t you going to get a few things?”
The woman looked like she had a sudden revelation. Like it was the most important thing in the world for her to remember. The man suddenly snapped out of it and remembered too. They had come for groceries. How could they forget? I asked Legba to guide them to the gate.
They walked towards it and the little girl said bye to me. They entered as if in a trance, the image became a huge gateway of light. Like a reverse black hole. A hole in time and space that was gold and white and just felt clean and pure. And suddenly it blew up into light and I was back inside my body.
I snapped out of it. My body had slept while I did this. Or maybe I didn’t sleep but simply entered a trance. Whatever it was, I reached out with my energy to see if they were there. But it was all gone.
The pain, the sadness, all of it gone. No trace of anyone having ever inhabited that grave. A truly dead grave is what I call it. A grave that is just a grave. Devoid of anything else.
There might as well have no longer been bodies inside of it. If a black witch had tried to steal the bones or bind their spirits now it would be useless. You can’t do that with someone who has crossed and if you do, it goes bad. It rebounds on you. Crossed Souls only return when they feel like it.
I learned that much right away. I had my answer, an actual demonic familiar. Jesus. This one was old school. I noticed how hot it had been and that the sun was up higher than before.
I was gone for maybe two, or three hours? I left the cemetery and asked Oya to close the doorway stating that my business was now concluded. I walked across the street to the same bakery and ordered some food. I also ordered a water bottle. I went to one of the trees in the back and used the water to cleanse and ground with the tree. Then I drank some of the water and poured the rest of it on the road to expel negativity.
After taking another Lyft to go home I still felt dirty. Like Limbo was so impure that I needed a spiritual bath. I cleaned with lavender and sea salt and bathed. Then I took a nap. I needed it.
When I woke up it was 1pm. I did my day to day chores and then decided to research what kind of Demon that could have been. When you know the identity of the creature being used it helps you know who the pact was made with. Then I remembered what the dead woman and man had said: Get help. I called in Roberto.
He’s an older Santero from Cuba. He practices something a little different though. He was like my grandma, a sort of Eclectic Santero. That’s a term I invented for older white Cuban families that mixed different religions together with Santeria. They used Palo and heavy doses of Spanish Witchcraft in their Santeria.
He had a guardian that was of Palo Mayombe, given to him by his teacher. However, he wasn’t a Palero. Like my grandma he mixed various African religions and even the Order of Arara (Cuban Vudu) together with Santeria and European witchcraft from Spain. These are small families that do this. Not a whole new religion or anything. My grandmother knew how to do it because she was related to slaves who married their former masters once slavery was abolished in Cuba.
They put their knowledge together. It was taught to her that way. I suspected something similar for Roberto’s heritage. My actual Madrina from Santeria had known a woman from a similar background. She used a dead Gypsy and would gaze into a black scrying mirror to know things.
I let my research go and went down stairs to knock on his door. He answered and I walked in. I told him the whole story and with those serious pale blue eyes he said.
“Yes, we have animals and other creatures that help us out in our faith. My Godfather had a dead dog. He gave it to me in a pot and said it would protect me. And he does. That’s who I call on to fight for me. But this man isn’t a Cuban, is he?”
I shook my head no.
“Okay cause I was about to say, that doesn’t sound like Santeria to me. That sounds like pure diabolical shit,”
I had to chuckle at the way he said it and I asked.
“Will you help me out? We can split the profits,”
He smiled and told me he’d have done it for free. But I always give people their due. I asked what we should do now, and he said it was time to ask his Animal Guide to look into it. Now at this point I need to censor what happened: One, because he had to perform a ritual that is secret and I swore to not divulge it and two, because even if I could speak on it, I have no idea what he was saying or even the significance of the things he did. He spoke not in Lukumi, because I have heard that language before but in another tongue altogether.
I knew it was of African origin but that was it. He took the Pot out and I saw the Guide. I will not be too descriptive now because all of this is to be kept as secret as possible but the animal spoke to me and asked me what I wanted. I told him I wanted to know the identity of the creature that cast me out of the woman’s bedroom. He showed me an image of a monster with three heads: The head of a man, a raven, and an owl.
He showed me a seal for summoning the Fallen and I knew it had to be a Goetic Seal. He told me the man made a pact with this creature for money specifically, but that it can be called upon for other things as well. The Guide told me that Owls were special animals gifted in Astral Projection. And that the entity was partially inside the man, using him as a vessel sometimes but most people didn’t know or realize that. This was because the man needed the charisma to be a good businessman and it allowed the Demon more access to the human world by using the person as a doorway.
It gave him unnatural powers. The entity becomes a raven when it’s going to torment someone, and a man when possessing a human. The three-fold nature of the beast. It takes these many forms to mock the Trinity he explained. I wondered if it could be possibly in an owl but it told me not to worry.
Roberto left me his entity to care for me. It followed me back up the stairs and I started researching demons that took on the appearance of those two animals, a man and “demon of wealth” because he told me that it helped him with money. I had a lot of false starts. Many demons handle money and promise treasures and more than one take on those type of animal forms. Finally, he gave me a piece of advice: Look for just one type of animal the demon appears as and forget the wealth part.
He told me to use a raven. There were two demons that appeared but when I saw the Seal for the second one, I knew I had my man. The entity in question is named Stolas. Besides astrology, he handles the understanding of “precious stones.” I figured it was time to call Gabby and tell her what I had found.
After describing the part about precious stones, she informed me that the guy made his money in a pawn shop and is very good at getting the best Jewelry. He seemed to make most of his business on that. Now I had him. She also confirmed that the young woman with curly reddish-brown hair and accent is her friend and that she hasn’t had a good night sleep because she was racked with nightmares.
“You didn’t think to tell me that part earlier? It could have made a difference.”
“Why? You got advice straight from the dead of the cemetery.”
“Gabby, the fact that it was causing nightmares could have helped me figure out how to find it and bind it faster.”
“You’ve bound it already?”
“No, I needed to let you know and get a few confirmations first. Now I am certain this is the thing bothering your friend. Question is, how are we going to deal with it?”
“Beats the shit out of me,” she said.
“Your friend needs to have her house exorcised by a Pastor.”
“It’s in her house?”
“No, but it will clean out the bad energy and help block it from returning. It isn’t actually entering her dreams, it’s going near her rest. We need to block it from her property.”
I explained to her that some churches will nail crosses on every corner of a wall. Anoint areas with holy oil and pray out loud as well as bury crosses or saint medals in the ground to prevent and block entry from something there. I also told her to get anointed once a week by her priest or pastor to bless her. Therefore, if it tries to enter her dreams through the dream world, it won’t be able to. We needed to teach her to fight.
Lots of Christians are under the mistaken belief that prayer is all they have. Prayer is the basis of what they have along with faith. Exorcisms can be used to counter negative witchcraft. Medals and crosses can act as warding charms. Anointing can block spells from even touching you.
You just need to have faith. All of these things are magic. Simply, Christians call it faith or the power of God. And all of these things are true. It is Faith.
It is the power of the God. But it can’t be limited to a single explanation. There’s too much to explain. If God or whatever you call the divine can be explained, chances are it isn’t the real thing. After giving her a crash course in spiritual warfare which I had her take notes on extensively, she called up her friend.
Repeated all the info to her and the same evening, called on the Minister of the local church. He didn’t have time to organize a Prayer Warrior meeting where they did the things described, but he gave her a plain wooden cross given to him by his mentor as a gift and told her to nail it over her bed at night. That Jesus would protect her. Later when that thing showed up it was pissed. It was barred from being near the window at all.
It couldn’t enter her dreams either. She was scared of the frustrated noises it made. Almost man like. But other than that, slept well after she played religious music on her phone. It flew away. She used the YouTube app on her phone to put the music on loop so that if it returned it would hear the same music over and over again.
It tried to return at three in the morning and she said that the power it radiated was strong enough to put pressure on her ears. But it couldn’t enter the house. The cross and the faith she put in it was too powerful. It fled again. She slept like a baby and as the days passed, it couldn’t re-enter her dreams.
The Prayer Warriors had a meeting. They didn’t like that I was advising her since they believed I was “of the devil”. But they at least agreed that yes there was a demon that had to be cast out. They camped out on her property for days and warded it up with crosses and holy oil. It appeared again and this time he was met with the leader of the Prayer group calling on Jesus to remove it.
Meanwhile, the man we all suspected of this mess, was having a very bad time. As I mentioned before, Christian exorcisms can be used as a form of counter-sorcery against a warlock. His business started to tank and fast. His health got worse. And one day he was pulled over by the Cops for driving under the influence.
I let the Christians weaken him while Roberto and I formed a plan of attack. We finally decided to do an Eclectic ritual on a Railroad at night. Railroads are also like a type of Crossroads in our religion. And this one was just far away enough from people that we could operate privately. I took a piece of jewelry I bought at a dollar store and charmed it with a spell to bind an entity to it.
After that, he began the conjuration of the entity which again, is secret. All I can say is that it uses religious songs to make a spirit appear. I started to feel nauseous. I closed my eyes and saw the poor bird screaming as this shadowy thing was leaving his body. I started to pray to Oshun the Orisha of love who also rules animals and begged her to protect the animal and shield it from pain.
I can only pray it survived. Then I saw a man in the dark somewhere outside with his car. He doubled over in pain too. The thing appeared from them both as a huge black shimmer in the dark. Like a heat vapor made out of darkness.
I did my part next. I started using a special wand for cursing, binding and commanding spirits (blasting wand). I commanded the entity inside of the jewel and to be bound as long as it was not destroyed. Over and over and over I did this while using the wand as well as a bell, a spell book, and a candle to compel it. He used the songs to force it to want to enter.
While I used coercion, he used desire. Until finally the last of the shadow slide inside and the pressure on our heads stopped. We then put everything away. We cleansed the ground and blessed it with holy water while grounding and cleansing ourselves. We went our way.
We couldn’t go to a church. All the churches here have security cameras.
“What do you want to do about the thing in the bracelet then?”
I thought about it, then it hit me.
“Can you take us to the cemetery at this location on Flagler Street?”
I showed it to him on Google Maps and he took us there. I hate jumping a wall, especially in the middle of the damn night when there are businesses and homes. We parked the car in the back of the cemetery. I apologized to Oya for not coming in the front and left her a special offering. He’s surprisingly agile for an older man.
I’m not. I am chubby. And short. And I lack coordination. But I eventually climbed up there.
Nearly busted my ass doing it as a matter of fact. I took the mini flash light out and hoped their security sucked. It did (thank the Gods). And we found the Graves I had used weeks before to get my answers. I started to pray and I asked La Virgen del Carmen (The Virgin of Mount Carmel) to intercede on our behalf with the people that were crossed over.
To ask them to speak to us. They appeared again as strange lights in the air above us. They almost looked like bioluminescent light from underwater animals, but in the shape of humans. We felt a peace and a calm and I asked them if they could bless the ground with the Virgin and bind the entity within their grave as a Prison. They said yes. He took out the gardening tool he brought and dug not too deep, but deep enough to bury the jewel.
Once there, I prayed,
“In the name of Jesus Christ by virtue of his Mother, the most Holy Virgin Mary, ever immaculate, I release you to the custody of these, your jailers. By the Holy Cross, Amen,”
Roberto spoke the Our Fathers and Hail Mary’s to finish it all. With the item buried on holy ground and guarded by three Heavenly Spirits empowered by Mary, we knew it was done. Getting out was harder for me than getting in. Roberto ended up grabbing large rocks for me to stand on and pushing me up first. Then took the rocks away and practically parkoured his way up and out.
We drove home and that very night, the raven didn’t return. After a few days, the warriors and minister believed that it was done. And I agreed. Today I found out the man in question lost everything and was arrested for unpaid parking tickets. And the young model moved away from that house to another city.
She’s decided to lay low. But she now attends church and makes sure she wards her car and her home with holy items. All this went on for weeks before my post on the consultations. Therefore, it is still very recent. The model herself gave both me and Roberto a hefty reward.
We didn’t have to split anything because she both equally gave us the same amount of money. Gabby also decided to tip us for the advice and the information. That is why I needed at least a week of rest before doing consultations again. But something is still bothering me about this. I wonder if there is an Owl out there with a third party of the entity inside of it.
Adventures of A Mage In Miami 
One thought on “Witch Bird”