Notes on the Use of Lampblack in Folk Magic

Most people have seen lampblack, though they may not be familiar with its name. Lampblack (or lamp-black) is the fine powdery carbon residue that collects on metal lanterns and glass oil lamp globes (from which it takes its name). It is the same black substance that collects around the rim of jar candles, which most people might refer to as soot. Lampblack is the result of a flame burning with too little oxygen, causing carbon to form and disperse into the air, building up on anything that sits above the flame.

Because lampblack is a very, very fine powder (which requires no extensive grinding or additional processing), it is a very useful resource for creating pigments, inks, and paints. It is also something which occurred as a byproduct of normal household lamp use prior to the spread of accessible electric lighting, which made it extremely easy to use in folk magic, various types of sorcery, and folk healing.

Although the word “lampblack” dates back to the late 1500’s, it is somewhat rare to see it directly mentioned in folk magical primary sources and grimoires by that name. Most often, this substance is referred to as soot, carbon-black and smoke-black; or merely inferred as a likely key ingredient in variations of black ink.

In traditional European folk magic, lampblack (along with the various other soots that accumulated in the pre-electric home) can be used to make all kinds of markings, from apotropaic cross-marks to the actual words with which magical practice were committed to paper. Carbon and soot were also used in folk healing practices, incorporated into ointments, patches for open wounds, and pigments that were applied to the skin. The grimoires that these practices are mentioned in don’t mention the reasons they are carried out (which is common in folk magic), but the applications were often used to heal wounds, to alleviate inflammation, protect from illness, and ward off evil. I also appears as a means to mark a person for evil and to tamper with the sights of guns used for vital hunting activities.

In contemporary folk magic, we can take these applications and expand on them by:

• using lampblack and soot in protective written charms, signs and symbols.

• applying ointment of lampblack to the body for protection.

• using lampblack in baneful workings, particularly to do with damage to a target’s reputation.

• using lampblack to thwart workings place against you.