Magical correspondences of the Sulfur Tuft

The Sulfur Tuft mushroom (Hypholoma fasciculare) is a striking, poisonous fungus with bright yellow-green caps and bitter taste. While not traditionally used in folk magic because of its toxicity, modern practitioners sometimes assign correspondences based on its nature, habitat, and folklore. Here’s a possible magickal profile:

Magickal Correspondences of Sulfur Tuft

Element: Fire (its sulfurous color, burning bitterness, toxic potency) Planet: Saturn (associated with poison, decay, boundaries, endings) Gender: Masculine.

Energy Type: Baneful, protective, transformative

Magickal Uses

Banishing & Warding: Like many poisonous fungi, it can be worked with energetically (not physically ingested or handled without care) to drive away unwanted influences, spirits, or people.

Protection: Its toxicity makes it symbolically useful in protective charms and wards, especially against psychic attack.

Shadow Work: Represents the hidden, dangerous aspects of the self; can be invoked in meditation for confronting one’s darker traits.

Decay & Transformation: Grows on rotting wood, symbolizing the cycle of death feeding life. Useful in rituals of endings, composting old energies, and transformation.

Poison Path Practice: For practitioners of baneful plant spirit work, it may serve as a teacher of boundaries and the dangers of misuse.

Caution

Sulfur tuft is highly toxic and should never be ingested. Any physical use should be limited to photographs, symbolic representation, or gathering with gloves for use in spell jars, charms, or offerings (and disposed of carefully back into nature).

Spell of the Lantern King

Purpose: To drive away illusions, banish harmful influences, and protect yourself from being “led astray.”

Ingredients

• An image or dried piece of sulfur tuft (optional; symbolic representation is safest)

• A black candle (banishing)

• A pinch of salt

• A sprig of protective herb (rosemary, sage, or mugwort) A small piece of iron (a nail, key, or charm)

  
  

Steps

Prepare the Circle: Place the black candle at the center, with the sulfur tuft (or its image) in front of it. Ring the setup with salt to mark protection.

Call the Power of Decay: Light the candle and say:

“Lantern of the Forgotten King, Guard my path from false and sting. What is bitter, let it fade, What deceives, be now unmade.”

Channel the Mushroom’s Lesson: Touch the sprig of rosemary (or chosen herb) to the sulfur tuft (or image), then hold it to your heart. Visualize the bitter light of the mushroom burning away lies, curses, and illusions around you.

Seal the Working: Place the iron charm in your pocket or around your neck. Say:

“By salt, by flame, by iron true, No false path shall lead me through.”

Release: Let the candle burn safely down, or snuff it if needed. Return any physical sulfur tuft to the forest, saying thanks, or burn/destroy the image if you used a picture.

Result: The spell creates a protective barrier against deceitful influences, guiding you on the true path, like carrying a lantern that reveals what hides in shadow.