Page 70 of The Messengers of Magic

The Hidden Journal of John Dee

U nder the cover of darkness, we gathered in the root cellar, the damp air thick with the weight of what we were about to undertake as we waited for Flora to arrive.

She had insisted upon this night for the spell, explaining that the winter solstice carried a rare power with it.

The alignment of the cosmos and the Earth’s energies on the shortest day of the year would help aid us in casting a binding spell strong enough to contain the Astral Synchronum’s power and keep the rip in time from reopening.

A fierce winter storm had spun overhead, and I feared that it might halt the binding if Flora could not make it in the harsh weather.

It was as if nature itself was trying to thwart our efforts.

Yet, Flora would not be delayed by the weather.

When she arrived, she spoke with Edward briefly about the mechanics of the ritual while I had sat silently, observing.

She carried with her a satchel filled with herbs and a roll of twine.

On the floor of the cellar, she had arranged candles in a circle around an open wooden box, lighting them one by one.

She instructed us to wait until midnight, the precise moment when the veil between realms would be at its thinnest, amplifying the spell’s efficacy.

As the clock struck the hour, she directed Edward and I to stand across from one another, arms outstretched, our hands clasping tightly to form a circle above the wooden box.

Flora then placed two iron bowls on the ground, one to each side of us.

Into the first, she had added rosemary, mugwort, and sage, explaining that these would protect against malevolent spirits or energies that might seek to interfere with the spell.

The second bowl she filled with frankincense and cloves to amplify the binding’s strength.

As she lit the herbs, the thick, aromatic smoke filled the room, threatening to choke me at first. Slowly, however, the sharpness faded into something almost soothing.

With steady hands, Flora lifted the Astral Synchronum and carefully placed it into the box at the circle’s center. She closed the lid and began wrapping it with twine, winding it three times while repeating an incantation at each pass around:

“I knot this rope with the strength of the earth,

The power of water, the steadfastness of wind,

And by the fierceness of fire.

Trap this within time and space,

Hidden forever within this place.

For those who try and use its power,

Trap them within its endless hour.

By the power of three, I bind thee. So mote it be.”

With the final words, she picked up a candle and poured its melted wax over the lid of the box, sealing it.

She then instructed us to maintain our grasp on one another’s hands until she had extinguished the candles in reverse order from how they had been lit.

One by one, the flames had disappeared into the darkness, leaving only a solitary candle near the stairwell lit.

I had expected some grand sign to mark the spell’s success, a burst of light or a shifting energy like that which Giordano and I had witnessed when activating the Synchronum in the cathedral.

But there had been nothing. The silence had pressed heavily against me, and doubt began to creep in.

I questioned Flora, my tone a bit sharper than I had intended, however, she reassured me that this magic was of a different nature, subtle and without fanfare.

Satisfied, I had tucked the sealed box into a narrow crevice in the stone wall, hidden from sight, and firmly secured it with a stone to hide it from view.

Flora, her task complete, had pulled the hood of her cloak over her head and disappeared into the night without another word.

The energy in the cellar feels lighter, and I believe Flora is correct, the spell has worked, and the Synchronum’s dangerous energy is safely contained.

Yet, I cannot linger here. Edward and I need to travel back to England at the first light of dawn tomorrow.

Our work is not finished, for this binding is but a temporary measure.

I have to return and begin my search for Nephilim.

The hunt for these beings, said to have been wiped from existence in biblical times, will be my biggest challenge yet.