- tavabaird
- Jan 2
- 6 min read
Hello, Beautiful Souls! It's a freezing, overcast afternoon, and I am back at the table with Angel Alpha!
If you remember, the Angel in question came home from the thrift store looking like this:
...but I am determined to give her a Pagan makeover. Hammers, screwdrivers, and a lot of work left her looking like this:
So now the fun begins! I went in with my knives and started shaping, trying to listen to the wood to discover what form she wanted to take.
And it turns out that Angel Alpha is also not down with being a blocky, simple wood cut-out anymore. No, this Lady wants BANGIN' CURVES.
I started out by giving a lot more of an organic, uneven feel to the sides of her, rounding out harsh edges but purposely leaving some texture to show that the altar statue did actually start out life as a tree. Then I started cutting into the neck area to make her neck more pronounced, and giving more of an organic shape to the head.
And then I thought...let's make that center hole really stand out. Let's make it look like something is flowing or dripping form it. Let's make it look like a freaking portal.
Around this time the rubber part that holds my sandpaper drums onto the rotary tool blew out, which means my drums were no longer secure. Which means occasionally, at high speeds, one of them would fly across the room to land Lilith-knows-where in this studio office. The office that is packed with trays of paint, resin art, jewelry supplies, paintings in progress, a buttload of leather tools, packing supplies, and bin after bin of poppet making materials.
How many sandpaper drums have I lost in the last hour? Four. But nevertheless, she persists.
Now I can hear the wood a little bit louder. Maybe the tree that birthed this wood wants to speak. ROOTS. I see roots, and water. Let's make that Void at the center uneven, and start carving grooves.
The pen engraver and a bit more sanding left me with this:
...and I'm getting the feeling I'm on the right track. Rinsed the whole project down (you could almost hear the wood go "Ahhhhhhh...thank you," when I reintroduced it to water.)
Then it was time to glove up and get some wood putty in the holes on her front and back where that heart used to be.
Somewhere in the process, her front became her back. Her old face is on the back of her head now, and will soon be painted over. She's leaving the face she used to show the world behind her!
It is now clear that there's going to be some Dryad influence in the finished Altar Statue. She feels really good in the hand, a lot rounder and cleaner. Going to give the wood putty about an hour to dry, and then she's going to get sanded all over with good old-fashioned elbow grease (since the rotary tool sander has tapped out.)
One of my favorite things is when people dress devotional statuary with actual fabric and jewelry. I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up making a necklace for this entity, and am contemplating diving into the bins and bins of upcycled fabrics I keep on hand for Veilwalker dolls. Not sure the fabric will happen, but I'm aiming hard for the ritual jewelry.
It's nearly time to being painting. She's reminding me of a winter night, so I'm thinking blacks with some violet highlights, and maybe letting the natural wood show through on the roots for contrast. We'll have to see what she wants...
And I'm thinking of doing lettering on the back. Some words about the Sacred Dark, perhaps...
While I wait I'll switch gears to assemble some Consecration Kits. This is something new I'm putting together for 2026. It's got incense, a lovely bit of Blessing Oil I mixed up, and instructions. That way if you have a poppet or an altar statue or a Deck of Rebellion but could use some help with a ritual to Consecrate them to your practice, you can grab one of these and you're all set. Especially if you want to mark them as devoted to your Lilithian practice.
"An altar to Lilith is an altar to the self."
-Samael
He says that a lot lately.
And so, for this first Fallen Angel...why shouldn't she be dedicated to Lilith?
So here we go!
First, she's going to get a Black Moon Lilith symbol on her head where her face should be. For more on Black Moon Lilith in Astrology, there's a helpful little article at https://www.astrology.com/article/whats-my-lilith-sign/
One of my tattoo artists once said that if you put a moon on its side it will always look off-center, even if it is perfectly centered. But I'm going to do it anyway here. If people don't see us as centered when we are, that's on them, yes?
Next, I wanted to add Lilith's sigil to her chest. Did you know that this popular sigil was created by artist Robin Artisson in 2007? More on that here: https://spells8.com/sigils-of-lilith/
I decided to place it just a bit off to the left to show her association with the so-called "left hand path" in Western magickal practice.
And then, because Lilith is associated with night and hidden places...HERE COMES THE BLACK PAINT!
And suddenly...I know what I'm going to do. I'd thought of adding red, but settle on copper instead. To add a bit of shine. And to buck the traditional a bit.
I start layering in bits of copper, but then she looks too...new. So out come the wet sponges to weather her down a bit. Scrub off most of it, and leave a bit to pool and collect in the grooves. Rub off some of the black at the base and on her edges. make her feel a bit more weathered and ancient.
And I'm diggin' it. She's Black Moon Lilith now, Fallen Angel #1. How appropriate.
And I have to say...that hole, right at her center. Some might say she's been wounded there. But do you know what I think? I think it's the place that she makes space for herself. Space for the ALL. Space for the divine. It's where she lets the air in and breathes despite what others try to do to her. It might have started as injury, but she's transformed it into RELEASE.
That's the magick of this sculpture, right there.
But what about the back? Some words seem right. And so I choose:
Bless My Wild Self
Bless My Exiled Self
Bless My Fierce Self
I Am the Moon's Apogee
In astrology, your Black Moon Lilith Sign is a point, not a planet. An apogee is the point in the orbit of the moon or a satellite at which it is furthest from the earth. Wanna know your Black moon Lilith sign? You can go here: https://cafeastrology.com/whats-my-black-moon-lilith.html
(Mine's in Scorpio. It says I run towards things that make other people uncomfortable. It also says I use secrecy as armor, which means I hide vulnerability, stifling intimacy and support. Appropriate, I think.)
I need something for around her neck, and dive into my bead and pendant stash. And I do mean DIVE, because it isn't organized in the least. If my Virgo friend saw it she'd disown me.
I need something...odd. Imperfect. Earthy. I find some lovely orange leather, and then...
I have no idea where how I ended up with this pendant. It's handmade ceramic and...flawed. The garden design is stamped UPSIDE DOWN.
And what did Lilith do, if not turn The Garden of Eden UPSIDE DOWN?
It's perfectly imperfect. But so thick the jump rings have to be wrestled in. That's okay. It's in honor of The Mother of Rebellion.
I grab a paint pen and sign the bottom. "Black Moon Lilith. Fallen Angel #1. Tava Baird, 2026" and then pop her up on my altar for photographs. Tomorrow she'll get a clear coat of protective varnish and then a nice smoke cleanse with my Lilith incense from Dragon Witch Apothecary. (Want some? Emily at Dragon Witch made me a bangin' Lilith Ritual oil too. Her site is https://www.dragonwitchapothecary.com/
And then? She'll go up on etsy, and we'll see who needs her to witness their path. Fallen Angel #1 rises again. Just like we all can.
Alpha Angel is now Black Moon Lilith.
Black Moon Lilith will arrive in the etsy shop on 1/3/2026 sometime in the evening. If you'd like to take a look at her there, please visit https://darkflowerbooks.etsy.com
Thank you for reading, and stay tuned for Angel #2's rebirth coming soon!
