The Chapel of Maria Padilha

Hello, we’re Jacqui and Nick from The Cauldron Black, a proudly witch-run spiritual supplies store situated in Salem MA.

For the last seven years, we’ve offered quality occult goods, ethical divination services, inspiring magical education, and bespoke spiritual advice from our dedicated chapel and retail space, hosting a range of community events and charitable food drives, as well as co-organizing and sponsoring the Salem Witchcraft & Folklore Festival.

Our driving motivation has always been to work our socially-conscious witchcrafts from our altars and activism to protect, uplift, and empower our clients and community. And now we want to do even more work for and with our wonderful community of spiritual and magical practitioners!

We are looking to expand The Cauldron Black into a multi-location Occult General Store, and to continue to foster safe community spaces across New England and North America. Part of our expansion – guided by the fierce firelight and protection of one of our most powerful patron spirits – will include registering our Chapel of Maria Padilha as a community space with a particular dedication and focus on aiding our marginalized and at-risk community members.

Our goal is for our expanded Church services to include:

· Registering The Chapel of Maria Padilha as a recognized church, holding 501(c)3 status, with ordained clergy and a board of directors.

· Candle lighting & community prayer services

· Protection prayers & workings for community activists and at-risk community members

· Sliding-scale payment options for Spiritual Services for those experiencing economic hardship

· Grief counseling

· Certification for our clergy in First Aid, CPR, & NARCAN

· Death Doula certification for our clergy from INELDA

· Ride share services for community members for voter registration & voting, doctor appointment visits, abortion care, gender affirming medical care, mental health visits, funeral services & mourning care

· and much more!

We at The Cauldron Black firmly believe that spiritual practice goes hand-in-hand with community activism, organization, and mutual aid. We believe our witchcrafts are a potent resort of the marginalized and those moved by the plight of others to raise our voices, our hands, and every magical tool at our disposal to work towards the better world we know is possible.

We invite each and every one of you who feel similarly – that magic is not merely a bygone escapism, but a real and life-changing means for conjuring robust social change – to join us in carving out and enriching these empowering spaces and services.

And so we are asking for your donations to lend your support to this next phase of realizing our ongoing commitment to fighting injustice and lending real spiritual aid to those in crisis in our communities.

**Please note The Chapel of Maria Padilha will in no way offer any initiations of any kind into any lineages or traditions practiced by our clergy. This chapel is named in honor of the historical figure of Maria Padilha, whose numerous good works and charitable contributions have inspired our community work here in Salem, MA. This is a non-denominational organization.

About Us:

Jacqui is a professional Diviner, Witch, Activist, owner of The Cauldron Black in Salem, Massachusetts, and Co-Founder of The Salem Witchcraft & Folklore Festival.

Jacqui comes from a long line of female diviners, Catholic folk-magicians, and wise women, and her personal practice is heavily influenced by her ancestors. She is a Yaya Ndenge in a lineage of Quimbanda de Raíz, an Olorisha (crowned priest of Shango) in the Lucumi Orisha tradition, Planetary Magician, Folk-Catholic & New World Conjure Magician. Her work at The Cauldron Black centers around creating a safe, healthy community space where Witches, Diviners, Occultists, & the curious can come to exchange and broadcast ideas, talents & their work.

Nick(he/she/they/fae) is Headmistress of Circe Academy of feral Greek witchcraft through The Cauldron Black in Salem MA, and a professional witch and witchcraft educator with over 35 years of experience working with clients and students in both public and private settings.

Nick is ordained and initiated in a variety of tantric yoga traditions (Mahayana Buddhism), and a teacher of 1,000s yoga teachers and psychics, his classes and workshops are deeply influenced by the intersection of classical yoga theory and modern witchcraft practice. Operating through a multidimensional animist lens with a focus on Greek folklore, Nick’s content welcomes all traditions at all levels and can be approached in a purely secular way.

Maria Padilha - The patron spirit of The Cauldron Black stands for justice, equity, and equality and aids our work by inspiring our community events, education and activism.