Verdant Seance Box

The Verdant Seance Box

When travelling long distances, whether by rail across Europe or by steamer to far-off colonies, Cecil Hawthorne always made room in his luggage for a particular item: a small, timeworn séance box. Nestled carefully among his pressed garments and leather-bound notebooks, the modest case was kept hidden to keep its precious contents from prying eyes.

Unlike the larger valises he employed for public demonstrations, this was his personal kit: compact, unassuming, and essential. It was his constant companion when travelling long distances, a familiar weight in unfamiliar places. Wherever he arrived, be it a fog-swept château in Brittany or the flickering lantern-glow of a Calcutta drawing room, this small box would be the first thing he unpacked. Placed gently on a desk or parlour table, it would be unlatched with quiet ceremony.

Inside, each item had its place: a pair of slender ritual candles, a small cased scrying mirror, the Emerald Oracle coiled within a velvet recess, and the Whispering Token: an enigmatic Mudrikā relic resting silently among folded notes.

The séances conducted with this travelling kit were never theatrical. They were private, even devotional. Conducted in whispers and candlelight, where truth might pass unnoticed but not unfelt. Hawthorne maintained that the mirror, in particular, behaved differently abroad, reflecting unfamiliar spirits, foreign memories, and impressions shaped by distant landscapes. The box, he insisted, adapted to the place it was opened. It didn’t contain the séance. It invited it. To handle this box today is to touch something that has crossed borders, cultures, and veils. A vessel not merely of implements, but of intent. Worn by years of use and travel, it is as much a map of Hawthorne’s journey through the mystical as it is a toolkit: a quiet archive of those liminal moments where the seen and the unseen brushed hands across candlelit tables.

The Seance Box

The séance box itself is a genuine antique. Modest in scale, it is crafted from wood with a worn green finish, its surface textured and gently flaked by time. The box opens to reveal a removable tray lined in rich, faded velvet. It carries with it the weight of many journeys.

There is no ostentation here; only utility, and a sense that what lies within was meant to be kept close and well-guarded. Inside, the arrangement is deliberate and ritualistic. Each compartment cradles the tools of Hawthorne’s most intimate work: a pair of antique brass candlesticks and their beeswax tapers, a pocket-sized cased scrying mirror with glass black as ink, the emerald-hued pendulum known as the Oracle, and the clay-sealed Whispering Tokens, each worn with handling and time. These are not stage props, but instruments: carefully placed, patiently carried, and once awakened, quietly potent.

The box, like Hawthorne himself, is unassuming at first glance. Yet once opened, it draws the eye, then the breath. Its presence is felt before it is understood. There is something in the simplicity of its construction that speaks of purpose. A relic not of spectacle, but of spiritual inquiry. It remains, even now, an object of subtle gravity. A vessel of intimate rituals and whispered intentions, shaped by candlelight and silence. 

Detailed Inventory

• Séance Box: Genuine antique jewellery box. Inside, a removable velvet lined tray.
• Scrying Mirror: Beautiful black glass scrying mirror housed within a genuine antique Victorian leather daguerreotype photograph case with vibrant interior.
• Brass Candlesticks: A pair of vintage brass candlesticks with lovely aged patina complete with beeswax candles
• Spare Candles: A bundle of spare beeswax candles wrapped in genuine newspaper from the 1800s.
• The Emerald Oracle: A full Emerald Oracle set including associated artefacts as detailed here.
• The Whispering Token: A full Whispering Token set including associated artefacts as detailed here.
• Certificate of Authenticity: Verifying your piece as part of the Cecil Hawthorne Collection.

Performance

In addition to the performance opportunities afforded by the Emerald Oracle and the Whispering Tokens the séance box introduces a third dimension.

The inclusion of the scrying mirror and ritual candles invites a deeper, more meditative experience, one rooted in the traditions of Victorian spiritualism and embraced by the modern practice of bizarre magic. When placed before a participant, the mirror becomes a liminal object: a threshold rather than a window. The dim flicker of beeswax candlelight, softened by time-aged glass, creates a state of mesmeric twilight. An optical ambiguity where form blurs and imagination begins to stir. Subtle physiological effects may cause the viewer to perceive their own reflection shifting, softening, transforming. A cheekbone vanishes, an unfamiliar gaze takes its place. For a moment, a stranger’s face, or something older still, seems to surface.

This is not a spectacle, but a kind of quiet ritual. The flickering light and mirrored shadow act together as catalysts: encouraging introspection, suggestion, and a felt presence that is deeply personal. Rather than declaring meaning, the mirror invites it. Participants may find themselves entering a gentle altered state, receptive not only to what they see, but to what they feel: memories, intuitions, and impressions just at the edge of language.

Within the confines of the small Victorian séance case, this mirror completes the trinity of artefacts. The Oracle divines, the Token weighs, and the Mirror reflects: not merely faces, but forgotten questions. It lends the experience a final texture: soft, elusive, and haunting. A moment where the past leans in, candlelight dances on glass, and the veil becomes, if only briefly, translucent.

Cecil Hawthorne, his stories, and his artefacts are a work of fiction under copyright by Laudanum House Limited. Any resemblance to actual events or persons living, dead, or undead are entirely coincidental. Note that all magical artefacts are a mixture of genuine Victoriana and highly crafted props. Cecil Hawthorne is fictitious and so are his magical artefacts and the history behind them.