The Queens of the Mail-Order Spell: Anna Riva, Donna Rose, and the Oils That’ll Outlive Us All

How two prolific occult authors built an empire of mini spell books, proprietary potions, and one of the most brilliantly shameless marketing funnels in metaphysical history — and why the formulations still matter today.

There’s a certain breed of small paperback (roughly the size of a TV Guide, if you remember those) that’s been quietly sitting on the shelves of botanicas, occult shops, and the back corners of flea markets since the Nixon administration. These books have names like Candle Burning Magic, Voodoo Handbook of Cult Secrets, and Unhexing and Jinx Removing Spells. They’re thin. They’re direct. They don’t waste your time. And for over half a century, they’ve been teaching everyday people how to burn candles, anoint seals, and sprinkle powders in pursuit of love, money, protection, and the occasional hex.

The two women behind most of these titles, Anna Riva and Donna Rose, are responsible for putting practical folk magic into more hands than perhaps anyone else in American occult history. Their books have been reprinted, photocopied, uploaded to Scribd, recommended by rootworkers, and tucked into conjure bags alongside lodestones and John the Conqueror root.

They also created one of the most genius product ecosystems you’ve never heard of. And if you think that’s an exaggeration, read on.

Who Was Anna Riva?

“Anna Riva” was the pen name of Dorothy Spencer (1922–2003), a fiercely private woman who built an occult publishing and manufacturing empire from Hollywood, California. The name itself was a tribute to the two most important women in her life: Anna, her mother, and Riva, her daughter. According to folklorist Catherine Yronwode, Spencer used the pen name exclusively for her writing and business — she had no interest in personal fame.

In the 1960s, Spencer founded International Imports, a mail-order occult supply company based first in Hollywood, then in Toluca Lake, California. The company operated out of 236 W. Manchester Avenue in Los Angeles, an address that, in occult circles, carries roughly the same mystique as Graceland does for Elvis fans.

Spencer began writing booklets in the early 1960s and never stopped. Historian Carolyn Morrow Long, in her academic study Spiritual Merchants (2001), described the 1970s and 1980s as a period that “saw the publication of a new crop of spell books” and declared that “the best-known of these writers is the extremely prolific Dorothy Spencer, who writes under the name ‘Anna Riva’.”

“Extremely prolific” is underselling it. Between 1973 and the mid-1990s, Spencer published at least 16 books under the Anna Riva name, including:

• Powers of the Psalms (1982) — 375 ways to use Biblical Psalms for practical magic
• Golden Secrets of Mystic Oils (1990) — a staggering catalog of over 550 oils and 1,300 spells
• Candle Burning Magic (1980) — 409 rituals for love, luck, money, and power
• Secrets of Magical Seals (1975) — a modern grimoire of amulets, charms, and talismans
• Magic with Incense and Powders (1985) — 850 rituals with over 250 incenses and 300 powders
• Voodoo Handbook of Cult Secrets (1974)
• Modern Witchcraft Spellbook (1973)
• The Modern Herbal Spellbook (1974)
• Spellcraft, Hexcraft and Witchcraft (1977)
• Devotions to the Saints (1982)

Her books drew from a dizzying array of traditions — Haitian Voodoo, African American folk magic, European grimoire tradition, Neopaganism, and Judeo-Christian psalm magic — and she approached magic like a scientist: keep it simple, give people a starting point, and provide enough foundational knowledge that any ritual could be customized by the individual.

Spencer retired to Montana in the late 1990s. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and by the year 2000, Indio Products owner Marty Mayer confirmed her condition publicly. Long wrote in Spiritual Merchants that “Dorothy Spencer is now quite elderly and, unfortunately, suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, so I was unable to interview her.” The opportunity to capture the oral history of one of America’s most influential folk magic figures was lost forever.

Dorothy Spencer died in 2003. She was approximately 81 years old.

The Genius of the Anna Riva Business Model

Here’s where it gets good.

Open any Anna Riva book and you’ll find spells that call for very specific products. Not “use some kind of love oil,” but Come to Me Oil. Not “burn some incense for luck,” but Wealthy Way Incense. Not “sprinkle protection powder,” but Hot Foot Powder.

These were not generic suggestions. These were products that Anna Riva manufactured and sold through International Imports’ mail-order catalog.

Let that sink in. She wrote the spell book. The spell book required her products. The products came with a catalog. The catalog sold more books. The books required more products. It was an infinite loop of enchantment and commerce, the most elegantly self-sustaining marketing funnel in the history of American folk magic.

Every catalog and every book carried the careful disclaimer that all items were sold as “curios” with no magical powers implied. This kept Spencer on the right side of consumer protection laws. But the spells in her books were written with such specificity (“anoint the corners of the seal with ATTRACTION OIL” or “dust the enemy’s doorstep with HOT FOOT POWDER”) that the message was clear: if you wanted to do this properly, you needed her products.

And many practitioners agreed. As one veteran rootworker known as Doc Conjure put it: “Anna Riva oils have always worked for me. I’ve always seen results when using them… I have paid $7–$10 for spiritual oils by big name people online that haven’t produced any results for me.”

Her product line was staggering in scope. The complete list of Anna Riva oils runs into the hundreds, from the practical (Boss Fix, Steady Work, Court Case) to the poetic (Shifting Sands, Seventh Heaven, Showers of Gold) to the frankly ominous (Damnation, Weed of Misfortune, XX Double Cross). There are oils for every zodiac sign, every planet, and what appears to be every conceivable human desire and grievance.

The formulas themselves? Shhh. That’s a secret. Spencer kept her recipes on handwritten cards and never published the ingredients lists for any of her oils, incenses, or powders. When she sold International Imports, those recipe cards went with the business.

Who is Donna Rose?

If Anna Riva is the queen of the West Coast occult booklet, then Donna Rose is her East Coast counterpart: equally prolific, equally practical, and even more mysterious.

Here’s what we know about Donna Rose: she wrote books.

That’s essentially the full biography.

Unlike Dorothy Spencer, whose identity was eventually uncovered by researchers and folklorists, the person behind the name “Donna Rose” remains unknown. There’s no “About the Author” page in any of her books. No biographical note. No introduction written in the first person. No known photographs. No interviews. The name may well be a pen name, a tradition so common in occult publishing that it would be more surprising if it weren’t.

What we do know is that her books are published by Original Publications, an occult specialty publisher based in Old Bethpage, New York. Original Publications is an East Coast house specializing in Santeria, Hoodoo, and folk magic titles by authors including Migene González-Wippler, Baba Raul Canizares, Robert Laremy, Papa Jim, and Henri Gamache. It’s a completely separate entity from Anna Riva’s International Imports in Los Angeles.

Donna Rose has at least 10 confirmed occult titles, including:

• Magical Rituals for Love (2007) — love spells, attraction rituals, and binding magic
• Magical Rituals for Money (2007) — prosperity spells and financial goal-setting rituals
• Magical Rituals for Protection (2010) — defensive magic from basic cleansing to advanced protection
• Success and Power Through the Psalms (2004) — over 300 rituals using the magical power of the Psalms
• Unhexing and Jinx Removing Spells (2004) — candle rituals, herb magic, and uncrossing techniques
• Magical Seals, Signs & Signatures — hundreds of seals for invoking specific influences
• Gypsy Witch Magic & Spells (2019) — herb baths, mojo bags, dream decoding, and crystal gazing
• High John the Conqueror (2024)
• The Magic of Herbs (1994)
• Money $pell$ (1994)

Her books follow the same formula as Anna Riva’s (short, practical, spell-focused) but with a key difference in approach. Where Anna Riva’s books are essentially illustrated catalogs for her product line, Donna Rose’s books use generic product names. Her spells call for “Protection Oil” or “Uncrossing Bath Wash” or “Jinx Removing Incense,” not specific brands.

But make no mistake: her rituals call for the same types of formulations. Oils, washes, waters, powders, incense, conjure bags, seals drawn in Dove’s Blood… the products are the same. The brand specificity is just quieter.

Are Anna Riva and Donna Rose Connected?

This is the question that’s kept me up at night. (Well, that and whether I remembered to sprinkle Money Drawing oil near my front door.)

The short answer: There is no confirmed direct connection between the two women.

The longer, more interesting answer: The circumstantial evidence is fascinating.

Consider:

1. Both published psalm magic books covering nearly identical territory. Anna Riva’s Powers of the Psalms (1982) assigns Biblical Psalms to practical magical purposes. Donna Rose’s Success and Power Through the Psalms (2004) does the same thing — over 300 rituals matching Psalms to specific life situations, from “Attract Love” (Psalm 111) to “Receive New Furniture” (Psalm 132). Yes, there’s a Psalm for furniture.

2. Both used identical ritual frameworks. The candle colors, the “So Mote It Be” closings, the use of Notre Dame Water and Witches’ Salt and Four Thieves’ Vinegar, the astral candle assignments — it’s the same tradition, the same vocabulary, and the same toolkit.

3. Both were listed side-by-side as recommended reading in Herman Slater’s Magickal Formulary Spellbook Companion, Book II, confirming they were recognized contemporaries in the same occult book market.

4. Original Publications (Donna Rose’s publisher) later republished at least one Anna Riva title — Psalm Magic (ISBN: 978–0–942272–94–9) — suggesting some kind of licensing or distribution relationship between the two publishing houses.

5. Both used near-identical disclaimer language in their books: “This book is offered as a Literary Curio Only. No responsibility whatsoever for the contents or the validity of the statements herein is assumed by the author, publisher or seller of this book.”

Yet despite all these parallels, neither author ever references the other by name in any book I could find. They appear to have operated in overlapping markets but separate publishing ecosystems drawing from the same deep well of American folk magic tradition.

Whether “Donna Rose” is a single author, a house pseudonym used by Original Publications, or someone with a personal connection to Dorothy Spencer remains one of the minor unsolved mysteries of American occult publishing.

What Happened to Anna Riva’s Formulations?

When Dorothy Spencer retired and sold International Imports to Indio Products (owned by Marty Mayer, based in Commerce, California), something very important went with the sale: those handwritten recipe cards.

Indio Products continued manufacturing oils, incenses, and powders under the Anna Riva brand name, keeping her books in print and her gold-foil-labeled bottles on the shelves of occult shops and botanicas across the country. The Anna Riva brand is today a registered trademark of Indio Products.

But here’s where the story gets interesting for modern practitioners.

The original formulations, the ones Dorothy Spencer spent decades developing on handwritten cards, still exist. They’ve been in continuous production since the 1960s. The recipes have been “entrusted” (as the official Anna Riva compendium puts it) to Indio Products, who has “shepherded the manufacture of her magical oils, incenses and powders” for over four decades.

Some old-timers will tell you the oils don’t smell quite the same as they did when Spencer was mixing them herself. The debate over synthetic versus natural ingredients has raged in occult forums for years. But many practitioners, including Doc Conjure and countless others, maintain that the oils work just as well as they ever did, especially when you add your own prayer and intention.

As Grove and Grotto noted in their extensive FAQ on the subject: “One of the reasons Anna Riva’s oils are still available after almost 50 years is because of the brand loyalty they have inspired. Just a whiff of their odd, chemically perfume is enough to inspire a mystical mood in some people.”

The Formulations Live On: A Note for Practitioners

Now, here’s something that matters to anyone who picks up an Anna Riva or Donna Rose spell book and wonders: “Where on earth do I get Protection Oil? Or Rose Water Wash? Or Come to Me Oil?”

Some devotees of these books will go as far as to tell you that if you don’t use the correct formulations referenced in the original texts, the spells simply won’t work. Whether that’s gospel truth or a very effective piece of legacy marketing, the concern is understandable. These books were written with specific products in mind. The rituals are calibrated to those formulations.

Here is the good news: those formulations are still being produced.

The original Anna Riva oil formulas referenced throughout her books, the same tradition that Donna Rose’s books also draw from, have survived corporate transition, industry upheaval, and every online debate about synthetic versus natural ingredients. They have been in continuous production for over sixty years.

And today, those same formulations are available under the Espiritu label.

These ritual oils are available in 1 oz, 2 dram, and 16 oz (that’s a lot!) bottles, covering every condition from “Fast Money” to “Frankincense & Myrrh” to “Jinx Removing.” The lineup mirrors the same product names that appear throughout Anna Riva’s and Donna Rose’s spell books. When Donna Rose’s Unhexing and Jinx Removing Spells calls for “Uncrossing Oil” or “Jinx Removing Incense,” and when Anna Riva’s Golden Secrets of Mystic Oils catalogs over 550 named formulations — these are the products that carry that lineage forward.

You can browse the full 1 oz Espiritu Oil Collection and match them directly to the formulations called for in these books. It’s like finding the decoder ring that makes sixty years of spell books suddenly actionable.

What’s Inside These Books? A Reader’s Guide

For practitioners wondering which books to start with, here’s a quick guide to what you’ll find inside:

Anna Riva’s Books

Powers of the Psalms — If you own one Anna Riva book, make it this one. It assigns 375 specific magical uses to the Biblical Psalms, combining candle-burning rituals with psalm recitation. Protection, healing, prosperity, love, court cases, it’s all here. This was arguably the book that cemented Anna Riva’s reputation.

Golden Secrets of Mystic Oils — The magnum opus. Over 550 oils listed alphabetically, each with specific spells and ritual instructions. Want to know what to do with Abra Melin Oil? It’s here. Curious about Bottom №20? (Don’t ask, just read.) This book is essentially the product manual for the entire Anna Riva oil line, and it remains the most comprehensive reference guide for folk magic oil usage ever published.

Candle Burning Magic — 409 rituals organized by purpose. The candle color system, the method for dressing candles with oil, the rules about never lighting altar candles with matches (sulfur is taboo on the altar. Use a butane lighter or gas flame carried from another room). This is the practical handbook.

Secrets of Magical Seals — A grimoire of amulets and talismans pulling from Solomonic seals, Abra-Melin squares, Egyptian symbols, Voodoo veves, and hex signs. Spencer signed the introduction herself: “Spring 1975.” Instructions include drawing seals in Dove’s Blood Ink on parchment paper, anointing with specific oils, and touching twice daily for a minimum of seven days.

Magic with Incense and Powders — 850 rituals with 250+ incenses and 300+ powders, organized into 27 categories from “Attracting” to “Wishing.” If Golden Secrets is the oil bible, this is the incense and powder testament.

Donna Rose’s Books

Success and Power Through the Psalms — Over 300 rituals organized by a “Situational Index.” Look up your problem (everything from “Attract Love” to “Receive New Furniture” to “Control the Thoughts of Others”) and it tells you which Psalm to recite, what candle to burn, and what oil to use. Includes spoken affirmation verses to chant while the candle burns. Her spells call for specific products like Bergamot Oil, Healing Oil, Van Van Powder, Gambling Powder, and Uncrossing Salts.

Magical Rituals for Love — 46 pages of love spells, attraction rituals, and binding magic. Traditional folk magic techniques presented in an accessible, step-by-step format.

Magical Rituals for Money — Easy-to-do prosperity spells combining visualization, intention-setting, and ritual structure. 48 pages of financial goal-setting through folk magic.

Magical Rituals for Protection — The most substantial Donna Rose title at 160 pages. Covers everything from basic cleansing rituals to advanced defensive spells using herbs, salt, candles, and visualization.

Unhexing and Jinx Removing Spells — A 36-page manual for spiritual self-defense. Contains 11 detailed rituals (including a 14-day uncrossing process), a complete herbal reference for protective herbs, and lists of oils, incenses, powders, washes, and salts organized by function. The “Uncrossing Ritual” alone calls for Devil’s Shoestring, Mandrake Root, Guinea Pepper, King Solomon’s Root, Witches’ Salt, Jinx Removing Oil, Uncrossing Oil, Van Van Floor Wash, Notre Dame Water, and a 7-Day Orange Candle. It’s not for the faint of heart (or the understocked supply cabinet).

Magical Seals, Signs & Signatures — Hundreds of different seals from various traditions, used to invoke specific influences, ward off misfortune, and protect against danger. A companion piece to Anna Riva’s Secrets of Magical Seals.

The Products You Need for These Spells

If you’ve read this far and you’re ready to actually use these books, here’s the practical truth: you need oils, washes, incense, and powders. Lots of them.

Both Anna Riva and Donna Rose wrote their spells assuming you had access to a well-stocked metaphysical supply cabinet. A single ritual from Donna Rose’s Unhexing and Jinx Removing Spells might call for Jinx Removing Oil, Uncrossing Oil, John the Conqueror Incense, Van Van Floor Wash, Notre Dame Water, AND Jinx Removing Powder, all in one spell.

The Espiritu 1 oz Oil Collection at Tarot Fellow carries the formulations that correspond to the products named in these books. With 179+ varieties in stock, you can match virtually any oil, wash, or condition product called for in Anna Riva’s or Donna Rose’s texts.

And for the practitioner who’s been told that the spells “won’t work” without the proper formulations, the ones who have been chasing down vintage gold-foil bottles on eBay or haunting the back shelves of local botanicas, the Espiritu line carries those same formulations forward into the present day. The names match. The tradition continues. The lineage is unbroken.

Legacy

Dorothy Spencer probably never imagined that her handwritten recipe cards would outlive her by decades, or that the pen name she stitched together from her mother’s and daughter’s names would become one of the most recognized brands in American folk magic. She probably never imagined that her little digest-sized mail-order booklets would still be in print in 2026, or that practitioners would be debating the merits of her oils on Reddit half a century after she first blended them.

Donna Rose, whoever she is or was, probably never imagined that her quiet little booklets from a P.O. Box in Old Bethpage, New York would find their way onto Scribd and Etsy and into the hands of a new generation of practitioners who discovered them through TikTok and YouTube.

But here they are. Still in print. Still being read. Still being used.

And the oils, washes, and waters they wrote about? Still being made. Still available. And, according to a not-insignificant number of practitioners, still working.

Whether you’re a seasoned rootworker or someone who just picked up their first candle and a copy of Magical Rituals for Love, these books and their accompanying formulations represent one of the most complete, accessible, and enduring systems of practical folk magic ever published. They’re not fancy. They’re not pretentious. They come in tiny paperbacks and simple bottles… and they have been getting the job done since the 1960s.

As Anna Riva herself wrote in the introduction to Magic with Incense and Powders: “The material herein has been gathered over a long lifetime as a teacher, practitioner, and student of magical arts.”

A long lifetime, indeed. And the magic is far from over.

Browse all Anna Riva and Donna Rose books, and explore the full Espiritu 1 oz Oil Collection, at TarotFellow.com.