Cussin' for College: Your Moral Compass

You're Thirteen Now!  These Margaritas Are for You, Becky! 

So, thanks to that book Mastering Witchcraft that everyone else including Jow seems to have read at a formative age but me (I was reading Spiral Dance and um Bridget Jones' Diary and here we are), everyone's talking about morals and looooooove philters which is totes exciting for me because while I have not read the book and am incredibly unlikely to, I have opinions about morality!  I've even had articles published on the subject matter! Thanks, blogosphere!  I'm socially relevant again, snowflake queens!  So, there's a story I've been meaning to tell you all that had both my Platonic Euro Husband (PEH) and Husband-to-Be laughing and telling me that I'm like the liberal parent who lets their kids drink in the house because it's better than on the streets!  Remember a while back how I foolishly agreed to teach Hoodoo 101 to the kids in the Pagan club at my alma mater?  And how I, like, promised the president that there would be absolutely no discussion on curse work whatsoever?  

About that.  So I'm droning about the history of Hoodoo and the differences between Hoodoo and Voodou and how it came to our country and frankly even boring myself as the kids all were visibly twitching to have to listen to me and not text or be boning each other out while their roommates watch rolling on E pills or whatever they're doing now but we all brighten up when I get to the practical applications that I carefully redacted to be both appropriate to college kids' needs and not discussing The Dark Arts.  We chatter about fast luck and how to do well in an interview blah de blahblah.  They get interested and ask about source books.  Of course I recommend cat yronwode's seminal work, but there's not like a redacted version of it so I say vaguely that it's not all positive work so keep that in mind and keep it moving.  Much like my lazy fat house cats they went from only vaguely aware of their surroundings to HIGH ALERT!  BUG!  BUG!  IT'S A BUG!

Them: What do you mean?
The President: (suspious side eye)
Me: Um.
Them: No, we're totes awake now and ready and willing to push back our E pill orgy and pizza dorm room party for this.
Me: The President and I spoke on this issue and it's specifically against your club's charter for me to discuss this.
The President: (approving to me, apologetic to them)
Them: You have said the words we have longed to hear!  Forbidden knowledge!  It's why we came to college!  That and getting away from our smothering parents!  (closes the door and shuts the blinds like a real sekrit society does!)
Me: (oh Lordess, I'm boned) (looks to The President)
The President: (nods)

I had a real moral quandary that I thought I had shielded myself from - do I tell them or do I let them learn about it on the streets the internet where the information will be just that - information coming from a source they've never met and has no stake in their lives or even a face to them?  They are adults but they're still young and impressionable in American society and frankly have probably hereto forth never even read a book yet that even whispers about The Dark Arts, it's most likely been mostly beginner Llewellyn stuff.

I took a deep breath and I dove in:

Okay.  This is where your moral compass that we keep talking about becomes incredibly important.  Karma doesn't work the way that most Americans think of it; it's slow, it's accumulated over lifetimes and it represents both the good and the bad.  And while the Law of Three is a nice idea that's meant to keep you from getting involved in some seriously dumb shit, it doesn't work in a way that's observable, if it works at all.  I can't tell you what the right thing to do is going to be for you.  We don't have a manual or a list of rules to follow as Pagans like a lot of religions do.  As young adult Pagans it's critical that you start figuring out what you think is right and wrong now.  What are you willing to do magically and in life?  Where is your line in the sand that goes too far?  Whenever you work magic, you're thrusting your will over something.  Do you need consent for you to do magic for another person?  You need to decide that.  You need to decide if you want to get involved with exerting your will over other people specifically.  A mentor of mine once told me that some of the worst things she's done magically have been with good intentions and some of the best things she's done have been with bad intentions.  

You also need to understand that in Hoodoo curse work is called a mess for a reason.  Do not get yourself into a mess that you can't get yourself out of because I'm sure as hell not going to rush in to help you.  Don't ever rush into curse work.  If you're angry and not being sensible, it's not a good place to do curse work, you will likely do something you regret.  Always give it at least three days to see if you want to tie yourself up further with the person you're angry with because make no mistake about it, you will be tying yourself up closer with this person.  Sometimes it will be worth it.  Sometimes it won't be.  Sometimes your magic will work in a way you won't expect it to.  Oftentimes it will in fact.  Sometimes it will work better than you wanted it to.  Love spells are all fun and games until you need to get a restraining order on someone.  You need to think about if you want someone to be with you because they feel compelled to be.  You need to make sure to do omen/divination work before you get involved with cursing.  Bottle spells can work like this.  Love spells can work like that.  Make sure you are mindful about your personal concerns.  Make sure you are mindful about others' personal concerns that may behoove you to have.  When I once asked a Witch what to do if you don't have them, she calmly remarked, 'But why wouldn't you?'  If you're not willing to do what a curse work asks, you're likely not really ready to take that step.  And that's okay.  It's okay if you never work a curse in your life.  But make sure you know if someone's been working you.

And . . .that's where I stand on the whole morality issue.  It's personal.  That's part of what's both great and terrible about being part of a group of people who don't have a list of specific rules to govern us, some of us are on board with things like love philters and some of us are appalled by it.  Some of us say, well, it depends.  But you need to know where you stand, you need to know where your conscious is and only you can really dictate that for yourself as an Occultist/Pagan.  It's thrilling, scary and uncertain for us, like Death. 

you know I live in a world full of hope
not a world full of hype
I ain't no saint
I help myself to what I need
but I help other people too
y'know I sleep soundly - Ani Difranco

[Pagan Agony Auntie] Moar Honey Pots

As always, if you have a burning question that you want my input on, feel free to drop me a line at corvaxgirl [at] gmail [dottie] com and I will keep you anonymous and dazzle you with my insight or not. Whatev. As always, you're the captain of your own ship and feel free to disagree with me as often and loudly as you like!

A reader asked a bit ago about what a honey pot is. I need to preface this with the fact that I am not a root worker and I am a neophyte at best in hoodoo. If you would like to speak to an actual hoodoo adult, check out:
Association of Independent Readers and Root Workers

Lucky Mojo

Old Style Conjure

cat yronwode gives a lot of good background and example spell workings over at Lucky Mojo, including supplies should you wish to purchase them.

That said, we'll put it into my words here. Honey pots are used traditionally in Hoodoo to bring money to you and also to potentially sweeten someone towards you (such as an ex you're trying to win back, your boss, a new love interest, the judge in a court case). I find honey pots to be an inexpensive "slow and steady" way to keep generating income.

I started to say you don't need a strong background in hoodoo to use a honey jar, but like all magical practices that depends on what you're going to do with it. If you want to use it to draw money, that's pretty basic and can be done by just about anyone. If you're starting to get into sweetening specific people toward you (i.e. using it as an influencing tool) and potentially bending them to your will, well, you better know what you're doing, champ because I'm sure as hell not going to help you out of a mess. I am not at all opposed to using a honey jar for that purpose, but you need to really be able to assess your magical prowess accurately so that you know if you can really handle any kind of fallout that may come from your working (again, like with any other working) should it go wrong (and in some cases, should it go right!).

How to Make a Honey Jar to Attract Income

Ingredients:
A small hinged-lidded glass jar

Honey (you can use other sweetners, dare I say even sweetners like Equal or Splenda but I always use honey, preferably local)

A pinch of Irish Moss (steady flow of money)

A pinch of Chamomile (to hold onto your money)

A pinch of Cinnamon (to attract money quickly, it's a "heating" herb)

Small green taper candles

Money drawing oil

A small piece of paper bag

A pen

A pin

Matches (or a gas stove)

1. Write out your petition on your piece of paper bag. Write what you're trying to draw to you (a new job, a raise, job security, a second income stream, paid artistic gigs, etc.) but make sure your pen doesn't leave the page. Neatness doesn't count here, continuity does. Fold it up tightly towards you (to bring the money towards you).

2. Put the petition paper in the jar. Put the herbs in the jar. Pour honey over the herbs and paper until your jar is full. Seal the jar.

3. Pray over your jar. Psalms are typically recommended, if that's your bag rock out. If not figure out what is. (I usually pray/enchant/put my will into it and end it with "Please do this in the name of God Herself.")

4. Etch into your candle your intent. It can be words, symbols, runes, again, whatever's your bag. Dress your candle by putting a little bit of oil on it and rub the oil into the candle *towards* you.

5. If fire scares you, make sure your sink is cleared for this part. Put the honey jar into your cauldron or sink and light the candle. Melt a few drops onto the lid of your jar. Stick the candle onto the melted wax on top of your jar. I find it best to let it burn out in one go which is why I recommend small candles.

7. If you're on the ball, repeat steps 3-5 weekly. If you're a slag like myself, monthly has sufficed so far.

Building a Dilettante

My approach to magic can at best be politely be called eccentric but there are a lot of sources that helped me get to where I am as a third wave riot girl hearth witch. Should you ever be curious about how I got here.

Reading List for the Dilettante Hearth Witch

Our Bodies, Ourselves - I'm not going to lie, it still appalls me how many women don't know their birth control options or how their bodies work or anything.

WomenSpirit Rising - Just blew my tiny brain open about religion and started me thinking about how to be a riot girl in religion.

The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle - This is When Shit Got Real for me as a Women's Studies major.

The Spiral Dance 20th Anniversary - Because you always remember your first, because she still updates it with new info and changes in philosophy. Also I'm mad at Z. and she knows why.

A Subscription to Real Simple - It's the perfect hearth witch mag imo - realistic recipes, how to clean just about anything, financial planning, realistic planners, gardening and essays about various real world stupid motherfucking problems. The real world guide to being a motherfucking adult.

Old Style Conjure Podcast - Oh man do I love me some Momma Starr, she just is the cat's pajamas. I'm going to butch this horribly but when someone essentially says on a hoodoo podcast, "But you don't just want him back, you want his money. So you're going to Bend Him Over in Jesus' name!" I'm going to love you forever.

White Wolf Mage: The Ascension Role Playing Game Books: Dreamspeakers, Cult of Ecstasy and Spirit Ways - As long as you understand that they are *fiction* for a *pretend role playing game*, they're helpful as they're well researched.

Animal Speak - a great primer on some basic Native American Shamanic concepts

Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic: A Materia Magica of African-American Conjure - Super helpful hoodoo reference book.

Compendium of Herbal Magick - Really helpful Euro magical herb compendium

Rules of the Game - teaches basic NLP techniques and I find it helpful in my glamoury work

Eat, Pray, Love - it really encapsulated my post divorce spiritual journey and helped me focus on what I'm trying to accomplish.

Evolutionary Witchcraft - This book really helped me come to terms with being a Reclaimist. The Iron Pentacle meditation has changed every group I've led it for, it's that amazing.

Rune Soup - Because magically speaking, Gordon really is my better half.

Cooking Dinner Does Not Make You a Kitchen Witch (subtitled: Making Friends Where Ever I Go)

Perhaps I am a miscreation,
No one knows the truth,
There is no future here.
You never know who's still awake,
You never know who understands and

Are you out there, can you hear this,
I was out here listening all the time,
And though the static walls surround me
You were out there, and you found me,
I was out here listening all the time. [Dar Williams]


DISCLAIMER: If I follow your blog, if I've made nice comments to you, etc., etc. I obviously don't mean you in this entry.

I'm having a shitful day today, so why not alienate some readers!

I sort of spent my twenties fighting against who I really was in oh so many ways. I didn't want to be a kitchen witch. I thought that was the least impressive, most Holly Hobby branch of magic there is.

Jow and I were talking about why I fought this yesterday, he said it doesn't make me lesser. But I said, it does. I've just grown not to care and to honor who I am. It makes me LESS formally educated, LESS full of hermetic/goetic/golden dawn occulty goodness, LESS theory based magic, LESS plugged in to having 24/7 chitchats with my gods, LESS inclined to have some kind of formal magic fancy dance, etc., etc.

Now, I've never felt in this fabulous blogosphere that any of *you* have ever made me feel this way, but you have to picture me from ten years ago: I'm constantly listening to NIN! I wear boots with sparkly laces to my corporate gig! I'm thrashing around on top of tables pumped full of piss and goldschlagger! I'm trying to break glass ceilings! I'm smoking cigars with the boys! I'm demanding my place at the occult table at occult events! I'm getting tats! I'm going through Shamanic trials! I'm fucking punk rock and . . . you want me to bake a cake? Really? Really? So I fought against it for while which is why I wasn't terribly successful in my own personal magic for quite some time. Somewhere around 27? 28? I started really embracing it. Once I bought my own home, my own hearth, I *really* started embracing it. I had the tools all along, it turns out, I just needed to know how to use them.

When I first joined the blogosphere, I wanted to bff a variety of people in the magical world. But let me be honest, most of all I wanted to befriend fellow kitchen witches. Sisters/brothers unite! Let's get some spit, blood, hair, dirt, and basil and get this party started!

But I didn't find too many. The fabulous Mrs. B of course. A little later I demanded an introduction to my PEH, who while not a kitchen witch per se, at least does magic similarly, Lavannah who has land that I covet.

I googled. I tried tracking down people. I tried a lot of different key words. And honestly, I found a lot of people who claimed to be kitchen witches, but in scanning their blogs all I generally found were recipes and chatter about their kids. Now, there's nothing wrong with any of that. But that doesn't make it a magic based blog because you need, like, magic in your blog at least some of the time to qualify.

What Doesn't Make You a Kitchen Witch Per Se

A recipe isn't magical in and of itself. Just dumping a bunch of recipes on your blog doesn't make you a kitchen witch anymore than it makes Wolfgang Puck a kitchen witch. If you said I use honey in my Chocolate Lavender Mousse to sweeten my mother-in-law towards me because she's a complete bitch on wheels to me by that point in the meal or I put menstrual blood in my spaghetti sauce so my husband still thinks I'm dropping it like it's hot even when I'm tired and in sweats, rock! Those are magical acts. Bring on the recipes!

Having children. While yes, it is a v. specific way to mark your transition into motherhood (sometimes), kids don't really make you a practicing magic type person any more than it makes SuperNanny Mary Poppins. It's okay to talk about other things in your magic based blog besides just a never ending compendium of your magical practice, but if you're not talking magic at all then . . . it's not really a magic blog then, is it? Things that would: Using magic to help soothe a baby/get a baby to sleep (I will only slightly guiltily confess to having done this before), protection magic, detailing tiny rituals you do with your kids.

Being a Homemaker. I do very much think that unpaid labor in the home needs to be appreciated and ideally compensated (please see here for more clearly articulated thoughts on the matter, it's applicable for both mono/poly people), but it's a job. And just like going to work in an office is not a magical act in and of itself, neither is taking care of your home. If you were talking about cleaning/organizing in a magical blog and discussing how to be more green (because we need to take care of Mother Earth of course and she's a goddess in and of herself), discussing what oils you use to scent your house and why, what you do to keep the house spiritually/magically clean, rock on.

What Qualifies You as a Kitchen Witch/Hearth Wo/man/Someone Who Does Hedge-Like Magic

If the Personal is Political, then the Every Day is Magical. Look, you don't have to cast +5 magic every time you make hotdogs for dinner on a Tuesday night. But what can you be doing in your every day life in your hearth to make it more magical? Smudging with sage every few days to clear out the energies? Spray bottling your bed with a water based mist you made that has come to me oil in it? Choosing your cooking herbs based on magical purposes? Go crazy.

Deb's Example Rit for Making the Every Day Magical
I had been hemming and hawing about starting my current novel because (a) I've never finished writing one and (b) it's a little silly in a genre that's already a little silly. But it came to me in a dream and it feels right. So I started by not just slapdashing it together, I took my time. I did research on names, other books in the genre, brainstormed and I made a mood board for it. When I knew it was time to start writing, I wanted it started right. I wanted my surroundings perfect, like giving birth (which is what I do with writing). We've been getting pretty awesome about keeping the house tidy. We made sure everything was clean, went to brunch (appropriate for the kind of novel it is) and then I put on mood music and wrote, drink in hand. When I finished the beginning, I sealed it with eating a really posh chocolate (salted dark chocolate with balsamic and caramel) from the best chocolatier in NJ which was also appropriate for my novel's genre. It wasn't about me putting together a mojo bag in this case, it was about choosing my actions carefully and doing everything with intent. There would have been nothing wrong with making a mojo bag, but it was more important to write in a magically charged environment for me to get this show on the road.

Get a Base Education in the Lower Arts. Yeah, yeah, you like to put on your robes and call on all the archangels and whatever. Cool. But sometimes for whatever reason, you'll need to know how to do things quick and dirty, so learn how. Learn what salt and kitchen herbs can do for you, learn about mojo hands and honey pots and spirit bottles. I recommend of course the incomparable M. yonwode's Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic as your Idiot's Guide. Test yourself if you're super structured magically, pretend a friend needs a fertility charm tonight and you need to get to her just using stuff around your house. What do you do?

Get a Base Education in House Wifery. Some men back in the day got married because they had no clue how to take care of themselves. While that's not so common in this day and age, you still need a base education in house wifery to be a successful hearth wo/man. Thanks to most of the first world being a conveience culture, you may have been getting by on relying on take out, a dry cleaner, and a cleaning service. That's all well and good, but you're missing pieces you need to be a successful hearth wo/man. If you are missing any of these things, that's okay, don't feel bad about it. But a lot of people cry, Oh I'm no good at it! Or, I don't know how! Ignorantia juris non excusat. Ignorance of the law excuses no one, so get to work. It won't be perfect from the gate, but nothing is. Ask someone better versed for help, if you know someone. Worst case you burn a few casseroles and shred a few shirts, it's no big deal. Even if you won't use it for a while or you think ever (though you'd be surprised), these are all good life skills to have that will translate over into your magical life. Think of them as Hearth Meditations.

Can you:
* Do your own laundry?
* Have your house clean enough to have your mother or mother-in-law or Miss Martha over without them making a face?
* Cook a dinner for yourself and others?
* Meal plan?
* Budget and financially plan?
* Be able to make a casserole quickly for an emergency?
* Host/ess a party?
* Know how to bake something from scratch?
* Know how to do your own grocery shopping that's more than just "box food"?
* Know how to do basic clothing repair?
* Know what to bring as a hostess gift?
* Know how to conduct yourself socially at various social obligations?
* Know how to give yourself self care?
* Know v. basic first aid?
* Know how to care for small children for a day?


Hearth Wo/man's Tool Kit
* First aid kit
* Disposable tupperwares
* A bottle of wine in a festive bag, ready for a party
* Generic gift for a male and female recipient just in case
* Funeral clothes, hung up, pressed, ready to go
* Small bits of flannel for mojo bags
* Empty, clean, and lidded bottles and jars for spirit bottles, honey pots, etc.
* Cooking herbs including: bay leaves, cinnamon, basil, dill, allspice, sage, lavender, etc.
* White candles (can be used for anything)
* Pins for inscribing candles
* Olive or Grapeseed Oil (for making dressing oils)
* Fragrance warmer (for making dressing oils)
* Sewing kit
* Sterile disposable lancets for any blood offerings needed
* Tealights for deity offerings on the fly
* Grave yard dirt
* Calendar
* Notepad
* Hand Sterilizer


I will be expanding on some of this in future entries. If you have any specific questions, shoot!

Building an Amazon Bad Ass . . .Through Books.

My PEH, Gordon asked us what 10 books would we use to try to build a mage/witch/magic user/whatever of a specific bent. I decided to build an Amazon Bad Ass (specializing in Hearth Witchery). I liked that Gordon allowed for fiction. In the comments, as you can see, everyone (my Jow included) picked v. lofty books for their lists, I only really overlap with people on my choices for #2. and #6. I would be curious to see what would happen if the challenge happened (someone has access only to the books we've given them and no previous knowledge of what we're trying to impart onto them). I'm guessing she would be confused by my choices, probably. ;p But it's a sincere look into my brain and how I became the kind of pagan/magic user/hearth woman I am.

I am building a Bad Ass Amazon (specializing in hearth witchery)

1. Someplace to be Flying (Charles Delint) (fiction) - a must have for the urban shaman

2. Evolutionary Witchcraft (Thorn Coyle) - her Iron Pentacle Meditation is unbelievably hard core. An amazon needs some reclaimst in her.

3. Eat, Love, Pray (Elizabeth Gilbert)(memoir) - for her inevitable identity meltdown. It made me want to run off to an ashram and started me on my daily japa practice.

4. Palimpsest (fiction) (Catherynne M. Valente) - a book about a sexually transmitted dream city you visit in your sleep. Need I really say more? Okay. It opened my heart up in ways I can't even describe. I tell Cat she makes me cry more than anything else. It was a bit embarassing seeing her tour with SJ Tucker when they read a piece from the book about the opera and Sooj sang and I just cried and cried in a full room full of people. It made me see the world more magically again.

5. D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths (Ingri d'Aulaire & Edgar Parin d'Aulaire) (children's book) - This book made me a pagan, it planted the seed in the children's room in the library. Other pagans have said the same thing. Concisely lays out the Olympians.

6. Hoodoo Root & Herb Magic (Cat Yronwode) - A must source book for all of one's charms and hexes

7. Miss Abernathy’s Concise Slave Training Manual and Training With Miss Abernathy (Christina Abernathy) - Even if you're not kinked, it's a good primer on how to be service oriented. As someone who has kitchen witched for rituals, Thanksgivings, and funeral repasts great and small, it helps to get organized.

8. Real Simple magazine: A monthly magazine that teaches organization, budgeting, meal planning, etiquette, and other day to day life must haves. I cut out articles and recipes. You will need this for anything from knowing what to bring as a hostess gift to what to make for dinner on a Wednesday on a budget to how to start investing.

9. The Spirit Ways (Eric Taylor, Rachel Barth, Scott Cohen, and John Snead) (WW RPG) - How shamanism makes sense to me.

10. Spiral Dance (Starhawk) - You always remember your first. I *love* that she revises it every five years to be like, this was wrong, this was totally fucked up, I do this now, etc. It's also a really good Dianic primer.

What would you pick?

I'm a Pusher, Katie!

Jow just blogged about how he used the fifth element and some Buddhist ideas to work through a migraine. Now, as a writer (and now a fellow blogger due to his bad judgement in asking me to come here!), I have a lot of opinions about people's thoughts and how they are presented and what does it say to the audience, etc.

It doesn't make you as popular as you would initially think.

So I've learned, that unless I am (a) directly asked my opinion or (b) it's a stranger who accepts comments in their blog from the likes of me, I keep my damn mouth shut. This is not something intrinsic to my nature, so it can be kindly called a work in progress.

But Jow sometimes can't help himself and has the masochistic urge to inquire into my habitrail like brain where all the magic lives.

So, my queries to his thesis statement about using the fifth element/Buddhist thought went something like this:

a. While I could see it working in a sudden intense experience (piercing, tattooing, a sudden migraine, etc.), what if it's something you live with every day?

b. To address the first point, space, if it is a chronic condition such as fibromyalgia, the condition has already bossily commandeered space in your body and on a good day, it makes a mess in its cubicle, on an okay day it just made you a lasagna in your kitchen and split, and on a bad day it's been living in your house like the worst gamer boy you can think of for the last two weeks and then took off. If pain is a constant, I have yet to be able to constantly will enough space for this shitty roommate because it never goes home. I am not to a point where I can constantly will anything - I need to work at my job, make dinner, get into pointless arguments, craft and watch Bones until I die. I do what I am "supposed" to do mundanely for my condition - watch my stress, diet, work a shorter job, exercise (ish), take a cocktail of pills that works for me, etc., etc. So what should I be doing here magically?

c. Yes, I need to make another mojo bag, and I do pray, but surely from a magical standpoint I could do more.

d. For a later to be expanded on entry, meditation does not work for me. I have generalized anxiety and likely will for the rest of my life. That + real, empty your noggin meditation = awful for me. I also have been a good pony in the mundane world and done my time on the couch, take appropriate medications, and come to terms with living with it.

e. The aspect of Buddhism wherein I am supposed to be a far better person than I am capable of being while in a major flare up is lost to me. Thinking about how someone is starving, someone is going through childbirth, or someone is going through chemo, does not alleviate my pain. I feel sorry for them, I feel bad for them, I wish they weren't suffering in such great ways, but it does not alleviate my own suffering.

Jow didn't really have an answer for me off the top of his head (nor did I expect him to!). And we talked a little bit about it and I said I'm more than willing to be a guinia pig and it's something to think about. Yes, it's outside of his personal experience which can make a non medical doctor/less experienced spirtual worker nervous, but that's a big part of being a spiritual worker/hearth woman/root doctor/pick a term that doesn't make you uncomfortable. And if we want to sell more than just items at Trevia, we need to be able to answer questions and to make mojo bags, spirit bottles, whatever other things we connoct for people outside our life experience and I think it's also okay to flat out say, this is something I haven't dealt with (as Jow did!) and to brainstorm some ideas for the client.

So if anyone would like to use me as a guinia pig in the name of occultism (. . .science), please feel free to drop me a line about it!

Personally, right now to better educate myself I'm going through Mme. Yronwode's book alphabetically which is strangely soothing.

Money. Cash. Hoes.

While I certainly will not pretend that every entry here will be a pearl of wisdom that will better your lives, I am at least often amusing and occasionally informative.

If you enjoy my blog and happen to have a couple extra dollars on occasion, please donate. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow and that's okay! You are also certainly not required to donate to read, this is a labor of love for me. I have a gadget that now will live on the left side of my page should you ever feel inclined.

Where will your money go? Will it go towards ponies and pixie stix? Hookers and blow? Nay! I am currently working towards bettering my magical education. The first class I have my sights set on taking is Cat Yronwode's Hoodoo Magic Spells Correspondence Course, which as you can see is priced very reasonably for a year long course.

I believe that knowledge is worth something financially and it would be my privilege to use your donations to support those in our community who have made a concerted effort to translate their skills into a sustainable career.

Forget the things you thought you knew/ we'll make a very good girl of you . . .

So as Jow blogged, we had a spontanous Crafting night due to An Unfortunate Incident with the Washer Machine (and Dryer).

Now, coming from a Dianic background, I'm used to crafting in my Craft and the super secret teaching of, Make Shit Up As You Go. Now. I'm trying to learn to better educated and not just *completely* flying by the seat of my pants, I'm trying to have some . . .empirical evidence that things should work the way that it should work.

So, I did some research with Mme. Yronwode through her website and one of her books and checked in with Jow's knowledge base he picked up. And I learned, omg, hoodoo I love you! You have only a few of what could be be generously construed as "loose guidelines", the rest you figure out on your own. My favorite kind of working, whooo!

Guidelines that seem important* in making a Mojo Bag:

1. No more than 13 ingredients! Keep it down in there!

2. Bag must stay hidden! (If you are a lady-type who wears a bra, that's the place which is *awesome* because that's where I would stash my shaman bags)

3. Bag must be close to your person as much as possible!

4. Items in bag must be importante, not just a bunch of shit you throw in there. The bag is going to be a spirit, not a junk drawer, treat your bag accordingly! Dress the bag!

5. Remember to keep feeding the bag (. . .I haven't fed Ali lately, demonstrating my usual laissez-faire-the-world-is-my-tank-of-sea-monkeys approach to life which is not good for house plants or magical workings - she will be fed tonight!)

Hokay! Now a lot of bags seem to be for one purpose. My thought was, shit man, how many fucking bags am I supposed carry around on my person? I need varied shit to go down. I will experiment with multiple purposes and see what happens.

My process:

1. If me and the (heretoforth) unnamed are going to get along, I'm going to try to make it into a kindred spirit.

2. The bag being flannel seems reasonably important (though not super important). Whooo! I have cute flannel fabric scraps in omg pink! One side has little drawings of corsets and telephones and the other has pink stripes, perfect.

3. Make my list of shit I want, also referred to as: Petition papers. Some people say you should keep it a secret like a birthday candle wish. Me, I'm not too into sekrit traditions as a rule and I tend to believe if I'm shouting out my intention to the universe, my success rate will be higher. I picked (7) things I want because it's a magical number which may also help the bag. In no order:

a. To be pretty/thin - moonstone
b. To have happy relationships - shallot peel (substitute for red onion)
c. To be happy - a tiny goddess with a quote about being happy on the back
d. To save money and keep it - camomille
e. To have money for shit I want - irish moss
f. To be successful in my creative endevours - 3 bay leaves
g. Financial stability - clear quartz

Gathered items.

4. Sewed together the bag, listening to Rasputina. Used white cotton thread.

5. Wrote petition paper on a pink recipe card with a butterfly (transformation), trying not to have my pen leave the paper. Listen to The Money Maker as I do so.

6. Place items in the bag, making sure to charge each item appropriately.

7. Tie bag shut with green yarn I've hand dyed and hand spun. Seven knots and I chant a part from the Pierces' song, "Sticks and Stones" (Seven times I pierce my heart/ now I feel the magic start/ bind my will and soul to keep/ so I will it/ so let it be)(it's a hot vid, btw, ditto for Money Maker)

8. Dress bag with lavendar oil - front, back, top.

9. Gently spit good sipping Mexican tequila onto the bag (hey, if we're going to be pals . . .)

10. Think Evanescence lyric to "Bring Me to Life" to bring her to life.

11. Excited flurry of energy from the bag! I ask her what her name is, she tells me.

12. Realize I forgot to put petition paper in bag. Carefully jam paper in (I'm guessing she didn't want them to get wet from the life bring spit/tequila).


We did this on Sat. Results since Saturday:
* All of the designer suiting I liked at Bloomingdales went on massive sale, I had bought less expensive suiting at NY&Co. As a bonus, my boss got me the Bloomie's suiting. (shit I want)
* Let's just say on Sunday, Jow and I had a very nice evening in. ;) (relationship)
* If I'm interviewed for Secret Project going on, it would be accolades for my past work in a creative endevour (creative)
* Opportunity for overtime (stability)
* Spent less by a lot on groceries this week, a constant bane of my existance (stability)
* Feeling pretty good with all the work I've been doing on my appearance (appearance) and happy in general (happy)
* Was told by a friend that he envied my life (happy)

I will keep everyone posted!

* Usual caveats - this works for me it may not work for you, use at your own risk, don't juggle chainsaws