Conjure Item O' The Week: Pyrite

Hi everyone!  Let's take a look at Pyrite, the shiny golden rock of hoodoo.

NAMES: Pyrite aka iron disulphide, fool's gold.

WHERE DO I GET IT?: A rock shop, New Age stores, Ebay, Lucky Mojo Curio Company, etc.

WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?: Pyrite isn't really gold, but its' shiny appearance and resemblance to gold make it ideal for money work and good luck in gambling. 

Get a good sized chunk of pyrite and put it on your money altar.
Put a smaller chunk in a green mojo bag, along with any number of money-drawing herbs such as Allspice, Cinnamon, Thyme, and Nutmeg.  Make sure there's a total that equals an odd number.  Dress the bag with a conjure oil appropriate for money drawing and voila!  Carry that bag with you where no one can see it or touch it.

Tip: If you buy a crystal bath that contains pyrite, save the little pieces and chunks after you're done working.  Put the little grits in your wallet; they will draw money to you. 

Add pyrite to a money-drawing oil lamp to oomph it up.

It's just so shiny and pretty, isn't it? :)

Conjure Item O' The Week: Lemon

Hi everyone!  When life hands you lemons, use them in magic :)

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Citrus lemon

WHERE CAN I GET IT?: The grocery store, in the produce section. 

WHAT'S IT GOOD FOR IN CONJURE?: Lemons are used to drive away evil in many cultures.  It also is a good cleansing scent (hey, look at how many lemon-scented cleansing products there are!). 

If you want to get rid of someone who's driving you nuts, cut open a fresh lemon.  Write the offender's name on a piece of paper and put that in the lemon.  Pin the lemon back together with nine pins.  Bury the lemon in the West (because as the Sun goes down, your enemy will be brought down and his/her life will be sour).

A great basic cleansing/removing evil bath you can take is: 1 cup strong black coffee, 3 Tablespoons of Kosher Salt, and 1 Tablespoon of fresh Lemon juice.  Mix it all together, pour the liquid into a tub of warm water, and get in.  While soaking, read out loud from Isaiah chapters 41 and 43.  That will take all evil off of you.  Get out of the tub, air dry or gently pat yourself dry.  Don't forget to dress your body with an appropriate conjure oil for luck or blessings; you need to put good stuff back on your body now that you took the bad stuff off! :)

Conjure Item O' The Week: Blueing

Happy new year, everyone!  Let's start off 2012 with an item used to cleanse and purify: Blueing!

SCIENTIFIC NAME: The old POISONOUS form of blueing was copper sulfphate.  The current YOU STUFF SHOULD USE is laundry blueing balls or a liquid blueing washing soda mixed with dye, as shown below:

WHERE CAN I GET IT?: Most grocery stores.  Look in the laundry section near the bleach.

WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?: The liquid form is excellent for dissolving in water to make a purifying bath or floor wash.  Make sure you dilute it very well or the dye will stain and if you end up looking like a Smurf after your bath, don't say I didn't warn you :)

If you get the solid blueing balls, you can put one in a mojo bag with some Alum salt and some dimes (an odd number) to make a mojo hand for gambling luck.

You can make a great cleansing bath for yourself by running a tub of hot water, dissolving a few tablespoons of Salt (see previous entry) in the water and adding nine drops of Blueing.  Add 1 Tablespoon of household Ammonia and stir the water well, praying that you will be cleansed.  Get in and soak for 9 minutes.  Make sure all parts of your body get submerged at least once.  Get out of the tub and air dry yourself (don't towel dry).  Save a cup of your used bathwater before you drain the tub.  Dress in fresh clean clothes and take the used water outside and throw it to the West, praying that the evil will be taken away from you.  Go inside and don't look back.  Dress yourself with an appropriate oil; you just cleansed *everything* off of you, so now you have to put some good ju-ju back in.  You can use an Attraction formula, a Good Luck oil or get some plain olive oil and pray the 23rd Psalm over it.  Then lightly dab the blessed oil on the soles of your feet, all your pulse points and the top of your head.  Voila!

Conjure Item O' The Week: Salt

First in a weekly series.  Every Monday, we will start off the week talking about an herb, mineral or other item that can be used in conjure.  Yes, I know that Salt isn't an herb.  But boy howdy, is it useful. 

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Sodium chloride

WHERE CAN YOU GET IT: Probably your kitchen table.  Lots of workers use Kosher salt, due to the holy connotation of being produced under rabbinical supervision.  Other variations of salt used in conjure are pickling salt, ice cream salt, and Epsom salt.

WHAT'S IT GOOD FOR?: What *isn't* it good for?  According to Conjure lore, salt "does what you tell it to do".  Here's just a few uses:

• Spiritual cleansing: You can dissolve three kinds of Salt in some hot water (such as plain table salt, Kosher salt, and Epsom salt), add this dissolved liquid to a tub of warm water, get in and pour the water over yourself from head to toe, praying that all evil conditions be removed from you.  Voila!  Instant spiritual cleaning!  You can then take a bit of your used bath water and add it to a bucket of warm water and use that to mop your floors for spiritual cleansing.
• Protection: Take some Kosher salt and hold it in the palm of your left hand.  With your right hand, make the sign of the Cross over the salt and say "Salt, I command you to protect my house from all evil and bad people, Amen."  Then sprinkle this salt in an unbroken line across your front door threshold.  Put a pinch of salt in the corners of your bedroom if you've been having nightmares; the bogeyman will go somewhere else!
• Cursing, hexing and banishing.  You can sweep a bit of salt after a person has left your home, and tell them never to come back (do it quietly, I mean.  I am not responsible for you getting arrested because you threw the Morton salt box at your loudmouth brother-in-law.)

CHEAP JOKE OF THE WEEK:  Would the above be considered....a-salt?


Um, sorry.

Seriously, you can also mix some salt with red pepper and black pepper and pray over the mixture to get rid of an enemy, and sprinkle it in the enemy's path where they will step on it or put it in their shoes. 

Salt is a great cleanser of tools you can't wash in water.  If you want to cleanse a crystal or stone, you can bury it in a bowl of salt for a few days until it feels "clean" to you.  If the object is something delicate, put a ring of salt around it and ask the salt to cleanse it from all evil. 

If you want to keep food in your house always and ensure you never run out of what you need, get a box of salt and keep it in a cupboard somewhere; don't use it.  Folklore says that you will always be lucky if you never run out of salt (and if that box of salt is never used, then you technically never run out of salt).

That's all I have for today.  If you have more ideas about tricks, spells and more that can be done with salt, put them in the comments!

Doorway Magic and House Protection

Hello, lovely ones! 

In my line of work, I see the inside of a lot of people's houses (I work in health care).  When I enter the front door, I love to take a quick glance at the inside of the front door and around the doorstep.  Why?  No, I'm not nosy.  I love seeing the different good luck and protection charms that hang over the doorway, that are outside the front door, or around the doormat.

I might go into a home where the residents are Latino, Mexican, or from Central America, and I see a knife hanging over the door on the inside, along with a bulb of garlic.  Or Saint Michael the Archangel's picture is hanging over the doorway.  I've walked into houses with HUGE statues of Saint Michael with one, three, seven or nine clear glasses of water around him.  Now, those are Espiritismo techniques for serving St. Michael, but I've been in plenty of Italian Catholic so-many-pictures-of-Pope-John-the-Second-on-the-wall
houses with St. Michael's picture hanging near the front door.  Nothing bad will get in that front door with St. Michael on the job!

I walked into an Indian restaurant where a lemon hung on a red string was hanging above the inside front door.  I'm going to assume that the lemon will keep away bad luck?  If anyone of Indian descent can clue me in, please do! 

Horseshoes: I've seen them hung above the front door with points up (to collect the luck and hold it) and points down (to let the good luck "shower" down on people).

What about plants?  Sure, lots of people have shrubbery around the door, but people seem to put green plants that "twine" (like ivy) near the front door either inside or out.  Some plants can protect against evil, or draw money. 

I have seen a few Elleguas behind front doors and carefully stepped around him to keep from tripping :)  Ellegua is the Orisha that guards the door and opens that door so the other Orisha can come down.  If you've ever seen a triangle-looking cement head sitting in a dish, that's Ellegua.  People feed him candy, rum and cigars.

I see elephant statues in a LOT of houses, either with Black or Caucasian inhabitants.  The elephants have their trunks up.  It's an old good luck charm. 

I'm sure there are lots of charms, powders and other things hidden under doormats that I can't see.  I've seen lots of Hamsa hands to deflect the evil eye.

What kinds of tricks do you know to put around the entrance to your home or business?  Let me know in the comments.  And may good luck and happiness come through your doors, always!

Dollar Store Conjure: Rootwork on the cheap

Whether you're working on being a Supreme Occult Master or are the average Josephine setting lights for herself now and again, one thing's for certain: you need supplies.  Hoodoo and rootwork come from the African-American Protestant Southern community.  These folks did not have great online retailers, Wal-Mart or even greenhouses to get plants and herbs.  Herbs, roots and flowers were gathered from the wild.  Supplies for spellwork were based on things you could get from around the home or on the farm: salt, red flannel, iron filings, nails, string, and so forth.  Hoodoo workers made their own supplies, oils, and powders for themselves and their clients.  Conjure shops didn't really start popping up in large cities until the turn of the 20th century.

There are so many great conjure shops online today where you can order complete baths, powders, oils, and incense.  Lucky Mojo Curio Company is one example.  However, you can work some great authentic magic with things you find in the dollar store.  If you're a beginning conjure worker or just want to do some work or magic for yourself, take a trip to a dollar store with these tips in mind!

Candles - Get some tea lights for small petitions or altar lights, tapers (often stores will have different colors and you can use those colors for whatever you're working), and some stores (especially those in towns or cities with a high Hispanic population) will have saint candles and 7 day vigils.  Experiment to see if the burn quality is OK on the 7-day vigil; it is a dollar store, after all, and I've found that some brands of candle aren't poured very well and will give a weird burn.

Powders - Get cheap baby powder, cornstarch and arrowroot powder.  All can be used to make sachet powders OR you can add your expensive conjure shop sachet to plain baby powder and use it as a daily dusting powder on your  body.

Ammonia/Floor Washes - Booyah!  You can't beat a dollar for a big bottle of spiritual cleansing fluid!  Get some plain ammonia, which clears away crossed conditions.  Check out the store for some pine-based floor wash (like Pine-Sol) to see if it has real pine oil in it.  If it does, it's a great spiritual cleanser in your home; pine breaks away crossed or jinxed conditions.  Just pray over the bottle when you open it!

Herbs - I know, I know, you're not going to find High John the Conqueror root or Sandalwood chips in a dollar store (but if you do, tell me because I'd love to know where you shop :) ).  But look in the food or cooking aisle and you can find some cheap herbs to add to your conjure cupboard.  Check the expiration dates to make sure they're fresh.  Look for Cinnamon sticks, jars of Honey, Thyme, Basil, etc. etc.

Automotive and House Supply Aisle - "Hey Mary, why are we in this aisle?" Because there's all kinds of cool stuff for conjure in here: twine for tying up packets and binding work, padlocks with keys, cheap knives, scissors, needles and thread, jars and boxes, mirrors (for reversing work), and so on.  Let your imagination run away for a little bit.  Get some aluminum pans to keep vigil candles in while they burn so they don't tip over and start a fire.

Toys - Need a doll baby and you don't want to sew?  Look for a plastic dolly or action figure.  Use paper money or toy bank to decorate your money altar (do not use toy money IN your money work; only use real money when working to attract money, but it's OK to decorate the altar space with fake money). 

Those are just a few ways to work magic while saving money.  What are your ideas?  Let me know in comments!