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: Cinnamon!

Happy first of the week, everyone!  Let's get spicy!

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Cinnamomum aromaticum, and other members of the "Cinnamomum" family.

WHERE CAN I GET IT?: Unless you happen to live in a rainforest of Sri Lanka, you can buy this at your local grocery store.  Some brands are better than others in terms of freshness and fragrance.  It comes in sticks or powdered.

WHAT'S IT GOOD FOR?: Cinnamon is awesome for money drawing and business luck.  Mix some with Sugar (to sweeten money to you) and sprinkle it across your front door step, or across the sidewalk leading into your business. 

Cinnamon oil is used as a base fragrance for many money/prosperity oils out there, but be very careful if using the essential oil; it can burn your skin if it's undilluted!  Mix pure essential oil of cinnamon with a carrier oil like jojoba or sweet almond oil before using for self-anointing.

If you have to speak to someone and have your words well-received, get a cinnamon stick and suck on it just before you talk to the person; your words and message will be "sweet" to their ears.

Cinnamon is also termed a "sweet hot" herb, and can be used to heat up a love or passion formula.  Ginger also works like this. 

If you want to encourage commerce or sell a home, put some cinnamon sticks in a pot of water and set it over a low heat on your stove (real estate agents swear that the smell of cinnamon-apple pie will make people more receptive to buying or renting a property).  Make sure you check the water level occaisionally so it doesn't burn the pan!

Here's an easy money-drawing mojo: take 3 cinnamon sticks, a pinch of whole Cloves, a pinch of Thyme, a dime, and a whole Nutmeg.  Dress each item with a money drawing oil if you like (may I recommend Mary Bee Conjure's Money and Prosperity Oil?) and pray over the items that you will have money and prosperity drawn to you.  Sew the items up in a red or green flannel mojo bag and carry it on your person, where no one can see it.  

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!