God's Treehouse

This is so much better than waving a bible and ranting at people through a megaphone. What an inspiring, deeply magical idea. God told Horace to build at treehouse and that if he obeyed he would never run out of materials.

The treehouse is currently 97-foot high with ten floors, and growing!

It really makes me feel so amazingly good to know that God is as eccentric as all this. As a long-time lover of treehouses, folk-art and crazed prophets I highly recommend reading the touching story about Horace's treehouse.

Also check out this flickr set of pics detailing the treehouse in all its arkish glory.

Frenemy Fix

"Frenemy" (alternately spelled "frienemy") is a portmanteau of "friend" and "enemy" which can refer to either an enemy disguised as a friend or to a partner who is simultaneously a competitor and rival.[1] The term is used to describe personal, geopolitical, and commercial relationships both among individuals and groups or institutions. The word has appeared in print as early as 1953." - Wikipedia

We've all had them. Do they drive you crazy or what? Do they confuse you? Is it possible or advisable to fire them as friends? Should you try and do something to turn them into true friends? Should you hire a hit-man? What on earth do you do with a frenemy?

For various reasons one quite often has no choice but to live with a frenemy; whether they be a fixture in a larger circle of friends, a work colleague or a family association. Sometimes it's even an old school friend who over the decades has become ensconced in your life but for various undefinable reasons seems to harbour ill will. You can't put your finger on it but you know that they're just waiting to turn the knife in your back. That feeling might have been lingering for years already; the subtle sensation that they do the happy dance at home when you fall on your face; that unmistakable sense that when they call you to console you after your break-up, they are positively oozing satisfaction at the wreckage that is your romantic life. When you tell other friends about your concerns re the toxicity of said frenemy you find that somehow this makes you look mean-spirited, petty, hysterical even.

Ugh... the dark, dark taint of the frenemy. Surely there is no blacker arte?

Wrong! :)

The Frenemy Fix spell:

Before I describe it, it is worth mentioning that, magically speaking, frenemies do pose a genuine risk of jinxing your money, love and overall luck. Many folk-traditions maintain that jealous friends and family members have an especially strong ability to influence your well-being by means of what sometimes is called the evil-eye. So it's not all that surprising that a frenemy can feel like such a problem. The fact is when people harbour you ill-will whether they act on it or not, simply wishing it upon you can have an effect. Combine molochia with a little gossip, social manoeuvring and the kind of game-playing that the frenemy is so masterful at, you have a rather bitter cocktail that you are forced to sip every other Friday night out with the girls/guys.

Ingredients:
Frenemy Fix Oil
Purple jumbo size candle
A piece if devil's shoestrings
Powdered cloves
Two whole pepper corns
Spider's webs
Calamus root (powdered)
Liquorice root (powdered)
Red pepper
Gun powder
Powdered crab shell
Holy water
Molasses
Picture of the frenemy
Red thread
Glass jar with screw-top lid

Butt and reverse the candle. Carve eyes and mouth with a sharp knife near the new 'head' of the candle. If you like, you can take a magic marker and draw outlines for the eyes and mouth, to make it more realistic. Take a tiny pinch of gun powder, mix it with some crab-shell powder and a tiny pinch of red pepper and stuff that in the mouth. You can keep it there by dripping a little wax from a tea-light, to pack it in the mouth. This is to ensure that any gossip, innuendo and double-speak back-fires in the frenemy's face. Take two whole peppercorns and stick a peppercorn in the pupil of each eye. This is to cancel out the frenemy evil-eye effect.

Carve the frenemy name in mirror writing on the candle (you should be able to read it in the mirror). Next, baptise the candle with holy water that has a little sugar dissolved in it:

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit I baptise thee N.

This baptizes the candle whilst keeping the frenemy, seemingly, sweet.

Dress the candle with Frenemy Fix oil, then dust it with the powdered Cloves, Calamus and Liquorice. This is to dominate and control the frenemy, so that you gain the upper hand, but will also to keep them nice. If your frenemy is particularly wily and you worry that they might suspect something you can sprinkle some poppy seeds on there to confuse them a little.

Find yourself a spider's web in the garden, basement or attic. Wrap that web around the candle and as you do so say:

"N. may you become tangled up by your own devices! May your scheming come to nothing! May your own words and games get you snared up like fly in a web"!


Take the photo and write the command TRIPPED UP & TIED DOWN over the pic nine times. Dress the pic with some Frenemy Fix oil in the quincunx pattern and then wrap that around the piece of Devil's Shoe Strings. Take some thread and wind that around the pic and root - and tell the root to hold the frenemy down and tie them up. Work it spiritually as you bind that up.

Put it in the jar and cover it with some molasses. That's to keep things, apparently, sweet between you and your frenemy but because the molasses is thick it will also slow down the frenemy. Place the candle inside the jar so the base is firmly set in the molasses, beside the Devil's Shoe String.

Pray over the whole thing. Call your frenemy out and tell them you see what they are doing and every one  else will too and that they will have their tricks reversed back on to them. Light the candle. Sit there watching it burn and continue to work it spiritually until the wick burns down to the 'mouth' and that gunpowder ignites. As it does loudly call out your frenemy's name and tell them all their games and tricks will blow up in their face!

Leave the candle to burn down. When its done, cover the remains with molasses close the jar and put it in a dark closet.

Obligatory Safety Notice:

Please, do not blow yourself up with too much gunpowder! I mean it. TINY pinch.

Grimorium Beerum

You can find almost anything in Amsterdam.

Hellishly good too.

Inscribing Prayers

Sitting in my conjure room, inscribing a psalm on a pillar candle. A quiet prayer on my lips. Suddenly I feel small and overwhelmed by the movement of the spirits around me. I'm still a conjure baby, I realize.

Just a baby.

Old Style Conjure radio

Well, let me tell you - if you want to hear some powerful and important messages you gotta listen to the esteemed Momma Starr and Dr. Love Bug's new blog talk radio show.

This is all about the ethics of conjure, and what it truly means to be a spiritual worker and about the inner attitudes that you need to cultivate if you want to be a decent good hearted worker. I have been blessed with the very good fortune of being able to take classes with Momma Starr and she tells it like it is. Marc is right once you talk to her, your ideas about a lot of stuff suddenly gets put into a whole new perspective! Some difficult stuff comes up but its very important stuff. Similarly, Dr. Love Bug has got an infectious fiery passion for the tradition second to none, and his spiritual skill is formidable. I have had the pleasure to chat quite a bit with him (we hail from the same region in South Africa) and he is sharp conjure doctor, to be sure. I can't wait to hear more from these two strong voices representing the essentials of the tradition at a time when conjure is reaching a global audience at such a rapid rate. Tune in and enjoy folks! Highly recommended.

The Venus Love-Tub Lamp

Sometimes it's kinda hard having a conjure blog. I constantly have to resist blabbing out personal tricks and techniques on this here blog thingy. Being at least a little secretive about what you do is an important part of the tradition, but sometimes the joy of blogging overcomes the need to keep tricks up my sleeve (like today). And after the discussion about lamp work on MyHoodooSpace yesterday I thought it seemed all the more relevant.

I devised this lamp for a love reconciliation case. What's more -  it wasn't pure hoodoo. For some reason I got all *cough* eclectic and mixed up doll-babies; astrological timing; renaissance conjurations - along with an an afro-caribbean style lamp that employs hoodoo herbal symbolism.

I  know, I am all 'traditional' this, 'traditional' that - and then when left alone in my conjure room for five minutes I turn into a magical hypocrite...

It just felt SO good :)

The work was wrought on the day and hour of Venus; sculpting two beeswax doll-babies filled with appropriate goodies and then baptised with holy water. My latest obsession is to write petitions on dried bay leaves.

Next I take three pieces of cotton bandage and I braid the wicking as I pray.  I then pin the bay-petition to the wick with pink topped dressmakers pin. I thread the wicking through the tinfoil platform. The secret to creating a good lamp is the wicking; it needs to be thick enough to draw up enough oil and stay burning brightly but not so thick that it blazes too brightly and empties out the well every three hours.

I tie the doll-babies together so that they are embracing, whilst praying my petition, then I place them on a bed of controlling and compelling roots along with a generous portion of libido and love enhancing herbs. Like so...

I drench the doll-babies with syrup, I add vegetable oil, along with the appropriate condition oils, making sure to saturate the wick. Don't those doll-babies look like they are cuddling in a hoodoo hot-tub?

Finally, I draw the seal of Venus on the ground with blessed chalk along with sigils for the planetary spirit and intelligence of Venus. I place the lamp atop this - and intoning conjurations from the Heptameron I invoke the appropriate planetary agencies as I light the lamp, making sure to include my petition and an offering of appropriate Venus-attributed incense. I refill the lamp with oil every day in the hour of Venus repeating the conjurations, along with incense offering and petition as I do each time. I also add different herbs to the lamp as the job progresses - to sweeten, heat or otherwise manipulate the situation as the case may need.

Day 1: Client texts target. Target at first does not respond at all and then eventually responds with cold and disinterested attitude.

Day 5: Target's phone makes a 'phantom' call to client. Client sees missed call, excited, phones ex to hear what the call was about. Ex denies having called, something weird is going on with the phone. Client and ex both confused - they chat a little. 

Day 14: Receives early AM message begging client to come out. Client in shock and disbelief - so much so that she turns down the invite! Rootworker wants to strangle client when he hears this.

Day 16: Ex contacts client at more sensible hour hoping to see client again. Client agrees. Much fun had, sexy time etc. Happiness all round.

They all lived happily ever after. 

THE END

Nocturnal Weirdness

My sleep time is prone to weirdness . For some reason if anything is going on spiritually with me then night time visitations or interlopers are prompt to follow turning our bedroom into an occult wonderland. My poor spouse has had all manner of things happen to him at night; grabbed by unseen hands, spoken to, growled at, and generally - just having the living daylights frightened out of him. The fact that he stays with me through all this shows a true and abiding love. I don't think I would stay with me.

Anyway, it is safe to say I have the bedroom battened down. The husband is also trained in a emergency night-time protection drill - which he does with remarkable efficiency for someone who has been has been accosted at 3am by unknown forces, and without blinking. Now, I don't want to keep everything out because for whatever reason my dreams and nocturnal interactions with Spirit are an important source of information and feedback - but on the other hand this makes for a crack through which unwanted intrusions can happen.

Nonetheless, last night we saw an entirely new spin on our usual nocturnal programming:

The hubby gets woken by yours truly standing next to the bed gently stroking his leg. He wakes to find me standing with someone unknown beside me. Alarmed, he asks what I am doing and who the stranger our bedroom is? We both walk out the door. And then...THEN...he notices, ah, but in fact I am still sleeping in the bed next to him.

I don't remember a thing.

He tells the story with a remarkably prosaic attitude - such that it makes me think he is just relieved he didn't get growled at, again.

In honour of spooky, yet somehow funny weirdness - I believe a song is in order:



UPDATE: I was just informed by my spouse that I got some details in this post wrong: apparently, said ghostly apparitions left by way of the window. (sorry pooks!)

The Sweet Success Jar

So, you want a spell that will help your business to take off? You want loads of spending customers, goodwill and a steady flow of cash coming in, along with ever increasing profits? To this end I offer you the Sweet Success jar. And I am happy to say it works pretty darn well. May it bring you limitless abundance and sweet, sweet success!

What you will need:
A glass jar with metal screw-top lid
1 magnet - not a lodestone, but a strong magnet*.
Magnetic sand
Pay-me oil
All Things Under My feet oil
Dirt from a busy marketplace
Dirt from your business premises
A list of goals and ambitions for you business; your business plan along with your business name or logo.
Sugar syrup or honey (I prefer syrup)
Calamus root chips
Liquorice root chips
Sassafras root chips
Bay leaf
Cinnamon
Coin of every denomination
A brand new, crisp bank note of any denomination (higher is better).
Sugar
A hair from your crown
A Pay-Me vigil-light
Red thread

First cleanse your jar properly, wash it and wipe it out with a little Florida water. Then fill it one third of the way with sugar. Next wipe off the coins with a little Florida water and anoint each coin with Pay-Me oil - then drop them into the sugar. When the jar is done - looking through the syrup it kinda reminds me of sunken treasure on bottom of the seabed.

Next, write out your petition and cover and cross this with your name. Be thorough - word your petition carefully and with thoughtful consideration. Work this out before hand. Naturally you want to ask that your business be blessed with many customers, who spend generously, come back often and have good things to say. Also ask that obstacles and negativity be removed and cleared away from the path ahead. Place your petition on top of that crisp fresh new bank note - dab some Pay-Me and All Things oil on the corners of the bank note.

Now, baptise the magnet and name it after your business. To do this I sprinkle a little holy water over the magnet and making the sign of the cross, I say "In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit I baptise thee N." Then I blow a puff of cigar smoke over the magnet to feed its spirit and I also feed it some oil and a pinch of magnetic magnetic sand. Next, take the dirt from the market place and mix it with the dirt from the business. I sprinkle this onto the magnet praying that as the market place teemed with customers, so too will customers be drawn to the business. Then cover this with the roots and herbs, along with a few drops of Pay-Me oil - at this point I like to blow another puff of cigar smoke into my hands which I cup over the petition, magnet and herbs. I pray that the smoke awakens and feeds the roots and herbs - sending my petition to the spirits of the plants, feeding them and enlivening them.

Next, I fold the entire assembly into a packet by folding the bank note toward me - that way the bank note forms the outer layer. When the packet is folded I take the red thread and I begin winding it around the packet in a cruciform - I wind toward me praying with as much intensity as possible. When I have nice red cross holding it all together I tie it off. I place this in the jar along with the printed logo and business plan and I cover it all with syrup. Before I close the jar I add some Pay-Me oil in there.

Finally I dress fix and light the Pay-Me vigil on top of the jar. I work that vigil with daily prayer (Psalm 8 and Psalm 23), adding Pay-Me and All Things Under My Feet oil daily. When the vigil is done I burn tea lights daily atop it thereafter. Each day that I work it I take the jar and I shake it calling out the petition with confidence. You need to take care not to neglect your jar and work it often, or else all the power will get sucked out of it and it will go stale.

I usually create all my work under the aegis of a spirit - whether it be a saint, ancestor, one of the helpful dead or some other guide or spirit. You don't have to but that works well for me. You can work with only the Holy Trinity - and that is the traditional way- and you will have fantastic results, but being catholic and coming from spiritualist background I like working with a spirit or saint for each thing I do. It takes the work where I can't take it myself. I am not saying which spirit I worked with for my jar, that is my business - but there are many powerful spirits that might be suited to yours; San Martin the Caballero being a well-know all-round generosity inspiring saint. Alternatively you might do some research - chances are your line of work has patron saint that might be willing to lend a hand ;-)

*Stay tuned for my upcoming lodestones vs magnet power rant

Winning with Green Fast Luck

Got this awesome bit of feedback about winning at gambling using my Green Fast Luck formula from a dear client of mine:

"I didn't expect to play today cos the table was full. I decided to play a little blackjack for fun and lost initially. I refrained from using the Green Fast Luck for gambling cos its unstable luck, waiting till I combine it with some Money Stay with Me oil. Didn't have a choice but to use it, and I ended up winning!

One of the guys commented. You're running hotter than the sun! That's a great start B. Can't wait to reap the full benefits when your good work is complete my genius conjurer :)" 


I'm like totally jazzed! I would almost give the stuff away for free - just to hear this kind of story! Almost... ;)
Testimonials aside, this brings up an important distinction about Fast Luck formulas that I would like to clarify. Green Fast Luck is designed to bring lucky money, fast. However, these kinds of formulas give what can described as an unstable luck. When my client heard about that part it made her a little nervous, like it might backfire on her in some way. This is not the case, what is meant by 'unstable luck' is very simply that you will experience a sharp burst of short term luck rather than a lower intensity but sustained form of luck.

For instance, you use the oil in some money work and as you walk down the street and you find a hundred dollars lying on the pavement - wow lucky money! This is quite different to walking down the street and getting offered a job that pays hundred dollars an hour - which is unlikely with Green Fast Luck. Do you see the difference? The latter thing is a long term luck and the former is quick lucky flash - green fast luck.

Altars

In the light of what Jason recently posted about his altar reconfigurations, and the general altar talk around the blogs - thought to share some altar pics.

My Boveda Espiritual. This has a very, very cool energy and is where I do my daily praying and interaction with all helpful the spirits in my tableau; ancestors, guides, saints etc. My favourite place in the house.

This is the home of Holy Mother Death. 

St Cyprian of Antioch and St. Michael share the protection shelf which watches the door to the conjure room. 

There are a couple more, but they have client work in progress on them and I don't really like it all that much when people look at that. I am having a space crises at the moment, I just don't have enough place for everything I do lately - major motivation to find a new house.

Another of Santa Muerte in a different outfit, she likes to wear different things for different occasions.