Happy Gay Pride Day Everyone!!!

Those who have been reading this blog for a long time know that I have always been deeply involved with Tenerife’s gay and lesbian community. Today is a day for rejoice, fun, parties and rainbow costumes – but let’s not forget those who are still struggling to be who they are in countries where being homosexual is still a punished crime. Any Witches reading this, please light a candle for equality and FREEDOM!!!!

The pic below was taken by my friend Mary at the gay pride day parade yesterday in Santa Cruz. Hope she doesn’t mind I borrowed it!

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The Hoodoo Shop Is In A Treasury!

Click HERE and add views so this treasury stays and spread the word about these fantastic Etsy shops!

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Quick Update

My computer broke down and I’m using a friend’s portable pc (thanks so much Fernando!) so I will be available until my computer is fixed, probably along next week, but there won’t be much posting or picture uploading in the next few days. The shops are open and orders will be served as usual so don’t worry about purchasing your lovely witchy products from The Hoodoo Shop ;) , or about emailing me for any questions you may have.

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An Open Response To My Readers’ Letters

Since I started writing the blog, I have received many requests on writing books on Witchcraft, on my own way to do Witchcraft. Though it is very, very flattering, I really don’t think it’s possible.

My only secret recipes are the products from my shop, which of course I am not giving away. My shop and my Tarot readings are the ONLY income of a family of two humans and eight animals, so as you can imagine I am not selling that recipes for no amount of money. And, to be honest, I don’t think I’m being asked for that – the people that have asked me for books have always been absolutely respectful to me and my work.

Besides that, I have no secrets at all. I only have 20 years of experience, hundreds of books read, and a 24 -7 commitment since I was 21 years old. I have no religion, and as I said in the previous posts I have no powers at all – Eleggua, my protector and guide, has them. The only things that are mine, and do not come from the Orishas, are my knowledge and my experiences.

The knowledge I have acquired can be acquired by anyone. I don’t have any secret or hidden books – I really don’t believe in their existence. In my Witchcraft Crash Course book I gave a list of books to read, and that is truly the books that have helped me the most to develop my work, at least to the day I wrote that list. I have never belonged to any coven or group, or received knowledge from any secret line of Witches, or had any hereditary/born-with-it powers, or ever had a master who taught me.

My point is – there is no way a book can give you experience, and all that I have learnt from books (including the Internet), I’m sure anyone can find it too. The experiences that take you to be a Witch cannot be transmitted in a book, because there is nothing more true that there is a different path for every learner. Being a Witch is not a goal you reach, but a path you choose and follow forever, so you’re always a learner.

I really wish there was a way that a book could change others – but there isn’t. You have to accept the change before you read the book – and there are already many books that are absolutely enlightening. Jesus’ or Buddha’s teachings should be enough, actually. They set the example of compassion, commitment, detachment from materialism and were both powerful shamans that let the Higher powers work through themselves.

And of course, there is no way a book can give you commitment. That is something that every Witch has to choose, and that cannot be rushed. My whole time and life is dedicated to Witchcraft, and I have sacrificed many things and lived without things that everyone around me has, like regular monthly payments, mortgages and new cars. But believe me – I am not poor AT ALL. My knowledge is an endless wealth for me, and I prefer a second-hand old Toyota than selling my life force, my time and my life for another’s profit.

And how many mistakes I have made!!! All that you can imagine, and a few more :) . Today, I am deeply thankful for all my mistakes, but when they happened I felt frustrated, sad, angry, abandoned – just like anyone. Given enough mistakes, you can learn to cope with them and even learn from them, seeing them as the teachers they are, but you have to commit them! I think my readers want the books as a safety net – sorry, you need to make all those mistakes a) to earn knowledge about yourself and thus be able to change into what you want to be; b) to learn to be free from being judgemental when your consultants make that mistakes too, and understand them compassionately.

Though I am a bookworm and don’t believe at all in “intuitive” approaches to Witchcraft, it is life, change and love that are our teachers, and not books. A good book about local botany is a must for every Witch, but you have to experience the way to get in touch with each plant’s spirit. You have to feel the plant, talk to its soul, and wait humbly for a response. It make take a long time. Some of the plant’s spirits will work quickly with you, and others will never do it. You have to accept it – you simply can’t be friends with everyone.

And this is only one example, but it works the same for stones, incenses, gods, goddesses, fairies, ghosts and everything that involves the Supernatural world. Just going one by one, and learning like if you knew nothing every day, because we really do know nothing.

Love. Love is what we have to learn. Every day. If you love Witchcraft enough, sooner or later you’ll be a Witch, and as a lover Witchcraft will give you good and bad times, will make you have to make sacrifices and will make you stand for it. But as a lover, it will comfort you when you’re sad, care for you when you’re ill and help you when you need a hand.

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The Tarot Day, a Review

Well, yesterday I did the Tarot gig and to say I am satisfied with the outcome is an understatement – it was terrific!

We arrived early (with a Virgo rising, I’m a punctuality maniac :) ), and set our mini booth (see two posts below) – and the first consultant arrived almost two hours after the Tea Bar opened. I was supposed to stay there only until 10:00 PM, so I could make my own Saint John’s rituals at home, but I ended up staying until 1:30 AM!

We had set a very, very low price for the readings so everyone could have a try without worrying on the money. Of course, there were some very boring readings for people that just wanted to “try”, like if getting a Tarot reading was a sideshow circus thing, but I’m used to it – I’m not there to put up a show and entertain them, so I know well to keep that readings short and to the point; and though I try to do my best, when someone is not spiritually open the energy flow of the reading is low and I can only rely on my knowledge of the theory of Tarot to construct a useful reading – which is perfectly ok, but no thrills at all.

But of course there were consultations that I can only described as ecstatic. They needed the reading, they came completely open and available for me to read on their souls – and there is nothing like that experience for me. When a consultant is sincere about himself/herself, and is willing to listen, Eleggua speaks through me and gives them exactly the kind of advice they need to push the boundaries of their beliefs and see themselves under a new light. Through the eyes of Eleggua, everyone is a shining light of Divinity – but we are nothing but human, and we constantly forget that.

And when I say Eleggua speaks through me, I’m being literal. I never remember what I say in a reading and I could only describe as something similar to a semi-trance state. I am nobody and I have no powers – it’s the Orishas who use me as a vehicle to communicate with those who really need it, the ones who see the spirits that come with the consultants, the ones that ask that question that leaves the consultant breathless for a second. I have knowledge, not powers, and when I’m not in that state I’m just a regular woman who likes crafting and fears the dentist.

Reading Tarot, or other oracles, is an amazing experience, both for the consultant and the reader. 20 years after I started reading Tarot, I still get a high dose of emotional thrill when I do readings with certain consultants. The consultants laugh, cry, and the look on their eyes when you uncover the veil of their deepest desires is simply priceless. To see a person sighing deeply, relieved that the reader understands them to their deeper core, makes all the work worth for me.

My last reading, made for a couple that I had already met on a previous reading, was specially moving – the new moon and the magickal night of bonfires and wishes really brought up a lot of “dark” issues on all the readings. Since I know this people were very tight financially, I closed the night giving away to them several products from my trunk to help them combat evil magick made against them. Giving something for free after filling my own pocket made it all feel balanced, so I decided to leave. We did not made a scandalous amount of money, but we sold a few charms and powders and everyone commented on our products, and seemed interested in coming back with friends to more readings.

Usually I do not trust people that come to the readings saying that someone is making evil magick on them – 99 out of 100 times, people have made their own luck and the bad luck they talk about is only the karma boomerang coming back to them – but this time the cards were clear and I knew this people, so I knew well they are not alarmists or people that want to blame someone else for their own trouble. 1 out of 100, yes, and they were the 1, so they went home with van-van powders, amulets, road-opening powders and protection spells to help them go back again to normal life. I couldn’t let them go knowing that they had no money to fight evil magick. It was too unfair.

I was so tired I could only crawl back home, get a long cleaning shower, make some purification rites to get away from all the energy I absorbed (attention Tarot readers, this is mandatory for your own good!), and slept ten hours. Today I’m taking the day off – I see some crafting, meditating and gardening in my day to renew my energies and start listing new stuff in the shop tomorrow. Witchville needs a good cleaning too LOL!

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New Book Of Shadows Insert: Summer Solstice

A handmade sigil, hand-drawn by me in color pencils on fine arts paper. The sigil was scanned and then the full page layout was made by me in Photoshop CS.

The sigil shows the God and the Goddess, depicted as the Sun and the Moon on the day of the solstice. The line in theban alphabet above them reads “In Perfect Love And Perfect Trust”, which is a salutation that is part of the Wicca rite, but that every Pagan knows and uses. I chose it because I thought it was a beautiful symbol of this marriage of the male and female energies.

Below the couple, a wreath of Ivy, red roses and rosemary symbolizes marriage too, as they are plants that are used in bridal wreaths in many world cultures. Ivy is a symbol of connection; the rose a symbol of passion and purity, and rosemary a symbol of fertility and luck.

This could be a wonderful illustration to place right before your Summer Solstice rites and spells, or could be simply printed and hung on your altar – this image can be specially beneficial to those that are looking for love.

You can purchase this downloadable file at The Hoodoo Shop.

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Getting Ready For A Magickal Tarot Day

First of all, i would like to wish all my readers a HAPPY SOLSTICE!!! May all your rituals work to perfection and all your wishes be granted :). With the Sun entering Cancer today, it is time to be thankful for our family, may it be biological, adopted or found along the travel of life. Those who care for us and those who know that we care for them, deserve a special place in your solstice altar today. It is also a good ocasion to light a candle -or burn some incense, or make offerings – for those “angels” we have had along the way – those people who were kind and helpful once, and we never saw them again. It doesn’t matter if you don’t remember them; the Goddess knows very well who they are :) .

We won’t be doing much rituals today, as the traditional day for celebrating here in the Islands is on Tuesday 23rd, which is called Saint John’s Eve, and it is a day filled with magickal traditions and a night where jumping over a bonfire is the most repeated ritual in all the beaches of the seven islands. It is a rite of luck and purification.
On that day a special Tarot session ot the Tea Bar and we want to show some of our magickal wares. Here are the pics:

Fernando found this trunk on the garbage several months ago. We won’t have much space for display so we chose it because it’s more or less the size of a case, it’s lightweight and we can carry everything inside, so it doubles its use.

We chose witchy containers – coconut shell bowls, basket and vintage glass bowls. I still have two days, so there is a chance that a little more stuff will be added, but we’re taking it slowly and easy. I think I am learning my lesson about overworking! I refuse to keep working until the last minute, as I have done so often for my jewelry showrooms, because it makes you pay a high price – stress. I have accepted that, in the end, it will be what Eleggua wants, so I’ll try to do my best and prove my trust by working just as every day. Witchcraft work has to be done in proper times and days, and cannot be forced to fit in a gig schedule. This is not mass-production and I refuse to alter the quality of my work for having a bigger inventory. Some of the things I will be selling needs weeks and even months to be in the best condition, and if any other Witch is reading this, you’ll agree with me that the smaller the batch, the better the products; thus, I don’t make a thousand kyphi incense pills, I make 40-70 a year.

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Medicine Woman, Altar Doll

This is the doll my brother-in- law sent me, after a good day of makeover! A homage to all medicine women in the world and in other worlds, alive, past and future healers, advisors, hunters, gatherers, witches……Keeping this for myself of course :D !

Details:



You can see big sized images of all these pics at my Flickr Photostream.

Altar dolls, also called Spirit Dolls, are just the vessel for an entity that is a guardian, or a companion, or a teacher in a Witch’s growth. Actually more than one entity can live in a spirit doll, but that is rare.

What I’m showing here is only the making of the doll, from a dollmaker’s point of view. At this point, this doll is only a doll, like the many others I have made. To be an active spiritual toll/helper/master, it has to be “awakened” by a ritual; that is, inviting a spirit to enter the doll and inhabit it. Please notice that I have said inviting instead of summoning; I really find the word summoning out of my practise, because I think it includes an element of forcing spirits to come at our will, and I really don’t want that. If you want a friend to come and visit, you don’t bring him/her home dragging it by his/her hair.

The inviting ritual includes, of course, offerings – nothing like the promise of good food, drinks and sweets to attract a spirit! I will also burn incense and candles and will most likely have a place of its own (in the roof garden I think). Secret ingredients will be added to her back pack as she asks for them.

Having a working spirit doll is a complete responsibility – very similar to adopting a pet. It changes your habits and make you readjust them to take care of them. In Santeria there is a very simple principle: the more you give them, the more powerful they are to help you and protect you. But don’t think it is a matter of how much you give, but of how much you love what you give to them. It doesn’t matter if you buy a hundred coconuts for Eleggua, if that means no sacrifice to you – and personal sacrifice is not only the way to honour your deities, but also is the only tool for losing your superficial ego and sense of property.

So, this doll will have to be fed regularly and her demands should always be taken into consideration. This is not obeying blindy: when my Eleggua asks for a “big as f**k candle”, I answer “ok, help me get the money to buy it!”. Along the next 48 hours, I will get ten times the money I need – and of course I keep the change LOL! Nedless to say, if I didn’t buy that candle BEFORE wasting or saving the rest of the money, I can be sure to be tightening my belt for a couple of weeks! When you make a pact to the Spirits, be it important or completely ordinary, you have to keep your promises.

Something that I’ve found very productive to use with spirits dolls is offering your time. When I want something special from Eleggua (that is, the usual Witch-whining about the super-expensive-and-unexpected-bill-that-just-arrived), I sit and embroider/paint/craft something for him, or make a thorough cleaning to the altar, or cook some food for him. I think that this is not only a wonderful way to reinforce the trust you have in your deities, but also a big relief from mental stress. Doing something that has such a meditative quality as embroidering or gardening has a soothing effect on me, helps me alleviate my worrying, and thus stops blocking the coming of wealth with my negative energy.

Spirit dolls do not necessarily live with you forever – the spirit may consider that you have learnt the lesson he/she wanted to give you and will make you see that he/she wants to leave. Two things may happen: that the spirit, still inside the doll, wants to passed on to a new student, or that the spirit will simply leave and then the doll is again just a doll that you can keep or not. Just a note: I dont think selling them with the spirit inside is a good idea. To me would be like selling slaves. Spirits are free and I do not own them, as I am free and they do not own me.

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Familiar Pets

My brother-in-law, who is currently working in Canada for a few months, sent me this beautiful doll, made by indian artisans (thanks so much Andrés, I love it!). Every time I get something in the mail even remotely magic, Kyra has to sit beside it for a couple of hours and inspect it. My other cats have not ever shown that kind of interest ever.

Not all pets are familiars. I have three dogs, three cats and two budgies, and only Kyra and my siberian husky are familiars – the rest are just super-loveable-and-uber-spoiled pets :). Familiars have a level of communication with magickal objects and people that pets cannot reach, even though they are all treated and raised exactly the same – pet, familiar or human, this Witchville is an anarchist democracy!

Actually, Kyra is a reincarnated familiar. Before her, I had another male black cat called Nanito that was my familiar – he was poisoned and killed by a neighbour (may all curses from this Witch fall on him). Losing a pet is always heartbreaking, but losing a familiar is so much more; you lose a magickal companion too. Three days after he disappeared, I had a dream where two spirits came to ask me for his soul, which was still lingering in my home. I woke up crying.

Two weeks after Nanito’s disappearance, a woman from the pet store where I adopted another of my cats, with whom I had not talked to in three years, phoned me saying that they had just found a two-week cat abandoned in an underground parking lot. It was Kyra. I was still grieving my loss, but I couldn’t say no to a hungry little kitten – I’m a Cancer, motherhood is in my nature!

The first day she arrived, she walked around the house as if she already knew it. She came back to me, jumped of my lap and quickly felt asleep. If you have ever had cats, you know they take a little time to trust! I started suspecting that there was a connection; very soon after that I started calling her “my little Witch” – and she purrs happily when I say it.

My other familiar, Pupi. Pupi has the wisest, deeper eyes I’ve ever seen in a dog – she is definitely a very old soul. I had read that this kind of dog had difficult behaviours, but she is incredibly well-mannered and calm. She was brought home when she was four days old, after being abandoned near a highway with her brothers so the cars could kill them. She was the size of the palm of my hand. Now she is about sixty pounds, and though she suffers from chronic scoliosis, she is a healthy and happy dog.

Familiars are essential for Witches, and can take any form – a bird or a rat can be as powerful as a sixty-pound husky. I have heard stories even of beetle familiars! I don’t think they have to be specially treated or spoiled – they are animals after all – and if you have other pets you could have jealous or territorial behaviours you should never allow to happen. Your familiar does not own you – it is a friend, a companion, a master and a learner. Sometimes, it is also the embodiment of a guardian for you and your home, if its spirit is a warrior witch/wizard one.

Sometimes it is not easy to recognize them, but it’s very common that a familiar does not like playing along the early years of its life, like other puppies do. If your dog is a familiar, it will be interested in any magickal stuff that you have and will sit silently, paying attention to your ritual, staring at the candles or the incense – while a dog pet usually sits at your feet and falls asleep in a few minutes. There is a thin line between regular animal behaviour and your familiar’s behaviour, and you’ll have to observe its interaction with your magickal tools. You can use a pendulum over them, if you have experience with this method, or aske the cards or runes. It’s up to you to decide the method, but I chose simple observation. When I make a ritual fire in the roof, both Pupi and Kyra are always near, looking at what I’m doing. My other pets just frolick around :), paying no attention at all.

There is no limit of numbers of familiars a Witch can have at the same time – but two or three is the most I have seen. Also, gender of the spirit and gender of the pet do not have to be same! That is not important for the spirits to enter you familiar.

If you live in zones that have wildlife, you will most likely end up attracting familiar that are not your pets – wild animals that visit you frequently, or even in dreams – but that will be for another post!

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The Garden Blessing’s Wreath

I printed the latest sheet I uploaded to my shop – The Magick Garden Talisman – and found out that it was the same size of a wreath made of lemon balm branches a few months ago. I had put it aside to dry and completely forgot about it until today.

I embellished the wreath with fruits and a bird, gifts from my dearest friend Krista, and added the bead dangles.

The talisman was cut, glued to hard cardboard and varnished twice on both sides, since it will be on the roof’s garden. Then the wreath and the talisman were glued.

All this makes me think that we are constantly making magic, even when we think we are just putting together a few unwanted branches. Oh – and this is a proof that I use the products I sell :).

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