Imbolc In The Canary Islands: The Virgin Of Candelaria

Imbolc arrives with the first big rains in the island. The sky is grey and cloudy and it’s been pouring all night. May seem insignificant, but for us this rain is the FIRST through all Winter, so it’s quite a change for us.

I would like to send a big HAPPY IMBOLC to all our pagan friends worldwide. We are not too fond on celebrating the “wheel of the year” in a traditional way, mostly because our weather is so different and we cannot relate to a European-style calendar. Right now, the islands are in full bloom because of our soft winter, and it makes no sense to celebrate the beginning of the year with the symbols of a culture that is buried under snow right now. For us, the land sleeps during the summer, when it’s so hot and dry that our landscape becomes desertic – so, we make our celebrations our way and pay little attention to the traditional Imbolc rituals.

In Spain, Imbolc is also the day of the Virgin of Candelaria, patroness of the Canary Islands. The Guanches called her Chaxiraxi, a very common female name here. Chaxiraxi means “mother of the sun” in Guanche language. It is believed that the original statue was found in the year 1400 (almost 100 years before the spanish conquest) by two Guanche sheperds in a ravine in the town of Güimar; they were trying to put their goats inside the cave where they slept, but the goats started behaving crazily and didn’t want to enter the cave; when they approached the cave to find out what happened, they saw the image of the Virgin standing above the cave. At first, they thought it was a living woman; one of the sheperds tried to throw a stone at her to make her move, but his arm was paralyzed; the other, scared, tried to stab her, but ended up stabbing himself. When they finally touched the statue, their wounds and paralyzed limbs healed.

Knowing that there was something supernatural there, the image was taken to the Mencey (King) Acaymo, who built the first chapel for her. That original statue is now lost – it disappeared during a flood in 1826; the great sculptor Fernando Estevez was hired to make the image of Chaxiraxi that you can see in the pics, which was restored in 1972 by Ezequiel De León. It resides in the Basilica of the city of Candelaria, where every year thousands of Canarians visit her and worship her. She is believed to be a specially generous and miraculous virgin and her cult is ever growing. In Santería, Chaxiraxi is closely related to Yemanya, as her history and myth have always been closely related to the sea.

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Saturday

Today I got up early to list a second batch of chromotherapy bracelets I made last night, because the first batch almost sold out in one day! I love making this bracelets – aren’t the colours gorgeous?! At the same time, I’m reducing my monster-size bead stash – double happiness.


I also listed this Dos Aguas (Two Waters) bracelet set – Dos Aguas (Two Waters) is the name given to the energies of Yemanya and Ochum, Orishas of salt and sweet waters, when working together. Many sons of Yemanya are sons of Ochum too, thus I created this set of bracelet for their combined worship.

You can wear one on each wrist, or simply add them to your altar as an offering to the Mother Orishas!Each bracelet is made over a copper wire frame and is adorned with ten hand-wrapped cowrie shells and beads in the colour ranges of the Orishas. The cowries rest gracefully on your hand while wearing it, they look gorgeous on! 7 inch long with and extra chain extender that adds another inch, for extra voluptuous wrists like my own :). Brass lobster clasp.

After the listing I joined Fernando upstairs to work on some new tables for the herbs – we can’t have pots on the floor because of the dogs so we are always making more upcyled tables while our garden expands, and actually tables are a very good way for us as we can catch sun or shade as we want in the moving of the seasons. I got a few pics too:

Unidentified succulent.

Aloe, overflowing with progeny :).

Lady Kyra, just being Her Royal self.

One of the tables we built, using a TV stand structure and some wood a friend gave to us. It is covered in plastic (upcycled bathroom curtain) to make it a little more rain-resistant.

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Good Morning, Friday

Aaaah Friday, even though we do not live a “normal” week anymore, I still feel a happy chill when you arrive! Too many years being a student I guess ;) .

We woke up extra early today as Friday is one of our shipping days and we had a lot of orders to ship. Fernando left to the post office with them while I listed a new batch of chromotherapy bracelets that I made last night at The Hoodoo Shop

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Chromotherapy is based on the concept that colours heal and restore our physical and spiritual balance.It has a very long history in the fields of alternative medicine; in the 10th century, physicians like Avicenna were already working with it. As a painter, colour is essential for me. I have always been very sensitive to its vibration and healing properties; using this knowledge and my experience in chromotherapy, I have created this line of jewelry for you.

Today I will most likely be painting more wooden items as Fernando is building a wall lamp for the “witchy kitchen corner”. Fridays are usually a free-flow day for us; I’ve been wanting to work on some leather pouches for the shop, and the day of Venus is a wonderful day for creating beautiful new projects, so sketching some designs could be a perfect activity for today. I will let the Muses set the mood and then we’ll see…

Have a wonderful weekend :D !!!

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New Handpainted Items Listed

Isis Wooden Spoon Ornament

Being so close to Africa, the egyptian myth has always been of great interest to us, specially to my husband. The Mother Goddess Isis has been worshipped all over the world during history, as her enchanment and mystery actually grow with time. I know many of my witchy friends work often with her, so I went for it and well, I’m super happy with the results :). The piece has been painted with a luxurious Nile Blue on the back and sides, and a warm Gold Ochre on the front. The handle has a small hole for hanging; the piece measures 30 cms/ 12 inches and it is varnished with a soft satin water varnish to add durability and for easier cleaning.

The Green Man’s Pentacle Altar Dish

Surrounded by wreaths of Ivy and Rowan, the Green Man stands over a pentacle, blessing it and filling it with power and intention. His mask is made of tropical palm leaves, representing the union between this European myth and my own upbringing besides the coast of Africa.
The wooden dish has been painted and varnished on all sides to avoid scratching. It measures 12 cms/ 4,6 inches and about 3 cms/1 inch tall. You can use it as an ornament, as a plate for offerings, to keep your favourite gemstones, etc.The dish is made from solid pine wood at Pontevedra, Spain. It has a wonderful weight and stability due to its thickness.

The Hare Goddess Original ATC

I have to admit that I have a thing for Moon Goddesses – being a Cancer, the Moon changes my mood, my body and my magick on its course – being a Witch and a herb gardener only make the Moon even more important in my life – if possible :). One of a kind ATC (Artist Trading Card), painted with acrylics on fine arts grey cardboard and backed with a signature+date certificate. As all ATC’s, this piece measures 2,5 x 3,5 inches. As acrylics are very light resistant, it can be framed (my advice is without glass), or presented as it is on a stand.10×15 cm/ 4×6 inches prints available on a separate listing.

You can find all these items at The Hoodoo Shop at Etsy.

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More Healing Spellwork Pics, And Other Unrelated Things :)

More healing spellwork for a dear customer, working this time with Obatala – as white is the only colour allowed on offerings to Obatala, I drew a veve for him using chalk, corn flour, salt and cascarilla, which is powdered egg shell that we make from Fernando’s parent’s chickens, which are free range and thus more powerful for magick. A spell with a very powerful cleaning energy – I’m taking the afternoon easy as this was really tiring. As you can see in the last posts, I’ve been making spell after spell for the last three weeks. The results of the spells have been even better than envisioned, and that makes all work worth.

We have many projects going on this year – one of them is to include a full range of medicinal herbal products for the shop; salves and ointments, lip balms, herb infused oils, etc. Supplies for all those products are being very hard to find here, and we have had to order some of them outside; that means waiting FOREVER for boxes to arrive, but again it’s worth the wait because when they arrive, we will be fully stocked for a long time. Yesterday we received our first batch of 12 pounds of organic beeswax from a farmer in La Guancha (Tenerife) and we are already working on gathering supplies and recipes for the products. Since we have a stamp-size kitchen we will create a small kitchen in the witchy room, to keep everything completely away from our cooking (again, the Virgo rising wants a place for each thing LOL…). It will take a while until we gather everything we need, mainly because we are incredibly stubborn on wasting money and are always looking for home-made alternatives.

I am playing with the idea of using the Tara idol as a logo for The Hoodoo Shop, so I made this rubber stamp to add the sign to our product bags – isn’t she a gorgeous lady?

A beautiful surprise this week was to find out that two of our aloe plants are suddenly flowering! This is Big Mama, our oldest aloe plant, showing a gorgeous triple bud that will make the most awesome flowering – we’re stalking both plants every day to provide you with pics as soon as it happens :) .

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Bits Of Life

We have had a really crazy week filled with spellcasting, readings and projects – there hasn’t been enough time to blog about our off-work life. This will be another post about all those witchy and crafty odds and ends on our everyday life – it’s becoming a tradition in this blog :).

Fernando was working on new shelves and a high table for the Witchy Room, since we are already running out (again) of storage space – I’m sure all herbalists reading this will agree that once you start collecting, harvesting and growing herbs, there is never enough space for them! The table was originally going to hold an altar, but we have found out that is more useful as a second work table. Both the table and the bottle shelf have been made of salvaged and recycled wood; the table curtains were made with a vintage bedspread I had been saving for something special, they will be very useful to hide the storage space under the table. He is building a wall lamp right now to add a little more light to that corner.

He has also been working on preparing a rabbit skin he got from his father’s farm. He does all out taxidermy work, and he is now researching on natural, non-chemical ways to tan the leather. Right now the skin, after being thoroughly cleaned and preserved with salt for three days, is going through a bath of water, salt and vinegar where the final rests of tissue will separate from the leather. After that, he will tan it will a wooden tool he has found on his stash of almost antique tools, and hopefully the leather will be ready to be used. The legs and tail will be made into amulets and have been drying in salt for over a week. Hopefully this week he will find time to clean and bleach the skull, to be added to our small collection. No pics yet, but soon!

This week, we have to build new tables for the roof garden as plants are starting to fight for space ;). Let’s hope it doesn’t rain! Also, I would like to start working on some new dolls and prepare a batch of tinctures and herbal honey from the herbs we’ve been drying… though it is very likely that this week may go into a completely different road than planned, and I will accept it as it comes. I don’t like to force the course of life, and I have long proved that I am more productive when I work that way.

Today we have been working on relisting (with all the tag printing, bagging, pricing and inventorizing that it means) sold items and on this custom Oggum Eleke (Santería protective bracelet). Actually, my Virgo rising loves organizing and keeping things done – it gives my Virgo part a lot of peace of mind; and you Virgos reading this know how useless we are without peace of mind! Sadly, there is no such thing as “keeping thigs done” for an Etsy seller LOL…

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New Items Listed This Weekend

Sets Of Mortar And Pestle:
Floral Scrolls

This piece, painted in black, green, yellow and violet depicting scrolls and flowers is the perfect addition to your gypsy sacred space! This ornamental piece is inspired by the Tudor-era embroidery, my all-time favourite.
The Hare In The Moon – SOLD

The front depicts the Hare Goddess jumping over the waning Moon; on the sides you will find horseshoes entwined with bay branches; and on the back, the full moon shows the Goddess’ silhouette, surrounded by stars.

The mortars and pestle sets are made from solid pine wood at Pontevedra, Spain, and are completely decorated by me. If treated carefully, this piece can be used as any mortar – that is why I have left the pestle and the upper part of the mortar unpainted.
To clean it, use a slightly damp cloth on the inside and avoid placing the mortar under water, specially the painted parts. It is perfect for small incense mixes, to crush resins or flower petals, to create small amounts of herbal tea – of course this can be used only as an ornament for your magickal kitchen, your witchy room or your altar.
Height and width of the mortar: 8 cms/ 3,1 inches.
Pestle Length: 14 cms/ 5,4 inches.
Capacity: about three teacups of dried herbs.

Altar Dish: Sea Dragons – SOLD

Handpainted wooden altar dish depicting two medieval style sea dragons, flowing into an eternal circle in the depths of ocean.Living on an island, the sea and its creatures are omnipresent for us; it surrounds us, it feeds us, it fills us with energy. You can double that attraction when you know I’m a Cancer, a water creature myself. I lived the first six years of my life beside the sea, and still I miss it every day.

The wooden dish has been painted and varnished on all sides to avoid scratching. It measures 12 cms/ 4,6 inches and about 3 cms/1 inch tall. You can use it as an ornament, as a plate for offerings, to keep your favourite gemstones, etc.The dish is made from solid pine wood at Pontevedra, Spain. It has a wonderful weight and stability due to its thickness.

Wooden Spoons:
Lucky Rooster

What brings more luck than roosters and horseshoes, entwined with ivy and red ribbon? These four symbols of luck and protection will keep all evil away from your kitchen! I really like how this piece has turned out – it is painted on a fierce tomato red on the sides and back, and on a rusty ochre on the front, making it perfect for warm ambients like a kitchen or a witchy cupboard.

Housekeeper Spirit

The tradition of Roman Lares, the demi-gods that were in charge of protecting the household, was the inspiration for this piece. A beautiful red haired woman, crowned with flowers and deer antlers, stands before a scroll of flowing forms. On her neck hangs the key to the house, symbol of road openings and protection.The piece is painted in a luxurious dark pruple on the sides and back, and sea blue on the front.

The spoons are made from solid pine wood at Pontevedra, Spain, and are completely decorated by me. They measure 30 cms/11,6 inches long, the size of a regular cooking spoon. The piece has a hole for hanging at the top and has been varnished for durability and easier cleaning.

You can find all these pieces at The Hoodoo Shop at Etsy.

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Healing Spells

Another healing spellcasting for a customer – again, the energy flow has been great. The recipent of the spell has emailed me saying she’s already feeling better – a proof for those who think magick can’t work in the distance. In my view of magick, time and space mean nothing.

Healing spells are tiring, usually because the recipient is weakened by the illness, and has been for a long time. Nodoby orders a spell for a simple cold, and even if they did I would refuse to do such work. Of course, you can’t heal all illnesses with a spell, but I have been making these spells for years and they always bring relief and strength to the recipient, because they are intensely focused on balancing the recipient’s physical energies, so he/she can heal him/herself. I am old enough to know, too, that we have no powers at all: all power comes from the Spirits, and from the properties of herbs. We just call the right channels and choose the right herbs.

With healing spells, I always provide herbal teas, oils or tinctures. I prefer teas because since I have customers all around the globe, not all products can keep the freshness after a 15 days shipping, but so far all my treatments have worked, specially when the recipient is thorough explaining his/her problems. The herbal teas and other directions I give work more on the physycal healing itself, but the spell brings back the energetic balance that we need to stay healthy enough to overcome the problem, or at least keep it under control, as herbalism treats chronic health issues as well, usually diminishing pain and strengthening the immune system of the patient.

I love, love, love, working with herbs. The more I know about them, the more I want to learn and experiment, and the bigger presence they have in our everyday life. They are teachers, helpers, fighters and healers. They are a sign of the presence of Divinity in our world.

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Of Blood And Fur And Bone

A dog skull, found in Anaga while wildharvesting.

My friend Sara at Forest Grove Botanica posted this beautiful story last week, and I have been reading the comments and the discussion that has arisen from it about the use of animals remains in Witchcraft and its legal limits. This is a topic that particularly interests me as we do use many different animal parts in our spiritual work and Fernando is an amateur taxidermist that comes from a family that has raised animals for generations, and still does.

I completely agree with Sara’s vision of the use of animal remains, and I believe a grown-up human must be mature enough to know the difference between senseless murder and respectful use. Tough I respect all life choices, I personally do not understand vegetarians, as for me my plants are just as alive as the meat I eat, and I do my best to consume both from local farms, where both plants and vegetables are grown/bred with love, respect and harvested/killed with care and without cruelty. I have seen my in-laws many times attending their crops and animals and I know for sure that they love what they grow. Animals are attended with the utmost care and fed with a varied diet; they are given medicines and vitamins; they are clean, almost completely free and safe. The crops, though small, are filled to the brim with different vegetables, and they are treated only with biological pesticides. There is not a drop of cruelty in anything they do. When you touch a fruit that has been just taken from the tree, still warm from the sunlight, the energy it holds is breathtaking.

As a Witch, I have to say that I have never made an animal sacrifice, but only because I have (luckily) never needed it. When you speak of Afro Caribbean religions, people always ask about animal sacrifice, but believe me, it is done way less than you imagine, never for a senseless cause, and the animal is always butchered without cruelty and the meat is eaten completely by the ritual attendants.

The Orishas do NOT like cruelty – of course, you always know of a practitioner who kills a chicken every week, but that is not a good practitioner for me, or for the people I learnt from. Actually, cooked food IS the general use, not sacrifices. People who sacrifice animals senselessly or with cruelty lose the favour of the Orishas, and are very prone to suffer an accident where bleeding is involved, as a punishment for spilling blood unnecessarily.

On finding animal remains, I am 100% ok with it. We do not have the chance to trespass the law because there is hardly any endangered fauna here in the islands, and when it comes to bones, feathers or any other remain that we have simply found, I will take anything that the Goddess wants to give me, and I will thankfully revere its power and its spirit. I love the places where we harvest so much that I am the first that wants to keep them intact, and only take what’s spare or unnecessary. As I said above, I believe that I am mature enough to know the difference between stealing and accepting a gift.

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New Listings Today: Handpainted Wood Items

Handpainted Wooden Spoons

Handpainted Altar Talismans – Sets and singles

You can find them at The Hoodoo Shop at Etsy.

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