Prayers To Saint Judas

A customer asked for them, and I thought these would be useful for those of you who work with him. Saint Judas is asked for the most difficult tasks; he is the patron of lost causes and one of the hardest working, most generous saints.

Prayer 1
O Holy St Jude!
Apostle and Martyr,
great in virtue and rich in miracles,
near kinsman of Jesus Christ,
faithful intercessor for all who invoke you,
special patron in time of need;
to you I have recourse from the depth of my heart,
and humbly beg you,
to whom God has given such great power,
to come to my assistance;
help me now in my urgent need and grant my earnest petition.
I will never forget thy graces and favors you obtain for me
and I will do my utmost to spread devotion to you. Amen.
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Prayer 2
Oh glorious apostle St. Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the name of the traitor who delivered thy beloved Master into the hands of His enemies has caused thee to be forgotten by many, but the Church honors and invokes thee universally as the patron of hopeless cases–of things despaired of. Pray for me who am so miserable; make use, I implore thee, of that particular privilege accorded thee of bringing visible and speedy help where help is almost despaired of. Come to my assistance in this great need, that I may receive the consolations and succor of heaven in all my necessities, tribulations and sufferings, particularly (mention your request), and that I may bless God with thee and all the elect throughout eternity. I promise thee, O blessed St. Jude, to be ever mindful of this great favor, and I will never cease to honor thee as my special and powerful patron, and to do all in my power to encourage devotion to thee. Amen.
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Pay attention to the second prayer’s last lines – I cannot insist enough on how important this is! When you get help from a Saint, an Orisha, a Spirit, the honorable way to proceed is, as the prayer says, “to do all in my power to encourage devotion to thee”. Others you know may need Saint Judas’ help, and to speak well of him to those in need is the best offering you can make to thank him for his help.

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Images Of The Week

Lillies and Irises, spreading their majestic fragrance around the house.

A new Rose of Jericho for the altar, unfurling its beauty.

When friends go hiking and come back with pine nuts, iron covered stones, seeds and mossy branches, you know they love you.

Last week, I sent some doll clothes to a Flickr friend that had recently lost her dog; she sent me these lovely little dolls in return. Can’t wait to customize the hell out of them!

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Today’s Herb: Rue

Rue plant grown from wildharvested seed, 2009.

Latin Name: Ruta Graveolens

Gardening Needs: this plant needs sandy soil that drains very well, and lots of sunlight. It’s quite the survivor, so it can thrive in less than optimum conditions, and resists all temperatures above freezing.

Medicinal Properties: This is a very bitter plant so its tea is not very pleasant. Pregnant women should avoid it as it is a powerful abortifacient. It is helpful to treat irregular menstruation and it is also antispasmodic, but I wouldn’t advise its use unless you are quite familiar with herbal remedies, because it is easy to overdose.

In the Canary Islands, there is a traditional remedy using rue for indigestion: fry a fresh branch of rue on two teaspoons of olive oil, set aside until the oil is warm and then dab your fingers on it and use it as a massage oil for the stomach area. I have used it myself and it works much better (and more safely) than tea. This oil can also be used for arthritic pains, but again only on non-pregnant women.

If you want your farm animals to breed, cut off all rue from their grazing zones.

Magickal Properties: this plant is much more important in magick than in medicine; in Santeria it is placed at the door of the house/business/temple to repel negativity, as this plant is a powerful warrior against conjure and evil spirits. It is a major element on protection mojo bags (dried leaves) and on hex-breaking floor washes (tea).

CAUTION!!! The combination of rue and solar exposure is very dangerous, specially during the plant’s blooming. It may cause severe burns and blisters if picked during daytime, so harvest before or after sunrise and wash your hands well after picking. Not everyone is allergic to it, as it happens with other allergy-inducing plants, so don’t take risks or you can end up in hospital.

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Folk Magick Alphabet – Letter A

This is the first of a series of alphabetic posts about superstitions, folk magick, charms and everything we love about magick. I will randomly choose several for each post, in no particular order and chosen just out of my own interest. So, do not expect this to be encyclopedic, as it is a collection of folklore, and you are free to believe them or just take them as an anthropological curiosity. Whenever I feel like I have anything to add, I will. I will try to add the country (or continent) of origin on each entry, but please remember that some of my oldest books may not have them.

Animals, Buying And Selling
It is considered very bad luck to bargain too much on the price on an animal for your farm, or to sell under the price you have set if you are the one selling it. On both situations, it is very likely that the unfairly priced animal will die in the course of a moon cycle.

My view on this superstition – I think this superstition is tied to the concept of respect, respect for the effort of the farmer and respect for the value of the life of farming animals. On all parts of life, disrespecting life and effort definitely has karmic consequences. So yes, I think this superstition has a true magickal meaning.

Apple
Blossom: It is considered unlucky to bring apple blossoms into the house.
Crop: A good apple year is considered to be a sign of fertility, specially for twins.
Peel: Peel an apple in one continuous rind and throw it behind your left shoulder; it will form the initial of your future lover’s name.
Seeds: throw an apple seed into a fire (it has to be a fresh one) and use it as a yes/no divination method; if the seed cracks and pops, the answer is yes; if it doesn’t, the answer is no.

Apron, coming untied
If you are married, your apron coming untied is a sign of conjure against you; if you are single, it is a sign of someone loving you.

Ashes
On Midsummer’s Eve or Christmas Eve, turn off the fire by covering it with ashes and try to make it as smooth as possible; whatever marks appear on it by morning can be used as prophetic signs. A ring means a wedding, a coffin or a footprint mean a family death, etc.
Ashes should never be stepped on, as the footprint is a sign for the Death spirit to take you away in less than one year.
Ingesting a small pinch of the ashes of many sacred trees is considered to work as protection magick. Also, marking an X on the forehead or nape is a common protection against ghosts.
The ashes of palm tree branches consecrated on Palm Sunday, are used to mark a cross on the worshippers’ foreheads during Ash Wednesday, as a sign of repentance.

Origin of all this entries: Europe.

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Extended Weekend

My witchy friend has arrived today from Madrid with her husband, so we are taking three days off to enjoy their visit and their lovely company. The pic above shows how many spell works we’ve already had this week – you just can’t place more candles or offerings in the altar. Remember that this week we have two new posts at the A Pagan Dollhouse blog, and there is another one scheduled for tomorrow.

Orders and convos will be attended as usual – we’ll be back on Monday!

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Spellwork Pics

use
As usual, here are some pics of last week’s spellwork – with this week starting just as full as the previous ones, I’m glad we decided to take weekends off, because we really used the free time for ourselves and worked on our Pagan Dollhouse non-stop from Friday evening to Sunday evening. Nothing more relaxing for us than spending two days hiding in the studio, creating without a care. I took lots of pics of all the work we managed to finish, and already scheduled three posts for this week with eye candy galore on the dollhouse blog – click on the link to read the first one.

This will also be a full week because my dearest witchy friend is coming from Madrid with her husband next Friday – I have a room to prepare, a fridge to fill and, certainly, much partying during the weekend. Now, I’m off to prepare orders for tomorrow’s shipping and to make the first spellwork of the week – let’s not make the Spirits wait.

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Bones, Incense Pellets And Salvaged Furniture

All the bones found at the mountain were cleaned and will be drying under our unforgiving sun for a few days, before starting an amulet-making storm for the shop :)

The incense pellets Fernando made are already listed and being sold and reserved as hotcakes! We have name it The Wanderer in honour of our favourite image of Odin, that of the trickster God that appears at your doorstep like a beggar, only to test you generosity. It reminds me so much of a story about Obatala, where he does the same to teach Obi (the coconut) some humility. Some images that inspired us were:

The last pic until Monday – another dumpster find, brought back to life after lots of love, sandpaper and varnish. We both loved the grey, sun washed colour of the wood. We are considering using it as a display for our local customers, but in between it will hold the altar we have on our bedroom, dedicated of course to love and family. I always forget to take “before” pics of the items we make, but not this time!

Before – lopsided because of damaged leg, carved frames loose and broken and general state of dryness.

After – legs repaired by reconstructing broken piece, frames reglued and repaired and varnished.

Have a wonderful weekend Witches! I’m off to prepare Friday’s orders for the post office and then I’m enjoying the rest of the day in the garden, crocheting the day away!

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Offerings

We didn’t have any appointments on Wednesday, so we decided to go early in the morning to our beloved mountain of Las Mercedes to make an offering, something we had been delaying for a while. We made a gofio ball with gofio, honey and milk and filled a small bottle with rum; we gathered scissors, knife and bags and headed to the mountain with our little dog, Baba, who comes with us on all adventures. Despite being very hot where we live, summer has not arrived to the mountains yet – it was cold and foggy. Fernando was ecstatic as it is his favourite weather.

The offering came first of all as usual. I wanted to collect a little moss to make a new terrarium, and maybe bring a stone or two: there aren’t many herbs to collect there as it is the type of forest where the trees take all the light. But, the Gods had something different prepared for us.

We went a little further than usual and found a beautiful fallen tree; I was called immediately to a hole among the roots. Fernando climbed over the huge roots and placed the gofio ball, poured the rum and made a rune with twigs below it. The rune is Fez/Fehu, the first rune of the Futhark, a rune of prosperity and wealth. He personally dedicated the offering to Frey and Freya, patrons of that rune, as he is becoming more and more involved with them in his Asatru work. I prayed to our Guanche ancestors – during the prayer, a sudden blow of wind brought a baptism of water drops falling over us from the trees’ leaves.

Fernando climbed down from the tree roots and we lingered a minute, while Baba was sniffing every inch of the forest ground. He looked at our feet and said “Bones”. I looked down too and realized that we had been standing over a dog skeleton all the time. Of course, we quickly grabbed our tools and started picking the bones. We knew we had been gifted a very powerful treasure, and that our ancestors and deities were pleased with the offering. The bones had been already inspected by other animals, as they were separate. The skull, almost intact, was found about a meter away.

Happy with our find, we walked a little more through the forest, mainly because we didn’t want to leave – and we did well, because we found TWO cat skeletons, not far away. They were not completely dry so we only gathered the skulls and a couple of bones, and we will look for them the next time we go. We had more than enough and I’m sure many little critters will benefit from the remains of those animals – we don’t want to the hand that takes everything when we’re in Nature. We will show pictures when the bones are clean.

When we left the mountain, we stopped at a couple of favourite spots to gather fern before summer dries it completely; we also found dandelions, thistle, fennel and nasturtium, and brought small plants of all of them to grow at our roof garden. Believe me, next time I’m making a dozen gofio balls!

The only downside was to find the dirty, disrespectful evidence of spellwork on several spots. Plates, bottles, bags and clothes, mostly. Stuff that won’t degrade, or go away, and that may even cause fire during the summer. I can’t imagine how the spirits can be willing to help people who behave like that. Sigh.

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Drawing

Pan – unfinished sketch on my journal, monday night.

I love drawing when the day is over; just an hour of complete tranquility after all the furry babies are fed, housework is done for the day, shop work is finished and we do what a Cancer and a Taurus do best together; enjoy our home, quiet and dark and comfortable. Some music or an old Hammer horror movie, and a little time for us to do whatever we please; Fernando usually goes to the studio to his woodcarving, or studies a little; I draw, or sew, or crochet. The unimportant, the everyday, becomes magickal and unique. That is the life of Witches.

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New Items Listed

Road Opening Mojo Bags

Each bag contains five herbs for road opening and removing obstacles, three apple coral stones and our own Legba Powders . On the bag’s tie, a buzio shell (symbol of money and wealth) and a key charm (symbol of Eleggua, the Orisha that owns fate), plus a dyed guinea feather – in Santeria, guinea chickens are one of the Orisha’s top offerings. Each bag comes with a vial of our Holy Child Of Atocha (Eleggua) oil to feed the bag; you must add one drop when you get the bag in your hands, and another drop monthly to keep it working and empowered.

Holy Child Of Atocha Oil + Card Set – New Batch

The Holy Child Of Atocha is the catholic saint syncretized with Eleggua, Orisha of luck and destiny, as he is so often represented like a child. Each set contains a bottle of Holy Oil and a Holy Card printed on first quality photographic paper – the images are from my collection of antique and vintage Holy cards, so some have more detail than others due to the original printings. The oil comes in a 30 ml./1,2 US fluid ounces plastic bottle. To be used for anointing candles, blessing talismans, as perfume, as offering, for oil lamps, etc., as you would do with any other Holy Oil. This oil has a very playful scent with notes of coconut, sandalwood and frankincense.

Conjuring – BOS Digital Insert

New set for your Book Of Shadows – three blank pages for your spells, recipes and magick journalling, and one page with coordinating tags for your herb bags, magick jars, etc.

The Hoodoo Shop

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