The Month Of The Dead – Day 31

The last post of this series has arrived. First of all, I would like to thank all those who have favourited, commented and emailed on the previous thirty posts, and wish you the most magickal and powerful Samhain ever!

Despite the joy of having a party later (it’s 10:30 AM as I write this), my heart is heavy today, heavy with love for those who are gone. In my list there are two grandfathers, a grandmother, and someone whom I called a brother even though he wasn’t my biological family. There will be special treats for all of them, and a part of me will be aching all day because of the empty space they left behind them. As a way to thank them for their love, I would like to share a special memory I have with each of them.

Grandfather Alberto – you were a father to me. I will never tell grandma that we shared iced lemon drinks that you were not supposed to drink because you were sick.

Grandfather Pepito – I have so many good memories of you. You taught me to catch lizards using ripe bananas and an empty can of oil, only to release them back in the ravine, and with you I learnt to identify my first magickal plant, the castor oil plant.

Grandmother Maria Luisa – you were the kindest woman I have ever met. Did you know I always ask Fernando to fry the potatoes exactly as you did? They taste like home to me.

My dearest, dearest Harry (not real name) – you were our brother, our ally, our partner in crime. New Orleans is still waiting for us to visit it. You taught me how to be more compassionate, and proved once more how important is to say “I Love You” to those we do love, because tomorrow we may not be here. Your loss is still the most painful thing I have ever been through in my entire life.

To all of you – although you are always present in our hearts, today we will remember you more than ever, and our house will be open for you to celebrate with us. Please accept our loving offerings, and know that you are not gone for us: as long as there is love, the bond will never be broken.

Now, we are off to make our shopping for tonight’s party – regular posting will come back in a few days!

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The Month Of The Dead – Day 30

We just arrived from the Tarot session – not bad, but certainly not as good as we expected. Sorry guys, but we completely forgot the camera! Really looking forward tomorrow, when we will be celebrating with my brother and his girlfriend, in the most relaxing way possible.

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The Month Of The Dead – Day 29

Only a few posts left to finish this series of posts – and boy has it been a challenge to post every single day!

We finally accepted we’re not having our wares sold at the Tarot session (we may have it for November’s session, though), so we just worked on some offerings and witchy new products. We made a new batch of herbs for a bath salts+incense+other surprises set -it will cure for at least a week before listed – you won’t believe it has no essencial oils on it when you smell it! There is such – SUCH – difference between organic herbs and what you buy at stores!

I “dressed up” four special candles, to keep one lit all time from today until the midnight of Nov. 2.

We also prepared a simple offering, as we will do every day until November 2; homemade beer bread, honey and coffee liquor.

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The Day Of The Dead – Day 28

Today it must be one of those days where Loki is rampant in the world, or maybe the Spirits of the Dead are particularly mischievous this year, because it’s been one of those days of what-else-could-go-wrong. The water heater was fixed, but we discovered another plumbing problem that we’re still figuring; the computer started acting weird and took two hours to fix; a friend told me she was asked by the US mail to pay the shipping for the parcel I sent her, parcel that of course I paid here as i sent it, because apparently the spanish mail system does not use a good ink and the shipping labels wear off during transit until they become unreadable. No big dramas at all, but lots of time lost when we should have the Tarot session stuff finished by now. Thank the gods we’re calm people!

I think I’m just letting everything be and just enjoy the day crocheting in the garden and ignoring the mischief of Spirits. They deserve to have fun too, even if it is at our expense. I’m baking a new beer bread too and see if they like it. I always think that, while not being forced to make decisions by anything else than my own free will, I must be attentive to the natural flow of events and find the patterns that our Spirits are trying to communicate – for example, that maybe all those delays are telling us that we won’t sell a cent of stuff and should only focus on the Tarot – something likely to happen considering that we are not making the session at a craft fair, but at a bar.

Despite what it may seem, I am not anxious or unhappy about all of it, at all. It may be the celebration approaching, but actually I feel cheery and relaxed. I love to feel the house vibrating with Spirit activity, and simply it makes no sense for a Witch to go against the natural flow of energy, but make use of it. It’s like Mercury retrograde – you laugh with it, or you cry because of it. When Loki comes to visit, you better open the door happily, offer him a drink and ask him if he’s had a rough day.

Have a wonderful Friday, use your sense of humour, and if you’re celebrating Samhain today, have a wonderful celebration!

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The Month Of The Dead – Day 27

Our water heater broke, so Fernando has spent all day fixing it (no worries, it’s almost done), and I’ve been sorting batch after batch of jewelry, bagging, tagging and pricing – and I’m not still half way. At least when it’s done, I won’t have to do that again before Christmas and it will be ready for being listed at the shop. Hopefully, there will be hot water by then :D.

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The Day Of The Dead – Day 26

A powerful day – we finally built the Day Of The Dead Altar. Pics galore!

On the left, a jar filled with oak roots holding charms, bags of bones, a corn husk doll and a chicken foot charm. Below it, all the different types of graveyard dirt we have (from USA, Canada, Estonia and our favorite graveyard here), the stone skull Fernando carved and the python skin box. In the small round box, my collection of antique and lucky coins.

In the center, all the holy images above, and below the offering tray, which will be changing as days pass. Images above are the Santa Muerte, Iku, the Anima Sola, Eleggua, a doll made by Sara (forest grove), the Timanfaya devil (local) and a picture of my grandfather, my favourite :). Below, the offering tray holds a burlap-wrapped pillar candle, rum and cigars, an antique milk glass jar for incenses, a pomegranate and a flute Fernando made.

On the right, the oui-ja board on the back, and a bottle of spring water topped with a hand-carved avocado pit that Fernando made. Around it, all the skulls we have found wildharvesting – dog, cat, rooster and blackbird – and the goat jaw rattle.

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The Month Of The Dead – Day 25

The mail woman woke us up with a swap from Kiki, the owner of Poppyswap, with whom we are exchanging our fabulous Artemisia (and other secret herby things) for some of her nettle seeds and her wonderful moxa, which is made with mugwort and used in acupuncture to enhance healing. Thanks so much Kiki!

We also finished the bunting and hung it on the cupboard, packed and shipped today’s orders and finished my last spellwork appointment until next week.

The Flora print was listed, as well as all the new original paintings you have seen in the last posts, at our Zibbet shop.

And – this moment. Sorry for the blurry pic, but this was too precious not to add it. For extra heart-melting effect, notice how their tails are entwined.

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The Month Of The Dead – Day 24

The day started with a ton of orders to pack and ship, and the arrival of the Flora prints, which I hope can be listed today, because they are truly lovely! Newsletter #5 was sent, and off I went for the day’s appointments: readings mostly. An incredibly time-consuming job, but always a rewarding experience, as there is nothing that can bring more happiness than giving peace of mind to a worried person.

The weekend flew too quickly, and I’m not sure how much we will achieve for the Tarot session, but honestly, we’re not the type of artisans that go crazy about deadlines. We work our way slowly, and whatever we have achieved by then will be more than nothing, which is always fine. Us crafters tend to go through unbelievable levels of anxiety and overwork when preparing exhibitions/fairs, and usually the event itself doesn’t pay off for the sleep deprivation and the exhaustion. I know it well, because I’ve been there more than once and learnt the hard way.

For this sessions, it’s not just as easy as putting together items from the shop and displaying them nicely. While we serve a strong and educated online community of practitioners, there are almost zero pagans here in the islands. Almost 100% of my local work is only readings for people who, either believe in a very abstract/confused/new agey “higher energy”, or have no beliefs at all – so, they don’t know that things like saltpeter or floor washes even exist. If a consultant comes back more than once, they may accept product suggestions, but usually these sessions are for new clients that want to test the waters before paying a full reading at my home.

So, we have to level down a lot. A LOT – to the point of having to create items that we don’t care to sell on our website because they can be easily found almost everywhere, like pentacle charm jewelry and such. That’s why expanding House Of Eleggua at a local level is so difficult – because it is like creating another business within our own business. So much to do, so little time.

It’s too dark to take pics of the process, but here are some pics of the new herbs sprouting that I took today – and below, a picture of our beautiful bloodflower, which is giving seed.
Herb Robert:

Bergamot:

Pennyroyal:

Blood Flower – not of medicinal importance, but an important bee and butterfly attractor:

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The Month Of The Dead – Day 23

Today, we prepared the week plan to fit all the preparations for the Tarot session and the Halloween party+rituals. I made some Day of the Dead themed bracelets (they will be listed next week after the session), started choosing and repairing/cleaning displays and worked on a Halloween bunting made of cardboard for our living room. Below, you can find an image to download and make the bunting yourself, coloring with your kids, cutting silhouettes for your windows…personal use only, please – have fun!

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The Month Of The Dead – Day 22

First of all, the important news, and then, your daily dose of Witchery :D :

Because of the preparation of our Day Of The Dead rituals and our Tarot Reading Session on October 30, all spellwork and reading orders will be scheduled starting on Thursday, November 3.

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I usually write these daily posts in two intervals – in the morning I make a rough sketch of it, and after the day’s work is finished I expand it and add the pics. So, I am writing these words before doing all I have to do today (or better said, plan to do today) and will add the edits in italics below each paragraph, to show how the planning and the making overlap on our day.

- Remake new batches of sold out charms and bracelets for the shop;
Done.I was even inspired to make some Halloweeny jewelry for our Tarot session.

- Pack today’s orders to have them ready for Monday shipping;
Not done. We had to print and cut business cards, sender stickers and promos, so we did that instead and will pack orders tomorrow.

- Finish the new issue of the newsletter, which is out on Monday morning – if you haven’t subscribed to it, you can do so on the right column.
Done. A new article on Santeria traditions for the Day of the Dead is ready!

- Continue working on the new painting sketches: after drawing the first rough ideas (the customer gave me tons of specific information on what she wanted), now I will start with the reference sketches: that is, searching for images that contain details that must be studied before starting to transfer the sketch to the canvas.
Not finished at the time of posting this, but on the way. Here are the first pics.

Non-planned activity – more organizing on the garden after lunch, as a big storm seemed to be coming and seedlings had to be put away from the rain, and more plants needed transplanting. We happily discovered that the Herb Robert, the Foxglove and the Bergamot seeds had sprouted overnight! What a gorgeous season autumn is for us.

Tomorrow, we start working on the displays and items for October 30′s Tarot session, and on our own Halloween preparations. On the 31, we will be partying with my brother and his lovely girlfriend, and our private rituals will be made on November 1 and 2.

Honestly, when this month is finished I’m taking a week off blogging. Or two :D.

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