Mother Mystic's Musings

July 24th 2010 I had a dream..I gave birth to a baby girl who was pre-destined to die shortly after birth for a reason…she was needed for spiritual purposes.  I held her chubby body and lay her down, watching her sleep peacefully but losing vitality.  I felt I should try to breastfeed her and reached out but pulled back when I remembered she was not going to make it.  I cradled her instead until she died.  A group of women in black took her from me and as they lifted her from my arms I cried out her name – “FIONA” – and they tried to shush me, saying I shouldn’t name her that name but I did.  Afterwards I saw her whirlwind of spiritual energy outlined in purple light dance with extreme mischief.  I called to her – “Fiona!” thinking because I gave birth to her I could control her, but I soon realized she was uncontrollable and watched her whirl through a crowd and out of sight.

What are the signs/symbols/omens in this dream?  Do you recognize them?  This dream is true.  I wrote this in my journal 7/25/2010.  I invite interpretations.  You should know I was born in the hours before the 2nd hurricane to directly hit Rhode Island in 1954, the only year this happened in recorded history.

It seems one of the hardest things for people to do is to listen to the voice of spirit.  With technology blaring at us from all directions, folks have such a difficult time quieting their minds and letting spirit speak.  Often, I get clients who come for a reading hoping to hear from me what path or direction they should be taking in life. I tell them they need to go deep within and listen to the voice of spirit and unfortunately, many do not know how.

Finding a peaceful place such as the ocean or a wooded area is my first and best recommendation.  Getting in touch with nature, away from the hustle-bustle of day to day life, can do wonders for the soul and work wonders in clearing your mind.  Sitting next to any body of water, looking into the calmness, asking the water to wash away whatever is blocking your vision should clarify and affirm whether or not you are on the right path.

Going into the woods, sitting under a tree, listening to the nature sounds gives you a sense of your place in the world. How small we are compared to the giant trees…how all the inhabitants of the woods interact with each other gives us cues as to our place in life.  However, these  are not always options for many people.  Life is too busy, they live in an urban area with no access to woods, ocean or silence.  What to do in such a circumstance?  Put some music on and DANCE!

People have been dancing to spirit since the beginning of time. Tribal dance, trance dance, twirling dance, all bring you closer to spirit.  Of course, you can’t just put on your favorite songs and get hopping.  The music must be chosen carefully.  Pick something that is instrumental or sung in a foreign language.  Build a playlist that starts slow but gets energetic, makes you work and fully involves your body to the point you can’t think, when that happens your mind is free!  You are dancing in the spirit! Dance energetically for as long as you can, from as little as 20 minutes or up to an hour.  Set your playlist so that the music slowly unwinds you, your movements become slower and you can sit or lie down and relax for the final 10 minutes or so.  Once the music stops, record your thoughts and impressions.

You’ll be surprised at how empowered you feel after listening to the voice of spirit, whichever method you choose.  Practice this at least 3 times a week to stay on track and attain your highest goals.

Do you believe in magic?  Folk magic, ceremonial magic, black magic, wishful thinking, all have their roots in the human desire to make changes using outside forces.  But believing in magic and understanding its limitations are sometimes two very separate and far apart things.  Many clients come to me, wanting to make serious changes in their lives.  Some are in situations beyond their control or believe someone has been working magic against them.  Others are stuck in a rut and need a boost to open doors and remove obstacles from their path.  Still others don’t know the path to follow so seek spiritual help to guide them along the way.  As long as you understand  the limitations of spiritual work and are willing to make the necessary mundane changes that go hand in hand with magical working, I am happy to work with most clients.  However, there are always the unenlightened clients who think I can make pears grow from an apple tree without any effort on their part.  Not so!

Magic, or spiritual work,  requires effort from both the worker and the client.  It can be an incredibly rewarding  and deeply enriching experience to be able to assist someone achieve their life’s goal, open new roads, and accomplish what they thought was out of their reach.  When I take on a client, we become spiritual partners, working toward a realistic goal with a set game plan in place.  My clients do their part as I do mine.  You can’t just send someone money and sit back and wait for miracles to happen.  You have to believe and you have to work!

A positive mindset is a must for change to take place.  If you’re convinced that someone is working against you, then someone is – and that very person may be YOU!  A negative mindset will defeat the most powerful uncrossing spell on the planet.  A simple affirmation such as “I will not be defeated” repeated daily works wonders in empowering yourself and helping you to overcome anything you are facing – be it a curse, roadblock or just one of those “crap happens” periods of life we all go through.  Start your day by looking in the mirror and repeat that phrase and BELIEVE IT!  Soon you will feel a power rising deep from within, and all your obstacles will start shrinking.

In addition to a positive mindset, a client needs to cleanse their body, home and workplace of all negative, stagnant energy that has built up.  Yes, this is a lot of work but you need  to make a fresh start so you must start with your surroundings.  Cleanse, rinse and repeat!  Once you’ve cast away all the built-up crap, it’s time to draw in good stuff to replace it.  Anoint your body with the proper oils and powders suited to your purpose, burn the proper incense or oils in your home and then lay down good strong protection to keep it all in.  You’ll be amazed at the difference.  Refreshed, renewed and ready to get to work?  You gotta believe!

So, you’ve cast your net (and love spells), used a honey jar or lodestone or other spell to attract the perfect mate and voila! here they are!  Now what?  How do you ensure this develops into a lasting relationship?  First of all, you’ve got to gather some personal concerns…clothing, hair, pictures, handwriting, saved voice mails.  I can hear  you now: Mother Susan, how am I going to get hair and clothing?  Think simple and sneaky!  People shed hair all the time.  Next time you’re with your beloved, look for a stray hair on their clothing, the back of their car seat, check out their hairbrush in the bathroom!  Regarding clothing, borrow a sweater or jacket even if you have to fake a chill.  Take a sock or pair of underwear from their hamper in the bathroom.  The bathroom is a great place for gathering personal concerns  - check out the bar of soap in the shower, or their shower sponge or even the bathtub drain!  Get a string from their clothing if you can’t get an entire article of clothing.  Be creative!  Save all their voice mails because you can utilize those in knot magic.

Your goal is to make this person want and need you and only you.  You want to be in their thoughts and in their dreams.  Take one of your own hairs and braid it together with theirs.  Slick it nice with honey or corn syrup.  Cut three lengths of embroidery floss, roughly the length of your forearm.  I like color so I would use red, pink and white.  Tie a knot in one end of the three strings and start braiding.  While you’re braiding, pray with all your might both of your names “together forever bind us as one”.  When you get to the middle add the braided hair and braid it in.  When you reach the end tie another knot.   Tie a knot in the center where the hair is.  Tie a knot to the left of the center knot then to the right of the center knot.  Continue in this manner for a total of 9 knots (including the end knots) each time you tie a knot state your name and the one you love “together forever bind us as one.”  If you have saved a voice mail in which the person says your name use this when tying the knot.  Say the person’s name, play the voice mail saying your name and tie the knot.  That way you are capturing them good!

You can either wear this knotwork on your person, add it to a honey jar (inside or wrap around) or wrap around a picture of the person.

You should also make a honey jar for the two of you, using whatever other personal concerns you’ve gathered, clothing, etc.  Fill the jar with honey, rose petals, cinnamon, calamus root and lavender.  Wrap the jar with your own undies and circle with powdered sugar.  Burn pink or red candles anointed with Song of Solomon oil every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Word to the wise, don’t rely on magic to accomplish EVERYTHING for you:  you still must be kind, attentive and loving.  Treat the other person as you want them to treat you and the love will continue to flow.

Many, many of my clients, both male and female, ask about LOVE.  Either they want to draw new love, save a relationship or just met someone and they’re sure it’s THE ONE.  There are hundreds, probably thousands of love spells on the web and in print but the best way to start is to LOVE YOURSELF.  If you are not loving yourself, you will not attract a healthy wholesome person who will give you the true long lasting love you crave.  If you’re already there, you’re self confident, you’re happy with yourself and know your path in life, then and only then are you  ready to attract a mate.

So, let’s start with drawing a new love.  You’ve done your work, you’ve gone deep within, taken a look at yourself and you’re happy with what you find.  Now you want to find the right person to share your life with.  Sounds good?  Here come the questions…what do you want in a mate?  What is important to you in a relationship?  Are you focusing on the outer person and not on the inner beauty?  A person’s character speaks volumes.  Do you want someone who will stand beside you through thick and thin, give you space when you need it and support you in your darkest hour?  Ah!  Now we’re getting somewhere!

When working with Love clients, I tell them to make a list of the characteristics they desire their mate to have.  Not physical, because physical looks change due to time and circumstances.  Personal characteristics, values, what you’d like to have in common with this person and also how this person will provide balance in the relationship.  If you love to talk, the other person should be either a good listener or enjoy a good debate, depending on your needs.  MAKE A LIST!

Once the client has their list prepared, I usually go over it with them to make sure they are being realistic and focused.  The list is then transcribed to a petition paper, which is dressed with the proper powder and oils.  If  the client is doing the work themselves, the paper is placed on a saucer under a newly cleansed and baptized lodestone.   I advise them to place a ring of 9 pink chime  candles around it that have been dressed with the appropriate oil and as you light them one by one, call out for your new lover “Come To Me!”  As the candles burn down, recite the Song of Solomon from the Old Testament.  I suggest this work begin on a Friday, if you can start on a Friday when the moon begins to wax so much the better.  Every Friday thereafter, light one pink candle and feed your lodestone a tiny bit of magnetic sand and repeat your recitation.

You should also carry yourself with confidence, knowing that your new love is on the way.  Let your inner light shine.  People who feel good about themselves give off a glow.  Like a moth to a flame, that glow, along with the magickal work, will draw your new mate.

I wish I had a dollar (ok, let’s make that a ten!) for every time I’ve heard someone say they were born under a bad sign.  What is a bad sign?  What do you know about signs and symbols?  I didn’t study semiotics in college but I did learn to pay attention to certain things as as a child and later as an adult.

You can’t blame everything on the circumstances of your birth.  Whether the stars were in your favor when you were born or not only means you may face more obstacles than most on your journey.  How you choose to deal with those obstacles are up to you.  The choices you make are what impacts your life.

What are factors are you considering when making life choices?  Here’s where the signs and symbols come in.  Are you making choice based strictly on wants/needs/desires or being objective and looking around for a sign as to which way to go?  I’m speaking from experience when I say, the easiest way to take the wrong path in life is ignore objectivity, reason and signs of divination and go with carnal desires, emotional needs and wants.  Trust me, you will learn a lesson the hard way!

I can hear you now…so tell us what are the signs and symbols we need to look for?  How about the clouds in the sky?  Do they look like shapes to you?  Is there an animal nearby?  How about a representation of a particular animal?  What does that animal symbolize?  For example, if I had just met a man who was sweeping me off my feet, oozing charm and I saw a coyote or maybe someone wearing a sports team jacket with a coyote on it, I would take that as a sign to back away slowly from this trickster.

If you are familiar with runes, I-Ching or other forms of divination that use shapes, take note of these appearing in your surroundings.  Signs are everywhere!  Listen to sounds…are church bells ringing at an odd time?  Train whistle blowing? Hear someone call yours or a relative’s name only they weren’t talking to you? Look at the clouds, pay attention to birds and animals, look for repetitions of particular numbers and colors.  Read up on the meaning of each and every one of these. Your spirit guides speak to you in many ways and the signs and symbols found in your environment is a very important one.

I recently purchased The Conjure Cookbook by Talia Felix, purely out of curiousity.  I don’t make conjure oils for commercial sale myself, although I do infrequently make them for my own use.  My first question, who is Talia Felix?  A Google search turns up other books she has authored, but no biographical information.  Without knowing anything about this author, I was a bit skeptical about the content.  My skepticism increased when reading the introduction and she states her purpose as “to promote knowledge of traditional formulas” as she understands them and “offer some better alternatives to many popular recipes”.  Checking the sources of the recipes in the back of the book shows a good portion of them are, in fact, her own invention.  Others, listed simply listed as “commercial” makes me wonder if she simply back-engineered the ingredients of different commercial oils!  No doubt this would make the makers of these oils unhappy! There is a lengthy bibliography which lists the much discredited Herman Slater’s The Magickal Formulary, various herb catalogs and commerical oil websites sprinkled among other commonly read books.

I  see no new or “secret” information revealed here, and wouldn’t recommend this book for anyone’s collection.  What disturbs me is the trend among those new to magic to latch onto anything with the words “hoodoo”  ”rootwork” or “conjure” in the title and accept the contents as solid information.  Ms. Felix may have a talent as a perfumer but as far as conjure recipes go, I find most of hers lacking.

As I’ve mentioned in my bio, I’ve enjoyed a lifelong interaction with the spirits of roots, plants and other living things.  I grew up in a family who believed in this.  As an adult, I’ve studied in person and online with various teachers, read books, taken correspondence courses and interacted at different forums with people who claim to have ***powers***knowledge***tradition***

What they have is worth horse puckey if they don’t have a relationship with Spirit.  You can read all the books you want, memorize all the correspondences your mind enables you to, study with a gazillion teachers, have 19 of the most beautiful altars set up in your home but if you do not have a true relationship with Spirit, it all goes to shit.  A true Rootworker can go into a field or a backyard or a kitchen cupboard, pick out 3 simple things and work virtual miracles because they have a spiritual relationship with both a Higher Spirit and the Spirit of the items they are using.  Too many times, I’ve seen people come into my store looking for products made by a particular company because they believe these items must work better because:   a) pretty label graphics   b) company owner excels at self-promotion  c) the name of the company sounds powerful.  They are relying on the maker’s relationship with Spirit to carry forth into their work and 7 times out of 10, I can guarantee the customer has no clue how to call upon Spirit to infuse their work with power.  This is sad and something I try to rectify during the short purchase interaction.  Some people are receptive, especially those who have a family history of folk magic.  Others are not.  They can quote chapter and verse what they have “read online” and all they have to do is blah blah and “zap-zing-bam” all their problems will be solved!

Rootwork is not like putting a quarter in a gumball machine and getting the exact piece of gum you want (and I’m old enough to remember when it cost a penny!)…you don’t just assemble a bunch of ingredients, recite some words and expect a miracle to pop out.  Just because the manufacturer claims they prayed over their product doesn’t mean you don’t have to!  Did you ask the rose’s permission before you took the petals to use for your love spell?  Did you pray to your Higher Spirit and ask if this was the right work to be doing in the first place?  Too many times, people rush to magical means to solve problems and issues that may not be meant to be solved.  A true rootworker knows you need to pray first.  You need to consult a higher authority and ask, what do I do in this situation?  Is this a life lesson that I need to learn the hard way or it this a situation I can manipulate?  If you are too emotionally involved to be objective about the situation and you aren’t hearing Spirit answer you clearly, then consult a trusted reader for a divination.  Wasting time and money trying to solve problems that aren’t meant to be solved is just wasting time and money.  Life is too short for that.

The word conjure comes from the old French word conjurer, meaning to cast a spell, invoke spirits, to bring about by use of magical spells.  Witches, hermetic magicians, and others conjure but of late, the word is mostly associated with southern folk magic.  Today those who refer to themselves as professional Conjurers are more than likely practitioners of Hoodoo, American Folk Magic strongly identified with the South.

There is a slew of information available on the web for those interested in the history of American Hoodoo.  But what of Rootwork?  Rootworkers exist in every nation and continent that herbs and roots grow.  They may not all use the title Rootworker, but in essence, they all work with roots to heal, hurt and bring about change.  Working with roots is more than just taking a root and applying it to one’s body or using it in a charm bag.  WORDS must be said over the root.  This is where the conjuration comes in.  My great grandmother would not have known such fancy words as conjuration but she knew how to speak to the spirit of the root and also to the deity she believed in to ask that her work be blessed.  Are the words the same in every culture, country and continent?  Of course not!  Yet, the end results are.

Rootworkers are people who develop or are born with a special relationship to plants, herbs, roots, trees.  They are able to speak to the spirit of the root or herb and determine its use, pray for its special qualities to be used with success, imbued with perhaps the Spirit of a particular deity, such as Jesus Christ or St. Mary, dependent upon the spirituality of the worker.  They also work with the spirit of the patient or client, engaging their spirit with the spirit of the root.  Does this give them special powers?  I would say no, the power comes from Spirit, the spirit of the root and whatever Spirit is being conjured.  The Rootworker is merely the conduit.