Sparks from the Crucible

St. Dymphna bears a prominent place on the healing altar at Caroline Dye Memorial Chapel, where I set lights for clients’ physical and mental health. The Irish princess whom we now know as St. Dymphna lived in the seventh century; her father, Damon, was the king of Argialla, located in the present-day Irish counties of […]

Are you tired of candles? There was a time, years ago, when many candles I bought for my altar were simply terrible. Some of them wouldn’t stay lit for sour apples. Many of them simply stank. After investigation, experimentation and simple re-tooling I switched to vegetable-oil lamps. I have never looked back. Now, you can […]

Many of my clients have some experience in magical work, and know exactly what to do when I tell them to dress a candle or make a doll baby. But when I prescribe work for them to do at home, I always have to ask: “Do you have a good botanica or candle shop near you?” […]

With the 2016 election, progressive Americans were caught off-guard. During the Obama years, we had congratulated ourselves on the impending death of reactionary so-called conservatism.  Well, that didn’t happen. It is now clear that America needs to fall in love with Justice again. I’ve spent the last week or so thinking about a spell to help […]

Miss cat yronwode has urged me to post the powerful and sharply pointed version of this prayer I offered on the December 3 edition of the Lucky Mojo Hoodoo Rootwork Radio Hour: “Political Magic with Miss Michaele.” You will find the text here. Some time ago, I heard this from a self-employed (and successful), non-church-going gay […]

I’ve been telling my love clients, when they realize it’s time to break up with Mr. Wrong, to use a variation on Song of Solomon 4:7, “ Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.” I tell them to change out the pronouns — “I am all fair; there is no spot in […]

T hese are good old-fashioned castile soaps which lather up nicely and feel creamy on the skin. They come in hand-cut squares which are corrugated on one side. FLORIDA WATER is more spicy and less bergamot/citrusy than Murray and Lanman’s Florida Water. It is nevertheless a delicious fragrance. LOVE ATTRACTING is mild, fruity and floral, […]

Folks, it occurred to me that it was time to talk about where we get our spiritual supplies. I’m just going to feature one or two things today, because I don’t want to overload my readers with graphics. When you are choosing spiritual supplies, QUALITY is essential. We all know about oils which consist of […]

A couple of years ago, I ran across a question from a lady who was trying to support a friend in staying sober. He’d managed to stay clean for two years, but now the challenges were setting in: he had to work with a woman who was trying to get him back into drug use. […]

If you have not done so already, you will soon discover that rootwork, like other kinds of folk magic, is almost impossible without some kind of divination for diagnosis and assessment. That’s not to say you can’t make things happen without a reading first, but it’s like trying to drive or shoot blindfolded. Magical work […]