Hoodoo Workshops at Lucky Mojo 2011 OMG OMG ZOMG!

Well, folks, I just got home about half an hour ago.  I spent invested a lot of money in continuing education, and what a blast it was!

There were eight or nine workshops, of which I attended only three; and my brain is already full.

The Conjure Cook-Off was a piece of cake, pretty much literally.  First prize went to … I should know this, but I forget.  The nice lady on the left for … was it Passion Punch or Celtic Harmony Shortbread?

Sister Robin won second prize for her beautiful white lasagne redolent of fresh basil and made with Alfredo sauce.  Technically, it wasn’t eligible because it was from last year’s cookbook. She simply intended it as a teaching aid, but … if you had tasted it, you’d understand.

Third prize went to Angela, who works at Lucky Mojo, for her Cut and Clear Lemon Bars. Creamy, tart, light and rich, and delicious enough to clear the wreck of a bad romance out of your life.

My own recipe, Kiss Me Now Balls, didn’t win a prize, but got plenty of compliments.  Dr. E, sitting next to me as we sampled, said “I’m going to bring these to the next neighborhood barbecue and see what happens.”

Later, I fell into a conversation with a lady I hadn’t met before.  I told her about a little side business I had planned for the slack time of year — the holidays, when people would rather buy Christmas gifts than readings. “If you follow my advice,” she said, “you won’t have time for your side business.”  Yes,  it turned out I was talking to the lively, beautiful Valentina Burton, presenter of the  Professional Reading and Root Doctoring workshop.  Much of it was eye-opening: psychic fairs are not cash cows, but they will teach you discipline and help you refine your presentation; giving readings at wedding receptions is a hot trend (“entertainment only,” of course); you will make more money seeking out only the clients you resonate best with, rather than throwing your door open to all comers.  Her clients are mostly well-to-do businesswomen and women of leisure; mine, she told me, are likely to be artists and musicians — independent, gifted go-getters, as I described them.

And there’s more, much more, in her book: The Fortune Teller’s Guide to Success: Creating a Wonderful Career as a Psychic.

Today I learned about the use of the crystal ball, in the workshop which launched the revival of the Crystal Silence League.   My impressions of that are going to have to wait, because I left both my notebook and the Crystal Silence League manual at Lucky Mojo!  For the same reason, I can’t be really articulate about JohnMichael Hilford’s Sangoma Bone Reading workshop, except to say that it was wondrous, wondrous indeed. A basket of “bones” (because they aren’t all bones) is an extremely personal thing — not necessarily in a don’t-touch kind of way, but because the selection of elements and the interpretation of the patterns is an ongoing dialogue between you and your ancestors — and the patient and the patients’ ancestors.

I want my notebook.

More to follow, including more pictures.