Adventures in Hoodoo – Spiritual Bath

SeeAdventures in Hoodoo – Candles for the first part of the adventure.

Yes. I got a candle to burn clear. I had an ‘in’ with a Santero, so now I was Head Hoodoo Priestess…yeah…no.

Although my protection candle burned clear, there was so much negativity around me, that it could only be removed properly with a spiritual bath.

Miss A, the experienced Santeria and Palo practitioner I spoke of in my other post, suggested I get a certain type of spiritual bath, one with Hyssop and other herbs. These come in several recipes; I was told to get the one that had 13 herbs.

I ordered it online. Of course, because I wanted it right away, it took forever to arrive.

When it arrived I was pleased. I was making plans to go home and take a bath after work. Once I read the instructions, I had to put the kibosh on that. There were procedures that needed to be followed to ensure optimal results.

• A spiritual bath should be taken before dawn
• This normally wouldn’t have been a problem as I get up at 5:20 am.  But my vacation would coincide with this.  The first few days were fine because I was going to work. The vacation days hurt.  Getting up at 5:20 am when I didn’t have anywhere to go literally hurt!

• A spiritual bath needs to be made at the time of cleansing (not the night before)
• Making a fresh batch every morning required me to get up at least 20 minutes earlier (5:00 am). These herbs had to be boiled for 13 minutes.

• A spiritual bath needs to be poured over the head
• If you hadn’t noticed…I’m black.  Many black women do not like to get their hair wet as it is very expensive to maintain. Luckily my hairdo was of the curly kind, so getting it wet wasn’t an issue. However, a way around this is to just pour from the face down, avoiding the hair. I did this both ways, but I noticed when I poured it on my face directly, it stung.  I’m not sure what herb was causing the stinging, but it was unpleasant.

• A spiritual bath needs to have a psalm recited while the water is poured over the head
• Because I was seeking a certain type of cleanse/form of protection, I was required to recite Psalm 37. Have you read Psalm 37? 40 Verses!  Impossible to memorize.  Imagine standing in the bathtub with one hand pouring liquid over your head while holding the paper with the psalm on it in the other.  I had to douse myself 13 times. Needless to say, I needed several copies of that Psalm before my 13 day cleanse was done. Backsplash is not cool.

• A spiritual bath needs to have its water collected and disposed of at the crossroads
• I didn’t need to collect all of it, just a tiny bit after each bath.  The collection was the easy part. It was the disposal that was tricky. I live in a neighborhood where there are not many crossroads.  The nearest true crossroad was one block from the subway. In the city, it is best to dispose of this type of water in a sewer.  I had collected it in a plastic bottle and had to open the bottle and dump it out. I was a little self conscious.

Regardless of all of these obstacles, I completed my spiritual cleanse after 13 days.

Some of you might wonder if I actually took a bath/shower during this time. The answer is yes.  I showered with soap each day prior to the spiritual cleanse.  I didn’t towel dry myself. I drip dried, which in the middle of December, is not much fun.

A few days later, I burned another love candle. This time there were no evil faces; nor were there any happy ancestors.  It was a clean burn from top to bottom.

So did it work? Well sort of.  I had to do some leg work, but I met someone. We dated for a bit, but after three months, it came to an abrupt end.

I am going to give the credit to my ancestors and the universe for that one.  He came in to show me that I have been cleansed.  He was removed because he was not for me.

 (To Be Cont'd)

Adventures in Hoodoo - Candles

Hoodoo is an American term, originating in the 19th century or earlier. One of its meanings refers to African-American folk magic.

I have no clue what I’m doing. Ha!

Now that you have that information…

I’m not new to candle magic. I’ve burned candles for years. I haven’t been consistent with it.  Last summer, during my “rough period,” I pulled everything out of my arsenal and candles made their reappearance.

I took a trip to a large and popular Botanica in The Bronx. I wanted a candle to draw love. The young man who dressed the candle told me exactly how to burn it, what to say, and all the necessary information.  He said, “When it is finished, bring it back so we can read it.”

It burned steady and constant.  It also left very black soot inside the glass.  I’ve had residue in my glass encased candles before, but  ¾ of the glass was black.  It also looked like there was a face of some kind.

I brought it back to the Botanica.  The head Santero read my candle for me.  

Santero: You see this? (he said as he pointed to the face). This is a spirit of some kind.

Me:  (stunned into stupidity) What kind of spirit?

Santero: Not a nice one. What was this for?

Me: Bringing love to me.

Santero: Well there was “something” stopping that, but it was caught in this candle.

Me: (Silence)

Santero: (He hands it back to me). Take this, wrap it up in that paper bag, and take it out and throw it in the garbage on the corner. (He points to a garbage can in the street that is in a far corner of the block). Then come back.

I stuffed it back in the paper bag that I brought it in and I placed it in the garbage can with the empty beer cans and McDonald’s wrappers.   I backed away quickly. I didn’t want to turn my back. What if the spirit came out of the glass, crawled out of the bag, took a leap across the air and into me? That’s the way it happens in the movies.

Once back in the Botanica, the Santero told me to get a plain white candle and burn it in the same manner as I did the pink one.  Except this time, I was to pray for protection.

I burned the candle, day and night.

I sat at work worried that my apartment was engulfed in flames because I left an open flame. I couldn't be sure if the spirit from the other candle would come back for revenge.  Was it angry I discarded it like an evil piece of trash?  

My imagination was in overdrive because nothing like that happened.  My apartment was still there when I returned and the candle just burned and burned.

This time, the candle burned clear and steady for most of the time.  When it got to the bottom 1/3 of the glass, something happened.  Figures started to appear.

It looked like a native tribe dancing and rejoicing

I took the picture, so I could show the Santero. I had a feeling that it would eventually melt away. I was correct.

I know what I saw, but I wanted someone else to see it. Someone who knew a thing or two about this stuff.  To me, it looked like a native tribe dancing and rejoicing.

I showed the Santero the photo and he was awed. He said he’d never seen anything like it. He intuited that it was my ancestors rejoicing and they are here to help me.  The candle itself had finished burning and was now clear from top to bottom, but the photo was proof that something else was going on.

I was told it was now OK to burn another love candle.

I was prepared to do so until I was told by someone very experienced with Hoodoo and Palo that before I burn another candle for love, I needed to do a spiritual bath. The harmful spirit(s) were not done with me yet, they were only waiting.

(To be Cont’d.)

Toxic People

The Cesspool

I don’t have many close friends. The number fluctuates. New ones come in, but most of the time I see the back of them before too long.

I have three friends. It has swelled to five and then shrunk back down to three. The same three friends year after year, but I’m not tired of them. I’ve tried to increase my circle of friends, but it never seems to work out.  I often thought there was something wrong with me.  I realized that there is nothing wrong with me, but that many people that I attract are toxic.

Toxic people easily latch on to me.  I don’t sense their toxicity immediately, it takes a while. Eventually I realize it, but I choose to swim in the cesspool regardless.  My go to excuse for not walking away is, “I see the good in him/her.”  This isn’t to say that there isn’t good in these people, just that these individuals are not beneficial to my spiritual growth.

I wanted to walk away many times, but I didn’t; I’m a wuss. It is good to know that The Universe takes care of fools – aka, me.

Loneliness played a role.  I wanted more friends and I put up with a lot of nonsense in order to keep the peace. I put up with things I didn’t like in their behavior or energy field.  I would think, “I’m never going to have any friends if I find fault all the time.” With all my efforts to keep them as friends, they were eventually removed.



You Get What You Think About Most of the Time

I would often ponder why I am friends with these people.  I would try to figure out a way to end the relationship.  I had a prepared speech in my head and reasons to back it up, but I never had the nerve.  I would think about it all the time.  Then the miracle happened; just as I was ready to pull the plug, they pulled it on me.

My constant attention on how to end the relationship brought the end to fruition. I didn’t do anything but think about it in an all consuming fashion.

I did not set out to think about it and have it happen. This was done by default.  In this instance, the outcome was desired.  We often create our lives by default and receive outcomes that are not what we want. (I will be discussing this in a later post).



It Can Be Hard

It can be hard to know who to let go and when.  Family members are especially difficult to let go of. They can be some of the most toxic people in our lives.  We may feel that we have no choice but to keep the peace.

“But she’s my mom.”

“I can’t not talk to my sister.”

These are people that we shared our lives with. We’ve lived with these people; cried with these people and have formed memories with them.  In the case of our parents, they took care of us.  This causes us to feel an obligation toward them.

My mother is one of the most toxic people I’ve ever known.  I love her very much, but being in her energy field is draining and disturbed.  For years I could not walk away.  She sacrificed a great deal to raise me, and she did the best she could with what she knew and she was a good mother.  For many years I could not see the dysfunction and it wasn’t until my brother was killed that this dormant dysfunction came into the light.

As an adult, my mother and I would argue and disagree sometimes, but I always gave in and we’d get back on the roller-coaster.

This relationship was all-consuming and I am surprised it took as long as it did for The Universe to say, “All right already!”  After a particularly nasty argument, she stopped speaking to me and hasn’t contacted me in years.

Several things happened after this incident:

• I became a happier person
• My finances improved
• Other toxic people fell away at a faster rate

It is often hard to see the toxicity when we are in the relationship.  It may take years before we can see that the relationship was harmful.  We just have to be willing to look.

Copyright © Liz Kelso. 2016. All rights reserved.

First in person Tarot Card Reading / Dream Connections

On Thursday I went to have a reading with Veronica Moya at Namaste Bookshop in New York (where I live). It has been a long time since I've had an in person reading of any kind. I have visited this shop several times, but 2 weeks ago I had a strong urge to get a reading. I looked on the website and went through all of the psychic they employ. Veronica was the one who I connected with. She was one of the more expensive one. I meditated on it and my intuition told me that the extra $10 would not equal the benefits I would get from her reading.

She tuned in to me very easily. She uses Tarot Cards but I could see her reading my energy field. She picked up on everything that was happening. Before I had my reading, I was feeling stuck in my spiritual life as well as my social life. While waiting for my turn, I started to feel my heart chakra close and tears come to my eyes. It has been a rough month and I wasn't sure she would be able to help or see anything for the future. I've been trying to be positive and co-create, but I've been feeling stagnant and that nothing is going at the speed at which I would like it to go.

She picked up on all of it and told me the plans that I have will put me on the right track. My intuition is very strong and I should stop 2nd guessing myself. I think 2nd guessing is a human emotion for those who are highly intuitive or not. I am not a very confident intuitive, I have to work on it.
I was feeling much better after the reading. My energy started to flow through my heart chakra and I felt lighter. Nothing had changed, the things in front of me didn't move any closer; however, my outlook on it has and I am OK that they are not right here now. Timing is a human construct but it is to our benefit.

I have been taking her advice on my intuition.  She said my first impression on something is always the right one, but I often ignore it, discard it or listen to someone else's ideas about it.  I've been more sure footed with this.

I've also noticed that my dreams have been connecting. I have made an effort to write down my dreams or at least the parts I remember for the past month.  I've always been a vivid dreamer, but never really went as far as to document them on a daily basis.  I've only documented the ones that seemed interesting or really out there.  But lately, I've been documenting the mundane ones as well.
Turns out, my dreams connect.  Especially if I don't get the point the first time.  I had a dream on the 14th of July. I documented it.  I thought about what it could mean but didn't really come up with anything solid.  I had a dream on the 24th of July that I immediately was able to connect to the earlier dream.  The pieces fit together and I understood what I was being told.  As Veronica said, I need to not 2nd guess myself.

It Slowly Comes Together - The Spiritual Awakening

I have been on a spiritual quest for almost 20 years. I started seeking when I met Carol in 1992. She was on her path to awakening. At this time I met another woman who was also on the path, her name is Maria. We often talked about spiritual/metaphysical topics such as: Dreams, Chakras and Mediation. Before I met them, I had an interest and attended a few meditation classes, but my interest didn’t really take until this time. When I left this job in 1997, my interest didn’t diminish, but without the daily interaction it stalled, as did my growth. I read books by Norman Vincent Peale and Dr. Wayne Dyer, but it didn’t go beyond that. I went back to sleep.

I had another child and remarried and my life was utter chaos. The marriage failed, I was now a single mother with 2 kids and I had Lyme Disease. Needless to say, things weren’t good and growth wasn’t happening. I grew interested in Wicca, Paganism & Buddhism. Anything that was not Catholic. I dabbled, but ultimately I became sedated in Catholicism.

I didn’t stay sedated or asleep however. I started really waking up again a few years ago. I have a friend named Bev, who lives in VA. Aside from her, I no longer had any friends who were interested in Spiritual topics. It was good to talk with her about it, but we were both on a path of discovery, and I needed someone who was a little more advanced. I met L.C. in 2011. She was well versed in the spiritual path and helped jostle me back to the light. I can run things by her and ask advice. She always has a logical answer to any question or problem I am having.

I have been slowly awakening since I met her. It had sped up from my previous state, but in hindsight, it was rather slow.

I don’t know what started the acceleration. I had no trauma in my life, it seemed to be spontaneous. One thing that happened at this time (which I don’t attribute to the acceleration) was I trusted someone, showed compassion and unconditional love and had my heart ripped out, stomped on and thrown in the fire. After this event…the awakening went from 0 to 60.

At first, I didn’t realize that this was what was happening. I thought I was losing my mind, and I couldn’t figure out why. Yes, I was hurt by this person, but I shouldn’t have been a mess. Looking back, I think what accelerated it was the act of compassion and unconditional love. At first, I thought it was a garden variety depression. But I started watching, reading and learning and I came across 51 Symptoms of Spiritual Awakening and was surprised at what I read. Some symptoms seemed obvious, some brought clarity to my situation. Some of the stranger things that started to happen, that are attributed to Spiritual Awakening that have happened to me were:

Skin Eruptions – I sometimes had a zit pop up now and then, but it started to get ridiculous. The minute I got rid of one, three more showed up. The strange thing was, these eruptions were around the mouth. I never had acne there, now I was averaging 5 zits a minute. (see #9 in link)

A Desire to find your soul mate/twin flame - I had not really had this desire. After my 2nd divorce, I concentrated on raising my kids. Lately, this desire has arisen in me with a vengeance. It is not due to sexual desire, I just know it is time. (see #50)

Changing Sleep Patterns – I only suffered from insomnia or sleep problems when I worried about things, especially money. Otherwise, I would sleep straight through and drag myself out of bed when the alarm rang. I would nap on the weekend, but it would be in one clip for an hour or two. Now I find I wake up at 3:00am during the week without the aid of an alarm. If I do this on the weekend, I will go for a walk, come back home, sleep for another 2 hours, wake up, do stuff, go back to sleep for an hour, get up, do stuff, go back to sleep for 2 hours…you get the picture. (see #1)

A desire to break free from restrictive patterns, life draining jobs, consumptive lifestyles, and toxic people or situations – This was one that threw me for a loop. I never was fond of negative people, so that was not a surprise, what was a surprise is that I could not longer tolerate the crap that is on TV. I used to love to watch certain shows. I never was a fan of the violent stuff (crime shows etc. – Except “Bones”) but I didn’t mind watching shows like “Under the Dome” and other things of that nature. Now, I can’t. Watching them is remonstrant that annoying car alarm at 1:30 in the morning. I also canceled my Netflix DVD’s. I tried to watch a movie, and thought it was awful, low vibration and just plain bad. It was all too much. I never thought I would not enjoy a good movie or TV show. A woman I sit next to at work, whom I chatted with daily, I suddenly found negative and superficial. I stopped my daily chit-chatting with her. She must think I’m depressed or have lost my mind. (see #17)

When I read this, I sound like a snob, but truly I’m not. I am just not able to tolerate certain things anymore. I actually find it fascinating.

Out of the 51 symptoms on the list, I am going through most of them. These are just the ones that are too unusual to not mention.

And one that isn’t on this list, but I saw it on other lists that had me take another look was the fact that I no longer judge people. If I see someone that looks ‘interestingly different’ I just notice it and make no judgment. I may complement them in my head saying something like (That is a clever outfit) but nothing negative. I think this is one of the coolest symptoms so far.

7 Day Positivity Challenge

The 7 Day Positivity Challenge

I first learned about this through a YouTube video that is put out by Leo at Actualized.org.

This challenge is to help bring about a more positive attitude.  Usually my attitude is pretty positive, however, I’ve just gone through something that brought me down from my base set-point (which is happy) to a much lower vibration. This vibration has come about due to fear, worry, abandonment, impatience, uncertainty and confusion. For 3-weeks I’ve been walking around crying in my soup and moping around like my life is worthless.  And why? Because someone hurt me, or because something happened that I didn’t anticipate?

I’ve been through 2 divorces, I’m stronger then that…right?  I thought so, but it seems that no matter how many times bad things happen, my emotional set-point plummets.  I’m doing better now, but I’m no where near where I should be.  I am having more positive and peaceful thoughts these days, and less negative ones.  Therefore, I’m going to attempt to force the hand.  7-days of no negative thoughts what so ever (this includes complaining).

You can read about the challenge <a href=http://karmicallycoaching.com/do-you-dare-to-take-the-7-day-positivity-challenge/” Here </a>.

Here is how this works:

For 7 consecutive days you must not allow yourself to dwell for a single moment on any kind of negative thought. 

If you break any of the other rules, you must start the 7 days all over from the beginning

You cannot focus on a negative thought or remain in a negative emotional state for more than five minutes.    Leo’s video says 60 seconds, I haven’t decided which time frame I’m going to use. But it will not exceed 5 minutes. Hopefully I will be able to catch it sooner rather than later.

You must focus on solutions.  When the negative thoughts start, the idea is to immediately start contemplating possible solutions. Spend time solving your challenges instead of focusing on them.

I especially like the last point.  However, for the ‘problem’ I’m currently having, there is no solution, so I will have to not focus on the problem and let the universe work it out or I can transcend it.

Today was the first day.  I was well aware of when my negative thoughts were creeping in.  I immediately changed them. I started to realize that they don’t come on like gang busters, but as small quiet thoughts that grow and grow until I’m worked up into a tizzy. 

I did find that although I am changing the vibration of my thoughts, currently the underlying sadness about my situation is still there.  I notice it, but don’t dwell on it.  I thought about how we had a beautiful day or how good my lunch tasted.  Anything to get my mind off of the sadness.  I’ll keep at it and one day the sadness will no longer be there.

This will be work, but I’m determined to do it.

Painting the Future - Movie

I am a youtube addict. I admit it. However, I don't watch cute cat videos, although they do make me smile. I tend to watch things that will aid in my spiritual awakening. While watching an interview with Sonia Choquette she mentioned that her family likes to watch movies from the Spiritual Cinema Circle. So I went to see if any of them were on youtube. She didn't name any, I just looked through what they had and came across this one. I am so glad I did. It is only about an hour, and it will make you think, make you cry, make you smile and make you hopeful.

Painting the Future - Movie