Category: Miscellaneous Ramblings

Hello everyone!  On Easter Sunday I posted about Faith.  I was wracking my brain to remember this really cool quote that I had read years ago that reminded me of faith and Les Lois and all this wonderful magick that we do together.  I couldn’t remember who wrote it or exactly what it said, but God Bless the Internet because with just a few key words I found it!!!  I wanted to share it with you, it is by D.H. Lawrence.  Oh those gods, those strange gods!  😉  In re-reading this, I thought that every Vodouisant should have a copy of this quote and keep it close to their heart.

Love, Mambo Sam

This is what I believe:
That I am I.
That my soul is a dark forest.
That my known self will never be more than a little clearing in the forest.
That gods, strange gods, come forth from the forest into the clearing of my known self, and then go back.
That I must have the courage to let them come and go.
That I will never let mankind put anything over me, but that I will try always to recognize and submit to the gods in me and the gods in other men and women.
There is my creed. – D.H. Lawrence

Hello everyone!

As my previous post states, today is the traditional St. Joseph’s Day.  One important tradition of this day is helping the poor and less fortunate.  While there are obviously poor and less fortunate everywhere, New Orleans is still in dire need.   One of my favorites is listed below – this organization has done so much to help rebuild New Orleans – they use their donations in many diverse ways.

Renew New Orleans Foundation

To give a more traditional food offering on this day, please give to

Second Harvest Food Bank of New Orleans

This food bank was established in the 1980’s and has been feeding the hungry of New Orleans since then.  Obviously, they have been strained since Hurricane Katrina!

Thank you!  Love, Mambo Sam

Greetings, everyone!   I am really excited to be getting into high gear planning the 2008 Voodoo Convention here in Albuquerque. 

For the 2008 Convention we will be studying a lot more about Haitian and African Vodou.  During the 2007 we spent more time with our New Orleans Voodoo heritage.  We will, of course, be studying more about New Orleans Voodoo, but our primary focus will be on Vodou.

Planning the classes is really getting to be fun and I cannot wait to teach you all!  We will be learning Vodou songs, part of the Priye Guinea (the long African prayer that is recited before most Vodou rituals, deep service to the lwa, and much more. 

In thinking about the convention, I cannot help but remember my own visits to and Vodou initiation in Haiti.  It is definitely a place to remember.  The people in Jacmel, Haiti are colorful, bright, smart, friendly, and serve the lwa with both dignity and passion.  There are many lessons to be learned from these people because they continue to serve the lwa with faith and confidence even in the most trying of circumstances.  Frankly, most of us would fold up under the conditions in which these people live.

Yet, they serve the lwa daily.  They continue to dedicate their lives to the practice of Vodou regardless of outcome of their hopes and dreams and petitions to the lwa.  They do not waver in their service nor in their dedication.  They are not practitioners of fairweather faith; in fact, the worse the weather, the stronger their faith.  Taking a page from their book would do us all a world of good.

Most of us are petitioning for a better job, a partner to come into our lives, or an enemy to go away.  Most of us are not wondering where our next meal is coming from or if we will have money to send our children to school (no public schools in Haiti) or if we have the basic necessities of life.  However, time and time again I hear that we are "losing faith" in our spell work!  We don’t "see results" right away and are ready to throw away our spell work, our faith, and our dedication to the lwa at the drop of a hat!  Indeed, looking to our Haitian brothers and sisters for a shining example of faith can do us all a world of good.

Probably the most uplifting thing is the JOY that these people derive from their service to the lwa.  The picture below is one I took in Jacmel during a Vodou celebration.  Feel the joy!

Love, Mambo Sam

Hello everyone!  I wanted to share with you an article I ran across.  Since we have been talking about how to set realistic and sustainable goals for the new year I thought you might enjoy some of these tips from Anne Walsh, a life coach.  I wanted to definitely call to your attention the idea of making the goals realistic and making them YOURS!  🙂  Too many times we are making goals because they fit the profile of someone else’s idea of us or what we feel someone else wants us to become.   Truly successful goals will be yours and yours alone!   Enjoy the article.

Love, Mambo Sam

Article by Anne Walsh

We’ve all been there. How many of you have set up new year’s resolutions only to discover that you have slipped after the first week or been to a workshop and sworn that this time you are really going to achieve those dreams you have had at the back of your mind? The following article gives you five keys on setting goals that will keep you motivated.

Key One: Make them realistic, make them yours.
Key Two: Write them down.
Key Three: See them every day.
Key Four: Make it easy, set up strong support structures.
Key Five: Acknowledge and review regularly.

Key One — Make Them Realistic, Make Them Yours

Jung described a parent’s unrealized dreams as the most powerful influence in a child’s life. When you choose your goals, make sure they are your goals not anyone else’s. Also, make sure that the goals are realistic. For example, you may not be able to make the Olympics gymnastic team, but you could walk a marathon next year or work towards a high standard in yoga. Be honest with yourself about it and when the “yeah, but” tape starts playing remind yourself that you are not given a dream without the capacity to make it true. This is particularly true if you find that you have a recurring desire about something.

Key Two -– Write Them Down

There’s something about the human brain that doesn’t seem to see things as real until they are visible or written down. Pick 3 – 5 goals that you want to achieve for the coming year and write them down. Make sure that they are measurable. Writing down “I will save money” is a goal, but writing down “I will have saved €4000 in the next 12 months” is more powerful.

Key Three -– See Them Every Day

Write your goals on ten of small 3” X 5” index cards and have them visible everywhere to you. Another powerful exercise is to take time to visualize what your life would be like with those goals. If you can make the experience as vivid as possible, it gets the brain going on ways to achieve them…in ways you could never imagine at the beginning!

Key Four -– Make It Easy, Set Up Strong Support Structures

Don’t rely on your own willpower to carry you through because it probably won’t. (But you know that already, don’t you?) In Ireland, there is a proverb, “ ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine” which means that we live in each other’s shadows, we are interdependent. Put systems and supports in place that will sustain you when your energy is low. For example, if you plan to save money, set up an automated direct debit to do it. If you want to exercise more, find something you enjoy and buddy up with someone to go with. Build in a practice of daily silence/meditation/prayer to help you keep in touch with your deeper, truer self. Get a coach to help create structures and keep you accountable. Remind yourself on a daily basis of the benefits of achieving this goal.

Key Five – Acknowledge and Review Regularly

Set aside time every week to quickly review your goals, acknowledge progress, and simply note where you have slipped. Slippage is inevitable. Don’t beat yourself up, note what caused it and begin again! Adopt a gentle curiosity with yourself as to what caused you to slip and then begin again.

Hello everyone,

Let me please take this opportunity to wish you all a safe and peaceful holiday season.  I apologize that I have not been able to keep up with my blogging as well as I would like to.  However, I will begin to do so in 2008.  🙂

In the meantime, let me take this opportunity to thank you all for being in my life.  I really appreciate the feedback and friendships developed this year!    Look for even more exciting events and teachings coming in the new year! 

Much love, Mambo Sam

Hello everyone!  Most of you know that I have three grandsons.  I just wanted to share this picture with you.  They are such sweeties!!

In the middle is Brandon the oldest, the one with his arms around Brandon is Devon, and the littlest fellow is Preston.  Preston is the one I am holding in the picture on my bio page.  He has grown a lot since then!

These boys are such a blessing in my life.  Brandon is strong and athletic, quick with a joke and quick to help anyone who needs it.  Devon is smart, funny, and full of life.  Preston is our little clown – singing, dancing, and entertaining us all the time.  Needless to say, they are all devastatingly handsome! They are a remarkable trio!

Thanks for listening to Nana brag!

Hello everyone!  Happy Sunday!  While we are busy getting ready for the Albuquerque Voodoo Convention, I realize just how much we rely on this little black box sitting in front of us called the computer.  😉   I have used my "little black box" to plan this convention, talk to speakers and clients, connect with and stay in communication with those who are coming and those who want to come next year.  Now I am using it to plan the program, communicate with everyone involved, type things out, do layouts, etc.   So what happens when my Little Black Box goes haywire????

Arrgghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!  In trying to catch up on readings and other communications this week I find that some things just never even got to me or got to those to whom I sent them.  Where did they go?   Both parties know that they typed words on a screen and hit "send" but it never got where it was supposed to go!  User error?  Computer error?  Eaten by internet gremlins?  Is Bill Gates somewhere in a dark corner laughing madly as he collects and puts into hermetically sealed jars millions of intercepted-for-no-reason emails?? 

I don’t know the answer, but I know the frustration.  However, no matter what, I know that I wouldn’t want to be without my little black box and I am happy to be able to communicate with you in this way!

Have a happy Sunday!

Happy Saturday, everyone.  You know I am always telling clients to move forward in their lives and loves, don’t let the past dictate what you do in the present, etc.., etc.  Now it is no secret to me that this is easier said than done!  My own life is full of some things from the past that I am still dealing with and every once in awhile (like today) something that I think I have resolved gets revisited and rears its ugly little head.  Ugh.

So today I had a little incident where some family members needed to stop by to see Matt and me.  Sigh… this has been a "bad blood" kind of situation for a couple of years and everyone is struggling to get past it and resume some normalcy in these particular relationships.  But TODAY I was having none of that "normalcy" and found that I had a deep seated pocket of anger that was just ready to bubble to the surface.  ACK!

I could hear myself preaching to all of my clients about "Acknowledge, Embrace, Release." (Acknowledge the feeling – admit that you have it.  Embrace it – it is yours to own.  Release it – time to let it go.) This is the way I teach others to  deal with overwhelming feelings of sadness, pain, anger, etc.    Well, here I was in the thick of needing to be able to do that very badly!  LOL.  But guess what, it worked!  I was actually really glad to find out that I was still harboring some of the deep seated anger and resentment because now I can work harder to get rid of it.  Not to mention, "Acknowlege, Embrace, and Release" helped me get through the visit without reaching out and throttling anyone.  😉

It is always enlightening to me to follow my own advice and see whether it works or not.  It is important to me to not just be spouting words that sound good to other people.  I want to know that it works in my life as well as my clients’ lives!   Have a great weekend, everyone!