• More About “Deserving!”

    Happy Friday the 13th, everyone! 🙂

    I wanted to talk a little bit more about my question about our sense of “deserving” something. Even though you can see these comments in the comments section under each blog post, I wanted to reprint these comments from readers here in this post so that I could comment on them.


    One reader says:

    “I had to think about this post for about a day before answering. . . . first I think we can trace that “entitlement” thing back to being children and being told if we were “good” santa would bring goodies (and if not, a lump ‘o coal)! Who didn’t have an impression like that made on them when they were small? Some of us never got over it!!! i try to turn it around and say i have been given MORE than I deserve. Several years ago I had a serious illness and could have died; in fact since then have seen many people with the same illness die from it. Ever since that happened I look at anything good that happens as “bonus points”. I still get mad and sad and so on when I don’t get what I want/get my own way; but try to remind myself it could be a LOT worse. Even in this terrible economy, most of us have more than most of the world’s people will ever hope to have. This does not mean I do not throw my temper tantrums and sulk like anybody else but I also try to keep the big picture in mind. . . and intentionally make it bigger and bigger all the time. A hard question! Still not sure of the answer. . .”


    This reader brings up a very good point and it bodes another question: Are we programmed to think in terms of what we deserve? Certainly Santa would be a good example of that! Even just the idea of being children and being punished for bad behavior and rewarded for good behavior reinforces the idea of when we do something “good” in life we deserve some kind of reward for it. It is like somewhere along the line many of us did not get the lesson that sometimes the doing good is the reward in and of itself. We believe we are entitled to more. Like the reader says, it is a hard question and I don’t think there is an easy answer, either!


    Like I was mentioning in my original post my main concern here is what I perceive as a huge sense of entitlement in some of my clients and my worry is that this will somehow be detrimental to their spell work – that they will not put forth the necessary effort, time, or heart, because they have the idea that they just simply deserve a good result!


    Another reader says:

    “Hi Mambo, What a great question I think that this is. I would think that being a good mother should be a reward in itself. And being a good wife should be a reward unto itself. I think the problem comes in when people are picking the wrong people to concentrate their efforts on. If you are trying to be a good wife to your husband and he doesn’t give a hoot about you, then you should have realized that before you wanted to spend the rest of your lives together. Everyone deserves to be happy, but if you just sit around and wait for happiness to find you, I think you will be very disappointed. You have to go make your own happiness and then yes, you deserve it because you worked for it. The same thing goes with our spellwork. If you think you deserve your HD or whatever you are working towards, then you have to really work for it. That means no conflict and staying positive. Then yes you deserve the results you work so hard for. Ok, that is how I see it anyway!!”


    This reader makes a good point, also, in that no matter what you deserve, you still need to be proactive in your own happiness no matter how “good” you have been. Plus, she mentions that “everyone deserves to be happy.” Certainly I agree that we all start out that way! 😉 I think we have all known a few rat bastards that probably did not deserve to be happy, but we will leave them out of the equation for this discussion and assume we are just talking about the at least marginally decent human beings. LOL.


    I would love to hear from more of you on this subject. You know, your comments can be anonymous, you don’t have to say who you are, and a Mambo never tells! 🙂


    Love, light, and peace,

    Mambo Samantha Corfield


    Witchpot

  • What Do We Deserve?

    Hello everyone!
    What do we "deserve?" The dictionary definition of "deserve" goes like this:
    To earn by service; to be worthy of (something due, either good or evil); to merit; to be entitled to; as, the laborer deserves his wages; a work of value deserves praise. To serve; to treat; to benefit. To be worthy of recompense; — usually with ill or with well.

    Many times clients tell me that they "deserve" something; to be treated better by their partner, to have a better life, to have more money, etc. I recently asked a client why they felt that they deserved what they were asking me to help them obtain. I only asked the question because I am hearing a LOT lately about what people think they deserve!

    I have clients tell me, "I was a good mother to my children, now I deserve some happiness in my life." Now this one always give me cause to pause. If you decided to have children, shouldn't you be a good mother?? Does being a good mother cause you to "deserve" some sort of reward for that? Or is being a good mother part of the idea of having children? Are the children the reward? Do you deserve "more" because you were a good mother? Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying one does or does not deserve something because of being a good mother. I am actually asking you, my readers, to weigh in on this!

    Another thing I hear is, "I was a good wife to my husband. He left me anyway and now I deserve something better." So again, I feel like, well, if you are going to be a wife, should you not be a good one? Does your being a good wife mean you now deserve something better?

    Then there is the, "I am a good person, I deserve good things in my life." Okay… so you are a decent human being. Shouldn't you be? Really, isn't it up to all of us to be, at the very least, a decent human being? Should there be a decent human being award? Now if by being a good person you mean you do works of charity, help the homeless and poor, and give freely of your time to the assistance of others, then, yes, maybe there is a merit badge for that! Maybe you are more "deserving" than someone who doesn't do those things. But if you are just sitting around, living your life, minding your own business, and not harming anyone else, I am not sure that means you "deserve" more than another "good person" who happens to be starving to death in Africa.

    By the beginning of the definition of "deserve" above, to "earn by service" who amongst us is "deserving?" Should we be "earning" what we "deserve?" How do we earn it? I didn't say I had answers to these questions, maybe I just have questions! 😉

    I do know that it is really starting to make me uneasy how many people lately are telling me what they deserve. When I ask them why, they generally get pissed off at me, so I am thinking that is probably not the best approach. 🙂 But I am truly curious about the sense of entitlement some people seem to have; like the world owes them something: The mother who was good to her children (so was raising the children so horrible that she now deserves a reward for it?); the spouse who was good, etc. Because we went through tough times, does that mean we are now somehow entitled to a reward? Was our "tough time" worse than someone else's? IS there a reward for tough times?

    I DO get that we are all filled with books and talk shows and self-help gurus telling us how to feel good about our own self-worth, how to manifest our destiny, how to think positively about ourselves and our goals. But does that mean we necessarily "deserve" them OR are we in some way supposed to earn that which we think we deserve?

    Now, most of you are working on spell work from us, and we here at Spellmaker always want you to reach your goal! Most of my thought process above does not come from me thinking that you don't "deserve" to reach your goal! 🙂 Not at all! But I am concerned that just thinking that you "deserve" something is not enough to bring it to you! I am worried that too much thought of "well, I deserve this" is somewhat counterproductive and makes us all work a little less harder to achieve what we want!

    To say the least, I have really mixed emotions about this! I would love to hear your opinion!

    Love, light, and peace,
    Mambo Samantha Corfield

  • Damballah and St. Patrick’s Day Ritual

    Happy Friday everyone!
    The ever-delightful Simone Green writes:
    "Hi Mambo, Can we include Damballah in the ritual? Since St. Patrick is his saint, and to add extra luck?"

    Yes, of course, feel free to add service to Damballah into your Sobo ritual on St. Patrick's Day! 🙂 Never hurts to have a little Damballah on your side. Damballah is often represented in Vodou rituals by St. Patrick (though I remain a bit perplexed at that since St. Patrick is credited for running the snakes OUT of Ireland..and no one is running Damballah out of anywhere if he doesn't want to go!  LOL). Of course, the reason is because St. Patrick is portrayed many times with snakes in the picture. The more years that pass, though, the more I am a Moses/Damballah syncretizer, but traditionally it is St. Patrick.

    At any rate, I don't think it is a far stretch at all to do some service to Damballah with your Sobo ritual. For us, "coincidentally" Sobo, Damballah, and Ayida Ouedo used to share space in our previous altar room. 😉 When you think about it, it makes perfect sense! Damballah is full of wisdom and power, both necessary to obtain and KEEP one's money. His wife, Ayida Ouedo, is represented by the rainbow! Where is that pot of gold?? At the end of the rainbow, of course!

    So, yes, Simone, I think including Damballah (and of course Ayida Ouedo) into your Sobo ritual is a pretty good bet.

    Including Damballah into your ritual can be quite easy. A very simple offering of a white egg, either boiled or left raw, sitting in a dish of white flour is a very common and well-received offering to Damballah. Finding a picture of a rainbow with a pot of gold at the end of it and putting it on your altar will serve and acknowledge Ayida Ouedo and tie in nicely with your petitions to Sobo for wealth and security.

    Great idea, Simone! Thank you!

    Love,light, and peace,
    Mambo Samantha Corfield
    P.S. If you have not gotten in your petitions for the Sobo ritual, please do! Check out all the information about the Wealth and Security Ritual at www.spellmaker.com/sobo.htm! Remember, we do this ritual all month long starting March 17.

    Moses

  • Prayer for today.

    Hi There,
    I received this prayer in my inbox today from a dear client. Reading it made me feel so empowered I just had to pass it along…….

    St. Theresa's Prayer:

     'May today there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you

     are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of

     faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received, and

     pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself

     just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your

     soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every

     one of us.'

    Images


    Light and Love
    Sister Bridget

  • The Return of SOBO!

    The Spellmaker Family is again planning a free group ritual for the great Lwa of wealth and security, Sobo! We had such great feedback about the first ritual, that it will be repeated this month on St. Patrick's Day!

    As before, absolutely no purchase is necessary to participate or to be included in our Family ritual. A ritual kit is available for those who are interested, but the full ritual has been posted online by Mambo Sam as well.

    Be sure to  send in your ritual request to us as soon as possible. All you need to do is send us an email to sobomylwa@spellmaker.com.
    This will insure that you are included in our family ritual on December
    9, 2008. In your email to us you should explain what your financial
    needs are and what you hope for us to accomplish by including you in
    the ritual. We suggest that you make your requests something that
    actually stands a good chance of happening: A promotion at work,
    finding a job, having old debts paid, finding new ways to make money,
    keeping your job(!), etc.,etc. We do NOT recommend that you ask for
    something such as winning the lottery. Everyone wants to win
    the lottery!! But this is not something easily controlled by spiritual
    methods! It is too impersonal and involves things that spirits would
    not know how to control. Plus if one million people are petitioning to
    win the lottery, what happens if they all win? Why would only YOU win??
    Therefore, it is important to try to make your petitions make sense for
    your life – what could happen in your personal life to insure your
    wealth and security? If you are unsure, then simply ask that the
    spirits find the best way to help you! That is a good petition!!

    "See"  you all on St Patrick's Day and much luck and love to you all!
    Sister Bridget

    Soboveve2

  • Top 10 Things You Don’t Know About My Wife!

    Of course you all know my wife, the delectable Mambo Sam. But I think there are few things you don't know about her:

    10. She types in her sleep, literally. I guess all those hours on the computer just go to bed with her.

    9.   She plays a mean "Guitar Hero."

    8.   She is not as tough-skinned as you think she is.

    7.   She can't cast her fishing line very far but always catches the biggest fish. (Wait a minute, I think she made me say that.  I am sure I caught the biggest fish last time. No, I am mistaken, SHE caught the biggest fish.)

    6.   She worries, thinks about, stews over clients just about every waking moment.

    5.   She cannot be beat at Scrabble.

    4.   She can cook eggs at least 20 different ways (all good).

    3.   She will do almost anything to avoid hurting someone's feelings.

    2.   She can shoot straight if she doesn't have to shoot too far.

    1.   ….it really IS from "The Chambers of the Enchantress."  (If you don't know what that means, I guess you will just have to stick around and be a Spellmaker client longer!)

    Have fun out there people!

    Parran Matt

  • Spellmaker Community Pages!

    Hi there, everyone!<BR>

    Good morning! 🙂 I am working on a project to have a whole section of the Spellmaker website dedicated to building a community for those who wish to feel more a part of what we do.

    I would really love it if you could send me pictures of your altars or any rituals you have done and took pictures of, or any pictures you take in the future. Obviously, make sure that if you don’t want your surroundings to be recognizable, that you take your pictures in such a way that nothing personal is showing. For those of you who are out of the voodoo closet and don’t mind having your picture shown, we would love that, too! 🙂 Regardless, your name and place of residence would always be kept confidential, even if we have permission to show your picture.

    This will also include resurrection of the Spellmaker Forum, though it will have sort of a different nature to it. There are plenty of places to see and say negative things, the Forum will not be one of them. Sister Bridget is working diligently on the forum to renovate it into a happy, productive, and supportive place!

    We have a few other little goodies up our sleeves for you and can’t wait to show you around once it is done!

    Meanwhile, if you have pictures, please just send them to me at ReverendCorfield@aol.com. Almost any format will work for me. Don’t worry if you think your pictures aren’t that great! You don’t have to be a professional photographer to share.  Personally, I love altar and ritual pictures… I enjoy seeing others’, especially because I feel a little part of that ritual. 

     Every altar and ritual picture can be a source of inspiration for someone, so you never know who you will be helping along their path!

    Love,light, and peace,
    Mambo Samantha Corfield



    Parran Matt and Mambo’s Fet Ghede Altar at home, 2007.

    Fet Ghede 2007

  • More about St. Patrick’s Day Ritual!

    Hello everyone!
    We are really excited to be doing the Sobo ritual again here for St. Patrick's Day. So many of you reported really excellent results with the one we did in December. (Time really flies; it seems like we just did it and here it is March!!)

    It is important to remember, though, that sometimes there are smaller results, or more long term results, that we forget to recognize. I had one client tell me that she did the Sobo ritual, but nothing happened. Then in the next moment she told me that over the last month or so she has had more clients in her business than she ever had before. 🙂 I did gently point this out to her and she said, "Oh, I didn't look at it that way." Of course, then she did see what I was talking about!

    Results from all rituals can often take some time. Sometimes circumstances have to be rearranged in the background where we never see that happening, so we think "nothing" is happening. Then, when something does happen, sometimes a couple of months down the line, we don't remember to give credit to that which we set in motion!

    In these economic times, that might be especially true of the Sobo ritual. Sure, of course, Sobo wants to help us all. But there need to be the circumstances in which to help us, or perhaps to sometimes help ourselves. Just like the dear client above, sometimes the results might come in ways that help us to help ourselves make more money. Perhaps an opportunity arises to improve your career or work extra or whatever might be possible in your particular circumstances.

    So, okay, all of us are not particularly likely to find a pot o'gold on St. Paddy's Day because we did the Sobo ritual. However, I bet if you are willing to see it, you will see some kind of result from it!

    Of course, to get a result, you have to do it! LOL. Or at least let us do it for you! It's fun. It's still free (unless you want to buy the kit).

    Go visit Sobo at www.spellmaker.com/sobo.htm and send us your ritual request! If you happen to be doing great financially and don't need to have us include you in the ritual, then think about sending in a request on behalf of someone else or just everyone else in general! Hey, there's good karma in that kind of thing, ya know!

    Love, light, and peace,
    Mambo Samantha Corfield
    Clover

  • Quote for today…..

    “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”
        ~~~~ Dr Seuss

    No one is more You than You! Today, do something just for You!~ I swear, sometimes clients can get so caught up in their cases, and all the drama and emotion that can sometimes go along with that, that they just lose track of who they are. So, today, in honor of Dr Seuss' birthday, everyone go out and do something just for you! Remember who you are, and be your own best friend!

    Light and Love
    Sister Bridget

    Images2

  • Writing your Personal Mission Statement – stick to the basics

    Hi There!
    Earlier in the year, I posted about Personal Mission Statements. Basically, this is a paragraph of about 3 to 5 sentences, that reflects your core beliefs and goals for your life. Think of your mission statement as a living, breathing entity, that will change and grow as you change and  grow nd discover new things about yourself along your life's path. This is hardly something that is written in stone, but a work in progress, just as we are works in progress 😉 Below are some general guidelines to help get you started:

    1. Focus on the positive! Write your phrases as what you want to be , not about what you don't want to be. If you find you have written something negative, rephrase it in a positive manner.
    2. Think about the qualities, actions, characteristics and habits that you have in you that you admire, or that you would like to strive towards.
    3.
    Create a mission statement that will guide you in your
    day-to-day actions and decisions. Make it a part of your
    everyday life.
    4.Think about how your mission statement effects every area of your life – relationships, career, family, financial. Your mission statement is meant to bring balance into your life, and should positively effect every area of your life.
    5. Be sure to include an emotional component! Describe positively how you want to FEEL inside about your self and your life!
    6. Start with an affirmative word like "I will…." or "I am….."
    7. Take as much time as you need. Life is not a sprint, but a marathon.  Take some time in thoughtful reflection about who you are and where you are and what your goals are.

    Here are some phrases that you could possibly use to help you get started:

    "I will  live each day with …[ fill in the blank ]… so that …[what is your goal]. I will do this by …(put specific habits or behaviors here]."

    "I am known by …[ people in your life ]… as someone who is …[fill in the blank]…;  "

    Sooooo……give it a ripple, and if you like, post your statement in the comments section of this blog, and we can all work on them together, and help each other out.

    Light and Love
    Sister Bridget

    Images