I just got a hold of the new Jimmy Buffet CD that came out just before the holidays. The pictures were taken at a hotel in West Africa, near Timbuktu. The paintings on the walls behind Jimmy are really interesting! ( You can click on the pictures to make them larger )
Enjoy!
Light and Love
Sister Bridget
Hello!
Some of you wrote me yesterday asking about how to make a dream board. I had read some general guidelines about these, but they were boooooring. So, I took some time, lit a candle, and came up with these ideas of how to make a Voodoo Dream Board! I am still working on mine, and I will post a picture of it in my photo album here as soon as it is done. I would love it if any of you who make a dream board would send me a picture of it! I would love to see what you come up with!
1. Get your board. This can be whatever works for you. Oak Tag, a cork board, a piece of plywood, or something fancier you might find at a craft store. It is your board 😉 Use what suits you.
2. Get some glue, tape, push pins, whatever you need to stick stuff to your board.
3. Get a stack of magazines. Spring is coming, and I bet you know some folks who are tossing out some old magazines. Let your friends and family know you are needing some. Get a decent sized stack on various different subjects.
4. Schedule some special time to go thru the magazines and cut out pictures of things that represent your goals and dreams! Get creative! Play some of your favorite music, make your favorite drink and have fun! You can even invite Papa Legba or any Lwa you feel close to to come by and help you! Light a candle, set out a drink or a cookie for them and ask for their guidance. Make it a team effort 😉
5. If you cant find a picture for a goal you have in mind, try hitting Google Images and see if you can find what you are looking for there. Print the picture and use that on your board.
6. If you are working with a special Lwa while making the board, you might consider using some background color that corresponds to that Lwa and is pleasing to you. Like, for my board, I was asking for Ogoun and Papa Legba to assist me, so I used some red oak tag/poster board to put my photos on. BUT if I didnt like red, I woul have tried another color 😉 White is always good, but use something that YOU like to look at, as it is YOUR board!
6.Fix your pictures to the board in a manner that is pleasing to you. You can do this in the same session or another session if you like. Set some special time aside and really enjoy yourself. Focus on the pictures one by one as you place them on the board. What does this goal mean to you? What does it feel like? How will it make you feel when you realise it?
7. For an added nice touch, you can draw a Veve of whichever Lwa you asked to be your "Board Buddy" and place it on the board in honor of them and their assistance.
8. Place the board in a location where you can look at it for 5- 10 minutes twice a day. Near your bedside is a great place, if you can pull that off, as you can look at the board as you go to bed and rise in the morning.
9. Revise the board as you feel guided too. If you find a new picture that appeals to you and represents a goal of yours, add it. Every few months spend some time really contemplating each picture – evaluate your status towards that goal? Have you made any progress? Is it still something you desire? Has some other desire eclipsed this goal and you now are working towards something else?
10. Most importantly, make it fun and positive ! Look forward to looking at and working on your dream board. You will be so glad you did 😉
Light and Love
Sister Bridget
Welcome to a new decade! 2010!
I was thinking back yesterday about the turn of the century – the whole year 2000, Y2K thing, and all of the talk that went along with that. It was easy for me to remember where I was, what I was doing, who I was working for, where I lived, all of that. What I couldnt remember was what goals I had for myself.What thought had I put into the coming decade? Where did I want to go? Where would I want to be living? What would I like my life to be like when the next new decade began?
So, this time around, I am going to do things differently. I am making New Decade Resolutions!
Thinking in a ten year time frame really makes you look at long term goals, and gives you time to assess the intermediate steps to reaching your goal. It takes the focus off the day to day comings and goings and occasional setbacks we might have. It certainly is easier to look at a bump in the road and feel less pressured about it when you are looking at a 10 year time frame than one of months!
Yes, times are tough right now, economically, politically, etc. BUT now is also the TIME TO DREAM! Take a pad and pen and write out or sketch what you want your life to be like in 2020! It is NOT THAT FAR OFF! Where do you want to be living in 2020? What would you like your home to be like? Your friends? Your family? What kind of job do you wish to have? What kind of people do you wish to work for? What kind of vacations will you be taking? What do you want your body to look like? Who do you want to be sharing your life with?
"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."
~~~Anatole France
Review your personal mission statement. See how it is reflected in your sketch above. Construct a Dream Board to reflect the goals that you have set for yourself. Be proactive, make it fun! Dare to Dream!
Light and Love
Sister Bridget
(I am dreaming about Spring already!)
Happy New Year!
Wishing each and every one of you the happiest of New Years! Below is a poem that MaMere sent me, and it is so splendid (of course!) that I really wanted to pass it along to you.
Light and Love
Sister Bridget
Hello everyone! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, that was a lot of potion that I made yesterday! LOL. It was so much fun to do it that way, though. I really felt so much energy and good vibrations from doing those big old pots of love potion!!
Even though I made quite a bit of it, I am going to only leave it up for sale another 24 hours. When all the orders are filled that already came in, if I have any left over, I will put those jars up for sale again. Right at this minute, I know that I have quite a few "extra" jars left, but I obviously want to make sure that everyone who ordered gets their order! So, this is only going to be available another 24 hours, but, as I said, if there is extra, I will put it back up for sale.
For those of you who made your own potion, and those of you who are getting the potion I made, remember there are a lot of ways to use this potion. I believe Sister Bridget is going to post some ideas on how to use the potion. Remember, a little bit of this potion goes a long way! You only need to add in a few drops of it to something else – not necessarily to get your intended to drink a whole glass of it! 🙂 Have fun with it!
Love, Mambo Sam
www.spellmaker.com
Hello everyone,
Happy Monday! While I am still working on the comparative religion project (and thank you all for your suggestions), I did want to mention that the time to make your Love Potion #9 is fast upon us!
This year will be a particularly wonderful year for making this potion because it will be made on 09/09/09 this year! 🙂 Of course that gives us the triple threat, right? 😉
For some reason, there always seem to be some confusion on when the “ninth hour” of the day is – even though I have it printed on the instructions that the ninth hour of ANY day is 9:00 a.m., not 9:00 p.m. – so the potion is supposed to be made at 9:00 a.m.
Because this is such a special year for making the potion, if there is enough interest, we will make a big batch here at Spellmaker and make it available for purchase, if folks wnat it. Obviously, 09/09/09 isn’t going to be around again, so we are in a position to make a very strong batch of this potion! Usually we do not make here for sale at the Spellmaker office, but because of the special date, we will make it this time if people are interested.
If there is enough interest and we do make the batch, we will make a big batch and then consecrate the bottles individually for those who want to purchase it. We would probably make it available in about an 8 ounce container – so that would be more than enough for personal usage.
So, if you think you might interested in purchasing a container from us and/or you cannot make your own for any reason, please email us at customerservice@spellmaker.com and let us know. If there is enough interest, we will definitely do it!
In the meantime, check out the Spellmaker Forum for the recipe or click the link above for the recipe for making your own Love Potion #9!
Love, light, and peace,
Mambo Samantha Corfield
www.spellmaker.com
 “I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” |
~~~~ Jimmy Dean
Isn't that what spellwork is all about?
And you thought he just made sausage!
Light and Love,
Hello everyone!
So many times when I am speaking with clients on the phone they are looking for a sign of something. They are looking for a sign that their spell work is working, they are looking for a sign that they are being heard. Some people are wondering if something is a sign or did they miss it. Often I think that some people just miss the signs that are presented to them because they are too busy to see them or they just don't know what they are looking for. 🙂 Some signs are not so easy to see. So I thought we could start a little game where we try hard to see things, things that are not quite so apparent. I feel this will help in figuring out how to see the signs that are presented to you. Oh and I think it will be fun, too!
Love,
Parran Matt
www.spellmaker.com
Dear Friends,
Over the years, so many clients have come to me with a concern that their magickal practices, especially things like our love spell kits, potions, etc., might interfere with their own personal religious practices.
Many of us grew up in religions that were based on guilt and have been taught that doing any kind of magickal practices are wrong. Of course, now, most of us don't believe that we are doing anything wrong! However, there is still a question of how to blend these beliefs successfully or if they can even be blended successfully.
Therefore, I am going to be starting a series of posts on comparative religions and how different religions can be used to enhance or parallel your magickal practices.
If you have a particular religion you would like to see featured here, please leave a note below in the comments section. Remember, the comments section is confidential – you choose not to have your name or email address show up at all or use a nickname. So if you have a particular religion that you would like to see how to blend your practices, please let me know.
Also, I would love to hear your own personal ways that you have come up with to blend your magickal and/or Voodoo practices with your own religion!
Love to all,
Mambo Sam
www.spellmaker.com
Happy Monday, everyone! Now for those of you who just did the nine day Meditation and Focus exercises, you had focal points to help with your concentration. Most of us here are doing, have done, or will be doing spell work. Concentration and Focus are key to good and effective spell work! :-) So, the exercises I gave you over the several days helped with the spiritual end of focusing. I found a great article by Tevjan Pettinger regarding the more physical portion of focus. It is important to remember that whether your goal is successful spell work, spiritual growth, or something such as getting a new job, a successful balance between the spiritual and physical is the most likely path to fulfillment.
Mr. Pettinger makes some excellent points. Do you have tricks or tips that help you with your concentration and focus? If so, we would love to hear them. Leave a comment below!
Love, Mambo Sam
www.spellmaker.com
THE ARTICLE:
In concentration we marshal all our dispersed energies into focusing on just one thing. When mastered, concentration can be of unimaginable benefit in our life; through concentration we can increase our productivity and give ourselves greater peace of mind. These are some suggestions for improving your concentration.
Concentration means that we can focus on one thing, to the exclusion of all else. Our concentration may involve writing or working on a particular problem. Whatever our activity the most important criteria is to give all our focus, concentration and attention solely to the activity at hand. Concentration becomes hopeless when we get distracted by several different things at the same time; to improve our concentration we must stop trying to do several things at once. If you are writing an article, don’t be thinking about what to say to your boss later in the day. If we can develop one-pointedness we will develop a tremendous intensity that enables us to achieve our tasks much quicker.
The main stumbling block to concentration is the inevitable distraction we get from our own thoughts. It is random, uninvited thoughts that distract us from achieving pure concentration. The only solution is learning to control and quieten our thoughts. The first thing to be aware of is that we do have the choice to welcome or reject thoughts; we should not feel a helpless victim of our own mind. The second thing is we need to consciously watch our thoughts and prevent ourselves following any train of thought that detracts from our concentration. If we casually begin a project, it is easy to begin daydreaming and lose focus; what we need to do is be very determined to concentrate without distracting thoughts. When we have this intention and determination it becomes much easier to concentrate.
Concentration is an activity like any other. Clearly the more we practice, the better our concentration will become. We wouldn’t expect to be a strong runner without doing some training. Similarly, concentration is like a muscle, the more we exercise the stronger it becomes. There are specific concentration exercises we can do, such as focusing on a small point of an object; but life itself presents innumerable opportunities to sharpen your concentration. The key is to always take opportunities to heighten our powers of concentration.
The practice of meditation will definitely improve our powers of concentration. Actually, when we try to meditate, it is concentration that is the first thing we need to master. A daily period of meditation gives us the chance to specifically work on concentration techniques. This can involve concentrating on a candle or just concentrating on our breathing. These exercises are simple but effective.
It is difficult to concentrate on one thing for an extended time period. Sometimes, the best solution is to give ourselves frequent change. If we concentrate on one task for an hour, we can then move onto something different. This change in activity enables us to use different qualities, therefore, we can maintain our powers of concentration without becoming tired of one activity.
The powers of our concentration depends a lot upon our physical well-being. If we are tired, unhealthy and afflicted by numerous minor ailments, concentration will be more difficult. Of course, concentration is still possible; it is just more difficult. However, we have to try to make life easy for ourselves; we need to give a high priority to our physical health – getting sufficient sleep, staying physically fit. Undertaking exercise will help develop our concentration. It will help if we lose weight, clear the mind and create a sense of dynamism. If you struggle to concentrate, we need to think of a holistic solution; good physical health and fitness will definitely help develop our powers of concentration.