30 November 2009

Limited Edition Scents ( Yule 2009 )


Djon+Delius Perfumerie would like to wish you a joyful yuletide season. To commemorate the end of the old year and to celebrate the arrival of the new, two special edition scents will be available for purchase up until 1 February 2010. These scents come a 1oz, clear, corked bottle.
Price: $ 22 each



The end of a cycle is a time for purifying body, mind and spirit. Burning Rose is a bittersweet brew of honey and roses. It contains a combination of homemade honey tisane, Jamaican Rum as well as cinnamon,vetiver & rose essential oils.

With the new year comes new ideas, thoughts and visions. A bright new future to explore. This clean scent embodies that brand new light of day. It contains a combination of homemade pine, and sage tinctures as well as cedar,sage & jasmine essential oils.

why is all my font in italics...

ok, now. i don't have time to mess with this? why all of a sudden is my page font in italics? c'mon blogger, i don't feel like decifering code this afternoon..... wtf?

uh now what...


got this off the street today. i have no idea what i will build with
this. one idea is to make it a scrying mirror.


"Scrying is a method of divination and takes on many forms. Scrying has been used for thousands of years by different cultures. Ancient Egypt used scrying in their Initiations. This included water scrying, dream scrying, oil scrying, and mirror scrying. One legend states that the goddess Hathor carried a shield that could reflect back all things in their true light. From this shield she allegedly fashioned the first magic mirror to "see." Nostradamus is believed to have employed a small bowl of water as a offering/scrying tool into which he gazed and received images of future events. " 
rehashed from ancient-wisdoms.com

the last time i used anything for scrying was at my old apartment in which my television what the scry. that was fun! since there are three panels i would make it for the 3 aspects of eruzile/ezili and somehow include medusa in there. because, medusa's my girl.
or i could take the mirrors, cut'em down. make individual scrying mirrors, like compact size and sell?? i know there's a ton of empty make-up cases at east bay center for creative re-use

29 November 2009

A New Year's resolution of sorts...


from my photo stash .... YAY!

28 November 2009

In lieu of my annual Thanksgiving rant...

Courtesy of Fotosearch.com

23 November 2009

NPS : Keeping it Real or Not?

The Future of Slavery's Historical Spaces
James Oliver Horton, George Washington University


20 November 2009

Spell Cards on sale now @ our Etsy Shop

Just got the Spell Cards in the mail. They're awesome.

I've listed them on ETSY and given a couple of them out already. I admit, they're kind of fun.

Circle of Love Spell

19 November 2009

a murder of crows

so, today i'm getting ready to leave my house and this gang of crows are outside YAPPIN' in up. i mean yappin away. i walk outside and they all turn around like " yea, what? did you hear what we said? " then they all proceeded to continue there talking. while i stand there, nearly a foot from them i think about all the stuff my relatives would say about crows.

1. when crows talk. there's gossip going on
2. they have something to tell. ( i.e there is a message coming )
3. somebody needs to shut up
4. there's trouble coming

here's a folktale from GA,
The Crows are in the Corn
retold by
S. E. Schlosser

 It happened in Georgia not long ago, that a farmer and his wife decided to sleep late, like the rich folk do. It was a beautiful Sunday morning, the kind that brings all God's creatures out to play. But not these farm folk. No, they just slept and slept and slept.
The crows were gathered in a large oak tree, having a big morning meeting. They noticed that there was nobody stirring around the house, and that the corn was ripe in the field. So they adjourned their meeting mighty quick and flew over to the field to eat some corn.
"Caw-n, caw-n," they cackled excitedly.
The old rooster woke up to their activities and started to crow excitedly to the sleeping family. "Wake up, wake up, wake up!"
The farmer and his wife just kept sleeping, and the crows kept eating the corn.
"Caw-n, caw-n," they called.
"The crows are in the corn! The crows are in the corn!" The rooster cock-a-doodle-dooed with all his might.
The farmer kept snoring, and his wife just rolled over and pulled the pillow over her head.
The rooster was frantic. He tried once more: "The crows are in the corn. They're pulling up the corn!"
The farmer and his wife kept right on sleeping. And the crow's kept right on eating.
The rooster quit crowing in disgust. Nothing would wake the farmer and his wife.
The old turkey came strolling into the yard and watched the proceedings. Finally he said to the rooster: "The corns all et up, all et up, all et up."
When the farmer and his wife finally rolled out of bed, they found that the corn was all gone. That is why in Georgia we say "the crows are in the corn" when it is time to get up.


You can read more Georgia folktales in Spooky South by S.E. Schlosser.

18 November 2009

hair story

   ( pictured: yep, my hair )
so this woman at work just propositioned me. said if i ever cut my dreadlocks and wanted to donate them she had an awesome project she would like to use them for. i reluctantly asked her what the project
was... creating a sculpture of adonis with dreads. she wants to attach each dread to the piece. :)  i'm not saying that the concept is not cool as all get down but, using real hair( human hair cut off a living person) for anything (including weaves) makes a powerful charm. wtf are people thinking. i don't know anybody who would want their hair used for that purpose. art or not.
(i think the only way for it to get worse..... what's worse is using hair from people not living. that's worse.)

16 November 2009

Bottle Spells

personally, if i were this guy, i wouldn't be stockpiling this "debris" in my office.... unless you're ready for some serious consequences in your life. i've heard many stories about bottle spells. they are no joke if you have ties to mami wata,yemanya,oshun,damballah.


Bottles of hoodoo taken from Vermilion River






Advocate staff photo by Bryan Tuck
Bayou Vermilion District Watershed Projects Manager Paul LaHaye holds one of the spells, revealing the nearly illegible writing of the spells, some of it crossed out and unreadable.
LAFAYETTE -- Among the soda bottles and lost basketballs floating down the Vermilion River, there are things much odder and mysterious. The Vermilion River could be called a one-way hoodoo highway.
Over the years, more than four dozen ordinary, little brown plastic prescription bottles have been found in the murky water -- each filled with blue or pink powder and strange, rambling spells meticulously written on scraps of paper.
Paul LaHaye, the watershed projects manager with the Bayou Vermil-ion District, oversees the collection of tons of debris pulled from the river each year.
Each time one of the brown bottles surfaces, LaHaye dries out the contents and places them in a plastic baggy or cardboard box labeled "Voodoo," that sits in his office.
Some of the district's workers won't pick up the bottles for fear of the "powerful magic," LaHaye said.
And while LaHaye isn't superstitious, he said he still tries to treat the items with respect.
"These are cultural artifacts," LaHaye said.
Inside each bottle are pieces of torn or folded paper containing tiny, nearly indecipherable cursive script, colored powder and sometimes cayenne pepper or seeds.
LaHaye has ventured to read some of the spells. A co-worker even started to help transcribe one of the more readable spells, but stopped when she started feeling nauseated, LaHaye said.
"Your power is no more on me ... your spell by witchcraft is broken ... undone, gone," one of the spells reads. "Please help us great mother. Send his witchcraft back to him and destroy him with his own witchcraft."
Most of them end, LaHaye said, with "Thank you spell for favors granted in the name of ..."
"There's a hoodoo out there for somebody," LaHaye said.
Most of the spells seem to be written in the same tiny handwriting. Each could have taken hours of labor, as sheets of paper were filled, then torn and folded, for each spell, LaHaye said.
It's likely that the spells were written by a practitioner of what academics classify as Southern Rootwork or Southern Hoodoo, said Ray Brassieur, a professor of anthropology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Brassieur cautioned against trying to track down the person writing the spells.
To pry into such a secret and personal agreement between client and practitioner -- in a way like a priest and confessor --would be improper, Brassieur said.
The practice was famously documented in the South during the 1930s and 1940s by Harry Middleton Hyatt, Brassieur said.
The type of folk magic practiced involves "sympathetic magic," the idea that "whatever you do to that item, a like thing happens in reality," Brassieur said.
"Bottle" spells, like the ones being found in the Vermilion, are common, Brassieur said.
Part of the spell is placing the bottle into running water or tidal streams -- with their symbolic ebb and flow, Brassieur said.
The practice is not as unusual as some people may think, Brassieur said.
But finding evidence of the practice is "surprising," Brassieur said.
Brassieur said he's yet to study the spells in detail and will be careful when doing so -- in order to protect people's privacy.
Generally, people who seek out the help of a hoodoo practitioner are looking for help with a specific problem in their life that, for whatever reason, "regular channels" and institutions like medicine or attorneys aren't a possibility, Brassieur said.
Likely, most of the clients are poor, without financial means to find help otherwise, Brassieur said.
There's also a cultural and traditional aspect, he said.
"They were taught that this is the way to control the world," Brassieur said. "They're continuing those traditions."
LaHaye -- who's degree is in anthropology -- sees the hoodoo bottles as one more aspect of the Vermilion River's unique personality.
He said he'll keep the bottles at the office so that the unique practice can be studied and appreciated -- despite the nagging feeling that maybe the bottles are better left undisturbed, like King Tut's Tomb.
"It makes you suspicious" anytime something strange happens at work, LaHaye said. "Maybe it's more than coincidence."

15 November 2009

purging fears

i am happy I got to share a great cleansing ritual today with a group of people i consider my folk, my peeps, my ohana, my clan, my kin, my cousins... i think i scared myself though when i sang a song that i've never had any inclination to sing outside of blood and outside myself! ha ha ha! as a person raised in a church ( against my own will, of course ) i've always had a love/hate relationship with the church construct.  (pictured, purging our fears in the backyard)
i come from folks (american blacks,caribbean blacks & mvskoke creek) who have : gone to "church" in the woods and/or given their lives up to the idea of jesus as the great white hope and the ideals of a judeo-christian ideal and/or gone to ritual on saturday & church on sunday. it's not that i don't like church, per se, i love old-time, backwoods church i do. i especially love the singing. it takes me to a most safe and serene place. that's where the comfort is.

when you sing, they all come. they are your folks. your ancestors. the ones who make you who you are. some are long gone from this world and some are right with you. every step of the way. that's why i sang the song i did.

i hope that my kin here, in this present, find that comfort,joy,solace,happiness,gratitude,understanding & patiencePLACE. together we can. i know we can. coming home from this circle i felt a little bit of peace. i hope that my kin take care of themselves and their loved ones approaching the holiday season and remember that better environment makes better people
ashe' & a'ho


13 November 2009

In the land of DIXIE




Tuskegee, Alabama. Confederate soldier on the square. I always hated this statute. But it reminds me of the place....click the photo and read why

11 November 2009

halloween abuse violation #6


it's a week or two since halloween and folks still, unabashedly prop up
discarded bounty on their front porches. now they are moving into
thanksgiving decor. i don't even wanna start with that holiday... not
today. maybe next week! folks can abuse thanksgiving all they want. i
really don't care for it in they way it's romanticized and perpetuated
in concept. but, i like hanging out with my family,cause we're crazy
and yea, who doesn't like to eat?
Sent from my iPhone

i just looked back in my archived posts.... this is vegetable abuse at halloween must really burn me up, check out my nov 2006 post ...wtf


tis the season of anger :
me in 2007: who came here first
me in 2006 : first thanksgiving

09 November 2009

Circle of love - Spellcards

(Front-side of card ) 


                                                (An excerpt from a circle of love spell in Gold-bug font)

                                               (An excerpt from  lovers dream  spell in Fancy script )
 
the circle of love  spell comes in a beautiful gold script fontyellow/gold is associated with the orisha oshun who is in charge of the realm of love, beauty and attraction.

you can use these cards in many ways. Keep them ANYWHERE you need, on your altar, at work or home. Recite, mediate on them or just carry'em. Give them to friends or family members anyone you would like to attract love to. each card is 55mmx84mm ( European Business Card size ) made from a thick, high quality 350gsm card with a matte laminate finish. this is slightly larger (in height) than an American business card. 
Followers: 
If you'd like a sample email me your address (djondelius@yahoo.com). 
I'll be glad to mail you a couple. 

All cards will be listed on our etsy shop as soon as possible

An Everyday Anytime Good Luck - Spellcards

                                                                                         ( Front-side of card )

                                                         


                               (An excerpt from an everyday anytime good luck spell in Fancy script)

                          (An excerpt from an everyday anytime good luck spell in Gold-bug script )
 
an everyday anytime good luck spell comes in a beautiful pink script font.  pink is associated with the vodoun lwa ezili freda who for some represent good luck and success (as well as love).

you can use these cards in many ways. Keep them ANYWHERE you need, on your altar, at work or home. Recite, mediate on them or just carry'em. Give them to friends or family members anyone you would like to bless with good luck. each card is 55mmx84mm ( European Business Card size ) made from a thick, high quality 350gsm card with a matte laminate finish. this is slightly larger (in height) than an American business card. 

Followers: 
If you'd like a sample email me your address (djondelius@yahoo.com). 
I'll be glad to mail you a couple.

05 November 2009

new items for sale - spellcards

so this idea has been circling my brain for a while now and i just got my prototypes the other day. i like the idea of making everyday magic , not just the once in a while kind. i had an idea that i could distribute my our personal spells for anyone to use, as well as create some really cute merchandise! the power the words ( coupled with the voice ) is paramount in the realm of spellwork but who has the right words, all the time?  
enter : spellcards
 (pictured above is the everyday anytime good luck spell )
 
each card lists a different color scheme according it's spell type and are rhyming spells. at present i have four different spell types being printed. i will list the rest as they become available.

the everyday anytime good luck spell comes in a beautiful pink script font.  pink is associated with the vodoun lwa ezili freda who for some represent good luck and success (as well as love).

you can use these cards in many ways. Keep them ANYWHERE you need, on your altar, at work or home. Recite, mediate on them or just carry'em. Give them to friends or family members anyone you would like to bless with good luck. each card is 55mmx84mm ( European Business Card size ) made from a thick, high quality 350gsm card with a matte laminate finish. this is slightly larger (in height) than an American business card. 


02 November 2009

creek medicinal plants

The Creek Confederacy ( Guale, Yamasee, Hitchiti,
Tamathli, Oconee, Apalachicolo, Ocmulgee, Yuchi, Chiaha ) were driven from their ancestral lands, which included Alabama & Georgia, starting in the early 1820's. Not all of them went willing.
There are many pockets of Native communities all over the South. For those that left, know you can come back. The knowledge is still here!
Listed are the major medicinal plants used in Creek Medicine.



   tolee  (sweet bay)     ( picture courtesy : mgonline.com

   achina  (cedar leaves)  (picture courtesy: beccafromportland)
                        


   kapapaska (redberry shrub)   (picture courtesy: shaney 442's photostream )



   tchul'issa (pine needles)  (picture courtesy : Urban Science Adventures


   atak'la lasti ( blackberry shrub )  ( picture courtesy : Theodor Reimers )


   koha lowagi  ( switch cane ) ( photo courtesy :   jerryoldnettel's photostream )


   okchanatchku ( a moss grown on rocks ) ( picture courtesy : A Storybook Life )

   tchufi masi ( sugar cane ) (picture courtesy:  WGCU  )

miko huyani'cha
cati hiliswa  ( red medicine )
chufi insakka afaga ( a vine sorta like the strawberry plant.  means rabbit-basket-string )
hiliswa hatkee ( ginseng )
tutka chokishi ( moss species )
wilanv ( yellow water, jerusalem oak )
passv ( a mixture of herbs used at Green Corn )

01 November 2009

Why I hate being sick

OK, other than the runny nose, fatigue and sinus headaches that come every year with the winter, i really hate that it takes me forEVER to get my self together enough to remember, consult my dad and come up with the home remedy that works for me. I'm a water child, so I like any remedy having to do with water. If I can drink it away WOOHOO. If I can bathe it away WOOHOO. Tea & a Bath. That's me! I just prepared a sinus-go-away bath maybe you'd like to try:

A handful of Sea Salt
20 drops of Peppermint Essential Oil
A handful of Spearmint Leaves
A dash of Spearmint infused alcohol
Cheesecloth

Draw a HOT bath. ( by the time you're done it'll have cooled down)
Crush the sea salt ( mortar & pestle is the best method OR use your hands ), add 20 drops of peppermint essential oil & spearmint. Mix until dry. Add a dash of the alcohol and pour out into cheesecloth. Wrap and tie. Place in tub. Let soak for ten minutes before entering tub.
Hang out and enjoy the smells.

now to my tub...

post tub script:
when you're just about done in the tub, take the bath mixture and use it as a compress. apply directly to the forehead & temples. headache. gone! well, mine is!

for all mine that are gone


my family altar, list of ancestors, dia de los muertos 2009.