Q: What is [fill in name of oil] used for?
A: I have a page in my ebay store that explains some of them, and many of them have info in the listings. Eventually I will finish writing up the complete list and make it available on my webpage, but I can’t make any promises about when that will happen 🙂 Here’s the list of conditions/formulas. The neat thing about hoodoo condition oils is that they are almost always named for the condition they "treat," so many don’t really need long descriptions. Money Drawing. Get A Job. Crown of Success. Simple and sweet.
Q: Are you aware that [so and so] is [copying your items, has text that mirrors yours closely, has cut and pasted an entire blog entry or page of yours]?
A: I get these emails every once in a while, and I appreciate you guys pointing them out to me. In a lot of cases, I can’t, or won’t bother to, do anything about it. That is often the case with the first two categories. For instance, as far as I know, double action votive candles were not available anywhere online before I made them and started offering them. I could be wrong, but I never saw them anywhere, and the whole reason I started making candles at all is because I wanted double action / reversible action candles that I didn’t have to butt before I burned them (this refers to cutting the tip off and carving a new tip on the other end, as must be done with most commercially available double action candles). I didn’t actually want to start making candles – they’re a pain in the ass, they’re time consuming, I had to tweak all my formulas and experiment to get a candle that would burn right, and they’re messy. If I’d been able to find them online, I would have bought them. I couldn’t find them, so I started making them. And now you can buy them elsewhere. Fine. I can’t copyright that, you know? Same thing with voodoo rosaries, which again, as far as I know, I "invented" (in terms of anything more developed than using a loa’s saint-image medal on a regular rosary). I don’t have much choice but to choose to be flattered that my voodoo rosaries are being mimicked. Guess it means I have good ideas.
The text is a slightly different matter, but again in many cases, just like with candles and formulae, most rootworkers are drawing on a body of traditional lore and formulae – we can do our own wording, but it’s fairly difficult to come up with a description that doesn’t contain some words that others use – there are only so many ways to describe a formula that is used for drawing love, luck, and money, you know? I don’t tend to get too worked up about that. I know some people do, but if it’s not a blatant cut and paste job, I just have more important things to worry about. [one of the places that was mentioned to me by a reader] has in fact very nearly pasted huge chunks of my ebay store info, changing a few words here and there, but presenting info in the same order, in the same tone, and for strings of phrases and even sentences at a time, in the very same words. But it’s not product info; it’s policy info. Must mean I had good ideas about policies. So I don’t really care (as long as people don’t start thinking I copied *them.* But that seller also has a photo up on their site in which they describe something as Adam and Eve root. The thing in the photo is not, in fact, Adam and Eve root. I think people who know what’s what will know I don’t copy text, especially not from people who don’t know what Adam and Eve root looks like.)
Now the third category, blatant cut and paste jobs, I do care about, esp. when they have to do with stuff I actually *wrote* (like, for instance, the bit on the history of chicken feet). I really don’t mind if people link to stuff, or even quote short bits with proper attribution, but the tendency of people on various "info dump" wikis and groups to just copy/paste whatever strikes their fancy – yeah, that annoys me, and when those are pointed out to me I do send "cease and desist" letters. Thanks to US copyright laws, my blog and website text are considered "electronically published," and things that are electronically published ARE under copyright. The thing that really gets me about that is it’s just plain rude and lazy. So I really do appreciate it when you guys point this stuff out to me.
Q: You say you specialize in [whatever] or are particularly good at [whatever]; what are you bad at as a reader/rootworker?
A: I actually think this is a great question, even if it’s kind of abrupt 🙂 I am no good at medical intuitive type stuff at all. I generally do not offer readings that have to do with physical health, a) because I am always worried someone will contravene a medical doctor’s advice to listen to me about their health, which is just insane, and b) I can’t usually offer much anyway. In fact, unless I’m working directly, hands-on, face to face with a person, I may very well do more harm than good. I have been so very very dead wrong on health readings before that I pretty much don’t do them (exceptions would be things like "timeline on my being able to go back to work," or "is there a spiritual component to this illness"). I won’t touch "what is wrong with me, I can’t get a diagnosis from my doc" readings with a ten foot pole.
I’m also not too good with timelines. I did a reading for a friend a few years ago using tarot and astrology, a friend who is also an astrologer, and so I was really careful and really took my time and was really in depth because — well, because I didn’t want to look like an arse. I try to word things carefully in general, like "within three months, give or take [however long]" depending on what method I’m using to arrive at a timeline (and timelines down to the week I can really only get with astrology, not tarot). Anyway, there was a major life event I predicted, and I was fairly confident about my timeframe, even though it was down to the week; the transits were fairly strong and clear and I’d been really thorough.
I was off by three weeks. Fortunately, he knew enough about stuff not to sell his house and join the Peace Corps based solely on the advice of a reading he got, but still. I got a lot more careful about even mentioning timeframes to clients after that. (I no doubt had much worse misses than that previously, but the thing with reading at the kind of places I was mostly reading then is that you don’t often get followup feedback from clients three months or a year down the road). And truth of it is, the kind of readings I’m best at don’t lend themselves to time frame stuff anyway, so it all works out.
As far as rootwork, my talents don’t seem to lie in the area of "love work in a hurry." I seem to do ok with "get things lined up to get my True Love in sight" stuff, and even ok with the rare reconciliation case I take (and I mean rare – I very very rarely take reconciliation cases). But I seem to be better at the "slow and steady" stuff. If you want really quick results on your love work, I’m probably not your best worker. I haven’t done enough distance healing work to get much feedback on that, but I suspect that, like my healing readings, distance healing work is not my strong suit. Hands-on is one thing, and that is a thing that has improved in leaps and bounds over just the past two years due to some particular spiritual paths I’ve taken/focused on, but distance – I would ask somebody else 🙂
Q: Why don’t you have instructions for [fill in the blank] posted on your website?
A: I haven’t had time. I know you guys are sick of hearing me whine about not having time, but for real, I don’t. There are already some pretty good instructions out there, and that is part of why typing instructions has been a low priority for me. It’s not as if they don’t exist. But it’s crappy of me to say that and then not tell you where they are, right? Ok! Here are some memorable bits I’ve seen lately:
If you aren’t reading ‘s blog, you should be. She posts lots of instructions, and they are clear and easy to understand. She puts up tons of great prayers and rituals, and she is much more forthcoming about "here’s a list of herbs to choose from to do your altar work" than many folks are, including me. Did I mention she posts recipes?
Cat’s Rants also has tons of recipes and spells, and often photographs too. Follow the tags!
And I’ve been meaning to post this — no clue how to tie a mojo bag? Mike Rock will learn ya. (warning: youtube link) Please note: this is not "the one true way to tie a mojo bag." This is ONE way to tie a mojo bag. There are others. I don’t tie my mojos like this, but this is a valid way to do it.
Finally, I don’t go to Dr. Kioni’s site as much since my very old, tired desktop can’t handle the graphics/media/whatever he has going on, and I can’t link to specific pages because of his frame setup, but it’s worth a visit if your machine can handle it. He has a kick ass Defense and Protection spell that I can highly and personally recommend, having used it myself.
ETA: as of Aug 2011, Dr. Kioni’s site has been updated and is much easier on older computers like mine. Here’s a link to a Defense and Protection spell. Or maybe it hasn’t been updated and I’ve just found an older version – but anyway, that links directly to the spell.
And obviously your search for knowledge should always include a trip to the Lucky Mojo archives.
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Keep the questions coming – I don’t mind! I just usually have to save them up for a while ’til I get a long enough stretch of time to be able to answer a few at a time. Also, if you’re new to my blog, please note that I get a ton of emails every day. If your question is urgent, you should book a consultation. Otherwise, I get to the "list of things to address on my blog when I have a chance," well, when I have a chance.
Big Lucky Hoodoo 