current coupon codes: Oct 9-15 + giveaway / prize drawing

So this is the home stretch, or the last gasp, or however you want to see it. I’m not as caught up as I’d like to be (as if there’s such a thing as degrees – I mean, you’re behind or you aren’t!), but I’m still working, and I’m still struggling to scrape together the funds needed to get everything made and shipped. And of course the fun continues on other fronts (the household has a vehicle in the shop — again — for instance).

So I should have another box of packages going out today or tomorrow, but there is still a whole ‘nother big bin full that needs shipping, so this is another sale, good from now until my self-imposed deadline of Oct. 15 (see earlier posts for more info).

I will probably be going through the site and pulling down items that I probably won’t be able to afford to restock the supplies for until I am out of the crunch, like soap and candles, so if you had your eye on anything like that, don’t wait too long. (I *needed* to do this way before now, only it’s a question of time – there’s a limited amount of that and the time is generally consumed wholly by the Quest To Get Caught Up rather than the Sorely Needed Maintenance and Application of Common Sense Measures That Might Help.)

And I really do think I’ll get some finished shrines put up today or tomorrow too – let’s hope. I have some previews of some related stuff in the previous post and below.

Prize / Drawing / Giveaway

And every order that comes in between today (Oct. 9) and midnight on the 15th of Oct. will be eligible for a drawing to win one of these handmade sacramentals / altar items / talismans / whatever you want to call them, created for the saint, spirit, or loa of your choice and consecrated to that spirit or saint for you in your name. I will draw randomly from all eligible entries after the deadline on the 15th and I’ll give away at least two of these – whether I do more will largely depend on whether I will be closing the shop for a while or not on that date.

You can see an example of a fairly simple one that I made for a friend/client last week, and another, larger and more complex, piece in progress in the previous post. I suppose you could call these Karma-Zain-style detentes or badges or even package amulets in some cases. Generally these are double-sided, involve at least some sewing, and have cords or tabs for hanging or pinning. They usually range in size from palm-sized to desktop-sized, but we can talk about what you prefer if you are a winner, and about what in the world you might call these things if you care. But if you win, you can call them yours!

I haven’t quite finished any others because I’m focusing on getting orders made up and packaged still. But in the photo below you can see a collection of in-progress pieces I gathered to give you a taste of what will hopefully be done this weekend. The sequined piece on a white square background would be my largest and most elaborate “badge” / detente to date when finished, though most are more along the lines of the Ghuede / St. Gerard piece posted previously – the sequined one involves more detailed sewing than I really have time for right now, so there won’t be anything else quite like it ’til I catch my breath, I’m afraid.

You don’t have to do anything special – just place an order. That will function as one entry into the drawing/giveaway. Two orders = two entries. And *every single order, no matter the order total, will have an available coupon code* – there is no minimum amount required to take a percentage off, though as usual lately, the more you spend the more you can save.

Current Coupons (through Oct. 15):

Use code ides15 to take 15% off any order at all, regardless of cart total.
Use code ides20 to take 20% off orders over $25 (before discount, excluding shipping).
Use code ides25 to take 25% off orders over $60 (before discount, excluding shipping).
Use code ides30 to take 30% off orders over $100 (before discount, excluding shipping).
Use code ides35 to take 35% off orders over $160 (before discount, excluding shipping).
Use code ides40 to take 40% off orders over $250 (before discount, excluding shipping).

All good through midnight Oct. 15.

For instructions on using coupon codes, see the applicable heading in the FAQ.

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Read the latest status updates, including matters affecting shipping, communication, etc. here.

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current coupon code: Sep 26-30

Still hustling to get some packages out and trying to fit in finishing some new pieces (mostly shrines and altar bottles, particularly some seasonal Day of the Dead, Ghuede, Les Barons, vodoun, Santisima Muerte, and Halloween stuff), but taking a moment to post a new coupon code (since every cent that comes in is immediately consumed by competing demands – labels to be paid for and printed and refunds to be processed – I am continuing to juggle all this as best I can and keep income coming in so I can keep packages going out).

Use code FALL20 at checkout to get 20% off any order totaling $50 or more (before shipping), good now through midnight on the 30th.

For instructions on using coupon codes, see the applicable heading in the FAQ.

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status update + current coupon codes/sales + giveaways/freebies

Order Backlog:

I got one huge Tupperware box of packages safely in the hands of the postal pickup lady last week, and I am working on the next. Operation Backlog Deadline is moving forward, and if it’s not moving forward as fast as I’d like (guess whose car went *back* to the mechanic last week, after dying on the way to a job site, meaning I didn’t get to the job and didn’t get a paycheck for it???), I do have to say that at least a couple of handfuls of folks will finally get their packages this week, along with some freebies by way of apology and a letter from me (longish, but don’t just toss it unless you’re totally done with me, because somewhere in there or on a card in the box there is likely a coupon code just for folks whose packages ended up in shipping limbo for a while).

I am running low on some herbs, butters, and oils I need to make some stuff for orders already in-house and need to order those this week, so I was absolutely right that I didn’t have enough squirrelled away from my out-of-the-house jobs to get everything made and shipped in one fell swoop, as they say. (And besides the damned car breaking down again, just a few months after it needed a new transmission — and before I got the personal family loan for that mechanical work paid off! — I have quite a few nasty chunks of expense I can’t avoid or delay any longer, such as getting myself, the offspring, and the dog to their respective doctors and dentists and such, retaining an attorney and an accountant to deal with some serious unpleasantness with a creditor and with the government, and dealing with some insurance and doctor billing stuff that got messed up a while back and that needs money applied to it to fix.) But I am whittling away at the backlog, and as funds trickle in to the Paypal account, which is blessedly no longer in the negative, I am continuing to print shipping labels. Everyone *will* get their stuff as soon as I can get it to them, and I am happy to say things are going at least a *little* more quickly now than they were.

Email Backlog:

I haven’t made any real headway there beyond scanning quickly for new stuff or fires that need putting out, or going in to search for a specific message. I am prioritizing getting these orders out, but I’m trying to get some help on the continual challenge of sorting through, labeling, filing, etc. iwith the inbox so I know what’s what and what needs what action instead of just dipping randomly into an undifferentiated mass of messages (and there are *hundreds* of them, many hundreds of them). This will take time.

Reports and Services:

See above and previous messages for why I am prioritizing tangible items over services. These are the next order of business after the orders are caught up, and some refunds will be involved, which will be another messy element affecting the speed of order processing and shipment. But I do still plan on offering free phone sessions to folks who still want the session and who have been waiting longer than their original estimated turnaround (which is pretty much everybody now). I will discuss teh details separately once I can actually start scheduling things.

Current Sale (through Sun, Sep 20):

Everything in this BOGO collection/category is “Buy One Get One Free.” You don’t need to do anything special – when I see an eligible item in your order, I’ll add the second item along with the first as I prepare your stuff. You do NOT need to leave a note to tell me which items are eligible — I already know that — and you don’t need to add the second item yourself; if you are buying one 2-dram bottle of Attraction oil, add that to your cart. I will make and send TWO 2-dram bottles of Attraction oil if your order is placed while the sale is active. If you put two bottles of Attraction oil in your cart, the system will not discount the second bottle; you’ll just get a grand total of FOUR bottles when you get your package and you will have paid for two of them.

Basically, anything appearing in this collection — that’s all regular condition oils, powders, and bath/floorwash crystals, excluding specialty and custom-made items — is BOGO Free, so if you order one, you get two in your package. If your order also contains items that aren’t eligible, you still don’t need to do anything – I know which are and aren’t eligible, so I’ll add the extra freebies and skip the stuff that isn’t eligible for a second item/bottle/package free.

Because there is no coupon code you have to use to take advantage of this offer, you can still use other available coupon codes with your order as well, so you can pile on the savings with this one.

Offer applies to orders placed between 12 am Sunday, Sep. 13 through midnight Sunday, Sep. 20.

Current Prize Drawing/Giveaway (open through Oct. 1):

My daughter agreed to sew another couple of treats for me to give away to two of you guys, whichever two are the winners of the random drawing that I’ll hold after October 1. You don’t have to do anything separate – any order placed between now (Sep 13) and midnight on 1 Oct will be automatically entered to win. Given the backlog, it’s possible that larger and/or custom orders will not be ready to ship until I’ve drawn the winners anyway, in which case I’d send the custom-finished prize with your order, but if you are identified as a winner after your order has shipped, I’ll just send it along separately later.

I’ll post more about this later, but I will have two mojo plushies (read more about them and about how this works in this post) to give away to winners. I have one small evil eye plushie as well (more info here), and the first prize winner can choose the plushie or the evil eye if s/he prefers that. If s/he wants the plushie, then the second prize winner will also have the same choice.

Current Coupons (through Sun, Sep 20):

Use code SEP15 to take 15% off orders over $30 (before discount, excluding shipping). Use code SEP35 to take 35% off orders over $80 (before discount, excluding shipping). Both good through midnight Sunday, Sep. 20.

For instructions on using coupon codes, see the applicable heading in the FAQ.

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current coupon codes / sales: Sep 4-12

As I mentioned in the previous post, I’ve given myself a deadline for getting caught up with everything. Part of getting caught up is finding the funds to fill and ship every order that is currently in-house, which includes a jumbo-sized Tupperware bin full of packages that are ready to go except for their labels, along with a fairly hefty stack of orders that will be packaged up as soon as the bin is empty.

I am about to ship some of these, but I doubt I have the funds to send them all off, and I know I don’t have the funds to fill and ship every order that is in here, so this is another one of those sales designed to turn some of this stuff — these supplies and materials and jewelry and such that I have around — into cash so I can ship everything sooner rather than later. That means deep discounts for you, because I am operating under the “a bird in the hand” principle: it really doesn’t *matter* anymore “what things are worth” or how much time/money I have invested in them already, because the *only* thing that matters is fulfilling my obligations to my customers and clients.

So I need to turn stuff into money, period, spending any incoming funds on shipping beyond the minimum expense required to fill orders (I need more patchouli, for instance, to fill current orders, and will probably need plastic bottles too – stuff like that.)

I will be running some kind of special or another between now and October 15, which is the deadline I’ve given myself to get caught up. I will try to update more as things go, and there will be various coupon/sale options as I get things sorted out, including some more giveaways. And, if I can get some other bottles and boxes finished, I’ll be adding some stuff as well.

For now, though, here’s what I’ve got, which is all good through Sep 12 at midnight Central time. You can use the following coupon codes at checkout, good for any item or service in any store category/collection at all (though I don’t recommend you try to book or order anything urgent, obviously).

Current Coupon Codes:

code sep40 to get 40% off any order totalling $80 or more (before discount, excluding shipping).
code sep30 to get 30% off any order totalling $50 or more (before discount, excluding shipping).
code sep20 to get 20% off any order totalling $20 or more (before discount, excluding shipping).

For instructions on using coupon codes, see the applicable heading in the FAQ.

***

status update + current coupon codes + drawing for multiple giveaways/freebies

*DOMAIN/NAVIGATION ISSUES: There’s still some sort of hiccup going on with some users navigating to the Karma Zain Spiritual Supplies site using Chrome. The hiccups do not appear to be affecting Firefox for reasons as yet unclear to me. I thought this was resolved after my last post mentioning it, but it apparently isn’t, and fixing it is on a long, long list of things I need to have done yesterday, but it’s had to take a backseat to getting these damned orders out and getting through the email inbox (more on this below). Anyway, my domain karmazain.com has NOT expired – it’s registered through 2017. This probably has something to do with a change that Shopify made to how their domain forwarding/pointing works, and I’m still investigating, but in some cases users have arrived at a page that looks like my domain name is up for sale or something, and lately users are just getting a “can’t resolve server” error, whether they enter karmazain.com or http://www.karmazain.com. Things are fine in Firefox though – it forwards you to the actual shop URL http://karma-zain-spiritual-supplies.myshopify.com like it’s supposed to. I will figure it out at some point. Meanwhile, if you have the site bookmarked and are getting a blank page or error in Chrome, try Firefox and accept my apologies 😦 You can always navigate directly to the Shopify location of the store, too, which again is http://karma-zain-spiritual-supplies.myshopify.com

**If you have not been following my updates here, you should probably read this post first to get up to speed on what’s going on, why shipping is still delayed beyond the usual handling times, and why communication is still backlogged.**

*ORDERS: As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I am in a hell of a Catch-22 with this shop situation. I can’t close the store until I get caught up because chargebacks continue to come in, and in cases where they were credit card payments direct through the shop processor, I am getting screwed with those *regardless* of whether I can prove the item has shipped. As for Paypal disputes, once somebody escalates to a dispute, my only options for response are “I accept liabilty and will refund/have refunded” or “I can provide shipping info.” I can’t answer with “your order will ship as soon as I have funds in the account” or “it’s set to go out next week” or anything else – so basically I hustle and try to get the package out, but I sometimes can’t, and then I just have to accept the reversal/cancellation, even if I’ve already filled a custom-made or custom-finished order and have it sitting in a box waiting on a label.

I talked before about finally having adequate time to spend on/with the shop/altars after two academic years of working 80+ hours a week on teaching-related stuff, but the nasty Catch-22 here is that as long as I’m in the hole with the shop, all the time I put into it is not actually feeding me or my daughter (or my damned dog – more on her in a sec). So I have no choice but to work at another job as well, and I’ve been doing that right at full-time since the semester let out. I’m an independent contractor, in theory using the woodworking skills from growing up the daughter of two furniture craftspeople, but in practice basically doing assorted light construction for a couple of different clients, some of it woodworking but most of it just plain carrying, hammering, measuring, hauling, drilling, painting, and demolishing. It is physical labor, and while I come from strong, healthy peasant stock as I always say, I’m not in my 20s anymore (hell, I’m not in my 30s anymore, either, for that matter), and at the end of the day it’s not as easy as it used to be to start a second shift of being on my feet (really a third, if you count the housekeeping/cooking/taxi-ing/similar unpaid but necessary work involved in being the mother of a dependent teenager and the daughter/granddaughter of folks who need help with things more often these days). So the hours I’d hoped to sink into the shop aren’t quite getting sunk since I have to manage groceries and the power bill while I’m getting caught up. (The pay isn’t all that great at this new gig, either, truth be told – in fact, it’s miserable, but I’m working on remedying that.)

Ideally, my current work would involve more of this, which is a rolling “cart” for beer kegs made out of reclaimed 18th century French colonial wood and glass, made for a customer’s wedding reception (and you wouldn’t believe how heavy those antique doors are!)

But in practice it’s a lot more of this, which is the underside/working end of a bar/restaurant we’re remodeling:

As I’ve also mentioned, I got one final paycheck from my academic job, and I printed hundreds of dollars worth of labels as soon as it hit my account. It wasn’t quite enough to get everything in-house shipped, but it was going to go pretty far, but then – because this is the kind of year I’m having – my 1.5 year old dog ate something she shouldn’t have and had to go to the doggie ER at 2 am (where they charge you $100 just to walk in the door). Some blood panels and IVs later, my dog (whose name is Rocket for reasons that are immediately apparent as soon as you meet her in person) is fine, thank God, but the bottom line is pretty much that my dog ate your shipping label, or to be more precise, my dog’s vet took all my money for your shipping label. (I’m also nearly out of ink, which is another expenditure I have to make before I can get the next batch out.)

But you can’t stay mad at this face:

She’s supervising, that’s it – she has to inspect all the paper in the trash bags before we haul it out of the shipping area 🙂

Then, as I’ve also previously mentioned, there are some ongoing family obligations related to being a member of a very large, close-knit Irish Catholic clan with some of the family elders truly getting on in years. There have been more hospitalizations and more traveling around for these types of things, and of course in the midst of all this my laptop died, mucking up any ability to stay on top of things while on the road, because — yeah — that is the kind of year I’m having.

Though I did get a picture or two of the old family homestead from my mother’s father’s mother’s era: some land outside Bermuda, Alabama where the clan once dwelt, and then a shot of Burnt Corn Creek (you think that one’s colorful – some members of the following generation settled on the banks of a creek called Turkey Branch!)

Anyway, I am steadily prepping and packing orders, but I am still behind, and I am still not flush with the business account. I’ve shipped a lot, but a lot of y’all are still waiting on things you expected before now, and I need to try to get the business account back into the positive again (yes, I had another chargeback this past week). And those of waiting on services are still waiting on me to get caught up with the tangible item stuff before I can dedicate time to those when I can be sure chargebacks aren’t around the corner and I have enough in the bank to feed the hungry mouths around here.

I’m working like a dog, y’all, I promise (though not like my dog, who doesn’t do a whole hell of a lot of anything resembling work), and I have not forgotten anyone or anything. I will make it right, and I am making progress — just not as quickly as I’d have liked.

In good news, I have a new assistant, and let’s keep our fingers crossed about this one, can we? She’s just started training, her name is CK, and y’all be nice to her so I don’t have to lose *yet another one.* I’m going to be nice to her too, which needs to start with paying her on time, so the pressure is on from all sides, for real. But we put in several hours tonight and will put in several more tomorrow, and have the eternal goal of one day seeing the bottom of the inbox in mind.

Current Coupon Codes:

From now until midnight on Tues, July 14 (Central time), use the following coupon codes at checkout, good for any item or service in any store category/collection at all:

code july40 to get 40% off any order totalling $60 or more (before discount, excluding shipping).
code july30 to get 30% off any order totalling $40 or more (before discount, excluding shipping).
code july20 to get 20% off any order totalling $20 or more (before discount, excluding shipping).

For instructions on using coupon codes, see the applicable heading in the FAQ.

I plan to do at least one more sale and one more giveaway/drawing this month, later, too, but I don’t know the details or dates yet. This 40% off digs deep, though, so I’m not likely to repeat that percentage in any sale offerings after this if I can avoid it. So carpe diem and all that.

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Drawing for Free Gift: “Evil Eye Plushie”

In addition, you can enter to win a drawing for a free adorable thing that I don’t have a name for, so I’m going with “evil eye plushie” right now. Just type “evil eye plushie” into the “Notes” box during checkout to enter; you can enter with any order at all placed now through midnight Central time on the 21st of July). More detail below.

As I mentioned before, my daughter definitely inherited the family crafty gene, and some of her creations lend themselves to spiritual ends, and I asked her to make something new and one of a kind for a giveaway/drawing for y’all and she came up with these plushie evil eye charm things.

The one with the beads already attached has already been gifted to a client, but the other two are up for winning – first prize will have first pick and second prize second pick. They are ready to have your custom herbs, curios, petitions, and/or personal concerns added, at which point they can be sewn up and have whatever appropriate/preferred beads, bells, feathers, mirrors, etc. attached before they come off my altars and make their way to the winners.

When she sews her little plushie things and fills them with hypoallergenic pillow stuffing, she leaves a little segment of seam unsewn so that you or I can add appropriate herbs, personal concerns, etc. suitable to your petition/intention. We can talk details via email once the winner is identified, but you could either send me things for inclusion or I can send you instructions for how to do the personalization part yourself.

Whether or not you use the July40/30/20 coupon code, you can enter to win this customized evil eye plushie by simply placing any order at the shop, no matter the amount or product/service type, and typing “evil eye plushie” into the “Notes” box. On the first or second page of the Shopify checkout system, you’ll see a text box that says something like “Notes.” This is the one I’m always telling you NOT to use when you want to give me more info about your order, because what you type won’t print with your order and so I generally won’t see it. (So you should never use it to give me customization info or leave me a note about an order or a question you want an answer to – I will NOT see it if you do this in ordinary cases.)

In this case, though, I have set up a quick and dirty workaround that will flag me when a note exists, so even though the contents of the note will not print, when I see that flag during this sale/offer, I’ll manually go into the system the “back way” for the order processing rather than through the normal workflow, and I will check to see what the “note” field says. If you type “EVIL EYE PLUSHIE” there, then I will manually mark your order printout and, once, all entries are received, it will join those “in the hat” and I’ll draw the winners at random
and contact them for customization details. One order equals one entry.

There will be two winners; each will receive ONE customized evil eye plushie. Please be aware of handling times for customized / custom-finished items per FAQ/TOS.

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Memorial Day Sale ’til Tues night: up to 40% off + drawing for free mojo plushie!

*DOMAIN/NAVIGATION ISSUES: There’s some sort of hiccup going on with some users navigating to the Karma Zain Spiritual Supplies site for reasons as yet unclear to me. My domain karmazain.com has NOT expired – it’s registered through 2017. This probably has something to do with a change that Shopify made to how their domain forwarding/pointing works, and I’m still investigating, but in some cases users have arrived at a page that looks like my domain name is up for sale or something. The registrar may have screwed up, I just don’t know yet. If you have the site bookmarked and are getting a blank page, make sure the address bar contains http://WWW.karmazain.com and not just karmazain.com; you may also need to clear your cache. I am currently investigating this but in the meantime/ if all else fails, you can always navigate directly to the Shopify location of the store, which is actually http://karma-zain-spiritual-supplies.myshopify.com/ – I just have http://www.karmazain.com set to forward to it, and it’s apparently this forwarding where something has gone awry.

*CREDIT CARD CHECKOUT: If the Shopify platform tells you that you can’t use a credit card to make a payment, just choose Paypal as your checkout; you can check out with a credit card through Paypal. Shopify is referring to itself as the payment processor when it says credit card payments cannot be processed, but you don’t have to use their payment processor (even when it’s enabled, which it currently isn’t) – you have a choice.

Current Coupon Codes:

From now until midnight on Tues, May 26 (Central time), use the following coupon codes at checkout, good for any item or service in any store category/collection at all:

code memorial40 to get 40% off any order totalling $60 or more (before discount, excluding shipping).
code memorial30 to get 30% off any order totalling $40 or more (before discount, excluding shipping).
code memorial20 to get 20% off any order totalling $20 or more (before discount, excluding shipping).

For instructions on using coupon codes, see the applicable heading in the FAQ.

*
Drawing for Free Gift: “Mojo Plushie”**

In addition, you can enter to win a drawing for a free adorable thing that I don’t have a name for, so I’m going with “mojo plushie” right now. Just type “plushie drawing” into the “Notes” box during checkout to enter; you can enter with any order at all placed now through the end of May (midnight Central time on the 31st of May). More detail below.

My daughter definitely inherited the family crafty gene, and although she is more interested in physics than rootwork and was already a dyed-in-the-wool cynic by 13 or so, some of her creations lend themselves to spiritual ends, like these cute little plushie… bat things:

She makes these and sells/gifts them, so I can’t guarantee that she still has the specific plushies in the photo anymore, but she has a herd of these already sewn up in a variety of color schemes, so the winner can give me a couple of preferences for colors or color schemes and I will try to meet one of them.

When she sews her little plushie bats and fills them with hypoallergenic pillow stuffing, she leaves a little segment of seam unsewn so that you or I can add appropriate herbs, personal concerns, etc. suitable to your petition/intention. We can talk details via email once the winner is identified, but you could either send me things for inclusion or I can send you instructions for how to do the personalization part yourself.

Your plushie could have protective herbs and a St Michael medal added and be your Safe Travel car mascot. You could add your own personal concerns and/or petition and give him/it to a loved one after a light dusting with appropriate powder or censing with appropriate incense, so you’d stay on your target’s mind or have your target gently swayed to take certain action or be open to certain influence. Add herbs suitable for a loved one who needs some good juju but wouldn’t carry a mojo bag or doesn’t believe in “that stuff,” so you’re giving a subtle gift of spiritual benefit. Or keep for yourself. Your little plushie friend can even be named for and baptized as you or your target as a whimsical, modern take on a voodoo doll or doll-baby/poppet. The possibilities are nearly endless.

Whether or not you use the Memorial Day coupon code, you can enter to win this customized mojo plushie by simply placing any order at the shop, no matter the amount or product/service type, and typing “plushie drawing” into the “Notes” box. On the first or second page of the Shopify checkout system, you’ll see a text box that says something like “Notes.” This is the one I’m always telling you NOT to use when you want to give me more info about your order, because what you type won’t print with your order and so I generally won’t see it. (So you should never use it to give me customization info or leave me a note about an order or a question you want an answer to – I will NOT see it if you do this in ordinary cases.)

In this case, though, I have set up a quick and dirty workaround that will flag me when a note exists, so even though the contents of the note will not print, when I see that flag during this sale/offer, I’ll manually go into the system the “back way” for the order processing rather than through the normal workflow, and I will check to see what the “note” field says. If you type “PLUSHIE DRAWING” there, then I will manually mark your order printout and, once, all entries are received, it will join those “in the hat” and I’ll draw the winner at random and contact him or her for customization details.

Winner will receive ONE customized mojo plushie, not necessarily the one pictured, and I can make no guarantee of a certain color. Please be aware of handling times for customized / custom-finished items per FAQ/TOS.

***

Feast of St. George, Belated Saints Sale, Prize Drawing

Today was the Feast of St. George, and I’m posting late, but I’ve had “post something that isn’t whining or apologizing” on my list of things to do for so long that I’m going to post it anyway.

Dragon Hill is a large mound with the top lopped off, and like the surrounding area that’s home to the Uffington White Horse, there’s natural chalk under the surface of the grass and soil. Steps have been carved into the side of the hill and you can climb up – when I was there, it seemed to be prime kite-flying real estate. It was one of several spiritually significant sites I was determined to visit when I was in England a few years ago, and I think I hiked a total of about 15 miles that one afternoon to get to all of the ones that were accessible from the Ridgeway. But it was worth it.

Legend has it that this is the site where St. George slew the dragon. The dragon’s blood spilled and poisoned the soil so nothing can grow on that scarred patch of white chalk showing in the photo. Like many popular saints, George lived and was martryed during the reign of Diocletian, who had a real thing for killing Christians; lots of martyrs were made during his reign. George was a soldier in Diocletian’s army and was tortured before his death in an effort to get him to renounce Christianity, so medieval iconography sometimes included a wheel of swords. The most popular image of George, though, shows him slaying a dragon. A legend grew around him in the centuries after his death, apparently, in which he killed a dragon threatening a woman (in some versions, a maiden who was being sacrified to it so it would spare a city, and in some versions the wife of Diocletian himself, though of course the dragon is also allegorically held to be Satan and/or a suppressed pagan cult/religion).

Crusaders brought the dragon legend back to England with them from the Middle East and over time there were various versions of it. All good medieval romances have knights battling fierce and even monstrous enemies, so this tale circulated along with those of King Arthur and the giant of St. Michael’s Mount and the various escapades of Lancelot and the like, which is how a hill in medieval England came to be associated with a solider serving in the Roman army in the 4th century.

reproduction of a medieval Byzantine icon of St. George
CC BY-SA 3.0: orlovic

For a long time, St. George was the most popular of the military saints in the English-speaking world. Over time, St. Michael’s popularity eclipsed George’s among the so-called military saints, but he remains a popular saint petitioned by those who need assistance in spiritual or secular warfare or battle. He’s also the patron of Boy Scouts, horseback riders, horses, and farmers, and is petitioned by those with disfiguring diseases such as leprosy, syphilis, and herpes.

Sale covers anything in the Saints sale collection, and I’ve included stuff related to prayer and blessing in general in addition to stuff that is strictly saint-related. In addition, anyone using the sale code during checkout will be entered to win the drawing for a relic of sorts – some dirt taken from Dragon Hill in Uffington and a hand-painted St. George holy medal. I don’t have one photographed already, but you can get the idea of what they look like from the below collection of previously painted medals.

(C) Karma Zain

Current Coupon Codes:

From now through the Feast of St. Catherine of Siena on the 28th, take 20% off anything in the Saints Sale category by using code aprilsaints20 at checkout.

For instructions on using coupon codes, see the applicable heading in the FAQ.

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Beat The Clock Sale – the sooner you act, the more you save!

Current Coupon Codes:

From now until midnight, April 17 (Central time), use code APRILCOUNTDOWN40 to get 40% off any order placed through the shop.
From Apr 18, from 12:01 am until 11:59 pm, code APRILCOUNTDOWN30 gets 30% off.
From Apr 19, from 12:01 am until 11:59 pm, code APRILCOUNTDOWN25 gets 25% off.
From Apr 20, from 12:01 am until 11:59 pm, code APRILCOUNTDOWN20 gets 20% off.

For instructions on using coupon codes, see the applicable heading in the FAQ.

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valentine’s day sale + drawing for prizes + stuff that’s back in stock

Current Coupon Codes:

From now until midnight, Jan 28 (Central time), use code valentineclock30 to get 30% off any item in the Love & Lust collection (includes mojos and customizabel items like container candles and pakets).
From Jan 29 until midnight Feb 4, code valentineclock25 gets 25% off in that category.
From Feb 5 until midnight Feb 14, code valentineclock20 gets 20% off in that category.

All customers checking out using one of these codes will be entered into a drawing for a Valetine’s Day prize, a spell kit or a gift “basket” (in quotes because it may be more like a decorative box or bag). No need to type anything else or add any other codes – I will draw randomly from the orders placed that use the coupons. One order equals one entry, so if you place more than one order, you have more than one entry – just as long as at least one item in your cart comes from the Love & Lust category.

One winner will receive a catfish spur spell kit, including a bottle of ink, instructions, and a real catfish bone “spur” that is used as a quill pen in an old fashioned Gulf Coast style working. It’s a sort of “come to me/love me” type of working, to keep your beloved’s mind on you.

Another winner will receive a “come back/return to me” mojo/paket kit – it’s a mojo-shaped/sized thing, but it’s sealed permanently during its creation, which takes several days and involves multiple steps. You get all the ingredients, including the slightly unusual cloth required for the working, and complete instructions on how to work the spell. It’s suitable if you want somebody to come back, but it’s also suitable even if there was no breakup and you just want somebody to come around me and keep thoughts of home (and of you) in their hearts and minds.

There will be at least one gift box/basket awarded. I will consult with the winner to assemble the types of formulas s/he prefers, and while I can’t guarantee it will contain exactly one half-ounce bottle of whatever and three soaps (it just depends on what formulas the winner prefers), it will include an assortment of stuff that fills up the box or bag and then some. The prize will include a candle of some sort, either fixed commercial or hand-poured, that will obviously be too big for the box, bag, or basket.

The “first prize” winner can choose first. The “second prize” winner can choose next. And the “third prize” winner can choose third. If there are only spell kits left and you don’t want the spell kit, that’s ok, – you can have another gift basket instead if there isn’t anybody special in your life just yet. You don’t have to take a kit you can’t use, in other words. But i thought I’d offer a chance to win some one of a kind or custom-made things that you can’t purchase as regular inventory in honor of Valentines’ Day.

Back in Stock:

Three Kings formulas (with the 2015 batch)
Black Cat Bones (leg bones, can be fixed and “stuffed”)
Oakmoss & Bergamot soap

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sale on Uncrossing and Protection items + free gift with order

It’s a new year, and January is the traditional time to deep-clean the home, temple space, and self, refresh those altars and lodestones, and generally get the gunk out. Now through midnight on January 14th, get 20% off any item appearing in the January Spiritual Cleansing Sale category, which includes anything in the shop tagged with uncrossing, protection, blessing, and spiritual cleansing. Use coupon code januncross at checkout. (If you want something that you think should be included in the sale and it isn’t showing up, it’s possible that I made a mistake with the tagging system that underlies the category system, so just write and I’ll try to fix it.)

See my archived blog post explaining Uncrossing, Trick Killing, Jinx Breaking, and Related Formulas.

In addition, whether or not you use this coupon code, you can get a free gift with any order through January 14th. On the first or second page of the Shopify checkout system, you’ll see a text box that says something like “Notes.” This is the one I’m always telling you NOT to use when you want to give me more info about your order, because it won’t print with your order and I won’t see it. In this case, though, I have a quick and dirty workaround that will flag me when a note appears, so when I see that during this sale/offer, I’ll manually go into the system the “back way” for the order processing rather than through the normal workflow, and I will check to see what the “note” field says and make adjustments to your order manually based on that.

In this note box, type “free gift.” Formatting/caps unimportant because only a human will read this, not a machine. Every order in which “free gift” appears in the order notes will get at least one of the following: a free bottle of Uncrossing oil, “” Jinx Killer, “” St. Benedict, “” St. Michael; an Uncrossing votive candle; Uncrossing or Spiritual Cleansing bath crystals; one of my uncrossing or cleansing soap formulas. If you want to type your 1st and 2nd choices in the box, I’ll try to meet one of them at least (though no promises – depends in part on demand and on what else is in your box and what will fit in the remaining space).

But some orders that take advantage of this offer will get a little something extra. Instead of making it the first three or five or whatever orders, I’m going to take all the orders at the end of the sale period and do a random drawing from among them. There will be three special gifts or “prizes.” 1st “prize” winner chooses first, 2nd chooses next, and 3rd gets what wasn’t already chosen. Winners choose from the following:

A set of two St. Michael or St. Benedict pakets or scapulars, fixed and dressed, for you to hang at the two main entrances of your home. These are a little like mojo bags but are generally permanently closed as part of their prep/fixing instead of coming in a drawstring bag. The size can vary from something you could wear around your neck to something you might keep on a shelf. We will discuss your color and detail preferences when I notify you of your prize.

One of my hand-poured, custom-blended container candles (medium size, burns about 40 hours). You can choose the formula – Uncrossing, or a saint, or even a custom candle made to stand in for you in candle burning work on your altars by incorporating the ingredients associated with your birth chart/horoscope info. We’ll discuss the details when I notify you of your prize.

A “gift basket” sampler of related products from the Uncrossing and Protection families, which might include but is not limited to bath crystals, bar soaps, liquid soaps and washes, powders, incense, oils, and candles.

Each order counts as one “entry,” so if you place more than one order, it’s conceivable you might win more than one prize.