Syrup

 

I just love retro packaging.

People used to use the syrup from preserved fruit.

 I do the same, both with fruit I've canned myself, and canned fruit.

Guys, it's time to break free from the honey jar madness. Honey jars are not some traditional, ultra-powerful trick that's been used for over 100 years... they're something made-up by a marketer a few years ago which have exploded in their popularity. When the honey jar work was first posted, people were only really using them for love, reconciliation, family, in-laws. Now I see them being used for every single thing, even domination and success in school work. Some people don't even want to learn anything else!

Honey is slow-running and comparatively expensive. 100+ years ago, it was even more expensive, most all of the people practicing conjure could not afford it. My great grandmother and a few other farmers in my family kept apiaries, so I do have a certain fondness for honey, but honey was never used so wastefully as it is in a honey jar. You don't need a whole jar of the stuff to sweeten people! Honey is really not appropriate for many long-term goals. Since honey runs slow and gets thicker over time and in the cold months, it holds things and makes them stick. If you try doing a honey jar for riches, you aren't going to grow your wealth exponentially. You'll really just sweeten money to you for a bit and then hold what you have.

One of the sites with instructions for creating honey jars lists a few different sweeteners that can me used, and on this list they've put molasses. When I first read that, let me tell you my mouth fell open and I actually said "Nooooo!" out loud. Molasses can be used to curse, it is the worst possible choice for this type of work.

I was taught to work with sugar and syrup. I roll candles in sugar all the time. In fact, I have a post on sugar coming up where I'll talk about a little trick only I use. Mama Starr at Old Style Conjure was the first to put the truth out there about sweeteners, she's got a great article on her site you should read.

Syrup is awesome to use. It's sweet, viscous, and cheap. It doesn't matter whether it's real maple syrup or just flavored corn syrup, it's all sweet. Many people also used the syrup from fruit they had preserved. Canned fruit in syrup is really cheap, you can use the syrup strained off of that as well.

I like to drizzle a little on a candle and then roll the candle in herbs, then drizzle a little more around the candle on the plate. When doing jobs that utilize fruits or red onions as containers, you can add syrup to give them extra sweetness. You can stand a taper up in a small bowl or teacup of sweetened condensed milk and syrup. There's just so much you can do with it.

If you don't normally keep canned fruit around and you want an "excuse" to strain off some fruit syrup, here's my recipe for ambrosia salad. Drain the syrup well.

Dr. Trixie's Ambrosia Salad

-2 cans of mandarin oranges
-1 can of pineapple chunks
-1 jar of maraschino cherries
-Shredded coconut. Most people use dried or toasted, but I try to use fresh.
-Only a dollop of sour cream if you must add it. And never yogurt!
-Splash of Grand Marnier. This is my secret ingredient: people rave!

Easier than easy. Just combine everything in a large bowl and stir together. One of the most delicious parts of Christmas time!

It also always reminds me of one of my favorite Christmas movies:

 

"I noticed that you have not tasted any of the ambrosia salad I made especially for you."

I also found a great recipe online for true, old-fashioned violet syrup. (I love violet candy.) This would be amazing for love and reconciliation work. It's simple to make, too! This recipe can be adapted to make other edible flower syrups, such as rose and lavender.

Tragedy! (Edit: Now With Audio Aid)

Today we mourn the loss of my beloved, authentic van van oil. I have no idea how the bottle got this strange hole in it :( Just this morning I had an idea to dilute it to stretch it out a bit until I could buy some verbena and the other herbs and oils needed to make my own. This was purchased from a spiritual shop which is no longer in business, so I can't get another. The smell was just transcendent, I will be devastated if I can never match it.

There's something I'd like to educate everyone about. Ok, Van Van is so named because the Creole pronunciation of vervain (verbena) sounds like "veah vahn"†, and this was eventually corrupted into "van van". Some people know this, some don't. It baffles me why the people who know this don't put vervain into their formulas... it's the name of the damn oil! Even the people who fancy themselves grand high masters of hoodoo (yeah, el oh el) leave it out.

Now, some forward-thinking merchants have realised that you can't have Van Van without the van van, and have attempted to fix this. The problem is, every. single. one of them, that I've seen, uses lemon verbena. Lemon verbena is a completely different plant. I guess I can see the logic, if the formula has lemongrass, it must also call for lemon verbena. Lemon verbena was also very popular in turn of the century perfumery. However, it was expensive and rootworkers weren't working with perfume compounds, they were working with mostly wildcrafted and culinary plants.

Lemon verbena wipes your slate clean and sweetly attracts new things to you, especially in matters of love. Bees and butterflies absolutely love this plant! There is a lot of misinformation about lemon verbena going around, with people thinking it's a crossing herb due to a certain person with a big following misinterpreting the mechanics of a break-up job. But I guess that's what happens when you shamelessly plagiarize and try to pass yourself off as a real conjure worker. (Oh, I should stop.) Anyway, lemon verbena is best used situationally. Some things just cleanse so strongly that they pull everything off.

Verbena, on the other hand, has quite a long history of magical and spiritual use. There's the famous True Love Powder*. It was said to have been used to dress Jesus' wounds. It has been used to protect against vampires, witches, ghosts, and other evil creatures. It's mainly used for love-drawing and protection from evil and jinxing. Unlike lemon verbena, verbena is great to use on a continuous basis.

 A good Van Van recipe should look like this (sorry, I never measure, but remember that ingredients are always listed in order of quantity, greatest to least)
-Verbena
-Lemongrass
-Citronella grass (NOT the leafy plant sold as "citronella")
-Palmarosa
-Vetivert

You can use only herbs, but it's difficult to find citronella grass and even more difficult to find palmarosa. At least incorporate as many herbs as you can. You can get everything you need very cheaply from PennHerb and Edens Garden. I have not found undiluted essential oils at a better price than Edens Garden, I'm starting to build up a nice little collection. The Biblical Set (Frankincense, Myrrh, Spikenard) is wonderful, and a great money-saver to boot.

 †Edited to add: I remembered that Google Translate has a text to speech feature, so I checked to see if Louisiana Creole was on its language list. Sadly, no, but the word's pronunciation in Haitian Creole is nearly identical, give it a listen. LA Creole just has an almost inaudible "r".

*Earliest mention I remember seeing of the verbena-mistletoe-elecampane formula is H. U. Lampe's "Famous Voodoo Rituals & Spells", copyright 1974. MANY authors have plagiarized this great little book since its printing, including the certain person I mentioned above. ;)

White Florals

From top to bottom: Osmanthus, gardenia, orange blossom, jasmine, magnolia, white rose, tuberose.

"White floral", especially in the perfume industry, refers specifically to heavily perfumed white flowers. While they each have specialized uses, as a group they have a lot in common. While florals are associated with love, purity, fidelity, attraction, and marriage. Because of their purity, they can be added to any type of cleansing/uncrossing bath or oil.

Osmanthus- Because of it's fruity apricot tones, and the fact that it grows on an evergreen, I like to incorporate it in marriage and fertility works. Remember: fertility doesn't just mean physical female fertility, it can mean monetary fertility and, in this case, emotional fertility.

Gardenia- Ugh, I really need to plant myself some gardenia this spring! Gardenia is great for peace and bonding.

Orange blossom- The marriage flower. Because of it's associations with purity, it is used in wedding ceremonies to represent chastity and fidelity. Use for marriage, fidelity, and faithful love.

Jasmine- I've written about jasmine before. It's seductive, but not raunchy... though you can certainly make it very naughty just by combining it with a few things ;) It is also used for psychic work.

Magnolia- Magnolia in general is used for fidelity, and the blossoms are great for keeping the love strong even during hard times.

White Rose- The purest of pure. Because roses have thorns, which repel evil, white rose is an ingredient in many uncrossing formulas. White roses are also protective and they represent pure love.

Tuberose- Velvety and sensual, tuberose draws attention in a physical way, you know where you suddenly just really want to touch someone's arm or brush their hair back. Great for when you want physical affection.


If you are a fan of white florals, I cannot recommend enough one of my favorite perfumes of all time, Fracas by Robert Piguet

EDIT: Fracas has a bit of a cult following and it's been worn by many awesome ladies. Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Edie Sedgewick, Courtney Love, Madonna, Sophia Coppola, Dita Von Teese, and Iman are just the ones I can name off the top of my head!

I'm not sure how many newcomers know this, but you can work with your personal perfumes/colognes, you're not limited to Hoyt's/Florida Water/Jockey Club/whatever. You can pray over them for whatever it is you wish for them to do (look for ingredients that match up to your intent, of course). You can offer a spray or two of them in a glass of water to spirits. Even better if you can get scents your ancestors wore when they were alive. You can use them to feed hands/"mojos". The only thing I would caution is to look for fragrances made with real essential oils as opposed to synthetics.

Evening Primrose: Mother's Little Helper

Picture from this site.

(Note: Evening primrose is not related to primrose aka cowslip, but interestingly enough they share some of the same uses.)

Few plants are as beneficial to mothers as evening primrose. It feeds families, calms fussy kids, soothes irritated skin, and perks up bone-tired mamas while also providing them relief from breast pain and PMS. It is a quintessential moon plant (Doctrine of Signatures post in the works), good for emotions, women, healing, the home, and family. In the evening, the sweetly scented flowers open and appear to softly glow, which lends to one of it's common names: night candle.

Talk to your doctor before taking evening primrose oil supplements or giving them to kids. Every part of Oenothrea biennis is edible, and it grows abundantly all up and down the east coast of the US. There are over 100 species within the Oenothrea genus, so proper identification is a must when wildcrafting.

Some magical uses:

-Sew into kids' pillows, add to their baths, or rub the oil into their skin to help make bedtime easier. Can be used alone, or with other calming herbs such as chamomile and lavender.

-Evening primrose is able to grow in sand, rock crevices, and even cracked blacktop. It really anchors itself in and is almost impossible to uproot. Use in any works that involve strengthening family ties ("roots"), peace in the home, keeping a husband at home, and house blessings.

-Evening primrose oil can be used as a carrier oil when making condition oils. I like to use some in any formulas that relate to the home (including fidelity) and formulas for women.

Here's a personal oil recipe of mine. I call it "Mama Bear":

-Rosemary, for domain in the home, protection, and Papa Bear's fidelity.

-Fennel, for quick thinking, courage, and protection. To prevent seizing up with fear or panic in case of an emergency. Fennel is also strongly linked to mothers because of its use in stimulating lactation.

-Angelica, for female power, protection of the self and kids, love/marriage ties, and health.

-Evening Primrose Oil as carrier.

-Piece of dried Evening Primrose root.

Use about 1/2-1 teaspoon of each herb, chopped and ground, per 1 oz of oil. It's up to you whether or not you want to add a drop or two of the corresponding essential oils in addition to each herb. I don't.

Pray to Spirit and state your petition. Take your time and really speak from the heart. I like to include Psalm 23 in everything I do, and I also pray for Spirit to empower the spirits of the herbs and roots. As you add the ingredients, address their spirits with your needs, and bless them with the sign of the cross in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Pray any additional Psalms, Biblical passages, or prayers you find meaningful and appropriate.*

Because of the rosemary and angelica, it's best not to wear this on the body if pregnant. Try using it on a doll baby instead. Using it to anoint candles, feed hands, or anything else where you're only using a little bit on your fingers is ok.

*Everyone works differently, this is just the way I was taught. I'm sorry, I am nodding off here (literally) trying to finish this post, I really hope what I'm writing makes sense.