Rachel Ann (EisHexe)'s Posts - RealPagan- Paganism for the Real World

Crown of Success & Saint Expedite Ritual

2011-05-26T17:55:48.000Z

My brother had a job interview today to land a very nice Flash Programming/Web Cartoon job that comes with a $1,000 sign up check. I wanted him to succeed. Very, very badly, not only because he is my younger brother and I love him to death and want him to succeed and be happy, but because once he gets settled in there is an opening on an upcoming project and I would be 'in like sin' so to speak.

So, what do I do to offer my brother support and look after my own interests at the same time? Well, duh. I make a Crown of Success vigil candle, of course!

I used a plain, yellow glass-enclosed candle and smeared the top of it with my homemade Crown of Success Oil which includes the following ingredients:

Orris
Frankincense
Vetivert
White Sandalwood
Pyrite crumbles that I made by sticking a pyrite chunk in a sock and whacking with a hammer

Then I sprinkled the top of the candle with a mixture of:

Bay Leaves

Five-Finger Grass

Woodruff

Solomon's Seal Root

Peony Root

High John chip

I laid down a quincunx of Road Opener sachet powder and anointed my brother's signature paper with a quincunx of Crown of Success oil.

After I got that set up I anointed a little yellow petitioner candle and lighted it.

Next I wrote down my petition to Saint Expedite on a piece of paper, anointed it with St. Expedite oil and folded it towards myself, in half, rotated it 90 degrees clockwise and folded it again, then one last time for three total folds. I got down on my knees and prayed for his intercession, offering him water, pound cake and flowers. I snipped off some fresh Hollyhock flowers and set them in a vase as my initial offering. Traditionally, you don't give him any water or pound cake until he does his work for you. I like that idea: you scratch my back, I give you pound cake...

Anyway. The thing about Saint Expedite is that he can work fast. I mean, REAL fast. My brother's potential employer didn't beat around the bush and offer to call him back the next day, or Monday; no, he told him right on the spot that he was hired. Wow. Now THAT'S some good Mojo! He called me about twenty minutes ago and let me know that he had the job and that I'll get shooed in later on when they start up the next project.

Shazaam! Now I gotta go bake some pound cake, so if you'll excuse me... ;)

13 Herb Bath

2011-05-22T18:00:00.000Z

The 13 Herb bath is lauded for its ability to remove crossed conditions, bad luck and other negative energies and influences that may have attached themselves to you.

The recipe for this celebrated Hoodoo bath blend is nearly impossible to find in books or on the Internet. Unless you know an experienced rootworker or conjureperson, that is. I, unfortunately, do not, so I had to sit myself down and research possible herbal combinations. There are a great deal of herbs in the Hoodoo tradition that are used to remove jinxes and purify the individual, but not all of them are safe to rub all over oneself, nor desirable to bathe in. Asafoetida, anyone?

With the goal in mind to create both an effective cleansing bath, as well as one that would not cause skin irritation or offend the nose, I concocted the following combination:

1. Agrimony - a reversal herb; it both removes a hex and turns it back on the sender.

2. Angelica root - associated with the archangels, (specifically Michael) Angelica has many uses as a protective herb, and is used for uncrossing.

3. Burdock - it cleanses the user of impurities, uncrosses and protects from jinxes.

4. Devil's Shoe Strings -these are used to break any blockages caused by an enemy, and also to protect against crossed conditions.

5. Dill -breaks any jinxes or crosses that have been placed against a person's love affairs.

6. Fern (various) - reversal plant to send any harm done back to its sender.

7. Five Finger Grass -used to ward off evil and clear away crossed conditions. Also good as a spiritual cleanser for a jinxed home.

8. Hyssop - the granddaddy of all spiritually purifying herbs. What would any cleansing formula be without hyssop? This is a jinx killer.

9. Mint (spearmint or peppermint) - not only is mint reputed to break hexes, it also protects your money and keeps away pestering, troubled spirits.

10. Oak bark (preferably white) - general jink remover.

11. Patchouli - turns back any negative spells.

12. Solomon's Seal - used for unjinxing, and protection; likes to work with both mint and balm of gilead buds.

13. Verbena (a.k.a Vervain) - used to cure a person of any unnatural illnesses caused by a trick that has been thrown at them.

To prepare the bath, add equal amounts of the herbs to a pot of boiling water. Steep for 13 minutes. Strain out the herbs and add the liquid to your bath. As you bathe, immerse your head 13 times and recite the 37th Psalm. For maximum results repeat the bath for 13 consecutive days. You can also take the bath water and add it to your mop bucket to cleanse the house of any negative influences or jinxes that may have been laid against the home. Or you could just boil the herbs, strain them and then use that liquid like you would any floor wash, by adding a bit to your mop bucket whenever you clean.

Alright, there we go! A 13 Herb bath that pretty much covers any hex that can be placed upon a person. Any thoughts, comments or suggestions for improvement? Let me know!

Bringin' In the Business

2011-05-15T16:19:10.000Z

Created a client candle for my best friend, Alli. She has an online business that she's nurturing, and we decided to give it a little boost.

I dressed a green chime candle with Attraction Oil (Lucky Mojo) and rolled it in a mixture of freshly crushed cinnamon, Dragon's Blood powder and Five Finger Grass to attract both money and customers. I also smeared a bit of Road Opener powder along the top of the candle, so that it would get melted in when I did the preliminary lighting.

I followed Oakthorne's instructions for crafting a petitioner candle pretty much to the letter, but added a chant of my own as I was prepping the herbs and as I lit the client candle to start the Mojo cooking in. The chant was basically "Customers come on, bring in the money; Money come in, wealth come in; Open the way, bring it home."

Being an incense kind of girl, I burned patchouli throughout the whole process.

Now we'll have to see. ;)

Animal Testing

2011-05-15T15:16:10.000Z

Hey all! This is the final draft of my persuasive speech for a Public Speaking class I took this spring. I hope you find it enlightening, I know that I did. The research alone took me a week, mostly because I had to stop every now and then to cry. It was a very hard speech to research and compose, and I want to share it to get this information out there. I think more people need to know about animal testing and its implications. Bear in mind that it is a persuasive speech, designed in order to get you, the reader/listener to agree with me. Any thoughts or comments? Share with me!

Blessings, Rachel (EisHexe)

Imagine being pulled from your bed and strapped down on a metal table. Clamps around your wrists and ankles hold you securely as you are jabbed with needles, and thermometers. Metal tongs are then applied to both your upper and lower eyelids, forcing your eye to remain open as a noxious chemical is poured directly onto its surface. Imagine the burning pain, the searing agony as the chemical ravages your eye’s membrane, wrecking your optic nerves and eventually blinding you. At the end of a 72 hour period, you’re returned to your cage for a brief respite. The next time, they come for your other eye. You do realize that after it’s gone you won’t be useful anymore, right? Assuming you don’t break your back or neck fighting your restraints, you’ll receive a quick shot of pentobarbital and then it’s into the incinerator with what’s left of you.

This is merely a snapshot of the life of a Draize Test rabbit. These animals are essentially tortured for the purpose of testing mascara, but there are other tests for numerous other consumer products such as lotions, household cleaning supplies, drugs, soaps and shampoos. The most shocking aspect of this whole operation isn’t the millions of animals that are subjected to these tests every year; the most shocking aspect is that animal testing for the purpose of determining the safety of consumer products both produces many unreliable results and is so unnecessary that neither The Consumer Product Safety Commission nor the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) require it.

As a longtime member of both the ASPCA and the Humane Society, as a lifelong friend to animals and advocate of their rights and dignity, and as a conscientious consumer who only purchases products from companies that are cruelty-free, I feel it is not only my duty to the animals to relate these details to you, I feel that it is also my duty as a compassionate human being to inform you of the suffering that animal testing can inflict on people.

Animal testing for consumer products began around eighty years ago, after a large group of women were blinded by the aniline in mascara. Aniline was a hair dye. The Draize test you heard about was developed shortly thereafter in 1944. Another long – running testing procedure is the Lethal Dose test. The purpose of these tests is to measure the potential toxicity of chemical compounds in cosmetics, household supplies or drugs by forcing their ingestion on animals. There are two dose categorizations: The LD 50 which causes the death of 50% of the test group, and the LD 100. Yes, it kills 100% of the group. The cruelty of these tests is unbelievable. The animals tested on suffer seizures, convulsions, muscle cramps and spasms, vomiting, internal hemorrhages and eventual death.

If less than exactly half of the control group dies, another group is procured and the dosage is adjusted. This procedure is performed however many times necessary until it produces both a perfect LD 50 and LD 100. This, in turn, means more suffering and pain for more animals.

Here’s the real kicker: According to biologist Marc Bekoff, these tests are specific only to the conditions they were used in. They can’t be generalized across species. Sometimes, they can’t even be generalized across the genders of one specific species. This means that the Lethal Dose test is not reliable for determining whether or not a chemical compound is safe for human exposure. For example, nicotine is lethal to humans at 0.9mg/kg, but lethal dose values of nicotine in dogs are 9.2mg/kg; and in rats, 53mg/kg.

Let me give you a frightening example of when the lethal dose results don’t live up to their expectations. In the 1960’s, the compound paraquat was introduced as a weed killer. It was subsequently used as a crop duster. Because the LD 50 for rats was 120 mg/kg the companies producing the poisonous compound mixed a formula which contained only 4 mg/kg. That should have made it safe, right? Wrong. Over the course of 12 years, more than 400 people died from paraquat exposure, which has also been linked to the development of Parkinson’s disease.

Here’s another frightening example, did you know that more than 100,000 people die each year from side effects caused by animal tested drugs? According to the FDA, 92% of all drugs found safe and/or effective in animal tests fail during human clinical trials. The biggest reason for this is obvious; animals’ bodies are vastly different from human bodies. Another issue is that the test animals can’t tell anyone when they’re experiencing severe side effects like blurry vision, dizziness or migraine headaches. This is why so many modern drugs have a list of side effects which, for many, makes them more unappealing than suffering through the afflictions they treat.

You’re probably wondering right now what the scientific community’s alternatives are. The answer: Dr. Michael Shuler’s marvel of a microchip which harbors a miniature system that is a synthesis of both human tissue cultures and micro-technology. These systems accurately predict the effects that chemicals have on the human physiology. The chips have tiny trenches carved in them which function like microscopic pipelines: chemical compounds are fed into these imitation veins and pumped through the living tissues. The components on the chips include liver tissue, lung tissue and fat cells. The miniature veins have been carefully crafted so that their lengths, layout and sizes duplicate the blood flow and chemical exposures that actual cells in the human body would experience.

According to Dr. Shuler, a compound test run which would require months of live animal experimentation would only require two to three days using the chip. He also estimates that the cost of producing each chip will only be about $50. Compare that to the thousands of dollars a lab animal requires for its upkeep and it becomes apparent which option makes the most sense: both monetarily and ethically.

Now that you know what the scientific community can do, it’s time to tell you what the consumer population can do to bring an eventual stop to animal testing. You can start off by purchasing cruelty free products. The Leaping Bunny is a non-profit organization which works to raise consumer awareness on animal cruelty and their website, leapingbunny.org, features a free downloadable shopping guide that lists the companies which are 100% cruelty free. By that, I mean that they don’t test on animals at any time during the production process: they don’t test the ingredients and they don’t test the final product. You can also visit livingcrueltyfree.com for a comprehensive shopping list and numerous articles and links which go further into this subject than I am able to right now. Oh yeah, and avoid Proctor and Gamble, they’re the worst… I know that buying cruelty-free doesn’t sound like doing much, but trust me, in this consumer and money-driven society we inhabit, you make your voice heard when you vote with your wallet. Money talks, and its voice is not only loud, it creates one hell of a reverberation.

So, now that you’ve been shown glimpses of this world that, understandably, you would much rather have never seen, what are you going to do about it? It is, of course, my hope that you now have a better understanding of this problem and want to do something to make a difference. To be the voice for countless small creatures who have none. However, even if you don’t feel as strongly about this issue as I do, well, if it makes you think, even for just a second the next time you pick up a bottle of shampoo or household cleaner, wash your hands with a bar of soap or put on your mascara before leaving the house one morning, then I have done my job. I have given you my knowledge. What you choose to do with it is entirely in your hands.

First Petitioner Candle

2011-04-14T02:37:43.000Z

Tonight I made my first petitioner candle on behalf of a classmate's brother. He was severely wounded last week in a motorcycle accident and lies in critical condition in the hospital with a fractured pelvis that continues to fall apart, in spite of surgery.

Today my classmate, whose name will be omitted for privacy, tearfully told me that he was suffering liver failure. This is a very sad situation in itself, but to add to the misery, his wife is expecting her first child any day now: a little boy who might not ever see or be seen by his father.

To do what I could, (besides offer comfort that felt extremely useless and inadequate) I purified myself in the shower when I got home, scrubbing from head to toe before drying off and kneeling in front of my altar. I lit some Mugwort and breathed in the fumes (this aids me in shifting the state of my conscious, and aids me in opening up spiritually/magically) before I took Johnnie Man out of his bag and woke him up, then told him we had serious work to do, and that I needed as much of his mojo as he could spare.

I lit my Master Spirit Candle and Master Healing Candle, praying to Deity that I be given enough strength to make a change. I dressed my smaller blue Petitioner Candle in both Healing Oil and High John Oil, then rolled it through Road Opener Sachet Powder. I have never seen my classmate's brother, so I don't have a face to focus on. Not a good thing in sympathetic magic. I hope the Road Opener kicks those impasses out of the way and lets the trick fly true.

After I had finished dressing the Petitioner Candle, I held it aloft and lit it, this time praying that Deity would allow the unfortunate man to remain among the living with his flesh and blood, but if that is not Their will, that he be allowed to watch his firstborn breathing his first breaths before he breathed his last. I crossed over the candle with the Master Healing Candle, then snuffed it out and worked some wax over the wick. I immediately set it in its holder and lit it.

I can only hope that my efforts will make a difference.

Setting Lights During a Thunderstorm or, Lightning! Eeek!

2011-04-09T03:30:00.000Z

Beginning at a little after 10:30 tonight, whilst flinching at the torrential downpour and ridiculous amount of thunder and lightning, I started dressing and lighting my Master Spirit Candle, my DIY Saint Expedite Candle and four Master Purpose Candles: blue for healing, green for money/success, red for love/inter-human relationships and black for my Black Cat lucky candle. What can I say, I like to play the lottery and my partner is a Poker fiend!

I anointed the Master Spirit Candle with High John the Conquerer oil mixed with my own blood. Saint Expedite's Candle was anointed with, what else, Saint Expedite Oil! The Healing Candle I anointed with Healing Oil, and I dressed both the Money Candle and the Love Candle with Attraction Oil. In addition, I sprinkled them with Road Opener Sachet Powder. I figured that a little extra Oomph! couldn't hurt. In hindsight, I wish now that I had thought to sprinkle some purpose specific herbs along the tops of those two, just to make their purpose a bit more concrete... I gleefully anointed the Black Cat Candle with Black Cat Oil and sprinkled Five Finger Grass along the top. All of these candles are Novenas (my favorite) so I anointed them by rubbing oil clockwise around the top using my right index finger.

Also, Johnnie Man finally got his Oil, which I am sure, he was anticipating.

And that's a wrap! When they burn down enough, I'll drop some High John Oil into the Master Purpose Candles and snuff 'em out!