Mambo Samantha Corfield

Valentine's Ritual Countdown! :-)

Hello everyone! Well, it seems like Christmas just passed and we are talking about our annual Valentine's Day Ritual to Erzulie Freda!   As the years have passed in doing this ritual, I find that I look forward to it more and more. 

First off, there is the shopping for it!  As many of you know, we are pretty firm believers in Dollar Store Voodoo, with all the shiny trinkets and doo-dads that can be used to make a great altar.  Of course, we have many luxurious and special items for Erzulie Freda that we have collected over the years, but it is really a lot of fun to put together the Valentine's altar with, well, Valentine's goodies!

Second, I have noticed over the years how the petitions that people send in have evolved.  In the beginning, the petitions seemed very cut-and-dried: " I love Fred (or Frederica), please let him/her love me."  Those petitions have evolved into asking for love for everyone and all kinds of love - the love that peace would bring, love for children, charitable love, brotherly love, etc.  Many have sent in petitions for those they knew were in different kinds of need.  So petitions for healing love, financial love, and job love have abounded, too!

I certainly do not see anything wrong with that at all!  Just the very word "love" encompasses such a rich variety of meanings from loving ice cream to loving our husbands, wives, children, parents, and everything beyond and in between!  Looking at Valentine's Day as an opportunity to experience and share love of all kinds paints a beautiful broad spectrum of love that goes beyond paper hearts and yummy chocolates! 

As we prepare for this coming Valentine's Ritual, I propose that we all see how creative we can get in our petitioning this year!  What forms of love can you radiate, choose to spread, and make a wish about?  Don't worry about sending in petitions that don't seem like the "norm!" There is NO norm when it comes to love - it is supposed to be open, crazy, fabulous, and it is supposed to mean whatever you personally want it to mean!  So don't be stopped by what you think someone else thinks you should be petitioning!  Send all your open-armed, open-minded, open-spirited petitions right on in!  (See the link above!).

Love, light, and peace,
Mambo Samantha Corfield
www.spellmaker.com

 

 

What does the New Year hold for you?

Happy day after Christmas everyone!  I hope you all had a peaceful and safe day.  So another Christmas - good, bad, or indifferent  - is behind us!  Now it is time to look forward to brand new year.  2008 is upon us!  Now is the time to decide what you want in 2008 and what steps you will take to insure that you get it.

Obviously this is the time of year that we all make those "New Year's Resolutions."  But I would urge you to take that a step further and make a list of what you want to happen in this New Year.  This is not so much a matter of "I am going to go on a diet and stick to it" or "I will stop smoking."  Those are "resolutions" that put a burden on you and then if you fail at them, you end up feeling guilty, depressed, and about two or three months into the year you can start to feel like this is another year that is a bust for you.

What I am talking about is making yourself a mini Life Plan for the year.  Let's say you want to purchase a new car in 2008, lose weight, and move into a better apartment.   Don't just make yourself meaningless resolutions!   Instead, start to make an actual plan.  Do it on your computer or in a notebook; use something in which you can keep a record of your progress.   Start with your first goal.  Let's say "Get a New Car in 2008."  Then list underneath that goal the things surrounding that goal:  The price range, the type of vehicle you need, makes and models you are interested in.   Can you afford it?  Will you do extra work or get a part time job to pay for it if necessary?  Cover all the details of this goal and HOW you can manifest it for yourself.  You can even decide if you will use magick to help you!!  Will you use some green candle magick kits or other money/luck magick products to help yourself out with the money needed to make this happen?   Set a schedule of what you will do when!  When you are satisfied with the plan for that goal - go on to the next one. 

Once you are finished, the true resolution you need to make to yourself is to refer to your plan often.  See where you are with each goal.  If you feel you are not attaining those goals, see what you need to do to perhaps rework your plan or even change your goal slightly.  When you have a true plan for getting a goal, you really don't need to constrain yourself completely in a timeline.  Using the getting a new car example, let's say that you chose June 2008 as the time you wanted to have the new car by.  June rolls around and you are looking through your goal planning book, and you find that new car isn't manifesting itself yet.  However, you see that you have saved $1,000.00 towards the goal and you are still working towards it.  That's fine!!  Don't give up just because you didn't get the car by June!  Keep at it, keep working your plan.  Maybe you need to change the plan a little bit:  Maybe you need a different make or model or price range.   Give yourself a break by being a little bit flexible on that goal.

Hey, no one's plan is perfect!  You may or may not reach all the goals by the end of 2008.  But even if you don't, you can easily carry your plan over until you do reach those goals!!

So get out those pens and papers or word processing programs and start to plan a great 2008 for yourself!

Love, Mambo Sam

Getting Ready for Fet Ghede

Hello everyone!  It is getting to be Fet Ghede time!  Fet Ghede is the time of year when Vodouisants celebrate their "new year" festitivities.   It is considered a time of paying off old debts, starting fresh, and planning for the upcoming year.

Visiting cemeteries to clean the grave of ancestors and doing ancestral feasts is also a part of this tradition.  It is a time for partying, though, not mourning and grieving.  It is a time of celebrating not only our past but, more importantly, our future. 

If you are attending my online chat classes then you know we are planning a ritual together on November 2, Fet Ghede!  I hope to see you all there!  (Thank you, Bridget, for the cool graphic!)