Mambo Samantha Corfield

Erzulie Freda! By Mambo Sam

Erzulie Freda

Image of Erzulie Freda Dahomey by Saundra Elise Ziyatdinov.  

Erzulie Freda is the Vodou and New Orleans Voodoo goddess of love. A gracious, luxurious, and refined lwa (Vodou Spirit), Erzulie epitomizes femininity, love, passion, and is called upon for favors regarding one's love affairs. However, Erzulie Freda is love of every kind; she is not limited to romance. She is often misrepresented as petulant and never being able to be satisfied. This does a gross injustice to this beautiful spirit. The fact that she often dissolves into tears is misinterpreted as her being dissatisified with what is given to her. That is not it at all; she dissolves into tears because she knows that no amount of material wealth can make up for the lack of love and spirituality in one's life. So even though she is often served in luxury, upon appearance at Vodou rituals, she is often wracked with tears eventually. It is important to remember, also, that she cries so that you won't have to. Another misrepresentation of Erzulie is that she is flighty and unable to stay with one man. This misinformation comes from the knowledge of her three marriages; once to Ogoun, once to Agwe, and once to Papa Legba (a belief in our New Orleans tradition; in Haitian tradition her third husband is Damballah). The three gold rings that most Erzulie altars have on them represent these three marriages. However, we must remember that these three marriages probably took place over lifetimes. It is sometimes hard for us to conceive of the many lives of the lwa and how long they have been with us!  

Serving Erzulie Freda

As with most lwa, she is a complex spirit having lived many lifetimes to evolve to her present state. She, of course, has happy, wonderful, flirty appearances, also. She does love refined things and wants to drink the finest champagne and eat the finest foods (especially delicious sweets and chocolates). She loves frilly, girly things and dresses in beautiful clothes of silk and lace. She loves diamonds and gold..anything that represents wealth and finery! She knows these things do not make up for the sorrows of life, but enjoying these things eases the pain for many of us! Erzulie is no different!

Many people are afraid to do service to Erzulie Freda if they don't have much money. That is such an injustice to her! Yes, she loves refined and expensive things; that is not in question. However, just because you don't have a lot of money does not mean you should not serve her. We are firm believers that any service done with a good heart and doing the best you can will be well received. 
 

Luxury can be a state of mind and an environment can be luxurious without being expensive. So first start thinking of the space that you will be doing your service in. If you purchased the one-day ritual kit or plan on doing the ritual as written on the website make whatever area you will be doing your service in as lovely as you can! Even if you temporarily use one of your own bed sheets as an altar cloth, that is okay because you can spray your perfume on it and make it something special. Set the mood for the ritual with any candles you have and put on romantic music or tune your radio to a soft rock or other type of station that plays the kind of music that would set the mood for romance. Do you have jewelry? You can put it on the altar and "give" it to Erzulie! That doesn't mean you can't wear it! Of course you can, but if you dedicate it to her, then you have given her something wonderful. Do you have old magazines lying around? Cut out pictures of beautiful things - jewelry, clothes, perfume, etc. Make a simple collage out of them and put them on your altar for her!

In Service, 

Mambo Sam

John the Conqueror Root Bag - History!

 

John the conqueror root bag - History

The best reference for good stories, I think, is Zora Neale Hurston. I think you would enjoy her writings (if you haven't read them in the past)!

The root itself, named after the slave, John is, of course: High John the Conqueror (ipomoea purga) or "Jalap" and is a mainstay of African American magick, the root of this morning glory is named for a slave who refused to be servile. High John's ability to fool his master inspired many stories; he's considered a representative of African trickster gods.

Historians say that he was a black slave whose real life has been questioned in detail (some thought is that he was a fictional character developed by slaves to empower other slaves and give them hope). At any rate, real or fictional, the job was well done as he was an inspiration to slaves who wanted to rebel against their masters but could not do so openly. "John" was said to be the son of an African king and although he was a slave he never became subservient. His apparent cleverness at tricking his master supplied a great variet of stories with a very clear moral ending. If he was a real being, he soon acquired some of the characteristics of mythical trickster figures like the Native American Coyote, the African- American Bre'r Rabbit, and the West African deity known variously as Elegua, Legba, and Eshu. He gave -- only to take away. He bet -- and never lost. He played dumb -- but he was never outsmarted. The reputation of High John is so great that, as recorded by the folklorist Harry Middleton Hyatt in the 1930s, just reciting the words "John over John" and "John the Conqueror" is a powerful spell of magical protection against being hoodooed.

According to Nora Zeale Hurston: "There is a story in which High John tells the people, "What we need is a song." . . . "It ain't here, and it ain't no place I knows of as yet. Us better go hunt around. This has got to be a particular piece of singing." She describes how John got the slaves to leave their bodies behind on the plantation while their souls went searching. They had to "reach inside yourselves and get out all those fine raiments you been toting around with you for the last longest." John brought them "a great black crow. The crow was so big that one wing rested on the morning while the other dusted the evening star." Riding on this crow, the people had many adventures, visited Hell and Heaven, found their song, and returned to the plantation. John told them, "Don't pay what he [Massa] say no mind. You know where you got something finer than this plantation and anything it's got on it, put away. Ain't that funny? Us got all that, and he don't know nothing at all about it. Don't tell him nothing. Nobody don't have to know where us gets our pleasure from."

And Muddy Waters (and I think someone else, I can't remember) recorded this song:

MY JOHN THE CONQUER ROOT

My pistol may snap, my mojo is frail

But i rub my root, my luck will never fail

When i rub my root, my John the Conquer root

Aww, you know there ain't nothin' she can do, Lord,

I rub my John the Conquer root

I was accused of murder in the first degree

The judge's wife cried, "Let the man go free!"

I was rubbin' my root, my John the Conquer root

Aww, you know there ain't nothin' she can do, Lord,

I rub my John the Conquer root

Oh, i can get in a game, don't have a dime,

All i have to do is rub my root, i win every time

When i rub my root, my John the Conquer root

Aww, you know there ain't nothin' she can do, Lord,

I rub my John the Conquer root

 

In Service, 

Mambo Sam

#MotivationMonday

Remember.

The Famous Red Mummy Candle!

The Famous Red Mummy Power candle magick kit.

 

This kit is used particularly to help gain control over a situation. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean trying to control the person in question. However, PROPERLY DIRECTED control can be very useful. This candle is especially useful if you are feeling helpless and out of communication in your situation. This candle can be used to help facillitate contact with your heart's desire, i.e., "controlling" the situation so that you run into each other, or that s/he suddenly thinks of a reason why s/he needs to contact you. It can also be used to help control an interfering party to get out of the situation. 

Candles are located here and the candle burning service is located here.