Mambo Samantha Corfield

Resurrection of Faith

Hello everyone!  In reading my dear Khouzhan Delilah's post about "I'm Losing Faith" I felt it was a good time to repost this that I has posted a few years ago at Easter.  It isn't Easter yet, obviously, but faith has no season.

Faith is not an easy task!  Most of all I believe you should have faith in yourself before anything else!  :-)   After that, the rest of what you have faith in is up to you!

Love, Mambo

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REPRINTED FROM 2008:   Greetings friends!  Of course, as many of us celebrate the Easter holiday today, I cannot help but have my thoughts turn to Spring, renewal, and another chance to grow something wonderful.  Every year at this time, I feel refreshed and renewed of spirit - just by the very fact that the plants are starting to bud, my mother-in-law in preparing her garden for the Victory feast that she grows every year, and I do my annual Easter egg hunt for my grandchildren.

Resurrection is also an integral part of the thoughts of Easter and spring.  The story of the resurrection of Christ reminds me that faith is a powerful tool in our lives.  If one is a true believer in the Christian faith, then you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ arose from the dead and ascended into Heaven!  That is a powerful faith!

One of the challenges we often have with faith is it is one of those things that no one can truly explain successfully.  As St. Thomas Aquinas said, “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”

I have spoken many times about how easy it is to have any kind of faith when things are going well, but when things are not going well our faith seems to lag.  We wonder if there is anyone anywhere actually out there listening to our pleas!  Is there where you are right now?  Is you faith flagging?  Questioned? Lost altogether? Can your faith be resurrected?  Or will it just lie dormant until things get good for you again and THEN you can believe that there is "something" out there helping us in our day-to-day lives?  And when things do get good again, will you just figure it is about time something good happened, or will you believe that a power stronger than your own human fraility reached out and helped you?

Personally I always believe that Les Lois, God, the Saints, and our Ancestors are ALWAYS listening.  I also believe that we may not always get what we want.  I would never deign to try to explain why that is; my belief is that when I don't get what I want, there is a reason for it.  Sometimes I find out the reason later, sometimes I may never know.   

Sometimes I can feel my faith waivering:  Where are they?  Why can't I have what I want right now?  Where is my candy?  I know that happens to you, too!  But it's okay, that petulant six-year-old child lives in all of us.  I think the important thing to remember to do is even in your darkest moment allow yourself some faith.  Even if it is just the tiniest shred of faith, it is still a powerful thing.   Have no doubt: I have had many crises of faith; some really terrible things have happened in my life.  But that candle of faith has always shined in my heart even though it's little flame has been pretty small sometimes.  Don't let anything blow out the candle in your heart!   

So on this day when a large portion of the world is celebrating the Resurrection, think about whether or not your faith needs resurrecting.  What can you do to help that along?  The answer is different for everyone.  Sometimes counting what blessings you HAVE received in life can be helpful, but that is not always the answer for everyone.  Sometimes those blessings seem too few and far between!  So there is no easy answer to renewing and resurrecting your faith.  However, I do encourage you to try, sometimes just the very act of trying has profound effects. 

I wish you all peace, love, harmony, health, and most of all, faith:  Faith in yourself, faith in your abilities, and faith in being part of the great Cosmic Consciousness of humankind.

Love, light, and peace, Mambo Sam

www.spellmaker.com

“When you have come to the edge Of all light that you know And are about to drop off into the darkness Of the unknown, Faith is knowing One of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on or You will be taught to fly”

Patrick Overton   

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

 

 

Is a "New Year New You" Necessary?

Good morning, everyone!  As we all head back to work in the shiny new year, many thoughts turn to makeovers, resolutions, changing one's self.  The beginning of a new year is always a great time to make those resolutions to change things that we were not so happy with last year!

I have noticed with myself that I often tend to go overboard on resolutions, like so many people do!  Unfortunately, that is a great way to set yourself up for failure.  But, I do believe that there is a great deal of validity in bringing in the new year with a new version of yourself.  Sometimes it might just be  a matter of firmly deciding to leave last year in the past where it belongs.  If you had a particularly bad year in 2010, now is a great time to decide to try to let go of whatever negativity, pain, or trauma that you had.  You CAN take it with you, but why?  Even if problems of the past are still unresolved, you can leave the last months of negativity behind - cleanse yourself of them, and decide that this is a NEW beginning to solving old problems.  Sure, we sell products for cleansing  - Lady Samantha's Hex Removal Kit, white candles, Milk of Damballah white bath, etc. and those are great to use. However, sometimes just making a very resolute promise to yourself to start over, even if it is with old challenges, can be very effective!

Sometimes we cannot see how to change or, with some folks, why!  I get tons of letters from people who can tell me exactly how they want their intended partner to change, but very little of how they could or should change.  Making a resolution to be more self-aware, take responsibility for some of what is going on in your life, could be just the thing to help some people.  I am not talking about blaming yourself for everything that happens - that is just as unhealthy as being totally unaware of what role you play in your own life.  Look for the balance in your life - drop the "poor pitiful me" victim attitude OR the "everything is my fault" martyr attitude. Instead realize that you cannot control everything, but you can control your own actions, attitudes, and self-awareness.    Now that is a resolution!

So keep those resolutions realistic but be willing to accept, create, or believe in a miracle! 

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

Happy New Year!

Hello everyone and a big wish for a Happy New Year to all!  It is always so invigorating and exciting to start a brand new year.  I hope that your 2011 will be filled with wonder, joy, excitement, and magick! 

Looking out over the Spellmaker 2011 plans, it is great to see some old favorites coming up - the annual Erzulie's Valentine's Day Ritual, the start up again of the Free Prayer Group in February, of course the annual St. Patrick's Day ritual to Sobo - not to mention that we will be doing another video voodoo conference this year!  Plus, we are planning to do a big free ancestor ritual to celebrate what would have been the 100th birthday of my father on 11/11/11.  It will be a great birthday party and an open party to honor your own ancestors.

Needless to say, there will be more public events that we will be doing, so please do stay tuned for more info!

In the meantime, take care of yourselves and have a safe and peaceful holiday weekend.  Love to all!

Mambo Samantha Corfield
www.spellmaker.com