Category: product news
Review of my new St. Expedite booklet
Well, I am super happy to be getting feedback from both experienced practitioners and folks who are new to working with the saints, saying that they found useful and/or interesting stuff in my new St. Expedite booklet.
Thanks, creepmouse!
I know I didn’t do a perfect job of explaining things to an audience new to working with saints, and I’m already aware of a couple of gaps I could fill in a second printing (or just a second booklet, possibly, since this one is pushing the envelope on “pamphlet” at 24 pages long).
But I set out to contribute some stuff that wasn’t just the same old copy/paste job you see all over the internet, and I set myself the challenge of doing it in booklet form (versus just the eternally-in-progress rambly, long-ass blog posts that always promise a part 3 but never seem to deliver it). I’m bad at being succinct š But I gave it a shot, and I hope it’s interesting and useful.
From the item description:
24-page booklet of information and suggestions for working with St. Expedite, based on my research and my experience as a professional rootworker.
If you have read my blog for a minute or perused the Rootwork Education directory, you know I do not just copy/paste the same old crap that’s already out there in a million places. I don’t waste your time with stuff you’ve already read 100 times on the back of a candle label or cereal box or *whatever.*Ā If I don’t know something, I say so – I don’t just make crap up and try to sell it as The Truth.Ā And I do my best to tell you where things come from – I cite my sources so you can check them out yourself instead of just blindly accepting what I tell you, and I am specific about historical context and geography when applicable.
My research is not confined to English-language sources, and I do my own translations from several languages, so I can just about guarantee that my booklets containĀ material that you will not have seen before, certainly not on popular English-language blogs, Pinterest boards, and tumblrs. In short, I work very hard at not wasting your time and at sorting the wheat from the chaff and the fact from the fiction.Ā
The St. Expedite booklet contains an overview, guidance on setting up an altar, a discussion of how to handle offerings, a selection of prayers, and a selection of specific remedies and workings (aka spells). I identify and discuss some bad advice that you’ll find on working with St. Expedite and I share prayers and workings from around the world to give you a historically grounded, three-dimensionalĀ perspective on this popular folk saint.
More info and ordering options at Seraphin Station.
New: St. Expedite Altar Kits
St. Expedite altar in a box – contains almost everything you need to get set up toĀ work with this popular saint, patron of procrastinators, techies, hackers, couriers, travelers, those burdened by red tape and obstacles, and those needing fast luck or money.
Standard and deluxe versions available. Both come with a 24-page booklet of instructions and prayers.
Read more or order now at Seraphin Station.
Ultimate Crown of Success, Money Drawing etc. back in stock
Or rather, the ingredients to make them are back in stock. I had a bit more trouble than I’d expected finding a good, reliable supplier for the right kind of diamond powder who was in the U.S. and whose ethics I could be sure of (’cause none of my formulas call for conflict diamonds and child mining labor). The supplier I used to use isn’t around anymore.
I’ve finally found another good one in the U.S., but shipping isn’t as fast as it used to be, and prices certainly aren’t going down, heh, so I only ever have a limited quantity of raw materials on hand to make Ultimate oils.
If you see all of them out of stock, that means I’m out of diamonds and/or gold and/or some spendy essential oil or absolute and we’re just waiting on my shipment. If you see one or more of them in stock, but it’s not the kind you want, it’s worth writing to inquire – I *might* have everything on hand to make what you’re after and I can just move the inventory count around to list what you need.
Ultimate oils:
*Black Arts is *not* generally made with diamonds, but it is made with other rare and/or valuable ingredients that I also will not always have a ton of in stock. From the item listing:
Please note that this is a spiritual item and not a cosmetic or perfume, and it definitely won’t smell like anything from Bath & Body Works. This is traditional old-school conjure. In traditional old-school conjure, mullein or whatever is NOT an adequate substitute for graveyard dirt; Black Arts formulas do NOT have “hints of autumn leaves and pumpkin accords at the heart note” and do NOT smell like perfume; condition and ritual oils are NOT “charged under a full moon” because that doesn’t make any flippin’ sense; and there aren’t any pagan gods or goddesses involved in the creation of this oil – especially not any who really, really like glitter and lilac or gardenia. If you’re not really ready to get your hands dirty – maybe literally – then there’s no shame in that, but this probably isn’t the oil for you right now.
October Saint of the Month Box
Saints of the month for October are St. Teresa of Avila (a mystic author and Doctor of the Church, invoked against headache and heart attack, feast day Oct. 15) or St. Jude (neglected apostle, invoked for hopeless causes, feast day Oct. 28).
Looking to spruce up your altars, add to your chaplet or holy card collection, or just learn more about saints and spirits in folk Catholicism? The Saint of the Month box gets you a hand-picked and handmade bundle of saints’ goodies selected for you and shipped to you.
Whether you’re just starting to learn about saints and spirits in the hoodoo rootwork tradition or you’ve been working with them for years, I strive to delight you with something new and covetable to add to your collection with every box. (I have some pretty neat stuff squirreled away.)
This gives you a chance to get something new for an altar or to be introduced to a saint you haven’t worked with before, and it gives me an excuse to do things I’m always wanting to do but end up putting off, like taking an afternoon to design a new chaplet I’ve been wanting to make for a while.
The standard box includes, at a minimum, a bottle of oil, a candle, a holy card or mini prayer booklet, brief history and recommendations for working with the saint or spirit, and a charm, medal, or curio. The deluxe box adds a fixed, dressed, and decorated glass-encased vigil candle and a handmade chaplet, rosary, or necklace. Very unlikely that any two will ever be identical or that all of this stuff would ever be available to purchase individually.
Saints and spirits may be chosen from the traditional Catholic “roster” or may come from various folk traditions. If you have suggestions or requests for particular saints or spirits to feature, I’d love to hear from you! Drop me a line from the contact form or just leave a comment somewhere.
Read more or order your Saint of the Month box at Seraphin Station.
New single-herb sampler packs, herb blends with price breaks for bundles
I think I finally, finally found a way to be able to afford to sell small packets of powder and small packets of herbs. I had to try out five different potential solutions, but I think the one I’ve got now will work. You’ll see a little widget on the page telling you about price breaks you get at certain tiers, like so:
The issue:
Listing, site, and processing/transaction fees are breathtaking, and many of them are a flat fee per transaction plus a percentage. 50 cents plus 3.5% plus 2% off the top of every transaction is maybe not such a big deal if everything you stock starts at $20 or something, but if you want to offer an array of things under $5, you cannot actually afford to do it sometimes (and this isn’t even considering what it costs per item to list something, or per month to have the shop to list things in). But most people do not want or need 3 ounces of Cut & Clear powder, and they want to be able to get just one candle or just one pinch of something without having to buy a whole box or a whole ounce or whatever.
The amount you have to charge for a single item in this scenario is a little painful. But then if somebody orders multiples in a single transaction, they really get screwed paying the single-packet price for all of them.
So hopefully this allows me to offer sub-$5 items — without losing money in doing so — while also passing on the savings to folks who place orders with a variety of items in them.
This is currently turned on for hoodoo powders and herb sampler packs, so you can mix and match. I will probably be trying to come up with a way to make this work for at least some curios, too. Please feel free to make suggestions if you think I should tweak anything about this setup, and let me know if it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to be doing!
Newly listed:
Herb blends:
Currently available herb sampler packets:
- Agrimony
- Althaea leaves
- Bayberry berries, leaves, bark
- Blackberry leaves
- Black walnut shells, hulls, bark
- Blueberry leaves
- Butterfly weed
- Calendula
- Camphor bark, leaves
- Cedar chips
- Clover, red
- Clover, white
- Dittany of Crete
- Elder berries, leaves, roots
- Fern
- Fig leaves
- Grains of Paradise
- Grape vine, leaves (muscadine)
- Honeysuckle
- Hydrangea leaves, flowers, root
- Joe Pye Weed leaves, flowers
- Lavender
- Lemon balm
- Lemon bark, thorns, fruit peel
- Magnolia leaves
- Manglier
- Marjoram
- Master of the Woods
- Mint
- Mojo Beans
- Mustard seed, black
- Mustard seed, white
- Oak bark
- Orange bark, thorns, fruit peel
- Oregano
- Passionflower
- Pine needles, bark
- Poke leaves, root
- Raspberry leaves
- Rosemary
- Rose petals
- Rue
- Sage, lyreleaf
- Sage, pineapple
- Sage, scarlet
- Sampson Snake Root
- Smilax
- Sweetgum bark, leaves, seedpods
- Vetiver
- Violet leaves
- Wintergreen leaves
- Yarrow
About Our Herbs
While this is far too small of an operation to be certified organic or any of that stuff, we do not engage in large-scale, resource-heavy, monoculture farming practices here. So we try not to deplete the soil, use water irresponsibly, encourage lack of genome and biome diversity, deprive animals and insects of their habitations or migration paths, or generally act like assholes and bad stewards.
That means we do not spray our herbs or fertilize them with industrial chemicals – we use only organic fertilizers and natural biological pesticides on our land (stuff like natural neem oil or insecticidal soap that I also put on my food crops and that pose no risk for human contact).
However, these are not prepared in a commercial kitchen and are not packaged/sold as food items. My herbs are intended for spiritual use in incenses, oils, altar work, etc., not for human consumption.
St. Michael Niner Chaplet Bracelet
This one of a kind chaplet bracelet is handmade with 5mm ruby red glass beads, an ornate crucifix with a bronze-toned antiqued patina imported from Italy, a chain extension and lobster clasp if you want to wear it or secure it around a statue or rearview mirror, and a holy medal of St. Michael handpainted in bright and durable enamels.
The saintly protector par excellence, Michael is called on to defend against dangers both spiritual and physical and from enemies both known and unknown.
Unclasped, this chaplet’s length from end to end is 8.75″. Will fit a 7.5″ wrist, but I’m happy to customize it if you need it shorter or longer. (Just allow a few extra days handling, please!) Medal measures 1″.
This style of chaplet is called a “niner” and is a popular and very portable way of doing a novena for a saint, of keeping your prayer beads close to hand when you’re traveling or need to be more discreet than a full-size rosary might allow, or of having a set of prayer beads the perfect size for wearing as a bracelet or keeping on your car’s rearview mirror or the door knob of your room or home.
One way of praying with a niner chaplet is to call on the saint’s aid on the medal, pray the Our Father x3, the Hail Mary x3, and the Glory Be x3 on the beads, and then the Apostle’s Creed on the crucifix.
Read more about St. Michael (and other saints and angels) in the education section at Big Lucky Hoodoo. And if you’ve never been sure how St. Michael can be a saint and an angel at the same time – and he most certainly is – you can get a little crash course in Catholic ontology at Seraphin Station.
This St. Michael piece is available at Seraphin Station or Etsy.
Valentine’s Day Sale
Use coupon code VALENTINE15 at checkout for 15% items in the Love category. Good at either the Etsy shop or SeraphinStation.com through the 17th of February. Includes several love/relationship-specific Tarot readings.
Some services excluded.
quick update: photos, ads, hawks, packaging
After two days of trying, I only just now have been able to get my new phone to talk to my computer so I can do anything with photos. (Next I have to manage taking some photos that aren’t blurry.)
But I *have* managed to get random ads turned off on this blog. So now both Big Lucky Hoodoo and the Seraphin Station blog are slightly less annoying than they once were š
Been fighting with hawks for the better part of two weeks now, rushing outside hollering at the top of my lungs at every sign of any disturbance and festooning the yard with all manner of things that glint, gleam, flap in the breeze, provide some swoop-proof cover for chickens, etc. Roo’s been a big help, and she flushed a hawk out of the overgrown firebreak just to the north of our house last week. I hadn’t even seen him. But we lost Gretel, one of our home-hatched girls who’s been with us for years now, earlier this week. Really tired of dead chickens these last few months š¦
I have finally been able to buy some of my raw materials for spiritual oils in sufficient bulk to reduce the cost-per-bottle just a tad, which I’ve been working towards for quite a while now. Rather than lowering the retail price of the oils or throwing a party or anything just yet, though, I’m going to use the savings to invest in improved labeling that should still be attached to the bottle and legible even if you spill some oil down the side. So I’ll be gradually phasing that in on condition oil packaging over the next few weeks as I hunt for The Perfect Labels from The Perfect Supplier.
(It’s exciting, this rootworker-on-the-internet life, I tell ya! I have no idea what folks picture when they think of doing this for a living, but I’m willing to bet reality is a lot more boring and involves a lot more paperwork and comparison shopping š )
Chaplet of St. Michael – Angelic Crown Rosary – SOLD
Call on the blessings and protection of St. Michael and the nine choirs of angels with this one-of-a-kind Angelic Crown chaplet, aka Chaplet of St. Michael.
- Czech glass Pater beads in iridescent blues
- crystal clear pressed glass Ave beads
- cast bronze reproduction of an antique Latin American rosary center
- cast bronze reproduction of an antique St. Michael holy medal
New Stuff
Check out the New category at Seraphin Station if you haven’t visited in a while. You’ll see the following, among other things:
- Chinese Wash
- Rattlesnake Oil
- Water of Life Biblical Blessing Oil
- Please Bugger Off Powder
- Zodiac Series Oils
- Fourteen Holy Helpers Oil
- Steady Work Oil
And a small scattering of tinwork shrines/ornaments:
Bonus Rewards Points
Spend $40 or more at Seraphin Station before midnight Monday and earn 100 bonus rewards program points.
The rewards program is free – you just need an account with the shop so there’s somewhere to track your points. You’ll see the little Rewards icon in the bottom right of your screen and you just click it to open it up.
Plus you can still take advantage of the coupon code NOTANASS to get 15% off anytyhing. Itās good at the Etsy shop and at the main shop through 11/30.
New Zodiac Series Oils
Zodiac Series Oils at Seraphin Station.
Also new (in the sense that I just now got around to listing them): Boss Fix , Exodus Oil, More Than Conquerors Oil, All Saints, Chrysalis, Healing.
New at website
Started a page listing out all my formulas by name. Who knows how long it will take me to get everything posted and pretty, but at least folks wondering about such and such formula can get an idea about whether I even make it or not.
Still no individual listings on every bath crystal, but you can get at least one option in most categories now, and you can get a full selection of bath crystals in the categories Money & Luck or Love & Lust.
And finally got a few candles listed, including some of my not-always-quite-reverent designs for vigil candles with vintage and antique holy card and emblem art on them.
I’ll be putting up individual listings for these explaining what they mean/are for eventually.
New jewelry: Santisima Muerte rosary chaplet necklace
Now available at Seraphin Station.
Flash Bonus Rewards Points + New Stuff
Earn 2X rewards on all purchases made through midnight. Read more.
Recently Added:
Chuparosa formulas made their way into hoodoo from south of the border, and this delightful oil is named for the hummingbird as a symbol of serious, committed, faithful love. The hummingbird has long history in Mexican folk magic, one that once involved using actual hummingbirds. The hummingbirds didn’t come out the other side of this intact. Read more.
This handmade ornament is intended to evoke the Blessed Mother’s elegance and grace but without removing all the rough edges and scuff marks that are part of this icon’s history and that characterize the fabric of her devotees’ genuine lived lives. Read more.
Seraphin Station 