I'm back home, and the ebay store is open again (yes, every in-house order was shipped before I left).  Just so people wouldn't forget I existed, I put  up a couple of auctions while the store proper was closed.  There's a Gran Bois rosary and a small paket ending tonight - bids for both are still really low, so it's a great chance to get a bargain on handmade stuff!

My back is still not tip-top, though it's better than it was the last full week of June, and it's better than it was yesterday morning.  But I am not out of the woods on this one, unfortunately, so if I suddenly disappear again that's why.  No out-out-of-town of any significant length planned anytime soon, though.

While I was home in Alabama, some relatives and I were going through some of my great grandmother's old papers, and in a portion of her "memoirs" she related a game she and her brothers and sisters used to play, to tell who you would marry.

You had to do this on New Year's Eve, the last night of April, or on Hallowe'en.  Whoever wanted to know their future mate would put an egg in the fireplace, before the fire, at 9 p.m.  That person had to sit by the fire, "not speaking or spitting," until midnight, at which point he or she would see the one destined to be the future spouse come in at midnight and turn the egg.

My great grandmother and her other siblings sat with her older brother one New Year's Eve when he did this.  (She didn't record the date, but she was born in 1886, and this happened while she was old enough to sit up with her siblings but before she married, so we're sometime in the last decade of the 19th century, most likely).  Nobody came in and turned the egg, and her younger brother got up after midnight, bored and jeering at the whole thing a bit, and poked it with a poker.  It promptly exploded, sending scalding bits of cooked egg and shell all over their hair and faces. 

This is similar to a number of other spouse-predicting spells in European traditions, involving eggs and/or special nights of the year, but for the curious, this particular event happened in central Alabama sometime near the turn of the century, in a very small farming community, with first and second generation settlers from all over Europe, so there's not a particular "stamp" on this tradition. 

A collection of items of interest:

* The ebay store is still on vacation - the invisible kind. I think it will stay that way 'til after 4th of July.  I have to go out of town for the long weekend, so it would only be open a couple of days next week anyway, and I would rather not have orders and emails hanging over my head waiting for my return when I get back.  I have to take care of the customers and clients I've already got before I go trying to help new ones, and this past week or so has taught me a little bit about "biting off more than you can chew."  I will be reexamining my portions over the coming weeks.

* The long-awaited (well, by me anyway) updates of the website have begun!  Take a look at the new, improved KarmaZain.com and let me know what you think.  It's still under construction, but this should give you an idea of the changes we've been hammering out and are continuing to work on.  Eventually, all oils, powders, baths, and other always-in-stock things will be available there, and I expect the ebay store will start to focus more on one-of-a-kind or limited run pieces.

* Karma Zain is now on facebook, as "Karma Zain."  Drop by and say hello!

* A reminder that if you need more than a quick answer to "what oil do you recommend for my upcoming court case" or whatever, I now offer very inexpensive consultations so that you don't have to purchase a full reading to get a more in-depth response than I'm able to give via the ebay messaging platform or via email.  You can access the form to order a consultation on my page at AIRR here, or via the website here (find the button under the "Consultations" heading). 

You may still always inquire via direct email or in the comments of this blog if you have a question, but I started offering this option because the volume of my emails has nearly tripled over the last few months, and I simply can't stay on top of all the communication that I receive and still take care of my paying customers and clients.  This sort of thing isn't a money-making activity for me - in fact, if you purchase a consultation and then go on to order products from my website based on that consultation, I'll credit your invoice the amount you paid for the consult - but a way to help me protect myself from people who ask for hours of my time and then go off into the distance never to be heard from again.  I do have to pay the electric bill :-) and I do have an obligation NOT to exhaust myself to the point of illness, and so I'm having to draw a few new lines these days.  Consultation fees will *not* be applied to ebay orders, sorry; direct website orders only.

* As I've written about a few times lately, never mind in the above paragraph, I am  having to turn away a good bit of work lately.  But remember that we live in an exciting and blessed time for hoodoo and conjure - there are some tireless folks out there doing their best to educate and write articles and share their knowledge and skills, and the internet has really done a lot to make this possible and to help people form networks.  Some of these good folks can be found in links list to the right of my journal settings, some can be found on my userinfo page, and some can be found at AIRR, the Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers.  If I can't help you, or can't help you in the timeframe you need, you have some trusted resources, readers, and rootworkers right here.

* I am so grateful to you guys for your patience and well-wishes for the recovery of my back this past week!  I sure do appreciate both.

Guys, I'm gonna take a few more days 'off.'  Since some people respond with anger and negative feedback when I suggest that they didn't see the ebay store vacation notice (just as they didn't read the freakin' item listing very carefully either), I'm going to put the store on the "invisible" type of vacation for a bit.

I'm still around, and am trying to catch up on typing related things, and if you need something, feel free to holler.  I'm happy to still send stuff out - just not for a few more days via ebay.  I need to get some rest before I hurt myself any worse :-)

I am not actually going anywhere, but I appear to have done something a little worse than just a minor strain to my back, so I'm putting the ebay store on vacation for a day or two (hopefully no longer).  I am still working on orders, and typing is still taking just a little longer than usual because it hurts me to sit for long.  So I sure do appreciate y'all's patience as I get myself all fixed up.  I'm still typing as I can, I'm just doing some of it in bed, from my laptop.

Dear readers,

Some of you who study Mexican folk magic traditions may have encountered Bryant "Eduardo" Holman, aka E Bryant Holman, in a few places over the years. He ran a yahoo group called curanderismo, and has contributed over the years to the Hyatt and Conjure yahoo groups, and to several archived pieces at the lucky mojo site dealing with such topics as amparos, limpias, and the Santisima Muerte.

He was a "lay anthropologist;" a researcher of folkways in his beloved Mexico, the Mexico from which his wife came and in which he was buried earlier this month; a tireless defender of Mexican culture against what he saw as the encroachment of fraud, neopaganism, and "spiritual imperialism;" and a folk artist (one of his San Cipriano nichos is in my icon for this post). He recently wrote a book on Santisima Muerte and he dedicated a great portion of his life to exploring and explaining the folkways of Mexican curanderismo to the curious. He stood tirelessly by his ideals, and he took great pains to share his knowledge and experiences. His contribution to the information available in English on curanderismo is inestimable, both through his own writings and translations, and through the curanderismo group he started, which has attracted a scant but solid handful of knowledgeable, traditionally-minded members over the past few years.  The folk magic community will feel his loss.

He died on the first of this month and was buried in Ojinaga, Mexico on June 6.

I have pasted his obituary below; it appeared on the web version of the Big Bend Sentinel on June 16, 2009, but has been removed now that it has gone into print.  I neglected to nab the photo when I grabbed the page, I'm sorry.
 

Holman

Edward Bryant Holman, 58, of Presidio passed away June 1, 2009 at Medical Center Hospital in Odessa.

He was born November 19, 1950 in Houston to Edward Bryant Holman and Rose Mary Taylor. He was raised in Roswell, New Mexico.

He was a mud logger for the oil and gas industry. He also managed Fausto’s Art Gallery in Ojinaga and promoted the Presidio/Ojinaga area with his website Ojinaga.com and with he writings. He loved the Big Bend area and was involved in everything related to art and culture in this area.

Survivors include his wife, Dr. Beronica Perez Holman of Presidio; his sons, Waylon Holman of Roswell, New Mexico, and Michael Holman of Presidio; a daughter, Bonnie Holman of Sierra Vista, Arizona; a brother, Michael Stinchcomb of New York, NY; a sister, Trina Juestal of Candervan, Australia; and a step-father, Herbert Avery.

Services were held in Ojinaga, Chihuahua on Saturday, June 6. He was buried at El Ultimo Refugio Cemetery in Ojinaga.

Memorials in Mr. Holman’s name may be made to Casa Hogar de Ojinaga, PO Box 1705, Presidio, TX 79845.

 

Just a note to let you readers know that I am still working to get caught up after my trip out of town, returning correspondence and filling orders as quickly as I can, in the order that they were received.

I have strained an old back injury this week, and so correspondence is going a little slower than it might normally - it is painful to sit and type for too long right now. But standing is fine, and and moving around is actually good for me, so it's not slowing down orders too much.  I appreciate your patience as I get caught up, especially on correspondence, as I'm not able to sit and type for long uninterrupted stretches just yet.

Also, I have some special ingredients that I brought back from Alabama, to make extra-strength gambling mojo bags.  I will not be listing them on ebay, as they are in violation of ebay's policies on certain bones and remains, and as I don't especially want to see these go to people I don't know will use them well and wisely.  But if you've been in the market for some gambling work, I currently have the ingredients to make *three two* very special gambling/lottery luck/money luck/"luck in all your five fingers can do" type mojo bags, containing bones from two sources which are very valuable in hoodoo tradition.  If you're interested, drop me a line at karmazain at bellsouth dot net for more information.

ETA: two left.

Happy hoodooing!

I am back from my trip out of town.  I got in very late and it will take me all day tomorrow to catch up on email (and that might be overly optimistic, given my other obligations).  

Part of what I will be doing in the next few days, in addition to catching up on email and ebay orders and correspondence and ongoing altar work reports, is to sit down and have a long think about whether I want to offer custom work on ebay anymore.  I am tending to think No.  It's been biting me in the ass lately, and as long as ebay's rating system and DSRs are as they are, my nuts are in a vise, pardon my French.  Custom work takes time, and multiple custom orders in a single order takes more time.  It's a risky thing to do on ebay, and I think I will be stopping.  That means no more candles, no more mojo bags, no more pendants, no more candle burning on ebay, if the pros and cons line up like I anticipate.   I would still offer them via my website, which should finally be appearing in its new and improved version pretty soon (another thing that has kept me busy lately), but I am thinking that their days on ebay are numbered.  But we'll see.

Along the same lines, I am supposed to be putting the ebay store off "vacation" as of midnight tonight, and I will in just a minute here, but I think I am going to be open for tomorrow only and then put it back on vacation.  I have some decisions to make about it, and some listing specifics to change, and some catching up to do.  Frankly, I never expected it to do as well as it has - my short term goal was for it to support itself, and as it's grown so has the investment in time I have to put into it. I don't want to stop offering free short email consultations, but the volume of email I get and have to answer via ebay has grown in leaps and bounds over the past year especially, and as this is not and probably never will be my full time job, and as I have recently begun taking on more clients for altar-work, I have some decisions to make about the direction and future of the ebay store.  I have commited to, and want to keep on, answering email inquiries about product usage and spellwork sources.  But I get so many emails every day now that I can't even take a weekend off without spending a full, entire, 10+ hour Monday answering emails after I do. Every business owner faces these sorts of turning points as their business grows.  I am making public some of what I'm facing, because it affects my customers and clients, and because I care about what y'all think, so if you have a thought while reading this, feel free to share it and I will take it into consideration.  If it's mean and nasty, I'll feel free to delete it :-)

One of the reasons this has become a bigger issue lately is because, while I have always been kept running by the ebay store, particularly because I like to do consulting about my products for anybody with a question, lately I have been more busy than usual.  One of the reasons I've been more busy than usual is because I've spent the last several months investing time and effort into a new endeavor that I think is going to be a big deal for the 21st century hoodoo community.

The Good News:

This endeavor is called AIRR: the Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers.  A bunch of folks have been busting their asses since January to get this site started, and it has officially launched as of June 6, 2009.  Go visit and have a look-see!  A separate post on this is forthcoming.

I am out of town.  I have a family obligation and i will not be back until Tuesday night.  My email access is spotty and I will get to your email as soon as I can. This month, and in general at any time, emailing me repeatedly about the same thing when I have told you I will get back to you will not get your email answered any faster.  If you have emailed me twenty times, you can rest assured I haven't forgotten about you (though if you have not emailed me twenty times and you haven't heard back from me, then please go ahead and email again to make sure I got it).  As I am out of town, I do not have all my notes, records, emails, and files with me, so if I haven't answered a question that needs a lookup, please be patient with me.

Emailing repeatedly when I've said I will get back to you as soon as possible will result in your getting fired as my client.  For all the time I spend repeating myself in emails, that is less time I have to actually do the work for you that you want me to do.  If you ordered custom work and it involved sewing, please know that the sewing machine broke, and so those orders are slowed down.  I hope to be back in action with the sewing on Tuesday.  If you ordered other custom work, please be assured that I am working on it - I have never failed to fill an order.  Custom work takes time, and I would rather do it right, even if that means I need to drive to the next town to find a root I don't happen to have in stock, than do it half-assed.  When I have to start doing things half-assed, I will stop doing them.

If you purchased a reading, you got in line.  If you haven't gotten your reading yet - and there is still quite a queue - and you would like your money back because you didn't realize you got in a line that had people in front of you, I am more than happy to refund it so you can spend it on somebody who can do readings with a quicker turnaround. I  can recommend several excellent readers.  If, while you are waiting, something about your situation changes, then by all means, please email me to inform me of the change.  But if you're emailing to ask where the reading is, I'll probably just refund your money so we can both be happy and spend our time doing something other than emailing each other.

For the past several years, I have gotten between 20 and 40 emails *every day* with inquiries on products, services, or general advice.  I have always tried to answer within 48 hours.  Lately, it's been more difficult for me to do so, and lately my email volume has increased.  If you are emailing about the same thing again, I am probably not going to answer your email if all I"m going to do is repeat myself.  The time to ask me if I can meet a pressing deadline is *before* you order, not after.  If I haven't begun processing your order and you would like a refund, please ask, and I'll be happy to provide it.  If I've already begun custom work, I will not refund your money, but I'll try to work something out with you (and then I will not accept any more work from you as this will result in my taking a loss).  I would rather refund your money, though, than risk letting my irritation bleed over into the work I'm doing for you, and risk you getting frustrated and being unhappy with the service you've retained me for.  I'm not here to be a bitch or make people wait for some kind of power trip, but I have other clients, and I have other obligations, and I have a full time job outside my home.  I adore you for your patience and understanding.

Much of this advice is probably advice you should take when you're working with anyone who provides spiritual services.

Once again, I risk alienating the majority of my clients and customers who are wonderful and understand that it takes time to do the work I do.  If the shoe does not fit, do not wear it :-) I very much appreciate you guys, and I am blessed to be able to help you and honored that you trust me to do it.  And as always, if I can't help you in the timeframe you need, I will be happy to try to help you find somebody who can.  I do not resent doing this work - I love doing this work and I love the people I meet.  But I do want to point out that annoying your reader or rootworker can get you fired - it may very well be the case that your reader or rootworker has people waiting in line for his or her services, because we don't take more clients than we can do right by, and that by letting you go as a client, he or she is not being ornery or going on a power trip but is in fact trying to make sure that you have a reader or worker you work well with, and vice versa.  Not everybody clicks, and different people work different ways.  If you're considering hiring a reader or worker, all these types of things about deadlines and timeframes are the types of things you want to find out about before you hire, so you can find somebody you click with.

If you're the type of person who thinks they need daily contact, then I am telling you now that I am not the reader or rootworker for you.  Don't hire me.  You'll be unhappy if you expect an email every day.

None of this means that I don't want to hear from you guys.  I love hearing from you guys when we're not beating dead horses.  A client emailed the other day and said "I know you're not here for moral support, but..." and I answered him that in fact I kind of AM here for moral support :-)  If I take a case, whether it's a single one day light setting or a longer term altar work case, I sure am here for you. That's part of why I turn away a lot of clients - if I think we won't click for whatever reason, or if I already have my hands and altars full, then I will tell you so.

This public service announcement brought to you by a Karma Zain who is trying very hard to do right by  you guys and very much appreciates your patience :-)  If offering custom work keeps biting me in the ass like it has been this last month or so, though, I'm going to quit saying "yes" when people want something that is not off-the-shelf - if nobody's happy, then there's no point.

Blessings, and happy hoodooing,

Karma Zain

P.S. Tolis, darlin', I got your coins, and you are a sweetie.  I'm gonna make you something special as lagniappe for being so nice and for having to wait so long for your custom order.  My mama herself is helping me finish your dolls this weekend 'cause our sewing machine needle up here broke.  My mama makes a mean doll-baby (and a mean roux).  You are in good hands, and I do appreciate your patience.

I have to travel to Alabama soon, and I'm putting the ebay store on vacation as of now so that I can get the current orders that are in-house processed before I leave.  I will begin processing any orders placed after 3 p.m. EST on June 2 as quickly as possible upon my return. 

To repeat: any order placed after 3 pm. EST today (june 2) will not be received and will not begin processing until my store is reopened.  I don't know when it will be open again - no later than the 9th, most likely, but that depends on when I can leave town. And I won't leave town until the orders in-house are filled and shipped.  eBay puts a yellow "flag" notice as well as a "vacation message" on main store pages as well as on each individual listing's page, but people very often do not see these notices because they are not very large, and not nearly bright enough in my opinion, and anyway I want to give my readers a heads up :-)

Due to several large international orders and a slew of reading orders that came all at once, as well as an unusual number of requests for custom items that came all at once, I have had a very hard time getting caught up after my last store "vacation" and staying caught up once I got the "placed during vacation" orders sent out.  I very much appreciate your patience and your understanding as I work to provide you with the personal attention that is the hallmark of Karma Zain Spiritual Supplies.  I cannot work any faster than I'm working. 

I hope to implement a few changes over the summer that will ultimately result in a faster processing time and less failure of my automated communications stuff (payment receipt notifications and shipping notifications), but right now I'm just doing the best I can. When I have to sacrifice personal attention and good old-fashioned preparation techniques for the sort of shipping speeds that ebay (and many ebay buyers) think ought to be the default, no matter what the item, I'll just close the darned ebay store.  Until that day comes, I have to say that I'm delighted with the overwhelming majority of my customers and so pleased that they like my products and understand that they're made the old-school way.  You guys are awesome.

The window for my accepting new reading clients is closed. No more readings.  Please see my userinfo page for readers I can personally recommend, and watch this space for more recommendations later.

The bad news: I'm running out of cat bones and not sure when I'm getting more.  One of my more frequent sources dried up last year and it's been hard going.  I have a few in the ground right now and my fingers are crossed for summer, but we'll see.

The good news: this got me thinking.  Why is my Black Cat Bone oil so expensive? Because of the herbs and curios in it, including a chip of genuine black cat bone among other curios, herbs, and minerals that make for a pricier bottle of oil.  But when you use the oil up, the bottle still has all those herbs and curios and minerals in it. So why not sell a refill bottle of oil that contains just the hand-blended essential oils? That way when people run out, they can get a refill to add to their empty bottles instead of having to go buy a whole new bottle when the cat bone and other good stuff in there is still perfectly good.  I mean, those cat bones aren't going anywhere.

So yeah. That's what I've done.  You can get an oil refill, containing no herbs or bones - only the blended essential oil - to add to your empty bottle of Black Cat Bone oil should you ever want to do such a thing.  And at a fraction of the price of the original bottle.

A customer writes to ask how folks use voodoo rosaries - are you supposed to just pray a regular rosary with them, like with Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be?

Now, as far as I know, there was no such thing as specifically voodoo rosaries before I started making them.  I started making them because I wanted some and couldn't find such a thing.  There are voodoo rosaries out there now, besides mine, from sellers who have apparently been inspired by my work, and I choose to take this as flattering.  But I bring all this up because, as these are something of an innovation, there is definitely no "one true way" to "say" or use a voodoo rosary.



( Read more... )

So anyway, here are some ideas for you guys who want to use voodoo rosaries for prayers or petitions.  For more ramblings on rosaries and prayer beads, including hoodoo rosaries and some quotations from + Michael Bertiaux, check out this post and this post.

P.S.  I'm just kidding about posting this to upset people, by the way.  I hope it's informative for those of you who don't come from a background that uses prayer or mala beads, and I do honestly hope it's more educational and inspiring than offensive.  

I just wanted to drop a line to let you guys know where *I* buy the spiritual supplies that I don't make or gather myself.

For hard to find roots and herbs, I don't buy from just anybody.  I use a hell of a lot of Master Root and Devil's Shoe String in my altar work, for myself, my friends and family, and my clients.  When I'm running low, I buy from knowledgeable and trustworthy suppliers who are also hoodoo practitioners, so I know I can always trust the products I'm getting.  Of course cat at Lucky Mojo has some of the most extensive selections on the web, but I figure everybody knows about Lucky Mojo. But you might not know about Black Cat Root Shack.

Lara over at Black Cat Root Shack is a dear.  Apparently this suprises some people, but many readers and rootworkers get other readers and rootworkers to help them sometimes, either to read or do altar work for them, or to back up their own work, and often to get consults on tricky situations.  For instance, I had a huge writing deadline a couple of months ago, and the Spirit of Writing candle I had on my writing altar was burning black (the inside of the glass from the top down to where it was still burning was completely black and opaque). This is never a good sign, and I was beginning to get in my own way with the work, and step on my own feet, because I was too close to my own situation - I thought it was time to get some help to be sure I was seeing the case clearly.  I called on Lara to do some light setting work for me, and she came through with kindness, clarity, and good mojo, and the reading she gave me on the burning process helped me see my own situation more clearly (I won't bore you guys with the details, but I have long-standing habit of exacerbating my own writer's block by freaking out more than is necessary). 

Long story short, I not only finished the work, but I did a damned good job on it, and even though the writing process was very painful, the end result is that the piece I finished ended up enhancing my reputation as a writer with somebody whose opinion on these things matters.  Black Cat Root Shack also has an ebay store.

Also, I have known Julia at A Higher Source for some time now, and know her to be a trustworthy, knowledgeable, and ethical worker who makes lovely items - I have several of her custom amulets in and around my home and altar space, and they are a constant source of delight (as well as mojo!) for me.  What I didn't know until recently is how fine her selection of lodestones is. She takes special care to hand select her lodestone pairs, and she does a truly outstanding job of this task, which is time consuming.  She also responds and ships quickly, and damn her website is pretty to look at.  According to her blog here on livejournal, she's closed right now, but should be back in action later this month; you should definitely bookmark her site and pay her a visit when you need high quality spiritual supplies, from lodestones to oils to amulets, or spiritual work.

I am wrapping up two readings I've owed for ages tonight and tomorrow, and after that I will be offering a few readings again.  I will no longer do astrology readings - I'm sorry - but I can recommend some other readers to you if  you would like astrology to be part of your reading.

I have a few here on ebay, and have updated the (still crappy looking page) on my website here.  If I get covered up, I'll pull the paypal buttons, so if you want to get in line, now's the time.  I'll do them in the order in which they are received.

Hello, folks!

This is one of the busiest times of year for me due to several events and obligations that cluster over the next ten or so days. 

As of this morning, I am putting the ebay store on vacation so that I have time to get all my in-house orders shipped before I go out of town on May 5.

Ebay does put up a little sign for you when you put your store on vacation, but it's little, and I can't tell you the number of times people have ordered from me when the store's been on vacation and just not seen it.  So this is by way of a heads up :-)

No, this doesn't mean I'm actually gone.  It just means I can't answer long, involved emails, ship any very large new orders, or start any new altar work before I get back home on May 10th. I"m not out of town yet, but my time from now until I am will be spent *away* from the terminal working on the orders that have already been placed.

If you have an order in with me as of April 27, it will go out according to the shipping time you were informed of at purchase (normally 7-10 days for ebay orders, whatever we talked about for custom, very large, or international orders).  If you place an order on April 28 or later, it will go out as soon as possible upon my return.

And hope you all have a Happy May!

The first prize winner of the raffle for a set of my new line of esoteric oils is C.C.  She'll get a bottle of the following oils:

Song of Solomon
Nataph
Prayer
Water of Life
Victory
Beauty for Ashes
Queen Esther
Ketubah
Three Kings

The second-prize winner is E.O.  She'll get the following:

Three Kings
Nataph
Ketubah

Winners have been emailed.  Congrats to you both!

This raffle is for a set of my new line of esoteric oils. The first-place winner will receive one two-dram bottle of the following oils:

Song of Solomon
Nataph
Prayer
Water of Life
Victory
Beauty for Ashes
Queen Esther
Ketubah
Three Kings

The runner-up will receive one two-dram bottle of the following oils:

Three Kings
Nataph
Ketubah

( Read more... )

Received:

J.R.
S.R.
J.M.
S.M.
E.O.
C.C.

A while back, I mentioned maybe getting rid of one dram bottles.  I've decided to go ahead with that.  Soon, my smallest available bottle will be two drams.

The good news is that the price is only going up by fifty cents for *twice as much product.* 

I'm putting one dram bottles on sale now through Saturday the 11th. Starting on the 11th, I will begin the long and painful process of pulling all the one dram bottle listings and replacing them with two dram bottle listings, also adjusting shipping to reflect the USPS's upcoming rate increase in May. (argh)

So anyway, sale!

I don't do many readings anymore, and when I do, it's almost always Tarot or other cartomancy readings.  I don't do much astrology or I Ching or geomancy these days. But my daughter is reading Harry Potter (again), and was asking me how to pronounce Rubeus the other day, and I started thinking: you know, in geomancy, Rubeus is often a pretty crappy thing to have turn up. But Rowling made something positive out of that Rubeus energy, just tweaked all kinds of stuff to various purposes while still maintaining links to the original or classical ideas.

Then I thought: Hey! I can do that! Why don't I make oils for exactly the sort of situations that used to come up for my clients back when I did geomancy readings?  You can make a virtue even of the red blood of Mars, if you know what you're doing. 

So the Geomancy line was born.

I don't have time to type up all the descriptions right now, but I'll try to get to it soon and edit this post.  In the meantime, here's a link.