Stephanie's Studio

Poof! We planted, and the little seedlings took. They fluttered in the wind, and were visited by bees and butterflies. The seedlings and plants seemed to enjoy the composted earth and worms, by all indications. As you can see, the garden took. It flourished and filled in. With a few hiccups along the way, finally, as you can see from the lower images, we have wonderful vegetables and herbs that are also useful for magickal herbalism and Hoodoo. My little herb garden, (not pictured here) is in fact, packed with goodies, including soapwort, patchouli, basil, horehound, lemon verbena, lemon balm and more. I will be sharing some pictures and ways of using these wonderful herbs magickally, or other ways, shortly. This post will be continued. Next time, I'll be sharing the process of making a magickal spiritual-cleansing broom or two, from the broom corn shown above (which is much taller now). After t...

This weekend, I had the pleasure of presenting my new release "Earth Mama's Spiritual Guide to Weight Loss" at Afriware Books and Events, an African-centered bookstore in Maywood, Illinois to a wonderfully receptive audience. Topics covered included making juice from popular soul food fruits and veggies and making mojo bags for self-determination and strength. My daughter Olivia Bird took these action photos: Gettin' that mojo workin' Self-determination, Strength and Confidence-building Mojo "Earth Mama's Spiritual Guide to Weight Loss" display at Afriware Sharing the book's Preface Thanks to all involved, including Afriware staff, volunteers, my family and the folks who came out on a beautiful Saturday Summer afternoon and supported my work.

                                     (Winter Poinsettia by Stephanie Rose Bird, oil on wood) One of my Facebook friends does daily posts and shares called "I love Flowers." I love flowers too, in real life, in my garden, in paintings and as they are related to the gods and goddesses, in healing, as well as their use in folklore like Hoodoo. Not long ago I posted about Xochipelli (Sho-CHEE-pee-lee) prince of flowers and Xochiquetzal (Sho-CHEE-ket-zul) goddess of flowers in anticipation of April's blooming season.  The Goddess and Prince of Flowers post  is here. Today, I want to focus in on the root word of their names and it's symbolism. This word is Xochitl (Show-CHEE-tul) in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs. This word means flower.                                         ...

When I was in art school my main stay as an artist was oil on canvas. As I have matured as an artist, I have found myself gravitating towards mixed media. I find it fulfilling in many ways. It allows for experimentation and it is always full of surprises. This piece was created using kitchen vegetable and fruit scraps from the juicer to make handmade paper. Materials were added to make it able to achieve archival quality and to be permanent. Then twigs were added in and found paper scraps. I call this "Ghost in the Frame." This next piece was created in much the same way as the one above it but it does not have the prominent element of assemblage through twigs, instead it is more of a painted collage. It combines the same type of handmade paper and found paper with water-based paints like gouache and plaka with natural inks. It is an abstraction with landscape elements and its title is "Mixed media Landscape." I am an eclectic in my pagan, earth-based s...

Friday Natural Healing Corner: Dying, Death and Mourning In many quarters of the globe, the word death seems to burn the lips, particularly here in the West.  To utter death, we move our lips in such a way that bitter feelings, gruesome thoughts and the pain of finality is wrenched from the depths of the soul.  This dance with death begins clumsily yet with practice it can become increasingly more graceful.  Those of us involved with Hoodoo deal with various realms, including the "other-side" on a daily basis.  A gift of Hoodoo is that within its domain lies a plethora of jobs, tricks, rituals and incantations, inspired by the wisdom of indigenous and rural people.  Death, dying, grief and its attending depression and depletion are processes without an easy solution.  Using elements of Hoodoo can help you come to terms with the inevitable.  Hoodoo conjuration keeps you in touch with the spirit realm affording opportunities to glimpse and interact ...

By Land                “Lord give me strength.” How many times have you heard someone say that? Implicit in that statement, we are reaching to the Divine Spirit for reinforcements. When you think of strength there are few things stronger than metal. So for our first charm let’s consider metal’s role in spirituality.                 Metal and metalsmithing play are important in traditional West African society, culture and spirituality.  The idea of transforming a mundane, stiff material into something useful, is an act of alchemy that is  treasured—it is nothing short of magic(k)al.  The admiration for the transformative properties the metal-smith and all that goes into the process, led to a wealth of traditions within Hoodoo.  Two of the objects that are  the subject of the most lore are horseshoes and nails. ...

Sharing one’s work, written or visual can be a frightening proposition.  You've slaved away in your studio, lost in your thoughts and personal motivation.  Then you and your work step out into the world to see what others see in the creative expression. For me, at times this stepping out into an unknown realm can be daunting and the prospect of doing it yesterday with my writing has left me with a headache. I am workshopping my fiction at Newberry Library.  Love the workshop, the teacher and there are many fascinating people and good writers in the class. I had been working on a new first chapter to my novel.  My original first chapter wasn't grabbing enough; it just focused on the protagonist’s everyday experience. The revised first chapter was difficult to write. After writing and editing it I was almost ready to cry.  It is sad and unfortunate, what happens to her.  She is a seemingly powerless teenager who gets abuse...

Lately I’ve been craving a good storm.  I don’t want it to pose danger to anyone but for someone reason I need a storm.  It already feels like spring or really like summer though it is not yet Ostara. You can do such potent magical things with Lightning Water but you need a strong storm to be able to collect the water. In my book, “Sticks, Stones, Roots and Bones,” I write a lot about proper collection of the different types of waters for magickal intentions and found during my research that I was especially fascinated by some West African collection techniques of the Ibo people.  I was looking through my things and noticing that I still have some Tennessee Lightning water sent by a good friend who is very spiritual.  I wonder how potent it is now? It is bottled in a brown bottle so it probably has maintained much of its power and I know it was sent with good intentions.  I need to make some powerful changes in my environment and have a good feeling that I n...

After spending a lot of time considering the notion of shielding, and shields as physical and psychic protection armaments, I created this piece using watercolor pencils on watercolor paper.  I wanted to portray the fragility of our physical self, portraying an abstracted version of the body with a specific focus on its important internal organs, placing all of it behind a transparent yet powerful shield. This painting is roughly 8 x 12 inches and was done about five years ago. When I worked at the Art Institute during my lunch breaks I would visit the collections, lingering over the armor section.  The armor collection is compellingly striking and it evokes awe and wonder. Feeling vulnerable physically, psychologically and psychically, about five years ago I decided to learn to make different types of armor, using the materials at hand.  I also made an intense study of armor and then created a large variety of shields as works-on-paper that also coordinated with a he...

Welcome to my studio! I have spent about a decade mostly focused on writing. I wrote "Sticks, Stones, Roots and Bones: Hoodoo, Mojo and Conjuring with Herbs" first. Then I wrote four more books and numerous articles about hoodoo, African American holistic health, paganism and magick. While doing this heavy focus on writing, my other creative garden--the painting and drawing I had dedicated my life to, became more of a secret garden. Now it is time to water, fertilize and nurture that secret garden and bring it into the light, so that it isn't so secret anymore. As I develop my paintings, drawings and other inspirations, I will share them in this space. Enter here to find sanctuary, ideas and inspiration.