Stephanie's Studio

What if you could learn to deepen your spirituality through the practice of Hoodoo, day-by-day? How about if you could study herbalism, practice rites, and match spells to your intentions? These are some of the ideas behind my soon-to-be-released book, "365 Days of Hoodoo: Daily Rootwork, Mojo & Conjuration." Perfectly timed to be released in the latest part of the year--perfect because then you can peruse the contents in December, gather what you need, and get yourself ready for using it in the New Year of 2019. This book shares the wisdom of traditional Hoodoo and also offers modern/contemporary approaches. It was a labor of love to be sure. I think it comes in around 400 pages! Whether you are already practicing or new to Hoodoo, or even just curious about it, I think you're going to find this book to be one you'll want to engage in, for the entire year. I'm so happy it is coming closer and closer to it's publication date . Stay tuned f...

Happy to announce that my 6th book has been published by a small publishing house in England called Green Magic Publishing! You can find it  here. It is a very unique book, that has been a long time coming - 14 years actually! When I began writing it my adult children were still living at home and my youngest, who is about to graduate from high school, was little more than a toddler. Time flies but book writing seems to take forever! The release of, Earth Mama's Spiritual Guide to Weight Loss feels like a birth. It has had growing pains, changes and the labor of bringing it into this world - a labor of love. I'm offering a series of workshops at Life Force Arts Center in Chicago, to kick off the book and get you into its unique type of hands-on healing and transformation work. This first one is inspired by Welsh Goddess Cerrwiden. Following is a description and how you can sign up at  Life Force Arts Center. Cerrwiden’s Pig: Shifting and Personal Transfor...

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 ...

So, here we are, back to Friday and the Natural Healing Corner. Today, I invite you to focus on your everyday rituals. What do you do every day without fail? What makes your day a go, right from the start? I like to share and be with my family. More specifically, I enjoy waking up and sharing a drink with my son and husband. It doesn’t matter what type it is, green tea, hot cocoa, chamomile, rooibos or even coffee, it’s the shared activity of drinking that is the ritual. As we sip our drink, we mentally and spiritually prepare for the day ahead. Recently, my husband’s friend, shared a gorgeous bag of dried hibiscus flowers with us and advised us to make tea. Though it originated in the Motherland, in Angola, it is popular in his native Mexico, and this friend feels that hibiscus is an elixir for a good, strong life. Our shared drink, at least between my husband and me, over the past week has been hibiscus tea. Blood red, hibiscus has strong red, healing medicine in the for...

No one wants to wake up, randomly wondering what the day is all about spiritually, though that is exactly what many of us do unless it is a holiday, sabbat, equinox or solstice. Luckily, I have many resources, all around me, in hard copy as books and through my numerous online groups. Today though, I consulted what is like a devotional to me, “365 Goddess” only to discover today could be quite an amazing day. What Telesco says about today’s Goddess dove-tails so nicely with my current spiritual direction. March 4 th is devoted to the Japanese mother goddess Kishi-Mujin. She offers safety and invites us to welcome spring. Her guidance is focused around grounding and centering as well as striking a balance between the polar forces. So today can be dedicated to prayer, meditation, gentle earth invocations and cleansing. Offerings using water can be made and my beloved pine, is important today. Pine is used in Buddhist rituals today to ward off evil spirits. How this ...

Christmas shopping can leave you feeling warm or cold, anxious, boxed-in, eager, small, excited, curious, angry, sullen, empty, broke, infuriated, surprised, inflated, humbled, sorry, bland, informed, torn, confused, apathetic, charmed, depressed or even happy.   Every year it creeps up on you.   I expect to keep things simple and then like something stored up in a dark moist place it mushrooms until it is almost out of control.   I don’t think this has to do with the other people in my life.   I think its complexity builds and churns in my head until I’m left beaten and whirled like some kind of human batch of butter. The surprises are always nice.   I get so many different emails all year and one of them is called Found it.   Loved it!   They are supposed to be surprising finds you can look for on the internet. I decided to look at it for once, since I usually admittedly delete them and found this wonderful site www.artoftea.com .   It is all...