Apprenticeship at Lucky Mojo – Week One: Tuesday

No, today was not devoted to candles, as I erroneously said last night.

There were no lectures today — this was where we earned our keep by making products for Miss Cat to sell (and, of course, learning much). We spent the morning making two cases of 13-Herb Bath. These are the big bags of 13-Herb — a 13 day supply, but it’s actually much more; you will have enough for many weeks of baths if you use the pretty hand-turned wooden measuring scoop that comes with each bag. I have to tell you those bags are much bigger than they look in any pictures you might have seen. We prepared about — six or 8 pounds, was it? — of mixed herbs. Some of them needed to be cut into tiny pieces first — barks and tough leaves. We had to make sure that each bag got its fair share of different-sized herbs, and there is something of an art to that — it’s all in how you scoop it out of the big mixing tub.

The last step in this process is praying over the mixed herbs — Psalm 91, to be precise. Aura LaForest knows it by heart.

These herbs are, many of them, very strong smelling. I don’t have any plant allergies that I know of, but I was sneezing pretty steadily until I realized that there were masks to wear. My breathing mask was my good friend all day.

One of the advantages of doing constructive work in such a small group is that it’s possible to focus on one new person at a time. Yesterday, Aura LaForest was a major focus of my attention. Today, it was Joan Cox. She’s a quilter and a new employee at Lucky Mojo. she’s also pretty keen on astrology — but, compared to me, almost any magical worker is keener on astrology than I am. She has a gift for candle work — often gets powerful results from it.

After a gorgeous potluck lunch, we made more baths: one case of Gambler’s Gold and two cases of 9-Herb Bath, for changing your luck. The process was very similar — much breaking up of big pieces into little pieces, tearing apart clumps of herbs, and so forth.

I didn’t take part in making the batch of Gambler’s Gold, because sometime before that process started, I was put to work putting fire ants into little vials. It’s tricky working on such a small scale; I soon improvised a little paper funnel to herd those dried ants down the necks of those tiny vials. I really enjoyed this task, not least because these fire ants are the midnight red of pigeon’s-blood rubies.

I’m very happy and very tired. Goodnight 🙂