Category: General Information

Quick Update – 05/03/2010

Hi everyone,
I just wanted to let you know that we will have a podcast forthcoming this week, but it may be delayed a bit.  We had some really rough weather over the weekend and it’s thrown things into a bit of a tizzy, so please bear with us while we get things together.

There’s going to be a mini-podcast up today (a little special episode), but the normal episode probably won’t be up for another day or two.  It’s been recorded, I just need to do the editing.  We will try to have it for you as soon as possible though.

Thanks for your patience!

-Cory

Blog Post 41 – Zombie Dust

Good morning everyone!  Today I’m going to be talking about one of the most interesting magical ingredients available on the market today:  Zombie Dust.

This particular magical supply is the stuff of legends, and has long been used in Voodoo and hoodoo ceremonies involving resurrection of the dead.  The powder is sprinkled over a recently deceased corpse, which then rises in the thrall of the one who did the sprinkling, becoming a sort of slave to the magician.  The use of Zombie Powder was chronicled in the 1986 documentary film, Zombie Nightmare.  In the movie, we are allowed to witness an actual resurrection ceremony performed by a Voodoo priestess.  The powder is never shown in great detail, but it is clearly used to perform the rite.

The ingredients are usually a closely guarded secret, however I can share at least a few of the most “active” components with you here today.  Some traditional ingredients include:

  • Bone of the father unwillingly given
  • Flesh of the servant willingly sacrificed
  • Blood of the enemy forcibly taken

These ingredients, however, may merely be for show, as the key ingredient seems to be moon dust.  Moon dust is lunar detritus which falls to the earth after the dozens of meteors which strike the moon’s surface daily send up plumes of the stuff which then make their way to earth.  Moon dust can only be collected during a full moon, however, when you can see the little particles making their way down along the silvery beams.  The easiest way to collect moon dust (though there really is no “easy” way) is to stand in the light of the full moon with a glass jar held up to catch the falling particles.  It takes a good bit of moon dust to make Zombie Powder, so it’s possible you’ll be standing in the dark for quite a while.  Just remember that moon dust is very light, so don’t shift the jar at all or it may cause the particles you’ve already captured to float out of the container.

There are many who speculate (and I am among them) that it is the moon dust which actually leads to resurrection of the dead.  This is why so many cultures want their dead buried before the light of the full moon can touch the corpse.  Further evidence of this idea comes from Cambodia, where certain swamps receive more nights of full moonlight than anywhere else on earth.  The swamps are also home to a particular type of mosquito, which breeds in the moon dust-filled waters.  In 2005, these mosquitoes began biting people and causing outbreaks of zombism in the area.  A BBC article on the subject explains the phenomenon in more detail.

I have only rarely used Zombie Dust myself, and I always put my zombie servants back in their graves when I’m done with them—it’s the responsible thing to do, really.  If you’re interested in seeing an actual zombie raising performed on video, you can see the dead being raised here.   A somewhat more bizarre version of the rite is available here as well.

That’s it for today!  Thanks for reading everyone!

-Cory

P.S.  Oh!  And Happy April Fools’ Day!

Blog Post 34 – This Week

Hello to all our wonderful readers and listeners!

I just wanted to make a quick post this morning to let y’all know that we’re going to have lots of good stuff for you this week.  I’m in the process of making final edits to our next podcast episode, which will feature an interview with the incomparable Papa Toad Bone of the Toad’s Bone Apotheca.  In addition, New World Witchery friend and scholar Chris Bilardi (author of the wonderful book The Red Church) has written an article for us on the braucherei magical tradition which we’ll be hosting here.  I think you’ll love this essay if you enjoy magic and folklore (if you’re reading this blog, I imagine that’s the case).

The podcast should be up tomorrow, and the essay will be posted on Wednesday and Thursday, I think.  I am so thankful to all our great friends, fans, readers, and listeners here!  You all make us feel really blessed, and the links, contributions, and comments have just been beyond our best expectations.  Thank you so much for being so supportive of New World Witchery!

Also, I know there have been a lot of comments and several emails that have been sent the past few days and which I haven’t yet responded to.  Please rest assured I’ll be getting to those and answering them as soon as possible.  I just wanted to go ahead and get this post up so that everyone would know what wonderful things to expect this week 🙂

As always, thanks for reading/listening/writing/talking/and everything else y’all do for us here at NWW!

-Cory

Blog Post 25 – A Little Nonsense Now and Then…

Hi all,

I don’t have anything deep or profound to share today, just a little bit of silliness I thought some of you might enjoy.  For those unfamiliar with the 1970’s horror film The Wicker Man, it’s chock-full of Pagan-y goodness.  Add to that the loveable felt-and-plastic characters from The Muppets, and you get, well…something very strange.

But very funny.  To me anyway.  Here, see for yourself:

http://issuu.com/soundofdrowning/docs/muppetwickerman

Thanks for reading!

-Cory

Blog Post 23 – Congratulations!, and Something New

A big congratulations to Anica, who won our Weather Lore contest!  We’ll be getting a copy of Cat Yronwode’s book off to you soon.

Many thanks to all those who entered–we received some fantastic bits of weather lore we’ll be incorporating into an episode sometime in the near future.  We have wonderful readers and listeners, and we greatly appreciate you all!  Keep watching the blog and listening to the show for future contests.

Also, some of you may have noticed we now have a “Donate” button on our site.  While this blog and podcast are now and will remain free, we thought that if any of our fans wanted to chip a couple of bucks our way, we certainly didn’t want to stop them.   Any funds donated will be used to enhance the site or procure research materials for future New World Witchery posts and podcasts.  Please don’t feel obligated to donate, of course, but we will welcome any support offered.

Also, if you’re a magical merchant or author and you’re interested in sending us a sample of your craft/work for use as a contest prize, please contact us at compassandkey@gmail.com.

Again, many thanks to all of our wonderful readers and listeners!  You really have made us feel immensely loved so far!  We’ve got some really tremendous surprises coming in the near future, so stay tuned!

All the best,

-Cory

Blog Post 22 – Thank You to All Contest Entrants!

This is just a quick thank you to everyone who participated in our Weather Lore giveaway! We got some wonderful bits of lore we’ll be bringing you in the near future. The contest is closed now, and we should have a winner to announce this week (depending on when Laine and I can get together to do the hat-drawing ceremony). Again, many thanks to our readers and listeners!

All the best, and be well!

-Cory

Blog Post 21– Final Call for Contest Entries!

Hi everyone!

Only a little less than three days left in our first-ever contest!  We’re giving a copy of Cat Yronwode’s Hoodoo Root & Herb Magic to one randomly chosen reader/listener who provides us with a little bit of weather folk lore from his or her family or region.  All you have to do is email us or leave a comment on Blog Post 10 – Weather Work with your general area (you can say “South” or “East Coast” if you like) and a tidbit about what folks say about the weather in your neck of the woods.  The deadline is February 28th at midnight, Central Time, so please get your submissions in before then.  We’ll be using these entries for a podcast on weather magic and folklore, so please write in!

Good luck!

Thanks for reading!

-Cory

Blog Post 17 – Contest Reminder

Hi everyone!

Just a quick reminder that there’s only a little over a week left in our first giveaway.  We’re offering a copy of Cat Yronwode’s Hoodoo Root & Herb Magic to one randomly chosen reader/listener.  All you have to do is email us or leave a comment on Blog Post 10 – Weather Work with some weather lore, preferably from your area or family.  The deadline is February 28th at midnight, Central Time, so please get your submissions in before then.  We’ll likely be putting together a show on weather lore soon and we’d love to have some field reports from out there in the wider magical community.

So good luck, and we look forward to hearing from you!

Thanks for reading!

-Cory

Blog Post 11 – A Contest!

Hi everyone!

I loosely alluded to this in a previous post, but we’ve decided that we want your weather lore!  We’re putting together a show based on weather magic and folklore, and we need good field reports.  So, we’re having a little contest here at New World Witchery.  From now until the end of February 2010 (the 28th), anyone who:  1) posts a comment on Blog Post 10 – Weather Work, or 2) sends us an email describing any kind of weather-related magic or lore, especially family or local lore, will have their name entered into a drawing.  Also include what part of the country/continent you’re from (you don’t need to give us specific locations, unless you win, of course…then we’ll need an address to ship to 🙂 ).  All entries must be date-stamped before midnight CST on the 28th to be considered.  And if you’ve already posted a comment with weather lore, don’t worry, we’ll count you, too!

On March 1st (or thereabouts), we’ll be drawing a name from the thousands of entries we receive (we’re optimistic) and one lucky reader/listener will receive a free copy of Catherine Yronwode’s Hoodoo Root & Herb Magic.  For those of you unfamiliar with this text, it’s the quintessential text on the botanicals and curios used in the practice of Southern-style hoodoo and conjure magic.

From the Lucky Mojo website (slightly abridged):

Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic, paperback by Catherine Yronwode
Originally published in 2002.
From the proprietor of the Lucky Mojo Curio Company comes the most thorough, complete, and authentic book on how roots and herbs are used in traditional African-American folk magic. 500 herbs, roots, minerals, and zoological curios are listed, along with their scientific names, so you will know exactly what to harvest or buy from an herb dealer. Included are an amazing 750 spells, formulas, mojo hand combinations, and candle rites, all given in workable, practical detail. Medical usages for many of the herbs, supplementary botanical notes, a series of cross-indexes listing herbs by the magical conditions for which they are recommended, plus 50 beautiful black and white illustrations of herbs and vintage herb packaging round out this informative reference volume. There is no other herb encyclopedia like this one. This is the book to get if you are working traditional conjure and herb magic. 224 pages, trade paperback.

  • 500 herbs, roots, minerals, and rare zoological curios, with taxonomic (“Latin”) names for proper identification.
  • 750 traditional spells, tricks, and magical recipes.
  • 50 black and white line illustrations of common magical herbs and roots of North America.
  • 6 handy charts in which dozens of conditions — such as love-drawing or protection — are listed and the herbs for each condition are given in alphabetical order.
  • Cross-referencing: Every herb is accompanied by at least one spell.
  • Bibliography: Authentic recipes are drawn from first-hand experience and 100 years of solid folkloric research.

I own this book and let me assure you, it’s one of the best magical herbals out there.  No fluff, no repetitive 101 stuff; just good, solid information backed by great research.

So, if you want to contribute to the wealth of knowledge and lore in the witchy world, plus have a chance to get a fantastic magical reference book, please submit!  We’ll also be announcing this on the next podcast, too, so if you primarily keep up with us that way, you won’t be left out.

Good luck, and thanks for reading!

-Cory

Blog Post 4 – Quick Update & Apology to T. Thorne Coyle

Hi all,

I just wanted to take a moment and apologize to anyone who subscribed to this feed and got an episode of T. Thorne Coyle’s podcast included with blog post #2.  I had included a direct link to a podcast of hers I was referencing in that post, and that, unfortunately, made it look to my feed writer like I had another podcast up.  I corrected the link so it wouldn’t go directly to the audio file, but I think it may have been too late.

While I certainly recommend listening to that episode of Ms. Coyle’s podcast (among many other episodes of her show), I did not intend to hijack that file into my feed, and I apologize.  I most especially apologize to Ms. Coyle, and hope this does not sour her sentiments towards this site or its owners.  I’m trying to figure out how to make that audio file stop feeding, but I have not been able to as of yet, so any suggestions are most welcome. Podcasting is still a fairly new thing to me, so please bear with me/us as we make mistakes.

Thanks for reading & listening!

-Cory