The Spellcaster's Source Hoodoo and Voodoo Witchcraft Blog of Talia Felix

There is a tradition that says the hump of a hunchback is filled with luck. Consequently, there is a pool of believers who consider hunchbacks to be symbols of luck. In the past, in America, it was said that rubbing of one's hump was lucky -- but nowadays, even if one can find a hunchback (unlikely, as modern medicine has made the condition much more rare) such behavior is discouraged unless you know him or her pretty well. But carrying of a gobbo (hunchback) charm or figurine is a tradition that made its way over from Italy. This too, is said to bring the bearer oodles of good luck. The mystical tradition of luck and supernatural power of the hunchback go way back -- the Egyptian god Bes was often portrayed with this deformity, and hunchbacked gods or spirits are known worldwide. My own experience with hunchback spirit entities (so far) is they can help you get -- what else? -- lucky hunches [intuitions or feelings.] ORATION TO THE HUNCHBACK: I petition this power from your hump,...

The Louvre needs to be set up something more akin to Disneyland: maybe with a hotel on the premises and a week-long pass available. I think at the very least some kind of 1/3 price ticket should be available that lets you just see one section of the museum (like just the paintings, or just the Egyptian goods, or just the statues...) I think it was the first museum where I ever actually started to become frustrated at finding MORE COOL STUFF. The brain cannot take so much in one day. Hell, even my camera couldn't handle it -- it ran out of batteries taking snapshots of so many things! Some highlights: Just be sure to mind the pickpockets (you will find signs all over the building about this. Paris is actually kind of a nasty place.)

Okay... so a drinking game to a Disney movie is arguably not very Goth. Let's just point out that Disney hosts Bats Day and that you can drink this while sipping some suitably spooky beverage. Mulan is one of the final movies of the Disney Renaissance . It is based on an old Chinese poem about a woman who went into the military in place of her old father and little brothers. The movie is of course Disnified and has weird elements like a talking dragon voice by Eddie Murphy thrown in to be more 'hip.' Now... this is actually the best drinking game to a film I've done. It's got a small enough number of imbibe moments that one can usually remember them, and they are all for just one drink so there's no confusion about how many sips or chugs this or that requires. Here are the moments: Shan-Yu's hawk screeches (repeat the screech and drink) Characters pour or have tea (drink) Nudity (drink) Ancestor spirits on screen (drink) End of the Tung S...

(Originally from Metafilter ): Walking down Zürich's Lindenhofstrasse, you might stop in surprise by a relief depicting two men and a woman, draped in gauzy robes, each one calmly carrying their own severed head. There is no explanatory sign. Don't worry, though: Felix, Regula and Exuperantius are just the city's cephalophoric patron saints.

Recently I was in Edinburgh, Scotland -- the happiest place on earth! (And one of the most haunted!) I made sure to visit all the spiritual hot-spots -- Greyfriar's Kirkyard, Mary King's Close, and The Vaults! And it was there I seem to have made a few little friends... Yes, classic Ghost Orbs! I was so pleased. Also I think I made friends with one of the spirits in this place -- his reputation, according to the guide, is for being rather malicious, but in life it seems he was a the sort of guy who you went to, to "get things done." Seems like a hoodoo worker's dream to me. His name is Joseph Smith from what I understand, and I think I will be giving future updates about my work with this most interesting spirit. By the way, these photos were taken on one of the Double Dead Tours -- make sure to check them out if you're ever in Edinburgh. You get to see the haunted Vaults and the Graveyard at night.

There can be no doubt that where faith is very strong, and imagination is lively, cures which seem to border on the miraculous are often effected—and this is, indeed, the basis of all miracle as applied to relieving bodily afflictions. All of this may be, if not as yet fully explained by physiology, at least shown to probably rest on a material basis. But no sound system of cure can be founded on it, because there is never any certainty, especially for difficult and serious disorders, that they can ever be healed twice in succession. The "faith" exacted is sometimes a purely hereditary gift, at other times merely a form of blind ignorance and credulity. It may vividly influence all the body, and it may fail to act altogether. But the "Faith Healer" and "Christian Scientist," or "Metaphysical Doctor," push boldly on, and when they here and there heal a patient once, it is published to the four winds as a proof of invariable infallibility. And as ...

"Allan Kardac is known as the divine messenger and man of supernatural powers. Happiness, good luck, and prosperity. Burn candle for happiness, good luck and prosperity." So says Wisdom Products selling their Allan Kardec candle. As a teacher with little scientific background (he had never attended a university), Kardec -- whose real name was Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail -- decided to do his own research into the popular phenomenon of spirit communication. Not being a medium himself, he compiled a list of questions and began working with mediums and channelers to put them to spirits. Soon the quality of the communications, allegedly with spirits, appeared to improve. He is famous for writing The Spirits' Book , considered the first and most important book on the subject of spiritism.