Voodoo Jar finale and job-interview update, all in one.

Last week was sitting-on-eggshells stressful.  After a smashing 1st interview, J proceeded to hear nothing for the entire rest of the week.  I spent all day, every day, glued to my phone, waiting for a text or a call from him letting me know that he was booked for Round 2, to no avail.  It finally occurred to me on Friday that Mardi Gras had really kicked into effect in full force, and that NOT hearing anything from anyone down there was somewhat to be expected.  At any rate, after all the initial work on the jar, as seen in Part 1 and Part 2, we were ready this weekend to Fill it Up with all of the job-hunt and moving mojo that we could muster!

We tidied up the entire living room and dining room area, to have an organized space to work in.  The cleaner the space, the easier it is to focus, and all of your energy is more easily directed when you’re not distracted by that plate sitting on the coffee table.  Next, we cleansed the area (and each other) with sage, and sat down to do some initial grounding.  What we do is this: we sit across from each other with our hands on the table.  On my right side, my hand is underneath his and on the left, my hand is on top of his.  We cycle energy around, in through one hand, out through the other. As we do so, any negative juju comes out in the wash.  J and I can get a really cool flux of energy going when we do this, truly.  I think we should do it more often.

Then, we set about rounding up every little last thing we were going to need.  This included things that would go IN the jar, as well as things that would be laid out AROUND the jar afterwards.  It’s always good, when doing something like this, to have everything ready.  Nothing breaks concentration more than, “Oh wait, I forgot to grab that essential oil, hang on while I rummage for it.”   So we dug everything up and sat it out on the coffee table for the time being.  It is important to note that we got ourselves organized after grounding and cleansing – I always work this way, it means that every time I physically handle anything related to what I’m working on…I’m handling with focus.

We were fortunate enough to find pre-existing beads for Ogun and Legba.  However, there was nothing for Agwe!  So I put this together, from blue Mardi Gras Beads, and included the Louisiana charms as a means to heavily imply that his help with our journey is help going THERE, specifically.

Everything on the table.  From chaos comes great works?

While all of this was going down, I had an herbal bath blend simmering on the stove, potpourri-style.  I usually take “voodoo baths” for the purpose of cleansing.  However, this time, it was done for the purpose of Opening Roads.

Once it had simmered long enough, I put it in a glass bowl and took it outside to the balcony to let it cool.  It’s not fun splashing literally-boiling water on oneself, so cooling was essential.  The Road Opening voodoo bath took place out there, and involved both J and I splashing the water from the bowl onto our heads, backs, arms, and legs.  It was chilly out, so needless to say this part of the procedure was rather invigorating, and definitely woke us up.

And hey, it smelled great!

And then it was time to get to Work.  I didn’t photodocument this part, because it is an understatement to say that my focus was very much on the task at hand.  We filled the jar up with all sorts of things – herbs and powders geared toward open roads, success, luck; some gris gris made by Mimi at Esoterica that we picked up last time we were in New Orleans in 2010; some of the loa-specific offerings that were small enough to fit; our packets with our needs written out; I could go on and on.  There’s a lot of stuff in that jar.

When we were done, we set the jar’s lid aside to wait for Agwe’s champagne to flatten a little, lest the whole thing explode!  And decided to set up an entire altar around the thing.  We normally keep works like this on my altar in our bedroom, but for this…well, we want it to be in front of us and out where we do most of our living, all the time, constantly.  That way we can continue to feed it, to add offerings, to perpetuate its energy.  All of this means that our dining room table is one big altar right now.  😉

Damballah’s Egg.

 From the other side.

View from straight-on.  From left: Job incense from Marie Laveau’s – as cheesy as it sounds, it worked for us once before; job candle, with offering basket behind it, Papa Legba doll, and candle; Oshun (I brought her in because she’s helped me before and given me rather good advice); Damballah’s egg; Road Opener candle; Jar and beads in front waiting to be sealed.

Close-up of the jar – those are peppers for Ogun.

We let those candles burn the rest of the day, well into the night.  On Sunday, I sat down to seal the jar with wax.  Some of the liquid inside came out, a little, and I could smell that the peppers are starting to infuse in there.  Exciting stuff!

 All sealed up!

And, that was that!  Now, the candles burn constantly whenever we’re home and awake.  (Don’t leave them unattended!  That should go without saying, but I know bettah.)   We will keep this up for as long as it takes.

Monday, the day after we sealed the jar, J FINALLY got an email from the lady who interviewed him during Round 1.  I hope this means that something is being kicked into gear.  She was informing him that Round 2 was about to start and that people would start to be scheduled, by the higher-ups who now have his resume in their hands.  Today is Mardi Gras, so we don’t expect a call today.  But there should be one sometime this week.  Here’s hoping.  Hoping hoping hoping.