The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Happy holiday. Naturally, I'm thinking about the dead.

Many of us, especially on darker spiritual paths, are drawn to the dead. But I think comparatively few of us are drawn to our own dead -- our blood families. Lots of us I've known have real issues with our blood families, especially our nuclear family.

I'm including myself in that. I'm estranged from my mother, who is dying of cancer. (Is that a gut-punch? Sorry.) I have a father and a sister, but I don't really speak to either -- we don't have a lot in common. They're well-grounded in the world, with nice jobs and plenty of credit-card debt. I'm a creative for a living, and I live a pretty bohemian life. We don't have a lot in common; I know they don't respect my life.

And most critically, I know enough about the family history that I can see the marks of abuse, running back through time. It's hard for me to reach back to the recently dead, even those I personally knew, because I knew about their evils (both large and petty).

In these cases? As ancestor-workers, we can reach further back along the blood line. We can go back in time to the older ancestors, even those who aren't recorded in genealogies. They've been dead longer; long-dead human spirits have a tendency to chill out, abandon their pettinesses, see from a broader perspective.

You could pose a question: why connect with one's blood family at all? There are an abundance of spiritual ancestors to choose from, ranging from those up-line to you (see my previous entry about the Strigoi Morte) to people you merely find inspiring.

These spirits are powerful indeed. But with some exceptions, they may not stay with you as long. The spirits bound to you in your DNA (or by the sacred bonds of adoption) are your ride or die. No matter what you believe, what spiritual or social traditions you take part in, you'll always carry part of them with you.

It's nice to have pictures of them on your shrine, or relics, but they are so intimately a part of your being that a mirror will do. You carry them in your face, in your bearing. You are their hope, walking through the world. You hold the entirety of human history in your being: even those who have no lineal relation to you are your aunts and uncles. No matter what you choose to do in your life, they have been there before; they can offer you advice.

I know we tend toward dark colors to mean death in our culture, but for my human ancestors, I was taught to us a blinding, dazzling white on their shrine. Leave a few glasses of clean, fresh water on their altar, as a medium of manifestation. Burn a candle to illuminate the steps of the freshly dead. Leave them offerings of food and drink; alcoholic drinks and tobacco are traditional in many spiritual systems, but skip these if your more recent Dead suffered from alcoholism or lung disease.

Your Dead love you fiercely. Even if you have been harmed by the living, the Dead still offer you their love and support. You are the hope of generations.

“Rose of Jericho” is a general name for several species of small tumbleweed native to deserts around the world. It's sometimes called the Resurrection Plant, on account of its peculiar ability to “come back from the dead”.

You can buy the living plant at many hoodoo supply shops, botanicas, and online stores. Don't be surprised: when you open up the package it will be curled up, dry, and “dead”.

To “wake it up”, put it in a shallow dish of water. (There's no need for soil, fertilizer, or anything else.) Over the next hour or two, the plant will miraculously “come to life”: it will uncurl and become green, and show you its fernlike leaves! If it has any flowers or seeds (uncommon with the plants I've bought in botanicas) it will show these now.

Staying green for too long will stress the plant out, and you risk the plant rotting. After a few days of letting the plant sit in the water, remove it from water. It'll curl back up and look like a dried-up tumbleweed. You can then wake it up all over again. You can do this many times, although if your plant ever grows too stressed or starts to rot you'll need to find another one.

Because of its ability to “create something for nothing” this plant has many uses in Hoodoo and Spiritualism. Put the plant in a dish by your door, or by your desk where you work, to bring in luck and money where there was none before. If you're feeling despondent, the plant can bring you new life and joy. It can also rekindle old loves.

In addition to the plant itself bringing luck, its water carries many of the same properties as the plant. Add it to a spiritual bath to perk you up, anoint your doors and windows with the water, or add it to your mop water (maybe with Van Van oil or florida water) to bless your home with resurrection energy.

While I think many Hoodoo practitioners would balk at the idea, the plant is “undead” like we living vampyres. I don't think you could use it as a source of psychic energy, but if you find yourself stagnating in your work of spiritual evolution, I've found that a well-placed Rose of Jericho can break up the energies around you and help you grow, thrive, and develop again.