Last week, editor Anne Niven asked me what was my opinion on this article from The Guardian (LINK), which speaks of Maria Lionza's cult reaction to the death of Hugo Chavez. We exchanged a few comments and she suggested that it would be a very interesting topic for a post, so here it is.

First of all, I would like to make very clear that Maria Lionza's cult is what is called a “horizontal religion” - that is, a religion with no hierarchy or structure, where all Portals (that's how we call our communities) operate independently. So, this is just MY opinion, and I do not speak for anyone but myself. I know this is a very touchy subject for many people, and it is not my intention to start any discussion or to hurt any feelings – what I intend is just to answer as a Spiritist and as a daughter of Maria Lionza.

I would also like to add, before giving my answer, that I am not a supporter of Hugo Chavez. Although I do not deny the good he did for Venezuela, I do not deny the bad either, and there's plenty of both. Those who attack him have very strong reasons to say what they say and to feel how they feel, and the suffering he may have caused does not stop with his death, because such personality leaves, for good or bad, a lasting legacy. I have nothing but respect for those who suffered his often extreme view of society.

Bead Embroidery, 2010

As you already know, the main topic of this blog is art/artisan work, since it is my field of expertise. I have been a self-employed artisan since my early twenties, and along this journey I have learnt and grown beyond all my expectations – not only as an artisan, but also as a human being, as for me, work, life and spirituality entwine into one single experience. That journey has taught me many lessons; some were easy, some were harder, and some I'm still struggling with; for what my experience is worth, here are ten tips to inspire you.

Hand Spindle With Handspun Yarn And Wool Rovings

In many cultures, spinning has a place on myth, worship and magic, and thus deserve a very special place on this Magical Craft blog of mine. Goddesses that spin wool or other fibres are not difficult to find on Pagan iconography, and spindles and/or spinning wheels often equal magical items in legends and lore – one of the examples everyone knows is the poisoned spinning wheel of the Sleeping Beauty story, which shows how much the magic of spinning has woven (no pun intended) itself into popular culture.

Medicinal and magical herbs, harvested from my container roof garden.

Marigold (Calendula Officinalis), homegrown.

The second article of this series will cover two topics – making the most of your own herbal garden, and a short introduction to wildharvesting and guerrilla gardening.

Herb Robert - Geranium Robertianum, Homegrown.

Working with herbs has been one of the most magical and rewarding experiences in my growth as a Witch. Not only plants heal our spirit and body – they are teachers, they empower us and they reveal the paths to spiritual realms as guardians and shamans.

When a person sees the world, and his/her own life, as something sacred, the last and first days of a cycle have tremendous symbolic importance. In many Spiritual traditions around the world, whatever is done on the last and the first day of the year, and even in the very moment when one year turns into another, will determine or predict the stronger tendencies in the cycle.

Since most Afro Latin traditions follow the Gregorian Calendar, December 31 and January 1 are busy days for practitioners. On December 31, the house must be cleaned, physically and magically, to eliminate negativity and assure that, whatever we want to leave behind, we will. A dirty, cluttered house will call for problems and obstacles in the following year; just so, a clean, energized house will propitiate blessings, good health and luck. Altars get cleaned and refreshed too, and it is considered a call for bad luck to do any work after the sun goes down, so everything must be finished during daylight hours.

While other paths require very little amounts of food (or none) when making offerings, Afro Latin traditions go completely overboard when it comes to feeding Deities, Spirits, and the incredibly wide range of beings that fill our altars. Usually, this is managed by a whole community so each time a Saint/Orisha/Spirit day comes, the altar rooms become loaded with plate after plate of delicacies, along with the foods that each tradition assigns to the specific Spirit.

Cooking for a Spirit is not just cooking. The kitchen and the makers of the food must be completely clean while working, and it is required to bath and purify yourself and wear clean clothes. No other foods are prepared while doing that, and the kitchen must be constantly pristine, so while one (or more) practitioner cooks, the others wash and dry the implements. While everything is done, prayers or songs in honour of the Spirit that is being celebrated that day are repeated to bless the food. The altar and the tables where the food will be set must be prepared with the utmost care, and every plate, glass and tray are washed right before serving the food, no matter that they are already clean. After being served, more prayers are said while the Spirits feast, and usually drumming and chanting is performed in their honour.

Since we walk two different paths – my husband follows the Norse path, and mine is a mixture of several Latin American paths (mostly Venezuelan Spiritualism and Umbanda) - we celebrate both Yule and Christmas. In the last post, we created a very talismanic Yule Tree; in this post, we'll move into the creation and history of a Nativity Scene.

 Before I go on to the topic of this post, I would like to explain that all Latin American Spirituality is deeply imbued of Catholic iconography, and as it happens with Vodun, most practitioners are both Santeros / Umbandists / Spiritualists AND Catholics at the same time. Although I consider myself a Pagan, and I share the moral values of most Pagans, my holy days often coincide with the holy days of Catholicism, and I work with Saints, Angels and several avatars of the Virgin Mary just as much as I do with Orishas, Exus or our own Guanche* Ancestors.

Christmas trees are a fairly new addition to Spanish Christmas, which has less than 50 years of tradition in our country. Since the Canary Islands are located in the Northwest coast of Africa, fir trees are not native here – not that we would cut a live tree to place it on our living room anyway, so some years ago we got a plastic one, which was all we could afford at the time.

I never liked it much. Every year we would make and recycle old ornaments given away by family and friends, but it never looked like I wanted it to, and usually it ended up being put down on January 1^st, even though Christmas in Spain ends on January 6, the Three Wise Men day, which is the day when children get their presents. Last year, the tree didn't even make it out of the box, as I had hand painted a set of Nativity scene figurines (we'll talk about that on a future post) and it won without any effort against our poor, neglected plastic tree.

My husband is a follower of the Norse path, so having a tree indoors (even if it's a plastic one) makes him extremely happy, and holds a very special meaning for him. But shiny spheres and tinsel only sounded too boring, so this year we decided to start working on it earlier to make a completely different kind of tree – the tree of two Witches, where each ornament added would have a unique, magical meaning, moving away from the concept of just seasonal decoration to make the tree itself become an amulet of good luck, health and abundance for the change of the year.

The path towards what we consider Sacred, towards what we consider Magic, can vary greatly from Pagan to Pagan; for some, big altars make them feel connected and empowered, while others prefer a much simpler, zen-type reminder of their beliefs, or even no altar at all; some Pagans are truly transformed by wearing ritual clothing, while others worship in jeans and a t-shirt, and others don't consider worship a need at all; all of them can be equally true ways to grow as a human being, which I think, in the end, that it's the only important thing.

For me, the path towards Sacredness, towards growth, is creating. Through learning how things are made, from spinning a single thread of yarn to understanding how herbs work together to create a healing medicine, I get closer and closer to Spiritual balance, to inner peace, to my idea of serving Nature and the Spirits that live in it, to mysticism and unity.