Hang Out In the Shop!
I was listening to Gordon’s interview with Mallorie Vaudoise this morning and in it she mentions the little old ladies in the back of the church who say their own prayers during Mass and how part of her work, and what she hopes more people do, is start to talk to these little old ladies. I couldn’t agree more, but sometimes when I talk to people about this kind of thing people don’t know where to start. Do you just walk up and start asking about magic to someones grandmother? If I may be so bold as offer a suggestion, I would recommend hanging out in the shop.
On Saturday I was in the shop buying some stuff for the feast of St Agatha and struck up a conversation with a woman who was upset about her St Anthony Holy Water font not coming in yet. “Well I need a font, so let me see what you have and I will get one until the St Anthony one comes in….”. I asked her why she needed a font so badly, and she said hers fell and broke but she sprinkles holy water on her grandchildren because St Anthony protects Children, and her daughter doesn’t pray anymore. She settled on a San Damiano cross font until the St Anthony one comes in. She will still pray to St Anthony of course, but if St Anthony is not available, Jesus will have to do… for now.
This doesn’t sound particularly exciting, but in that little shop I discovered a local cult dedicated to “Our Lady Of Good Remedy” – the Madonna that provided John of Matha with money to buy and free Christian slaves. They use two images of her: one of her holding baby Jesus and another of her handing money to St John. They place some money between the two images and pray for it to increase, then hop on the bus to Atlantic City and gamble. I was in the shop looking for a Homobonus statue for business success and one of the devotees told me to use her, and how she and her friends had been raking in money for themselves and for the church because they tithe half of what they win.
Another time in the same shop I struck up an acquaintance with a mystically inclined Priest who was a huge fan of Richard Rohr, and we got to talking about using the Monstrance as a focus for meditation and got very close eventually to discussing its potential for “seeing”.
Not a Catholic shop but it was in a conjure shop called The Globe in Lakewood NJ that I first learned how to use condition oils and powders.
If you approach people with an empty cup (rather than to show what you already know) the shop is a place where you can interact with people that are otherwise private about their practice. The shop provides the segway into discussing things that would otherwise be difficult topics to broach. The shop levels the field between people learning from books and those who were passed oral tradition. If you want to talk to the little old ladies who pray their own prayers – start in the shop.