{"id":3525,"date":"2011-11-29T12:30:30","date_gmt":"2011-11-29T19:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3525"},"modified":"2011-12-02T15:48:19","modified_gmt":"2011-12-02T22:48:19","slug":"mojo-materiality-lucky-mojo-curio-co","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3525","title":{"rendered":"Mojo & Materiality: Lucky Mojo Curio Co."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Mexican devil image, left, from Lucky Mojo. Candle from Montr\u00e9al Pagan Resource Centre, both on my desk.<\/p><\/div>\n

When the AAR met in Montreal in 2009, we not only had our first session on idolatry\/materiality from a Pagan perspective<\/a>, but also the Magical Mercantile Tour<\/a> of Pagan and occult-related shops and meeting places.<\/p>\n

This year’s tour revisited the concept under a slightly different name, a tribute to our second stop, the Lucky Mojo Curio Co. in Forestville, Calif.<\/a> (The first stop was Isis Oasis<\/a>.) The tour was made possible by Julie Epona and Morning Glory Zell of the Church of All Worlds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lucky Mojo employs a small staff in mail-order product sales, hoodoo lessons, and counseling. The first thing you see when walking up to the shop is a shed painted with a version of the “See Rock City<\/a>” advertisement painted on barns throughout the Southeast and Lower Midwest.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The shed displays an iconic Tennessee advertisement.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Rock City ad not only sets you up for what has been described as Lucky Mojo’s “1930s Memphis” aesthetic, but since founder Catherine Yronwode <\/a>has a background in graphic-novel and comics publishing, I suspect that it might also be a reference to Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Catherine Yronwode in her shop.<\/p><\/div>\n

That is Lucky Mojo: ironic, postmodern, humorous\u2014but still serious.<\/p>\n

My other souvenir is a classic wooden-handled cardboard fan, of the type handed out by funeral parlors in the pre-air-conditioning era. One side shows a soppy portrait of Jesus as The Good Shepherd, while the other advertises the ambiguously named Missionary Independent Spiritual Church<\/a>, located adjacent to the shop and office.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Interior of the "smallest church," with Catherine's partner, Nagasiva Yronwode, peering in the window, and the Good Shepherd fan and devil figure (also shown above) on the table.<\/p><\/div>\n

It has just a small table and two chairs for card readings, etc., plus altars for placing help requests<\/a> according to their elemental correspondences.<\/p>\n

In the spirit of Hoodoo and rootwork, the “smallest church” is cheerfully casual about theological categories. As Tayannah Lee McQuillar writes in Rootwork<\/em>,<\/a> “[Rootwork] has no pantheon or priesthood. It refers only to a set of healing and spell practices, and the practitioner can be whatever religion they wish.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the AAR met in Montreal in 2009, we not only had our first session on idolatry\/materiality from a Pagan perspective, but also the Magical Mercantile Tour of Pagan and occult-related shops and meeting places. This year’s tour revisited the concept under a slightly different name, a tribute to our second stop, the Lucky Mojo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,75,55],"class_list":["post-3525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-religion","tag-california","tag-hoodoo"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-UR","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3550,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3550","url_meta":{"origin":3525,"position":0},"title":"Mojo and Materiality: 300 Goddesses","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"After Isis Oasis and Lucky Mojo, the final stop on the pre-AAR annual meeting \"Mojo and Materiality\" tour was the home of Oberon and Morning Glory Zell of the Church of All Worlds. They contribute to Pagan \"materiality\" through through their business, Mythic Images, which features Oberon's and other designers'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/GoddessCollection_sm.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6406,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6406","url_meta":{"origin":3525,"position":1},"title":"Who Ruined Hoodoo?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Katrina Hazzard-Donald, Mojo Workin': The Old African American Hoodoo System (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2013) 248 pp., photos, index, $85 (cloth), $28 (paper), ebook available. \u00a0 Hazzard-Donald teaches anthropology and sociology at Rutgers University-Camden. She is herself an initiate into the Orisha religion, but this is not a work\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Africa\"","block_context":{"text":"Africa","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=africa"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.press.uillinois.edu\/books\/images\/9780252078767.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":602,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=602","url_meta":{"origin":3525,"position":2},"title":"The Shock of It All – 2","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier post here I did finish Christine Wicker's Not in Kansas Anymore: A Curious Tale of How Magic is Transforming America. To be honest, the subtitle should read, \"How magic is transforming Christine Wicker.\" The book maps closely to Susan Roberts' 1974 book Witches U.S.A.. The author, a middle-aged female\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2256,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2256","url_meta":{"origin":3525,"position":3},"title":"Hard Times? Not for Hoodoo","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"People enter hoodoo through the door of suffering, to borrow a phrase from the Umbandistas. The Wall Street Journal reports an uptick in the magic sector: \"Need a Job? Losing your House? Who Says Hoodoo Can't Help?\" In the early 20th century, white pharmacists in black neighborhoods began marketing hoodoo\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Hoodoo\"","block_context":{"text":"Hoodoo","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=hoodoo"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3509,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3509","url_meta":{"origin":3525,"position":4},"title":"\u00c6gypt in Northern California: Isis Oasis","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In 1957, a young artist named Lora Vign\u00e9 and her husband moved from Southern California to San Francisco. \"It was 1957, the beginning of the Beatnik era, and we fitted the description,\" she writes in her memoir, The Goddess Bade Me Do It! No poser bohemian, she was already producing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Loreon2_sm-246x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":568,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=568","url_meta":{"origin":3525,"position":5},"title":"Hoodoo and the Lost City","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 30, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"M. and I watched The Skeleton Key, a middling thriller starring Kate Hudson. It's the usual \"Don't go up those stairs! Don't open that door!\" sort of plot, but what gives it its twist--more than the conjured Hoodoo atmosphere that the movie tries to evoke and the echoes of Mia\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"New Orleans\"","block_context":{"text":"New Orleans","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=new-orleans"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3525"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3543,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3525\/revisions\/3543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}