A nice lady customer asked a while back if we carried Dragon’s Blood Bubble Bath. I hadn’t heard of this before and asked for more details. She said you use it for lifting curses. While she shopped around I looked it up online and there it was, a big ol’ bottle of polysorbate 20 and synthetic fragrance, courtesy of Indio. Not a mention of the resin, which is typical Indio style – all talk, no walk.
The customer is more into European-style witchcraft (such as Wicca), and dragon’s blood is used in that tradition as well as in rootwork. We use it in rootwork for protection (it’s a prime ingredient in Fiery Wall of Protection formulations), as well as other things. So jinx-killing bubble bath would be a good use for it, whether in hoodoo or in witchery.
Yes, I could get it. But no, I’m not going to. Instead, I told her I’d make bubble bath that has actual dragon’s blood resin in it. I found out later that there is an essential oil of dragon’s blood and will order some of that to make Protection bath crystals with when we introduce bath salts into the Triple Star Mojo product line.
Dragon’s Blood is used for protection as well as jinx-breaking.
In rootwork, which is not the same magical practice as witchcraft, it is really important to use actual botanicals in the products. The plant itself is a connection to the spirit of the plant, and you are calling on that spirit to help you with whatever condition you are trying to cure (or create). A bottle of synthetic dragon’s blood fragrance isn’t the same thing as dragon’s blood resin, the same way that a picture of money isn’t the same thing as actual money.* You cannot interface with the spirit through a synthetic substance. The herb is how the spirit knows where to come and work for you.
Say, chamomile. It’s a nice flower, and chamomile tea is relaxing, smells nice, tastes good. But if you are using it in hoodoo, such as putting it in a money-drawing mojo bag, by doing so you are calling on Miss Chamomile to bring you extra success in your financial endeavors. She’s a very generous spirit, loving, really full of growth and abundance and good for kids and such, and just wants to give all that to you, so when you use her flower in your work you are actually calling on her to be present and give you her blessings.
With witchcraft a lot of the work is done through visualization and you don’t really need the actual herb or oil to be present. You are working from your own seat of power and calling on The God and The Goddess and maybe some of their helper spirits of nature, but it’s a different bag of tricks, and substitutions are okay. The fragrance of dragon’s blood is just as useful as the actual resin if you are doing American witchcraft. But at Once Upon A Silver Moon we conduct our work mainly in the rootwork area, so real herbs and oils are essential.
Rootwork is also called Conjure because you are summoning the nature spirits. You call them to work by using their plant. You can appreciate the plant mundanely, such as by eating it or making a non-magical tea, but when you use it in rootwork, it is the threshold where the spirit world comes to do its job. And many of the spirits will manifest physically, or rather, you can actually envision them in your mind. You can converse with them, speak to them and they will interact with you in a very clear way. In my experience most of them are quite eager to work and if you take just a moment to attune with each spirit you can learn a lot, because they will often give you advice or suggestions that will heighten your success with them. They seem to really like it when we ask them for assistance.
In a jinx-busting situation I think I’d prefer to have Daddy Dragon’s Blood working for me, not just enjoying some nice synthetic fragrance. I can see him now, in my mind’s eye: wild hair, a palm leaf skirt, no shirt, bead necklaces and anklets, gleaming brown skin. Dancing around, lots of energy. He would kick any curse in the butt. He also brings a steady and potent energy, so it’s common to use dragon’s blood resin in strength and power incenses. The cloying scent of Indio’s floral (?!) dragon’s blood fragrance is just not gonna have any of that power behind it. It would be like throwing a poofy pillow at a phalanx of angry Trojans.
When I make a soap style wash, I use Seventh Generation’s Free and Clear for the base. For the first batch of this product, I added some ground dragon’s blood resin and some dragon’s blood fragrance oil I had already bought for scenting soaps and candles, because the resin on its own doesn’t really have a scent and my customer expected one. I topped it up with water and it was way too foamy, so I added a couple drops of oil based red soap colorant to control the surface tension.
I tried this out myself when I was done. I was quite suprised that just an ounce of it made copious amounts of bubbles. I’m prone to dry skin so I added a handful of solar salt as I drew the bath. The fragrance is pleasant but not overwhelming; it will not cling to the skin once you are dry. It barely tints the water a light pink. The bubbles lasted longer than I liked (I am not a bubble bath fan), but I think using less of it would be okay especially if you have soft water. Our water is really hard, so it takes more soap to make a lather. The 2oz bottle I made would be good for several “doses” – in our area I think this would work for three baths where in a soft water area you would get four or maybe even five.
It’s difficult for a conjure doctor to gauge the effect of a product when one has no need for it, so I merely sampled it as a mundane bath treat. I was satisfied enough to consider the base for other bubble baths formulations, especially as a carrier for patchouli essential oil, or maybe a gothy black rose and clove… Oh yes, I think I need to do that soon!
I hope to order the dragon’s blood essential oil soon so that I will be able to use it in the next batch of Dragon’s Blood Bubble Bath. Its fragrance is a cross between frankincense and pinion and smells really nice. This is one we probably ought to keep in stock right there with Chinese Wash, which errrr is out of stock at the moment… ummm
I do love making custom products for folks, especially when it leads to something cool like this. Since we use natural materials I don’t like it hanging around the shelves getting old and dusty, so we make them as people request them. (The candle blessing oils, those we do try to keep in stock, at least enough to use when we dress the vigil candles, but when we formulate a fresh batch the surplus tends to sell within just a day or two.) Eventually I’ll be good about making stuff up ahead of time so I can just pull it off the shelf and go “here, buy this one”, but I really like tailor-making an oil or powder specifically for the person who will be using it. And from what I hear, you guys like it too. 🙂
*Real money has been blessed by the Treasury Wizards, where the picture of money has not.
