Stephanie Rose Bird

I have decided to introduce my formulas and recipes to the world, through a company co-led with my daughter, Olivia called SRB Botanica. SRB Botanica utilizes homegrown, foraged, wild-crafted, organic and botanical herbs, as well as the purest essential oils available, along with our personal energy and blessings. We make a special effort to use responsible-sourcing, with an emphasis with raw materials from Africa and the diaspora. SRB Botanica is a deliberately small company, with several collections, so we can stay attentive to detail. The line includes vegan and vegetarian, earth-friendly, nature-centered, botanically-based skincare, haircare, body care and herbals for the body and soul.

 

Every Thanksgiving I reflect on what I am thankful for. I also like to involve whatever I'm doing in my life into my Thanksgiving rites and rituals. I developed this rite with gratitude for so many things in mind, including love, family, the ancestors, friendship and dear Mother Earth. So, before the holiday is here, I wanted to share this daily rite, useful for Thanksgiving, and all year long. 

 

Da Balm #9 Rite

1. Put a tbsp or so of Da Balm, in the center of your palm. 
2. Relax, breathe in and out slowly into your cupped hands three times. 
3. You are breathing in strength, sensuality and balance. 
4. Slowly rub your palms together to gently melt Da Balm. 
5. Finish in namaste ? (prayer position) and say three things you're grateful for. 
6. Mindfully apply Da Balm to your body.

7. Ashe!

"365 Days of Hoodoo" has just been released on amazon.com. If you're interested in everything Hoodoo, from gathering materials to growing rootworking ingredients, formulations, spells, altars, rites, prayers and more, check it this tome. It's over 400 pages long and took several years to write. It addresses everyday concerns such as love, luck, prosperity, success, justice and the home!

 

So proud of my baby.

 

Bright Blessings to my readers and welcome to the fascinating and powerful world of Hoodoo!

 

So, here we are, almost halfway through the year. Can you believe it? I can't. At the same time, I'm so happy that in this year of 2017, my newest book has been released to the public, Earth Mama's Spiritual Guide to Weight Loss, through Green Magic Publishers. The book echoes my personal struggles with obesity and shares ways I've found useful to helping me along my journey toward becoming more fit. This journey has been hellish, hence the long time the book has taken to come to fruition. I've had ups and downs and many challenges along the journey, and its not fully realized - I still struggle with my weight.

As a visual artist, healer, shaman and hoodoo, I have brought out this book that melds the different practices in a way I hope will be useful. This is not a memoir, though it has elements of personal memoir in it. It is a guide, for you and for me. Losing weight and keeping it off, is a monumental and at times gut-wrenching endeavor. During the course of the book I lost 50 pounds but at different times in the course of the writing, I have regained weight, though now I am losing again.

The regaining of the weight gave me pause but also ideas. I realized that I am not in this journey alone and nor are you. Together, we can reach out to various gods, goddesses, and ascended spirits, by doing rituals, ceremonies, building altars and sacred objects, and we can be empowered, strengthened and lightened. Read More 

This is just a quick post, to let you know I'll be blogging at the Stephanie Studio Blog (http://stephanierosebirdstudio.blogspot.com) all during the month of April. I'll be sharing some excerpts built around various African Proverbs and other quotes from the book, "Earth Mama's Spiritual Guide to Weight Loss" to help you lose weight or otherwise transform spiritually, as you connect to the Earth Mama. Should be a fun and busy month, as I'm also working daily on writing a new hoodoo book, among other things like art-making.

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to visit the blog during the month of April. This is my 3rd year of being apart of this huge, fun, internet blogging event. Read More 

I never thought I'd write so many books. Number 6, "Earth Mama's Spiritual Guide to Weight Loss" will be published in May, by Green Magic Publishing. Blessed Be! This book focuses around my lengthy, unending journey towards wellness and health. It shows how earth rituals, goddess invocations, incantations, affirmations and natural remedies enhance your weight-loss plan. I share my story of how I've employed alternative health to augment my journey and have numerous tips from around the world in the area of earth-based spirituality designed to help you.

I'm having fun with its birth. I've been putting together a series of workshops and book readings. As things develop, I'll share more. So far, I have a definite series starting in June at Life Force Arts Center in Chicago. That is the perfect venue; directed by a prominent shaman, it is filled with ever-changing art exhibits and it is a place where many rituals and ceremonies take place. I will be updating my Events page here, as more events in other venues are confirmed, so check in regularly.

I've been working on my 365 Days of Hoodoo book for Llewellyn, as well. It has gone through many manifestations and changes over the years I've been working on it. It looks like I'm back to the drawing board, as I'd gotten a bit off track.

Writing is sometimes like weeding a garden. You have to prune and weed out things that pop up on their own, if they take the overall growth pattern in too different a direction. This being, for the overall health of the book.

So book number 7;
Let it be blessed;
Let it be lucky;
Let it be helpful, to you, my readers.
Blessed Be!

As it is above, so it is below.
So mote it be!
I say and think this:
Three times, three times, three. Read More 

OM-Goddess! On Martin Luther King's Birthday, I have finally and I do mean finally, finished my 6th book, "Earth Mama's Spiritual Guide to Weight-loss."

This book began about 14 years ago. I received that final clarity and push I needed, from the wisdom and dream of Martin Luther King and all of his prophetic thinking!

The "Earth Mama's Spiritual Guide to Weight-loss" is due for publication in early May. It is being published by Green Magic Publishing in England!

Stay tuned, for upcoming workshops, events, readings, media appearances, and shops carrying the book.

More soon.  Read More 

Sometimes, we all need a break. Life can rise up and give you a big shove, when and how you least expect. In my case, the shove came with a directive. Rest, gather, nest and then create!

I've taken a break from my writing for a while to tend to other cauldrons. Meanwhile, I've been collecting my thoughts, being quietly observant and creative in different ways like cooking, and making art.

To that end, I also started a new website dedicated to my art. At the moment it just shows a single body of work but more will soon follow, as I see fit.

If you'd like to check it out, take your cup of herbal tea and mosey over for a spell. See how I'm translating my words into visual form.

The new website is called Artist - Stephanie Rose Bird and the link is below the painting above.

Until then...

TTYL,  Read More 

This is just a tidbit of information, as that's all I can provide at this moment. It would seem as though I will be penning a new Hoodoo book, which will be coming out before you know it--in 2016.

I'm thrilled.

Many of you have requested such a book. I know there is a great deal of curiosity about hoodoo and thirst for ways to use it. You've written to me to let me know you've wanted to know about more ways to infuse your lives with hoodoo. That opportunity for engaging in hoodoo magick and more complete information on the contents of the book will be released very soon.

Stay in touch here and sooner than you know, I'll be posting more about this innovative new title here!

Ase! Read More 

I have a new book deal brewing. Yeah! This one is for what I am calling "Mother Earth's Spiritual Guide to Weight-loss." If it all works out, this will be my 7th published book, which is awesome, as well as something I never thought I'd accomplish.

This book has garnered a lot of interest in the publishing world. I believe it may well be the most significant contribution I've made as a nonfiction author, apart from "Sticks, Stones, Roots and Bones." It has the potential to impact and change lives, just as following its tenets has transformed mine. I will be announcing the publisher and projected publication date here on my website, on twitter, Facebook, and my personal blog. I can't wait to share that news and finally place this meaningful book.

I find myself in juggling mode as an author. I seem to write books in threes and then take months, if not years, resting up in between. "No Barren Life," my debut novel is in the editing stages before final submission to its publisher. If you've written, you know editing and polishing up a manuscript before final submission is all encompassing. "Mother Earth's Spiritual Guide to Weight-loss" is about at the halfway point. I project it will take 6 to 9 months to complete it. My second novel, "Out of the Blue" is 1/3 written but only as a first draft.

When I wake up in the morning, I wonder should I draw with all my beautiful colored pencils that are waiting for me in my studio? Should I blog here or on my other blog called Stephanie's Studio or should I work on one of those three books that are in development? Sometimes I give up and head off for a walk or to garden. Juggling books and other creative projects, which all need undivided attention, is exhausting.

At the same time, the creative process is rewarding. In the end, it's all about balance. A good juggler can keep all the balls up in the air while maintaining a supreme state of balance.  Read More 

In planning the African American Healer's Medicine Kit, (see events page) I have also revisited the activities that sparked that workshop. First of all, the name is almost directly derived from the title of an "Herb Quarterly" article I wrote back in 2003. In the "African American Winter Medicine Kit," I not only discussed what herbs from the African diaspora are useful for healing winter ills, I also went into the historical backdrop within our culture from which those particular remedies stem.

That was 2003, when I had only published "Sticks,Stones, Roots and Bones." Now with 5 books in publication, exploring various aspects of African American healing practices, I asked myself which of those books most directly influenced the development of that workshop. I wanted to know this, so I could discern which of the books would be most useful to the various concerns of those in attendance.

I had two books on healing published between 2009 and 2010--"The Big Book of Soul," and "A Healing Grove." It is those two books that most inspired the content of the workshop. Since their release is so close together and they both center around African American healing you might be wondering what's the difference? I too have been thinking that over, as I plan the workshop experience.

"The Big Book of Soul," is more of a conceptual exploration of African American healing. It takes American Hoodoo as a point of departure. Then it gets into the ways healing and spirituality are fused in the Motherland. Yes, there are recipes and rituals but at its crux is the philosophy behind our healing practices. Yoruba traditions and the concept of ashe, are of particular interest.

"A Healing Grove," goes into the forest to explore various conceptual spaces regarding holistic approaches to healing in the African diaspora. This book's focus is around trees and the medicines they lend to the mind, body and spirit. "A Healing Grove" is more of a practical book, filled with a ton of botanical information on trees and the herbal knowledge needed to utilize them. It also includes ceremonies, rituals and recipes but then goes further, to include how trees are utilized in the arts and crafts of the diaspora.

As the workshop quickly approaches, I am considering the best ways to meld the information presented in each book. I know from the past that workshop attendees don't like to be overloaded with information dispensed in written form or verbally. In short, we must put theory, history and herbalism into practice.

This should be an interesting experience for the attendees, and for me. Time will tell how we work with theory and practice, regarding African American herbalism and our unique approaches to healing.  Read More