Lucky Buddha Bottle with Lucky Louisiana Green Rice

Lucky Buddha is an actual deity in Chinese and Japanese folklore. In Chinese, he is referred to as Budai or "Laughing Buddha" and in Japanese he is called "Hotei." His name means "Cloth Sack" which refers to the sack of belongings he usually carries. He is typically depicted as poor but content and always happy and smiling. This Lucky Buddha is holding up a bowl filled with gold.

According to Chinese lore, Budai was an eccentric monk known for his good will and character. He is admired for his happiness, plentitude, wisdom and contentment. As these are characters humans strive for, his presence in the form of a picture, figure, charm, amulet or bottle keeps these qualities close, ever reminding us that attitude and perception are often the only things standing in the way of our ultimate success. It is popularly believed that rubbing his stomach will bring wealth, luck and prosperity.

In Japanese lore, Hotei exists as one of the Seven Lucky Gods (Shichi Fukujin) of Taoism. 

I love being a spiritual artist because it makes me happy among other things. This is one of my hand painted with 18 carat gold paint Lucky Buddha Bottles filled with hand crafted Louisiana Lucky Green rice with shredded money. The cork is peyote stitched with a lucky Chinese coin and tiny Swarovski crystal. Open them up and they smell like Algiers Fast Luck formula (which is a blend of wintergreen, cinnamon, vanilla and patchouli - yes it is a unique but very pleasant fragrance). I love these bottles and have so much fun making them...it was Mitchell Tibbs who introduced me to the Lucky Buddha beer and since I don't drink I was happy to discover it is very cheap beer, lol so I can go buy a case at a time and paint away. I've painted them in red and lavender, but I am partial to lavender. Keep one on your prosperity altar, with your money, or anywhere you want to be reminded that wealth and abundance can be yours!

To Punish a Book Thief

I'm not sure which situation is the best indicator of having "arrived" in the world of books, but I do know which one I don't appreciate, and that is the pirate.

My books have been pirated so many times, that I once calcuated on one site alone that if I had one dollar for each download of the Voodoo Hoodoo Spellbook I would be a millionaire, and that was 5 years ago. Oh how different life could be without the pirate; but alas, they don't care about authors and starving artists.

There are two kinds of pirates. One is the small-minded book thief who feels that if it is on the internet, it should be free. Period. Never mind the months or years it may have taken for the author to write the book, WITHOUT PAY. And, contrary to what some of these folks believe, even after publishing we don't see a payday until any advances are paid back and then hope we sell enough books to get somewhat of a paycheck.

Then, there is the calculated, evil book thief who sets themselves up for a payday on our hard work. They upload the books to torrent sites or other pay-to-download sites where an individual can purchase the download, illegally, for much less than if purchased legitimately. And where does the money go? To the torrent site and the scum bag who uploaded it there.

One might wonder the thought process of pirates who steal the work of witches, warlocks and hoodoos. Clearly they do not believe and stealing our work is not only stealing from our livelihood, it is a mockery of our work and for many of us, a mockery of our belief systems. Ok, that's cool, you don't have to believe. Just call me Honey Badger, because I really don't care if you believe or not.

But I do care that pirates are getting paid from my hard work. And in the world of hoodoo, payback is a bitch.

So, I decided to have a little fun at the expense of the first pirate I discovered completely accidentally, when going to upload a promotional video for the book on You Tube. I mean, the book hadn't even been out 2 weeks and this guys got a promo video for it with a download link.

Xiaolu Guo, it's time to play, New Orleans style!

You have so thoughtfully left me a tail of taglocks to use, so thank you for that, I truly appreciate it. For those of you who may not know, a taglock is a term used in image magick for a personal effect that links to the person to whom it belongs. Taglocks can be physical things like hair or fingernails, signatures or photographs, or simply names. In your case Xiaolu, I have your name (whether or not it is your real name doesn't matter - you have "signed" your name digitally to your YouTube account and in the world of magick, that counts), you have linked to your blog where you are offering countless authors' books for illegal download, so I can use your website header image as another taglock, AND you have provided a link to that wretched torrent site who is also on my Voudou hit list. Download Genius has been enabling pirates for years and its time they get in the hoodoo payback game too.

It's the Voodoo Doll Spellbook in action y'all! Are we having fun yet?

Stay tuned as I take a break to go create my pirate voodoo doll using image magick concepts to link Xiaolu Guo's soul to a conjure doll...I'll be back with photos and the details and my plan for revenge on behalf of all book authors who are victims of pirates across the globe.

Laissez les bone temps rouler!