The Spirits that are in the Popcorn seed

People have been fascinated by popcorn for centuries. Some Native Americans believed that a spirit lived inside each kernel of popcorn. When heated, the spirit grew angry and would eventually burst out of its home and into the air as a disgruntled puff of steam. A less charming but more scientific explanation exists for why popcorn pops.

The Popcorn Board

Yep, that sounds just as ridiculous as some of the ideas she has to why things happen.  Some say its Voodoo, some say its Karma, some say its because a black cat crossed your path or sometime during your lifetime you walked underneath a ladder.  It's not as simple as God's way, its as complicated as the towel rack all of the sudden fell off the wall and somebody is cursing you so go light a candle with the Virgin Mary on it and put a dollar bill in front of it. 

I don't know, but there is always a ridiculous reason for why things happen the way they do.  No lie, the towel rack incident really did happen and I ran to her and found her on her knees staring up at the bathroom ceiling, chanting to whomever about the curse.  I backed up and walked out the same door I walked into. 

Some of her antics are quite amusing.  Some are the very rituals that people, like her, believe because it has been passed on from one harvest to another.  The frost is too weak to break those spirits and beliefs.  I personally only believe in God and whatever he has planned for me.

In her lifetime, her family had gone to "mediums" in the old country that to me borderline "witches".  These so-called "mediums" would come only by private invites to small gatherings.  Usually in some one's spare bedroom with a table in the middle and you would think you would see a crystal ball, but no, sometimes a live chicken or other sorts.  Sometimes these meetings would be in a person's basement or darken kitchen.  A deck of cards, not playing cards would be there.  The cards would have a heart or person on a horse.  Sometimes a sword would be in a picture.  Or if the lady or man in the card would flip upside down it would signal something.  Or if one card was too close to the other card it signified something else.  So weird and strange, but sometimes predictions that came true were coincidental.  That's what I chose to believe.

Every time someone new would come with the "gathering" people, the "medium" would also state in English or her native-language that all predictions or "visions" were delivered to them by God.  And their talents were "gifts from God".  I'm not sure if that was to build credibility or make the "newcomer" more comfortable in the dark gloomy surroundings.  You have to come with no preconceived notions.  They can tell just by staring at your face.  In fact, the doorway may be the furtherest you get if they detect doubt.  If you feel like you are getting judged or sized up, you are!  The best way to test the medium and feel like you got a real "reading" is to come dressed in your plainest clothes, wearing no jewelry or anything to signify anything personal about you.  Leave your purse in the car or have someone who isn't coming in the room to hold on to your personal items. 

The mediums are always treated like royalty.  People fear that they may do something or jinx you if you cross their paths in a negative way.  In her family, one of the stalks was given the "gift" to be a medium.   Sometimes I feel like she or any of them can ever say no to that stalk.  There have been times in which I think that knowing that the "powers" that one has possessed might have been used in other ways to make others do things for that stalk.  That's my point of view. 

Some rituals that were created by these mediums included baths of good luck.  The baths had to be accompanied by a prayer.  You were given a jar that looked like an eyeball should be swimming around in it.  The jar was a concoction of good luck potions, certain plants from a garden, spiritual water and other herbs.  What I saw was water from the tap, cheap perfume that no one was ever going to wear again, vegetable or olive oil and the remains of a grass cutting that you find underneath the lawn mower.  You had to put this concoction on after you fully-bathed and not bathe again until 48 hours later.  And believe you me, your clothes would stick to your body.  You could not put on anything else on your body like deodorant and you would literally feel the grime come off your body once you took the shower.  Leaves and branches and other kinds of debris would fall to the bottom of the bathtub.  Yep, you would have to go around work or in other public places with stuff in your hair or attached to your arms or legs.  My husband made me sleep on the floor every time I bathed in those concoctions or spiritual bathes.

A burning candle has to be present in every medium reading.  The lit candles were not a votive you would buy at Target or a Yankee Hill, but a green, blue, red, yellow or white covered glass candle that has the Virgin Mary or some other Saint printed on the glass.  You can go down in the Hispanic stores and find them or look in the Hispanic section in your grocery store and you can pick one up for a buck.  The candle can help bring good luck, help you win money, for good health, to get rid of bad luck, to find your sole mate, to help you with a change in jobs and for a happy marriage.  By the way, all of those can be done with the bath concoction too.  But with the bath and the candle, you're good.