Free A Charming Voodoo (Magical Cures Mystery Series Book 10) by Tonya Kappes Page A

between brothers. But a tiff didn’t involve words over my dead body as Patch had promised.
    I was definitely going to stop by and see Patch again. This time alone and try to figure out what exactly their brotherly love consisted of.
    “Good afternoon.” I smiled at the village council members that included Petunia, Gerald, and Izzy, while Chandra joined them.
    They stood at the front of The Gathering Rock. I placed my smudging items next to the rock and got them set up so when all the members of our spiritual community showed up, we were ready to go. I was on a mission to get back to the shop and see exactly what Faith had to say and then make another trip over to the new development.
    “June, may I speak with you for a moment?” KJ appeared next to me. He stood in his traditional headdress and loin cloth clothing I was used to seeing him in. He tilted his head to the side and slowly walked into the wooded area next to The Gathering Rock space.
    The ceremony wasn’t ready to begin and there were spiritualists still climbing the hill, so I walked over to him.
    He pulled a smudge stick from underneath his loin cloth and jerked a feather from his headdress.
    “The time has passed.” He held them out for me to take. “The connection between the people and our plants are lost. There is discord within our spiritual community. We are losing our spiritual connection to Turtle Island.”
    I knew from the past, he was referring to America but calling it Turtle Island because it was his native tongue.
    “The importance of what you and I do with our herbs and homeopathic cures can help bring peace and harmony while we are going through the change of growth. Please consider doing a smudging for every person at the meeting.” His voice was disciplined and maintained complete control though my insides were a jittery mess.
    I sucked in a deep breath as I reached out to take his smudge stick and feather. I glanced over his shoulder and noticed there were a lot of spiritualists gathered in the space.
    “This is going to take a while.” I wasn’t sure how much time we were going to need, but I did know that if I had to smudge every single person, it would go well into the afternoon.
    “I think a little more time to save our culture and world is worth it. Don’t you?” he asked, but didn’t wait for my answer. He simply turned and walked back to the meeting space leaving me as his words hung in the air in front of me.
    When I first started to do the smudging ceremony, I wasn’t really sure how to do it. I was told that I needed to rely on my intuition to guide me. I did that and it didn’t let me down. It never has and I knew more than ever that I was going to have to rely on that gift now.
    I dragged the smudge stick under my nose and let the smells pass through my nose and down into my soul. I closed my eyes and held my breath as the scent seeped deep into my soul and my being.
    My intuition took over and I knew exactly what I needed to do.
    “Good afternoon.” I held the smudge stick up in the air letting everyone know that I was about to start the sacred ceremony. “Please gather in a circle.”
    I walked into the middle.
    “This is a cedar smudge ceremony.” I referred to the bundle KJ had given me. My intuition told me it was cedar. “Cedar is a medicine of protection. Cedar trees are very old, wise and powerful spirits. Since we have new citizens joining our spiritual community, I’d like to use this ceremony to help with moving in, inviting unwanted spirits to leave and protecting each one of us and our places or objects from unwanted influences.”
    I lit the bundle setting it on fire and let the flame grow taller and taller as the black smoke started to curl in the sky. With a few swipes of the feather in the smoke, I twirled, fanning the protection to the north, south, east and west before brushing a few strokes to Mother Earth, the ground.
     With the bundle and feather, I walked over to Petunia who was