Cypress Road Gris Gris

Road Opening • Opportunity • Movement • Finding the Way Through

The swamp doesn't always give you a road. Sometimes there ain't a damn road at all.

There is water where you expected ground. Roots where you meant to step. Fallen timber blocking the easy way through, and another path disappearing around a stand of cypress where you can't quite see what comes next.

But something still gets through.

Water finds the opening. Roots find somewhere to take hold. Animals make trails where no trail existed yesterday.

And sometimes that's what road opening really looks like. Not somebody magically clearing a six-lane highway in front of you. Finding the opening.

Cypress Road Gris Gris was created for those times when something needs to move, a path needs to appear, an opportunity needs to find you, or you simply need help getting from where you are to whatever comes next.

You may not know the whole road yet. That's all right.

We just need to find the next piece of dry ground.

Built From the Swamp

Each Cypress Road Gris Gris is individually built and worked by Mama Sha' at Inexplicable Things Apothecary along the waters of Caddo Lake in Louisiana. This isn't a random collection of "road opening herbs" stuffed into a bag. Every component has a job.

Cypress brings endurance, adaptability and the ability to remain rooted while navigating changing ground.

High John root lends strength, determination and the ability to overcome what stands between you and where you're trying to go.

Lemongrass helps clear stagnant conditions and make room for movement.

Ginger brings heat and momentum to situations that have become sluggish, delayed or stuck.

Path dirt gathered from the local landscape gives the working an actual road beneath its feet—a reminder that roads are made by traveling them.

Lodestone lends its drawing nature to the work, helping pull opportunity, direction and useful openings toward the traveler.

A small piece of cypress gives the gris gris its physical connection to the landscape from which the working was born.

Nothing is included simply because a correspondence chart says it belongs there. It has a job, or it doesn't go in the bag.

What Cypress Road Is For

Cypress Road is intended for road opening, opportunity, movement and finding a workable path through circumstances that have become stagnant, blocked or uncertain.

Carry it when looking for employment, pursuing a new business opportunity, preparing for travel, beginning something new, making a significant life transition, searching for direction, or trying to get movement in a situation that has gone absolutely nowhere for long enough.

Keep it with you, place it near your workspace, carry it to interviews or important meetings, take it while traveling, or keep it wherever the road you're trying to open begins.

Cypress Road isn't intended to force one specific path to open exactly the way you've decided it should.

Sometimes the road you're beating your head against isn't the road.

This work is about opening the way, drawing opportunity and helping reveal where movement is possible.

Watch what opens. And when something does, be willing to walk.

Feeding Your Cypress Road

Your Cypress Road arrives worked and ready to travel. You only have to do one or two simple things to activate it to work for you.

You will need to feed it and reinforce the relationship you've established with it.

Cypress Road Oil is made specifically for this gris gris and is the same oil used by Mama Sha' while preparing the original working.

Place a single drop of oil into your palms and rub them together. Clap your hands together once or twice and feel them heat up. Then hold your gris gris in your hands while bringing its job clearly back into your mind. Please do not drown the poor bastard. Literally, one or two drops in your palm is plenty!

The more you hold your gris gris and push energy into it, the more effective it will become working for you.

Feed it when the working feels as though it needs attention, when you're preparing for an important opportunity, interview, meeting, trip or transition, when things begin feeling stagnant again, or simply as part of your regular maintenance of the working.

This isn't about constantly "recharging" something that has somehow gone dead. You're tending a working relationship. A little attention goes a long way.

IMPORTANT

These are spiritual tools and talismans designed for focused purposes. They are not intended to solve every problem simultaneously. The strongest gris gris are those created with a clear, specific purpose.

Warnings & Care

• Do not open your gris gris.
• Do not wash your gris gris.
• Do not allow it to become soaked or submerged.
• Do not apply oil directly to the fabric.
• Do not allow pets to chew or damage it.
• Do not allow others to carry it.

If your gris gris becomes damaged beyond repair, thank it for its service and dispose of it respectfully according to your personal spiritual tradition. You are also welcome to ship it back to Mama Sha' for proper disposal.

Fabric colors and materials may vary.

— Mama Sha'
Inexplicable Things Apothecary