Persephone’s Broom Closet

My latest zine project is officially ready! “Persephone’s Broom Closet: Magical Tips to Clear + Renew Your Space” is available through Oracle Natural Science.

Writer, Laura Pensar (left) and illustrator, Melissa Chepren (right) holding the first copies of Persephone’s Broom Closet in Oracle Natural Science, KC.

The Story: At Oracle Natural Science, one of the most common questions we get is, “What can I do to cleanse my room/home/apartment/office?” So we decided to put together a zine with some simple ideas for ways to refresh and set your space with intention.

The Zine: Spring Cleaning is such a universal term for major cleaning and clearing endeavors that tying in the Greek Goddess of Spring and renewal seemed like a natural fit. So “Persephone’s Broom Closet” was my working title from the beginning… but it wasn’t until we brought illustrator, Melissa Chepren onto the team that the format for the zine really took shape.

Melissa sketched out some quick character ideas for Persephone (which we nicknamed Per-Swiffer-nee) and we all fell in love! From that point on the zine took on an advice-column style with various figures from Greek mythology writing in to ask Persephone for tips and suggestions.

The zine is a 36-page booklet filled with ideas to Spring Clean for any season! Persephone offers cheerful and helpful tips for setting your space with intention.

What, When, Where: “Persephone’s Broom Closet” is the latest publication in Oracle’s line of zines. You can find it (as well as Oracle’s other publications) at oraclekc.com - Special thanks to Alessandra Dzuba for being a fantastic team leader and the owner of Oracle Natural Science.

Sunset Tapers

I love making special commission candles! I work with the customer to develop a unique candle dressing just for them. Sometimes it’s a particular herb, flower, or crystal they want me to include. Other times there’s a general theme or intention and I develop the candle style around that.

In July, Oracle asked me to make a special candle for the first edition of their Witch Club subscription box which is relaunching in September. The subscription is released quarterly and centered around seasonal rituals, which means I would be making a candle for Autumn. We brainstormed some ideas for the candle dressing and decided on carnelian crystals and yarrow.

I pressed a book’s-worth of yarrow leaves and a few select bloom heads. I let them dry and press for a few weeks before the dipping session. Then, with the moon in Taurus, I dipped and dressed 16 custom 6″ tapers.

©2022 Moth and Candle LLC

Each taper has carefully arranged Yarrow leaves and blooms wrapped up and around the taper. Yarrow represents healing, love and protection. It is also said to be the “flower of death” making it an appropriate choice for Oracle’s Autumn candles. I sprinkled powdered Frankincense resin as an overall light dressing representing spirituality and the sacred. The powdered incense will also release a very, very light scent as the taper burns. Finally, each taper is crowned with a single reddish-orange Carnelian crystal representing warmth, courage, and the sunset.

I am so happy with the way these Sunset tapers turned out. I secretly wish I could make more of them!

But the dressings I develop for custom clients are exclusive to them… so maybe Oracle will ask me to make more? (Fingers crossed.) But until that happens, these Sunset beauties can only be found in Oracle’s September Witch Club.

If you’re interested in commissioning a unique candle style… send me a message!

Fundraiser for Bat Conservation

Last year I was asked to start working on a special fundraising project: a zine about bats to help raise awareness about the plight of bats worldwide.

The Story: Oracle Natural Science was given a box of old-stock bat skulls. Bat populations are endangered and there is no way to ethically or sustainably source bat parts (no matter what a given retailer or website may try to indicate, you can read more about why this is the case in this article). So Oracle has decided to redirect all proceeds from the sales of these skulls to bat conservation and use this event to educate their customers about bats and how to help.

The Zine: I began working on writing and illustrating a zine for Oracle to accompany the fundraiser. I immersed myself in books, websites, podcasts, YouTube videos and social media feeds of various biologists, conservationists, and bat rehabilitation centers. And in the process I fell in love with bats! I truly did not expect to be completely converted into a bat lover. They are awe inspiring. And weird. And adorable. And intelligent. And just fascinating. There’s so much to learn about bats that I had trouble narrowing down what I wanted to include in the zine!

The zine is a 22-page booklet filled with facts, trivia, tips for what you can do to help protect bats, and 12 original black and white watercolor illustrations. I also included instructions for two practices to tap into the bat spirit. (Since Oracle’s motto is: Science is magic!) $2 from the sale of every zine will be donated to The Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center.

Why Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center: UBRC is located in Kharkiv, Ukraine and is the largest bat rehabilitation center in Europe. All of the bats in Ukraine are on the red-list endangered species. This organization of professional scientists have continued to work under extremely dangerous and heartbreaking circumstances of the war to continue their work in protecting bats. We chose this organization to donate to because funding will not only help conserve endangered bats (who are now also facing the dangers of living in a war zone disturbing their roosting spots and safety) but the humans caring for them who are working in extreme and serious risk. We felt that donating to this organization would have the most impact at this time.

What, When, Where: Oracle’s Bat Fundraiser will “go live” July 5th, 2022 at noon Kansas City time. There will be 12 fruit-bat skulls mounted in glass cylinders, 11 horse-shoe-bat skulls mounted in mini glass domes, and the “Magic of Bats” zine available for purchase. I suggest setting a reminder alert for the 5th if you are interested in purchasing any of the skulls… there aren’t many and Oracle will not be carrying them ongoing, this was an unusual circumstance of receiving old-stock. (Like I mentioned above… bat products CANNOT be sourced sustainably and harvesting bats has already led to population decline and extinction of some species.) On Tuesday, July 5th you can find the Bat Fundraiser listings under the New Additions section of Oracle’s online shop.

Elegy Candles

Alessandra Dzuba of Oracle Natural Science specializes in skeletal articulation and does memorial work for clients. Finding ways of honoring memories and soothing grief become a major theme. She has certain rituals such as setting an intentional space, burning incense, and lighting a candle while working on a memorial. She asked me if I would create a special candle specifically with grief in mind.

I started with an herbal blend: Hawthorn for love. Nettle for strength. Lavender for peace.

Although she had not specified, I chose to make this candle a joined pair. So one candle is dressed with an Obsidian crystal for courage and grounding; and the other has a Rainbow Moonstone for soothing sorrow.

There is a long tradition of burning candles during times of loss, grief, and sorrow. We light candles to remember those who are no longer near. Both prayer and homage, a lit candle is a universal offering. The candle’s flame burns bright and flickers with life until the wax has been spent and there is no more wick. Candles are temporary, something we experience, and then it is gone; a ritual for the senses and a small gift of light to the world.

It was an honor to develop these Elegy candles. They are made exclusively for and available at Oracle Natural Science.