Heidi Holton: Lucky Stones and Lucky Rocks
When the great blues singer Ma Rainey wrote and recorded "Lucky Rock Blues" in 1924, she was NOT singing about New Age Crystals! In hoodoo and conjure practice, the names Lucky Rock and Lucky Stone refer to the otoliths or earbones of fishes -- usually drumfish -- which were carried for good fortune by Native Americans and thence entered the materia magica of African American practitioners. Heidi sings the song, provides the ingredients, and guides you through making your Lucky Rock mojo according to instructions collected by the folklorist Harry Hyatt in the 1930s.