Mojo Kits

I've been making mojo kits for about two years now and giving them to people who might like them or have a use for them.

(You know you have an early one if it was called a "Good luck mojo kit". I dropped the "good luck" when I realized it was redundant. )

A number of things came together to inspire me to start making them:

• my inability to not pick up odd little items;
• my insecurity that people will like gifts I give them leading me to give them more than one thing to increase the probability that they'll like something;
• the juju bags filled with items of power that Ghanaian fetish priests carry; and
• the obvious connection to luckiness and elemental forces of most of the odd items I pick up.

I'm only aware of two rules for things that can comprise a mojo kit:

1. Items should not be bought in order to go in a mojo kit; and
2. Coins must be found accidentally and face up.

Usually, I use simple small containers like small ziploc 3"x5" evidence bags or thin metal containers with the original writing sanded off. (One of these is illustrated at Asteroideapress). However, a mojo kit can go in anything (except of course a container expressly purchased to hold a mojo kit).

This weekend, I completed my most elaborate mojo kit so far. One of my friends was whining about not having a mojo kit of her own and I had decided a while ago that an old Philip Zimbardo Psychology text would make a good container to give her a present in, so I put those ideas together.

I don't know where I got the idea of carving "mojo" into the cover and putting a broken bicycle flasher behind it. Anyway, the recipient seems to like it.

If you're thinking of carving a hole in a book, I have two tips:

1. Cutting out the hole will be easier if you first clamp the pages together and drill holes at the corners.
2. White glue that has been mixed with water (~50/50) will do a nice job of holding the pages together so that you have a proper container afterwards.