Mikhail Strabo

From Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers

Jump to: navigation, search
Conditions for Which
Mikhail Strabo
is Petitioned
"The Guiding Light to Power and Success by Mikhail Strabo, cover art by Grey Townsend, edited by Catherine Yronwode

Mikhail Strabo (1894-1971), was a popular author of more than a dozen Spiritualist and folk magic texts in the mid-20th century. His 1943 booklet "How to Conduct a Candle Light Service" not only described African-American Spiritualist church services of the time, it outlined the order of services in such a way that by the 1960s, almost every Black Spiritual Church presented elements of the work as he had described them. Although his name combines the Russian spelling of Michael and a reference to the Greek historian Strabo, in the early 2000s Catherine Yronwode discovered that Mikhail Strabo was the pen-name of a New-York-born Jewish man named Sydney J. Rosenfeld Steiner.

Perhaps not as well remembered today as his contemporaries Henri Gamache (Anne Fleitman) or Anna Riva (Dorothy Spencer), Mikhail Strabo, who preceded them, was an astute occult and metaphysical author, known for his thorough spell-casting instructions, his recommendations of the use of the Psalms in altar work, prayer, and magic, and his calm, faith-filled writing style.

Strabo’s approach to folk magic and folk religion was unique. Unlike 19th century British authors, who invited readers to gaze upon "primitive" European folk magic from a skeptical perspective and view the "exotic" folk magic of non-Europeans from a colonialist perspective, he gave us folk magic as part of the American experience. Notably, he presented as normative the American mingling of African, European, and Middle Eastern people who worshipped and prayed according to Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish religious traditions, and cast spells familiar to their varied family cultures. His books were addressed to a domestic population that was then engaged in combatting race-based fascism and genocide in Europe, while at the same time working with determined optimism toward socio-economic equality and full civil rights for all citizens at home.

Born Sidney J. Rosenfeld, the child of Leo Rosenfeld and Irene Gross Rosenfeld, two 19th century Jewish immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Strabo was raised by his mother and grandmother Anna Gross after his father died when he was less than six years old. In 1903 his mother remarried, to the Austro-Hungarian Jewish immigrant Geza Steiner, a widower, and she adopted Steiner's two motherless sons, while Geza adopted and gave a new surname to her son. Geza Steiner was a musician and band leader, and he supported the family of three children, his wife, and his mother-in-law. Steiner also died young, in 1912, and his oldest son from his first marriage stayed in the family as a young adult, until Sydney, as he now spelled his name, was old enough to work. Sydney became an advertising copy writer and newspaper journalist, and in 1917 he briefly moved to Pennsylvania with his new wife Charlotte Jacoby Steiner. By 1920 Sydney and Charlotte were back in New York City with their new son Leonard, named after Sydney's late father Leo. They lived with his mother and grandmother, whom they supported as their dependents. Charlotte was a designer of women's wear and Sydney opened his own advertising agency. In 1941, at the age of 47, shortly after the death of his grandmother, he adopted the pen-name Mikhai Strabo and began writing books on multi-cultural spirituality, psychism and folk magic, which he published through his own company, Guidance House.

A phrase that appears repeatedly in Strabo’s works is "people of all faiths." As a first generation Jewish-American whose parents, adoptive father, and older adoptive brother had all been born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and came to America to escape antisemitism, he embraced what was then the American ideal — a nation that welcomed people of all backgrounds. As made clear in "How to Conduct a Candle Light Service" (reprinted in "The Art of Hoodoo Candle Magic"), he was in regular contact with the African-American Spiritual Church Movement community of New York City, and with the Spiritualist minister Rev. Adele Clemens, and published some of her services. He taught Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Spiritualist, and secular candle spells without any sense of preference. The fifteen books he wrote between 1941 and 1965 covered a wide range of topics, from techniques of prayer and candle magic to gambling luck, personal power, and psychic development. He died in 1971, but many of his books remain in print to this day.

Guidance House Publications

Guidance House, Box 201, Times Square Station, New York 18, N. Y.

  • "A Candle to Light Your Way" by Mikhail Strabo, Guidance House, December 15, 1941; copyright renewed October 3, 1969.
  • "The Guiding Light io Power and Success" by Mikhail Strabo, Guidance House, February 14, 1942; copyright renewed December 3, 1969; reprinted by Lucky Mojo Curio Co, 2020.
  • "The Magic Formula for Successful Prayer" by Mikhail Strabo, Guidance House, February 18, 1942; copyright renewed December 3, 1969.
  • "How to Conduct a Candle Light Service" by Mikhail Strabo, Guidance House, May 24, 1943; copyright renewed October 22, 1970; reprinted in full in "The Art of Hoodoo Candle Magic" by cat yronwode and reprinted by Lucky Mojo Curio Co., 2013.
  • "The Magic Formula for Personal Power" by Mikhail Strabo. Guidance House, March 1, 1944.
  • "Love, the Greatest Thing in the World, and How to Make It Work for You, Based on a Lecture by Henry Drummond [1851-1897]" by Mikhail Strabo and Lynn Archer. Guidance House, November 15, 1945.
  • "Playing Your Hunches to Win" by Mikhail Strabo. Guidance House, August 25, 1947.
  • "Golden Secrets of the Sacred Psalms: A Guide to the Use of the Psalms for People of All Faiths" by Desire Lanti and Mikhail Strabo. Guidance House, December 23, 1947.
  • "The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence: A Modern Adaptation of the 1694 Original [by Nicholas Herman]" by Charlotte Sydney. Guidance House, August 6, 1948. [“Charlotte Sydney” is a conflation of the names of the husband-wife duo of Charlotte Steiner and Sydney Steiner.]
  • "Your Daily Guidance: An Inspirational and Devotional Help for Every Day of the Year" by Mikhail Strabo. Guidance House, June 23, 1950.
  • "The Way and the Light: 10 Steps to Personal Fulfillment" by Mikhail Strabo. Guidance House, December 21, 1964.
  • "Psychic Power for Successful Living" by Mikhail Strabo. Guidance House, July 12, 1965.
  • "The Golden Treasury of the Master's Power" by Mikhail Strabo. Guidance House, June 30, 1966.
  • "You Can Perform Miracles Through Prayer" by Mikhail Strabo. Guidance House, March 27, 1967.
  • "You Can Build Your Fortune on Faith" by Mikhail Strabo. Guidance House, December 15, 1969.

Credits

This page is brought to you by the AIRR Tech Team:

See Also

Retrieved from "https://readersandrootworkers.org/wiki/Mikhail_Strabo"
Personal tools