This goes against the tradition. What you are supposed to do is bury the saint in question (yes, this method works for other saints as well) upside down in the ground and, if your request is granted, you dig him up and put him on your shrine or altar. However, if your request is not granted, you keep him there until it is. It’s a form of “divine ransom”, so to speak.
A bio-degradable statue goes against the tradition and is utterly useless. I suggest you spend your money on a plaster statue and holy card with a novena rather than this kit.
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I personally just found that so fascinating.
Photo by twenty_questionsDo people really feel that they should “divine ransom” a saint? To Me, divine ransom means: “Hey you saint. I need to get my house sold, and if you don’t do it, you get to stay in the ground with worms and rotting plants. But hey, if you did sell my house to my liking, then you get to sit on a pretty shrine I made especially for you at home.” Really? Is it really how we should worship a divine being who foster fathered Jesus while he was on earth?
Our goal with this product is really to raise awareness about plastic usage and in the long run, decrease the amount of plastic statues being buried in the ground. Do you think St Joseph, a carpenter on earth, someone who worked with natural materials all day long and taught Jesus carpentry, would want to do harm to earth and our eco-systems? I would like to think not.
Photo by Lawrence OPIn additions, how would burying an eco-friendly statue becomes utterly useless? When they created tokens of worships centuries back, were there plastic readily available for mass production? No, people made statues out of natural materials and metal. So how, a St Joseph statue made out of clay, become utterly useless?
I feel that statues are just tokens of appreciation and a vehicle for you to express your faith to the divine beings that you are praying to. So why would an eco-friendly St Joseph statue become such an issue? If it only works because we pray to a certain kind of statues made from a certain kind of material, I suppose we should pray to statues made from gold and diamonds to show our appreciation?
Just my two cents here. I would love to hear your thoughts!
If you typed in “St. Joseph Statues” on Google, there are tons of different St. Joseph statues available for purchase, as well as different price ranges. Well, which one to buy???
The answer is: whichever one you want. Of course we at EcoJoe are a little biased and we want you to buy an eco-friendly St Joseph Statue, since plastic products are toxic to produce and toxic to be left buried, not to mention they increase the demands on crude oil.
Please keep in mind that the tradition of burying a St. Joseph statue has to come from somewhere. During our research before we put out EcoJoe, we found there are SOOOO many different ways to bury him, not to mention there are different versions of prayers available on the internet. We’ve even read in Wall Street Journal that some mixed up on the tradition of burying St. Joseph with St. Anthony, who was known as a matchmaker, would often be held ransom, upside-down, until he found a husband for someone’s daughter.
The point is, it’s about your intention. The Chinese tradition has an idiom when it comes to praying and asking Gods to grant your wishes: “Xing cheng tze ling, ” which means “If your heart is honest, then the wish will come true.” The St. Joseph tradition is not about making loads of money off your home sale, but your sincere wish to finding the right buyer for a home you once cherished.
Photo by teresiaWith that said, if you end up buying a plastic one, please please please dig it up after your home is sold! As the plastic statues break down, they release toxins into the earth, which often end up back into our food chain through plants and animals. So please dig your plastic Joes up after you are done!
(Photo: St Joseph’s Altarpiece by Lawrence OP on Flickr)
People ask this often and we’ve heard and found many different versions during our market research:
by the for sale sign
upside down
in the front yard
in the back yard
facing the street
facing away from the street
and a combination of couple of different things here
you have to dig him back up and place him in a prominent space in your home
Frankly, this is what we think, the tradition is really about the intention you set for selling your house. It is about setting the intention that you want to find a buyer who will be fair, quick and honest in your sale and will take care and cherish the house just as you did. So when you bury the St. Joseph statue, don’t feel so bounded by the rituals or feeling that you are doing something wrong. Just go ahead set the intention and let it go. The St. Joseph statue is just a symbol of your intention and a good luck charm.
To just show you an example, I once had a conversation from a prominent St. Joseph statue vendor telling me that the reason why he tells sellers to bury the St. Joseph statue next to the for sale sign is simply because most people forgot where they buried the statue. This way, they know where to dig when they sold the house.
So, have fun, relax and set the right intention for selling your home!
Can You Reuse a St Joesph’s Statue to Sell Another Home?.
Why yes. We don’t see why not? Plus recycle and reuse is perfect a green way to do it! EcoJoe is biodegradable, but it doesn’t mean that he will just melt away while he is hanging out underground in a short period of time. As long as your EcoJoe is still in good shape, we see it is perfectly fine to reuse him for other divine purposes.
EcoJoe™ is made from clay, which is a natural material from the earth. Clay has a long history in various historical cultures. Different types of clays and processing produced different products range from earthenware to porcelain. Clay can be biodegradable and does not release any toxins when it breaks down if left buried in the earth.
To produce EcoJoe™, the only “processing” was through the kiln, which is a firing process that hardens the clay. No additional processing such as bleaching or chemical coating was used.
The EcoJoe packaging is made from 100% post-consumer, recycled paper and printed with soy based ink. By printing with soy-based inks, VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) emissions that are harmful to the production crew and users are minimized, unlike oil-based paints, which are most commonly used in printing.
We also offset carbon emissions caused during production, transportation and shipping by purchasing certified carbon credits. We are a green shipper. We reuse as much existing packagings and shipping materials as much as possible.
We also print green when it comes to our merchandise, like the inserts of our button packs, business cards, postcards and our limited edition T shirts (coming soon Feb 2010)!
At EcoJoe, we strive to be a socially responsible company and minimize our ecological footprint as much and as often as possible.
(Photo by Photo by Soil-Science.; please note this is a photo of clay soil, but not necessary the same soil that produces
EcoJoe™)
