Everything Under the Moon

In our collective wanderings and experiences, I expect lots of us have picked up tips along the way that may be worth sharing. I have collected a few and hope you add yours.

1. Label it. You will not remember what was in that potion, herb jar, baggie of dry leaves like you think you will; and one dried leaf looks pretty much like all the others.

2. Freeze it. Extra herbs at the end of a growing season can be stored whole, in the freezer.
Freeze rain from a thunder storm to store it. ZipLock freezer bags are great. see #1. Carry sandwich bags to collect specimens when you go for walks.

3. Repurpose wide mouth jars to store herbs, salt, stones, soil. Rubbing alcohol will remove sticky label glue.

4. Keep a flowerpot of backyard dirt in the house for winter "burials" when the ground is frozen, to refresh stones, tools and disposing of organic spell leavings after their job is done.

5.Shop for candles in the after holiday sales like Halloween and Christmas; check the foreign food isles at grocery stores for specialty spices, Hanukah candles and glass-encased 7-day candles; herbal teas cost less than spice isle herbs; dollar-store herbs cost less than in grocery stores and have high turnover so aren't stale; check camping goods & cookware for less costly athames & cauldrons; thrift stores are great resources and repurposing is earth-friendly. Landscaping areas are good places to find raw quartz.

6. Put a hot-pad under burning bowls before setting something on fire & the bowl gets too hot to handle. Keep a jug of water handy and a lid to smother flames. Keep tongs near incense burners.

7. If you don't like a spell ingredient - it stinks or is gross - rewrite the spell. You can always find alternatives. If something creeps you out then it will kill the spell. Don't use it.

8. Laugh more. It's OK to enjoy what you're learning & it doesn't have to be perfect.

Great thread!
Thanks for sharing!

Great ideas! I'll try for seven, too...
*After picking many different herbs, found it faster to use sanitized plastic flower pots to rinse each, instead of a colander.
*It is an old trick to blow into a horse's nostrils, but works for other animals that use nose-to-nose greetings. If there's enough trust, just gently exhaling your breath works, or lick a finger and let them smell. Sharing scents is a way of bonding animals understand.
*I don't like wasting food (rice) or even sparing running water under the tap, and salt can scratch, so cleanse rocks and crystals on a bed of flower petals. Usually roses, they have a high vibrational frequency, but any will do. Leaves work, too. Plants and rocks seem to have an affinity. Later they can be useful as compost.
*I keep a salt lamp on the same shelving as altar tools/supplies. Even if it didn't work to dispel negative energy, it's still a fitting place.
*Cast iron cookware is a great bargain and with the proper care can last generations. They get better with use, and use cast iron exclusively. After being hesitant, started using stainless steel utensils with them, found an even smoother finish. If they have to be stored with lids on, a paper towel inside can help or paper placed just under the lid.
*Since I had one already, started using a music stand to hold farmers almanacs, spells not memorized, etc. It's very portable to take outside and can hold a clip-on light.
*To make a bell more personalized, replace the clapper with a favorite crystal bead on fishing line.
Well, that was random!

What an awesome thread topic, SpiritTalker!

- Thrift stores are an amazing way to get altar items on the cheap.

- Homemade stock is so cheap to make, healthy, and delicious -- definitely beats anything you can buy in a store, and it adds such an extra punch to any of your healing soups or other dishes. I love to keep a gallon ziploc bag in the freezer, and toss vegetable scraps and chicken bones in it to save them for making stock (for vegetable stock, skip the bones). For scraps, the basics are onion, celery, and carrot, but I also put in scraps of herbs, broccoli stems, mushroom stems, etc. When the bag is full, all you have to do is throw them all in there, bring it to a boil, reduce heat and simmer slowly for 6-8 hours or overnight. Then strain out the bones/vegetable scraps and transfer them to airtight containers. You can keep them up to a week in the fridge (okay, I've definitely done 2 weeks), or freeze them.

Great advice guys! Lovin it!

Freeze that delicious home made stock in ice cube trays; then pop the cubes to store inside large freezer bags. Use 1-2 in the stew.

SpiritTalker wrote:1. Label it. You will not remember what was in that potion, herb jar, baggie like you think you will;

Boy oh boy did you nail this one!
Do not for an instant think you will remember. Also Date it...stuff does get old and if it looks or smells funky have a disposal party. One year I burned herbs that had been drying on a rack for sooooooo long they were covered in spiderwebs.
Herb burning party!

☆ Keep a bag for candle scraps. A seperate one for beeswax. Around Imbolc make candles out of the scraps. Transmute away any energy linked to the candles as you heat them up stir widdershins and chant a release tune. An old nylon works well to strain the chunky impurities. Use a double boiler method, I use an old frying pan with water in it and old coffee cans to melt the wax placed in the pan, heat slowly.

FF

Easy means to achieve trance state - Rocking either side-to-side, or sitting in ye olde rocking chair, rocking front to back.

When packing books for long-term storage, drop in a few Fast-food restaurant packets of salt to absorb moisture. It helps keep away that creepy old-book smell.

When you get a pack of new taper candles soak them in cool, very salted water. It removes prior handling cooties & makes them dripless. Pat dry with towel.