Have you got a favourite Herbal mixture you like to conjure?
Have you ever had a herbal experiment go wrong?
Just a few questions I thought I would throw out there. Always good to hear others perspective on the topic.
Experiences with Herbs
-
Solitary_Wiccan
Experiences with Herbs
In direction to Herbalists, which ones do you use regularly, and in contrast, which ones do you steer clear from?
Have you got a favourite Herbal mixture you like to conjure?
Have you ever had a herbal experiment go wrong?
Just a few questions I thought I would throw out there. Always good to hear others perspective on the topic.
Have you got a favourite Herbal mixture you like to conjure?
Have you ever had a herbal experiment go wrong?
Just a few questions I thought I would throw out there. Always good to hear others perspective on the topic.
I often use sage leaves for cleansing, especially my tarot. A friend gave me a deck which still has his own energy in it. Everytime I use the card before, I felt that my energy's being drained. Then I burned sage leaves and place the deck above the smoke and I guess it helped.
Everytime mom cooks "beef whatsoever with rosemarys" you call that, my brain seems to work well in school. Well, maybe it's just a coincidence but most of the time it happens. (P.S: Argument's been settled between mom and son
)
Everytime mom cooks "beef whatsoever with rosemarys" you call that, my brain seems to work well in school. Well, maybe it's just a coincidence but most of the time it happens. (P.S: Argument's been settled between mom and son
)-
hedge*
- Posts: 1195
- Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 11:26 am
- Gender: Female
- Location: sitting on top of my mushroom
No coincidence kuotetsu - Rosemary is great for stimulating memory and concentration not to mention lifting the spirits.kuotetsu wrote:
Everytime mom cooks "beef whatsoever with rosemarys" you call that, my brain seems to work well in school. Well, maybe it's just a coincidence but most of the time it happens.
There is no Herb I would steer clear from if it was calling to me. However I am experienced enough (and sensible enough) to spend a LOT of time with a new herb getting to know it before I used it for the first time.Solitary_Wiccan wrote: which ones do you use regularly, and in contrast, which ones do you steer clear from?
Herbs and Plants that I use most include:
Sage (Russian, White Kitchen and Purple varieties)
Chamomile
Mint
Thyme
Eucalyptus
Kava kava
Rosemary
Parsley
Bay
Basil
Lavender
Comfrey
Yarow
Aloe vera
Ecchinacea
Valerian
Cloves
..................in fact I'll stop there otherwise it'll get too long.
Let's just say I use A LOT of Herbs.
Lol!
Solitary_Wiccan wrote: Have you got a favourite Herbal mixture you like to conjure?
Yes - Comfrey ointment. It's wonderful for soothing sprains and I'm currently experimenting with a different recipe.
I make a lovely lip balm too.
Yes.......many times.Solitary_Wiccan wrote:Have you ever had a herbal experiment go wrong?
Live and learn say I.
Off topic:
"(P.S: Argument's been settled between mom and son )" Way to go Kuotetsu! And how is gran doing?Well I hope.
I hate Sage.No kidding.I am severely antipathetic towards it,in all it's forms.Ooh err.
I use all manner of herbs and spices,both medicinal and magickal.
my favourites are:
Stinging nettles
Fennel
Bay leaves
Lavendar
Cinnamon
Ginger
Garlic
Basil
Rue
Plantain [British/European,not the banana type: forget it's other name.oops]
I also use tree barks for various needs.
"(P.S: Argument's been settled between mom and son )" Way to go Kuotetsu! And how is gran doing?Well I hope.
I hate Sage.No kidding.I am severely antipathetic towards it,in all it's forms.Ooh err.
I use all manner of herbs and spices,both medicinal and magickal.
my favourites are:
Stinging nettles
Fennel
Bay leaves
Lavendar
Cinnamon
Ginger
Garlic
Basil
Rue
Plantain [British/European,not the banana type: forget it's other name.oops]
I also use tree barks for various needs.
-
Solitary_Wiccan
Like hedge and Eretik, I use a LOT of herbs. I have an entire five shelf wall unit full of herb jars. I routinely blend and mix herbs, not only for herbal healing but to make incense, sacred oils (i use both infused versions and essentials) sacred potpouri, and herbal blends to charge stones and working tools with, along with herb pillows for various uses and charged teas. I even make dried herbal boquets (called tussie-mussies, I think!) when I can... otherwise just use a (usually scented with the herbal ingredients themselves) mojo bag.
Ahh, my favorite magickal herb to work with is a tough choice. For now, I'll say Ferula Sumbul. It's known as muskroot, and it smells musky and very powerfully so. It's a wonderful herb for prosperity, love, courage, and relaxation. Somehow, in that dried form, it didn't give me headaches like the (even diluted) oil does. Anyhow, I made a mojo bag for friendship with it that smelled... wonderful. I kept it for years, and sadly lost it. I wish I could get my hands on musk root. I have searched extensively, both on the web and off, for a reasonable source for this plant. The best I could do was to find an importer who was dissapointed that I didn't want large distributor quantities of it.
Unfortunately, I couldn't afford the price he was asking for that much of it...or I might have just opened a store on the strength of just having that herb. I could sell it to a Web full of pagans I'm sure of it! 
Here are some other favorites:
Yarrow, Purple Loosestrife, Chickweed, Rosemary, Dragon's Blood (yeah, I know, it's a resin, but I don't care! Its on th list!) Rattlesnake Plantain, Japanese Honeysuckle (aka gold and sliver flower), Wood Betony, Agrimony (makes lovely tea, too!) Linden (as good as chamomile in my book!), Peppermint, garlic, and Burdock ( a highly underutilized cleanser. I use it when I am wary of using salt. Nicer on the skin, too!)
And yes, I've had some herbal disasters. Funny how most of my failures never lasted long enough to even get to the circle.
Example: My grandma has 80 someodd acres up in Michigan. IN her fields many herbs grow. I learned how to identify a great many of my favorite herbs thanks to talks with her when I was a kid. ANYWAY,
she has LOTS of St. John's wort up there,and I harvested quite a bit by cutting off the flowers (keeping in touch with 10% rule) and was happy.
Until... all of it got molded during the drying phase! But that was largely because I tried to dry the individual flowers on screens in the sleeping porch, where the conditions include lots of old exposed wood and dust, as well as the screens still being wet from me having washed them. In retrospect, the results were a foregone conclusion.
Another example of herbs gone horribly wrong:
My first attempt at infused oils was rather amusingly bad. My mom has lots of Mondara (Wild Bee Balm) growing in her back yard. I love the smell of the stuff, (some think of it as medicinal, but it's also called wild bergamont, so I can't be alone) so I picked a ton of it and then packed it fresh, tightly, and still damp from washing in some olive oil which I then heated on the stove to simmer, for more than an hour.
The results: stale oil complete with some kind of white growing mold/fungus(?) that expanded as I watched! It reminded me of that cotton fungus that attacks fish! Oh, and it didn't smell very good, because the herbs got scorched on the bottom of the pot, too! Suffice to say my mom had some choice words for the whole situation, since I was still living at home and in high school at the time. (her pots, her kitchen, horrible smell!)
Sad to say, since then I've been less enthusiastic with the Mondara since the smell of the fresh herb in the back of my mind always goes back to that horrible day.
There are many many more, but I don't want to hog the limelight... too much.
Ahh, my favorite magickal herb to work with is a tough choice. For now, I'll say Ferula Sumbul. It's known as muskroot, and it smells musky and very powerfully so. It's a wonderful herb for prosperity, love, courage, and relaxation. Somehow, in that dried form, it didn't give me headaches like the (even diluted) oil does. Anyhow, I made a mojo bag for friendship with it that smelled... wonderful. I kept it for years, and sadly lost it. I wish I could get my hands on musk root. I have searched extensively, both on the web and off, for a reasonable source for this plant. The best I could do was to find an importer who was dissapointed that I didn't want large distributor quantities of it.
Unfortunately, I couldn't afford the price he was asking for that much of it...or I might have just opened a store on the strength of just having that herb. I could sell it to a Web full of pagans I'm sure of it! Here are some other favorites:
Yarrow, Purple Loosestrife, Chickweed, Rosemary, Dragon's Blood (yeah, I know, it's a resin, but I don't care! Its on th list!) Rattlesnake Plantain, Japanese Honeysuckle (aka gold and sliver flower), Wood Betony, Agrimony (makes lovely tea, too!) Linden (as good as chamomile in my book!), Peppermint, garlic, and Burdock ( a highly underutilized cleanser. I use it when I am wary of using salt. Nicer on the skin, too!)
And yes, I've had some herbal disasters. Funny how most of my failures never lasted long enough to even get to the circle.
Example: My grandma has 80 someodd acres up in Michigan. IN her fields many herbs grow. I learned how to identify a great many of my favorite herbs thanks to talks with her when I was a kid. ANYWAY,
she has LOTS of St. John's wort up there,and I harvested quite a bit by cutting off the flowers (keeping in touch with 10% rule) and was happy.
Until... all of it got molded during the drying phase! But that was largely because I tried to dry the individual flowers on screens in the sleeping porch, where the conditions include lots of old exposed wood and dust, as well as the screens still being wet from me having washed them. In retrospect, the results were a foregone conclusion.
Another example of herbs gone horribly wrong:
My first attempt at infused oils was rather amusingly bad. My mom has lots of Mondara (Wild Bee Balm) growing in her back yard. I love the smell of the stuff, (some think of it as medicinal, but it's also called wild bergamont, so I can't be alone) so I picked a ton of it and then packed it fresh, tightly, and still damp from washing in some olive oil which I then heated on the stove to simmer, for more than an hour.
The results: stale oil complete with some kind of white growing mold/fungus(?) that expanded as I watched! It reminded me of that cotton fungus that attacks fish! Oh, and it didn't smell very good, because the herbs got scorched on the bottom of the pot, too! Suffice to say my mom had some choice words for the whole situation, since I was still living at home and in high school at the time. (her pots, her kitchen, horrible smell!)
Sad to say, since then I've been less enthusiastic with the Mondara since the smell of the fresh herb in the back of my mind always goes back to that horrible day.
There are many many more, but I don't want to hog the limelight... too much.
-
Solitary_Wiccan
Jcrowfoot, I was hoping you would be putting your two cents into this thread. I always look forward to hearing your contibution. It sounds to me like I have a lot of work ahead of me if I wish to become knowledgable with herbs and their uses....
where to start!!! There's a store close to this town's city centre that sells an extensive amount of herbs. I think I need to take a trip down and sort myself out with a few for my collection... any ideas on which ones to begin with? Perhaps a few herbal ideas to get me started?
One last question, does anyone know of a website that deals in kind of step by step how to's on the matter? I want to make sure I'm doing things right.
where to start!!! There's a store close to this town's city centre that sells an extensive amount of herbs. I think I need to take a trip down and sort myself out with a few for my collection... any ideas on which ones to begin with? Perhaps a few herbal ideas to get me started?
One last question, does anyone know of a website that deals in kind of step by step how to's on the matter? I want to make sure I'm doing things right.
-
Shaman of Bliss
- Banned Member
- Posts: 366
- Joined: Thu Jan 04, 2007 11:20 am
- Gender: Female
- Location: Canada
-
Solitary_Wiccan
-
sunstoneleo
- Posts: 232
- Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2007 7:09 pm
- Gender: Female
- Location: minnesota
I think My favorite herb is Lavender. I used to take a horticulture class where I got all these free plants, and I just got done with my floral design classes (in which I am still looking for a job). Anyways, off topic. I also love taking pictures of flowers. If anyone wants to see my pics i have a Phototbucket account. Here is a link: http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j78/kirara444/
Just click on flowers and you will see them.
Just click on flowers and you will see them.
-
sunstoneleo
- Posts: 232
- Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2007 7:09 pm
- Gender: Female
- Location: minnesota