A Wise Word:

Witchcraft is all about living to the heights and depths of life as a way of worship. --LY DE ANGELES

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

A Very Useful Herb

On my altar right next to the re-rooting rosemary sprig is a bottle of rosemary oil.  It is very likely the most used magickal item in our house.  I use it to anoint my family for protection, I rub it on my husbands temples for clarity of thought while studying and I use it to anoint my own forehead for purification before ritual and divination.  Some days, everyone in the household smells of rosemary.

Additionally, I also use dried rosemary leaves blended in an incense for divination and in spell work. Magickaly, rosemary is touted as being the herb that can be used in place of any other herb, but I have yet to put that to the test.  I prefer to substitute a similar herb when I must.  However, the magickal properties of rosemary are diverse, from protection to clarity of thought to love and even to purification.  Scott Cunningham even suggests burning rosemary to promote healing, which is where things get really interesting.

Burning rosemary, especially when combined with juniper, is effective at killing germs and preventing infections.  Before modern antiseptics, this combination was often burned in hospitals to keep illness from passing between patients.  Magickal and medicinal in one!

Just today, I smudged my home with rosemary grown by my oldest daughter.  We've been fighting a nasty cold for over a week now and everytime I think we've kicked it, things take a turn for the worse.  I knew I needed to do something to stop the cycle, but it is just too chilly to open the house up for a good airing.  So, I smudged and in smudging I tapped into both the magicakal and the medicinal uses of rosemary I don't have any juniper right now.

After lighting my charcoal disk and getting a nice billowy smoke from my dried roseamary, Miss Busy and I walked through the house with the smoking bowl.  As we made our small tour, we chanted,  "Smoke of rosemary, billow and blow.  Smoke of rosemary, germs must go."   Simple magick, but magick that I know works.

From a purely medical standpoint, our steadfast belief in rosemary as a helper in clear thought and concentration is a proven truth.  Rosemary stimulates circulation to the brain and gives us sharper memory and cognition. Because of this stimulation, it is also effective for relieving headaches associated wth stress and will minimize the symptoms of a cold.  For medicinal purposes, rosemary is best ingested raw, but if you can't stomach chewing on a rosemary leaf try a cup of rosemary tea or adding a sprig or two to a pot of soup.

Rosemay is additionally used to treat a vast array of women's issues, heart problems, and sluggish digestion.  It also tastes delicious in a homemade vegetable soup, chopped and sprinkled on top of homemade bread before popping it in the oven, or included in a chi tea blend.  Oh, and oven roasted chicken and potatoes with a sprinkling of fresh rosemary...delicious!

While I realize there is a lot more that I could say about this herb, I will just leave you with a suggestion to keep a few sprigs or a plant on hand for all purposes magickal, medicinal, and culinary. I have in no way exhausted the use of rosemary in this post, so do a bit of reading and find the uses that best suit your individual needs.



Thursday, November 3, 2016

Happy Dust



Yesterday, I moved my ancestor altar from the bedroom into the kitchen.  I felt my ancients would get more love and attention out here with the rest of the family.  While I was setting up the altar, I tossed the old potting soil in the bottom of my incense dish and decided to replace it with sand from the sandbox.  

I thought I was being thrifty, but it ended up being a much better idea than I thought.



While I was coming back inside with my little jar of sand, I suddenly felt giddy.  I wanted to skip and laugh.  The energy coming off that sand was/is just delicious!  My first thought was, "Papa is going to love this."  Then I realized it would also make a great magickal ingredient.  

All summer long, hordes of neighborhood children have laughed, collaborated, and created in that sandbox.  Even now as the days are getting shorter, they run from the bus to the sandbox and play late into the afternoon, coats and backpacks scattered on the lawn around them.  I collected my sand durring this time of day.  With out knowing it, these children have continually charged the sandbox.  

Now, instead of "fairy dust" I have "happy dust."  You had better believe that I am going to find a dozen ways to use it, too.