Herbal Oils

Part of what annoys me about witchcraft is that once you’ve read all the ‘beginner’ books out there, not a whole lot is provided for you to take the next step. Sure some places give ‘lessons’ or make it available for you to move up ‘degrees’, but from what I hear half the lessons are reiterating exactly what you already know from the books. North is Earth, Artemis rocks, millions of women were burned to death during the witch-craze…

So when you finally do hit that point, it takes a certain amount of umph to decide where you go to next. And frankly, that umph can take some time to decide upon.

Something I have always wanted to learn about was homeopathy and working with herbs and oils. So I decided to work along that path and get in touch with the more practical elements of witchcraft. I’m starting out with attempting to make some basic oils which I will later turn into salves. These are NOT for sale or commission. I’d rather not risk selling anything till I know I can actually manage to do it correctly.

Someone was ready to help the instant I opened those catnip herbs.

 

 

I HATE the smell of burning sage. It gives me a horrid headache, aggravates my asthma and my allergies. But everyone just insists on using it to purify themselves before enter a circle. So I decided to use something a little different. This is a sage and lavender mixture I’ll be using for ritual purification.

 

 

Even though I personally don’t need to attract any more familiars (PLEASE DEAR GODS NO MORE) I thought this would make for a nice experiment. This is catnip as well as three whiskers I’ve collected from my cats over time. (NOT pulled off, just collected).

 

I stored them in a cool dry place. I read that any water or high heat can cause them to go rancid. They will need to sit for 3 weeks before their ready. After that I’ll start work on turning them into salves.