Acbal's Moon: Apothecary!

Dandruff Treatment

10 aspirin tablets
3/4 cup warm water

Dissolve the aspirin in water. After shampooing, massage into scalp, leave on for 10 minutes, then rinse.

Head Lice Treatment

25 drops rosemary oil
25 drops lavender oil
13 drops geranium oil
12 drops eucalyptus oil
1/3 cup olive oil

Saturate hair and scalp and wrap hair in plastic. Leave on for two hours. Remove plastic and add shampoo, rubbing in well. Rinse thoroughly and comb through with nit comb. Repeat three days later.

Red Pepper Taffy for Sore Throats

1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
2/3 cup water
1 Tbs cornstarch
2 Tbs butter or margarine
1 teas salt
2 teas butter flavor
1 teas cayenne pepper

In a 2-qt saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, water, cornstarch, butter and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly to 256 degrees on a candy thermometer (or until a small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water forms a hard ball. Remove from heat, stir in butter flavor and cayenne pepper and pour onto a baking sheet. When just cool enough to handle, pull taffy until satiny, light in color and stiff. If taffy becomes too sticky, butter hands lightly. Pull into long strips about 1/2 inch wide. With scissors, cut strips into 1 in pieces. Wrap pieces individually in plastic wrap or wax paper. Chew as needed. Makes about 30 pieces.

Chest Cold Vinegar

1 Large onion (sliced)
1/2 Cup Dried Mullein Flowers
7 Cloves Garlic (crushed)
2 Tablespoons (Crushed or grated) Horseradish
2 Tablespoons Fresh Grated Ginger
2 Tablespoons Honey
Apple Cider Vinegar

Fill jar with layers of these ingredients until full. Then top with Apple Cider Vinegar Refrigerate and use after 24 hrs. Take 2-3 teaspoons of the juice 2-3 times daily. Keeps for 6 Weeks.

Mullein Compress

2 quarts cider or malt vinegar
4 oz. Mullein
1/2 oz Lobelia herb
1/4 ounce cayenne powder

Gently simmer well covered for 20-30 min. Strain and pour over 1/4 ounce cayenne powder. Foment affected area as hot as possible for at least 1 hour. I usually place a soaked cloth on the area and cover with plastic wrap and place a heating pad over it all.

This is wonderful for glandular swellings, painful joints and muscles, edema and other swellings. Mullein encourages the absorbtion of fluids thus reducing swelling and inflammation. Lobelia is very relaxing and anti-spasmodic. Using a stimulant like Cayenne makes the other ingredients more effective and it also can help allay pain and staunch bleeding both on the surface and under (e.g. good for bruising). Cayenne is also somewhat antiseptic. This fomentation may be stored in a cool place and used within a 3 month period.

Just a couple of notes:
1. If it is too "hot", use less capsicum. Adjust to the needs of the patient.
2. Don't foment overnight. It may cause skin irritation. Use moderation. Don't forget vinegar is an acid. My daughter had peeling skin for several days after falling asleep with a compress on her arm.
3. If the vinegar is too irritating, substitute olive oil, in which case you can foment longer.
4. An interesting variation is to use 2 oz Mullein and 2 oz Comfrey with the other ingredients. Comfrey tends to hasten healing of tissues so might be helpful in wounds etc.
5. Do NOT use this compress on cancerous tumors since it encourages dispersion and absorption of fluids, etc.

SORE LEG OINTMENT

1 handful chickweed
1 handful red rose petals
1pt. oil (any)

Cook chickweed and rose leaves together in oil on stove or in oven. After 1-3 hours strain, use a liquid ointment on sore legs.

SPICY WINE OR MOUTHWASH

1 bottle white wine or red
2ozs. cinnamon sticks (several small sticks)
6 peppercorns
1/2 nutmeg bruised or grated
2T. or half handful rosemary

Put herbs in wine. Steep for 2 weeks, strain, bottle and label.

JUNIPER BERRY OINTMENT

useful for wounds, inching, scratches, scars from burning, hangnails, festering sores.
Collect berries from garden or wild just as they are ripening.

2c. juniper berries
2c. oil (olive or lanolin)
2-3 t. or more if needed beeswax

Soak berries overnight. Strain out water, simmer berries in oil and make sure they don't burn. Heat was in separate container, strain berries, add wax while oil is still hot. Each batch may differ in consistency. The amount of wax must be added by eye. After hardening process has started reheat and add more melted wax if needed. Use tea and lots of cranberry juice to eliminate uric acid crystals in the joints. Add parsley also.

SAGE CAYENNE GARGLE

1/2 pt. sage tea
2t. apple cider vinegar
1t. cayenne

To make sage tea steep 4t. sage leaves 2tsp. honey in a pt. of boiling water. Steep for 20-30 minutes. Strain. Combine other ingredients. Shake every day for about a week. Excellent to avert a cold. May be taken internally 1 tsp. at a time. Bottle and label with date.

Source
www.kitchenwitch.com/

Herb of the Month

Frankincense

(from Book of Shadows: Journey of a Solitary Witch Blog )

This is an aromatic resin from any of the four main species of deciduous trees in the Boswellia genus. They come in the form of small bushes and trees of moderate size with compound leaves and grow in a wide variety of environments, though the most aromatic varieties come from more arid regions. The flowers are yellowish-white with five petals. The resin comes from cuts in the tree which allow the sap to bubble out and harden . This is done when they are about 8 to 10 years of age. It has been a valuable trade item for thousands of years and used in rituals for just as long.

Latin Name:
Boswellia Carterii

Folk Names: Olibanum, Olibanus, Olibans

Element: Fire

Gender: Masculine

Planet: The Sun

Deities: Ra, Baal

Magical Uses:

Frankincense is often added to other magical mixtures in order to increase their potency due to the powerful vibrations of energy that are released from it when it is burned. These intense energies drive away negative energies and evil so it has been used throughout the ages for purification and exorcism. With this in mind we can see that it also an excellent choice for preventative measures such as that of protection. The strong vibrations produced by frankincense make it an excellent choice in meditation incenses and also in mixtures used to promote spiritual growth as well as to induce visions.

Medicinal Uses:

The resin has long been used in the Ayurvedic medicine of India and the bark has been used in Africa to treat fever, gastrointestinal distress and rheumatism. Studies are currently under way to test the resin, and its chemical derivatives, for treating chronic inflammatory diseases and one study claims the incense may work similarly to a psychoactive drug to reduce depression and anxiety, a correlation to its magical uses that cannot be easily ignored.

Folklore:

The resin was once burned as an offering to the sun god Ra in ancient Egypt on a daily basis at sunrise. As many people know, this was one of two magical resins presented to Jesus in the story of his birth by the Magi or “wise men”, who were traditionally wizards from the east. It has also been in use by the Catholic church as an incense, probably for this reason. It is also used in the Jewish tradition. Its appearance in these stories, and its current use by the church, is obviously influenced by its extensive use for thousands of years before they were written.

Spell - A - Week

Blowing Darts

(from Gypsy Magic Blog)

This is a spell to break and remove all the bad energy, negativity, bad luck, hexes, and etc. that others have put on you, or that you have inadvertently collected or allowed.

You will need:

1 white candle
1 smudge stick OR 1 generous handful of dried sage leaves (not the powder)
1 lemon (lemon essential oil - or pure lemon juice will also work)
1 paper plate
black marker or pen
13 straight pins
1 black cloth - the size of a large handkerchief
1 egg
1 potato

Making the spell:

Gather your supplies
Get centered
Draw an "eye of protection" on the paper plate with the black marker or pen.
Cut the lemon in half and rub it briskly over the candle until the candle is coated with the juice, wipe your hands on the black cloth.
Now, light the candle.
Next light the smudge stick, OR if you are using dried sage, place the leaves into a fireproof container and light them so that they begin to smolder and smoke.

Once you have some good smoke, take the potato and submerge it in the smoke using a circular, counterclockwise motion.
When the potato seems well fumigated, set it down on the paper plate and cover it with the black cloth.
Insert the 13 stick pins through the cloth into the potato.
Crack the egg over the cloth covered pinned potato and let the egg slide off of it and onto the plate.
Blow on each stick pin and into the potato. As you do this, recite the incantation, saying it louder each time, until you feel the negative energy has left you and transferred into the potato.

The Incantation:

Thirteen pins in the poppet,
Hex be broken. Now I stop it.
Curse be over. Curse be done.
I succeed. I have won.
Bad luck stays within the black.
I am not under attack.
Curse be buried and destroyed.
My life it is now filled with joy!

Dispersing the bad energy:

Unwrap the cloth, being careful to keep the pins intact. If a pin does not come out with the cloth, but stays embedded in the potato, you'll have to re-do the spell.

This is important. The potato and the black cloth with the pins in it must be disposed of separately, far from your home. The paper plate should be burned, along with whatever remains of the sage. It's also important to dispose of the lemon (if you used one) and the shell from the egg.

Ideally, the black cloth with the pins will be dropped at a crossroads NOT near your home; the paper plate and the sage burned - their ashes scattered to the four winds; and the potato tossed into a river or sent out with the tide.

Alternatively, the items could be buried near a crossroads (just be sure that the potato and the black cloth are buried separately and at a good distance from one another). Do not bury any of the items in your own back yard!