4 Ways to Honor the Winter Solstice
The winter solstice marks the longest night of the year, and so we traditionally associate it with darkness.But it’s also the beginning of the waxing phase of the year, as the days start to get longer and nights start to get shorter. We are reminded that light always follows dark. The balance begins to shift, the wheel of the year turns back again.
The winter solstice marks the longest night of the year, and so we traditionally associate it with darkness.
But it’s also the beginning of the waxing phase of the year, as the days start to get longer and nights start to get shorter. We are reminded that light always follows dark. The balance begins to shift, the wheel of the year turns back again.
This sabbat, also known as Yule, is a time for us to connect with our darkness and alchemize it into lessons, into medicine, for the year to come.
Below are some ways to honor this sacred holiday.
Journaling prompts
Create a quiet, safe space (candles are recommended!) and let yourself free write to the questions below with no editing. No one’s going to read your answers but you!
Write a love letter to your darkness.
What am I most ashamed of? How can I transmute this shame into a source of power and love?
What part of me do I want to feed and grow?
Tarot or oracle spread
Pull out your tarot or oracle deck and set the intention for your highest self tospeak to you through the cards. Give them a shuffle, and pull a card for each of the questions below. I recommend writing down the spread and the cards you pull, as well as your interpretations of them.
What shadow wants to work with me?
How does it want to be worked with?
Advice for moving through shadow
What wants to be born from my darkness?
Advice for birthing whatever needs to come through
Message from my inner child at this time
Lay out the cards in two rows of three like so. The deck featured here is The Ritual Deck.
Create an altar
Creating an altar is a beautiful way to honor any sabbat. Let this be an intuitive, creative process and place anything there that feels good to you! Some ideas to spark your creativity are:
Your Death and Temperance tarot cards
A Yule log or branch
Holly or mistletoe
An evergreen wreath to symbolize the wheel of the year
Any red, green, or white crystals that you’d like (I love carnelian for red, selenite for white, and moss agate or malachite for green)
Ash, frankincense, and any other sun herbs you like
Pine cones
White and silver candles
A representation of something in your shadow that you’d like to honor and alchemize this year
Painting
One of my favorite ways to work with my subconscious these days is intuitive painting. Get out your paints, paper, and allow whatever wants to come through you as you focus on the winter solstice and what it means to you. Try not to focus on how it looks— no one needs to see it but you!
After you finish, you could place it on your altar.
Below is an infographic with a visual representation of rituals for Yule
Want to learn more about the different sabbats on the wheel of the year? Click here to learn more about the wheel of the year and download your free wheel of the year printable.
6 Ways to Support Your Goddess Sisters
Our society has a long history of pitting women against each other. Of making us fear each other and compete with each other. Of creating division and separation between us.But we can choose to end that cycle. It ends with us. It ends with us every time we choose to uplift, love, and hold the women-identifying humans in our lives.
Our society has a long history of pitting women against each other. Of making us fear each other and compete with each other. Of creating division and separation between us.
But we can choose to end that cycle. It ends with us. It ends with us every time we choose to uplift, love, and hold the women-identifying humans in our lives.
Below are some ways to support the women in your life.
Hold space for them
Holding space isn’t just your regular conversation where we mostly just wait until it’s our turn to talk. There are a few important keys to holding space:
Give your full presence
Give your full presence with deep listening and eye contact. Your friends can tell when you’re not really there with them (and you can tell when your friends aren’t really there, too!). Put your phone to the side and really focus on what they’re saying.
Non-judgment
Offering non-judgment to others starts with doing your own work on not judging yourself. This may be part of your shadow work process—click here for 5 simple steps to help you get started with shadow work.
Asking questions without giving advice
Try not to give unsolicited advice. Asking helpful questions to deepen your friend’s understanding of her own situation is so much more helpful because it allows the answer to truly come from her—not you.
Facilitate their growth
Sometimes we get stuck in fear patterns. Sometimes we want to shrink out of our fullness, our magic, our bigness. When your sister is falling into her fear, wanting to shrink, help facilitate her growth. Help remind her of her magic. Don’t give her your permission to shrink.This is about being honest and constructive. This is about not always telling your friend what she wants to hear. They may not appreciate it at the moment, but they’ll likely appreciate your honesty in the long run.
Support their connection with their intuition
You give your community a beautiful gift when you support their connection with their intuition. Our society loves to make decisions based on logic alone, and looks down on things seen as “impractical.” But by validating your sister’s desire to listen to and make decisions based on intuition, you help shakti rise.
The Goddess Discovery Books are a great tool to use for improving your intuition and are even more fun to work through with a group of Goddesses!
Understand and respect their boundaries
Have a clear, open conversation with your sisters about their boundaries. What is an acceptable way to handle disagreements? What do they need from you to feel safe and supported in your friendship? What do you need from them to feel safe and supported in your friendship?
Strong boundaries can keep your relationships strong. Respecting each other’s boundaries can help set the expectation for strong boundaries in other, more difficult relationships as well.
Celebrate their successes
When they rise, you rise. It’s easy to feel threatened by the expansion of someone close to you but remember: it’s not a competition.The world is an abundant, infinite place and one woman having something you may want doesn’t mean you can’t have it, too. Celebrate their expansion, their growth, their wins.
Create community
Grow together. Meditate together, do moon rituals together, cast spells together, go to talks, or do courses together. Gather together and share wisdom. Gather together and connect with your intuition. Support each other by not allowing each other to stay stagnant.
Start out by implementing one of these tools each month to get used to doing it and add on from there. Before you know it your circle of supportive women will be flourishing!
Healing with Meridian Tracing
Meridian tracing is a form of energy healing that just about anyone can do.The meridians are energy pathways in the body that traditional Chinese medicine has studied and worked with for centuries. These pathways allow the flow of energy, called Chi in Chinese medicine, through the body.
Meridian tracing is a form of energy healing that just about anyone can do.
The meridians are energy pathways in the body that traditional Chinese medicine has studied and worked with for centuries. These pathways allow the flow of energy, called Chi in Chinese medicine, through the body.
There are 12 major meridians, and each one works to support and nourish a specific organ system. If the flow of energy in any of your meridians is too strong or too weak, the associated organ system may be disrupted. I’ll be covering eight of them today.
Meridian tracing can be a powerful self-care tool to add to your toolbox. Using it regularly helps keep your Chi flowing freely through your body, releasing blockages and revitalizing you.
Scroll down to look through eight of the 12 main meridians in the body and learn how to trace them to balance your flow of Chi.
How to trace your meridians
To trace your meridians, start by simply moving your open hand (either an inch or two above your body or directly over your body) along the course of each meridian. Visualize the energy flowing freely through the meridian. That’s it!
Take your meridian tracing a step further by tracing them with a favorite crystal. If you’re unsure, clear quartz is always a safe bet. Point crystal necklaces make the perfect wearable tool to practice this self-care technique.
Meridians
Read through the list of meridians below to find one that suits your needs. The eight meridians below are mirrored on the other side of your body. So, for example, a meridian that runs down your left leg also runs down your right leg.
Liver meridian
When this meridian’s energy is imbalanced, you may experience issues with menstruation, blurred vision, jaundice, irritability, or depression.
Heart meridian
Imbalance in the heart meridian can show up as chest pain, shortness of breath, hot flashes, heart palpitations, insomnia, irritability, anxiety, depression, and lack of joy in life.
Spleen meridian
An imbalanced spleen can manifest as diarrhea or constipation, lack of appetite, fatigue, bloating, brain fog, and absentmindedness.
Stomach meridian
When your stomach meridian is imbalanced, you might struggle with feelings of worry and nervousness.
Lung meridian
An imbalanced lung meridian can manifest as infections, upper body inflammation, excessive sweating, issues with your nose and sense of smell, and skin conditions.
Kidney meridian
This meridian rules willpower, determination, and the ability to cope with difficulty— so an imbalance here could manifest as a lack of any of those skills. Physically, an imbalance can manifest as backaches, asthma, and urinary disorders.
Bladder meridian
Emotionally, an imbalance here is associated with suppressed anger and an inability to express your true feelings. Physically, an imbalance is associated with neck and shoulder tightness, headaches, and urinary issues.
Pericardium meridian
When this meridian is imbalanced, you may experience difficulty expressing your feelings. Physically, you might have issues with your heart, chest, or stomach.
The best thing about this self-care tool is that you don’t need any tools to perform it. Meridian tracing is a simple practice that can give you an excuse to pause during a busy day to focus on your body and energy.
If you’re trying this practice with crystals, make note of how you feel after using different gemstones, as they’ll each offer you a different kind of energy.
What crystals, symbols, and scents do you need most?
It can be overwhelming to know what crystals, symbols, scents, and other tools to rely on for different purposes. Here’s a quick guide for a variety of situations you may be seeking support for or, perhaps, you have a friend who needs support in a specific area?
It can be overwhelming to know what crystals, symbols, scents, and other tools to rely on for different purposes. Here’s a quick guide for a variety of situations you may be seeking support for or, perhaps, you have a friend who needs support in a specific area?
Happiness
Who doesn’t want to be happier? Scroll through the tools below for symbols, crystals, scents, and herbs that can help you cultivate more happiness in your life.
Symbols & tools
Wunjo Rune is the rune of joy, pleasure, and harmony. Get The Ritual Deck to get your Wunjo Rune oracle card, a great reminder of joy to place on your altar or carry with you throughout the day.
Crystals
Citrine, a crystal of happiness, emits positive energy and can help you stay positive, attract your desires, and be more present in your life. That’s where the joy really comes from after all, right?
Scents & herbs
Brahmi, an ancient Ayurvedic herb, can help promote feelings of well-being. Try burning it in the morning as you do a gratitude meditation.
Grounding & Protection
There are so many reasons grounding and protection are important. For those of us who do energy work and psychic work, grounding can help us bring our energy back into our body, back into the lower chakras. Protection can help protect you from absorbing the energy of others, either in spiritual work or just in general as you go about your life (especially for anyone who lives in the city!).
Regardless of your work with magick, grounding and protection help bring you back into your body, feeling safe, supported, and cared for.
Get more tips for psychic protection here.
Symbols & tools
There are many symbols of grounding and protection in the magical world. Some of my favorites are:
Algiz Rune, the shield rune for protection
Salt, a tool that has been used as protection for centuries
Root chakra, your energetic center of safety and grounding
Dark moon, an invitation to ground into your body and shed negative energy
The Ritual Deck includes representations of each of these symbols, which can act as energetic stand-ins in rituals or on your altar.
Crystals
Use snowflake obsidian, a stone of cleansing negative energy and releasing blockages, or smoky quartz, the ultimate stone for grounding and balancing.
Scents & herbs
Clove is your go-to for protection. Spruce will help you ground, bringing you deeply into the present moment.
Anxiety Relief & Peace
Many of us struggle with anxiety in the modern world. It’s so easy to get caught up in what has happened and what might happen or could happen. The tools below help you relieve anxiety and connect with a sense of inner peace.
Symbols & tools
Blue is a soothing color that can help restore tranquility and peace. Try lighting a blue candle or working with the blue candle card in The Ritual Deck.
Crystals
The crystal kingdom has an abundance of stones to help soothe your anxiety and restore your inner peace. We love blue lace agate for its calming vibrations, labradorite to keep you from absorbing too much of other people’s energy, and howlite to help relieve stress and get better sleep.
Scents & herbs
Lavender can be used as aromatherapy to soothe mild anxiety, and chamomile has long been used to reduce stress and anxiety.
Abundance & Wealth
Who doesn’t want to call in more abundance and wealth? The tools below will help you connect with the abundance you desire to manifest in your physical reality.
Symbols & tools
The color green is associated with abundance, wealth, good fortune, and success. Light a green candle on your altar or work with the green candle card in The Ritual Deck.Fehu Rune is your Rune for bringing abundance of all kinds into your life, whether it be financial or other. Fehu can also be used as a useful tool to tap into the abundance already surrounding you. If you’re having a difficult time tapping into gratitude for all of the gifts you already have, Fehu can help fill your heart with gratitude. Check out a ritual to work with Fehu in this blog.
Crystals
Citrine is also known as the success stone. It’s associated with the solar plexus chakra and can be a powerful aid in manifesting wealth and abundance.Green aventurine is another stone well-known for attracting abundance, success, and luck. It’s also associated with the heart chakra, helping you to open to receive the abundance that is on its way to you.
Scents & herbs
Cinnamon has its roots in many cultures as a powerful plant for attracting abundance as well as success and healing. Try adding it to your coffee, blending it in your smoothie, and sprinkling it over a banana or your favorite dessert!
Love & Compassion
Turn to these tools when your heart chakra needs some healing. They’ll help you cultivate unconditional love and compassion for yourself and others. Find rituals to cultivate self-love here.
Symbols & tools
Use a pink candle when you’re working with self-love and compassion, or a red candle when you’re working with passionate love involving someone else.
Crystals
Rose quartz is your crystal ally for unconditional love and compassion. It’s a gentle healer for your heart chakra, a space where we can store so much fear and doubt.Carnelian is another beautiful stone of love, as well as faith and devotion. Use carnelian when you want to devote yourself to a healing practice or when you need to deepen your faith and trust in yourself.
Scents & herbs
There are many scents and herbs that help promote love and compassion! Try hawthorn, rose petals, lotus petals, or motherwort. Mixing a few herbs together into a tea or a bath can be lovely.
Cleansing Negative Energy
Sometimes, we’re not able to protect ourselves from negative energy. Life is life, and negative energy is sometimes inevitable. Use the tools below to cleanse yourself and your space of negative energy, especially after a difficult conversation, a break-up, or a stressful day.
Symbols & tools
Salt is an amazing natural tool to absorb negative energy. Use a representation of salt from The Ritual Deck, take a salt bath, use a salt lamp, or place a bowl of salt in your space.
Crystals
Black tourmaline, a dark stone for protecting and cleansing, is your go-to for cleansing negative energy. Try meditating with black tourmaline, visualizing all of the negative energy being absorbed into the stone.All-purpose quartz, the ultimate balancer, is another great crystal to have on hand for cleansing negative energy. Learn more about the magical properties and benefits of clear quartz here. Labradorite is also available to help you cleanse your aura. If your aura is weak, has tears, or holes in it labradorite can help. Keep your aura squeaky clean by meditating with a piece of labradorite or going around your entire body with a piece of it in your hand.
Scents & herbs
Rosemary and cedar can all help you cleanse negative energy. Burn them over yourself or in your space to cleanse, purify, and release.
Intuition & Psychic Abilities
These tools will help you open your third eye chakra, to connect with your psychic abilities and center of intuition. (We have a whole slew of blog posts to help you in these areas as well -- check out 5 Quick Tips to Improve Your Intuition,You Are Psychic! How to Determine What Psychic Gift You Have, and 3 Daily Actions to Improve your Intuition to get started.)
Symbols & tools
Your third eye chakra is the center of your intuition. It’s associated with the color purple, so try burning purple candles or connecting with the color in other ways like wearing it or including it in your space.
Crystals
Amethyst is a classic stone for your third eye chakra. It’s like a cool bath for your intuitive center, gently opening and awakening it to deepen your connection.Labradorite connects strongly to your third eye, making it ideal for honing your intuitive abilities. It can also help you connect with spirit guides and angels, and open the doors to the other side by helping you with astral travel. A multi-purpose stone for your intuition and psychic abilities, indeed!
Scents & herbs
Experiment with mugwort, lavender, juniper, and bilberry to open your center of intuition.
Connecting to the Moon
Symbols & tools
Work with representations of the moon in all her phases to connect with the lunar, divine feminine energy of the moon. The Triple Goddess is also here to connect you with the moon and its cycles, as well as the mother/maiden/crone cycle of life. Download your Triple Goddess free printable here.
Crystals
Moonstone, just like the name implies, is your crystal ally for connecting with the moon. It’s a dreamy goddess stone that channels the energy of mama moon into your energy field.Selenite received its name from the Greek goddess of the moon, Selene. Selenite offers the water element, connecting you to emotions, intuition, your highest self, and of course, the moon.
Scents & herbs
Mugwort is your go-to to harness the intuitive and psychic power of the moon. Burn it in your space to connect with the moon’s energy and your own inner Selene.
Femininity
Symbols & tools
The Earth element, represented as an upside-down triangle with a line across the bottom, and the Water element, represented as an upside-down triangle with no line, are both beautiful representations of the divine feminine, womb healing, and receiving. Work with the representations of these elements in The Ritual Deck.
The triple goddess symbol that I mentioned above, shown by two crescent moons with one full moon between them, is another beautiful symbol of the divine feminine. Besides the phases of the moon, it also represents the phases of womanhood we cycle through: maiden, mother, and crone.
Crystals
Rainbow moonstone is here to connect you to your inner goddess and divine feminine energy.
Strawberry quartz can also connect you to feminine energy as a gentle, loving stone here to fill you with the healing energy of love and open your heart center to give and receive love unconditionally.
Scents & herbs
Hibiscus, the flower associated with the Hawaiian goddess Pele, connects you with Pele’s fiery, passionate, and yet nurturing energy.
The lotus, whose petals represent the yoni, can connect you with your feminine energy and feminine center, the space of creation within you.
I hope you find this guide helpful for quickly finding tools to help you!
7 Rituals to Help You Sleep Like a Goddess
Want to skip the sleep meds to get your best rest? Much of getting a good night’s rest has to do with repetition, which is why adding ritual around your bedtime is a perfect way to train your body into falling and staying asleep peacefully.I’ve struggled with insomnia on and off throughout my life and have personally used all of these methods, most of them altogether. As a bonus, several of them have some science backing them up! I protect my bedtime ritual fiercely which has enabled me to stay off sleep medications and sleep well throughout the night. Of course, I still have the occasional sleepless night, but now they’re far and few between.
Want to skip the sleep meds to get your best rest? Much of getting a good night’s rest has to do with repetition, which is why adding ritual around your bedtime is a perfect way to train your body into falling and staying asleep peacefully.
I’ve struggled with insomnia on and off throughout my life and have personally used all of these methods, most of them altogether. As a bonus, several of them have some science backing them up! I protect my bedtime ritual fiercely which has enabled me to stay off sleep medications and sleep well throughout the night. Of course, I still have the occasional sleepless night, but now they’re far and few between.
Sleep deprivation can be serious or indicate a bigger problem, so if your lack of sleep continues, take care of yourself and be sure to talk to a health professional. If you want to try a more natural route first, here are seven rituals for getting better sleep.
Use the same scent every night
Scents create a potent cue for our bodies. Try rubbing the same essential oil (with a carrier oil) on your chest and neck or diffuse your favorite scent every night. There are a variety of essential oils that are ideal for priming you for sleep, and the act of using the same scent every night as a ritual will help cue your brain and body that it’s time for sleep. Here are a few scents that will help calm your mind and prep your body for rest:
Lavender
Bergamont
Vanilla
Crystals on your nightstand or under your pillow
If you’re sensitive to the energy of crystals, placing one or two on your nightstand or under your pillow makes for a nice visual, as well as a tactile reminder to get in the sleep zone. Here are some of the most soothing gemstones that can help your body calm down and sleep better at night.
Howlite
Take this ritual a step further and try holding your sleepy time crystals in your hands and meditating before bed.
Salt lamps or other soft orange light
Around 9:30 pm all of my screens and lights start to go off in my house and my salt lamps and soft orange lights go on, annoying as it may be to my husband. You’ve probably already heard the bad news, but the light from your cell phone, tablet, and computer are blue lights. Blue lights tell your brain that it’s time to wake up, which is one reason why it’s important to set good boundaries with your screen time.
Soft orange lights, like salt lamps, will signal to your brain that it’s time to start getting ready for bed. You’ll also enjoy the bonus negative ion benefits from using a salt lamp. Having a ritual in place of scrolling on your phone while in bed can help you detach from your beloved sleep time. Try making a special place where you charge and power down your phone every night that’s out of reach.
P.S. Salt lamp night lights are a thing, and they’re amazing! Learn more about the benefits of salt lamps in this previous post.
Herbal tea before bed
Indulging in a cup of sleep-inducing herbal tea is a great way to get your sense of taste in the ritual action. The more senses you can recruit for your bedtime rituals the better! Aside from the taste sensation, there are a variety of herbs that are ideal for calming your mind and body for sleep. You can use them on their own or get creative and make your own blend. Here’s a list of sleepy-time herbs to try in tea form before bed.
Chamomile
Valerian root
Passionflower
Lavender
Lemon Balm
Don’t like drinking tea? Try finding a tincture using any combination of the herbs above for a quick sleep-inducing tonic.
Check out this blog post for more herbal remedies.
Rest for your pineal gland
Your pineal gland controls your circadian rhythm which helps your body know when it’s time to sleep and when it’s time to be awake. Your pineal gland loves a healthy dose of total darkness at night. Once you’re ready to catch some zzz’s, turn off any remaining soft lights or salt lamps and try to minimizing light pollution in your room. Try shutting out all light from the outdoors, and any inside lights to give you some pre-sleep time in a light-free space. Cohabitating with someone who reads at night or won’t abide by your new nightly ritual? Try a sleep mask.
Learn more about the pineal gland here.
Regular meditation
Your meditation practice goes beyond mindfulness and also directly correlates to the health of your pineal gland. Yep! The same teeny gland that controls your circadian rhythm. That means your morning or afternoon meditation practice goes beyond peace of mind throughout the day and can actually help you get better sleep at night too! You can also work a meditation practice at bedtime if it suits you, just know that meditating anytime throughout your day will benefit your sleep habits.
Make your sleep space a sanctuary
How do you feel when you walk into a cluttered space? Probably not like you want to go to sleep! Your body and mind will benefit from making your bedroom a clean and calm respite. This is especially true for the energetically sensitive and empaths. All that clutter carries energy, so if you’re sensitive to it, it will certainly disrupt your sleep.
This is my new favorite sleep ritual! After moving recently, I decided to make our bedroom as minimal and soothing as possible (turns out this is a lot less costly too!). I protect the cleanliness of our bedroom fiercely and I can’t believe the difference it has made. If you didn’t just move and want a quick fix for your sleep space, try cleaning your room and then cleansing the energy of your space with herbal smoke.
8 Herbal Remedies You’ll Want in Your Cabinet
This planet is amazing.Mother Earth, Gaia, whatever you want to call her—she has given us so many gifts and such an abundance of medicine right here in her forests, mountains, oceans, and plains. Her air, her waters, the plants that grow from her soil.Think of how nourished you feel with the earth between your toes, the sun on your bare skin, your head bobbing in wave after wave, flowers in your hand.This is part of the medicine of Gaia.
This planet is amazing.
Mother Earth, Gaia, whatever you want to call her—she has given us so many gifts and such an abundance of medicine right here in her forests, mountains, oceans, and plains. Her air, her waters, the plants that grow from her soil.
Think of how nourished you feel with the earth between your toes, the sun on your bare skin, your head bobbing in wave after wave, flowers in your hand.
This is part of the medicine of Gaia.
Another part of her medicine is herbal remedies, which is what we’re talking about today.
Why herbal remedies?
Sometimes, it’s possible to reach for a nourishing plant ally instead of a chemical created by Western medicine.
Below are some simple herbal remedies you’re definitely going to want to have stocked in your cabinet.
Cough syrup
Use this herbal aid just like you would a cough syrup: to ease coughs and colds. If you’re not vegan, you can substitute raw honey for maple syrup.
You’ll need:
1 cup maple syrup (or use honey if not vegan)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp Sage
1 tsp Horehound
Combine all of the ingredients and stir them together over medium heat until they simmer. Once simmering, remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 10 minutes.
Then strain the mixture, bottle it, and store it in the fridge (where it will last for several months).
Digestive aid
Spearmint is cooling and calming, and it actually stimulates your digestive enzymes, making it the perfect tea or tincture to help digest a big meal and ease stomach issues and bloating. Keep it in your cabinet as a tincture or simply drink it as tea whenever you need it. If you’re lucky enough to have fresh spearmint nearby you can also chew on a spearmint leaf for a similar effect!
Tincture Tip: Learn how to make a tincture by scrolling through this previous blog post about healing your heart chakra. It’s near the bottom, so keep scrolling! You can apply the same directions for the “Hawthorne heart tincture” to any of the tinctures mentioned in this post.
Headache remedy
Chamomile and feverfew are both great remedies for headaches and migraines. During the evening, opt for a relaxing chamomile tea. During the day, bitter feverfew will help your migraine without putting you to sleep. Just remember that it’s not recommended for pregnant or breastfeeding people! If you would like more herbal tea remedies, take a look at this previous post.
Insomnia remedy
Keep lemon balm on hand for those nights when you just can’t seem to fall asleep. It soothes and nourishes your nervous system and reduces stress. Try mixing lemon balm essential oil with the carrier oil of your choice to rub on your chest before bed.
Cold & flu syrup
The basis of this recipe is adapted from The Hippy Homemaker and the main ingredient is elderberry, thanks to their high antioxidant content and multiple studies showing their effectiveness against flu and colds. Try this syrup when you feel yourself starting to get sick!
You’ll need:
A half-cup dried elderberries
2 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
6 cloves
2 tbsp fresh ginger
Zest of 1 orange
1 cup maple syrup (or use honey if not vegan)
Combine everything in a saucepan over high heat, bringing it to a boil and then letting it simmer for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the syrup from heat, strain it through a mesh strainer, and bottle it up! Stick it in the fridge, where it will last about 6 months.
First aid remedy
Plantains are a must-have for any first aid kit. You can use its leaves for bee stings, bug bites, itchy skin, and infections. Keep plantain on hand and when you need it, make a poultice by chewing the leaves up (you can also use a knife or food processor if this grosses you out), putting it on the affected area, and covering it with a bandage.
Wound powder
This recipe is from Mother Earth News, and it’s so good!You’ll need:
1 ounce of barberry or goldenseal
A half-ounce of comfrey root
1 ounce of juniper needles
A quarter ounce of rosemary leaves
Mix the ingredients in a food processor, then powder the mixture in a clean coffee grinder. When you need it, simply sprinkle it over your wound!
UTI herbal remedy
Juniper berries work like a charm for urinary tract infections. Simply make a tincture of them and take at least 10 drops per day when you’re working with a UTI.
Try stocking your medicine cabinet with some of these herbal remedies so they’re ready when you need them! Learn more about herbal magick here.
