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Herb of the Day

#HOTD

Echinacea

Binomial nomenclature:

Echinacea purpurea

Echinacea augustifolia

Echinacea is a genus, or group, of herbaceous flowering plants in the daisy family. The Echinacea genus has nine species, which are commonly called coneflowers. They are found only in eastern and central North America, where they are found growing in moist to dry prairies and open wooded areas.

Today we will deal with my two favoured species, augustifolia and purpurea.

Echinacea angustifolia, the narrow-leaved purple coneflower or blacksamson echinacea, is a North American plantspecies in sunflower family. It is widespread across much of the Great Plains of central Canada and the central United States.

Echinacea angustifolia is a perennial herb up to 40 to 70 centimetres (16 to 28 in) tall with spindle-shaped taproots that are often branched. The stems and leaves are moderately to densely hairy. The plant produces flower heads one per side branch, each at the end of a long peduncle. Each head contains 8-21 pink or purple ray florets plus 200-300 purple disc florets.

Echinacea angustifolia blooms late spring to mid summer. It is found growing in dry prairies and barrens with rocky to sandy-clay soils.There are two subspecies:

Echinacea angustifolia subsp. angustifolia is native to central Canada and the central United States from Saskatchewan and Manitoba in the north to Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana in the southEchinacea angustifolia subsp. strigosa has a more limited range in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana.

Obviously I grow and wildcraft the southern variety, but I find them both here sometimes.

Many Native American groups used this plant for a variety of medicinal purposes, including pain relief and relief of colds and toothaches.

Echinacea purpurea is an herbaceousperennial up to 120 cm (47 in) tall by 25 cm (10 in) wide at maturity. Depending on the climate, it blooms throughout spring to late summer. Its cone-shaped flowering heads are usually, but not always, purple in the wild. Its individual flowers (florets) within the flower head are hermaphroditic, having both male and female organs in each flower. It is pollinated by butterflies and bees. Its habitats include dry open woods, prairies and barrens, as well as in cultivated beds.

I grow this Echinacea in the garden, as I find it’s leaves more potent than the western and northern varieties.

Echinacea contains multiple substances, such as polysaccharides, caffeic acid derivatives (including cichoric acid), alkylamides, and glycoproteins.

Traditional herbal medicine

In indigenous medicine of the native American Indians, the plant was used externally for wounds, burns, and insect bites, chewing of roots for toothache and throat infections; internal application was used for pain, cough, stomach cramps, and snake bites.

The plant is important economically, to the pharmaceutical trade. It is purported that all parts of the purple coneflower stimulate the immune system.

Side effects include gastrointestinal effects and allergic reactions, including rashes, increased asthma, and life-threatening anaphylaxis. But I’ve never seen this happen. Side effects of allergy are usually similar to hay fever.

WebMD says

Echinacea seems to activate chemicals in the body that decrease inflammation, which might reduce cold and flu symptoms.

Laboratory research suggests that echinacea can stimulate the body’s immune system, but there is no evidence that this occurs in people.

Echinacea also seems to contain some chemicals that can attack yeast and other kinds of fungi directly.

Magickal uses:

Echinacea is used quite extensively to stregthen and boost spellcraft.

It is used in Defensive Magick, Healing Magick and in various forms of Protection Magick.

If anyone knows any correspondence for Echinacea, please comment. I don’t have it in any book I can find.

As always, I will try to answer any question that you can think of.

Brightest Blessings

Eye Harvester

Wooden Spoon Kitchen Blessing

The kitchen is the center of the home for many of us, and it’s a place where we can make all kinds of magic. From family dinner recipes to spell work, your kitchen often becomes the spot where people come for comfort, warmth, and sustenance.

Do this simple blessing spell in your kitchen to add a bit of mojo into your meal prep.

Materials:

Green ribbon

Fresh basil

A wooden spoon

Use the ribbon to tie the basil to the wooden spoon, and walk in a clockwise direction around your kitchen, beginning at the north wall.

As you move, open each cabinet, the refrigerator, and the pantry, waving the spoon like a wand

Pointed into each cabinet and at your stove and oven, saying:

Bless this kitchen, hearth and home.

Bless this kitchen and the meals prepared.

Bless this kitchen and the magic made.

After you’ve circled the entire kitchen, hang the spoon near your oven or inside the pantry as a reminder that magic is present.

*************************************************

Found in Daily Spellbook for the Good Witch by Patti Wigington

Huginn and Muninn by benu-h

Homemade pasta is my latest cooking obsession.

From intentionally choosing herbs and veggies to color the dough and get that double whammy of herb and color magick, to mindfully rolling out and cutting/filling/shaping the perfect little pasta pieces- this is basically peak kitchen witchery for me right here. I set aside a couple hours so I can really take my time, pop on some mood music, and lose myself in the happy little rhythm^^

The base recipe I use is;

1 egg + 2 yolks

A few tablespoons of herbs or veggies for color. Could be a bit more or less depending on what I'm using. (For example- it need lots of fresh green herbs to get it green, but barely any beets for a deep pink)

~1 cup flour (more if the dough is too wet/sticky) + extra for dusting countertops

Water (enough to help the dough form a nice ball)

Today I tried out something new- pressing leaves in between the sheets of dough, and rolling it out thin enough that you can clearly see them in the finished pasta.

And thus, Sunny's Lucky Greenie Fettuccine was born!

The color doesn't really come through in these photos, but it is a lovely vibrant green created by using fresh Basil in the dough- and the leaves pressed inside are parsley!

Next time I'll probably do wider strands, or some kind of stuffed pasta, so the shapes of the leaves stay wholly intact. But for a first attempt at this technique I'm pretty pleased! Plus it was damn delicious^^

In the (hopefully near) future I want to experiment with some other herbs and work a few edible flowers into the mix!!! I've seen some genuinely stunning pasta pictures I am dying to try my hand at recreating^^

I’m a beautiful element of the universe and I love that about myself

I love me spell:

-a ready bake pie crust 

-a can of strawberry pie filling (strawberries represent love of all kinds)

-star cookie cutters (star shapes to visually represent my place among the Universe)

-Sprinkling sugar (to sweeten my inner thoughts about me)

-Intent (A whole lot of love and gratitude for being my awesome self)

Enchant each ingredient of the pie with it’s correspondence as listed above. When the pie is assembled and ready to go into the oven imbue the pie with the following chant:

“Every bite filled with love

connects me to the Universe”

Then bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.

(via witchinthenight)

Nothing like a ritual healing bath to start the morning off right! Honey and milk bath poweder, rosemary, sage, and lavender.

Food menu for Beltane event

I’ve been planning all the food that I’ll be cooking and in spirit of the season I want to use a lot of spring and summer foods!

I’ve also kept in mind some of us are Vegetarian/vegan and have food allergies so all the food will be meat free and any food with tree nuts or onions will be properly labeled.

Here is the menu :

Foods

Deviled eggs (contains: eggs, mayonnaise, paprika, salt, black pepper)

Mama bear soup (contains: veggie sausage, thai ginger broth, sweet peppers, carrots) *Has coconut (which is considered a tree nut) and onions

Fruit salad (contains: watermelon, feta, balsamic, spinach) 

Tofu stir-fry (contains: white rice, tofu, mango, sweet peppers, olive oil, salt, chili powder, paprika powder)

Beverages

Iced green tea

Strawberry-Gin Cocktail

*To make it fair so I don’t have to buy all the food myself since I’ll already be cooking it all I think it’ll be easier for each of us to buy a few of the things. I got all the spices needed for the dishes, the sweet peppers, tofu, mayo, and thai ginger broth. I can pick up more tea if needed too. @ronniepotter @immaterialwitchgirl @angelsinthephonelines @lifeunderlamplight @cardasssian 

Which of you could get which things on this list?

Deities of the crossroads and beings that dwell in liminal spaces truly favour the bold. Remember that the next time you hesitate.

Poems for Beginning Witches

Masterpost for the complete series of poems so far, designed to aid learning for beginning witches. Most are theory, and a one or two are conceptual. The reason for this masterpost is that they’re all poorly tagged

Moon Phases

Color Magic

Water Magics

Charging Objects

Herbs

Fire (element)*

Quartzes*

Witch Tools*

Divination*

Kitchen Witchcraft*

Air (element)*

Tea Magics*

Salt 

Wheel of the Year (Sabbats) requested by @fish-egs

Cleansing (an area) requested anonymously

Calling Circle requested by @dragonrhapsody

Spell Types requested anonymously

*with thanks to @lazywitchling, who helped inspire the second wave!

If there is something you would be willing to see in poetry form, send me an ask or drop me a message! As of 10/3/17, I am all out and no more are queued.