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DIY: Herbal Salves

Salves are such a simple, effective, and useful medicine! They can easily be slipped into a purse, pocket, or first aid kit.  Although semi-solid at room temperature, salves soften once applied to the skin, making them less messy to apply than oils.  They also make great gifts and are an easy and approachable way to introduce newbies to the medicinal properties of herbs.  Plus, salves can be crafted for a wide variety of topical uses.  The addition of beeswax offers additional benefits including protective, soothing, emollient, nourishing, and healing properties.

Part 1: Make Herbal Infused Oil

To make salve, first craft your herbal infused oil(s).  This will take several weeks, but once finished, the rest of the salve making process will only take minutes!   You can also purchase pre-infused herbal oils if needed or if you wish to skip the process of infusing the oil.

Solar Method: When making herbal infused oils, we prefer the solar infused method.  Place dried botanicals into a dry and sterilized glass jar.  Some herbalists coarsely crush or grind herbs first, while others finely chop herbs and leave delicate flowers whole.  Cover with Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or other carrier oil of choice with a stable shelf life) leaving at least 1-2” of oil above the herbs to allow the herbs to swell.  Cap the jar tightly and place in a sunny, warm window.  If desired, the jar can be covered with a bag or box so that the oil is not exposed to direct sunlight.  Shake the jar once or twice per day, or as often as you remember. If the herbs absorb the oil, then add more oil so that they are always submerged.  Allow to infuse for 2-6 weeks, or until the oil takes on the color and aroma of the herb.  Once the oil is ready, strain using cheese cloth, and bottle into dry and sterilized amber bottles for storage.  Make sure to squeeze as much oil as possible from the herbs so that you do not waste any precious oil!  Herbal oils will keep for approximately a year if stored properly in a dark and cool place. Vitamin E Oil may also be added to prolong the shelf life.

Quick Method: Another way to infuse oils, which is sometimes necessary when herbal oils need to be created in a pinch, is the quick method which utilizes heat.  Much care needs to be taken when creating herbal oils this way because you do not want to deep-fry your herbs!  Place herbs in crock-pot, double boiler, or electric yogurt maker, and cover with Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or other carrier oil of choice) leaving at least an inch or two of oil above the herbs.  Gently heat the herbs over very low heat (preferably between 100 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit) for 1-5 hours until the oil takes on the color and scent of the herb.  Some texts recommend heating the oil 48-72 hours at a controlled temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  Turn off heat and allow to cool. Once that the oil is ready, strain using cheese cloth, and bottle into dry and sterilized amber bottles for storage.  Store in a dark and cool place, Vitamin E Oil may also be added to prolong the shelf life.

Part 2: Turn that Oil into Salve!

• 8 oz herbal infused oil(s) of your choice.  Choose one or a combination. • 1 oz Beeswax (use Carnauba Wax for a vegan salve) • Vitamin E Oil (optional) • 10-20 drops essential oil of choice (optional). Some essential oils commonly used are Lavender and Tea Tree. • Glass Jars or Tin Containers

Place Herbal Infused Oils and Beeswax over a double boiler, and gently warm over low heat until the Beeswax melts.  Remove from heat and add the essential oil and Vitamin E Oil (if using).  Quickly pour into prepared tins or glass jars and allow to cool completely.  Salves should be stored in a cool location where they will remain semi-solid and will not continue to re-melt and re-solidify.  If stored correctly, salves will last for 1- 3 years. Yields 8 oz.

Note:  The consistency of salves can easily be adjusted depending on your preferences.  Use less Beeswax for a softer salve and more Beeswax if you’d prefer a firmer salve.  You can test the consistency by placing a few spoons in the freezer before making your salve.  When the Beeswax melts, pour a little salve onto one of the cold spoons and place it back into the freezer for 1-2 minutes.  Once cooled, you can make adjustments by adding more oil (for a softer salve) or more Beeswax (for a firmer salve).

Herbs for Salve

You can make salve with a single herb or multiple herbs, depending on your needs.  It’s useful to make a variety of herbal infused oils so that you can easily craft salve whenever you need it!

Arnica flowers: Can help treat physical trauma, bruises, strains, and occasional muscle pain. Use immediately after strenuous exertion or injury to prevent, relieve, and reduce swelling, bruises and pain.

Burdock root: For skin infections.

Calendula flowers:  Wonderfully healing with all-around healing properties useful for a wide variety of skin irritations and conditions including wounds, insect bites, rashes, scrapes, abrasions, cuts, and much more.  Suitable for sensitive skin and babies.

Cayenne Pepper: Warming, good for occasional sore muscles, alleviates occasional pain, and itching.

Chamomile flowers: Minor abrasions, cuts, scrapes, and wounds.

Chickweed: Soothing, helps with skin conditions, minor burns, and other skin irritations.

Comfrey leaf and/or root: Relieves occasional pain, swelling, supports muscle, cartilage, and bone. Assists with healing a wide variety of conditions.

Echinacea herb and/or root: Beneficial for minor sores, wounds, insect bites, and stings.

Ginger root: Warming, use for occasional sore muscles.

Goldenseal leaf and/or root: Useful for treating minor wounds and skin conditions.

Lavender flowers: Soothing, calming, relieves occasional pain, has healing properties beneficial for minor wounds and numerous skin conditions.

Myrrh Gum powder: Used for cuts, scrapes, scratches, and abrasions.

Nettle leaf: An effective herb for many skin conditions.

Oregon Grape root: Skin disinfectant for minor wounds.

Plantain leaf: Helps speed the recovery process, relieves and soothes insect bites and stings, poison ivy, itching, minor sores, bruises, blisters, and damaged skin.

St. John’s Wort: Craft the deep red-colored oil from fresh flowers. Beneficial for minor wounds, cuts, bruises, insect bites and stings, nerve support, scrapes, and minor burns.

Thyme: Used for cuts, scrapes, and occasional sore muscles.

Yarrow Flowers: Apply to bruises, minor wounds, cuts, scrapes, and areas with swelling and bleeding.

Please note that this is only a partial list, many other healing herbs can also be incorporated into salves.

For educational purposes only This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.  This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Source: herbal-salves

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how do you ground yourself?

This post has a whole list of different ways.

I think it really depends on the person, some things that work for me don’t work for others and vise versa, in my opinion it’s usually a little bit of trial and error to find what works best for you!

My Biggest Problem

Miso isn’t my biggest problem anymore. I know you’re gonna be like, 

“Bullh*ck, misophonia is the worst thing that ever happened to me, it’s ruined everything, ect.!!” 

But, my young, young dudes, I have some news. Adulthood is surprising as h*ck and has a lot of bumps and turns and I never anticipated in my whole of angsteenager existence that there would be life after miso.

For example, if anyone’s watched the video (x) I posted a hot while ago, they’d see that I’ve come out as ftm transgender and I’ve left home. I got engaged in December to @living-with-miso, my longtime Tumblr crush and we’re getting married next month.

 My type 3 Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) exploded into wondering each day if I can walk or use my hands. 

My computer broke. I need to buy socks. The milk in the fridge is expired.

And I know that mostly sounds like, 

“Gee, thanks Stephan, so you’re saying everything gets worse?” 

but man, I actually would say I’ve never been happier. 

You see, when you move out, you move away from the people who trigger you the most in the world: your family. You may have new people who trigger you, like a roommate, but eventually, you’re gonna be in a situation where you can more or less have total control over your environment. Make sure you choose a life partner that accepts every inch of you, and don’t settle for anything less.

When you grow up, you’ll be able to manage your life in a way you can control, to an extent. You literally don’t even have to attend classes in person anymore, almost anything is available online! Yeah, you’ll have days where you just want to rip your ears off and replace your hands with chainsaws because you need to attend job training, attend a family BBQ, or hurriedly make an Irish exit to said BBQ, but that’s not going to be the majority of your life anymore.

And that’s where I’m at. I’m out from the influence of more “adult” adults at the age of 22 and am finally the captain of my own life. 

Which is terrifying, but empowering. I decide if I can attend gatherings, I decide if I want to leave, I decide if I want to stay inside and live on the internet, I decide if I can live with my partner, and I decide if I want to eat cookies for breakfast unless Ashley is home and and tells me no cookies for breakfast (#marriage). 

And if anyone (other than my future wife) has a problem with the way I live my life or make decisions, guess what? I can decide to take my Scissors of H*ck You and cut them right the h*ck out of my beautiful rainbow life.

I may not have the power to decide whether or not I have misophonia, whether my hands work on any given day, or whether or not I have sensory meltdowns, but I can decide how I handle these things.

So I guess my point today is that miso life gets better once you’ve grown up. If you can make it that far, you’ll be happier. And god, I wish my teenage self had known how happy I would one day be. Thank god I decided to stick around.

So stick around, guys. Your life may look like shooty macaroni art, but it’s just practice at this point. One day, you’ll be Bob Ross and decide when and where your next happy little tree goes.

Stay Brave Out There, Stephan [soon-to-be] Vomacka

Key Herbs for your Craft

Here are some really basic herbs for your magic workings :

Sage - Cleansing (properties : purification, wisdom, immortality)

Lavender - Calming (properties : love, healing, sleep, dreams, divination)

Rose - Opening (properties : psychic awareness, opening the heart, love)

Eucalyptus - Inspiration (properties : healing, protection, purification, invigorating)

Bay Leaves - Divination (properties : psychic powers, success, money)

Cardamom - Arousal (properties : lust, sexuality, reigniting intimacy)

Rosemary - Focus (properties : mental powers, banishing, purification, protection)

Bergamot - Increasing (properties : manifestation, wealth, success, prosperity, adds power to magic)

Oats - Grounding (properties : wealth, abundance, prosperity)

Dandelion - Releasing (properties : divination, wishes, summoning spirits, releasing)

Yarrow - Banishing  (properties : banishing, death, courage, psychic powers)

Cloves - Luck (properties : driving away negativity, cleansing, prosperity)

I accidentally created the most soothing drink in the world after trying to recreate the hot honey drink in Ponyo! I guarantee it will remove all stress and troubles, I’ve had like 3 today because it makes me so happy

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Witchcraft 101

So you want to be a witch! Here is my own mini guide to help you get started~

First, ask yourself: 1. What are my interests? How could these interests be incorporated into my personal craft? For example, if you love to cook or bake, kitchen witchery may be something you’d like to explore. If you have a passion for nature, you may like to explore green witchery. The list is endless. If multiple paths interest you, explore them all! You don’t need to pick just one. You may be an eclectic witch. Eclectic witches incorporate many different paths to form their own unique path!

Types of witches include (but are not limited to): kitchen, green, sea, cosmic, hedge, urban, traditional, elemental, eclectic, weather, chaos, divination, etc.

There is also Wicca. However, ignore everything by Silver Ravenwolf.

In addition, there is Druidry, Celtic polytheism, Norse polytheism, Hellenic polytheism, Kemeticism, Christian witchcraft, and more.

You do not have to be religious to be a witch! Many see witchcraft as a skill. Not all witches worship Satan. Witches are not “good” or “evil.” Take everything you read, by anyone, with a grain of salt. Witchcraft is highly personal, and there is a lot of misinformation floating about. Not everything will be factual.

Fancy tools are not a requirement! Tools you make or find by yourself in nature will work just as well (and usually better!) Make your wand from a stick you find on a hike, for example! Then you can customize it however you wish. Add crystals, ribbons, glitter, just make it YOURS! The same thing goes for your Grimoire. You can just use a normal notebook, or binder, and personalize it. You don’t have to spend big money on a book (unless you want to). Witchcraft can be as simple or elaborate as you want it to be. There is much more to explore than in this post alone, so stay tuned for additional posts on a variety of topics! Feel free to shoot me an ask if you have any questions! Stay spooky, be safe, and HAVE FUN!

Color Magick

Ways you can use Color Magick

When choosing your outfit for the day

When picking out a candle for your spell and ritual

Candle Magick

Painting or Drawing

To add intention to your writing

Black

Symbolizes:

Grounding

Protection

Safety

Death

Underworld

Restriction 

Night

Magickal Uses:

Reversing

Uncrossing

Unhexing

Banishing 

Black Magick Repelling

Banishing negative energy

Releasing

Defense

Scrying

Hexing

Cursing

Protection

Wards off negativity

Spirit Contact

Correspondence to the Major Arcana:

Death

Planetary and Astrological Correspondences:

Saturn

Week Day correspondence: Tuesday + Saturday

Direction: North

Brown

Symbolizes:

Earth

Concentration

Construction

Stability

Animal

Magickal Uses:

House Blessing

Animal Magick

Pet Magick

Earth Magick

To influence Friendships

Element: Earth 

Planetary and Astrological Correspondences:

Scorpio

Capricorn

Direction: North 

Copper

Symbolizes:

Money

Fertility

Magickal Uses:

Business and financial success 

Money Drawing

Fertility 

Career Growth

Gold

Symbolizes:

Fortune

Abundance

Prosperity

Positivity  

Luxury

Health

Justice

Magickal Uses

Luck

Wealth

Good Health

Healing Spells

Solar Magick

Correspondence to the Major Arcana:

The Sun

Week Day correspondence: Sunday

Direction: South

Grey

Symbolizes:

Loneliness

Lore

Knowledge

Wisdom

Transformation

Magickal Uses

Removes negative influences

Increases Knowledge

Inspires Transformation

Communication with the faerie realm

Vision Quests

Planet: Moon

Direction: West

White

Symbolizes:

Purity

Unity

Cleansing

Peace

Balance

Spirituality

Innocence

Truth

Divinity

Love

Calm

Unbiased Opinion

Forgiveness

Acceptance                                                                      

Magickal Uses:

Eliminates negative energy

Creates inner peace

Uncrossing

Consecration

Moon Magick

Protection

Cleanses

Correspondence to the Major Arcana:

The Fool

Planetary and Astrological Correspondences:

Moon

Pisces 

Associated Chakra: Crown 

Week Day correspondence: Monday

Direction: East

Silver

Symbolizes:

Stability

Intuition

Dreams

Communication

Magickal Uses:

Moon Magick

Astral Energy

Telepathy

Clairvoyance

Psychic Awareness

Meditation

Correspondence to the Major Arcana:

The Moon

Week Day correspondence: Monday

Direction: East 

Green

Symbolizes:

Prosperity

Money

Abundance

Healing

Growth

Luck

Faeries

Hope

Rebirth

Youth

Intuition

Nature

Magickal Uses:

Money Spells

Herbal Magick

Garden Magick

Luck drawing

Faerie magick

Plant magick

Money drawing

Correspondence to the Major Arcana:

The Empress

The Lovers

The Hermit 

Justice 

Death

Element: Earth

Planetary and Astrological Correspondences:

Venus

Mercury

Aquarius

Cancer

Associated Chakra: Heart

Week Day correspondence: Thursday

Direction: North 

Blue

Symbolizes:

Communication

Focus

Forgiveness

Truth

Patience 

Harmony

Wisdom

Thoughtfulness 

Youthfulness

Creativity

Healing

Organization

Peace

Justice

Tranquility

Magickal uses:

Removing Bad Vibrations

Astral projection

Water element

Emotional Work

Correspondence to the Major Arcana:

The High Priestess

The Emperor 

The Hanged Man

Death

Temperance 

Element: Water 

Planetary and Astrological Correspondences:

Jupiter

Moon

Virgo

Capricorn

Aquarius 

Pisces 

Associated Chakra: Throat 

Week Day correspondence: Thursday 

Direction: West 

Purple

Symbolizes:

Wisdom

Power

Wealth

Prophecy 

Magickal Uses:

Contact with spirits

Good fortune

Prophetic visions

Meditation

Divination

Correspondence to the Major Arcana:

The Heirophant 

Planetary and Astrological Correspondences:

Mercury 

Saturn

Capricorn 

Jupiter

Gemini

Sagittarius 

Associated Chakra: Brow

Week Day correspondence: Wednesday + Thursday

Direction: East

Pink

Symbolizes:

Love

Compassion

Friendship

Romance

Intimacy 

Emotions

Self Love

Calming

Harmony

New Beginnings

Honor

Magical Uses:

Brings forth new beginnings

Attracts romance

Attracts new friendship

Encourages self love

Correspondence to the Major Arcana:

The Empress

Planetary and Astrological Correspondences:

Venus influencing Mars

Week Day correspondence: Friday 

Direction: South

Red

Symbolizes:

Passion

Anger

War

Strength

Conflict

Fire element

Healing

Inspiration

Bravery

Courage

Strength

Ambition

Leadership

Confrontation

Combat

Mercy

Magickal Uses:

Helps find love

Fire Element Work

Purification

Correspondence to the Major Arcana:

The Emperor 

The Tower

Judgement 

Element: Fire 

Planetary and Astrological Correspondences:

Aries

Scorpio

Mars influencing Saturn

Associated Chakra: Root

Week Day correspondence: Tuesday 

Direction: South

Orange

Symbolizes:

Creativity

Intellect

Justice

Kindness

Harvest

Strength

Joy

Ambition

Pride

Courage

Prosperity

Attraction

Kinship

Spirit

Abundance

Magickal Uses:

Business success

Spirit communication

Relieves Depression

Correspondence to the Major Arcana:

The Lovers 

The Wheel of Fortune

The Sun

Element: Fire

Planetary and Astrological Correspondences:

Sun

Leo

Sagittarius 

Associated Chakra: Sacral 

Week Day correspondence: Tuesday + Wednesday

Direction: South 

Yellow

Symbolizes:

Happiness

Success

Learning

Memory

Concentration

Inspiration

Imagination

Charm

Confidence

Air element

Will

Trust

Creativity

Communication

Summer

Improves balance

Friendship

Self-Esteem

Vitality

Beauty

Power

Learning

Magickal Uses: 

Sun Magick

Increases productivity

Heightens Self-Esteem

Psychic Endeavors

Correspondences to the Major Arcana:

The Fool

The Magician 

Strength

The Sun

Element: Air

Planetary and Astrological Correspondences:

Mercury 

Taurus

Libra

Associated Chakra: Solar-Plexus 

Week Day correspondence: Sunday

Direction: East

Sources: Witchipedia.com, spiritenterprise.com

May the Moon Light your path!

Moonlight Academy