Acai berries on the vine/tree.

Now, before you say “Rowan, what the hell!?!”…let me explain.  I used to have a smoothie just about every day, usually in the morning, rather than a “regular” breakfast.  My body is weird because it doesn’t react well to eating a big breakfast first thing in the morning and I can’t eat right away when I wake up.  I have to wait at least a half hour before eating and the traditional big breakfast is something I will have more like a brunch or a lunch meal.  So started having smoothies for breakfast, and at one point I was living down the street from a Jambajuice and I was going there to get smoothies with some of their awesome supplements in them (the pomegranate and blueberry smoothie with bee pollen was always a favorite).

I want to share one of my favorite recipes since I made it this morning and it was loooooovely!  I call it a Blue Smoothie since, sort of like a Green Smoothie, all the things that go into the Blue Smoothie is mostly blue (or purple).  Here’s what you need…

1 medium banana
4 oz. Acai juice OR 1 Acai smoothie packet
8 oz Naked Blue Machine Juice OR 1 cup frozen blueberries and 8 oz. milk (or soymilk)
1 tsp. Maca powder
a handful of ice cubes

Blend away in a blender!!!  Then YUM!!!  So perfect for the morning because it packs both a power punch and a nice boost of antioxidants.

The Maca Powder is an important ingredient, and I know it’s something that a lot of people aren’t going to be familiar with.  You can purchase Maca Powder at just about any health food or vitamin supply shop.  It’s a wonderful supplement from the Incas that has so many wonderful benefits.  

• Increases energy, endurance, and stamina
• Improve sex drive
• Enhances and helps fertility
• Reduces hormone dysfunctions (great for women going through menopause) and regulates hormonal imbalances
• Helps the circulatory system
• Enhances memory, learning, and mental ability
• Helps to naturally lift depression
• Improves the look and health of your skin
• Helps support strong teeth and bones
• Is great for people who workout because it is a safe and natural alternative to any type of anabolic steroid because it helps to build muscle

Maca Powder, at least the jar I buy which is a raw organic, costs about $20 but it last a good couple of months because you only use either 1/2 or 1 teaspoon at a time (it’s up to you how you want to work with it).  But adding this to the Blue Smoothie really packs a powerful wallop!

And there you go!  Blue power to get your day off and running!  Green ones are great too but some people find the greens in the fruits that are in a green smoothie still too much but the Blue Smoothie packs a great amount of the same energy and power with a bit of a different flavor.

Give it a try and be beautifully blue all day!

Current Mood: contemplative

The names come from a variety of places.  Some names come names come from the look or smell of a plant.  Other names are developed based on the uses of an herb.  Another way that some of these folk names come about is thought to be connected to the spirit of the plant.  Many people who work closely with herbs and plants will take the time to connect to the spirit of the plant itself and develop a relationship with it and this can often result in new names and associations for a plant.

Did you know that there are a number of plants that have “eye” in the folk name, not just Eye of Newt?  It’s thought that this name for these herbs comes from the somewhat darker center in the herb’s flower that looks like the iris of an eye.  Eye of Newt is actually a type of mustard seed plant where the center of the flower sticks out a little and could be said to look a little like an eye.

Regardless of how a plant comes into its folk name, they are fun and sometimes interesting, especially when you do some research into the plants themselves and discover their attributes that my have contributed to their names.  Below is a short list but a larger list can be found here.  What do you think of some of the old folk names?  Do you like using them?  Are there some that you feel make sense and others that you can’t figure out?  Are there any names that you’ve given to plants you work with based on your own experiences?

Rowan’s Yule Spell for Prosperity

You will need:

2 green candles
A small bowl
Magnetic Oil (or another drawing or money oil like Bayberry, Basil, or Cinnamon)
Green cloth or a green spell bag
A teaspoon or so of each of the following herbs:

• bay leaves (strength)
• cinnamon or a cinnamon stick (success)
• cloves (money)
• pine (money)

Cast your circle and set your sacred space as you normally do.  Call in the Goddess, God, and any allies you wish to have present.

Light any Yule incense you wish to use.

For both candles, charge them with your energy and intent, then inscribe a dollar sign on one side of each and your astrological sign on the other side of each.

Anoint both candles with the oil, adding your intent, focusing on drawing in a steady stream of money and prosperity for the coming year.

Place them in your holders and say:

With the return of light and growth to the earth
I invite hope and prosperity into my life.

As the gold of the sun grows,
So too does the gold in my pocket.

As the green returns to the earth
So too does the green in my pocket.

Take each herb, one at a time, and charge them with your intentions based on each herb’s specific purpose for this spell as listed above.  Then, while holding the herb, breathe on it and send some of your own personal energy into it.  Then place it in the bowl.  Do this for each of the herbs, individually, one by one with focus and intent.

Once they are all in the bowl, stir them together with your hands, adding energy and intent as you go.  When you’re ready, pour them into the bag, tie it closed, and hold it up to your heart directing your intent into the bag.  When ready say:

By the power of earth, sun, sky, and sea
I draw hope and prosperity to me.

Chant this until you feel you have raised your energy and see it stream from your heart, filling the bag with a glowing green or gold color.

Place the bag between the two candles and let them burn down completely.

Carry the bag with you or keep it in a special place in your home, like your altar.

May the bag bring you blessings of prosperity this season and always!

Making incense is a fine art.  It takes time and practice to perfect the process and everyone has a process that is a little different than someone else’s.  One of the keys to keep in mind is that you don’t want to overload an incense with too many ingredients.  Picking one of two herbs that compliment each other magickally and aromatically makes for a more focused magickal catalyst than something that has so much going on making it really busy.

Your incense also don’t have to be limited to herbs.  You can use essential oils, honey, wine, or other liquids for binding as well.  This is a great tool to use when you make an incense that has a mixture of powdered herbs and chunkier pieces of resins, leaves, or woods.  For example, having powdered cinnamon, pieces of pine needles, and frankincense for a Yule incense with a teaspoon or two of wine mixed it, you’ll be able to help coat the pine and frankincense with the cinnamon more evenly.  If you decide to use any of these in your incense, make sure to give it time to dry before placing in a bag or container for storage.  Too much moisture can cause mold to form as well as make your incense hard to burn.

When making your incense for the first time make a list of all your possible ingredients and gather them all together.  Take time to get to know them, even the ones that you’re not sure you’ll actually use but that go along with your intentions.  You may be surprised what suddenly seems to call you.

pine needles

Take time to smell each individual herb dry.  From here you might want to separate your herbs into groups of ones you definitely like, ones you sort of like, and ones you know you don’t want to use.  The next step will be testing each herb individually to see what they smell like when they burn.  Herbs that smell really sweet when dry can be bitter when burned; spicy herbs can be really sharp.  A great example of this is cinnamon.  Cinnamon smells really nice dry or as an oil used in sachets and spell bags but when burned it can have quite an unpleasant smell.  So the next step would be to test your herbs burning.  Light a piece of self-igniting charcoal and sprinkle a little pinch of one of the herbs on the on the coal.  Let it burn and smell the smoke.  Make notes for the ones you find particularly pleasing.  You may also find that there is a particular vibration each gives off or your body may have a reaction to them.  Make notes about each as you work with them and then set aside the herbs that you like the most.

Once you have done this, look at what you have left.  You may only have a few herbs left to work with.  I know in my experience of making a blend that I would sometimes start with 9 or 10 herbs and after all of this have only 3 herbs left to work with.

Refer to your notes; what are the properties the ones you have left?  Do they fall in line with your intentions?  How do they smell burned together?  Try adding a pinch of each together on your coal and see how you feel about the smell and feel.  You may feel that one needs to be more prominent or that the others over power it.  This is where you will want to adjust how many parts of each herb you want to use.  You may want to cut down an herb to a half part or incense one to 2 parts.  Again, experiment and get creative!

Mix your dry herbs together...

This would also be a good time to consider if you wish to add any oils or other binding agents.  They will change the smell; honey makes things slightly sweet and a little smokey while wine makes things a little spicy.  Essential oils help add the scent of an herb in a slightly less powerful way than using the herb itself while also helping to bind.  As an example, if you didn’t have pine needles and you wanted the scent and properties of pine, use some of the oil.  Only use a small amount; I usually don’t use more than 5 to 10 drops depending on the oil and the amount of dry herbs I’m using.  Keep in mind, too, that too much oil can cause a lot more smoke as well.

So, how about making your Yule incense?  Here is a list of herbs, which can be substituted with essential oils as needed, which are traditional and ideal for Yule.

Bayberry
Blessed Thistle
Cedar
Cinnamon
Evergreen
Frankincense
Holly
Juniper
Laurel
Mistletoe
Oak
Pine
Sage
Rosemary

A common recipe for Yule incense might be:
2 p. Frankincense
1 p. Myrrh
1 p. Pine
1/2 p. Juniper Berries

Another favorite that I have made through this process here is:

1 p. Frankincense
1 p. Pine
1 p. Bay
1/2 p. Mistletoe
10 drops Merlot wine

Wine can be added to bind your ingredients.

Once you have created your incense keep it in an air tight jar.  Many people will store incense in plastic bags but this isn’t the best option.  Plastic will leech both the scent and the energy from the herbs over time.  Using small, clean glass baby food or canning jars works perfectly for this.  On the other hand, this is a great reason to only make as much as you need, especially when it’s an incense for a special occasion like a Sabbat.  It’s better to keep your incense fresh so making just what you need for the occasion and creating a new batch for next year is really ideal rather than storing.

Be sure to write down your final recipe and date it in your notes or Book of Shadows.  It’s always interesting to go back and look at how your recipes have evolved over time and what properties you may have been particularly interested in drawing on from year to year.  Also, this makes reproducing an incense simple, removing any need to guess at what you had used.

Making incense is a magickal art in and of itself.  Taking the time to work with the herbs and creating your own, unique incense makes it more magickal than just recreating recipes that others have made.  Give it a try and be OK with the process of trial and error.  They aren’t all going to be winners but it’s worth it when you find one that is so perfect and like nothing you have ever found before, knowing it was you that created it from the ground up.

Fir
Fir trees come in many varieties; silver fir, white fir, Rocky Mountain fir, balsam fir, and more.  This is often the tree that people see as “the” Christmas tree.  They grow in many different parts of the world and can be easily found and can grow up to 200 feet tall.  A fir tree can be identified by a few specific characteristics.  The cones on a fir tree point up and the needles have a horizontal pattern as they grow from the branches and they are quite soft. This differentiates them from pine trees which they are often confused with.  A Douglas Fir is actually a pine, for example, which you can see by how their cones point downward.

The Black Forest in Germany got its name from the dense fir growth in the forest and is still the one place with the most fir tree growth in the world.  Because of how tall and strong the fir tree looks they were often seen as holy trees in various alpine regions and the trees were seen as dwelling places of the Gods.

Fir resin and fir needles are a common ingredient in Christmas and Yule incenses, candles, and other holiday scented items. The resin has a very strong scent and when mixed with dried pieces of wood from the tree and combined as an incense it will burn easily and the scent lingers for some time.  Fir wood, when dried, is great as a fireplace starter because it catches quickly and easily.  The needles, when added to other incense ingredients, helps to keep things burning because they also burn quickly but the resin that they are often full of helps release the tree’s rich scent.

Magickally the fir tree is seen as a tree of immortality.  Some see this tree as a guardian and a tree of protection that can ward off harmful influences making it a great tree to use if you’re looking to focus on drawing in protection for the home and family for the season.  It is a tree that stands for hope in a season of cold and darkness.

Spruce
Spruce trees are often confused with fir trees because they look very similar.  The cones on a spruce point downward and the needles grow in a somewhat circular direction.  Spruce trees are also sometimes known as black fir or cross fir which can cause even more confusion.  Spruce trees come in a variety based on where they are found such as the Norway spruce.  These trees are found throughout North America, Asia, and Europe and are one of the most popular trees used during the holidays.  Spruce trees, along with their association to the fir are also associated with the pine and it is believed that the Celts in the Rhine region would make offerings to both spruce and pine trees.  These two trees were believed to be seen as being associated with Gods of the springs and were seen as holy.

Many of the magickal associations for the spruce mirror the fir tree however the spruce is also seen as a tree with the ability to ward off evil.  Spruce can be used with the intention to keep any sort of unwanted spirits or energy away from the home.  This can be especially helpful during the holidays where then are so many people coming and going from the home, especially if you do a lot of holiday entertaining.

Pine
Pine trees are probably one of the most popular trees for this time of year but with the way that the tree grows without a real uniform appearance it isn’t the most ideal for a Yule tree.  With anywhere from 115 to 125 different types of pine, there are some that are more suitable as a Yule tree, but many grow in a way that leaves large gaps and the needs grow in poofs, so to speak, making the tall tree look almost like a shrub on stilts.  While it may not be the best holiday tree pines are one of the most commercially used greenery trees; it’s used for its wood pulp to make certain paper products, the wood is used for building and is a common wood used for furniture, and some types of pine create pine nuts, a very popular and delicious, creamy nut used in many kinds of cooking.

Pines are still seen as sacred trees and are symbols of resurrection, rebirth, and immortality.  The needles from pine trees are often used in earth or forest incenses in magickal work.  The pine tree lends energy to help remove unwanted energies and forces, bring in good fortune and health, and draw financial prosperity.

Other Trees
You may find other trees and greenery garland and leaves available this season and you may wish to pick ones based on the magickal properties that they hold.  Here is a list of some other trees and their magickal properties to help you pick what energy you want to fill your home with this year.

Balsa – Psychic Awareness
Ash – Protection, Sea Magic, Karma, Healing, Protection
Aspen – Protection
White Poplar – Hope, Rebirth, Divination
Holly – Sacredness, Money, Prosperity, Beauty
Ivy – Fidelity, Constancy, Love
Mistletoe – Love and Fertility

Cranberry Orange Tea
Makes about 6 servings

2 bags black tea
2 cups water
2 cups orange juice
2 cups cranberry juice
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp powdered cloves
1/2 tsp powdered nutmeg
Orange slices

Combine the water with the orange and cranberry juices in a pot and simmer on a low heat on the stove.
Add tea bags, sugar, and herbs and allow them to simmer for another 3-5 minutes.
Take off the heat and allow to steep for about 5 minutes.
Remove tea bags and squeeze out excess tea into the pot.
Place an orange slice in the bottom of each cup and fill with tea and juice blend.
Garnish with cinnamon sticks.

This recipe can be doubled or even tripled and made in a crock pot as well and served at holiday parties.  Adding warmed juices to a tea blend is a great way to add other flavors to tea without a lot of sugar for those that are mindful of such things.  Blending orange juice with teas for the holidays and adding rich, spicy herbs is a great way to add a seasonal twist to tea.

Another suggestion is to make a sugar and herb blend that can be used to flavoring teas at the holiday season. Make a 4 to 1 mix of sugar to each or any of the following herbs and place in an air-tight container and allow them to to blend by letting them sit for a week, closed, shaking the jar daily to mix.  Then simply add to tea like you would with plain sugar.

4 parts natural sugar (raw sugar, turbinado sugar, etc)
1 part ground cinnamon
1 part ground nutmeg
1 part star anise
1 part ground clove
1 part dried orange zest

You can also make a vanilla sugar to make a sugar cookie like tea.  Take a box of natural sugar and pour into an air-tight container.  Take three vanilla bean and carefully score lengthwise with a knife.  Place the vanilla beans inside the jar with the sugar and shake.  Let the beans and vanilla blend for at least a few days to a week before using being sure to shake and blend the two.  You can keep the vanilla beans in the sugar and use the sugar as you normally would.  This sugar can be used for holiday baking as well where a slight vanilla flavor is desired.  If you’re brave you could try lightly toasting the vanilla beans before scoring and placing in the sugar for an added smokey flavor.

These teas can help satisfy a sweet tooth as well and can provide a nice alternative to all the more rich, dairy and chocolate beverages.  Give them a try and get creative with the traditional flavors!  You never know what you might come up with when it comes to tea, herbs, and spices.

Here is a list of 20 herbs that can be found easily in the supermarket, farmers market, or right now in your kitchen!  Here you’ll have some of their basic magickal and healing uses.  While a few herbs are noted as not being safe to be ingested by pregnant women, always be sure to do some extra research into herbs that you plan to take internally.  And when you’re looking for something to use in magick and you don’t know what to use, often you’ll notice that an herb’s medicinal use mirrors it’s magickal use as well.  So if you can find the medicinal uses of a common kitchen herb you can often use it for similar uses in magick.  Reading through this list will help make that more apparent.

Anise – You can use anise for help with sleeplessness.  Anise seeds can be placed in warm milk and allowed to steep, much like tea, for about 10 minutes, then strain the seeds out and drink.  For magickal use anise can be used to promote magickal and prophetic dreams.  Burn as an incense on charcoal in your bedroom before you go to sleep or use as part of an herbal blend used within a dreampillow.

Basil - Basil has a handful of useful properties including protection, banishing and drawing money.  Steeping basil in some olive oil can make a great simple oil to rub on a green candle for money drawing.  Basil can be burned as an incense to help with both banishment and protection, as well as ground into a powder and sprinkled around doorways and windows to help keep out unwanted visitors.

Bay Leaves – Bay leaves are known for their protective properties.  Bay leaves can be scattered around the home for protection and it can ground up into a powder and scattered around the home to cleanse the space from unwanted energies, especially in the case of possible spirit activity.  Bay leaves can also be used to help with astral projection and visions.

Caraway – When it comes to home healing, caraway has a number of different ways that it can be used.  Crush up a teaspoon of caraway seeds and steep as a tea in a cup of hot water to help with digestive discomfort, flatulence, and stomach cramps.  Magickally caraway seeds are known to help with fertility as well as lust.  Caraway seeds can be used in place of rice at a wedding; when thrown at the couple as they walk from the ceremony it sends wishes of fertility for many children.  The seeds can also be ground and steeped in warmed red wine as a sort of aphrodisiac.

Cinnamon – Most of us are aware of the many magickal uses for cinnamon.  It’s known for being used in money and prosperity charms and is often used as an ingredient in prosperity oils and to dress candles for money magick.  Another area that cinnamon has been know for in folk magick is love.  Some of the folk spells of the past recommend baking cakes with cinnamon and serving them to someone that you wish to have fall in love with you.  Others talk about adding cinnamon to wine or mead for the same purpose.  Cinnamon can be used for love, money and promoting physical health and vigor.

Cloves – Cloves have wonderful antiseptic and anesthetic properties.  If you have a toothache you can rub clove oil on the gum line of the problem tooth.  You can also chew on a clove if you have problems with sore wisdom teeth.  Chewing on cloves can also help with bad breath.  Magickally cloves are used for protection and can be carried in your pocket or in a black charm bag for protection.  Soaking cloves in water for a few hours can soften them and they can then be strung with a needle onto some thread and then hung around the home or car for protection.  Ground and burned as incense, clove can help with visions and divination work.

Fennel – Medicinally fennel can be used to relieve hiccups; heat up 1-2 teaspoons of fennel in equal parts milk and water, strain and drink.  The juice of fennel is said to help stop vomiting when drops are placed on the tongue.  Magickally fennel is used as a protective and purifying herb.  Grind dried fennel into a powder and sprinkle around the inside of the home for protection.  Hung inside charm bags at the windows of the home helps to ward off negative spirits.  Fennel seeds can be carried in your pocket for the same reasons and can be ground and burned for purifying the home of any unwanted spirits.

Garlic – Garlic is one of the herbs with a long and well known folk history for being used for healing and protection.  Garlic can be used to prevent and ward off colds.  With it’s strong antibiotic properties, it can be cooked and eaten when you feel the symptoms of a cold coming to help keep it at bay.  Magickally garlic has a long history of being used to ward off evil.  It is believed to be able to absorb negativity when placed around the home and when carried creates an aura of protection around you preventing negativity and unwanted spirits from attaching themselves to you; some people talk about using garlic in these sense by carrying a bulb of garlic with them when visiting cemeteries and places believed to be haunted.

Ginger – Ginger is a great help when you’re dealing with nausea.  Candied ginger is a great thing to have around in the kitchen for general nausea as well as morning sickness for pregnant women.  Candied ginger can be chewed like gummy candy or it can be placed in a cup of hot water and allowed to melt and steep into a tea.  Dried and ground ginger can be made into a tea for the same purposes; placed in warm milk it can be given to kids for the same reason (the taste of ginger can be a little strong for kids so milk can help to lessen the intensity).  When used in magick ginger can be used for love, money and power.  The heat properties of ginger help to “heat up” a situation which make it great for love spells.

Lemon – Not a traditional herb, but found in many people’s kitchens, the juice can be used for treating colds by adding the juice of one whole lemon to a cup of hot water and drinking as a tea; some people also like to add about a tablespoon of honey to this as well to make it smooth and sweet to counter the bitter acidic nature of the lemon.  Lemon peel can be added to sachets for love spells and can be burned for both love and longevity as an incense.

Marjoram – The flowers from marjoram can be boiled into a tea for relieving headaches and digestive issues (pregnant women should not take marjoram however as it can be dangerous).  Used in spells for love, health, money and happiness the dried leaves and flowers can be added to charm bags and sachets and placed around the home to promote piece and happiness.  Red or pink sachets made with marjoram can be tied to the bed to strength an existing relationship with your partner.

Mint – Mint comes in many forms and different forms can be helpful for different things.  Peppermint is one of the most common and when made into a tea it can help with an upset stomach.  Mint oil can be burned in an oil diffuser to help ward off incests.  Mint oil can be used on yellow, gold or green candles for prosperity spells.  Dried the herb can be burned for luck and money spells or it can be carried in a green charm bag with a piece of jade for money drawing.

Nutmeg - Nutmeg works medicinally as a digestive aid and can ease stomach upset.  Magickally it’s used for a variety of love spells and has a long history of being carried for love and luck.  A whole piece of nutmeg can be etched or carved with runes or symbols for prosperity and carried in the pocket.  There are folk spells that suggest using nutmeg to ensure your partner remains faithful.  The nut is cut into four pieces; one piece is tossed off a cliff, one piece is buried in the ground, one piece is burned and the last piece is boiled in water.  You would then drink the water and save the piece of nutmeg from it, carrying it with you at all times and sleeping with it under your pillow.

Parsley – Parsley is another herb used for protection and purification in magick.  But these cleansing properties extend to it’s medicinal uses as well. Parsley, either made into a tea or chewed, helps to cleans the body of toxins, relieve bad breath, and help provide minerals like iron to the blood for cleansing.  The removal of toxins, as well as drawing on the protective properties of parsley can be achieved by using it in a hot bath.

Rosemary – Made into a tea, rosemary can be used as an aid for memory and mental clarity.  This can be great for students when they are getting ready to study for a big exam.  Magickally we can use rosemary for a number of different things including protection, love, luck, purification, healing and sleep making rosemary a great overall herb with so many diverse uses so it’s great to always have on hand.  Burn it to cleanse a space of unwanted energy, use in dreampillows, hang rosemary springs by your front door for luck, protection and blessings.  Rosemary oil can help with all of these as well; use rosemary oil to draw banishing pentagrams on your doors and windows to ward off unwanted visitors in all forms.

Saffron – Most of us might be familiar with saffron in a potato salad or on some grilled salmon, but we don’t see it used terribly often in a lot of magick.  It has some great magickal uses though, and while it can be an expensive household herb, it can pack a good punch magickally.  When it comes to any sort or magick that will call on the solar aspects of planets, the sun itself, solar deities or if you just need to heat things up a bit, saffron is a great herb to use.  It can be used to make bright and deep orange colored dyes for altar cloths, sachet and charm bags and for dying eggs at Ostara.  It can be added to love spells to increase lust.  Add it to healing spells to help ward off disease.  An old folk charm for pregnant women talked about wearing it in a ball or in a pouch over their stomach to ensure a quick delivery.

Sage – Sage is one of the most used and most familiar herbs to just about any magickal practitioner.  Known for it’s ability to cleanse a space from unwanted energies and raise the vibrations of a room, it is burned and carried for cleansing and protection quite often.  Sage can also be made into a tea and used to help clear up chest congestion and coughs when dealing with a cold. Medicinally it can also be made into a gargle and used as an antiseptic which is great if you have a cut or burn in your mouth or have recently had dental work down and are having pain afterward. Burn, carry or sprinkle around your desk or study area to help promote wisdom.  Sage is extremely easy to come by either in the form or white sage in smudge sticks, fresh in the produce department of the supermarket, or dried in whole leave, ground and even rubbed form.  Sage is another herb that is not recommended for pregnant women.

Salt – While technically salt isn’t an herb, it’s a mineral, it’s used in much the same way as herbs in a variety of magickal areas.  Salt can be used for cleansing and blessing.  Most of us know of using salt in ritual, mixed with water, to make blessed water which is then used for anointing others during ritual and sprinkled around the circle to cleanse and seal the space.  Salt is also used to cleanse some stones and crystals and it can be used to remove negative vibrations from objects, people and spaces.  Sprinkle around the home in the corners of rooms that have unsettled energy and use around doors and windows to keep out unwanted energy.

Thyme – This is another herb with a number of uses, both magickal and medicinal.  Made into a tea it can help ease menstrual pains and when steeped in a hot bath it can help relieve various skin conditions including dry winter skin conditions and eczema.  Made into a mouthwash it helps to ease and speed the healing of cuts, sores and burns in the mouth.  Magickally thyme can be used in a bath to help you to build up the courage to deal with a difficult situation and to help you come to a logical solution to a problem that you might be facing.  Thyme is another herb that can be added to a dreampillow to help aid with sleep and to help bring psychic and prophetic dreams as well as ward off nightmares.  Carried or burned thyme can also help in healing spells.

Vanilla - Vanilla is another plant that is said to have aphrodisiac-like properties.  Vanilla perfume oil can be a great anointing oil for love and beauty magick and can be used on candles for love spells, especially when you want to add some sweetness to your relationship.  Vanilla bean can bring power and vitality, so carrying in a charm bag to restore your personal power can be helpful.  Placed inside a bowl of sugar vanilla can infuse the sugar with loving energy and vibrations.  The sugar can then be used to make foods and cakes meant to promote love and harmony.