Carolina Dean

Introduction to Herbs

Common Ways in Which Herbs are Used

How to Harvest, Dry, & Store Herbs 

Tools of the Herbalist

Herbs

Herbs have been a staple in the magickal and healing practices of witches since antiquity. Even today many pharmacological advances have been made from careful study of how witches used herbs, including the discovery of aspirin and digitalis. Herbal lore has been passed down through the generations, with each generation adding their knowledge to what they have learned from the generation before. This process is thought to have begun in pre-historic times, when many of the principles behind the witch’s beliefs were being formed.

Many have wondered how the witches first learned their knowledge of herbs. One theory suggests that these witches were highly psychic and were taught the use of herbs by certain spirits or deities. Some say that the witches furthered their knowledge of herbs through psychometry. Psychometry, or psychic touch, is an ability to obtain intimate knowledge of a person, or thing simply by touching the item, holding the person’s hand, or something that belonged to that person.

Another theory in practice today, the Doctrine of Signatures, states that God marked everything he created with a sign or signature. The doctrine of signatures refers to two individual though related concepts in (Christian) European metaphysics, whose origins lay in the ancient reading of auspices and other omens of the god’s will in antiquity, and which similarly bears upon the meaningfulness of resemblances. The major usage is a doctrine that the Creator had so set his mark upon creation that by careful observation one could find all right doctrine represented and even learned the uses of a plant from some aspect of its form or place of growing.

For the late medieval viewer, the natural world was vibrant with the numinous images of the deity: “as above, so below,” an expression of the relationship between macrocosm and microcosm, the principle is rendered sicut in terra. Michael Foucalt expressed the wider usage of the doctrine of signatures, which rendered allegory more real and more cogent than it appears to a modern eye:

“Up to the end of the sixteenth century, resemblance played a constructive role in the knowledge of Western culture. It was resemblance that largely guided exegesis and the interpretation of texts; it was resemblance that organized the play of symbols, made possible knowledge of things visible and invisible, and controlled the art of representing them.” (The Order of Things, p. 17)

The doctrine of signatures was given renewed thrust in the writings of the Swiss physician Paracelsus von Hohenheim (1493-1541) and continued to be embraced until the 17^th century. It held that plants bearing parts that resembled human body parts, animals, or other objects, had useful relevancy to those parts, animals, or objects. It could also refer to the environment or specific sites in which plants grew. Many of the plants that were so regarded today still carry the word root “wort”, an Anglo-Saxon word meaning herb, as part of their modern name.

The radical visionary Jakob Bohme (1575-1624), a master shoemaker of Gorlitz, had a profound mystical vision as a young man, in which he saw the relationship between God and man signed in all things. Inspired, he wrote Signatura Rerum (1621), soon published as the Signature of All Things and the spiritual doctrine was applied even to the medicinal uses that plants forms advertised.

The 17^th century botanist and herbalist William Coles (1626-1662), author of The Art of Simpling and Adam in Eden, found that walnuts were good for curing head ailments because ‘they have the perfect signatures for the head,” and as for Hypericum “the little holes whereof the leaves of Saint Johns wort are full, does resemble all the pores of the skin and therefore it is profitable for all hurts and wounds that can happen thereunto.” Nicholas Culpepper’s often reprinted herbal takes the doctrine of signatures as common knowledge and its influence can be detected still in modern herbal lore.

The doctrine of signatures was expounded in mainstream medical texts into the 19^th century and has remained a working principle of homeopathic medicine. Among practitioners of the occult, the doctrine of signatures has a more specific meaning, in which the arrangement of magickal signatures is thought to have certain powers.

• Burning- Herbs are burned on charcoal, with incense or coated on anointed candles to release their energies.

• Carrying- Herbs can be carried in packets or added to mojo bags as charms.

• Potions- Potions, the most versatile form in which herbs are used, come in many types.

• Powdering- Powdered herbs can be sprinkled on carpets, under rugs, on shelves, or added to the bath or wash water.

Air drying herbs is not only the easiest and least expensive way to dry fresh herbs, but this slow drying process also doesn't deplete the herbs of their oils. This process works best with herbs that don't have high moisture content, like Bay, Dill, Marjoram, Oregano, Rosemary, Summer Savory and Thyme. Moisture dense herbs, like Basil, Chives, Mint, Tarragon preserve better in a dehydrator, or try freezing them. Use a microwave or oven to dry herbs only as a last resort. These actually cook the herbs to a degree, diminishing the oil content and flavor.

Harvesting

Harvest before flowering. If you've been harvesting all season, your plants probably haven't had a chance to flower. But non-hardy herbs will start to decline as the weather cools, so late summer is a good time to begin drying your herbs. Cut in mid-morning. Let the morning dew dry from the leaves, but pick before the plants are wilting in the afternoon sun.

How to Dry Herbs

Storing Dried Herbs

Mortar and Pestle

The Mortar and Pestle are tools used to  crush, grind, and mix substances. The pestle is a heavy stick whose end is used for pounding and grinding, and the mortar is a bowl. The substance is ground between the pestle and the mortar.

Mortar and Pestles can be made of metal, wood,ceramics, glass, steel, porcelain, marble, stone, or brass. It is important that you choose a Mortar and Pestle that is hard enough to crush substances and not be crushed by them.

If they are brittle they will break down and become part of that which you are trying to crush and powder. In addition, mortars and pestles that are smooth and non-porous as they are less likely to absorb the substance you are crushing. Metal mortar and pestles are kept lightly oiled, whereas glass ones are fragile. Rough ceramic ones work well to reduce substances to fine powders, however they stain easily. 

If you don't have a mortar and pestle, you can always use a sturdy bowl and a wooden spoon.

Bottles and Jars

Bottles and jars of various sizes, shapes, and colors are used to store various herbs, and herbal preprations, such as powders, ointments, infusions, etc... 

Amber and blue glass bottles protect oils and tinctures from damaging infrared and ultraviolet light .

Muslin Bags 

Muslin Bags are sewn from An inexpensive, natural-colored cotton fabric.

They are very useful for brewing large pots of tea, infusing bath herbs, for poultices, food preparation, straining herbs, storing dried herbs, and a variety of other uses. They may also be used as mojo bags when needed.

Measuring Cups and Spoons

A measuring cup is a kitchen utensil used primarily to measure the volume of liquid or powder-form cooking ingredients. Similar to measuring cups, measuring spoons are used to measure smaller, more precise amounts of dry goods

 Pot and Pans

Pots and Pans are used for extracting oils from herbs, boiling herbs, and making various herbal preparations. 

EXERCISES

1.      Identify at least five herbs or plants that grow in your area and write these in your journal, Leave room for future entries.

2.      Below each herb or plant give the following information

·        A Picture of the Herb

·        Common Names

·        Scientific Name

·        Places of Growing

·        Uses in Medicine (if any)

·        Uses in Magic (if any)

·        Any other information you feel is relevant.

3.      Collect, dry and properly store these five herbs. Record your progress in your journal.

4.      Research how magickal oils are made and record your findings in your journal.

5.      Find a few simple recipes for magickal oils and practice making them. Record these recipes in your journal and remember to cite your sources. If you have occasion to use any of these magickal oils, note this in your journal and explain if the oil worked as indicated or not.

6.      Using your own research, devise and prepare your own magickal oil. Explain the intended use of this oil and record your recipe in your journal.

7.      Describe at least three ways in which this oil can be used in the practice of magick and record this in your journal.

8.      Of these three methods of use, choose one and perform it then record your success or failure in your journal.