Dear Friends,

Sadly, of course, I don’t actually have a Still Room of my very own.  In any case I suspect that when I do have an apartment of my very own that it will blend together with the Kitchen, which really blends my Craft and my Culinary interests together nicely and I think serves well for a 21st Century Witch.

Anyhow, I’ve made mention of a recent surge of practical Witchery on my part recently, and figured I’d post an update.

Crown of Success

1. Bay Leaves
2. Frankincense
3. Vetiver
4. Olive and Jojoba Oils

I transferred the Crown of Success Oil to a new jar, removed the old Bay Leafs and tried to keep the ground Frankincense.   I put the glass jar and oil into the Microwave and hit the 30 second button a couple of times to heat the oil.   I cut some new, dried Bay leaves, into fine pieces and added them to the heated oil.  I ground more Frankincense, and some Vetivert, and stuffed them into the jar and the hot oil, I added a little more Olive Oil.

The jar is quite literally stuffed to the gills with herbs.   I added more Olive Oil in part to replenish what I had used in making some CoS for the Fabulous Jonathan, and in part because the mossy mass of herbs and resin was above the level of the oil… and since I am trying to scent the oil and not oil the herbs it seemed apropos to bring the oil level up a little.

Finally, after reflection, I transferred the whole oily-mossy mess to a jar twice as large as the first, and added a little more oil… so that the consistency was more of a sauce and less of a paste.

I’ve shaken the jars, contemplating their green-gold depths and observing the Brownian dance of the suspension and settling of the herbs and resins.  Now comes the hard part, the waiting.  Shaking the jar daily, sitting it in a window-sill to warm in the Sun… or perhaps 30 seconds in the microwave on some days…. contemplating successes and praying over the oil.

Crown of Success, like a lot of the conditioning oils from American folk magic and Hood00, is a scented oil product used as a perfume, an additive to baths, to sachet-like mojo-bags, and to dress candles for burning in spells.  From my research it seems like a lot of these oils will have very different blends of ingredients depending on the maker; but there are usually some standard items in each formula.  For Crown of Success these seem to be Frankincense and Bay, so those are the predominant ingredients.

In doing the quick, essential oils, version I wrote about in the previous post I discovered the scent of Vetivert.  I rather like its smokey scent and so added some dried Vetivert to the mix as well.

Pax’s Prosperity Powder

1. ‘A popular Chamomile Tea blend’
2. Mint
3. Essential Oil of Vetivert
4. Essential Oil of Texas Cedar-wood
5. White Rice, ground to powder

I was feeling the need for a non-scented oil prosperity spell stuff, and decided to throw something together last week.  I had a box of a popular Chamomile tea and remembered that Chamomile was widely regarded as a good luck and prosperity herb… and as I read the other ingredients in the tea blend I discovered to my delight that several of them had associations with prosperity and luck and other useful associations!   I added a little Mint to the mix, and then using the coffee-grinder (aka 21st Century Mortar and Pestle) I grown down some White Rice.  This resulted in a nice little powder to which I have added a few drops of essential oil of Vetivert and some essential oil of Texas Cedarwood.

The Instructive Power of Looking at the Ingredients

This has led me to think and look at the ingredients in a number of the herb and spice mixes I have in my small portion of the Kitchen.  (the joys of living with a room-mate!)

I have been comparing notes between the magickal and medicinal associations for some things and learning a lot and finding I have a lot more tools at my disposal than I realized.  I am also finding the strange confluences and coincidences of meaning and symbolism, how certain herb blends or teas have combinations of ingredients that have one set of herbalism associations and another of herb magic associations and where the twain meet.

I held off of actually practicing spell-craft or herbalism for a long time because for a long time I did not have an apartment with a Kitchen… Unfortunately I also was holding off from practicing things like decent nutrition… so I am now working on a lot of things at once and juggling them in the air and growing and learning and having a lot of fun.

All of this may seem silly or superstitious or surreal to those unfamiliar with the embodied spirituality of Paganism, or the study of the spiritual practice of magick.

If so, look at it this way….

I will meditate on Success daily, I will put my energy and thoughts towards efforts to bring more stability and security in my life both financial and personal.  I can alternate the sessions of worrying the jar with sessions of working on my resume, meditating on where I have room for improvement at work, adding to my LinkedIn profile, researching suppliers for scented oil bottles, and business liscense requirements.

When I use the oil, or when my friends whom I gift portions of it too use it, we will remember the good wishes and thought that went into it.  We will think about our own definitions of success and our goals and methods for getting there.  We will fortify ourselves with knowledge of reaching our goals, and with the knowledge that a little change in our attitude or behavior can make all the difference.

We will remember that the Sacred is all around us, and within us.

The physical is sacred and as infused with the Holy as anything else.

Peace,

Pax