Herbal Preparations: Poultices

A poultice of red clover on a rash on my own leg.

You might think poultices aren't used very often in the modern world, perhaps because you haven't heard the word used in common conversation, but you'd be wrong. If you've ever put a little bit of ointment, perhaps some Polysporin, on a bandage and applied it to a wound, you yourself have used a poultice. They're also used frequently in hospitals for a variety of purposes, though they are more likely to call them applications.

Simply put, a poultice is just a sterile cloth (such as a bandage or even a sterile piece of cheesecloth) that is used to keep some for of medicine in place. This medicine might be a paste, it might be an ointment, or it might even be actual loose herbs. In general, if you do use loose herbs, you'd place a single layer of bandage or cheesecloth on the wound first, then place the loose herbs, then bandage the wound. This practice is sometimes used with pastes and ointments as well, depending on the ingredients. The poultice is often heated, but be careful of applying an overheated poultice to bare flesh. Burns can and have resulted.

Back before we knew much about infections and such, a piece of bread or other similar food product might have been used instead of the sterile cloth. I distinctly remember my grandmother applying a poultice of mustard and a few other ingredient to a piece of bread and strapping it to my spider bite. It worked and I didn't get an infection, but today it would be better to use sterile cloth. We don't always have to be stuck in the past, after all.

Herbal Preparations: Oils

Oils have been used by many cultures around the world for thousands of years. A great deal is known about them because of their extensive use. When used for magical or medicinal purposes, you will almost always dilute your oils. There are some notable exceptions, such as lavender, but most essential oils are far too concentrated to use without dilution. Some oils are actually dangerous if they come in contact with your skin or mucous membranes before they are diluted. Because of this, if you are going to prepare your own oil mixtures you will have to know how to delete them yourself using a carrier or base oil.

There are many base oils to choose from. you might consider almond, apricot kernel, avocado, coconut, grapeseed, hazelnut, olive, palm, peanut (if you're not allergic), sesame, or sunflower. To decide which one best suits your purpose, do a little research. Look up the properties of sesame or sunflower and decide if any of those properties make sense for your purposes. Or you could simply use jojoba oil as your base or carrier. This oil is good for almost any purpose and it has the added benefit of not going rancid. All other oils, including the ever-popular olive, will eventually become rancid and unusable. You can, of course, use a preservative such as wheat germ oil or rosemary oil extract, but I prefer to simply use jojoba and avoid the problem altogether.

When creating your oil preparations, you'll have to take into account your own personal sensitivities. Some people, for example, can place certain oils almost undiluted on their skin. Others may find that the oil in question must be diluted significantly before it can be applied. For this reason, you may have to add more or less carrier oil to your final mixture before use. Also remember your own allergies. If you're allergic to cinnamon, you probably cannot place its oil upon your skin no matter how much you dilute it. In general, however, it is best to start off with a ratio of 20 to 25 drops of pure essential oil to approximately 2 ounces a base or carrier oil. You can then make this mixture stronger or weaker depending on your own preferences and needs.

At first, you will probably want to stick with proven recipes when creating herbal mixtures. In time, however, you will certainly want to experiment a bit. When doing so, look back at the proven recipes and see what you can tweak to better suit your own personality and style. As long as your oils are not too concentrated and you're not using anything you're actually allergic to, there is little harm in this type of herbal preparation. Just keep most herbal mixtures away from your mucous membranes and out of your eyes and you should be fine.

Remember that all of the above assumes you are working with pure essential oils. Fragrance oils have no place in magical or medicinal practice. They might smell good, but they are otherwise useless.

Herbal Preparations: Incense

If you need is to release the scent of herbs, incense is a time-honored way to do so. Incenses, in one form or another, have been used as long as spirituality has existed. There are two basic forms of incense: self-igniting and non-self-igniting. Both have their benefits, though one definitely has more drawbacks than the other.

The best and most effective incense will always be the non-self-igniting type. This kind of incense is most easily prepared by simply grinding the herbs you need in a mortar and pestle. After mixing the herbs in accordance with your needs and perhaps the recipe you're following, you simply burn the resulting mixture on charcoal disks. This is the most effective type of incense and is certainly worth a little time grinding up herbs. Charcoal disks are fairly inexpensive, so this method can be cost effective as well.

You can, if you like, use a pure wood powder as a base and add essential oils and other extractions. This works much like the non-self-igniting incense in that it has to be burned atop charcoal disks. I don't generally recommend this type of incense because it is much harder to prepare, but it is certainly an option.

Self-igniting incense is another story entirely. Fair warning: I really do not like self-igniting incense. Most of it is little better than scented sawdust and saltpeter. It burns all right, but because it uses very little actual herb, it has no real medicinal or magickal value. Even if you can manage to create an incense that is mostly herb and saltpeter, the saltpeter interferes with the scent of the herbs, thereby making it less effective than non-self-igniting incense. And most certainly you should not use self-igniting incense you find in stores. Smells great, yes, but it's worthless. If you want self-igniting incense, experiment with saltpeter and herbs until you find a mixture you like.

Then we come to the matter of incense sticks. Though sticks are convenient, NEVER buy them from a store. Almost without exception these sticks are made of resin and fragrance oils (at least in North America and most of Europe). Since fragrance oils do not have the properties of essential oils (which comes from the natural herb), they are useless for your magickal or medicinal work. Now if they made them from essential oils...but this is rarely done because the cost would be astronomical. If you can buy the incense sticks for a quarter a piece, they're certainly made with fragrance oils no matter what the sales person says.

So what about making them yourself? Well, it's possible. I have had some success dipping my own incense sticks in a mixture of resin and essential oils. I've used both wooden sticks and charcoal sticks, and both have their benefits. The wooden sticks are cleaner, but the charcoal sticks produce a superior scent (but they do make a mess). So you can certainly make your own stick incense that will work for your purposes, but be aware that this is a time consuming process. Finished sticks will have to dry for a few days (don't try to quicken this process in an oven) so you won't be able to use them immediately. Still, the process can be a fun craft if you're in to that sort of thing.

The best way to make incense is simply to grind the herbs and burn them (even by throwing them into a fire instead of using charcoal disks). There are other methods, obviously, but in this case, simple is best. Experiment, if you like, but don't skip over the easiest and most effective method for preparing incense.

Herbal Preparations: Candles

Candles are a safe and easy way to use herbs in your own home, but its only a viable option if you only need the pure scent of the herb. If you need other properties, you're best off using another preparation method. Still, making your own candles can be fun and you can customize them for your own needs. Just remember that candles, like all forms of herbal preparations, have their limitations.

To create candles that will be effective in magickal or medicinal work, you must use either essential oils or powdered herbs to scent your candles. Synthetic oils, while cheap, are not at all useful. If all you want is a scented candle, fine, use synthetic. If you want a more magickal candle, however, you'll have to purchase quality supplies.

Powdered herbs are certainly the easiest way to make herbal candles. Just add powdered herbs to the melted wax, pour, and there you go. Sort of. If you aren't careful, a candle that includes powdered herbs can actually light on fire, and I don't mean just the wick. When you're powdering your herbs, they need to be really fine. I mean so fine they could float. Otherwise they can actually catch on fire, acting as a second wick and really ruining your day. And never, ever, put herbs on the top of your candle, even if you think it looks really pretty. You'll light the wick and suddenly everything will be on fire. No good.

The other thing to watch out for is concentration. If the herbs are too concentrated, you'll end up with a fire no matter how fine the herbs are. This means you can't add too much of the powdered herbs to your wax. Add no more than a single tablespoon of herbs to a full pound of wax. Seriously. And make sure the herbs are evenly disturbed throughout the wax. This should help you avoid any unexpected fires.

Essential oils are another problem altogether. You might think you can just add them to the wax, and you can, but heat breaks down the essential so it's really not the easy. There's a reason most commercial candles are made with synthetic oils. But you're not using synthetic oils, are you? Are you?

No? Good. To effectively use essential oils to scent your candles, you need to use a low temperature to melt your wax. If it takes you an hour to melt that pound of wax, that's great. Good temperature. Keep it low and do not add hardeners to your wax. Just don't. It won't work out well.

As for how much to add, well, I find that no more than 2 ounces for a pound of wax is best. 1 ½ ounces is even better. If you're trying to convert an herbal recipe (that uses essential oils) into a candle recipe, see the 'drops' used in most recipes as 'parts' and you should be fine, as long as your total oil doesn't exceed 2 ounces. Also, don't add a base oil when crafting candles. They really don't need it. It only takes away from the small amount of oil you can add to your wax without creating a problem.

Once final warning, add your herbs or oils right before you pour the wax. Heat breaks things down no matter how low the temperature. So add colors and such before you add herbs and oils. Make sure your herbs and oils are distributed evenly, then pour your wax immediately.

Candles may not be the most common herbal preparation, but they are at least easy to make and use. Take advantage of them when you can.