IT'S ELDER PICKIN' TIME!

And I have so many uses for this Holy plant, it's mind-boggling.  As you all may know, I've been studying Herbalism for 2 years now.  I'm wondering if anyone here would like to have a thread here where we can share herb lore?

I have learned much, but Herbs are a lifetime study and I have sooooo much still to learn.  But what I have learned; the Magickal, Ritual and Health uses of many herbs has changed my life for the better.  I'm studying (a little) Traditional Chinese Medicine too.  I do not believe in Homeopathy though, so I can't help you with any of that.

So what do you say?  I'd love to learn from you all!

My issue with a herbalism is that while I surrounded by useful plants and herbs and trees I'm not sure as to how to collect them and store them properly. I'd be very eager to start learning mind...

For magical referace I've never found anything that beats scott cunninghams "Encyclopedia of magical herbs"

I still have a bumper crop of Rowan (mountain ash) berries from last year, all dried and ready for use, taken from the 2 trees that form and arch over my front walk. The trees have been blessed and thanked many times over the past year. And rowan berries are so useful for magical amplification, I mix them with crushed amber and a few other ingredients to make my "High Arcana Incense". Garenteed to add a whole lotta Ommph to any spellwork. I won't share the specific receipe openly on the forum.

However if anyone has any idea of what ratio to mix gaur gum, water and salt peter for making cone incense I'll exchange... Bugs? Grey Wolf?... You can reach me on facebook...

efffectiveness and power - Fresh
conviniance and availability - pretty much dried everything

I do spend a lot of time making gel-cap pills and incense mainly, dried is really all I ever use. However if possible I prefer to collect small amounts of local wild herbs (such as sage brush, and solomons seal), to dry for personal use. To give back thanks I pick up packs of pebbled gem stones in vials from a local shop, charge them and plant them like a seed at places I collect hebs from when I go out. They are usually stones like rose quartz, apache tears, agate and blood stone.

     Hey DN...here's an idea.  Instead of leaving stones in gratitude to the Nature Spirits, I leave a handful of organic 10-10-10 fertilizer.  Just an idea, and only in appropriate season.  And with those plants esp. associated with the Fae, I leave a bright and shiny - usually a coin.

     Also DN, here follows my incense base mix, absolutely non-proprietary, use to your heart's content!

ASH'S INCENSE BASE

6 Pts. Pine (powdered) OR Charcoal

1 Pt. Orris (pwdrd)

5 Pts. My Incense Mix

2 Pts. Benzoin

5-6 Drops Essential Oil

Weigh your mix, then add

10% by weight of Saltpeter

then add your Gum Arabic by the teaspoon and mix until you have a nice hard doughy consistency.

Hope that helps ya!

     Where to begin?  OK let's talk about drying herbs.  My first experiments with herbs saw me drying them in a warm oven.  That got 'em dry quick!  But the herbs were absolutely DEAD. No energy, no medicine, no mojo.  All the essential oils were gone (pretty much).  What a waste.  Well I looked around and did some research and further experimentation - sun-drying, hanging, attic, cellar, you name it!

      Here's what works:  Cut your herbs in the morning.  This is when the leaves are just fulla goodies.  NEVER take more than ONE out of seven of anything.  That means leaves, flowers, plants, whatever.  If there aren't seven, don't take ANY!  We want to be conservationists, not jerks.  We want the plant to flourish after we walk away from it.

     I then take my herbs to a cool, dark place with good air flow.  In my case that's the basement. (If it is flowers, leaves   I remove the leaves from the stem.  I remove the petals from the bud.   Then I lay them on a big screen (window) with plenty of room between each leaf, etc. for air to circulate.  Check on it every 24 hrs.  Do you need to flip it?

     If it's a whole plant I wanna dry, I hang it from the ceiling, generally from a pipe, with a cotton string, leaves heading down.  There must be plenty of room between plants.  I can't stress that enough!

     When the herbs are dry, usually I will crumble them between my hands onto a big sheet of paper.  Of course you may want a finer consistency.  You might want to invest in a mortar and pestle and a coffee grinder.  Both are pretty inexpensive and as long as you dedicate them to your herb work alone, will work out wonderfully.

     I store my herbs in glass or plastic jars and store them in a dark place.  I have a set of drawers just for herbs.  Sure, my clothes are stacked everywhere else, but priorities, people!!!  I've found that pill bottles work well for small amounts of herbs.  They are usually dark plastic, clean up well, and can be air-tight.  That's something else you want if you're storing herbs.

     How long can you store herbs?  That depends.  They begin to lose their strength after six months or so.  They retain their strength better, of course, if you harvested them well, dried them well, and stored them air-tight and dark.

Hope that helps somebody!

BTW, fresh herbs are great, if you can get 'em.  Almost always they're preferable for magick OR health.  But it's pretty hard to get 'em fresh all the time, unless, I guess, you're a Mountain Man.  Which I am most decidedly, not.

Well, ok, it's not like he's all over the interwebz. He has the Rowan Tree Church, the Hermit's Grove is his teaching grove, and his website is http://www.thehermitsgrove.org/
Also, Paul has been with his partner gerry for like forever, which I respect a lot. They make a cute couple.
I really thought that everybody who was past Cunningham's works had a copy of The Master Book of Herbalism . But then, my circle of Pagan acquaintances is too small for my liking.
Anyhoooooo...I can now tell you whatever you need to know about Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) and Gentian (Gentiana lutea) ...that's what's up!