Spiritual Healing

Photo by Michael Weidner on Unsplash

As I learn about herbalogy, I’m fascinated by formulas for cleansing baths and spiritual practice. It took me a while to think about plants and soil as energy, as spirit but as soon as I’d shifted to that lens it was so natural to see it that way. Our ancestors die and are buried in the dirt beneath us. From that dirt grows plant life and all life in our closed loop precious system. The vegetation carries that spirit of the past, of the dead, of our beloved, a living history through root and soil. Considered like this, herbs introduce us to the doorway of animism and of shamanism. They are like little botanical incarnations of those who went before us, perhaps of even ourselves. 

This nature spirituality sits comfortably with me and all my beliefs. From Jung & depth psychology to Catholicism, polytheism, astrology, hermeticism and contemporary materialism. Every tradition for me intermingles at the root, is a different branch of the one tree. Making oils for healing and powers is like combining spirits. The spirit of lavender, the spirit of rosemary, palo santo. It is putting the essence, energetically, into the essential in essential oil. 

My primary magical herbal praxis, my protocol, is herbs, roots & oils, candles and intention work, This is my tech toolkit. Nothing fancy, just some roots, visualisation, home-baked offerings, ancestor work, incense, cleansing and faith.

I am grateful for Mother Sage, Rue, Bay, High John the Conqueror, Hyssop, Rosemary, Juniper, Lemon and Cinnamon. I am thankful for my Abre Camino oils on candles, for Scott Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs on my Kindle, my bottle of apple cider vinegar, for my running-out-of-stock wormwood, my oregano and bay leaves, my galangal root and dried thyme. And for my Colloidal Silver, Garlic, Vit D and Iron. 

Long may we thrive through this barren winter of a fourth/great turning and soon may we burst into the new life of a fecund and fertile spring.