The Feminine Macabre Volume 2

Merry meet all,

I am very excited about the good news of the upcoming second volume of the all-female paranormal journal The Feminine Macabre!!!!! )O(

Have you gotten your copy of The Feminine Macabre Volume II yet? It’s 100 pages longer than Volume I with a foreword by Michelle Belanger and introduces you to 40 up and coming researchers in the occult, paranormal, and metaphysical.

Available at SpookEats.com/femininemacabre

Return to the world of The Feminine Macabre in Volume II of the all-female paranormal journal. Explore essays written by women from all over the world, highlighting their research and theories on witchcraft, hauntings, folklore, dark history, tarot, cryptids, and more.

With a foreword by Michelle Belanger, Volume II features the writing talents of Hannah Ahboo, Tiffiny Rose Allen, Chris Amandier, Gina Armstrong, Al Becker, Amy L. Bennett, Stephanie Bingham, Sarah Blake, Ashley Casseday, Kate Cherrell, Mallory Cywinski, Erica Gibson Delight, Deanna Erskine, Liana Gaffney, Kenzie Gleason, Claire Goodchild, Charlotte Grace, Jen Hall, Kristin Harris, Amanda Hellewell-King, Zo Jacobi, Heddy Johannesen, Lorien Jones, Melissa Lathrop, Donna Malmborg, Marianne McCarthy, Drea Mora, Morgan Moran, Victoria Mundae, Hilary Opiel, Roxanne Rhoads, Vanessa Rowan, Nicole St. Germain, Krista Schwimmer, Sarah Stream, Aoife Sutton, Victoria Vancek, Tamora L. Vang, Emily Wayland, Karen J. Weyant, Cherise Williams, and Amanda R. Woomer.

The editor, Amanda, interviewed me about my background in the paranormal and my story that’s published in the book. I know I posted about this before. I am just so excited I had to post it here again. I enjoyed doing the interview. The book is available on Amazon. Here is the link to it: https://amzn.to/3zsT1Fu. 

The interview will be posted on Sept.29th on Facebook. In other news, I am enjoying the Herbal Academy courses and the short story course. It forced me to write a draft about a female werewolf. 

I have a herbal apothecary now. I have jars and jars of all kinds of herbs, seeds, roots and flowers. I created a second air drying herb rack. I harvested mint, lemon balm, dill, chamomile and mullein! I love it! I am so enjoying learning more about herbs all the time. Lemon balm has a long history of use dating back 2,000 years. Mullein is a good lung tonic. Eleuthoro root is delicious in herbal teas. Chamomile is a great herb from the tiniest leaf to the root. It can all be used. The many benefits of chamomile have been enjoyed for thousands of years., “the star among medicinal species.” Chamomile is a good nervine and also a good analgesic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory,antimicrobial,  antispasmodic, antistress, good for gastrointestinal disorders, protects against polio, a sedative, and has wound healing properties. Wow. You get all that in one chamomile plant. That is not all it can even do but that lists some of its healing powers. 

I enjoyed a cup of lavender and chamomile tea last night before sleeping. I love herbalism. It’s an ancient tradition. Homeopathy isn’t related to herbalism. Homeopathy is a relatively new healing path. This may be a new career for me! Bring it on! I have two awesome books now about herbalism. One, Rosemary Gladstar’s book titled Medicinal Herbs, and two, Peterson Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and Central North America, Third Edition. The third book I recently acquired is Entering Hekate’s garden by Cyndi Brannen. The books are beautiful and jam packed with herbs. 

I own a ton of new apothecary supplies such as tins for salves, balms, amber coloured jars, muslin sachets, a kitchen scale. I love my kitchen scale. I feel all ready for a new year in herbalism!!

Mabon is almost here! Are you ready for it, my dear readers? I will post more about it as the date gets closer. 

Blessings, Spiderwitch

Witch’s Herbal Potions

Merry meet all,

I know I haven’t posted much here lately. I sprained my wrist, the hand I write with – so that would have been a challenge. I had to rest and that was hard for someone with my strong spirit. Now I’m still healing but more rested.  I am back at blogging! 

Prior to my injury, I was in the midst of conjuring witch’s herbal potions. I did complete the herbal tea I had made earlier. I bought a cool jar to keep the herbs in at Michael’s arts and crafts, a local craft shop that sells art and craft supplies. I love that store. I made about 4 cups of herbal tea. The ingredients include lemongrass, dried ginger, dried lemon, roman and German chamomile, mugwort ( a pinch), rose petals, red clover, lavender, lemon balm, lemon verbena, and mint. The scent is divine. I dried the herbs on my own DIY herb drying rack I made myself. I will post about that project below. The herbs are not crumbled. They keep their flavour and oils that way. I think they are drying and crumbling to the bottom of the jar. The scent is divine. 

The herbs are bone dry and the jar was bone dry when I added the herbs. The herbs need to be that dry for the herbal tea because otherwise it causes mold. When I was back home with the jar, I washed it thoroughly and let it air dry. When the herbs were truly dry, I added them. I can’t tell you just how good it felt to mix the herbs together in the jar. It looks romantic too. I enjoyed a cup of my own homemade brew yesterday! The flavour brought a taste of summer and a little bittersweet at the same time. 

My second project is more involved than the tea. I am brewing a jar of herbs in oils for my Mom. The ingredients for making the salve are as follows:

Pine Salve

pine needles, pine bark, peppermint, comfrey, turmeric,  ginger,  grapeseed oil, beeswax, tea tree oil + peppermint essential oil

This pine salve aids in the reduction of pain inflammation and sore joints. Pine helps with inflammation, reduces pain and swelling, and is antimicrobial. It increases blood flow, helps with localized pain, and chronic inflammation. The other ingredients aid in reducing pain inflammation. Peppermint is a natural anti-inflammatory, a natural pain killer, and a muscle relaxer. Ginger reduces pain and inflammation. Comfrey contains allantoin which helps new skin cells grow and helps reduce pain inflammation. Turmeric contains curcumin which is a natural anti-inflammatory compound. The salve also contains 2 drops of tea tree oil and twenty drops of peppermint essential oil.

I dried the herbs on my air drying rack. Once I was sure they were dry enough, I added the herbs to a clean dry sanitized jar. I poured the oils over them and closed the lid. Now I wait six weeks for the oils to extract the herbs’ essences. I already bought beeswax and tins for the salves. I will strain out the herbs over a strainer lined with cheesecloth and a bowl. Once I have strained out every drop of herbal goodness from the oils and herbs, I will add it to a pot with beeswax and make the salve. I have to wait a few weeks. I shake the jar a little a few times a day. 

I made jar labels too. I printed out the labels – one, listing the salve ingredients, and the other is a salve label for the jar. I collared them with a beige colour so the labels have that apothecary appearance. I love it. Then I printed out the ingredients and what each ingredients does in the salve. The ingredients all reduce pain and inflammation. I hole punched the ingredients list and what function each ingredient has and tied them together with a bow. I am so eager to make the salve but if I wait, the result will be amazing! My Mom gets the salve with the white lid and I am using the tin with the black lid. 

When the time comes, I will strain out the herbs from the oils. I have a large strainer I can fit over my stainless steel bowl. I also have cheesecloth. I will have to sanitize everything. I will strain out every last drop. I will melt the beeswax over a double boiler and add the herbal oil mixture. I can’t wait. 

I harvested the mugwort from my garden. 2 of my mugwort plants stood six feet high! The mugwort is now drying in my kitchen. 

Air drying Herb Rack

I bought a large 12 – 14 inch embroidery hoop from a local fabric store and cheesecloth. I opened the hoop. I tied 3 long strings to the embroidery hoop and to a loop. I used a curtain hook. Then I laid cheesecloth over the smaller hoop. I fastened the embroidery hoop back together. Now the cheesecloth was caught between the hoops. I trimmed the excess cheesecloth and tightened it. Then I knotted several strings to hang down from the hoop. This project is so easy to do and affordable. I have included a photo of the herb rack below.  I needed to lay paper towel down on the surface to catch all the falling petals and seeds. The cheesecloth is porous and so is the paper towel. It takes 2 weeks or so for the herbs to dry. Now I am drying chamomile and mugwort. I keep the screen door closed with Penny’s queenly scratching post at the back door. This allows for good air circulation for my drying herbs. 

I love my air drying herb rack. It didn’t cost a lot of money. I already had the string and scissors. I have other herbs to dry and store for the coming cold season. We all don’t like to think about that.I bought several new jars at Canadian Tire. I washed the jars and let them air dry. That is a great way to purify your jars. It costs nothing to air dry jars. It is also better than drying them with a towel since the towel may contain germs. I always prefer air drying my jars. I will store my bee pollinated sun loving herbs in the jars. 

I own a few new cool herb cutting tools now. One, the triangle herb chopper and two, my herb snipping scissors. Although I find for snipping herbs from my garden, I much prefer my scissors or boline. I’m also reading a fascinating book The Witching Herbs by Harold Roth. 

Happy potion making!

Blessings, Spiderwitch