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Magical Ink Making

“Astros” – Icelandic runestave which protects from all staves

I came up with some recipes for magical inks and then got together with my apprentice to make a test batch to see if the method would work. We started with the recipe for black ink as my other recipes had more expensive ingredients. I boiled Alder bark for about 5 hours to get a very dark brown. You’d need to boil it forever for the dye from the bark to turn black. Local natives used to use this simple dye to stain their fishing nets black so the fish couldn’t see them. Once we had a concentrated dye from the bark I added it to my smaller dye pot and my apprentice and I added gum arabic and myrrh resins along with crushed dried spiders and lampblack.

You can make your own lampblack by collecting it from candle or oil lanterns or buy holding a spoon over a candle and scraping off the black residue (lampblack) that forms on the metal. This takes forever to accumulate enough lampblack for an ink — especially if you are making a large batch. If you’re only making enough for a small vial for yourself, then this method is viable. One way to cheat is to purchase a high quality tube of black watercolour that is purely lampblack and gum arabic — two ingredients you’re going to need anyway. You still need other bases for the colour however (like the Alder bark) or you’ll just be writing with diluted watercolours and it’s not the same as an ink nor is it as strong. I would only recommend this cheat for a black ink though.

Once the ink was blended and the writing tests showed the right conistency and darkness of colour, we allowed the ink to cool and then strained it through a very fine sieve (handcrafted inks can be pretty gritty). I had to add a little more alcohol at this point to thin it as the ink thickened when cooling. Then I poured the ink in pretty wide-mouthed bottles and had a bit of fun testing it out. And voilà, lovely handmade magical ink! Once I’ve completed making the blue, green, brown, and red inks, I’ll have them available for sale on my new revamped website.

Magically Cleaning House

Published May 21, 2010 Folk Magic , Folk Medicine , Herbalism , Recipes , Stang & Cauldron Products , Witchcraft & Magic 5 Comments
Tags: floor wash, Herbalism, Hoodoo, house wash, rootwork, spiritual cleansing

Before the last dark moon I cleaned my house. This doesn’t sound that unusual except that I was cleaning it magically before a ritual which needed the house to be purified. Normally I just add some of my homemade florida water to a spray bottle and dilute it with spring water and spritz it around the house and on the carpets, but this time I used a floor wash for the linoleum floors, walls, and front step and made a herbal baking powder sprinkle for the carpet since you can’t mop carpet. First I physically cleaned and tidied my home, and then I set to work magically cleaning. All dirt and cat hair swept up wasn’t allowed to linger and was taken out to the garbage through the front door. Then I set about with my magical potions to spiritually cleanse the house and it also has the side effect of making the whole house smell divine.

Spiritual Cleansing Carpet Sprinkle

1 cup baking soda
1 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp powdered dried basil
5 drops lemon essential oil
10 drops lavender essential oil

Mix in a bowl and crush any lumps formed by the essential oils then add to an old empty and rinsed herb or spice shaker. Walk around your home sprinkling a light coat on all your carpeting and carpeted stairs. Not only does it magically clean the carpet, it also removes odors and helps release any pet hair and dander in the carpet for easier vacuuming. Let it sit for 10 minutes and then vacuum well.

Cleaning house wasn’t always just physical – in pre-Christian times cleaning was also thought to be magical as it removed evil spirits that could cause bad luck or illness. Today magical floor washes are a common part of spiritual cleansing and are found in modern Hoodoo/Rootwork and folk magic as a regular practice. It is best to spiritually cleanse your home once a month by washing the floors and walls with a magical solution of herbs and a small amount of floor wash can also be added to your regular cleaning products for every time you clean. The best times to use a Floor Wash are during the full or new moon and before and after intense sabbat and esbat rituals.

Tisane brewing for the Health & Healing Floor Wash

My apprentice came over a couple days ago and we set to work making herbal floor washes for spiritual cleansing using my own recipes. We made one for cleansing a new home or regularly cleansing your current home – Sacred Herb Home Cleansing Floor Wash, one for cleaning a house or room where someone is ill or to spray in a hospital room – Health & Healing Floor Wash, and also one to purify and uncross a home, business, apartment etc, and also to cleanse a temple room or altar of built up energies – Hyssop & Rue Purifying Floor Wash. We started by adding spring and/or rain waters to a non-metal pot and adding all the herbs bringing the mixture to a gentle simmer for about 10 minutes per batch. Any essential oils were added to the bottom of the 8oz storage bottles. Then the tea mixture was strained and poured into the bottles and allowed to cool a bit. Then we added organic fair trade castile soap and they were done. I used spring and rain waters instead of tap water because of their magical energies. Most tap water comes from lakes and lakes are stagnant sitting water not good for purifying and cleansing like rivers, springs, streams, and the ocean are. Lakes are better for grounding energies. And voilà, three new floor washes are now available in the Botanica.

Homemade Absynthe

Published December 15, 2009 Brewing , Entheogens , Recipes 9 Comments
Tags: absinthe, absynthe, alcohol, Brewing, infusion, vodka

Those who regularly follow my blog know I virtually have a brewery in my home – I blame it on my Black Irish grandfather who was always brewing beer and wines in his cellar. I mainly brew mead, but I will soon add beers and ciders to my repertoire. At the last mead party one of the ladies with a more anarchist bent showed us how to make infused Absynthe using herbs and vodka. The following method is not for true Absynthe which requires a distillery to make, but it is an easy method anyone can try at home. It can be used as just an alcoholic beverage, as ritual aid to reach ecstatic trance, as a libation for the dead, or as an aid to commune with the dead.

As a warning note, Absynthe is something to try once or twice or as a treat, DO NOT drink it on a regular basis as the wormwood is addictive and can cause severe poisoning resulting in permanent bodily damage.

Infused Absynthe

1 oz dried chopped wormwood
1 tbsp angelica root
1 tsp hyssop
1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1/4 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 tsp crushed cardamon
1/4 tsp fennel or anise seeds
2 cups of white sugar (optional)
1 litre of Vodka (40 + proof)

Add the wormwood to the bottle of vodka and let it infuse for 5-14 days , depending on the strength and bitterness you want, shaking at least once every day and then strain out the wormwood. For the next step add the rest of the herbs to the bottle and pour in the strained wormwood-vodka. Allow to infuse for another 5 days, again shaking the bottle every day, then strain and drink or add the absynthe to a pot with 2 cups of sugar and heat until boiling and all the sugar is dissolved, then cool and pour back into the bottle for drinking. This turns it into a liquor and makes it much easier to swallow without making horrible facial expressions from the bitterness!

Homegrown Salsa

Published December 3, 2009 Cooking , Gardening , Recipes 8 Comments
Tags: canning, Cooking, hot peppers, oven canning, salsa

I recently made two salsas from scratch from tomatoes, hot peppers, and onions from our garden. I didn’t use recipes, but I can share the ingredients – in the first batch of medium salsa went roma tomatoes, hot cherry peppers, Mexican chilies, jalapeños, onions, roasted garlic, mango, papaya, lime juice and peel, honey, coriander, cumin, and chipotle powder; in the second batch I call “Inferno Salsa” went habañero peppers, Thai dragon chilies and everything else listed in the first batch minus the peppers. They both turned out yummy, the Inferno one is very hot because I used all the habaneros from the garden…

For the salsas I first roasted all the peppers, let them cool and then peeled all the skins off and chopped them up as twice-cooked peppers are very flavourful peppers – you can do the same with sweet bell peppers by just putting them on a baking tray in the oven set at 375 F and spritzing them with a bit of water at the start and end to make the skin peel better. They are done when the skin starts to shrivel, crack and peel, and the peppers start to lose their shape. Right out of the oven then put the peppers into a sealed tupperware container or in a bowl with plastic wrap over it. Leave in the fridge and peel the skins off the peppers once they’ve cooled down. Yummy! Just be careful doing this with hot peppers because your hands will be on fire for hours! Use gloves!

To can the salsa I used the oven canning method as I don’t have a pressure canner or a jar lifter to do the water-bath method. I had no idea you could can using an oven until my neighbour who has little Eastern European parents told me about it. The USDA doesn’t approve of this method, but people have been using it for decades without getting sick – if you do try it or other methods be really careful with your recipes – use ones specifically for canning, especially if you don’t have a pressure canner (edited so as not to kill anyone).

Incense and a Birthday

Published November 21, 2009 Cooking , Folk Magic , Herbalism , Recipes , Witchcraft & Magic Closed
Tags: birthday, incense, incense making, shepherd's pie

My apprentice came over today and we made incense based on the recipes she had to come up with for homework. Incense is one of my favourite tools as it can be used for many purposes: invocation, offering, ritual, spellwork, blessing, exorcising/banishing, divination… and so on. She came up with simple recipes for spirit invoking, spirit food, sun magic, moon magic, and a basic ritual blend. Then I taught her an ancient Greek incense recipe used to invoke Hecate that I’d found in an awesome book: Witchcraft Medicine. They all turned out looking good and smelling good – the Hekate recipe was very pungent with Rue. My favourite of her recipes is the sun magic blend shown below – it smells so fragrant and looks so pretty with flecks of calendula flowers throughout it. I made a cheese and cracker lunch for my hard-working apprentice and then she went off to a whiskey tasting (slightly envious, slightly).

I had the flu last week and wasn’t able to post the pics of Mojo‘s birthday feast, so here they are now. He loves shepherd’s pie, but I don’t usually make it, so I made an old school one for his birthday favourite slathered in mashed potatoes whipped with sour cream, butter, sea salt and freshly cracked pepper. The filling is ground beef with carrots, onions, broccoli, peas, spices, and gravy. You don’t really need a recipe for it, you just kind of throw in what veggies you have in the fridge with some ground beef and gravy and then spread some yummy mashed potatoes on top – and ta da – Shepherd’s Pie. I’ve even had leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Shepherd’s Pie.

It should be served with copious amounts of ketchup. Mojo was only sad there was no jalapeños in it. I served it with a salad and we had chocolate cake from scratch with homemade icing made from melted chocolate, butter, and vanilla with two layers of homemade raspberry sauce using frozen raspberries. It was really good!

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Archive for the 'Recipes' Category

Magical Ink Making

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