aromatherapy

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Astro-Housewitchery; Vanilla

June 11, 2009 in Good Housewitchery by Mystic Medusa | 30 comments

vanillaplant

It’s harder than you might imagine to get the real essence of the Vanilla Bean. And cleaning your fridge with the stuff is way more evocative than you’d think from whiffing the synthetic grot that is most “vanilla essence.” The real thing - this is just one example – is so totally worth getting your hands on because it is SO magic.

A la saffron, vanilla was once more valuable than gold – it has it’s own dark & torrid history/mythology – linked by legend with a lost princess-Persephone-style bride of the MesoAmericas, it was bought to America by the conqueror Cortez but they could not cultivate it until a then 12 year old slave boy named Edmond Albius figured out how to hand-pollinate vanilla. I would LOVE to be able to say that he lived happily and prospered amidst his gloriously scented vanilla plantation but twas  not so! It has long been a tale of exploitation.

The real essence is an aphrodisiac – truly, i have tried this and i don’t know if it’s because i smell like a cupcake or not but vanilla is a POTENT lure-all kind of an aphrodisiac. Ylang-Ylang’s vibe is more Uranian and urbane & Rose makes one feel Queenly – only Vanilla works to draw them all in….It has other medical effects, still being studied. One says it is calming- the next that it increases adrenaline.

The real vanilla is traditionally part of a fast-money fix along with the essential oil of cinnamon & you burn and/or wear them both in a blend. I add vanilla to rose, patchouli, grapefruit and ylang-ylang to make a  mix I call Venusian 9. It is awesome but you have to watch that one doesn’t tip in too much vanilla – it wants to dominate & it is a plant of Pluto.

AND – yes – REAL vanilla is fab in cooking but i am so un-flash a cook that is been perhaps less than ten times that i’ve ever used vanilla pod/beans in cooking…thoughts? The association of the word “vanilla” with lukewarm sex or whatever as in something tempered down is SO odd! Vanilla is WILD – snort some of the real essence and you will totally get it. Anyone who thinks they are so smart for referring dismissively to something as VANILLA WHATEVER is ill-informed…

They are maybe talking about the synthetic vanilla?  The true vanilla bean is magic.

Astro-Housewitchery; Lavender

May 21, 2009 in Good Housewitchery by Mystic Medusa | 9 comments

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Lavender is so sensational & surely the ideal essential oil to have around anytime but especially to be more tranquil during a Dark Moon. Or you can tear sprigs off & put them in your pillowcase & this is the most amazing recipe for Lavender muffins.  Lavender comes from the Latin ‘lavandas’ – things to be washed, probably because Ancient Romans knew how fab & tranquility inducing it is to bung in with the laundry. It’s a.k.a Elf Leaf and Nard. As the latter, it is mentioned in the Song Of Solomon.

Lavender is a herb of of Mercury & Air. Mercury is Messenger of the Gods. It’s thus so appropriate that it is Lavender/Elf-Leaf that actually started modern aromatherapy. Rene Maurice Gattefosse was working in a perfume lab when he burned his hand and – intuitively or just in pain – plunged it into a beaker of pure lavender oil. The hand healed beautifully and voila; aromatherapy. All because of lovely lavender.

A few drops of the oil on your temples is ultra-calming & sprinkled on sheets if you’re restless at night, ditto. They say that asps – the snakes – like to sleep in lavender bushes, which makes me think of Cleopatra. Maybe the asp wasn’t in her bowl of fruit but actually in the lavender bought in for her bath? Only she would have called it Nard, of course.