The Medicinal Rose
Not All Roses Are The Same.
Some say that one should never use garden hybrid roses for medicinal purposes. And, that there are more than 300 active compounds present in roses, of which only about 100 have been identified. All I know is that medicinal preparations from any rose can have strong and immediate effects on some people, especially women.
The good witch or experienced herbalist will try to find a true wild rose for medicinal use. There are many species of wild rose, but they are all easy to identify. Every wild rose has exactly five petals, and almost all of them are pink shading to white. They also tend to be leggy and straggling in form, extremely hardy, and likely to thrive on total neglect. There are also some ‘nearly wild’ roses which are just as good as the true wild rose for the herbalist, but are much more suitable for the average garden.
Here in England the good witch or experienced herbalist will preferentially use the true wild rose, the dog rose, rosa canina, for medicinal purposes. The thing is, unless you have a huge estate, you’re not going to plant this vigourous thing. Luckily it does grow wild all over in England, especially in mature hedgerows.
However, if one has a largish garden one can plant the Japanese wild rose, rosa rugosa instead. This is still a very strong growing shrub, but it’s more manageable than the dog rose, and you still get great hips.
Another great medicinal rose is the aptly named apothecary’s rose, rosa gallica. This is another wild rose, basically from France.
In North America there are dozens of species of wild rose, all of which have been used by Native American tribes in medicine and magic. In addition, many other species roses have naturalised into the American landscape, so sometimes it’s difficult to know which is a true American wild rose, and which is an introduction. It doesn’t really matter. If a rose has five petals and is pink or shading to white, then it’s a good medicinal plant.
However, if you are growing an apothecary’s garden, a herb garden, or a medicine garden, then perhaps the rose nearly wild in whatever variety you can find it would be your best choice. It’s compact, has a long flowering season, and is close enough to the species wild rose to be ideal as a medicinal plant. This rose is also readily available from specialist rose nurseries all over the world.
Almost every part of the rose has therapeutic uses. The petals can be used to make rose petal tea or an unusual scented jam, or rose water hydrosol, or what about a rose, cardamom, and ginger body soak? The rose hips can be added to organic cider vinegar to make a great salad dressing / tonic, and the leaves make a kind of substitute coffee. If you dry the leaves you can smoke them ~ and I have no idea what that’s like.
The main active effects of rose preparations are; laxative, opthalmic, diuretic, and linthontriptic, (removes kidney stones). There are many benefits of using the rose as a medicinal plant, and some potential downsides. Some people feel ill after ingesting rose medicines / tea, and some people feel mild hallucinogenic effects. As I have already said, there are at least 300 active compounds in the rose and we only know what about 100 of them are, let alone what they actually do ~ weird.
If in doubt of any herbal preparation, then try just a little, in a very diluted form ~ especially if you are a woman. And if you are either pregnant, or trying to get pregnant, then take specialist advice from your doctor or an expert herbalist before using any herbal / medicinal plant product.
~
Aphrodite’s Herbalist, jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Full Wolf Moon
The First Full Moon Of 2017.
January 12th 2017, and the full moon is close to us today. Luna isn’t quite at perigee, (the closest she comes to the Earth), that was two days ago on January 10th, so it isn’t quite a supermoon. However tonight’s full moon will be big and bright, perfect for skywatchers, witches, and sorcerers.
It’s likely that the moon was Mankind’s first reliable calendar, the full moon perhaps measuring the months of the year, although any strictly lunar calendar will see the seasons drift. Some say that Stonehenge is also a tool to manage the lunar calendar. And, that the first powerful priests and sorcerers were really astronomers. All I know is that Stonehenge is a spooky and magical place.
The English word moon derives from the Greek and Latin for ‘measure’. Other English names for the Moon, are Luna the ancient Roman Goddess of the Moon, (from which we get the word lunatic), and Selene the ancient Greek Goddess of the Moon, (and Selene is both a given name and an adjective).
The moon affects everything on the Earth, from the behaviour of animals and birds, to our moods, the tides, even women’s menstrual cycles. In witchcraft, the full moon is the most important time for casting spells ~ magic has more potency under a full moon. This is the time for enlightenment and psychic awareness, so if you have any sixth sense or psychic abilities they will be at their strongest tonight. All witches and those with magical and psychic abilities will be acutely aware of the phases of the moon.
In relationships and love the full moon enhances a woman’s sex drive, but this is also a time for a fresh start, forgiveness, acceptance, commitment, and love. This is the perfect day for a witch to cast a spell and work her love magic . Spiritually the full moon is strong, although it’s effects are both negative and positive. Today a vulnerable man may well be moonstruck with love and desire, but he should know that somewhere out there someone has his best interests at heart.
The first full moon of the year is known as The Wolf Moon. This derives from Native American Mythology in which wolves hold a very special place. This is the time of the werewolf ~ the legend of the werewolf goes at least as far back as the ancient Greeks. Other names for this full moon are the Cold Moon, and the Hunger Moon ~ cold, bright in the darkness, and unforgiving. This is a time for self-care, reflection, and making real and realistic plans for the rest of the year.
The first full moon of 2017 carries with it mixed messages, good and evil, forgiveness and rejection, life and death, man and woman. Everything about this full moon is contradictory and complimentary, the very essence of yin and yang, of darkness and light, of balance. The Wolf Moon is what we make of it. This Full Wolf Moon a time for decision making, planning, of endings and beginnings, of intense emotional energy. A sweet smile and laughter will bring the full moon’s power of joy and happiness into your life. Approach this full moon with a dark spirit, and the rest of your year will be equally dark and gloomy.
This Full Wolf Moon is the Goddess in her Mother aspect. Create a safe space and clear your mind. Invite the true spirit of love and understanding into your life. And, let’s all be careful out there tonight.
~
jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Rose Petal Tea
The Healing Powers Of The Rose.
Herbalists and witches know that the rose is a very useful and powerful medicinal plant, and that one of the interesting things you can use it for at this time of year is as a remedy for coughs and colds. A very easy way to take advantage of the natural healing power of the rose is to make rose petal tea. Well, the petals do contain vitamin C, which helps combat the common cold, but the petals also hold some powerful polyphenols and antioxidants. Ideally one should use the petals of the wild dog rose, rosa canina, but I also use the petals from garden hybrid roses.
Try making rose petal tea with just a handful of fresh rose petals, and a very little sugar or honey, (don’t use a lot of sugar or honey as it will overpower the taste). Personally I just scald the petals, but some suggest simmering, (stewing), for 5 minutes. Some also suggest removing the white portion of fresh petals, although personally I wouldn’t do that. The white area does impart the tea with a slightly bitter, tannin taste, but I firmly believe that’s also where most of the good stuff is concentrated.
Scientifically, the principal qualities of rose petal tea are that it has; Laxative, Opthalmic, Diuretic, and Linthontriptic virtues. I firmly believe it’s a lot more complicated than that. For example, you should find that rose petal tea will slightly numb your mouth and ease any sore throat and cough you may be suffering from.
Among herbalists it is widely accepted that rose petal tea boosts the immune system and has beneficial effects on the following problems;
- anxiety, depression, and stress.
- arthritis.
- constipation and other digestive problems.
- coughs, colds, and sore throats.
- menstrual cramps and pain.
- skin and hair problems ~ the tea is said to relieve the symptoms severe acne.
- urinary tract infections.
If that wasn’t enough, drinking rose petal tea is supposed to help ward off cancers due to its beneficial effects on the immune system. Some say that drinking rose petal tea also promotes weight loss ~ I couldn’t promise that, other than you may use much less sugar and cream than if you were drinking coffee instead of this herbal tea.
You can make rose petal tea either with fresh petals, (make certain they are pesticide free), and you can also make a green tea with dried rose petals. You can buy dried rose petals mail order from all kinds of places, including Amazon. As far as I’m concerned, I think it’s better to collect fresh rose petals, and keep a few handfuls in the refrigerator.
There are a couple of things to be careful of. Firstly, drinking more than three or four cups of this stuff a day is likely to give you diarrhea. Secondly, most really effective herbal remedies for menstrual pain are also female aphrodisiacs as they affect the production of oestrogen~ don’t say you weren’t warned.
~
Aphrodite’s Herbalist, jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Winter Solstice
Today is the Shortest Day of the Year
In the northern hemisphere December the 21st is the darkest day. Where I live the sun will rise today at 08:26, and it will set just over seven hours later at 15:39. As there will be some cloud today I’m not likely to see much sunshine at all. Today will not be the longest night in all history ~ most respectable scientists think that was December 21st 1912. The rotation of the earth is generally slowing down over time, but it’s speeded up a little recently due to the melting of the glaciers.
Officially today is the first day of winter. The coldest months are yet to come, normally it’s much colder in England in late January and early February.
If you are a pagan, or a witch, today is a big day for you. In ancient times December the 21st was called Yule, probably from the Anglo-Saxon word Iul, meaning wheel. This symbolises the stars and the Earth turning like a wheel, the wheel of the year, and the wheel of life. Today the Goddess once again becomes the Great Mother and gives birth to the Sun King. It’s unsurprising that Christians chose around now to be the time of the birth of Christ, even if they did get they day wrong by 4 days. Although the ancient Persian Mithraists always regarded December 25th as the time of the victory of light over darkness.
Stonehenge, Salisbury, England
If you can get to Salisbury in Wiltshire, perhaps you should be at Stonehenge for dawn and dusk today. Nobody really knows why Stonehenge was built some 5,000 years ago, but the great stones are aligned in such a way so as to mark the rising and setting of the sun on Midsummer’s day and Midwinter’s day. A hell of a lot of work to make a clock / calendar.
Personally, I will go down to the sea today and watch the dawn. For many of us, today is the rebirth of the year and of the world.
Have a happy Yuletide.
~
jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Black Velvet
After Black Friday ~ Black Velvet.
Black velvet is one of Life’s most sensual pleasures.
If they were starting their careers today, Rockwell and Picasso would probably both be painting on black velvet. ~ Brad Holland
There’s a drink called Black Velvet, made from half Champagne and half Guinness. Poured properly the two liquids stay separate in the glass ~ until one begins to quaff that is. (Quaffing is like drinking except you get drunker and spill more.) Allegedly first made by the bartender at Brooks’s in London in 1861, this cocktail is almost guaranteed to make any lady quite amatory. There’s something quite sorcerous about Black Velvet. To complete the evening get her a Black Velvet choker.
A very nice Canadian whisky is also called Black Velvet. Trust me, this is as smooth and dark as its name suggests. One of the nicer things about some Canadians is that they can spell whisky.
Black Velvet is also a very cool song, first recorded by Alannah Myles ~ and subsequently sung by anyone and everyone who thinks they have a voice. And sadly, anyone who has been drinking black velvet in a karaoke bar.
I’m not certain I can recommend the rock magazine Black Velvet, but at least there’s an on-line digital issue.
All women look good wearing black velvet. In fact, does the classic LBD look any better than when it’s a black velvet Little Black Dress? Is there anything sexier than Christian Louboutin Black Velvet evening shoes?
I know there are 1001 other products, stores, bars, cosmetics, girls… trading under the name Black Velvet. Some of these are better found for yourself. Some of these are better left alone.
If a guy wants to be a very cool guy, then he needs to sharpen up his urban survival skills and learn stuff like this.
~
jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Cat People are Good People
I am a Cat Person.
Instinctively I like cats, and I like people who like cats. As for dogs ~ a bit of a nuisance at best, a damn nuisance most of the time. And, some of the time I actively hate dislike dogs.
One may think that’s just a matter of taste, or have something to do with my not being brought up around dogs. However, following some recent research about cats and their liking for boxes, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s far deeper and a lot more interesting than that.
If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much. ~ Mark Twain
I firmly believe there are Cat People, and then there are Dog People, and the two groups have very different psyche. And it turns out that all the stereotypes about cat people are true.
Cat people like to nap a lot. They are also smarter, more sensitive, and less conformist than other people. Cat people don’t believe that rules apply to them.
Cat people prefer to have a small safe place they can retreat to when they feel under stress. Cat lovers prefer solitude.
Cat people stand out from the crowd and have very distinctive personalities.
Cats and cat people are very bad when it comes to resolving conflicts, they are sensitive, neurotic, independent, and don’t obey rules. Instead of working things out they tend to run away and hide.
Like real cats, cat people are ambush hunters, liking nothing more than lying in wait for their next target.
If cats looked like frogs we’d realise what nasty, cruel little bastards they are. Style. That’s what people remember. ~ Terry Pratchett.
Felines and feline people like to be cozy and warm, hating to sit around in the cold, go out in the cold, sleep in a cold bed.
And it seems that cats love circles. In my case I much prefer spirals to circles, but circles are good too.
Perhaps the most important question to ask on a first date isn’t all that crap you get from people like eHarmony ~ instead just ask; ‘Do you prefer cats, or dogs?’
Time spent with a cat is never wasted. ~ Colette
I know which type of woman I’d prefer.
~
these views are mine and mine alone
jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Medicinal Plants ~ Rosehips
Autumn is upon us, and in England the hedgerows are full wild harvest. One of these is the false fruit of the dog rose, (rosa canina), more commonly known in England as rose hips.
You can do a lot of stuff with rose hips, from making syrups and jams, to my preferred use which is to make a tincture of rose hips and rosemary in apple cider vinegar. As well as sweetening and adding taste to the cider vinegar. the rose hips also add diuretic, lithontriptic, and mild laxative qualities to your brew. As for rosemary, this stuff is almost a cure-all. I just add an odd number of fresh sprigs to the bottle, (it must be an odd number.)
The finished product, (ready in about 6 weeks and will keep for a year or more), is a great basis for a salad dressing. Diluted in water it is also a first class tonic and as part of a whole-body cleanse. There is no truth whatsoever in the rumour that this is a female aphrodisiac. However, it is supposed to be a cure for practically whatever that ails you.
You can also make a true tincture of rose hips using medicinal alcohol, (or vodka). For those of us with a real taste for booze, just make a rose hip brandy or vodka. I have even heard of rose hip gin, although I’ve never tasted it.
The dog rose is an important plant to the herbalist, because the leaves, petals, and hips all have their uses. In a hedgerow, the plant may reach six feet or more in height, its flowers can be anything from white to a delicate pink, and if will guard its bounty with some particularly persistent thorns. (You can also use the hips, leaves, and petals of the cultivated rose, but I would look for a rose variety that’s as close to the wild rose as possible.)
The mixture of rose hips, rosemary, and organic apple cider vinegar is as near to a sorcerer’s brew as anything I know.
~
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Never Reinforce Failure
Know when to walk away ~ Know when to run
Governments, Politicians, Generals, Admirals, Businessmen, Gamblers, Alcoholics, Husbands, Wives, Lovers, Mistresses, Children, Employees, all have something in common. Time and time again they will go on pouring lives, money, love, health, sanity, and self-respect into deals, situations, and dysfunctional relationships they should have just turned their backs on and walked away.
It’s as though somewhere deep in the human psyche there is a pathological need to keep doing the same old thing, over and over again, no matter how many times it has failed before. Well we’ve probably all had this proverb hammered into our brains as children.
If at first you don’t succeed ~ try, try, try again. ~ Robert the Bruce.
Actually, it’s much, much worse than you would ever believe. Relatively respectable psychologists believe that the misinformation effect makes some people completely forget their failures, and just how bad they were. This is glaringly obvious in gamblers, who never talk about how much they’ve lost, only how much they’ve won. It’s even worse in abusive relationships, where victims totally block out the memories of the abuse, even to extent of selective amnesia and dissociative disorders.
Smarter, more self-aware, more self-confident people eventually realise that throwing good money after bad, or loving the wrong person at the wrong time, or trying the same thing over end over again, is fundamentally stupid.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it. ~ W.C. Fields.
In the past I have been as guilty as anyone of raising the stakes on a losing card, and then when I inevitably lost, raising the stakes once again.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. ~ Ablert Einstein.
Eventually, smarter people learn that no matter how hard you try, if they don’t love you for yourself alone, they will never love you for the things you try to do for them. Women and girls especially stay in abusive relationships far longer than they should ~ gaslighting is so insidious.
There comes a time in your life when you have to choose to turn the page, write another book or simply close it. ~ Shannon L. Adler.
Today I will go a long way before I ever again try harder to win when winning was always impossible. I know how to recognise and when to get out of a dysfunctional relationship. I have a new Rule #1 in my book.
Rule #1 Always know when and how to get out of Dodge.
~
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Pagan Fire Festival
August 1st is an important day in the Pagan Calendar ~ Lughnasadh, a fire festival.
Historically, August 1st was an important day across the English-speaking world ~ Lammas, a harvest festival.
Come Lammas-Eve at night shall she {Juliet} be fourteen; that shall she marry… ~ Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.
The Christian Church used to celebrate Lammas Day, (Loaf Mass Day), which they then started to call the feast of St. Peter in Chains. Mostly August 1st isn’t celebrated in the Christian Church as anything any more.
Lammas / Lughnasadh is one of the four fire festivals in the Pagan world. How you mark today depends on where you are in your own spiritual development, but celebrations usually focus on the grain harvest or the Pagan God Lugh, or both.
If I have a Pagan God it is Lugh, the God of craftsmanship and metalworking skills. Lugh had so many accomplishments he was reputed to be able to do almost anything. Julius Caesar sometimes called the Roman God Mercury ~ Lugus, the Latin equivalent of Lugh. Depending on how you look at it, Lugh married the Mother Goddess Nas, (Artemis). Artemis is said to hate my personal goddess Aphrodite, and after that my grasp of mythology and interpersonal relationships gets complicated.
As for me, at this point in my spiritual life, I associate August 1st with Lugh and the Rowan Tree, the mountain ash. In my mind there is a debate as to whether the English Sacred World Tree is a true ash, (fraxinus excelsior), or the rowan tree, (sorbus aucuparia). Of the two, the rowan is the rarer in England, and maybe the rowan is the more magical.
The rowan is the tree of power, causing life and magic to flower.
The rowan allows the power within to call forth the elegance and mystery of the logical mind as it is intermingled with intuitive powers. The rowan calls the spiritual into the path of future planning, and brings dreams to fruition. When using rowan magic you should trust your intuitive insights.
If you wish, you can try to forecast the future using rowan magic. Drinking some / a lot of proper absinthe helps here. Artemisia absinthium (wormwood) is the active ingredient in absinth, other than the booze. Shakespeare goes on about wormwood in the Lammas-Eve speech. Which brings us neatly back to the Goddess Artemis and the Pagan God Lugh.
Today I have a piece of rowan wood by the garret’s door to keep witches away. (Rule #2 Nobody is allowed into the garret, applies especially to witches). As I don’t drink booze these days, there’s no absinthe around, which is probably just as well.
~
jackcollier7@taltalk.net
Magic Often Works
It doesn’t matter if you believe in magic, or not.
What matters is that the magic believes in magic.
There is a magic of the tides, and power in the moon, the stars, and the sea. If you want to rid yourself of something, write its name in the sand on a falling tide, say your prayer and invocation, and the sea will carry whatever you have named away from you.
~
I no longer suffer from insane jealousies.
~
Today I had a rising tide in my favour. The rising tide will bring your wish, your prayer, your invocation to you.
Given one prayer, one wish to the Goddess, what should I ask to be brought to me? What would you write in the sand?
~
I know how this magic works, at least I think I do. What I am certain of is that this magic works for me. And, now I wait.
~
~
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
JackCollier7 
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