The very definition of staying in your lane.
My man came to get some Doritos and wasn’t entertaining anything else
A Practical Guide to Herbology
Lesson One: Medicinal Teas
When I was first starting out with herbology, I was living in a small village in Croatia with a total population of less than 100 people. We depended on homemade teas, salves and medicines to heal us since the nearest hospital was two hours away. We treated ourselves with the power of herbs, gifted to us by the Earth.
These days, we can purchase all the tools we need to grow both common and exotic plants. Dried herbs are also another good option, especially for those that cannot grow their own. And with these tools, we can craft our own medicines.
For the first lesson, I’m going to focus on something simple: the art of crafting medicinal tea.
Creating Tea Blends
When starting out with creating medicinal teas, it’s important to understand how each ingredient interacts with our bodies. Be sure that you’re not allergic to any of your herbs and that they won’t interact poorly with any prescribed medications that you’re on. For example, those who are diabetic should not take angelica root; folks who are allergic to ragweed should avoid chamomile.
Here’s a list of common herbs and their functions for the purposes of crafting medicinal teas:
Angelica Root: Soothes colds and flu, reduces phlegm and fever. (Do not use if you are diabetic)
Basil: Eases headaches, indigestion, muscle spasms, insomnia; reduces stress and tension
Blackberry Leaves or Roots: Reduces diarrhea
Catnip: Soothes teething pain, colic, diarrhea, indigestion, anxiety, insomnia. (May cause drowsiness. Avoid if on Lithium or sedatives)
Calendula (marigold): Reduces fevers, soothes indigestion, gastrointestinal cramps, flu; antiseptic. (May cause drowsiness. Avoid if on sedatives)
Cayenne Pepper: Soothes coughs, colds, arthritis (topical), nerve pain, fever, flu; expectorant. (Avoid taking with medications that contain Theophylline).
Chamomile: Reduces insomnia, anxiety, stress, fever, indigestion; aids with sleep and pain relief. (May decrease effectiveness of birth control pills and some cancer medications, may increase the effects of warfarin; avoid if you are taking medications for your liver)
Cinnamon Bark: Soothes sore throats and coughs; anti-inflammatory (Avoid taking with diabetes medications)
Dandelion Root: Detoxifying, aids digestion, relieves constipation, laxative. (Avoid if on antibiotics, lithium or water pills)
Dandelion Leaf: Mild diuretic, potassium-rich (Avoid if on medication for liver)
Elderberries: Wards off colds and flu
Ginger: Eases morning sickness, nausea, colic, indigestion, diarrhea, fever, sore throats. (Avoid taking with medications that slow blood clotting)
Ginkgo: Relieves anxiety, vertigo, tinnitus; improves circulation, helps concentration; helps PMS. (Avoid taking with ibuprofen or with medications that slow blood clotting; numerous medications have interactions with ginkgo so speak to your specialist before use)
Ginseng: Aphrodisiac, mild stimulant, boosts immune system. (Do not take with medications that slow blood clotting, and avoid taking with diabetes medications or with MAO inhibitors)
Goldenrod: Relieves gout and cramps
Lavender: Reduces anxiety, headaches, tension, stress, indigestion, IBS; antibacterial; antiseptic; disinfectant (May cause drowsiness; avoid if on sedatives)
Lemon balm: Relieves anxiety, cold sores, colic, insomnia, restlessness, indigestion; boosts memory (May cause drowsiness, avoid taking with sedatives)
Nettle: Reduces hay fever and arthritis; diuretic. (Avoid taking with diabetes medications, medications for high BP, sedatives, medications that slow blood clotting, and lithium)
Peppermint: Relieves nausea, anxiety, indigestion, IBS, colic, diarrhea, fever, coughs, colds; anesthetic (Avoid if you have acid-reflux disease; avoid taking with cyclosporine; avoid if on liver medications)
Pine Needles: Expectorant; antiseptic; relieves coughs, colds, fever and congestion
Rosemary: Improves focus, memory, concentration, BP, circulation; antiseptic; antidepressant; eases indigestion
Thyme: Antibacterial, antiseptic, eases coughs and colds, expectorant (Do not take with medications that slow blood clotting)
Recipes
For those starting out, here are a few recipes for common ailments. As you start making your own teas, you’ll learn which blends of herbs work best for your body. Keep track of which ingredients and combinations are successful - with each steep, you get closer and closer to crafting your perfect personalized medicine cabinet.
Anxiety Relief
- ½ tsp chamomile
- ½ tsp lemon balm
Cold Relief
- ½ tsp elderberry flower
- ½ tsp thyme
Mood Booster
- ½ tsp lavender
- ½ tsp catnip
- ½ tsp rosemary
Cramp Relief
- ½ tsp basil
- ½ tsp calendula (marigold)
- ½ tsp goldenrod
Indigestion Relief
- ½ tsp ginger
- ½ tsp lemon balm
- ½ tsp peppermint
Expectorant
- ½ tsp pine needles
- ½ tsp nettle leaf
- ½ tsp angelica root
Insomnia
- ½ tsp chamomile
- ½ tsp catnip
- ½ tsp lavender
Sore Throat Relief
- ½ tsp cinnamon (or half a stick)
- ½ tsp ginger
- 1 tbsp honey
Fever Break
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- ½ tsp angelica root
Flu Relief
- ½ tsp calendula (marigold)
- ½ tsp lemon balm
—————————————————————————–
Photographs are under the Creative Commons License. Content is from my grimoire and is embedded with information from a variety of sources over the years.
Updated 7 March 2018 with relevant warnings and to be consistent with other posts in this series.
Warnings: All plant material should be sourced appropriately and responsibly for your own safety and well-being. Be certain that you are purchasing food-grade ingredients from a reliable retailer or supplier. Along these lines, not all dried herbs are meant for consumption so please be on the lookout for “external use only” labels - you do not want those products for this.
Do your own research regarding medicinal plants and usage, especially if you are sensitive or have allergies of any kind. If you are on medication(s), consult a doctor before use.
Finally, medicinal teas are a health supplement and not a substitution for professional medical and psychiatric aid. If you are experiencing any prolonged health and/or mental health issues, SEE A DOCTOR.
what’s christmas even like in non-christian families? in completely non-religious families? like what do you tell your children? “well, kids, we’re eating a whole lot of food and spending a fuckton of money spoiling you because some other people somewhere believe their holy lord and saviour and the greatest person to walk the earth was born 2000 years ago. here’s a playstation.”
yeah pretty much
i legit didnt know non-christians celebrated christmas… literally never crossed my mind
We do, and basically it’s like “Hey kids, let’s decorate a tree, exchange presents, eat a fuckload of food, and get a picture with the creepy mall Santa that probably will be arrested next week”. I didn’t even know it was a religious holiday until I was 9
Christmas was celebrated here (in Norway) for several thousand years before Christianity got here. There was literally nothing Christian about it in the beginning, the Christians just figured it’d be easier to say that Jesus was born on a day that was already celebrated than to make up a new holiday and force it on people
Pretty much every culture in the northern hemisphere has had a celebration in the fuck-all heart of winter purely because it’s depressing as fuck when it’s cold all the time and dark for 90% of the time
So long before jesus was born someone was like
“k it’s cold and dark and the view outside is literally identical to our concept of hell but I made you this candle stop being sad”
Yep, Easter existed before Jesus died on this day. Basically pretty much every “Christian” holiday was put on a pagan holiday, like lots of churches were also built on pagan places of worship. That’s how they made Christianity a success. We call that marketing now.
Christmas is rooted in pre-Christian Solstice celebrations. By Dec. 25th, days are getting noticeably longer. Light is triumphing over the dark. Spring and life will eventually return. In the dead of winter, the promise of renewal. It’s an ancient and powerful thing, that has been integral to human culture and religion in every culture around the globe.
Christians couldn’t get people to stop celebrating their solstice feast days, so they replaced the ‘rebirth of the sun’ celebrations with a ‘birth of the son’ celebration. Literally all they did was tweak existing mythology and relabel old traditions.
Christmas is far, far older than Christianity. Don’t flatter yourselves.
Additionally the birth of Christ was probably sometime in the spring or summer. (we base this on tax times and lambing seasons). By and large*, Christians didn’t start celebrating the birth of Jesus in December until 336 when Roman Emperor Constantine did a whole bunch of shady stuff to give his momma’s religion more power/importance and basically set Christianity on the sucky ass path it’s been on every since. (fyi it was Pope Julius I who made it an official holiday a few years later).
*There is some speculation on why this was so easily accepted. One reason being that for reasons not quite known the date was already associated with Jesus’s birth. In the second century Hippolytus wrote in passing that Jesus’s birthday was on December 25th and I think this gets largely ignored because it doesn’t fit with the currently popular historical narrative. That said humans have long had traditions of combining/appropriating regional holidays as populations move into and out of areas and we have ALWAYS had a mid winter holiday for reasons.
tl;dr: The most readily identified secular Christmas observations/symbols/etc aren’t Christian at all, so it’s not remotely odd to me that Christmas is celebrated by nonchristians. It’s odder to me that nonchristians get all riled up when those secular symbols are attacked. (like holiday reindeer cups, etc)
ps. I realize that those symbols are not secular to everyone, but in most current observances there is little knowledge or understanding of their religious roots.
“CLIMBS UP ON SOAPBOX”
ALSO BECAUSE I’M NOT DONE
Christmas trees? Why the fuck do we drag a tree into our house and decorate it in the middle of winter? Because the evergreen is an ancient pagan symbol associated with immortality and rebirth, as it’s the only tree that is green in the dead of winter. Romans used fir branches to decorate their homes at Saturnalaia. Pagans in Europe used fir and holly branches to remind themselves that rebirth and growth would return, as even the coldest winter could not kill all the green growing things. It doesn’t have fuckall to do with Jesus, kids.
Santa? The wise old man who rides a sleigh drawn by eight reindeer through the sky on Yule Night? Based on Odin, the Allfather of the Norse Gods, who rode his eight-legged steed Slepnir on a hunt through the sky on Yule night. Children would leave their boots out, filled with hay or root vegetables for Odin’s mount as an offering. If this pleased Odin, he would leave gifts in return, for all gifts must be returned in kind.
Sound familiar?? (Right and the reindeer? A hugely important animal to most of the Northern European cultures where solstice celebrations originated. They also have ties to the Horned God, the god of the hunt, which associates them with Odin’s ride with the Wild Hunt on Yule Eve. Again, ain’t got shit-all to do with Jesus.)
Christmas.
Ain’t.
Christian.
*builds a soapbox big enough for the both of us, passes you a cup of eggnog and a spiced cookie*
Don’t get me started on St. Nic.
Saint Nicolas (the Wonderworker) was a wealthy, 4th century Turkish saint (so the likelihood of that round white man with the white beard…yeah…pretty slim *snickers at pun*) with a reputation for secret gift giving, ie putting coins in shoes…which I wonder where that notion would have come from? I mean on the one hand, yes, previously existing traditions from others, but also, shoes are handy? and a place someone is likely to absolutely not miss a thing.
But really, THAT’S IT. He didn’t leave toys for children or build them or any such thing. What we have is just have a good ol’ case of FUSION going on wherein the Christians were super excited to have someone of their own who could take on the traits of a figure most likely already common in their time/geography. Because I’ma guess folks really didn’t want to give up this kind of fun.
It REALLY helped that St. Nic’s feast day was early December.
The holiday took off during the Middle Ages in areas where anything pagan had better be rebranded as Christian or folks couldn’t keep it. St. Nic was handy, became Sinterklass and heck yes took a whole bunch from Odin cause you know…Odin needed a Christian face if he was going to continue spoiling kids with sweets.
As it stands now, St. Nic is nearly lost in all but name, but man…when people start getting super passionate about their white santa I like to drag him out and wave him around.
GESTICULATES WILDLY AT ABOVE POST WHILE SHOVING COOKIE INTO MOUTH
And St. Nick became associated with the earlier Odin myth BECAUSE he shared some features compatible with the Odin myth and was a suitable Christian figure to use to cover up the older, pagan roots of the tradition!
SANTA IS EITHER A TURKISH MAN OR THE POWERFUL KING OF A PAGAN PANTHEON TAKE YOUR PICK EITHER WAY YOUR JOLLY LITTLE WHITE SANTA IS A LIE.
AND THEN THE ELVES. FUCK ME THE ELVES.
Tied inextricably to the myths of the ‘little people,’ and of course to the powerful Sidhe and the dwarves of Norse myth, who crafted wondrous gifts for the gods in their marvelous workshops.
The Fair Folk were well known for punishing those who crossed them, and conversely richly rewarding those who pleased them. Or, in other words, “The Naughty and Nice.”
“Swigs eggnog, drops mic.”
Okay so like my favorite awful Christmas movie is the Life and Adventures of Santa Claus because holy heck it takes all the pagan elements cuts them up and stitches them into this wild but somehow historically honest (not accurate, honest, there’s a difference) quilt and yes, the naughty and nice fair/forest folk just– *flails until you reassure me that you’ve seen this claymation masterpiece*
This is why our tree is basically forest, fey, and mythological creatures because honestly the magic and wonder of the season is what I love the most.
Also, I sorta hate round fat jolly santa and I think we could have largely helped me get over that as a child if he had just ridden a beautiful giant grey horse.
NOW
DO WE EVEN WANT TO GET INTO THE MESS THAT IS YULE LOGS?
OH FUCK I THOUGHT NO ONE ELSE EVEN KNEW ABOUT THAT MOVIE MY MOTHER WATCHED IT WITH US WHEN I WAS A LITTLE BUDDING FILTHY HEATHEN AND SHE WAS ALREADY A FULLY FLEDGED FILTHY HEATHEN.
My tree is all vintage glass ornaments that I’ve gotten from thrift shops because I love the sheer beauty of them and because I feel like my pagan ancestors would have also loved them.
And OH FUCK YULE LOGS, traditionally cut from an oak tree, which has such deep rich symbolism in old pagan mythology that it’s worthy of a whole essay on its own, decorated with evergreen and holly for rebirth and immortality, and burned on the solstice to celebrate the return of light and warmth.
There’s an old, old rhyme for this;
May the log burn,
May the wheel turn,
May evil spurn,
May the Sun return.
And then of course the ashes were used as powerful protection and fertility charms.
CHRISTIANITY CONTENT; 0.000000%.
“Offers spiced mead and gingerbread.”
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and…
HOLY CRAP, OTHER PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THAT MOVIE?! IT’S MY FAV FUCKING XMAS MOVIE AND WHEN I SHOW IT TO PEOPLE THEY’RE LIKE…WTF DID I JUST WATCH?!
Now….can I get on this spiced mead and cookies business?!
YEEAAAAAHHHHHH I love this whole thread!
In my country, in the little town my grandparents used to live, people still burn a decorated log at Solstice and masked men in furs dangle big cows’ bells to scare the darkness away. I live in Romania.
So can I make tshirts that says
CHRISTMAS IS A LIE - HAPPY YULE!! with all the “traditional Christmas” symbols like reindeer and evergreens and such because thats all Pagan symbolism anyway??
I wanna make this shirt. I live in the bible belt. I need it.
who keeps giving her these things
she ends up condemned too D:
damn bitch get it together
She’s a Darklord now too
None
OKAY so I saw this a few days ago and was like “whatever” but then I smashed my phone in a car door, had to clean up some dead baby bunnies in my yard, and have just generally NOT had a good week. I’m fucking spooked and I’m reblogging this twice to get the universe to stop.
I ignored this too and then i got kicked out of my house. Also reblogging twice.
Yes
My friend is bringing me my favorite food, passing on this energy ❤️