We now come to the meat and potatoes of this book. My impetus for writing this book was the need for a practical working manual for modern magic that does not contain the hard-to-find exotic ingredients which are quite unavailable or surprisingly expensive for most of us. Given the vast amount of herbs, spices, oils, vinegars, and foods that are readily accessible to us, I felt it was time to thoroughly tap into it. Please note that although there will be foods and some food recipes listed in this section, this is not a cookbook.
In this section, we will be primarily focused on magical ingredients with recipes for oils, vinegars, potions, etc., and of course spells in which to use them. I’ve divided the spellbook into sections based on magical desire and since herbs are versatile, you may see the same ingredient listed in more than one section. To help avoid confusion, I have included an herbal index at the back of the book with every ingredient from each section listed in alphabetical order.
Before we get to the individual spells and recipes, I would like to go through the steps involved in the making of the oils, potions, powders, vinegars, etc. First, let’s look at the making of magical oils.
Preparing Magical Oils
To begin, gather your herbal ingredients, a pot, and the chosen oil together along with a spoon, strainer, and a bottle for the completed mixture. Break up the herbs with your fingers and hold each individual herb in your hands and make clear your intention for the finished oil you are making. This will charge the herb in your hands, readying it for the oil. Do this with each herb. Hold it in your hand, focus on your intent, and sprinkle that herb into the pot. When all the herbs are in the pot, pour the proper amount of the oil (amounts are given in each recipe) over them and swirl the pot to blend the mixture. Next, warm the oil over very low heat, stirring slowly but constantly until you can smell the scent of the herbs in the air. This will let you know that
the essential properties of the herbs have been transferred to the oil. Remove the oil from heat and allow it to cool. When it has cooled, strain the oil into a jar, and charge the completed mixture using the Charging Ritual given in chapter 2.
The above general procedure should be followed for all the oil blends found within this book. It is a simple and enjoyable process, but if you live with people who are not magically minded, you can always say that you are experimenting with making your own flavored cooking oils, since these blends are made from edible ingredients from the supermarket. This only works with the oils presented in this book as I have written them. No modifications should be made, and you will still have to worry about food allergies if you choose to consume any of the formulas in this or any book. I wouldn’t recommend consuming magical oils anyway; aside from any inherent danger, these recipes are not designed for taste, but for magical energy. They may taste really gross depending on the ingredients.
Preparing Potions
This is an incredibly easy process, and you may even use a coffee maker to make these if you desire. All you have to do is hold the individual herbs or tea bag in your hands and charge them as stated previously in the instructions on preparing magical oil. Put your ingredients in a pot (a cauldron is ideal) or in a coffee filter you can pop into your coffee maker. Next, pour in the necessary amount of water and simmer over low heat (or turn on the coffee maker) for about ten minutes until bubbles form at the bottom of the pot (or until the coffee maker is finished brewing) and steam is rising, but do not let the water boil. Boiling the water is only necessary in the case of extracting the essence from tough roots and will not be used in the recipes presented here. To boil these potions would damage the essences we are trying to extract and use. After about ten minutes, remove the potion from heat or turn off the coffee maker, cover, and allow to cool for ten to fifteen minutes. When cooled, strain and sweeten if desired. The potion is ready to use.
Preparing Powders
This is the easiest task of them all. All you have to do is grind and charge each individual herb by hand and place it in a small bowl with the required amount of cornstarch. When all the herbs have been added, mix them together with your fingers, charge the completed powder, and bottle for use.
Preparing Vinegars
This process is basically the same as making a potion with two VERY IMPORTANT exceptions: (1) Do not use your coffee maker, and (2) Don’t use an iron pot or cauldron—it will rust! You only need to heat up the herb/vinegar mixture for about five minutes, then cool, strain, bottle, and charge. I warn you: making vinegars is not the sweetest-smelling process. You can also go the longer route of just bottling the chosen herbs and vinegar without heating it and allow it to sit for about a week to extract the herbs’ essences. This is a less involved process and produces a good result; it just takes longer.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s move on to the fun stuff. Each of the following chapters will be self-
contained for their given purpose, detailing all the ingredients, recipes, and spells for the magical goal. Magic is such a personal and versatile process that we often develop our own individual specialties such as using oils, candle magic, or charm-making to the exclusion of other ways of working.
My personal preference is to use candle magic as a first resort, as it is the most natural for me. From there, I like to expand and supplement that work with other methods only if needed, but to each their own. You may find that some practices are more effective for you than others due to the personal nature of this work. Trial and error is the only way to discover this. Most of us, however, find that we can shift from one way to another with a similar success rate, we just prefer one or two methods over the rest. No judgments or guilt should be made about this; instead, our individuality should be celebrated.
Since it is very true that if your life and home are too cluttered, nothing else can get done very well, I have chosen to begin with the chapter on clearing.