Flower + Gem Essence Remedy Kits!

Drift Uplifted into the sky,

Be ever more Courageous as you fly!

You'll be Grounded + Centered on landing, we trust -

And truly Renewed by your journey of flowers, gems, and starstuff!

While bad poetry is not included all four of our Flower + Gem Essence combinations certainly are! Our Flower + Gem Essence Remedy Kit comes in a lovely green pocket box along with a card describing each of the Essence combinations qualities and ingredients.

The Flower + Gem Essence Remedy kit includes one 1/2 ounce stock bottle preserved in organic vodka of:

Grounded + Centered: for when you feel unbalanced, light-headed, and have difficulty staying focused. Helps you feel grounded, steady, and centered.

Uplifted: for when you feel burdened and overwhelmed by responsibility. Helps relieves anxiety around the tasks at hand while helping you to find what brings you joy in life.

Courageous: for when fears fill your head and you don't feel strong enough to face them. Helps you to find courage while feeling protected and nurtured at your very core.

Renewed: for when you are recovering from an illness, emotional trauma or other times of strain on your system. Helps to return vitality to your whole being, freeing you from previous disruptive patterns of behavior.

In addition to taking Flower + Gem Essences as drops you can: ★ Add them to your drinking water, smoothies, and juices ★ Spray them throughout your work and living spaces ★ Rub them onto pulse and chakra points ★ Put them in your bath water

Read more about our Flower + Gem Essences here.

Our Flower + Gem Essence Remedy Kits can be purchased in our S H O P.

Quicken the Mind: Peppermint

The crisp and recognizable scent of Peppermint Mentha Piperita brings money to those who carry its leaves and protection to the traveler.  Use Peppermint as an incense or floorwash to purify and energize a space. Tuck the leaves beneath your pillow to enhance dreams and visions or wear them about your neck to increase focus and drive.  Peppermint in the garden brings success to all endeavors.  The genus name of Peppermint, Mentha, is after that of a Greek nymph named Minthe, who after an affair with Pluto was turned to the Peppermint plant we know today by a jealous Persephone.  Or at least that is one version of the story…

For those that feel they are walking in a haze, worried about that which lies beyond the fog, but unable to direct focused attention towards it.  They might be too worried to know more, prone to upset stomachs, too hot then too cold, and a bit exhausted by it all.  Peppermint might be the wise green ally who helps bring them back to focus through gentleness and loving perception of the body’s needs.

Peppermint from iloveherbs.net

Peppermint loves to soothe the body.  Use as a tea or tincture to settle the stomach, ease abdominal pain, menstrual cramps, and for flatulence (especially if taken after meals).  Peppermint is also antiparasitic.  As a tea Peppermint eases flu and cold symptoms, helps to break fevers by encouraging a sweat, expels phlegm, and clears the head.  Peppermint helps treat sinusitis, laryngitis, bronchitis, and is good for inflamed lung conditions, asthma, heart palpitations, lung infection and congestion. Eases insomnia, general tension, and is good for dizziness and fainting, fatigue, and headaches

Yerba Buena

Use the oil or a tea externally to soothe sore muscles, inflammation, rough skin, hives, and rashes. Also use in cool washes for chicken pox and measles.  Peppermint can be used as a gargle for mouth and throat and to prevent gingivitis.  The crushed leaves can be applied to forehead for headaches and directly on bee stings or insect bites.  Preventatively, Peppermint can be used as a repellent for most biting bugs.

Try rubbing the fresh, crushed leaves on your skin as a natural bug repellant and for its calming properties.  I love mixing the fresh mint leaves with apple juice and ice for a cooling drink – especially important in our new Austin home!  Peppermint tea on its own is a wonderful digestive remedy, but also try mixing it with a bit of fresh grated Ginger, some Cinnamon, and a bit of Fennel seed.  Delicious!

Sweeten Up: How to Make Simple Syrups

wikipedia.org

Honey is wonderful medicine.  Antibacterial and antiseptic, honey has been used for thousands of years as good medicine.  In addition to its own powerful healing properites, honey is an excellent medium for delivering other healing herbs into our bodies.  Besides taking honey daily in teas or straight for the spoon,  we can create simple syrups out of honey and medicinal vinegars.

To make a simple syrup, you will need only a few items.   A bowl to mix in, a spoon to mix with, measuring implements (if you like, but not always necessary) will be helpful.  Make sure to choose raw and unfiltered honey for your simple syrup.  Raw and unfiltered honey contains the vital enzymes, propolis, pollen, and essential vitamins and minerals.  You will also need some raw apple cider vinegar that may or may not have been prepared as a medicinal vinegar.

Raw apple cider vinegar on its own, as has been discussed before, is great for your health.  It is not always the most palatable for some folks taste buds, especially the young and the picky.  Combining medicinal vinegars with honey is a great solution.

The ratio of honey to vinegar in our simple syrups is largely dependent on how sweet you want your syrup.  Generally, one part honey to two parts vinegar produces a not overly sweet, but still satisfying syrup.  Reverse the ratio if you want a sweeter, thicker syrup.

Mix the honey and vinegar together.  At this point you might want to sing a song thanking the bees and apples for the hard work they put into creating such beautiful food medicine.

Now you'll have a lovely syrup!  What is great about simple syrups of honey and vinegar is that they have a long shelf-life and don't need to be refrigerated (though, like most herbal medicines, should be kept in cool place).

What sort of syrup shall you make?  Try  making your very own Four Thieves Vinegar simple syrup!  You can also try making simple syrups with our Amazon Brew and TOUGH AS NAILS Iron Brew.  Experiment and enjoy!

Holy Herb of the West: Yerba Santa

flowersociety.org

The sweet tasting Yerba Santa is said to enhance beauty and be useful in spells of glamoury and illusion. In addition to its ability to magickally alter the appearance of clever sorcerers, Yerba Santa is said to protect the wearer from illness and disease when worn around the neck.  Place it on your altar as a sacred offering.  Call them Bear's Weed, Holy Herb, Mountain Balm or Tar Weed there are many more ways than wearing our purple-flowered friend about our neck to improve our health.

Yerba Santa is an excellent herbal ally for the cold parts of the year when stuffed-up noses and congested chests are passed around like holiday gifts.  'Tis the season for giving (along with all other three seasons, but that's a bit beyond the point)!  Yerba Santa is an excellent remedy for a wet cold - one that is mucousy, sniffling, and has a cough.  As an astringent and decongestant, Yerba Santa dries up excess mucous by normalizing excess mucous secretion.  Normalizing mucous secretion means that you won't have to go back and forth between too much and too little secretion leading to being too dried out and equally uncomfortable.  In addition to its powers of mucous normalization, Yerba Santa is antimicrobial and antiseptic.

In addition to colds and because Yerba Santa strengthens capillaries and stimulates the cilia of the lungs, is appropriate for treating other respiratory conditions such as asmtha, hayfever, and sinus congestion.  It is also useful for digestive complaints because it normalizes mucous secretions in the gut.  The leaves can also be chewed to quench thirst.

flowersociety.org

Topically Yerba Santa can be used in poultices for broken bones, bruises, fever, insect bites, poison oak and ivy, rash, acne, sprains and sores.  Pretty darn useful.

I keep a small bottle of Yerba Santa tincture on me most days to help prevent asthma attacks brought on by environmental pollutants.  During a series of extensive fires outside L.A. a few summers ago the city became covered in a thick sky of ash.  I took Yerba Santa daily to help strengthen my lungs against the added environmental pollutant stress being put on my body.  It worked wonderfully and has been a well-loved herbal ally in my traveling apothecary ever since.  You can also use the leaves in a steam for clearing up congestion and opening the lung passageways.

Vibrational Medicine: Flower + Gem Essences

Borage

Flower and gem essences are a form of vibrational healing that recognizes the energetic foundation of all healing work and that all living things are infused with energy. Flowers and gems appear again and again through the ages as potent healing medicines, often used in religious rites to alter the states of those present, to cleanse hearts, bodies, and minds of impurities, and to protect against illness and disease. There has been a recent renaissance of the use of flower and gem essences as a healing therapy, starting in the early 20^th century with the work of Dr. Edward Bach and continuing to grow and flourish as a practice around the world.

Flower and gem essences are inherently mysterious in the way they work – a perfectly enchanted form of healing that we love at the Apothecary. There are many theories on why and how flower and gem essences work, but essentially they affect our emotional, spiritual, and mental foundations. A flower or gem essence can be taken to deal with anxiety, address feelings of inadequacy, and in conjunction with traditional herbal remedies to heal physical symptoms such as acne. Vibrational medicine by and large affects our emotional states, but have definite impact on our physical conditions.

Milkweed

Creating flower and gem essences are simple. The basic idea is that the healing essence of the flower or gem is imprinted in the water it resides in through use of sunlight, moonlight or heat. Flower and gem essences are generally taken 3-4 times per day and at small dosages of usually only 1-5 drops. A dosage cycle usually lasts about a month, but changes are usually felt within the first few uses. We'll cover creating your own flower and gem essences in later posts.

Our flower and gem essence blends have been created in the same way that all of our remedies are created – through building a relationship with the plant and gem material, being as guided by their wisdom as well as guided in our training in traditional techniques of herbalism. The process of creating our flower and gem essence blends is a bit magical and we hope that you feel as enchanted as we do when using them.

Our current flower and gem essence blends are:

Grounded & Centered: When you feel unbalanced, light-headed, and have difficulty staying focused. Helps you feel grounded, steady, and centered. Includes the essences of Hematite, Feverfew, Lavender.

Uplifted: When you feel burdened and overwhelmed by responsibility. Helps relieves anxiety around the tasks at hand while helping you to find what brings you joy in life. Includes the essences of Lavender, Chamomile, Blue Violet, Amethyst.

Courageous: When fears fill your head and you don't feel strong enough to face them. Helps you to find courage while feeling protected and nurtured at your very core. Includes the essences of Wild Mustard, Borage, Rue, Milkweed, Feverfew.

Renewed: When recovering from an illness, emotional trauma or other times of strain on your system. Helps return vitality to your whole being, freeing you from previous disruptive patterns of behaviour. Chive, Wild Mustard, Chamomile.

Find all of our essences and more in our S H O P!