Post by Allan on Aug 6, 2007 22:16:15 GMT -5
HERBS I:
READY TO USE, OR PREPARED?
> I am just beginning to do herb spells, and would like to
> know how do you prepare the herb for spells? Also, the
> herbs that i purchase -- would they be ready to use or
> do I need to prepare them? thanks.
There are different traditions of thought on these
questions.
In hoodoo -- African-American folk-magic-- and brujeria --
Mexican folk-magic -- most practitioners use either fresh or
dried herbs which they buy from a spiritual supply store or
botanica. There is no special emphasis placed on how the
herbs were gathered (other than that they be correctly named
and clean).
However, advanced practitioners may collect their own herbs
or buy them from the person who collected or grew them, to
avoid too much handling and to keep them spiritually "pure."
This also goes for some people working in Santeria, Palo,
and other African-diaspora religions as well, who prefer to
receive herbs and palos (twigs) from known people whom they
can trust in a spiritual sense.
In Wicca and similar New Age, neo-pagan, and
European-influenced magical traditions, many people prefer
to use fresh herbs rather than dried, and they often make
very bold statements about the worthlessness of herbs
gathered under the "wrong" moon sign or such. There is a
tendency in Germano-British magic toward what i call
"restrictiveness," whereby there are almost as many
prohibitions and bad signs as there are encouragements and
good signs. Thus Wicca, which originated in Britain, carries
with it some of the restrictivity found in other
Germano-British folk-beliefs, such as that, for instance, a
horseshoe can only be hung in ONE direction or it is no
longer lucky, or that a spell must be recited a certain way
EXACTLY or it won't work.
When you compare magic to music -- a very useful comparison,
and not a trivial one by any means -- you'll see similar
trends. For instance, the Germano-British insistence on
strict tempo is quite at odds with the flexible tempo of
African-American music. Likewise the melismas ("bent notes")
of the African singing tradition persist in African-American
music, but are considered "bad singing" by European
musicologists of the formal school who insist that each note
be hit square-on, without a tonal slide.
So, to get back to your question --
In most traditions of folk-magic, the herbs have a virtue
that resides in them and they are fully prepared as you get
them, whether dried or fresh. They may need to be boiled or
powdered or such, but that would be explained in the spell
and would not affect their readiness for use in a spiritual
way.
But in some European-based traditions, any herbs that were
commercially grown or were not "properly" picked according
to that traditional's restrictive rules of moon-sign, type
of instrument used to gather them, or such, might need to be
"consecrated" or "empowered" by the spell-caster. How much
preparation was called for and the nature of that work would
be dependent on how restrictive the tradition was.
I hope these general guidelines help you. What you asked is
not a question with only one answer, especially when it is
asked by a self-professed newcomer to magic such as yourself
who has not yet firmly embarked upon a particular tradition
and accepted its internal logic and rules of thought.
Good luck,
© 1998 cat yronwode
READY TO USE, OR PREPARED?
> I am just beginning to do herb spells, and would like to
> know how do you prepare the herb for spells? Also, the
> herbs that i purchase -- would they be ready to use or
> do I need to prepare them? thanks.
There are different traditions of thought on these
questions.
In hoodoo -- African-American folk-magic-- and brujeria --
Mexican folk-magic -- most practitioners use either fresh or
dried herbs which they buy from a spiritual supply store or
botanica. There is no special emphasis placed on how the
herbs were gathered (other than that they be correctly named
and clean).
However, advanced practitioners may collect their own herbs
or buy them from the person who collected or grew them, to
avoid too much handling and to keep them spiritually "pure."
This also goes for some people working in Santeria, Palo,
and other African-diaspora religions as well, who prefer to
receive herbs and palos (twigs) from known people whom they
can trust in a spiritual sense.
In Wicca and similar New Age, neo-pagan, and
European-influenced magical traditions, many people prefer
to use fresh herbs rather than dried, and they often make
very bold statements about the worthlessness of herbs
gathered under the "wrong" moon sign or such. There is a
tendency in Germano-British magic toward what i call
"restrictiveness," whereby there are almost as many
prohibitions and bad signs as there are encouragements and
good signs. Thus Wicca, which originated in Britain, carries
with it some of the restrictivity found in other
Germano-British folk-beliefs, such as that, for instance, a
horseshoe can only be hung in ONE direction or it is no
longer lucky, or that a spell must be recited a certain way
EXACTLY or it won't work.
When you compare magic to music -- a very useful comparison,
and not a trivial one by any means -- you'll see similar
trends. For instance, the Germano-British insistence on
strict tempo is quite at odds with the flexible tempo of
African-American music. Likewise the melismas ("bent notes")
of the African singing tradition persist in African-American
music, but are considered "bad singing" by European
musicologists of the formal school who insist that each note
be hit square-on, without a tonal slide.
So, to get back to your question --
In most traditions of folk-magic, the herbs have a virtue
that resides in them and they are fully prepared as you get
them, whether dried or fresh. They may need to be boiled or
powdered or such, but that would be explained in the spell
and would not affect their readiness for use in a spiritual
way.
But in some European-based traditions, any herbs that were
commercially grown or were not "properly" picked according
to that traditional's restrictive rules of moon-sign, type
of instrument used to gather them, or such, might need to be
"consecrated" or "empowered" by the spell-caster. How much
preparation was called for and the nature of that work would
be dependent on how restrictive the tradition was.
I hope these general guidelines help you. What you asked is
not a question with only one answer, especially when it is
asked by a self-professed newcomer to magic such as yourself
who has not yet firmly embarked upon a particular tradition
and accepted its internal logic and rules of thought.
Good luck,
© 1998 cat yronwode