Mr. Moonflower

Ashes, Incense and Powerful Powders

For some, when they think of witches, they think of herbs in jar, potions and creatures. They wouldn’t be wrong, a lot of witches do have those things, but they may forget the magic of powders.

Powders are integral to witchcraft in many different forms. The powdery remnants of burnt spellwork, the ground herbs and spices used to make incense, and magical powders sprinkled to carry out the work of the witch. Even illusionists have their powders, thrown down in a flash of fire and brimstone that leaves those in attendances embracing a little magic themselves.

This is seen from the loose incense burned for rites and divinatory purposes, to stoking bonfires and adding sparks and light. The gathering of dirt and dried clay and mixing it to make a healing mud in folk medicine. Taking powdered pigments and resins and making enchanted ink, and the main focus of this post, grinding spell components to make enchanted powders that are so prevalent in folk magic. The mixing of them with a liquid medium opens up the doors even further.

Any blend of herbs and spices you put into a sachet can be ground up and used in several ways. Adding a liquid and it becomes a paste to draw sigils, write intentions and incantations, trace doorways and give your intent a physical foothold and representation. Blowing it off your hand to send it to the winds, or sprinkling in doorways, numerous ways of using them.

☝️Witch Tip: if you want to make incense or grind up herbs and don’t want/physically can’t grind them by hand, save up $15 and buy a cheap coffee grinder to do the heavy lifting for you. Dedicate it solely to herbs so you don’t accidentally use it for coffee.

Now on to the rest of my ranting and my promised recipe.

Grinding some things is obviously easier than others, but I never quite feel as in touch with my ancestral witches than taking whole spices and using my mortar and pestle and turning it to dust. That extra time and physical exertion is the window of intent. The chance to add that extra piece of your magic into the working. This physical act is what’s needed for one of my personal workings: Hex Powder.

There are tons of recipes for hexed powders, banishing powders, ritual and cleansing ones too if you look, and honestly, making them yourself is a lot cheaper than buying them. It’s even cheaper in a lot of cases to buy herbs whole, and grind them yourself!

Now, at the asking of several people, here’s one of the few personal spells I’ve posted and will post. The previous post I made about it, I took out some ingredients, and to be honest, I do that a lot in spells I post because for those who know what to look for, they get a lot more insight into my practice and how my magic works. Understand I’m all about replacing things either due to availability or to connect better to yourself and make the magic yours, but also accept that if something is changed in this, then it’s not my hex powder.

Ingredients:

Grains of Paradise/Guinea Grains

Cayenne Pepper

Black Peppercorns

Black Salt

Incense Ash from ritual during new moon

Burnt herbs from ritual during full moon

Mistletoe

Datura seeds

Iron flakes or steel shavings

Places these in a mortar and pestle and grind them together. Bring up your sadness, dark and creeping, the incense ash. Bring up disdain, astringent and black, the salt. Bring up your bitterness, dry and shriveled, the peppercorns. Bring up your anger, red and burning, the cayenne. Bring up your weakness, secret and hidden, mistletoe. Bring up your strength, balanced and underestimated, the grains of paradise. Bring up your power, smoldering and , unbending, the burnt herbs. Bring up the spirit of the earth, unforgiving and uncontrollable, te datura. Bring up cold calculation, sharp and cutting, the iron.

Curse/swear the entire time you grind, rile yourself up, pouring the emotions, the words and thoughts through the handle into the herbs. Grind until done and medium grained, if it’s too fine a grit, it will be hard to manage and harder to handle safely.

You now have hex powder, throw in the direction, NOT AT, those who you want to affect. Sprinkle it where they will tread on it or over it. Add it to taglock and contain it for a binding hex. Whatever feels right, go for it.

Parting notes: do not smell it, don’t throw it upwind if you, do not inhale the powder or ingest it. Be cautious, it is both magically and physically potent and dangerous. If gotten instant headaches from not being careful, I’ve seen a flat tire happen right after I used it. I’ve used it for causing nightmares and sleepless nights by tracing their name in the powder.

🦇Cheers, Barberwitch

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Tinker with Tinctures

Hey there witches! I’ve covered water infusions aka Hydrosols before, but it’s time to move onto the hard stuff: alcohol

A tincture is an extract which has an alcohol base. Traditionally, these were herbal infusions used for medicine, but for today’s topic, we’ll be talking about tinctures in all forms, but it’s up to you as to what’s for consumption, and what may be used as a perfume, floor wash, or ritual spray etc.

Tinctures can be a lot easier to make because they have a cold infusion method, as in no heat source is used to speed the process. Alcohol absorbs plant matter and dissolves quite easily, so heating it is a dangerous step not necessary for the occasional infusion.

What can be made into a tincture?

Flowers

Berries

Leaves

Roots

Stalks and barks

Spas and resins

Seeds

These can be dried or fresh.

Especially for flowers, some fragrance doesn’t carry once the flower withers, so using fresh can be super helpful if the fragrance is important!

What do I do to make one?

Take your container like a mason jar

Fill with plant material about halfway*

Add in your alcohol**

Shake and let infuse***

Strain and decant into its new container

Now it’s simple, but you do have to make some decisions like if you’re making individual tinctures or a blend. Individual tinctures can be blended later of course, but takes more containers and individual checking than throwing it all together. Go by instinct and research until you’ve got the experience.

That sounds simple, but I want some more tips:

Break apart or cut up ingredients so more of the matter gets mixed and infused. It releases fragrance, juices and gives more surfaces for the base to interact.

Shake your tincture while it’s infusing every day. You may want to infuse for a day, a week, or a full cycle of the moon, you do you!

If you’re using a mason jar or other metal lid container, a piece of Saran Wrap/cling plastic can protect the lid from corroding.

You can get a high proof alcohol and dilute it with distilled water.****

If taking internally, do so with care, and dosage is usually only a few drops at a time. Check with your doctor before starting any regiment.

If you want to make a ritual tincture for a salt bonfire, the alcohol has to be minimum 100 proof or it won’t catch fire. Don’t burn yourself.

I have a ginger tincture I use for upset stomachs. Just a few drops in mineral water and it settles right down (think ginger ale).

For tooth aches, I use a few drops of clove tincture in warm water and swish around. Plus my breath smells great afterwards.

Just remember, it’s concentrated, and in a lot of cases may not taste great by itself, just like if you took a spoon full of vanilla extract. Start small, dilute, or use in ritual.

Stay safe my little beasties.

🦇Cheers, Barberwitch

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*, **, ***, **** down below the break