Potion Making - Purification

The Purification Potion can be used to purify, clear and bless a space or a person in offices, clinics, cars and homes.
Magical Herbs
Rosemary - clears the mind as well as spaces, reminds one to stay present
White Sage - clears and dispels negativity
Cedar - clears while making a channel back for positivity and healing to flow back in
Lavender - gently purifies with love and peace
Bay - protective and visionary
Sea Salt - helps remove any unwanted psychic residue
Magic Stone
Clear Quartz Crystal is used to amplify the purifying qualities of the herbs in this potion, yet all on it's own it's clarifying, balancing and powerfully protective.
Elemental Magic
I burn Copal while making this Potion. Copal is amazing. Although I do add a bit of copal to the potion for its energetics, to really activate its energy fire is needed. Copal is a tree resin, alike in many ways to amber resin. It's lovely and fragrant in its softer crystalline stage before it hardens like a rock. The scent is released when burned on charcoal. It is a strongly purifying resin that has been used as such for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
Particularly Recommended for:
Those in service based jobs
Massage therapists
Counselors
Teachers
Retailers
Caregivers
Parents
When to use:
When you enter your space and it feels not quite right
Before a party to equalize the energy; to make it more welcoming
After a party or gathering to bring it back to a more neutral ground
When you arrive at work and don't feel ready to be there
After someone leaves your space and you feel uncomfortable
After you have had an argument or conflict
Before you go into meetings where you want to communicate clearly
When you are unsure of what to do next
Spray in doorways to bless those who walk through, including yourself
What else?
In some ways this is the simplest Potion, with the simplest ingredients that asks the least of me.
It's like rosemary itself; it's readily available, most everyone likes it, it goes with everything and it can do no harm.
Like the plant, the potion can be used in a million ways. When I'm not sure which potion is needed, I start here. If more is needed then the Purification Potion clears the way for me to know what is needed next.

Potion Making - Beginnings

I began with the Purification Potion about 8 years ago. It was part of a year long project that I embarked on where I focused on one plant and one goddess for each month for a year.
Rosemary was one of the monthly herbs.
During the month, I made different tea blends, studied historical uses, burned it, made hair rinses, wreaths, face scrubs and steams and so on.
It was during this time that it seemed like wherever I went people would be smudging, which is all well and good except that it didn't seem to mesh well with the elderly, the sensitive and allergic. Generally burning herbs indoors causes people to cough and makes many uncomfortable.
I love the idea of using herbs to purify. My stand-by for my own smudging at that time was sage, rosemary & lavender.
At our house smudging is done seasonally, like deep cleaning and I always open all the doors and windows.
I wanted to come up with a way to have the benefits without the harm.
A "smokeless smudge" was what I called it.
I brewed together
Rosemary - clears the mind as well as spaces, reminds one to stay present
White Sage - clears and dispels negativity
Lavender - gently purifies with love and peace
and a few other herbs with the intention of purification, put a little alcohol in it to keep it from going funky and put in in a spray bottle and voila! it was a smokeless smudge.
I liked it so well, and it worked so well, that I added it to the line of my home based herbal business Bliss Botanicals (no relationship to current online entities) and it became very well loved by customers as well.
When the time came for me to take the next step in my business it seemed that perhaps I should make more Potions.
I sat with this idea for days, scribbling ideas into my notebook.
Should I make 3 or 5?
Should they relate to elements? Earth-Air-Fire-Water?
Should they relate to deities? Planets? Colors?
I had enough inspiration and ideas for dozens of Potions. It wasn't hard to come up with lots of ideas, the hard part was narrowing it down.
Of course, there had to be a Love Potion, but I wanted it to be different than the cliched aphrodisiac potion of bad movies and old songs.
Money spells are often desired and a money potion was a contender.
A Luck Potion?
In a way it's like naming a baby. You come up with a bunch of great names and then you narrow it down to names that fit your family and then to the one that belongs to your baby. The name that was theirs all along that you just had to discover.
The Potions made themselves known and guess what?
They fit none of the boxes that would be easy to describe them.
Earth - Grounding
Fire - Empowering - Sun
Center - Purification - Clearing
Heart - Love
Moon - Perception
They are so lovely and I am honored to do this work.

Shirley Temple Cherries aka organic maraschino cherries

When I was little we rarely went to restaurants and when we did it was generally for a special occasion.
We would always wait to see if a grown up would suggest for us to order something to drink. The girls would get Shirley Temples and the boys Roy Rogers. It never occurred to me to want a Roy Rogers, even though I liked lots of other "boy" things.
It's funny to realize the only difference between the two is clear soda (ginger ale or 7up) versus dark soda (coke or pepsi).
A few years ago we went to an event where cocktails were being offered and our children were with us and as I was waiting in line I was reminded of the Shirley Temple.
We ordered them for the children and as I was watching it being made I could see that it was just a couple of ingredients.
I quickly tasted the simple concoction, much to the dismay of my waiting daughter and was immediately transported back in time.
Unlike many beloved childhood tastes, this one stayed true for me.
The children order them every so often when we're out and they're so lovely that I thought I'd get the ingredients to make them at home for birthday parties and other celebrations.
However, one of the key ingredients is maraschino cherries. One of those super poison foods I reluctantly let my children have every so often.
So here goes:
Step 1 make a non poisonous and still fun and yummy preserved cherry
step 2 make grenadine syrup
step 3 buy ginger ale and straws
step 4 assemble and indulge

Today I made a version of preserved cherries, it goes like this:
Pit 2 cups tart & sweet cherries
In a small saucepan add 1 cup organic sugar and 1 cup water, bring to a boil and stir. Boil until all the sugar is dissolved.
let cool a bit, add 1/2 teaspoon almond extract and 2 teaspoons rose water
pour liquid over cherries, stir
pour it all into a glass jar with a lid
should keep for a month or so refrigerated

Now I need to make the grenadine syrup before my children return from summer camp, so we can celebrate with Shirley Temples.
I already have ginger ale and bendy straws!

Rose Conserve update

Well, as I always say, so much of medicine making is about the experience. The making of medicine is what's healing to the maker and those around her.
I'd love to say that the rose conserve was a miracle.
It is, and yet, one of the jars did eventually mold.
It took over a month, so if I had either refrigerated the jar or used it up in that amount of time, it would've been just fine. But my goal was to have the fragrant summer preserved easily in a jar for the wintertime.
The good news is that one of the jars is dreamy.
In the future:
1. layer sugar between each layer of rose petals (don't put a big stack of petals together, too much moisture)
or
2. leave enough room in the jar to shake it around a bit so that things don't get stagnant.
While the jar of rosy goodness was deciding whether to mold or not, taking it's sweet time, I was able to have some heavenly tea with it.
I added a half of a teaspoon of the rose sugar to a cup of darjeeling tea and it was just heavenly. A light rosy taste and at first a strong rose scent, almost too strong. But in the tea, lovely.
I will definitely make this again.
The jar that succeeded sat in the sun for a week and was shaken daily.
I plan on using it in wintertime desserts.
Sprinkled atop shortbread cookies, sugar & rose petals layered between a birthday cake, creme brulee and of course, added to tea.
yum.

Rose Harvest & Conserve of Roses

I was at a potluck dinner with my family last evening and took a little tour around the amazing garden that my friend Joel tends. He wanted me to identify a few weeds, it was of course my pleasure as I love the weeds. One of them was a lemony sorrel that we nibbled. As we continued around the yard and gardens I found myself enamored by all the roses. One of them was an enormous climbing rose from a mountain house of my past that is still close to my heart. It had been transplanted a few years back and is absolutely magnificent.

As we wandered I was listening to my guide tell about the cippolina onions, the fava beans and all the fabulous plantings, but my mind was on the roses. After we rounded the house leaving most of the vast gardens behind, we came upon even more roses.

I asked if I could harvest some of them. “Of course” he said.

As I was walking into the house to get something to harvest them into, I found my oldest daughter and three of her friends chatting away on the porch swing. “Come with me” I said. I think they thought I was going to have them set the table or some other unwanted chore, but they did follow. I grabbed a paper grocery bag and took them to the largest rose bush, the climber.

Two of the girls are exchange students so I was a bit concerned about the language barrier, but with my first sentence I realized they could understand me perfectly. “Find the yummiest looking rose you can. One you would want to eat if it were candy or a piece of fruit.” They looked at each other and giggled.

Once they all knew what they were looking for (yumminess) I had them each harvest* 15 roses from the climbing rose, then one each of the big roses from the fancier varieties.

It was such an amazing and timeless image of these young girls, young women really, harvesting these flowers of love on this last day of May. The lyrical cadence of their voices moving together in harmony was like heaven. I thought for a moment of getting my camera, but let the thought go just as quickly. The moment would have been lost if any external attention was brought to it.

They stood together after finishing their task amongst the roses for some time. Whether it was in the teenage distraction or the scent of the roses making them linger, I don’t know, but for me (observing discreetly from a distance), it was a golden moment and perhaps one that will be remembered by them as well.

"Their lips were four red roses
on a stalk."
~ William Shakespeare

Today I awoke to the responsibility of preserving the rose petals.

I decided to try something new.

I found several old fashioned recipes for things like rose-petal soup, rose-petal scones, rose jelly and the like.

I wanted something that would be for use later in the year when the roses are not at their peak. I wanted to preserve the magic somehow.

Jelly seemed like an ok idea, except that I didn’t have any lemons and wanted to make something with what was in the house already.

I settled on taking inspiration from some medieval recipes.

This is my version of Rose Conserve:

Harvest unsprayed fragrant roses, remove the petals, let wilt overnight.

Into a glass jar pour a layer of organic cane sugar then a layer of rose petals.

Do this several times ending with sugar.

Simple. I know. The real beauty for me is the harvesting, the sorting and the smelling. I don't mind a complicated recipe now and again, but I didn't want to cook or cut or grind these. I wanted them to stay as they were.

I imagine a couple of things may happen with the sugared roses.

One is that the water in the roses will mingle with the sugar and melt it down creating interesting and fragrant syrup.

The other more hopeful outcome is that the roses will preserve between the layers of sugar and the moisture will all wick to the top and I can pour this off and use it in another recipe. (I won’t know what kind of recipe until I taste the liquid.)

The other possibility is that it will come to naught, but in any case my house smells like heaven.

For now enjoy the pictures and I’ll keep you updated with the progress.

Touch your cheek to the cheek of sugar.
Get the taste of it. Give perfume to it.
Try to alleviate the pain of separation
With the help of sugar.
Once you become the conserve of roses,
You are food for the Soul,
Light for the eyes...
When I say "conserve of roses,"
I mean the Grace of God and our existence.

Rumi

*With the blossom of the flower just kissing your palm, wrap your fingers towards the base of the flower and with your thumb and fingers pinch off the flower cleanly at its base, leaving the blossom in your palm. Then toss it gently in the bag.

California Poppy

Peacock Feather Necklace

We love this necklace!
It's a purple agate with sterling rivets to attach the sterling silver chain. The peacock feather is affixed to more rivets securing it to the agate.
This is made here in Portland, Oregon by the lovely artists at small things designs newest venture Stone & Honey. We always have a few of the honeycomb necklaces available as well. We currently have this large purple agate necklace and a smaller green agate with a different feather and a small honey colored one with honeycomb on it.
Sadie (pictured) has been eyeing this one and finally tried it on. Doesn't it look great with her green tank?
Each piece is completely unique, hand made and one of a kind.