Salves are a simple yet effective way of applying the medicinal qualities of herbs. They’re the consistency of a cream at room temperature and portable for on-the-go topical application. By combining various herbal-infused oils, an individual can address a variety of ailments, from arthritis to asthma. Each salve can be customized to the individual to treat a specific illness or can be general all-heal tool in your first aid kit.
Base Ingredients
Herbal-infused Oils
To craft a salve, you must start with herbal-infused oils as your primary base. For this, there are two components: your choice of herb(s) and your choice of carrier oil(s). Some commonly used carrier oils are olive, grapeseed, almond and safflower.
At the end of this post, there will be an overview of common herbs and carrier oils so that you can make an educated decision when crafting your herbal-infused oils.
Here are two basic methods of infusion:
Solar Method (Folk Method)
Take a sterilized jar and fill ⅓ to ½ of it with your choice of dried herbs.
Cover with your carrier oil. Add around 500 IUs of vitamin E oil for every 8 oz. of carrier oil to prolong shelf life.
Cap the jar tightly and place in a sunny space – either outdoors or indoors. Shake it daily.
Allow the mixture to infuse for 2 to 3 weeks, or until the oil takes on the colour or aroma of the herb within.
Once the oil is ready, strain using a cheesecloth and bottle into a tinted sterilized jar. Store in a cool, dark place.
Slow Cooker or Stove top (Fast Method)
Place your choice of dried herbs in your slow cooker or pot and cover with your carrier oil. Add around 500 IUs of vitamin E oil for every 8 oz. of carrier oil to prolong shelf life.
Gently heat the herbs on very low heat (100 – 140 degrees Fahrenheit) for 1 – 5 hours until the oil takes on the colour and scent of the herb. You can cook it for longer at 100 F if you would like.
Turn off heat and allow to cool. Once the oil is ready, strain using a cheesecloth and bottle into a tinted sterilized jar. Store in a cool, dark place.
Do not use fresh herbs when crafting herbal-infused oils. They contain moisture and promote the growth of mold, especially if infused via solar method.
Wax
Waxes are frequently used in making cosmetics, body care products and salves: they help to bind and emulsify ointments and lotions. They also function as a natural hydrating ingredient and alleviate itching for those with sensitive skin.
The most commonly-used wax for crafting salves is beeswax; however, vegans and those with allergies can utilize carnauba wax which is sourced from the leaves of a Brazilian palm tree.
Method
Once the herbal-infused oils are prepared, the process of making a salve only takes a few minutes. Here are the steps involved in the process:
On low to medium heat, warm the herbal-infused oil(s) in the top of a double boiler or in a small saucepan.
Add the wax. Once the wax has melted, remove from heat.
If any, stir in any additional ingredients of your choice, such as essential oils.
Pour into your designated container(s).
Recipes
Soothing lip salve
3 tbsp beeswax
3 tbsp aloe vera gel
2 tbsp oil of choice
8 drops essential oil of choice (optional)
Salve for minor scrapes, bites and burns
1 ½ cups comfrey-infused oil
1 ½ tbsp coconut oil
¼ cup (55g) beeswax
Healing salve
1 quart (1 litre) of oil infused with equal parts St. John’s wort, comfrey, peppermint and lavender
¼ cup (55g) beeswax
Salve for backaches
1 cup ginger- and peppermint-infused oil
2 tbsp (22g) beeswax
First aid salve
1 cup St. John’s wort-infused oil
2 tbsp (22g) beeswax
Salve for rheumatoid arthritis
1 cup ginger- and licorice root-infused oil
2 tbsp (22g) beeswax
Common Carrier Oils
Almond oil, sweet: A fantastic carrier oil that contains fatty acids and vitamins A and E. It’s an effective emollient for moisturizing both skin and hair and is easily absorbed by skin.
Argan oil: This is a staple in moisturizing skin and hair care products. Argan oil contains tocopherols, phenols, carotenes, squaline and fatty acids – it’s a truly luxurious oil.
Evening primrose oil: Prized for its health and cosmetic benefits.
Grapeseed oil: A common base for many creams and lotions – it’s the go-to carrier oil since it’s especially useful for skin types that do not absorb oils well and does not leave a greasy feeling.
Olive oil: The most commonly-used oil in cosmetics and hair care.
Safflower oil: A highly-moisturizing oil that soothes troubled skin.
Common Herbs for Health and Wellness
Aloe Vera: Excellent for treating burns, cuts and scrapes.
Arnica Montana: These flowers offer strong anti-inflammatory properties. (Do not use in open or bleeding wounds. Long-term use can cause skin irritation.)
Black Cohosh: Offers anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving benefits. (Do not use during pregnancy or breastfeeding. Can cause gastric discomfort in some individuals.)
Blue Vervain: Relaxes the nervous system and offers reliable pain relief for rheumatism, joint pain and neuralgia. (Do not use during pregnancy.)
Chamomile: Antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and antispasmodic. (Do not use if on blood thinners or if allergic to ragweed.)
Chickweed: Wonderful for making soothing poultices to treat rashes, skin irritations, minor burns and itching.
Comfrey: Alleviates pain and inflammation; works well on cuts, scrapes, insect bites, burns and rashes. (Do not use on children.)
Echinacea: Antibacterial, anti-fungal and antiviral. (Do not use if you have tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, autoimmune diseases, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis or if you are allergic to ragweed.)
Ginkgo Biloba: Natural antihistamine, anti-inflammatory and great for treating allergies and asthma. (Do not use if you take monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), or blood thinners.)
Goldenseal: Antiviral, antibacterial and excellent for dealing with minor cuts and wounds, sinus infections, respiratory congestion, sore throats and more! (Do not use if you are pregnant, breastfeeding or if you have high blood pressure.)
Mullein: Great for first-aid treatment of minor wounds, burns and insect bites.
Plantain: Antimicrobial, antihistamine and anti-inflammatory; great for treating wounds, insect bites and minor aches and pains.
Sage: An excellent remedy for colds and fevers, hot flashes, painful or heavy periods, rashes and sore throats.
St. John’s wort: A strong antiviral; treats arthritis, fibromyalgia, muscle aches and sciatica. (Do not use if you take monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI) or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI).)
Witch Hazel: An effective remedy for acne, cuts and scrapes, insect bites, minor burns and sunburns.
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Images are under the Creative Commons License.
Information published is from my personal grimoire and has been accumulated over the years through a variety of books and resources while residing in Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Cuba and Canada.
1. Meditate every day for at least 10 – 15 minutes. Raising your vibration is super important when you want to develop your psychic abilities. This is because Spirit energy vibrates at a higher frequency.
Meditation will allow you to be in a relaxed state and raise your energetic vibration. You’ll begin to feel more connected to your Higher Self, Spirit, and the energy of others. For variety and some fun, try a guided meditation!
2. Get to know your Spirit Guides. During meditation, ask your Guides to show themselves to you. Ask them their names. Don’t filter anything, just go with it and trust.
3. Practice psychometry. Psychometry is reading the energy of an object. It’s SUPER fun and can be a great way to start practicing your abilities. All you need to do is hold an object (preferably a metal object and something that has lots of energy on it, like a wedding ring), then, close your eyes and see if you can intuitively sense, see, or hear anything about the owner of the object.
4. Develop clairvoyance with flower visualization.Visualization exercises will help develop your psychic abilities, specifically, clairvoyance. Grab some flowers from your yard or a cheap bouquet from the market. (It’s nice to have different types of flowers for this exercise.) Place the flowers in front of you and study them for a little while. Now, close your eyes and imagine one of the flowers. When you can see see the flower clearly in your mind, move onto the next, and so on.
5. Develop your clairvoyance with random visualization. This is fun, especially if you’ve mastered the flower visualization or just plain ole’ don’t like flowers.
6. Take a walk in nature. Meditation doesn’t have to be boring – or done sitting down. Do a mindfulness meditation by taking a walk in nature. Concentrate on as each step as you walk. Focus on the movement of your body and say the word “step” with each step you take. This will help your mind clear of clutter and help increase your vibration. Of course, taking a regular walk in nature without concentrating on your steps is also very meditative!
7. Read a few pages of a psychic development book every day.
8. Read posts by trusted psychic and medium bloggers to continue getting educated about intuition and the Spirit world.
9. Visit an antique store. Notice what you intuitively FEEL or sense by being in the store.
Does the energy feel wonderful? Heavy?
Now pick up an object. Do you sense anything? Hear a name? See a vision? Using your psychic abilities in this way helps increase them!
10. Make a symbol book. Psychic information comes to us in a variety of ways. It’s often symbolic and not meant to be taken literally.
Your Spirit Guides will help you interpret information as you develop your psychic abilities. Get yourself a nice journal and pen (I did this years ago and it’s an awesome keepsake!).
Sit quietly and invite your Spirit Guides and Angels in for help.
Ask them to give you symbols for things like events and occupations. For example, for “birthday”, you may be shown a birthday cake (if you’re clairvoyant) or hear the happy birthday song (if you’re clairaudient).
Write it down in your symbol book. Now, when you give a reading and are shown a birthday cake, you’ll know what it means!
11. If your using tarot, make your own tarot book. Get a tarot deck that you love, such as the The Rider Tarot Deck. Instead of looking at the meanings that come with the cards, use your intuition to make your own meanings. Spend time with one card each day meditating on the card. Write down all of your impressions of each card and what it means to you. This is a great way to develop your psychic abilities and learn tarot.
12. Practice seeing auras. ANYONE can learn to see an aura, so this is a great way to develop your psychic abilities. Have a friend stand in front of a plain colored wall. Step back about eight feet. Focus on your friend’s forehead (third eye area). Imagine you are looking through her, at the wall behind. You will start to notice the aura layer around the head.
13. Develop your clairaudience (psychic hearing). Each night, before you go to sleep, lay quietly in bed. Listen to the sounds around you. Do you hear crickets? The wind rustling through the trees? Focusing on the sounds that you normally ignore will sharpen this intuitive gift.
14. Practice giving readings often. This is KEY to becoming a psychic or medium. You can read all you want about golf, but until you get out there on the course and practice, you won’t become a great golfer. It’s the same with developing your psychic abilities.
15. Tune-in to your pet. When your pet is calm, sit with him and try intuitively picking up on how he feels. This will help develop your clairsentience.
16. Practice reading old family photos. I used to do this with my grandmother’s old black and white photos of family members that I had never met. Look at the people in the photos. Write down everything that you sense about them. This is one of the most fun ways to develop your psychic abilities.
17. Journal often. Journaling helps get you in touch with your Higher Self (soul) and spiritual helpers. Try this: Think of a situation you need guidance on. Journal about it. While you do, allow yourself to relax and let yourself be Divinely guided.
18. Pray. This will help you continue to feel loved, supported, and connected to the Divine.
19. Ask a friend to call you – telepathically. In your mind, hold the image on your friend. Imagine energetically asking her to contact you within 24 hours.
20. Join a spiritual development circle or take a class. This will give you a safe, loving environment in which to develop your psychic abilities and mediumship.
21. Get to know other psychics and mediums. Being a psychic or medium can be pretty interesting! It’s nice to have the support of others and, if you’re gifts are just developing, you can practice on each other.
22. Learn to turn your gifts “on”. As soon as you start to develop your psychic abilities, you’ll want to learn how to control them. This way you’re not “on” all the time, picking up everybody’s stuff.
Prior to any intuitive practice or giving a practice reading, imagine lighting a candle in your mind. Invite your Spirit Guides and Angels in.
The candle visualization lets your spiritual helpers know that you are open to psychic and Spirit communication. This will help you learn to turn on your gifts when you want to use them.
23. Learn to turn your gifts “off”. When you are done practicing, imagine blowing out the candle. Thank your spiritual helpers for their Divine support. This will help you control your gifts when you’re not working with Spirit or giving a reading.
24. Focus on your third eye. Clairvoyance is one of the main psychic abilities. To develop clairvoyance, take a few moments and focus on your third eye area (just above and between your eyebrows). Imagine it opening up. You may even feel your third eye begin to tingle.
25. Keep your vibration high. Having a high vibration is important when you develop your psychic abilities. Why? Because:
Spirit vibrates at a very high frequency.
Living a joyful, authentic life, will help you feel more connected to the Divine and your Higher Self.
Like attracts like which means that you will attract other beautiful, spiritually aware souls into your life!
26. Eat high-vibrational foods. Adding high vibration foods to your diet, such as fresh fruits and veggies will help your body feel good. And the better you feel physically, the better you will feel psychically and it will be easier to develop your psychic abilities.
27. Keep a dream journal. When your first start to develop your psychic abilities, you might start having really vivid dreams. This is because our logical minds aren’t resisting Spirit energy while we are sleeping. (Our logical minds often make us second guess ourselves when we are awake.) Keeping a dream journal can be helpful – and a nice keepsake of your intuitive journey!
Hope all this tips will help you opening your third eye 🙈
🌟Blessed be🌟
Have to try some of these
These are all really really good!! I do a lot of these often, try to pick a few of these exercises and practice often bc they rly do help a lot with building the skill!!!!
Read, all that you can. It doesn’t have to be scholarly texts, and you don’t have to memorize anything, but read.
If you find something and it sounds off, or this is the only source telling you X….look for verification.
Don’t be shy about reading the philosophers too. You may decide their work holds no baring on your practice, but decide that after you’ve looked at some of their stuff.
You don’t need to worship each deity individually. They were originally worshiper together, there’s no reason we can’t do so again today.
it doesn’t matter what you’re offering, just that you are giving in offering.
Yes, this means water is a perfectly good offering if that’s what you can give
There is no holy text, so be aware that just because One person does a thing doesn’t mean you have to do the thing as well, and just because one person uses a set of writing as rules doesn’t mean you have to as well.
Watch out for people claiming to speak for the gods. Consult with your own divination or a trusted diviner before taking advice (especially unsolicited) from someone who says they speak for any deity
Watch our for racists, homophobes, transphobes, and sexists. If you look at our myths there are people of all genders, intersex folks, trans people, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, people of different races, people with physical disabilities, and more all in our myths and worshiping the Theoi.
You do not need to be like the gods in order to worship them. You don’t have to be a woman to worship Artemis, you don’t need to be married to worship Hera, you can worship Dionysos and never touch alcohol.
Don’t rush into making an oath. I know it feels like everyone has made oaths and you should too in order to prove you’re serious, but trust me when I say “wait.” The gods will still be here in a year if you decide this is the right path for you.
Don’t believe everything you read about interactions with the gods. Most of us never get signs or literally hear them speak. There’s nothing unusual if you don’t either.
Prayer can be as formal or as casual as you like, it’s important that you’re comfortable with it though.
Festivals are fun, but unnecessary.
You don’t need individual altars for all the gods you worship. Don’t worry about putting Zeus and Hephaistos on the same space as Artemis.
Statues are nice, but unnecessary.
Ancient Greece spanned thousands of years and thousands of miles, there are more options than just what was done in Classical Athens, so if Athens doesn’t float your boat, look around at other stuff.
Yes, you can blend practices. Greco-pretty-much-everything has sources. Greco-Egyptian? Oh yeah, we got you. Greco-Roman, that’s just Tuesday. Greco-Bhuddist? They’ve got amazing art from this branch of worship. Want Greco-Gaelic? I’ve seen one (1) academic paper on this before but it was all Greek to me!
►APOLLON (Απολλων) was the great Olympian god of prophecy and oracles, healing, plague and disease, music, song and poetry, archery, and the protection of the young. He was depicted as a handsome, beardless youth with long hair and various attributes including:—a wreath and branch of laurel; bow and quiver; raven; and lyre.
fair--y backup 