Spice Up Your Life Spell

Start a fresh chapter in your love life without delay with this cup of love.

Gather together

    * cinnamon spice tea (from a shop) or 3 chopped cinnamon sticks

    * 1 cup (240ml) of hot water

    * 1 teaspoon honey

    * 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (or 3 more sticks ground in your mortar and pestle)

Brew and steep the tea for at least 3 minutes. Stir in the honey and savor the sweet, spicy smell. Drink it while contemplating your hopes, intentions, and dreams for a happy, healthy love life. Now, sprinkle the ground version of this charismatic spice on the threshold of your front door and along your entry path. When the cinnamon powder is crushed underfoot, its regenerative powers will help heat things up in your love life.

Peachy Keen Cooler

Not every herbal tea works well over ice, but this one will have your family and friends clamoring for more. Gather a palmful of each of these dried herbs:

• 1 part each of lemon verbena and lemon balm
• 1 part each of mint leaves, chamomile flowers, and hibiscus flowers
• 2 cups peach juice
• 1 lemon

Brew the herbs to yield six cups and let cool to room temperature. Pour into a large pitcher and add the peach juice until the pitcher is two-thirds full. Give it a good stir, then add in enough ice cubes to fill the vessel. Slice the lemon and lay on top. Serve, sit back, and let the compliments begin. This convivial concoction is ideal for special summer occasions such as the midsummer celebration of the solstice or longest day of the year.

Gardener’s Tea

As you now know, tilling the back forty, weeding, and harvesting your herbs and veggies is a huge amount of work. It is one of life’s greatest joys, without doubt, but nevertheless, many a sore back or aching knees have come to pass as result of a thriving garden. All the more reason for tea that revives, refreshes, and offers relief to aching joints. From your store of dried herbs, gather these:

• 2 parts echinacea root
• 2 parts chamomile flowers
• 1 part mint
• 1 part anise seed
• 1 part thyme

A nice hot cup of this remedy will have you jumping back into the garden to plant more of all the herbs that comprise this delightful tea. Ahhhh, sit back and enjoy. You deserve it!

Jasmine Tea Will Bring You Joy

Jasmine tea is a delightful concoction and can create an aura of bliss and conviviality. It is available at any grocer or purveyor of organic goods, but homegrown is even better. Brew a cup of jasmine tea and let it cool. Add two parts lemonade and drink the mixture with a good friend. Jasmine is a vine and represents the intertwining of people. You will be more bonded to anyone with whom you share this sweet ritual. This is also a tonic in which you can indulge alone. I recommend brewing up a batch every Monday, or “Moon Day,” to ensure that each week is filled with joyfulness.

Black and Green Tea

Use black tea for an upset tummy and diarrhea. Green tea strengthens the immune system, and you can reuse lightly moistened tea bags to stanch minor cuts or calm insect bites.

Coltsfoot Cures Coughs

Coltsfoot, also called Butterbur, is so named for the leaf’s resemblance to a horse’s hoof. Viewed as a weed, except by those who know, this spiky flowering plant grows wild along creeks, wetlands, or loamy fields. Tussilago, its Latinate botanical name, means “cough dispeller,” and this is a powerful aid to those with asthma or bronchial conditions and is very good medicine for colds and flu. In folklore, young maidens would use the leaves in a simple spell to see their future husband off in the distance galloping toward her. Truly knowledgeable hedge healers have a herd of coltsfoot in the shadiest, dampest part of their property. Coltsfoot’s medicinal mojo can be unleashed by infusing its leaves and/or flowers as a steeped tea. It is also commonly used as an ingredient in non-tobacco smoking blends; though naturally smoking of any sort is stressful to the lungs, if someone is determined to smoke in any case, smoking a little coltsfoot is thought to be a lung tonic.

Nettle (Urtica dioica)

Nettle has been used as a healer for untold centuries; it relieves allergies, it is an immune booster, and it can even help with a distended prostate. It is also a superfood and beloved for its nutrients. If you are working with fresh nettles, wear gloves to avoid the stinging. Cooking or drying removes any irritant. Any herb or health food store will have dried nettle both in bulk and capsule form. Make nettle tea by steeping two teaspoons of leaves for ten minutes covered or “take the capsules in recommended doses of 300 to 500 mg twice a day.

Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra)

This revered candy classic is also a wonderful anti-inflammatory which relieves the discomfort of colds in the sinuses. It can soothe sore throats and coughs and is a curative for gastrointestinal issues. Treat licorice root exactly as you would ginger with one minced teaspoon of fresh or dried simmered low covered in one cup of water twice a day to make a naturally sweet tea. Also, you can add licorice root to other herbal teas as it will sweeten them, besides adding its medicinal virtues, which tend to combine well with those of many other basic remedies.

Ginger (Zingiber officinale)

From tummy troubles to colds and flus, ginger is beloved for its curative powers. Any greengrocer or herbal apothecary will have plenty or ginger root in stock, and you should always have some around. When anyone in your family feels nauseous or senses a cold or fever coming, slice and mince a tablespoon of the root into two cups of hot water and simmer it low covered for tea. Sweeten to taste and drink twice a day for a surprisingly swift end to your suffering. It also makes a wonderful spicy iced tea when cooled, though for a respiratory or tummy bug, drink it comfortably warm.

Elderberry (Sambucus nigra, S. canadensis)

This time-tested medicinal has long been used for guarding against colds and flu. Elderberry flowers have been valued as a tonic for fever for centuries; such fruit extracts have been proven to be noteworthy antivirals, especially to support immunity. Two teaspoons of dried flowers and a cup of boiling water three times a day does the trick. Sweeten with local honey to taste. Or consider cultivating elderberry and making a syrup.

Echinacea (Echinacea spp.)

Every herb store or organic grocer will have dried echinacea root for fighting colds and negating respiratory infections. Just mince by the teaspoon and simmer low covered in two cups of boiling water. Sweeten to taste and drink at least a couple of cups a day, echinacea also makes an excellent tincture you can make by following the how-tos herein. It is an amazing immune booster, too!

Mother Nature’s Medicine Cabinet: Catnip (Nepeta cataria)

Dry a palmful of catnip leaves and allow them to steep in a cup of boiling water for five minutes, then strain as you would any loose tea. Honey helps even more, and a cup or two of catnip tea per day will have you in fine fettle, relaxed, and ready. This herb is not just for kitties! We humans can also benefit from it as a remedy for upset tummies as well as a way to diminish worry, anxiety, and nervous tension.

Mother Nature’s Medicine Cabinet: Calendula (Calendula officinalis)

Boil one cup of water and pour over two teaspoons of calendula petals. Steep this for eight to ten minutes and strain. Once it has cooled enough, you can drink it as a tea, use it as a mouthwash, or gargle with it to reduce any swelling of the mouth or throat. If you make an ointment with calendula, apply it to your skin three times during the day and it will calm irritation.

This commonly used herbal aid is popular for relief of gastrointestinal issues including oral and throat inflammation. It can also be made into a salve to heal the skin and soothe rashes, itching, irritation, and wounds. Remember that any herb can be made into a salve following the Calming Balm: Bay Leaf recipe. Your family will probably request the comfort of the calendula salve often, so keep it handy.