Accumulation of titbits #3 / Stirring the cauldron :o)

Hihihihi or cackle, cackle, cackle ! Maybe not quite what you think when you read ‘Stirring the cauldron’. Well, I just gave it a magical and ritual twist in order to take away a boring procedure and turn it into something more magical. So, what the heck am I writing about? Hair colour! Yes, something really mundane, not exiting and certainly not magical. BUT is it??????? 

Now, we are not talking about a chemical bomb from the shop that is neither healthy for you nor the environment. I like to stir the cauldron by using 100% herbal hair colour. Why? Environmental friendlier, better for your own health, makes your hair shiny and healthy and they will keep you in suspense right to the end because you never know what happens . Now, I am NOT an expert as I only just started to mix, but there are some serious addicts out there experimenting like mad.

For the last 4-5 years I have been using a herbal creme that is already ready mixed and just needs to be applied. I was happy with it until now when I tried to mix my own. It is time consuming, but the result is even better. My hair colour looks a lot more even now and less orange but has a warm brown reddish colour in the sun, is more shiny and feels good. Unlike chemical colour which will destroy your hair, herbal colours forms a coat around your own hair. BUT the outcome is as individually as there are people out there. Herbal colour will work with your own hair colour and you have to go through trial and error to see what works and what you like. Grey hair will not be covered like with chemical but will always stay lighter. This is not a problem but quite the opposite. It gives the hair highlights and therefore a more natural look. I would not go back to chemical for any money. 

Now, before you run out and start stirring your cauldron and just slap it on, make sure you read up on it. Do your research. Don’t be afraid! I am not saying you will end up getting hurt or anything like this, but what I am saying is that you have to work with the right colours for your own hair. If you are a bright blond and you want to go dark mahogany you will end up bright orange . Also if you are blond you will not manage to go black with herbal because it only works with your own starting colour. The same the other way round. It does not bleach.              

My own mix here is researched from a beauty junky site where people spend a lot of time to write about there experiences which is a good thing for others. BUT herbal colour is simply something you just have to experiment with. I would put the site URL here, but it is pointless as it is German. It really is a fantastic site because people here try an go more natural from toothpastes, to air freshener, facial cremes …. and write about products that they have either found or make themselves.     

I have now used:

40 gr mahagony mixed with about 100 ml boiling water and half a lemon squeezed. Apparently lemon helps to bring the red out more. Mix the red separate from the black and brown.

20 gr black & 50 gr terra (brown shade with little red in it) mixed with about 250 ml boiling water and 15 gr baking powder (or baking soda). Hm! Why baking powder? Good question, but I don’t think I can remember the answer. The black will develop better and it will give the whole paste a more creme consistency. I think that was the answer.

I leave it to stand for about 5 minutes, mix it together and boil it again to really heat it up. Heat intensives the colour. Cool a little, add some conditioner and apply it to your hair. Wrap it up with silver foil, plastic cap and towel and keep it as warm as possible. Again, it intensives the colour.

Test a strand anyway to see what happens before you cover your whole head. Recommendations on the packed are 1 – 2 hours. One lady in the forum said that you need to leave it at least 6 hours to make sure it will stay permanent. Otherwise it will wash out to fast. This is what I did now and here is the result.

Some people slap it on and even sleep on it over night. The experiments they have listed are a right laugh, but also quite interesting what you can learn. If you just stick to what is says on the pack I don’t know if much will happen. Others enhance there mix with strong coffee or red wine, certain spices like chili or cayenne ….

Turn it in to a beauty ritual for yourself and it will be an enjoyable task.  

Important note: DON’T buy a cheap powder from the grocery shop around the corner. It has to be from some sort of shop where they guaranty organic quality. Apparently the plant is like a sponge when it comes to pesticides and you do not want this on your head. Probably not much better than using chemicals.  

Accumulation of titbits #2 / Magical Oils

A blue sky is all we have seen for ….???? Hm! Seems to me like for ever, but it may has been 2 weeks or so. For me it is a big deal because the blue sky was/ is accompanied by warm weather which really takes it out of me. I spend most of the time hiding indoors and still end up with headache. People find it strange when I say that I don’t like warm weather, but as you can see there is a reason for it. So what to do?    

I still use the early morning to take my daughter for a walk around the fields where we are greeted by a sea of wild grown chamomile. Beautiful to look at and also a soothing scent on my hands when gently rubbing them. GENTLY so I wont damage them. No, I do not use any of the herbs on my path. We are surrounded by fields that are cultivated by farmers using pesticides, dog walkers, warnings of fox tapeworm …. I therefore neither use them for teas … nor magical purposes. I would not even sew them into a pillow. Shame! I obtain my herbs from an online shop or the local pharmacist. Not very witchy, but rather safe than sorry.    

What I also see a lot is big bushes of lavender in gardens that are carefully grown. Everything has its own space, neat and tidy . I prefer it a bit more wild, although we have to be very careful out here due to all the ticks.

So, when life gives you lemon, make lemonade. The warm and sunny weather is the best time to make (magical) oils using a natural source and the energy of the sun rather than using the radiator in winter. Don’t get me wrong, I still do it in winter as well, but I do believe that the energetic potent from summer oils have a different quality. I am not saying better or worse but different. Try it yourself.

I have used the following herbs:

Cosmetic purpose:

Lady’s mantle - the final result will be a body oil   

Marigold – it is time again to make more Calendula ointment    

Magical purpose:

Cinnamon – for something you want to attract (love, money …)

Bourbon Vanilla - only a little cut into pieces because I find it quite expensive for love and harmony

Lavender – for example to be used in rituals that you do for your own benefit. A treat so to speak. Do something nice for yourself. 

I crushed cinnamon sticks into smaller pieces and cut the vanilla into little pieces. Each herb was placed into a little jar and covered with sesame base oil. I use this because I have got a big container (heated up to a certain degree to prolong shelf life) which should have been used for Ayurveda head and face massage (never got around to do this as a job). The jars have been standing on the balcony for nearly 2 weeks, but I am not sure yet if I leave it at that or add another 2 weeks to it to cover all the moon phases.  

Don’t forget to shake the jars regularly. I have also got one jar in the kitchen which is rosemary steeped in alcohol. This one will be turned into a cleansing air spray to get rid of negative energies.

It is soon time to filter all the jars and fill the oil into little bottles. I am sure I will capture this in photos and post them here .  

What will I use the magical oils for? Candle magic, applying to the chakras…  BUT take care with any experiments when using (essential) oils and herbs in case they cause skin irritation especially cinnamon. Make sure everything is well dilutedto be on the safe side and once applied make sure you wash your hands. Take even more precautions if you are pregnant.

Something I also would like to mention about the Calendula ointment is that I have been using it on my daughters arm. She had a bigger patch for months which I checked out at the doctors and she told me that it looked like neurodermatitis and gave me a big tub of creme and soap. Both smelled horrible and did not make the slightest bit of difference. After a week or two I decided to stop that horrible stuff and just used the above ointment and it has cleared up .

Accumulation of titbits #1

Yes, I am still alive . As the header says and also my photos in this post reflect, I have nothing earth moving to say but just post a couple of niff naff and trivia things that have accumulated here over the past weeks.  This will not be done with one post, but spread out over a couple within the next couple of days (if I can manage).  

Some of a witchy nature and some are just mundane but never the less something I like to share with my readers that keep comming back.

So, I hope I get the other posts done asap before I even add more to my list of things to write about and soon can’t manage anymore.

Have a beautiful & magical day

Summer Solstice

glitter-graphics.com

I am not a person who needs a lot tam tam so it will be another quite acknowledgment of the changing time. Unlike for others this is always a happy time for me. As a winter person I prefer the cooler, cosier time compare to the heat that usually causes me discomfort. My favourite time of the year is Samhain when the nights are longer but not to long and the temperatures have definitely gone done without having to expect snow or frost. Well, not long to go but in the meantime a

Happy Summer Solstice  

glitter-graphics.com

My inner sanctum

I have noticed again that I find it very hard to combine the fitness side with the path. Yoga was not such a struggle, but fitness itself does not let me build a brigde at this point of time. It is my second course that I am focusing on now and as long as I do (another 6 or 7 weeks left) it somehow keeps me of the path.

Today I kicked myself up the butt and told myself to at least get on with the magician from my tarot. More on this will be posted in my blog Wandering Soul. It was time to retreat into my inner sanctum, a place that I can just be me without any expectations, commitments, responsibilities, no judgement … Well, you get the idea. 

I got into a comfortable position and my visualisation takes me to my little “witchy” cottage. This is where I start. I think about my task ahead and pack everything I need into a basket. Candles, incense, crystals, herbs, … and today the card of the magician. I leave the cottage, close the door behind me and end up in my “witchy” garden where everything grows wild. I am sheltered from the surrounding world and nobody can enter my garden without my permission. A big stone altar/ table is placed facing a big lake and here is where I place all the tools I will need for my working today. Again, in this case some incense and candle and the card of the magician. I than get comfortable and start my meditation/ visualization. Yes, today I had a visualization within a visualization . I entered the world of the magician to see what he has to say. Well, I had to keep it short because my memory is no the best . After a few answers I had to stop and return to my altar, to walk back to the cottage, close the door, sit at the kitchen table and return to my bedroom. Complicated? I know! Are you still with me? Once back I had to write the input down what he had to say. This will be posted at Wandering Soul.

I normally just retreat to my inner sanctum (”witchy” garden) just to switch of and let come what ever wants to come to me. Today I felt like taking it a bit further. It wasn’t more than 10 minutes, but this is more than I did in month. I need to do this more often and not be dragged of the path every time I pursue other areas.

Power Bag

For more details on how to make the pouch check out my blog Simple Crafting ~ Pouch #2.

As mentioned before I am working my way through my book again: The Way of the Green Witch by Arin Murphy-Hiscock (book can also be found online here). I want to see how much I can take and put into practice rather than just reading through it and putting it aside again like I do with so many books. Why get all these books and read them when you don’t do anything with it? I am not saying follow everything step by step as it is written in the book, but give it your own twist so it feels right to you.

My first project now was the power bag to collect items in from a walk. This way the energies of natures gifts are still close to you although you might sit at your desk at work in the fifth floor. I kept the bag small because I do not just want to travel around with a suitcase full of nature . Only a few chosen items that will be added when their energy is needed and will also be put back when other energies are required. Keep it flowing instead of letting the energies stagnate.    

 

PS: I wrote a new entry for Wandering Soul ~ Tarot Journey/ Moving on

Update

Wandering Soul ~ Tarot Journey

Simple Crafts ~ Lady #2 or Goddess

Grumpy old women

I new it would be a mistake, but sometimes it can also be a laugh. UK readers are probably familiar with the TV program “Grumpy old women” (there is also one called Grumpy old men) and it is about  ”a group of middle-aged women (or men) grumble about various aspects of modern life“. They are usually 40 + and yesterday they took a look at today’s nightlife and the appalling way young women and men behave when out getting drunk to the point of walking around with sick in their face or lying in the gutter with their mini skirts (belts) over their head. Is this really something to be proud of? Having sex with any Dick, Trick or Harry because they are drunk? Urinating on street corners, fighting ….

Spitting was another subject where men just cough it up or snot it out . AAAAHHHHHH! 

Feeling quite old when going to a hairdresser these days because they usually employ some hip early 20 girls that just bore you to death with smalltalk that nobody is interested in.  

Youngsters that have no respect for anything, are loud mouthed and most of the time you can’t even understand them because they have developed their own language.

I will stop here, but I think you get the idea. I was giggling in parts, but in other areas I was just nodding in approval.

OH MY GODDESS, I HAVE BECOME A GRUMPY OLD WOMAN.

STOP! Does that really mean that we are grumpy because we get older, or are we grumpy because we have other standards of how we should behave in public? Common courtesy has made way for rudeness and violence that it scares me to think that my children might become part of this due to peer pressure. How do I teach my son (12) to respect girls/women, if the girls/ women don’t respect themselves? How do I teach my daughter (3) to respect herself when her friends in later life make it a sport to bed as many guys us possible? There is only so much we as parents can do before we reach the end of the line. Hell, and I thought I went of the rails when I was a teenager, but compare to what you see on TV today I was an angel. I am just wondering if it is like that all over the world or is the UK really bad right now?

And while we are talking grumpy OLD women, my mind keeps circling around the fact that I will be 40 next year. Do I feel old? Hell no, but society decided that we are old which does make me feel low. We are just suposse to be old, frumpy, overweight and fade into the background. It was therefore really good to hear this week (no idea where I heard it) that Helen Mirren was voted one of the top 25 (sexy) …. Can’t even remember the list and if it was sexy, but it did include hot people like Katy Perry, Christina Applegate, some (no idea) guys and so on and Helen Mirren. Now, for you lot that don’t know her, she is already a crone at 61 but certainly not fadding into the background.

         

No plastic surgery (yet), no nip or tuck just a natural beautiful crone enjoying her life to the full. Shocking really because from a certain age women should disappear from the limelight and just wither away. But looking at this it jut shows that life is not over yet just because you are past your 20s. You can just take it lying down or stand up and be proud of your age. To hell with society!     

Another rant over

Simple Crafts update

Simple Crafts update Jewellery Box

I opened this blog here originally called Crafty Witch. I moved away from it because of the “pressure” to constantly craft something witchy, but this is not the case. There is more to the path than just including pentagrams, goddesses or what ever else you put with the path. I felt constraint and I am glad I made this blog into a just daily niff naff and trivia blog and Simple Crafts for ANY type of craft. Not just witchy. Who knows, you might still find inspiration in a none witchy item and make it witchy for yourself.

Wandering Soul ~ Tarot Journey

I just wrote a new entry for my blog Wandering Soul ~ Tarot Journey. The entry is called Fool ~ Tidbits. I guess it is about time to move on to the next card otherwise I will never get my head around the tarot.