Advice on herbs?

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Rin
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Advice on herbs?

Post by Rin »

I was discussing the idea of some kind of working to repel insects on another board and someone posted a spell they said had worked in the past for them. I want to give it a spin and see how it goes, if only to keep the mosquitos out of my room, but it calls for, to quote:
This working calls upon the help of plants that have biological properties for repelling insects. Strong smelling plants such as Lemon grass, Lavender, Rosemary, Peppermint etc all make fairly good repellents. The best thing to do is look for plants like these in the area you want to repel insects from, as those plants will have the ability to repel the local insects.
I'm doing some googling to try dig up suggestions, but does anyone have any ideas which herbs would be good for this effect in Australia? And, more to the point, where would such herbs be obtained? Would I have to buy the actual plants and harvest them myself, or could I obtain them pre-harvested somewhere?
"The path of the Sage is called
'The Path of Illumination'
he who gives himself to this path
is like a block of wood
that gives itself to the chisel-
cut by cut it is honed to perfection"

- DDJ, Verse 27

"It's still magic even if you know how it's done." - Terry Pratchett

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TheSeeker
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Re: Advice on herbs?

Post by TheSeeker »

Rin wrote:Lemon grass, Lavender, Rosemary, Peppermint... ...more to the point, where would such herbs be obtained? Would I have to buy the actual plants and harvest them myself, or could I obtain them pre-harvested somewhere?
I can't speak to what goes on in Auz with the availability of living plants and herbs, but I can say that all of these herbs grow like weeds in the northern hemisphere and are all commonly available.
Furthermore, the ones listed in your quotation are all commonly used in the kitchen --you guys must do rack of lamb with Rosemary! [smile2] -- Lemon Grass is commonly used in Thai cuisine, the mint family in Arabic cooking, and Lavender is a common ingredient in cosmetics, pot pourris, teas and other herby things.
The best thing to do is look for plants like these in the area you want to repel insects from, as those plants will have the ability to repel the local insects.
This statement suggests to me that you are not to harvest the plants, but to seek them out within the area you want to protect and work with their spirits to clear the area of bitey things using the focused, cooperative energy of the living plants in the location; akin to as one would work with a land wight, or a genius loci. That's what I took from it, anyway.

If you're finding living specimens hard to come by because of your location, you might want to consider making an incense or candles with dried herbs as they're likely much easier to come by.
Health Food stores may have organic varieties, too.

My .02... [geek2]

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Rin
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Re: Advice on herbs?

Post by Rin »

I didn't think of health food stores, I'll have to look into that one. I'm not much of a cook so their culinary use didn't immediately come to mind.

I did some research and found a few plants that apparently have fairly strong repellent properties in Australia, but none that I could think of which grew locally. Definitely bears further investigation though.

The complete spell:
This working calls upon the help of plants that have biological properties for repelling insects. Strong smelling plants such as Lemon grass, Lavender, Rosemary, Peppermint etc all make fairly good repellents. The best thing to do is look for plants like these in the area you want to repel insects from, as those plants will have the ability to repel the local insects.

The working also relies on the spirits of plants to aid the working and so I harvest the plants in a certain manner, asking the plants before hand if they will aid in this particular working and truthfully waiting to feel there response. If I get a negative response or a feeling of unease I will leave some water for that plant and then look for another, if it is a positive response I make an offering to the plant and then harvest. Never take too much.

This actual working I made when I was camping and it was hot and the insects had gone mad!!! There was a swarm of flying pests. I tried my usual go into "spiritual mode" and ask for them to leave but it didn't work on this occaision. So I gathered some lavender and rosemary and another plant but I don't know what it was, it had a strong smell and my intuition said it would be good.

I took all the plant materials to the tent and sat at the entrance. I had some netting material at the tent and I figured it would make good symbolism as a bug net. I took the lavender and it was long enough so I decided to plait it but I ended up making it into a circle as a sort of wreath, as I did I kept calling out to Lavender and asking for it to help keep insects away and visualised lavender shooting up around me until every sufrace of the area was full of lavender. Then I took the rosemary and stuffed bits of it throughout the lavender. Again calling out for rosemary to help keep insects away and visualising rosemary growing among the lavender. I did the same for the last plant. I then secured the netting so it hung in the middle of the circle.

I then took the wreath and held it near my face to breathe in the strong scents and began a chant.

Lavender, Rosemary and plants unknown
I call you now to protect this place
with your strong scent create a net
keep away those bugs and insects.

I chanted this over and over again and the energy I was raising was quite intense so I took the wreath and began a sort of "dance" around the area while I visualised the plants filling up all the space of the area right up to the sky and the smell getting stronger and stronger. When I got back to the tent I hung the wreath up and when we moved on to another camp site I took it with us and repeated the chant and dancing and visualisation. It appeared to be very effective and only a few bees and spiders came to bother us, but then I like bees and spiders are usefull. Posted Image

On the last day of our camping trip I placed the wreath along with a few other workings I made that trip on a tree stump. Then I made an offering of water, some river stones and my offering powder and gave thanks for all the help we had been given.

http://occultcorpus.com/forums/index.ph ... g-working/
"The path of the Sage is called
'The Path of Illumination'
he who gives himself to this path
is like a block of wood
that gives itself to the chisel-
cut by cut it is honed to perfection"

- DDJ, Verse 27

"It's still magic even if you know how it's done." - Terry Pratchett

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Nahemah
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Re: Advice on herbs?

Post by Nahemah »

I did some research and found a few plants that apparently have fairly strong repellent properties in Australia, but none that I could think of which grew locally. Definitely bears further investigation though.
All I could think of was eucalyptus and tea tree,lol.I don't know much about Australian native flora and fauna either.

But I went searching,out of curiosity and found this:

http://www.bri.net.au/medicine.html

And here is a list with bush medicine plants in it,there may be something useful there?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:A ... _bushcraft
"He lived his words, spoke his own actions and his story and the story of the world ran parallel."

Sartre speaking of Che Guevara.

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Jack-o-diamonds
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Re: Advice on herbs?

Post by Jack-o-diamonds »

sprinkling a bunch of peppermint oil works well for me, and smells nice.
"oh, thou clear spirit, of thy fire thou madest me, and like a true child of fire, i breathe it back to thee."

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