Clarity tea: our visionary blend

Our Clarity Tea was on our tasting table last weekend at St. Andrews market, and it proved so popular that I thought I’d write a bit of a post about it. It’s a beautiful blend to look at – anything with calendula flowers in it is so pretty, don’t you think?

When you drink it you will find it has a kind of earthy taste (I think that’s mostly the mugwort), a bit spicy from the calendula flowers and a bit aromatic from the fennel seeds. It’s grounding – that’s the mugwort and the fennel – yet opening, protective and clarifying thanks to the eyebright and the calendula (and the mugwort. Mugwort is good for lots of things, in case you hadn’t worked that out by now).

This blend is a tonic for the third eye; we particularly recommend it for when you’re working on meditation or feel a bit lost in a mental fog. If you suspect that there’s something going on around you – especially something negative – but you’re not quite sure what it is, Clarity Tea can help to open your eyes to what’s happening. It is also an excellent herbal blend to drink while you’re studying, helping you to identify and absorb the most relevant bits of information.

Obviously, based on the description above, our Clarity blend has been formulated to work primarily on an energetic level. It does, however, also work on a physical level; eyebright and calendula have a long history of use for inflammations of mucous membranes (with eyebright in particular acting on the upper respiratory system and eyes), and calendula is also a lymphatic herb – meaning that this blend may also be helpful for mild seasonal allergies such as hayfever.

As with anything containing mugwort (a uterine stimulant), please avoid this blend if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.

What will be available on the tasting table this Saturday at the market? Come along and find out! We’d love to see you!

Blessings on this sunny winter’s day

Verity )O(

A tried and true remedy for colds and flu: Healing Garden Tea

Have you been having lots of illness lately? I really hope not (we have, including one of the most ghastly, lingering sinus infections I’ve ever suffered with. It was absolutely disgusting! But that’s all I’ll say about that!). Sickness at one time and another is pretty much inevitable, I think – no matter how much we try to avoid it, at some point our bodies’ defenses are just going to say ‘too hard!’ and we’ll come down with something. Poor diet, too little sleep, and above all stress of any kind (or every kind, I suppose) all wear us down eventually.

And that’s ok, you know? Because illness is a wake-up call as well as a pain in the arse. Illness makes us ask ourselves What do I need to change, how can I better support myself to maintain my health? But while we’re working on the answers to those questions, what do we do to relieve the discomfort?

Enter my very most favourite first line remedy for colds and flu, which we have called our Healing Garden Tea (I’m actually sipping some right now). It works really well to ease the pains of the early stages of a cold or flu, and it contains yarrow, peppermint, elderflower, catnip and echinacea.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is a circulatory stimulant, diaphoretic and mucous membrane tonic. It tones the tissues (eg of your sinuses), making it harder for the bugs to get in; heats the body, making it harder for the bugs to survive; and gets the blood flowing, which means that more defensive goodies can get to the infected site more quickly.

Peppermint (Mentha piperita) is, like yarrow, used as a diaphoretic to promote sweating and get things moving. The volatile oil components also help to break up mucus, and of course add a pleasant flavour.

Elderflower (Sambucus nigra) is also a mucous membrane tonic, specific to the upper respiratory system (yarrow is more general), and helps to get mucus moving.

Catnip (Nepeta cataria) has many similar actions to peppermint but is also very soothing for the nervous system, promoting relaxation and rest – which is after all really the BEST thing for recovery.

Echinacea (Echincea purpurea) stimulates the immune system and, equally if not more important, stimulates the lymphatic circulation, which is responsible for clearing all the nasties out of the bloodstream.

So you can see that this is actually a really potent, synergistic blend of herbs, deeply supporting the actions of the body as it tries to heal itself, which I think is just amazing. Healing Garden tea also tastes very pleasant (although depending on your symptoms you might not be able to taste it much) and is extremely soothing, especially when you’re feeling kind of shivery and miserable. It will help your throat feel better and you’ll be running to blow your nose as it gets all that infected mucus out of your body! I recommend at least three cups a day if you’re feeling poorly, or preferably six – but you can infuse the same leaves a second time after you’ve had the first cup.

Another tip I have is to drink it as hot as possible – this will improve the diaphoretic action – and even add a sprinkle of cayenne pepper or a pinch of chilli flakes to the pot while you’re brewing it to fire things up a little. Add some raw honey too if you like, and then wrap up as warm as possible and rest if you can.

Keep well!

Bright blessings
Verity )O(

Feeling chilly? Make a mug of Fire Chai

If you’re in Melbourne it’s pretty certain that you’ve been feeling quite chilly lately… The sun might have been shining (mind you it’s started raining tonight) but there has been a ridiculously cold wind blowing… Right down from the snowy tops of mountains, it feels like… I do prefer cooler weather but it’s been bone-freezingly cold, especially in our house where we rely solely on passive heating (insulation, north facing windows…. You’re right, it’s not enough. I’m wearing thick socks, ugg boots, and four layers of clothing plus a hat as I type this).

But what will warm you up is a nice cup of tea, particularly if it’s a cup of our Fire Chai. This is one of our blends that I’ve been very excited to finally share with you, partly because it’s new – only popped in the shop this week – and partly because it is one of the best antidotes to this wintry weather.

Fire Chai is a combination of stimulating spices – ginger, cinnamon, cayenne and turmeric, all organic – and Australian Daintree tea, which is grown without pesticides and is naturally low in caffeine. This blend is a bit different from your general chai masala blends because it packs quite a punch. The cayenne in particular comes to the fore in the first few sips, but after that the sweeter cinnamon and deeper notes of the turmeric and ginger come through. You will absolutely feel your fingers and toes come alive after a cup of Fire Chai.

Because of the stimulating nature of the spices, opening up the peripheral circulation, it’s also a really good tea option for when you’re coming down with a cold. Take a hot bath and drink some Fire Chai and then wrap up warm to sweat things out in bed… Repeat as needed! Ginger and turmeric have well-recognized anti-inflammatory actions – and turmeric is also high in antioxidants, as is the Daintree tea – so it’s a delicious way to incorporate a bit more of these healthful spices into your life.

We recommend brewing this one with milk – dairy or coconut – to temper the heat. Generally what I do is steep a level teaspoon in a half cup of boiling water for about 5-10 minutes, then strain it into a half cup of warm milk. If that seems a bit too strong, use the same amount of tea but in one cup of water and one of milk. You can of course add honey or another sweetener if you wish! It is quite spicy, so if you’re sensitive to chilli (for example, if you have a stomach ulcer) this is not the one for you. Try our Moon Chai instead!

Keep warm friends!

Bright blessings
Verity )O(

Changes and transformations

Just a little note to let you know that we are in the process of making some changes to the way Lilith’s Herb Garden looks and works… At the moment our shop is in maintenance mode while we tinker away behind the scenes… We’re going to try splitting the Garden into two distinct sides – the Herb Garden, where you will find all the delicious teas and healing ointments, and the Shadow Garden, where we will stock our pathworking balms, incenses, energetic medicines and suchlike.

Here’s a sneak peek at our new look/s:

We’re excited to feel things coming together a little more cohesively – it’s been a bit of a tricky time, trying to sort out the best approach to the business, not to mention the steep learning curve of using GIMP to design our new logos… (one of my personal headaches!!) But that’s the time of year too, time to dig in deeper and get the foundations and roots sorted during these darkest days, and then once Yule has come and gone, to start to ascend again!

Of course, nothing is final and we will always be ready to change and transform further as we go. However it’s nice to feel that we’re getting over the first run of hurdles, which means we can get back to doing what we are really passionate about – working with beautiful herbs! There are several new teas in the works, including a couple of really delciious chai blends that I’ll be posting about once the shop is open again.

In the meantime, do chat to us on Twitter, check out our photos on Instagram, or email us: lilithsherbgarden (at) gmail (dot) com

 

Bright blessings on this super chilly Melbourne day ~

Verity

Horned god ointment

Today Cath made our Horned God ointment – prepared during the solar eclipse, with the sun and new moon in Taurus.

A little bundle of snake skin, wood betony, willow, patchouli and oak moss was placed within the infused hellebore root oil, then blended with with bee’s wax and mugwort infused oil. The hellebore root was black, but surprisingly the infused oil was quite light in colour and fragrance.

Here are the balms, not yet set.

This ointment can be used for underworld workings or shape shifting magic. It is also protective and may help you to avoid unwanted attention.

And the final product with pathworking tunnel… Down the rabbit hole we go…

Things a-brewing

There’s exciting things steeping in jars at Cath’s house… Some very magickal herbs – dittany, mugwort, hemlock – waiting for us to decant them at Samhain. Ointments and ritual soap are some of the things we have planned for our infused oils. I can’t wait to get started.

I’m also very excited about the range of chakra balancing blends we are coming up with… We already have our basic range of gem tinctures in the shop of course – but I am so thrilled to be coming up with some more complex, healing mixtures that you can use for pathworking meditations, bathing and anointing yourself.

These will contain herbs chosen to nurture and balance the energy of each chakra, steeped in alcohol to create a tincture and then blended and bottled with the addition of essential oils and gem or flower essences. The first three or four have worked themselves out pretty clearly in my head, so now it’s just a matter of getting hold of the raw ingredients and setting them to infuse. In particular I’m already dreaming of how good the blend for the sacral chakra will smell and feel – sandalwood, gardenia, ylang ylang, rose geranium, how delicious!

I haven’t worked with chakras much in the past, I have to say, and it’s only recently that I’ve felt particularly drawn to focus on them, but I’m glad I’m working with them now! Yesterday – a particularly difficult, nasty day with me and my little boy rubbing each other totally up the wrong way, with much screaming and tears from both of us I’m sorry to say – in an attempt to ground and settle myself I took quite a few doses of hematite and carnelian (for the root and sacral chakra) essence and they worked amazingly well… I felt more grounded, more centred and calm, it was as if a huge ball of tension and blocked energy unravelled itself from inside me. Today, thankfully, has been much calmer all round.