Essential oils for Magical and Ritual practice

Plants are magic

We all know the medicinal and olfactory qualities of plants are beneficial for mind, body, and spirit and the fragrance is often intoxicating. Essential oils, derived from the glandular trichomes of fragrant plants are one of my favorite magical tools in my arsenal. Essential oils are precious materials that are ideal for use to enhance ritual and shellwork while also affecting the energy and mood of the witch. 

Scent

​Scent is the most overlooked sense but it is a vital component to the human experience. Scent is directly connected to memory, to bodily experience, and to pleasure. Finding a fragrant plant that makes you feel enveloped, sexy, magical, and  mysterious is pretty much the best thing ever.

Essential oils have powerful magical components, like the plants from which they are derived: they carry the plants' energies and have the added layer of being fragrant and intoxicating. Perfumers all over the world prize this precious gift- a drop of oil containing the fleeting moment and life of a plant, leaf, resin, or root. In a magical practice essential oils can be used to draw on the intention you’re working in your spell. They can be added to a ritual bath, used to anoint candles, added to a magical floor wash to create a protection spell, the list goes on. Each plant's essential oil has its own unique magical qualities. You can find lots of information in texts and online in regard to the magical qualities of the plants, but in my experience the best information comes directly from your intuition. My relationship with the plant is going to be different than your relationship with the same plant, and it’s really important to honor the qualities that come through with these complex beings.

Here are a few of my favorite essential oils to work with and ritual:

• Lavender- for soothing the nervous system, creating harmony, balance, and peace. 
• Rose- for opening up the heart, inviting in radical vulnerability, sweetness, and fierce mama bear protection. 
• Yarrow- white for boundaries and protection, pink for protecting the heart after trauma or heartbreak
• Cinnamon- for attraction spells, especially paired with honey or sugar to invite abundance and to sweeten the spell
• Bergamot- a joyful, sunny addition to an abundance spell, or to dispel negativity and gloom and invite inspiration in
• Mugwort- to open up the psychic centers, invite magic in, and to help dream my dream in the world

Keeping a Magical Scent Journal:

Make or purchase a little journal dedicated to your fragrant magical collection. This will include notes on herbs, spices, and essential oils you have (or want to have) in your witchy toolbox.
Dedicate each page of the journal to a new plant including the following:

• Common name of the oil/ herb/ spice, include the Latin name if you'd like
• The magical properties you sense from it
• Any research you've done on the properties on the plant, cite where the info came from
• Recipes you're developing for particular spells involving the plant
• Sketch a botanical illustration of the plant. If that's not your jam, print an image and paste it in.
• if the plant is available, press it into the page of your journal

You're basically a Kitchen Witch!