Kate West - The Real Witches’ Kitchen - Spells, recipes, oils, lotions and potions from the Witches’ Hearth

Try to make things for immediate use, as this is when they are at their most potent. If you are making something to store for later, make sure you label it correctly and put a date on it. Even the best memory can fail from time to time.

Never eat or drink anything which is not designed for consumption unless you are 100 per cent certain what it is and are familiar with its possible effects. These days it is possible to buy most herbs from the supermarket or healthstore in packaging which makes it obvious whether you can ingest them or not. If you are buying by mail order, then check that your supplier is both knowledgeable and reputable, and don’t be afraid to ask for their qualifications or for references. If you are buying living plants, get them from a reputable source which labels them carefully. In all cases try to obtain herbs which have been grown organically rather than those exposed to chemical fertilizers or pesticides.

Never give anything to anyone else without telling them what it contains. There will always be someone for whom it is inadvisable to take the most innocuous-sounding ingredient.

Do not give anything to pregnant women, babies or young children unless it is designed for their use. If you wish to give camomile to a baby to aid digestion, for example, look for a camomile drink designed for infants of the appropriate age. If in doubt, consult a doctor or pharmacist. Do not use aromatherapy oils, other than lavender, on pregnant women, nursing mothers, babies or children under 12 without consulting an experienced aromatherapist.

Any home-made lotions, soaps and creams should be tested on a small area of skin before use. You don’t want to discover an allergy after you’ve covered your face with something! Quite often it is the base which can cause a reaction, so it is wise to test that before you put the effort into making a remedy. Do not expect home-made items to last anywhere near as long as their manufactured counterparts, as you will be neither filling them with preservatives nor boiling the life out of them. It is worth noting that many shop-bought preparations will have the scent of herbs rather than their active ingredients.

Experiment carefully and use your senses – smell and taste things cautiously. If something smells disgusting, it will probably taste pretty bad too. If it has green fur on it, it has probably gone off! If something seems to be disagreeing with you, stop using it. Herbal medicine should not have unpleasant side-effects.

In the case of illness, always seek conventional help as well. If it is something major, get a professional diagnosis and tell your practitioner what you intend to do to supplement their treatment. Some herbal remedies can conflict with modern medicines, especially the contraceptive pill. If you are sure your illness is minor, say, indigestion caused by overindulgence, by all means try a herbal remedy first, but if the symptoms persist, call on the professionals in case there is a more serious underlying complaint.

If using essential oils, make sure that they really are 100 per cent essential oils, not perfumed oils or blended oils. There are many cheap, and not so cheap, fakes on the market, so it is worth taking the extra time and effort to track down the real thing and pay the proper price for it. Perfume oils usually contain chemical scents and will not have the same effects as essential oils and some cheap ones can be positively damaging. Blended oils may contain almost anything in addition to what they own up to on the bottle, and in any case, once an oil has been blended, it will start to deteriorate much faster.

Always keep everything spotlessly clean – your hands, your preparation area, any bottles, pans or jars. However, try not to use large quantities of chemicals to clean and sterilize, particularly bleach, as this is quite toxic and will kill off the very properties of the plants you seek to use. Surfaces can be rubbed down with a salt and water paste then rinsed and dried carefully. Hands can be washed with ordinary soap and water, then dried. In both cases it is essential to make sure that the drying cloth is clean, as many of the germs in the kitchen are found on the tea towel! Containers should be of glass, not plastic, and after being thoroughly cleaned can be sterilized by completely immersing them in lightly-salted water and boiling them for ten minutes. As soon as they are cool enough to handle, allow them to dry naturally by standing them on their necks on a clean cloth. Do not eat, drink or smoke whilst making your preparations; the action of raising things to your mouth may contaminate your hands with germs.

Although the above instructions may look quite daunting at first glance, they are in fact the day-to-day practical precautions which we should take with anything we are going to consume or use on our bodies.

Working sensibly with herbs and plants is very rewarding, not only because of the cures that can be effected, but also because of the knowledge that we are in a position to help ourselves and those we care for. In addition, it is great fun.

‘A proper person, properly prepared…’

An important part of any ritual is preparation, whether that be a Magical ritual or a daily one. For most people, a night out is preceded by a ritual of washing the body and hair, and often applying scents to set the mood. Whilst doing so they think about where they are going, what they will be doing and what they hope will happen. It is no different in the Craft; wherever possible we wash our bodies, or at least our hands, to remove not only the dirt of the day, but also the negative thoughts and feelings of day-to-day life. At the same time we also prepare our minds by thinking through what we are about to do and what we wish to achieve. Of course, this can be done with plain soaps and bathing products, but it can be greatly enhanced by the use of products which we have created, altered and Magically empowered. Here I am going to take a look at ways of creating or, more often, changing existing products to Magically enhance them.

Whilst it is possible to make soaps, bath foams, shampoos and anointing oils from first principles, it is not really practical for everyone. As a result I am going to talk mainly about how we can take existing products and change them for our purposes.

The use of such enhanced products does not have to be limited to preparation for ritual. Keeping a bar of healing or refreshing soap in the bathroom can help us through daily life. Preparing a bath foam to help encourage sleep can be invaluable for the parent of a young child who refuses to ‘go down’ at night. So, many of the following will not be set aside for Craft work, but will have a place in daily life.

lb pound

oz ounce

fl oz fluid ounce

tbsp tablespoonful

( note this is not the same as a serving spoon), should be around 15 fl oz tsp teaspoonful, around 1/ 4fl oz