Bees! wonderful creatures, aren’t they? Where would we be without them?
I’ve decided to explore the properties of one of the delightful things that they produce - beeswax! I hadn’t worked with beeswax until one of my lessons on the KW branch class that my lovely friend Unity runs. It was a recipe for an ointment and it called for beeswax as one of the ingredients. It arrived, and I was able to make a lovely rose ointment. It got me pondering - as these things often do - about the magical properties of beeswax...
I didn’t know this, but beeswax is produced by the female bees - worker bees - who secrete it from 8 wax producing mirror glands on the inner sides of their abdomen. These mirror glands are what gives it the honeycomb shape. These combs are used to raise their young, filling it with honey and pollen. It’s the pollen that gives the beeswax its yellowy/brown colour - its originally a clear colour when secreted.
Beeswax has excellent healing properties - being anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-allergenic as well as having germicidal anti-oxidant properties. It’s wonderful for the skin - locking in moisture - so useful in any lotion for softening and nourishing dry skin.
Beeswax can be used for a variety of things - sealing envelopes, skin care, candle making, lubricant in the home, waterproofing shoes and boots, as a polish for wood furniture and even as a sewing aid (run your thread across a bar of beeswax several times. This makes the thread easier to sew with and prevents tangles too).
Being a kitchen witch blog, of course there must be magical properties to this wonderful beeswax?
Warming a block of beeswax and forming it into a shape makes for a great poppet - while warm, you can press herbs into it or mark it with sigils or rune symbols.
Mixing melted wax with a powdered resin of your choice makes for a magical sealing wax. This can be used for sealing papers that contain a spell or for sealing witches’ bottles etc.
Make a spell candle - using sheets of beeswax specifically for candle making, roll into the candle as you make it, herbs or dried flowers. Anoint the candle with an oil for the intent. These can also be carved with sigils or rune symbols or if making a healing candle, the initials of the person for whom it’s for.
When burning a beeswax candle, it releases negative ions which clean the air, therefore breathing in purified air which is said to stimulate the pituitary gland which increases creativity and intuition - perfect for spells and ritual work.
It is also a way of connecting with the mysterious wisdom of the honeybee itself...