Eva is taking the Magical Flowers Branch lesson on the Kitchen Witch forum. This recipe is from her homework on the magic of Roses..
...I have a bunch of rose bushes ordered for the garden, but they won’t ship for at least another month - the ground is mostly frozen still (but thawing rapidly!). I haven’t seen any violets growing yet - just snowdrops and the first hints of daffodil leaves poking above the ground. So for this lesson, I will connect and work with Rose.
The sources of rose that I currently have available are: essential oil (purchased this morning!), infused oil (from the Herbal Remedies branch class), dried rose buds (from the grocery store), incredible smelling dried petals (collected from roses fallen along my old running route), rose thorns (also collected from a run), and a small, sad rose bush in my yard.
The bush came with the house, but it is in a poor spot - it looks well established, but it never grew to a proper size. I’m not sure how it normally is, but last year was so wet that the blossoms would rot before they ever opened properly.
In my research of Rose, I found it interesting that rose is used not only for attraction and love, but also death and banishing. It was also associated with Hekate and Persephone, for easing a troubled heart. Ancient Romans also associated the rose with dogs, yet another link to Hekate.
As a note, I really, really want to create rose prayer beads, but am lacking the fresh flowers needed. I don’t want to buy ones, even organic ones, since I think it would be better to use petals from roses I collect myself. So this will definitely be the plan for this summer.
In the meantime, I decided to make a magical relaxing hand cream that uses some ingredients sacred to Hekate (whom I have been working with for the past few months). The rose is sacred to Her, along with the olive, so I can use 2 of Her sacred pharmakeia in a cream. My plan is to use this cream over the next couple months when I approach Her for meditation and wisdom. The recipe itself is modified from the Witches’ Kitchen Oracle Cards.
30 ml olive oil
30 ml rose-infused oil (from Herbal Remedies course)
55 g coconut oil
30 g beeswax pellets
0.5 teaspoon shea butter
10 drops rose essential oil
A few dried rose buds
Melt olive oil through shea butter together in a Bain-Marie. Remove from heat and add the other essential oils. Place rose buds into a jar then top with the oil mixture. Keep cool.
It solidified quite quickly and has a slight yellow cast from the olive oil, but smells lovely. I like the idea of having not only an anointing oil for Hekate, but also a cream - I find creams easier and cleaner to apply than oils.
