An Herbal Medicine Chest by Rev. Carol A. Ingle (Raven)

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

An Herbal Medicine Chest

 

By Wystira Moonsinger

 

Having your own herbal medicine chest is a very handy tool to have in your home. You probably have most of the herbs you need right in your kitchen and the others are easily grown or purchased. Most of us don’t go running to the doctor every time we cut ourselves, come down with a slight cold, or sometimes even if we are downright sick. There are herbs that are very helpful remedies for most illnesses and you probably have some of them right in your kitchen.

I have an Herbal Medicine Chest that I have made where I keep all of my healing herbs. Of course, I also have shelves of bottled herbs in my “work room” because that’s my passion. HERBS! It’s easy to make your own Herbal Medicine Chest. You can customize it to fit your family’s needs. You can use any type of container, plastic, cardboard, whatever. You can even make your own out of wood and decorate any herbal medicine chest any way you like. Make it your own! Put magickal symbols on it, put pictures of herbs on it, runes, Egyptian symbols, whatever….Decorate it any way you like.

To store your Herbal Medicine Chest, pick a cool, dry, dark place. I use an office cupboard bought at Office Depot. Keep it out of the bathroom, too much moisture there. Or you could pick a shelf in your linen closet. Whatever works for you. But make sure that you can access it easily. You never know when you’re going to need something out of the Chest.

You don’t need a huge assortment of herbs…only the ones that you will use most often. For instance, my family doesn’t have a problem with insect bites/stings, so I don’t need anything to counteract that. I only keep herbs in my medicine chest that my family will need and so will you.

There are a few basic items that all Herbal Medicine Chest’s need:

Standard ingredients for making your herbal remedies:

1. Oil (extra virgin olive oil, grapeseed oil, or safflower oil) for herbal infusions and salves.

2. Beeswax (a good quality beeswax) for making salves

3. Honey or sugar to sweeten bitter herbs and syrups

4. Vodka or alcohol for tinctures

5. Wine for tonics

6. Petroleum jelly or a good quality skin lotion for making ointments

7. Gelatin capsules for making your own herb capsules

8. Essential oils

9. Gauze pads

10. Gauze bandages

11. Cotton balls

12. Adhesive tape

13. Tweezers

14. Eye cup

15. Scissors

16. Clean, unbleached, cotton material cut into washcloth-sized squares

The above is just a very basic list of what an Herbal Medicine Chest should have. You, on the other hand, will customize your chest with what your family needs. If you have small children, for example, you might want to keep on hand more of the gauze pads and bandages than other families. If you don’t have children, you might want to keep fewer gauze pads and bandages on hand. The above list is very basic and you can add or subtract to fit you.

The above is just the beginning of your Herbal Medicine Chest. You will find that in time, your Herbal Medicine Chest will grow as your Herbal knowledge expands and grows too.