Part 3: Brews, Baths, Powders & Herbs

That’s part three finished for our little mini-series of Book Circle, which was a book club reading format, but also a practical hands-on experience learning some witchcraft skills from Scott Cunningham’s classic text Incense, Oils and Brews.

I didn’t take any pics last night (so you get a stock image, sorry!), however we learned about the following:

Brews

• what makes a brew, a magical brew
• how to make them – infusion vs decoctions
• how ritual, ceremony and folklore surrounds magical brews across cultures (England, Scotland, Japan)

Ritual Baths and Bathing

• Reasons why ritual bathing is useful and can be important
• how to create a ritual bath and to turn it into a ritual in and of itself
• how to adapt if you don’t have a bathtub and can only access a shower

Powders

• what a spell powder is, why they’re useful, where they come from culturally, and why you’d choose this method over a herb sachet/charm. Also covered what they can be made from.

Herb Charms

• how they’re created, why they are used, and how a charm, talisman and amulet may differ (despite Cunningham calling them all the same thing)

Hands-On: We then made a Herbal Protection Charm pg 188 (talked about each of the herbal components and why they might be used) and blended up a Psychic Tea pg 169 to taste. We also amended the tea and made an alternate version adding an addition of mugwort to taste the difference between the two side-by-side.

I’ll upload the slides and the notes I referred to shortly. Stay tuned to our socials to ensure that you can stay included.

What’s next? We have another event planned for March 2025 which is a community focused event and panel discussion. If there is interest, we may run more learning opportunities this year as well. Let us know if you’re interested!