Oh, What To Do When...
Greetings, dear readers! This month, our readers asked:
I have a friend that has recently received horrific burns due to an accident with an oil lamp. A group
of friends and myself have done all we can through “normal” channels, sending letters, etc., as he is in a specialist unit in a hospital too far away to visit with any ease. I am a Pagan myself (starting out) as are some friends of mine. We have been thinking about the possibility of a healing spell to help him. As I feel I am not very knowledgeable in such things, I would greatly appreciate some advice from someone with more experience such as yourself. I realise there will be no miracles, but anything to help please.
Thank you in advance.
Yours sincerely,
Silverbirch
While I commend you on wanting to help your friend, there is a catch in the Wiccan world. One should not do a spell for someone without getting their permission first. Even something as simple as a healing spell needs this type of confirmation, otherwise it falls under the classification of “manipulation”. Healing spells are also the most difficult, so don’t become frustrated if it doesn’t work out as quickly as you would hope.
To properly set up, you need to take a ritual bath, preferably during the dark of the moon.
Obtain a blue or white candle and write the person’s name on it whom you wish to heal. Annoit the candle with ritual oil. Some oils of preference are cinnamon oil, rosemary, or sandalwood oil. The most common way of anointing the candle is from the middle to the top and then from the middle to the bottom.
If possible, have a picture of the person nearby while lighting the candle. Concentrate and visualize your energy charging the candle and photo. Say out loud or in your mind, “As this candle burns so shall (Name) be healed.” Be sure you can really feel the energy transferring into the objects. When the candle burns down, remove it and bury it.
Dear Witch Hazel,
My oily skin has an awful pinky-red tint, as if my chin, cheeks, and forehead had been pinched for an hour straght. Do you know of any easy, inexpensive home remedies to take the red out? Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Blessings,
Zomberella
It isn’t clear if you have flaking skin along with the redness or not. Usually a good exfoliant helps to rid the unwanted acne, blackhead or other troublesome skin conditions. Sometimes if you are picking at acne, it pushes the pus further down into the skin, causing the excessive redness that can last for quite some time.
Some wonderful home remedies for oily skin are washing with oatmeal and doing an egg white mask once a week. After washing your skin, be sure to use Witch Hazel as an astringent to bring the natural pH balance back to the skin. Do not use plain alcohol as that will only serve to toughen the skin and take away your elasticity.
Another treatment is to wash with your regular wash regimen and use the juice from an aloe vera plant. If you don’t have an aloe vera plant, you can obtain the juice in a health food store. Be careful though, once the leaf is cut, it is only effective for about an hour or so, so only cut off just what you need and no more.
I highly recommend products from a company called Kiss My Face, as they have all natural ingredients that are fairly economical. The best part, their products work! So, if you don’t have time to run around splitting eggs and such, do yourself a favor and pamper your skin with Kiss My Face products found at www.kissmyface.com. Our editor Mistress also recommends checking out Kiehl’s, although their line of products is more expensive.
I’m kind of stuck between a Dad and a hard place. See, my parents divorced a little while back (about five years) and my dad has custody of me. I’m old enough (16) to choose where I want to live, but I know that if I leave my dad, then he will, for lack of a better term, nut up. He suffers from depression, but he doesn’t take his medicine on a regular basis. I really need to live with my mom, but I feel like I’m trapped. Can you help, or maybe tell me of some herbal medicine that will reduce my frustration and plain out agony?
Ferret
Oh Ferret, you do have a tough one on your hands. Instead of taking something for frustration, it would benefit you to discuss this issue with the guidance counselor at your school.
The fact that your father is depressed and does not always take his medicine, makes him a bit unstable for your peace of mind.
Depression that can be healed with medicine should not be taken lightly. These medicines work towards helping to rewire the brain so to speak and not taking them as prescribed could have a whole assortment of nasty side effects. The fact that your dad is not taking them as he should pretty much says he is being irresponsible of his health.
Whenever there is an emotional instability in the family, everyone living with the person suffers. You are no exception. Ultimately, your dad’s depression will become your depression because it will bleed itself over to you. Feeling guilty about him “nutting up” is subtle manipulation and it doesn’t help you to buy into it. He is an adult, he needs to take his medicine and he needs to take responsibility for his life.
You may want to sit down and discuss this problem with your mom as well. By all means, if you feel that his depression is affecting you, then you need to seek out other living arrangements for your own sanity. Don’t take this lightly because over time, it can hurt you and life is too short and precious to have to grow up playing parent to our own parent at such a young age.
Hello,
I would like to start drinking Aloe Vera juice, but I don’t have a recipe. I
use it on my face right from the plant right from the garden, but would like
to take it internally.
Thanks,
Sharon Tobiason
Sharon, if you take aloe vera juice internally, do so with caution as it has been used as a diuretic for some.
If you do make home made juice from the plant, only make it in small batches as the quality deteriorates rapidly over time. One method is to remove the outer green from the plan and keep the residual gel. Be sure to put that in a glass container because once removed from the green skin, it will start to liquify. You will need to add ascorbic acid to the mix to keep it from oxidizing too quickly. The quickest way would be to just add the gel to your morning orange juice.
Others will pulverize the leaf and the plant together. While this may make it more stable, it will leave a rather bitter taste but will retain more of the natural properties desired when consuming aloe vera juice.
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