There is a long tradition of using herbs for healing, but they have many other uses.
As well as healing rituals, you can place dishes of charged herbs near a bedside in a sickroom or on your healing altar next to a symbol, photograph, or the name of the person to be healed.
However, they are also excellent for emotional support and spiritual empowerment.
For example, if you get stressed on a regular car journey through heavy traffic or on motorways, you may well benefit from a healing or protective herbal sachet in the glove compartment of your car.
In fact, herbs may be used to add their strength to almost any kind of ritual and spell.
As they have such a wide variety of uses in magick, you will probably need quite a large supply.
Fortunately, herbs are, for the most part, very easy to grow – and very ornamental.
If you have a garden you can set aside a small area specifically for cultivating herbs.
Alternatively, you can create an indoor garden of herbs grown in pots, so that you have a ready supply of growing energy.
Once picked, all your herbs can be used either fresh, for example on your altar, or dried, in healing sachets and poppets.
Each herb has its own natural properties and strengths and they also have the benefit of offering dual purposes.
If, for example, you use allspice for a person with digestive or throat troubles, as a bonus both you and the person you heal may experience a gradual upturn in fortune, one of its magical meanings.
Though most of the traditional uses of herbs apply to physical and emotional ills and so are most commonly applied to people – and animals, of course – you can also use them for spells concerning places; for example, herbs for soothing wounds, such as lavender, are equally potent in rituals for healing the Earth or reversing the effects of pollution.
