Lavender Magick
Lavender is an aromatic herb that many of us enjoy the properties of in soaps, lotions, candles or essential oil diffusers. In this post we'll talk lavender magick, as well as some of this beautiful plant's culinary and medicinal properties too!
Lavender Correspondences
Element: Air. Air is ruled by the direction of East, corresponding with creativity, intellect, and intuition.
Lavender Medicinal Properties: Lavender is a nervine for anxiety and stress. It has analgesic and anti-fungal properties, making it helpful towards mild headaches and skin irritations.
Lavender Magick Properties: Peace, clarity, dreams, psychic awareness, love, healing, harmony, luck.
Plant Varieties of Lavender
There are over 45 different varieties of lavender plants! I know, that's a lot. Just to cover a few of the more common kinds: English Lavender is most commonly used for cooking - particularly Angustifolia and Munstead varities. Lavandin (English Lavender Hybrids) tend to have a very strong fragrance/high essential oil content. French Lavender has a lighter, less intense scent. Spanish Lavender has very different scent, but isvery pretty!
Growing & Harvesting Lavender
You can grow and harvest your own lavender in your yard and some varieties of lavender will also grow indoors! Generally, lavender needs full, direct sun and prefers warmer climates and good drainage. It does not tend to like a lot of excess dirt (which can hold too excess moisture) and prefers smaller, tighter containers to their roots!
If you know someone with a lavender plant, you can grow your ownfrom a piece of theirs! Simply pull a shoot of the new growth from the base of the lavender plant Pull downward so the bottom pulls off with a string-like piece. That stringy part is called a "heel."
Plant the heel and the bottom of the lavender in a small vessel with good drainage. Keep it in a greenhouse (or cover with a plastic bag to create your own) to keep moisture in the air until it starts showing new growth. Then you can move it to the pot or garden space where you’d like to keep it!
Harvesting and drying lavender is as simple as cutting and tying/binding stems together at the base and hanging them upside-down in a cool, dry place until they're dry!
A Few Ways to use Lavender Magick
Lavender Bath Ritual:
Many find baths relaxing, so of course lavender's relaxing aromatic qualities and magickal energies can be used to easily enhance the power of bath rituals, such as this Easy Energy Bath Ritual.
Add it to banishing spells:
I like to add lavender to any banishing spells to help the thing that I am sending away leave my life peacefully (as opposed to a harsh, jarring separation).
Sleep Sachets
Making a magickal sachet with lavender to put in your pillowcase or under your pillow can help you achieve a deeper, more peaceful sleep and dispel nightmares. You can use a cleansed pre-made bag, like a drawstring bag, or sew your own.
Lavender Kitchen Witchery:
Get all the magickal properties of lavender by making food with it! It’s a delicious addition to baked goods, sugars, teas and cocktails. Lavender has a strong floral taste, so always start small with it! I've made many lavender recipes I've found online and in books and I still always half the lavender recommended - and wind up very happy that I did. Too much lavender can cause a strong, soap-like flavor.
I made Lavender Simple Syrup over in this post!
Lavender Magick