Cherry

Cherry – prunus serotina – A Druid sacred tree, chips of the wood or bark were burned at Celtic festivals especially Sabbats. Also known as Black Cherry, Wild Cherry or Chokecherry -P. virginiana. Chokecherry bark tea is used to clear the throats of singers and public speakers, the powdered berries were once used to improve the appetite. If you’ve never tried chokecherry jelly, you’ve missed a real treat. CAUTION:The stone is poisonous.

Aromatherapy & Health Uses: An expectorant. Helps bronchitis, colds, dry coughs.

Other Uses: Wood and Fruit Juice – Creativity; Healing; Long been used to attract Love; Cherry juice is used as a substitute for blood in old recipes.

Chickweed

Chickweed – stellaria media – It is held in great repute among herbalists, used mostly in the form of an ointment. The fresh leaves have been employed as a poultice for inflammation and indolent, slow to heal or develop, ulcers with most beneficial results. A poultice of chickweed enclosed in muslin is a sure remedy for a boil or an external abscess. The water in which the chickweed is boiled should also be used to bathe the affected part. In herbology it is also used to support the urinary system. Some of its properties are demulcent, refrigerant, nutritive, cooling in the case of hot skin rashes -combined with dandelion and burdock in a tea, useful with skin problems and hemorrhoids. Chickweed is rich in calcium, potassium and iron. With its emollient and demulcent actions, it is an exceptional poultice herb and is excellent for skin irritations and eye inflammations. It’s also a mild and safe diuretic.

Aromatherapy & Health Uses: With its emollient and demulcent actions, chickweed is an exceptional poultice herb and is excellent for skin irritations and eye inflammations. It’s also a mild and safe diuretic.

Chicory

Chicory – cichorium intybus – chicory has been used as tonic on liver, kidneys, and digestive tract. It is a diuretic, cleansing the kidneys of toxins.

Aromatherapy & Health Uses: Has been used as tonic on liver, kidneys, and digestive tract. It is a diuretic, cleansing the kidneys of toxins.

Chufa Grass

Chufa Grass – cyperus esculentus – The tuber of this plant can be eaten, it has a nutty flavor. The oil from the chufa grass is of good quality, comparable to olive oil. This plant is used in Ayurvedic medicine – treats flatulence, indigestion, diarrhoea, dysentery, colic and thirst.

Aromatherapy & Health Uses: This plant is used in Ayurvedic medicine – treats flatulence, indigestion, diarrhoea, dysentery, colic and thirst.

Cinquefoil

Cinquefoil – pontentilla reptans – Also called Five Fingered Grass, Creeping cinquefoil, and Five Leaved Grass. The rootstock was cooked as a vegetable by the Celts and Native Americans. Applied to sore areas, the fresh plant relieves pain. A root decoction is used in anti-wrinkle creams. A wash reduces skin redness, freckles, and sunburn.
The powdered root and leaf are used to stop internal hemorrhaging. The powder also makes an astringent for mouth sores and treats diarrhea. Taken with honey, it relieves sore throats, coughs, and fever. Take one-quarter to one-half teaspoon at a time, or twenty to forty drops of the tincture. The leaves can be steeped using two teaspoons per cup of water for twenty minutes, or one ounce of the root can be simmered in one and a half cups of water for twenty minutes. The dose is a quarter cup four times a day.

Aromatherapy & Health Uses: The powdered root and leaf are used to stop internal hemorrhaging. The powder also makes an astringent for mouth sores and treats diarrhea. Taken with honey, it relieves sore throats, coughs, and fever.

Other Uses: Use the infusion in ritual baths and for purification rites. Cinquefoil bestows eloquence and protection to the wearer; bring it to court. Love, power, wisdom, health, and abundance are symbolized by its five petals.

Cistus

Cistus – cistus ladaniferus

Aromatherapy & Health Uses: Properties are: expectorant,stimulant, emmenagogue, antibiotic

Cleavers

Cleavers – galium aparine – This herb can be eaten. It is used as a coffee, a tea, and as a vegetable. Medicinally, it is used as both a diuretic and detoxifier. Applied as a poultice, it can relieve skin problems such as eczema, psoriasis and seborrheoa and even help heal wounds. It is also to fight infections such as glandular fever, tonsillitis, and cystitis.

Aromatherapy & Health Uses: Detoxifer and diuretic. Works on lymphatic system detoxifying the body. Treats skin problems from wounds to eczema and psoriasis.

Clove

Forms Available: essential oil, ground, whole, leaf, flower, bud

Clove – syzgium aromaticum – Cloves are the sun-dried unopened flower buds of a dense evergreen tree, they have a strong spiciness that flavors foods and prevents nausea. The flowers are used to soothe aching eyes. Clove oil, from the distillation of leaves and flower buds, is an antiseptic numbing agent for toothache and indigestion. It is added to cosmetics, perfumes, and cigarettes. There are now Clove-based anesthetics.

Aromatherapy & Health Uses: Nausea; Flatulence; Asthma; Bronchitis; Arthritis; Rheumatism; Toothache; Diarrhea; Infections; as an Analgesic and Antiseptic; Insect Repellent. Key Qualities: Tonic; Stimulating; Revitalizing; Aphrodisiac; Warming; Comforting; Purifying; Active.

Other Uses: Use for: Divination; Love; Lust; Banishing; Releasing; Inspiration; Wisdom. Burn for Wealth; Purification; to ward negative thoughts; or to stop others from gossiping about you.

Club Moss

Club Moss – lycopodium selago or clavatum – Also called Selago, Foxtail, Lycopod, Vegetable Sulphur, Wolf Claw or Stag’s Horn Moss. This toxic, evergreen, mosslike herb has trailing stems, upright branches and developing cones encasing the ripe spores. The spores were once used for gastric and urinary disorders, as an antispasmodic sedative and to coat pills. Blackfoot Indians knew of the spores’ blood-stanching, wound-healing and moisture-absorbing properties and inhaled them for nosebleeds and dusted them on cuts. They are still used on wounds and eczema. The spores are explosive when set alight, and used to create theatrical lightening and added to fireworks. Magicians once used them to create “lightening flashes” and other pyrotechnics as needed. These effects were originally intended as a form of sympathetic magic -of evocation by emulation – not simply as stage effects.
The club mosses are found in North America, northern Europe, Asia, and the southern hemisphere. The plants are several inches in height and resemble moss. They creep by means of prostrate stems, which branch upward at intervals, with crowded, linear, simple leaves. Large two valved spore cases product the medicinally active spores.
While the whole plant was used by the ancients as a cathartic, the spores were used as a diuretic in edema, a drastic -a forceful agent of cure- in diarrhea and dysentery, a nervine for rabies and spasms, a mild laxative in cases of gout and scurvy, and a corroborant -strengthening agent- for rheumatism. The dose is ten to sixty grains of the spores.
The spores also make a dusting powder for skin diseases and diaper rash.
CAUTION: Selago can be an active narcotic poison when overused. For this reason it is probably better to use only the spores, which are non-toxic. The whole plant can be used externally, however, as a counter-irritant – made into a poultice, it will keep blisters open and kill lice.

Aromatherapy & Health Uses: A diuretic. Eases gout, gastritis. Antispasmodic, calms spasms and diarrhea.

Other Uses: When properly gathered, the herb becomes a charm of power and protection. Wear it, add it to incense, and use it to commune with the Gods and Goddesses.