smeLLeNNium27

Lesson Four

Kathleen Petrides

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis )

Are you all ready with your Q-tips? Are you smeLLing? What do you think? Sweet? Bitter? Heavy? Light? Does it make you feel like smiling? Or perhaps it gives you a headache?

There are actually THREE types of Rosemary; Camphor Type (Do NOT use on Pregnant women and Children under 10), Rosemary Verbenone type, (again I wouldn’t use this on a pregnant woman and young children) and then there’s your Cineole type Rosemary. This is the mildest of all the Rosemary's and the one I recommend for used for most spell work and for practical Aromatherapy work as well.

There are ALWAYS exceptions to this general rule, but for the purpose of this course when talking about Rosemary we will be talking about Rosemary Cineole type.

Ritual Information about Rosemary:

Parts used: Leaves, either fresh or dried and the Essential Oil

Ritual Uses: Rosemary is the Essential oil to use for improving your memory, raising energy in a circle, purification, raising creativity, centering, relieving stress.

Some suggestions for using it. Wear it in an amulet bag around your neck to improve your memory, or for centering yourself if you find your thoughts always wandering. Use the smoke when burning the dried leaves for purification of various tools, or use a drop of the Essential oil in a purification rite.

Diffuse Rosemary when working on a creative project such as writing, stained glass work, painting etc.

Why not purify artistic tools in the smoke of burning rosemary? Feeling like you are running out of ideas, feeling low in the inspiration department? Try sleeping with a little sachet of fresh or dried Rosemary under your pillow.

Some practical uses for Rosemary (cineole type) diffuse it when suffering from sinusitis, catarrh, bronchitis, colds, flu, stress, or nervous exhaustion

Some Quick Myth Busting: In just about EVERY book one reads on Essential Oils, you will find the following about Rosemary; "Do NOT use on people who have High Blood Pressure and/or Epilepsy"

I want you to remember THIS, there has been NO evidence to support that statement. In point of fact, no one has ever known it to raise ANYONE'S blood pressure. And as for the epilepsy warning, Anecdotal evidence has shown it to be the oil of choice of epileptics, to head off an attack and during the recovery period after an attack. So next time you read that warning, remember, it’s a well publicized MYTH.

Dose: 2 drops of Rosemary per 15 mls (tablespoon) or per bath tub or per Tablespoon of cream.

Now when combining oils together, how many does one put in a tablespoon, tub all together? 10 drops TOTAL. That’s it, no more.

So far, we’ve done Lavender (7 drops), Patchouli (4 drops) and Rosemary (2 drops). If we were to make a BLEND of these oils, add up the dosage amounts and we have 13 drops. So what do we do? Do we say, "Eh! It’s only three drops more." NO! More is NOT better, Less is Best!. Remember that the name of the game is not only effective ritual and spell work, but also SAFE work.

Look at your Quantities, 2 Rosemary, 4 Patchouli and 7 Lavender. So what do you do? Well somewhere you have to get rid of 3 drops. Which three? Well it would depend on what you are after. I f you are doing a spell to find some new friends, you would want to lower the patchouli by 1 drop and the Lavender by 2.

You have to take into account your own personal tastes, PLUS just what effect you are looking for. Highlight the oils that lean toward your goal and minimize the ones that may not have all the qualities you are looking for.

And that’s it for this week. Sorry for the long lesson, will try to keep it short next week.

Bright Blessing

Kathleen Petrides
(GreenLady)