Lets see, humm, how best to describe me.......Well, as my name suggests, I reside in Arkansas. I have been a mostly solitary practioner of the arts of herbal healing,spell casting, divination,etc.,which have earned me the label "witch" worn proudly for the last 40 years. {usually applied with the prefix "crazy"] What can I say, I AM a gemini ! I have a life companion of 24 years, who is VERY supportive of me, and a daughter, who has also chosen to follow the path of the Goddess. (what else could be expected, she was conceived on Samhain) I am the honered and chosen compainion to 2 familers, a calico Manx cat, who chose her own name by refusing to get off the book when i was researching on norse Goddesses, she wants to be known as Freya. The other is a beautiful Egjyption Arabian horse, who oversees all outdoor activities, and most of the time I swear he is a unicorn in disguise. Yes, I am over 50, and for my "mid-life madness" I came totally out of the closet, right here in the heart of the bible belt, in redneck central. One of the results was losing my job, so being me, I said "Ok, in your face" took my savings, and opened a pagan shop. So far, so good. I haven't had any windows broken, or threats, but I expect them, as that is what happened to any other "non christian" shops in a 100 mile area. Well, here I go again,trying to write a book. I hope to exchange knowlege, expand mine, and hopefully make a few friends Blessed Be

Hi. That's too bad about your job, though not surprising from what I've heard, and I hope everything goes well with your shop.

Herbal healing is an interesting subject, though not one I've delved into very deeply. I'd like to, though. Ever since I accidentally discovered that ginger has a noticeable positive effect on my migraines, I've wondered what else might be similarly helpful that I just don't know about.

Not surprised that ginger had a positive effect on your migraines, as it is a stimulant My daughter suffers severe migraines, so bad she has been to a nerologist to make sure it wasn't anything that would require surgical intervention. after determining there was no known cause, and all the alliopaths could do was pain management, we tried some herbals. Chamomile tea seems to help, if taken as close to onset as posible. Valarian root tea also helps a lot (tastes horrible, can sweeten with honey, but for best results, add no sweetener) valarian root is organic valium. I would suggest limiting regular coffee and tea, as they seem to be a trigger, due to the caffine (stimulant) unless you get decaffinated. avoiding stimulents seems to be a major help in reducing severity and occurance. hope this helps

Welcome to the forum, always happy to have more experienced individuals drop in on us to share a little wisdom. Glad to have you!

Congratulations on the shop! It's a dream of mine to open one up in a decade or two, along with a healing practice.

Again, welcome, hope we'll hear more from you!

peace
Vagrant

This post has been edited by Vagrant Dreamer: Dec 2 2007, 10:07 PM

I've got valerian for use as a muscle relaxant. Tightly sealed in a bag, and then in a rubber-gasketed jar. :nose-holding smiley goes here:

I've been doing better with the migraines as I've identified assorted triggers for them, and started avoiding them wherever possible. Right now I'm dealing with drug-resistant sinusitis (major weapon: sinus irrigation) and Lyme disease, for which I'm on doxycycline. About to see if teasel root tincture helps, as some say it does.