Cailleach flying ointment - Wildfolk Apothecary
Flying ointment - This is a potent but gentle ointment which will hold your hand sweetly and softly guide you to a different state of being.
It’s made with wild foraged mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) and yarrow (Achillea millefolium) infused organic cold-pressed sunflower oil and set traditionally with beautifully fragrant beeswax. Essential oils of rose geranium and patchouli add to the mild psychoactive effects and it smells absolutely divine. I’ve added a raw shungite stone and an upturned leaf of dried silvery mugwort for their expansive properties.
Fragrant Artemisia vulgaris opens up the pathways of perception and intuition. Mugwort is a sacred herb of cleansing, healing and divination, and was often used magically for her gifts of sight and lucid dreaming. Mugwort is also a reliever of pain and a calmer of nerves. Beautiful feathery yarrow is an herb of air and flight, and bestows courage on those who carry her. She is a powerful healer and protector, and it is said that evil will not cross a line of yarrow.
Used in meditation or ritual as an anointing oil or placed under the pillow at night she has powerful properties which open the mind and expand the consciousness.
She’s also a wonderful smudging herb, cleansing energetic and physical space.
This ointment can also be used to promote healing and as a rub for pain relief and relaxation.
While this is a far cry from the flying ointments and potions of old which often (although not always) contained plants considered to be (or which have the potential to be) dangerously poisonous (belladonna, mandrake root, henbane, monkshood, etc) which when applied to the skin produce psychoactive effects.
Many of the historical perceptions of these ointments come from witch trial records and therefore cannot really be trusted, but it is certainly not unheard of for westerners to use their own native plant medicines to induce different states of consciousness.
To use, apply a pea-sized amount over heart, soles of feet, pulse points and third eye. Relax and allow the herbs to take you to a place of opening and heightened awareness.