Plant & Crystal Medicine 2: Hyssop & Black Tourmaline
This month’s plant and stone magic exploration is all about purification, cleansing one’s energy body and home of heavy emotion, negative influence, illness, or psychic debris. This topic is rich and there are certainly many options, but in the wake of the fires, smoke, and the ongoing pandemic, what stands out as appropriate allies for our times, at least to this practitioner, are hyssop and black tourmaline.
Hyssop
Hyssop has a fascinating magical history. There are actually two very different plants that share the name, and though different in color and characteristics, both have been used effectively for the same purpose for generations. The first is the hyssop of the Middle East, or Origanum syriacum, which is famously mentioned in the Bible, Psalm 51:7 (“Purge me with hyssop till I am pure; wash me till I am whiter than snow.”), and in an earlier Hebrew biblical text, as part of the complex purification Ritual of the Red Heifer. This is the origin of its use as an asperger, with a branch being dipped into a mixture of spring water and the combined ashes of its pink flowers, a sacrificed female heifer (considered red because of the blood association with the female sex), and scarlet wool, and then sprinkled on people, spaces, or objects for purification. So began a lore and magical tradition that carried on through European witchcraft, though not with the same exact plant.
Hyssopus officinalis, a member of the mint family, is the plant most European and American herbal grimoires describe, with tall stalks of lavender-blue, aromatic, and camphorous flowers. This is the hyssop whose offerings will be described below.
On the physical level, hyssop has many potential medicinal applications, and is said to settle an upset stomach, clear illness from the lungs, alleviate the pain of arthritis and rheumatism, and help wounds and bruises to heal more quickly. In 16th-century England and Colonial America, it was also sprinkled on dirt and brick floors that were otherwise difficult to clean, in order to drive away germs and insects.
Energetically, it was used in a similar manner to chase away negative intrusions, in particular depression, envy, unwanted spiritual entities, and the residue of illness and death, through rituals of bathing, asperging, and house cleaning. In 17th Century England and Wales, it was used as a protection charm ingredient, and hung inside school doors to safeguard children from harmful influence and sorcery. It even has applications within binding love magic, driving out other love interests, for better or worse. This ability to cleanse, and to both ward off and push out unseen forces that cause harm and stagnation, make hyssop ideal for a magical house clearing during this Fall season, in preparation for a Winter that may require more time inside than usual.
There are several options for how to work with the magic of hyssop, however a few considerations should be made. Though burning dried hyssop can raise the spiritual vibrations of a home, the smell is strong and not pleasant to all, unless made into a tincture and then used to dress other dry incense ingredients. In addition, the essential oil, though popular is some spiritual communities, contains chemicals that can lower the seizure threshold in humans and animals who may suffer from seizure disorders, so it’s probably better to avoid.
Suggestions for working with hyssop:
Create a magical broom of hyssop branches tied together and use it to sweep your home of negative energy or spirits.
Add at least 1/2 cup of hyssop tea to your mop water to cleanse your floors. You can use two tablespoons of the dried herb steeped in 2 cups of boiled water. Make sure to let it sit for 15-20 minutes for a strong infusion, and never boil your leaves and flowers.
Make a larger amount of the tea to use within your bathwater, pouring a cup to drink and adding the rest to your bath, to cleanse yourself of depression, feelings of envy, or lingering illness.
Use your tea or cold infusion (the herb and spring water refrigerated overnight in a closed container) with a bundle or branch of hyssop leaves and flowers to sprinkle over objects and around your home.
(*See the end of this article for a suggestion combining hyssop and black tourmaline.)
Black Tourmaline
The Tourmaline family is a uniquely energetic variety of crystal that combines aluminum silicate minerals and metals, creating transparent stones of many colors. They posses electric and magnetic properties, similar to quartz, but potentially stronger, and even have applications as sturdy electrical tuning circuits. Old world uses include pulling hard to reach dust, because when activated by rubbing, and its heat generation, they become electrically charged, with one end positive and the other negative. These physical actions, working alternately as a conduit and a vacuum, are the base for the spiritual properties of this metaphysically powerful group of stones. As with all stones, the color variations bely the nuances of their medicine.
Black tourmaline is a powerful stone for purification and psychic protection, particularly for those living and working in challenging environments full of stress, hostility, fear, negativity or psychic vampirism. These stones can help clear negative spiritual and emotional intrusions or thoughts from the energy body, reestablishing balance and clarity and regulating the nervous system, making them a strong ally for our current time of uncertainty, disruption, and disharmony.
Black tourmaline acts as a conduit with the Tlazolteotl, the aspect of the earth energy that takes what we need to release and transforms it, and can cleanse a space or an auric field, without simply absorbing the energies and needing to be cleared often. Placing the stones on the earth in sunlight or moonlight is still a good practice for recharging on occasion, but black tourmaline has a gift for transmuting heavy energy by grounding it with the earth, making it self cleansing to some degree. It is also best not to cleanse this stone with water.
Because of its ability to create a grounding cord with deep earth energies, black tourmaline is an important stone to work with in times when the earth is in cycles of change. It can help us to harmonize with the shifting electromagnetic field of the earth, clearing the emotional stress that these changes can cause on an unconscious level, as well as helping to clear the effects of EMF radiation and other kinds of pollution in our environment. In addition to its ability to purify and protect, black tourmaline assists in creating a pathway for higher spiritual energies to ground.
Suggestions for working with black tourmaline:
Wear it on your body in a medicine bag or as jewelry, especially when dealing with difficult situations, or toxic relationships and environments.
Sleep with a small stone under your pillow to cleanse your dreams and your auric field.
Use it as a healing stone to transmute heavy energy, and ground spiritual energy into matter, particularly if you have a double terminated stone.
Hold it in your hands or rub it to activate its magnetic, electrical aspects, and place it where you need it to pull harmful energies from your body or environment.
Place stones in the corners of your home, creating an energetic grid of purification and protection.
Ritual for Fall Hearth Magic with Hyssop and Black Tourmaline:
Make a bundle or broom of hyssop branches and flowers, or tie an herb pouch of dried hyssop to your broom. Open your doors and windows and sweep your home, with the intention to clear all stagnant and heavy emotional and psychic debris. Give special attention to corners and to your front door threshold, both inside and out, sweeping outward first, then side to side in front of your door, banishing harmful energies from entering your sanctuary.
Make an infusion of hyssop tea, allowing the herb to steep for 20 minutes. Make enough to use for cleaning, bathing and drinking, at least 4-6 cups worth.
Add two cups of your hyssop infusion to natural floor soap or an essential oil mixture for cleansing and mop your floor with intention. If you have a carpet, you can sprinkle the powdered herb onto it and then vacuum.
Take your hyssop bundle, or use flowers, bay branches, a sacred instrument, or your hand to sprinkle the infusion around your home, including on yourself and others who live there, and on furniture and objects that you want to cleanse.
When the floor is dry, place black tourmaline crystals in the corners to create a protection grid, making sure to hold them in your hands first and breath into them your intention, in order to activate their medicine. Or, place the stones in key areas in your home, including your bedroom.
Reheat your infusion and draw a bath or prepare a shower. Drink a cup of the tea and pour the rest into the bath or into a bowl that you can use in the shower to pour over yourself.
Go to bed that night with a small black tourmaline crystal under your pillow. Hold it as you prepare to sleep, and breath in your intention to cleanse your auric field and dreaming body while you sleep. You can also create a pouch with hyssop and black tourmaline combined. Listen to the stone and the plant spirits to learn more specifically about the medicine they are offering you, engaging with their subtle communication through meditation and perhaps in your dreams.
Perform all or just part of this ritual, as feels best for you, remembering that magic is for infusing everyday life with clarity and intention, as much as it is for cultivating ecstatic and transforming experiences on a larger scale.
-This blog was written by Melusina Gomez, originally for the eleventh house