Sketchy Herbs & Magic Rocks: Borage + Galaxyite

Today I’ve asked you, witches, to share some of your favourite, and most used crystals using the #howrealwitchesdo hashtag and I’ve seen so many great responses already! I’ll be posting my own to Instagram later, but I thought this was a great time for a Sketchy Herbs & Magic Rock! We haven’t done that in a while! If you’re a new reader, this topic started on the podcast, where I pick a crystal and magickal herb that work well together or have similar purposes and essentially profile them and give you ideas for working them into your magick.

My galaxyite palm stone quickly became my favourite as soon as I brought it home. Some nights I fall asleep holding it and when I wake up it’s still in my hand. It’s a new favourite but I can’t imagine not having it now.

Borage, on the other hand, is a flower I’ve loved a long time. As a baby witch, I found a recipe for “love plums and biscuits” for the Ostara Sabbat in a witch book – it called for candied borage flowers. The internet was still relatively new and googling things was so much harder than it is now. I searched high and low and asked every person I could what candied borage flowers were. I eventually found a book in the library that talked about the flowers in their non-candy form and fell in love. They’re beautiful. They’re tiny purple and vibrant blue flowers in a perfect 5-point star shape. They taste sweet like honey (sucking on clovers anyone? Honeysuckle?) and the leaves are fuzzy (my fave) and taste like cucumber!

Borage

Element: Air + Aether
Chakra: Third Eye
Planet: Jupiter
Uses: Psychic power, astral travel, courage, easing discord, inspiration, happiness, easing pain and grief, opening the third eye, spiritual connection, grounded joyfulness, safety

Isn’t it gorgeous? Borage flowers are one of the few truly blue foods we have and they really stand out. They’re very tiny, but they grow in clusters and are easy to harvest and even grow. The fresh flowers can be candied and are absolutely delicious, and the leaves add a nice cucumber flavour to ice tea or lemonade.

Borage is aligned with the element of air, and a lot of its uses concern the mind and our higher chakras. IRL borage contains chemicals that bring on feelings of calm or euphoria when you drink them in a tea or inhale the smoke; metaphysically they open your third eye chakra, increase and focus your psychic abilities, and help you connect to spiritual and celestial planes.

I associate borage with stars, and with those feelings of safety and spiritual connection, I get when I’m star-gazing. To me, it’s a bridge between us and the celestial plane – both the physical stars and planets and that realm where we can access things like our spirit guides and akashic records. I’ll add it to incenses, mojo bags, and baths to help along and increase psychic work. I always include it whenever I do any star magic like star scrying or drawing energy from the stars. It’s also a really cool addition to dream pillows and other dream magick work and aids astral travel! You can simply put some borage under your mattress or pillow before sleep or astral travel and ask that borage for the strength to travel far, and also protect you and bring you home safely.

Iranian Gol Gavzaban (Borage tea) from purpleavocado.de

You can eat Borage on salads or desserts, but one of the tastiest and prettiest ways is in Borage tea. Depending on where you live you might be able to find commercially made borage tea at the grocery store, it’ll usually be in a section that carries Middle Eastern/Iranian food. These blends might contain valerian and lemon and lime, which is great, but if you can get ahold of borage yourself I like this classic Iranian recipe for Gol Gav Zaban, which is borage tea:

• 2 Tablespoons borage flower, Gol gav zaban
• ¼ teaspoons saffron dissolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water
• 2 rock candy (Nabat), or sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• water

It’s really simple, and it’s sweet and refreshing but also very calm and happy. Check out the rest of the recipe on The Persian Pot.

Galaxyite

Chakra: Crown
Uses: Cleansing and repairing the aura, psychic powers, spiritual growth, star magic, connection to aetheric, galactic, faerie, and other spiritual realms; eases anxiety, easing the pain of isolation and loneliness, astral travel, transformation, lifting spirits, protection, new moon magick, grounding, balance

I am absolutely in love with galaxyite. Not only is it a new find for me, but we didn’t even discover it until 1995 in Quebec. Bonjour, Galaxyite! It’s similar in colour to Labradorite, and features it’s textbook blue/green but somehow still black, sparkle. In galaxyite those sparkly bits are just much smaller, which creates a stone that looks like you’re staring straight into space.

The main use of galaxyite is working with your aura. This crystal helps cleanse, repair, and energize your own personal aura. If you’re working on seeing auras or connecting more with yours use galaxyite in your meditations. Carry it with you if you regularly feel the need to cleanse yours or that you have a lot of negative energy coming at you all the time. To cleanse my aura I excuse myself to a quiet place, center myself and cup my hand with the galaxyite in my palm and “brush” downward a few inches from my skin and visualize the crystal like a little aura sponge. leaves it all neat and clean and bright!

Galaxyite (or Galaxite sometimes) is a highly spiritual crystal and I often use it for opening my third eye and crown chakras, divination, and meditation. I’ll often put the stone right on my third eye or the crown of my head in these times, and when my friend gives me reiki treatments we always have it up near my head. Since finding galaxyite I always include it in star magic like I described above, and my new moon rituals. Labradorite is a great stone for working with new moon energy and chilling out its sometimes harsh vibes, and I find galaxyite has that same power. it also helps put you in touch with spirit guides, or your akashic records (for example) and aids spiritual growth, which is a big theme at the new moon. The best part about including galaxyite in magick like this is that it’s easy to get lost, or float away, so to speak. galaxyite is very grounding. It makes me feel grounded, calm, and safe. Scott Cunningham talked of star/space-related magic as an extension of earth energy, and I believe that. The stars only look the way we see them from our vantage point on earth. If we were somewhere else they’d appear totally different. Up close they’d be really different! Galaxyite reminds us that the stars and heavens really aren’t that far away, and are apart of our natural world.

 

You can get Galaxyite palm stones from SageGoddess

 

So why all the star magic talk? October 6-10 is the Draconid meteor shower here in the Northern Hemisphere! The Draconids are cool because they’re visible much earlier in the evening, versus the wee hours of the morning. They’re a fairly slow or sleepy shower, but that makes seeing a shooting star or meteor all the more special. Meteor showers are another great way to observe and honour the connection of the earth and the stars. Since this meteor shower happens “in” the constellation of Draco, the dragon, this is bound to be a very lucky time to make yourself some wishes! I love meteor showers and star magic, which is why I’ve already posted a lovely little spell for making meteor shower water and a wishing well, read it here. If you’re interested in stars you should also check out Star Magic by Sandra Kynes.

P.S. YOU BETTER BELIEVE I STILL HAVE THAT RECIPE FOR LOVE BISCUITS

 

from 5 Easy Steps to Becoming a Witch by Gilly Sergiev