It has been raining a lot lately and I love the rain. I fell in love with her song when I was growing up in Jamaica. She was alive and majestic, a steady beat with intermittent crescendos beating down a hot tin roof. There was nothing more awe inspiring than to watch a wall of rain rushing towards you as it makes its way washing over everything in sight. Just as she can be gentle water can also flood and drown you. I hold a sincere reverence for her transformative and dualistic power.
When she speaks, I listen and just like a good rain shower cleanses everything removing the thickness and the heaviness from our atmosphere so does a good bath. I was moved to take a leisurely bath yesterday. Because why not!
I am having a field day these days playing with my herbal remedies and as such and I went in last night. My bath included my Cleanse and Clear Bath Salts, which includes Pink Himalayan Salt, Dead Sea Salt, Sea Salt, Epsom Salt and Baking Powder and a blend of herbs and flowers. But then I decided to add some hyssop and vervain, each herb was intentionally added. I felt as though I needed a lot of cleansing yesterday and I overindulged.
Hyssop has a long tradition of being used in rituals for purification, cleansing and consecrating holy places. It comes from the Hebrew word adobe or ezob which literally means “holy herb”. It says in the Bible “Purge me with hyssop, and I will be clean.”
Vervain also known as verbena 
was considered a sacred and powerful herb by the ancient Druids, Romans, Christians, Chinese and Egyptians alike. The name vervain comes from the Celtic term “ferfaen; “fer” meaning “to drive away” and “faen” meaning “a stone”. They believe it had the ability to ward of witches, although witches use it in their brews and spells. Romans used vervain (verbena) as an altar plant in their temples and used bundles of it to sweep the altar. Egyptians believed that it came from the tears of the goddess Isis when she wept over the death of Osiris. The Ancient Egyptians and Chinese thought this herb had “hidden powers” and it was the herb of prophecy for the magi – the mystic sages of Persia. Christian lore believes that vervain was used to stop the bleeding of Jesus when he was crucified. The powers of vervain were supposedly very dependent on how the herb was used and who used the herb. When people still believed in vampires drinking the tea was recommended for protection and I distinctly remember when I was growing up watching all my vampire and witchey shows and the use of vervain to ward off vampires. When used in the bath it is perfect for protection and luck.
I added both these herds to my bath and soaked for about half and hour and I swear I felt like a new woman. I slept like the dead and had beautiful delicious dreams and feel like a new woman.
Tip: While the bath time photos of all the flowers are beautiful, in order to save my pipes and not block the drain, I measure out how much bath salts and herbs I want to use into a bowl or a cup and then pour it all into a finely meshed pouch. This allows for all the salts and herb constituents to be dissolved into the water while keeping the herbs in the bag for better disposal.
Elusive Thing 