Rosemary

The name Rosemary comes from the latin ros marinus and it means "dew of the sea". Rosemary is a very common herb in places near sea water, especially in Mediterranean. It's been used since ages for its therapeutic and cosmetic properties. It is said that Rosemary is one of the ingredients of the elixir of eternal youth, like the one that an alchemist prepared for Elisabeth, queen of Hungary, known as Hungary Water.

MEDICAL PROPERTIES

• Excellent tonic for those who suffer from burnout or chronic fatigue syndrome
• Encourages the production of bile thus aiding digestion
• Helps relieving the symptoms of Bronchitis, Asthma, Flu causing cough and clearing the lungs
• Vision tonic
• Nervous system tonic
• Emmenagogue (induces menstruation)
• Antidiarrheal
• Relieves migraines and headaches caused by stress
• Encourages hair growth
• Relieves vertigo caused by inner ear  problems
• Enchances memory
• Mouthwash for bad breath
• Stimulates brain

HOW TO USE IT:

• Tea: In 300 ml  water add 1-2 spoonfuls of dried rosemary, let it come to boil for a couple of minutes, drink.
• Infusion: in a cup of warm water put a spoonful of dried leaves or flowers and let it steep for 10 minutes
• External use: For stronger and darker hair: put a handful of rosemary dried leaves in 3-5 lt of water, steep for a few hours and use it at the final rinse after washing your hair. Some believe that rosemary stops hair loss. Washing your hair with rosemary water  aids memory.
• Antiseptic: Wash your hands with a rosemary infusion. Burn rosemary to eliminate harmful airborne microorganisms. Burning rosemary and cedar in hospitals  for disinfection purposes was very common.

Be careful when using rosemary if you suffer from hypertension, as it raises blood pressure a bit.

MAGICAL PROPERTIES OF ROSEMARY

One of the strongest protective and banishing herbs, repells negative energies.

If placed under a pillow, it protects from bad dreams and hostile astral entities.

Used in ritual baths for cleansing (make a sachet with rosemary and let it steep in your bathtub for a few minutes).

Used for protection and healing.

Rosemary is a solar herb and as such it has masculine energy.

It is said that rosemary can substitute any herb in a mixture.

Symbol of remembrance. For that reason sometimes it's used in funerals.

A rosemary sprig burned in candle flame was believed to warm a cold heart.

In cooking, rosemary goes nicely with fish and pork dishes

The Spiral

This is our new creation, a spiral handflower and for those interested in symbolism there's a short essay from my old blog about the spiral symbol .

If you are interested in more spiral themed jewelry you can also check out AnnukCreations' Shop for many elegant and colorful designs, like this one!

THE SPIRAL AS A SYMBOL

The Spiral is one of the most ancient symbols, which appears again and again since prehistoric times in various cultures, spread all over spacetime. Those ancient people noticed the spiral pattern in the world around them,  in the form of a snail, in the spiral growth of trees, in the movement of the Sun. They intuitively knew that the spiral was the basic symbol of evolution and expansion, but also of death and doom, thus they started painting it on murals or carving it on wood and rock, in an attempt to venerate the archetypical motif that surrounded them in numerous forms. 

The Spiral of the Goddess: One of the most popular symbols of the Celts , the Spiral or the Triple Spiral (Triskelion) became the symbol of the Goddess and of the threefold nature of the Divine. It was related with femininity and with the three stages of womanhood: Maiden, Mother, Crone. Another interpretation would be that of  the three realms of the material world: Land, Sea and Sky. Numerous variations of the spiral are found in paganistic and neopaganistic representations. Today, with the revival of paganistic religions, spirals are a common theme in jewelery, clothes and paintings.

The Spiral of Time: The Spiral signifies infinity, nature's cycles, the alternation of seasons (spirals were often used as solar calendars) and of cosmic cycles in eternity. In a few words, it is a symbol of Time. Time was born along with the universe. Its dimension is inseparable from the three dimensions of space. The big bang theory suggests that the universe was born from a tiny single point with infinite energy. When that point exploded, it gradually created the reality that we see around us, which is ever-expanding, like a spiral. If this expansion lead to perfection or to chaos, nobody can tell. And since we are all made of stars, as Moby rightly noted in his song, we can understand why some symbols talk directly to us,  in a molecular level and the vibrations of their thundering meanings can reach the depths of our psyche.

The Labyrinth: In a spiral we can see the image of a labyrinth. The labyrinth is an allegory of the spiritual journey , from the outer world towards inner silence or God,  like Dante's Inferno and the Minoan Labyrinth.  A descent to the unknown aspects of the soul. As we move along the curves of the spiral and through its twist and turns, which represent various trials, what happens is that we come face to face with the same things in life, but each time from a different angle.But nobody can guarantee that the journey leads  always towards enlightment. An expanding spiral eventually ends up in chaos, like the Tower of Babel. The dead ends of the labyrinth can become discouraging, dazzling and overwhelming and many times we find ourselves back where we started or even worse, trapped, with no sense of direction. 

The Spiral and the Serpent: We can't help but notice the similarity between spirals and serpents. Serpents were widely worshipped in ancient times. The dragons and nagas in China and India, the minoan serpent Goddess in Greece, the nordic  Jormungandr, the feathered serpent  Quetzalcoatl of the Aztects , the rainbow serpent in Australia, the python cult in Africa and so many others. Among them, the famous greek - egyptian Ouroboros: the serpent that eats its own tail, symbolizing rebirth through self-death, immortality, the cycle  and the totality of existence, Jung's cosmic force. There's a very rich tradition that refers to serpent cults, sometimes seen as benevolent, other times seen as evil, like the serpent of the Bible. The serpent often guards something of  great value, a treasure or a power that must not end up in the wrong hands, like kundalini or the tree of knowledge in Eden. In alchemy the spiral symbolizes the cyclical functions of nature, the androgyne, the caduceus. Even the Yin/Yang symbol, the swastika, the greek meander, are  variations of or elaborated spirals. 

The minoan Spiral: In ancient Greece, the spiral was associated with the bull, which symbolized fertility (bull's head and horns look similar to ovaries). We often see spirals on  amphoras or murals, as it was a very common decorative pattern. The interconnected spirals often symbolized water and the sea. Another interpretation of the interconnected spiral is that of the equinoctial points. 

The hypnotic Spiral: Hypnotists use  the pattern of a spinning spiral  to induce trance states. The  repetitive image causes the noise of the conscious mind to subside and makes it more receptive. We regularly see the spiral as the most distinct symbol of hypnotism.
The spiral expresses itself in numerous forms in nature: horns, shells, plants, galaxies, even in the DNA.  

Birth, death, expansion, chaos, symmetry, eternity, infinity, renewal, the constant flux of things are some of  the notions that spirals communicate to us, as they appear in a vast array of manifestations in the microcosmic and the macrocosmic level since time immemorial.  Perhaps, the recurring pattern of the spiral holds a key to the understanding not only of the universe and but also of our soul.

An updated version of this article can be found here: here

The Poppy Bottle

*Note: This bottle has been sold. We cannot make this anymore, since poppies are out of season here, but we do take orders for when they will be available again*


It was late april and we were talking a stroll around the countryside, very close to the house, opening ourselves to the inspiration. There were lots of daisies and fewer poppies all over the fields. Red red poppies, so delicate, you couldn't even touch them without harming them. We thought it would be nice to make an item inspired by the beautiful, hypnotic flower. Lots of stories and lore about poppies. Their extract, opium was known from ancient times as a narcotic, medicine and even poison and was used by priests, shamans, healers, witches and in modern times it was eventually used as recreational drug.

We found a withered poppy, only the seed capsule and the stamens left. An idea of adding those stamens in a mini bottle popped up.

We poured glycerine inside the bottle and we added the freshly cut stamens. At first it looked all transparent, the stamens still black and well-formed. We took a few photos of the bottle and listed it. It's name: A Path Through Remembrance. As the days passed, we noticed that the color of the liquid gradually changed: It started taking a purple tone and we loved it! Actually this is one of our most cherished creations. It surprised us in a good way, as it became even more "mystical" than we expected it to be.

As for the name, the inspiration came from an artist we really like, Atrium Carceri (yes, it's spelled wrong in the title of the video). The genre is Dark Ambient: