If history and legend serves us correctly, we have the Egyptian God Thoth to thank for the first written medical and magical formulary. To the ancients, medicine and magic were not two separate schools of thought, nor was one considered the disdain of the other. Thoth’s one hundred and ten page book called the Ebers Papyrus, dating to approximately 1552 B.C.E., contains a mixture of magic and medicine with invocations to banish disease along with a catalogue of useful plants, minerals, magic amulets and spells. Another book about herbal medicines and related medicinal substances such as aromatic oils was written between 50 and 70 AD by Greek physician, pharmacologist and botanist, Pedanius Dioscorides. Entitled De Materia Medica (Regarding Medical Materials), this 5 volume book is considered the premiere historical source of information about the medicines used by the Greeks, Romans, and other cultures of antiquity and is the precursor to the modern pharmacopeia. The work documents the names and medicinal uses for approximately 600 plants, including information about the use of essential oils distilled from many of the plants.

Fast forward to slavery in the south and every plantation had someone known for practicing conjure. Their formulas were not written down and instead they relied on oral tradition to pass down knowledge. These conjurers were known for their magical as well as their curing abilities and had an intimate knowledge of the roots around them. Slave magic, like slave religion, relied on the premise that the world of the living and the world of the Spirits constantly intersect. The Spirits communed on earth with the living on a daily basis, and the people could speak to them on a personal level.

In my Folk Magic Formulary: Oils, Ointments, & Liniments course, I teach from this dual "medicinal/magical knowledge" perspective. I teach information you can trust and use for real-life conditions and situations, whether they are spiritual, mental or physical. You will learn to write your own family receipt book and create your own formulas that can be passed down for generations to come, preserving the knowledge and wisdom you have learned and will learn throughout this course and throughout your lifetime.