Courage • Boundaries • Divination

Yarrow is probably the least likely of these eight to already be sitting in your kitchen cupboard, but I think it earns its place because it fills some gaps the others don't cover quite as neatly.

It's associated with courage and boundaries, which makes it useful for protection work where the intention is specifically about standing firm, reinforcing personal boundaries or protecting your own space.

Yarrow also has associations with divination.

That gives a beginner's apothecary an ingredient that can start opening the door towards intuitive and divinatory practices as well as the more everyday protection, prosperity and peace workings.

You don't need yarrow immediately.

But if you're adding your first slightly more specialist magical herb to the kitchen staples, it's a very useful choice.

Useful for: Courage, boundaries, protection, divination

Look How Much Those Eight Herbs Cover

This is why you don't need forty different ingredients.

Want to make a protection spell?

You've got rosemary, sage, bay and yarrow.

Want prosperity?

Basil, chamomile and peppermint.

Want peace?

Lavender and chamomile.

Need cleansing?

Rosemary, lavender or sage.

Working towards success?

Basil and bay.

Need courage and stronger boundaries?

Yarrow.

Want to begin exploring divination?

Yarrow gives you somewhere to start.

That's already enough variety to create dozens of simple workings.

You Don't Need All Eight Immediately

Even this list isn't a compulsory shopping list.

Look at what you already own first.

Perhaps you've already got:

Rosemary.

Basil.

Bay.

Peppermint tea.

That's four.

Start with those.

Learn their correspondences and make a few things with them.

Later, perhaps add lavender and chamomile.

Then sage.

Then yarrow if it interests you.

Your apothecary can develop naturally as your practice develops.

You don't need to buy the whole thing on day one.

Build Around the Witchcraft You Actually Practise

This is where your apothecary will eventually become different from mine.

Perhaps you're particularly interested in divination.

You might eventually add mugwort.

Maybe you do lots of protective work.

Nettle might become an important part of your collection.

Perhaps love, self-worth and relationship magic is important to you.

Rose petals might earn a permanent place.

If you're drawn towards healing symbolism and solar magic, calendula might appeal.

Your first collection gives you the basics.

After that, add herbs because your practice needs them.

Don't add them because somebody posted a photograph of an enormous apothecary and you feel like yours isn't witchy enough.

A Sensible Way to Add New Herbs

Here's a rule that can save you quite a lot of money:

Don't buy a new herb until you know why you want it.

If you come across mugwort while learning about divination and think:

"I'd actually like to work with that."

Great.

Research it.

Learn its correspondences.

Check the relevant safety information.

Then add a small amount to your collection.

That's very different from buying a thirty-herb starter kit and trying to work backwards to figure out why you own any of it.

Let your apothecary grow in response to your practice.

How Much of Each Herb Do You Need?

Probably less than you think.

If you're primarily making spell jars, sachets and small ritual workings, you're often using pinches rather than handfuls.

You don't need enormous bags of every herb.

Small amounts have several advantages:

• They're cheaper
• They take up less space
• You're more likely to use them before they deteriorate
• You can experiment before committing to larger quantities
• Your cupboard doesn't immediately become unmanageable

If you discover that you use rosemary constantly, you can always buy or grow more rosemary.

Do You Need Apothecary Jars?

No.

I'm sorry.

I know they're pretty.

You can absolutely use jars if you want to, but they're not necessary.

The packet your dried herbs arrived in is perfectly capable of continuing to contain them.

If you do transfer herbs into jars or containers, make sure they're clean, dry and clearly labelled.

At minimum, label the herb.

If you've harvested it yourself, you might also want to include the date and location.

Because no matter how confident you are today that you'll remember which jar contains yarrow:

Future You has other plans.

Label it.

Create a Grimoire Entry for Each Herb

Your physical apothecary becomes much more useful when you have a reference to go with it.

You don't need to copy six pages of information for every plant.

Start with:

Herb name

Magical correspondences

What you personally use it for

Any folklore or history you find meaningful

Safety notes

Spells you've used it in

Possible substitutions

Over time, add your own observations.

Perhaps you discover that you particularly like rosemary and lavender together for peaceful household protection.

Write that down.

Maybe you use basil repeatedly in business workings.

Record it.

Your grimoire should eventually become a record of your actual practice, not just information copied from other people's books.

Keep Safety Information With Your Magical Information

Don't separate the plant from its practical reality.

When you learn the magical correspondences of a new herb, learn how it can safely be used too.

In particular, check before:

• Drinking or eating herbs
• Burning them
• Applying them to skin
• Adding them to baths
• Using them around pets
• Using them during pregnancy or breastfeeding
• Combining herbal preparations with medication

Some plants are perfectly useful as ritual ingredients but aren't appropriate for consumption or another particular method of use.

Your apothecary is for witchcraft.

It doesn't need to double as a home pharmacy.

Fresh, Dried or Home-Grown?

Any of them.

Dried herbs are wonderfully practical for an apothecary because they're easy to store and available throughout the year.

Fresh herbs are lovely when a particular working benefits from them.

And growing your own can add a deeper relationship with the plant because you've cared for it from living plant to harvest.

But home-grown isn't automatically more magical.

If you have a garden and want to grow rosemary, wonderful.

If you live in a flat and buy dried rosemary, also wonderful.

If your attempts to grow basil repeatedly result in basil becoming deceased, buy the dried stuff.

Your witchcraft needs to work with your actual life.

An Apothecary Should Grow With You

Your first herbal collection isn't your final one.

That's part of the fun.

You might begin with rosemary, lavender, chamomile, basil, bay, peppermint, sage and yarrow.

Then six months from now, perhaps you've discovered that mugwort has become important to your divination practice.

Add mugwort.

Maybe you've started growing calendula.

Add calendula.

Perhaps you've realised you never use peppermint.

Don't replace it when it runs out.

Your collection should reflect your witchcraft, not somebody else's list of what a witch supposedly owns.