🍵 Weekly Witchy CHALLENGE - Tea & Infusions

[BryWisteria]

Merry meet!

Thank you again to everyone who joined in for last week’s Weekly Witchy Challenge - Teachers of Magick

Looking back at those who have helped us along our magickal journeys likely brought back emotions and memories- some good and others perhaps not-so-pleasant. After the reflective work of last week, it’s time to put up your feet and indulge in one of the warmest and most soothing areas of magick of all

The theme for this week’s challenge was inspired by @Mary25 and is…

Tea Magick: Tea & Infusions

What is tea and how does it differ from infusions? And why do they both play such a large role in magick?

If the image of a charming afternoon tea time pops into your mind when you hear the word “tea”, you aren’t wrong- but tea is much more than a drink to go along with scones and jam.

→ Tea and its many varied forms appear in cultures around the world and can be found nearly universally today

→ Some cultures consider tea and the process of preparing and drinking it to be a form of art

→ It is a common method of taking herbal medicines in western traditional medicine, TCM, Ayurvedic, and other alternative forms of medicine

So what is “tea”?

While tea was originally the term given to the plant Camellia Sinensis (aka the tea plant), its leaves, and drinks made its leaves- “tea” has since evolved to become a more universal term.

Today, “tea” still refers to the authentic tea plants and drinks made from steeping its leaves, but it also includes things such as herbal teas and fruit teas- drinks that do not contain leaves of the tea plant, but are still largely considered to be tea by the general public

Definition from Oxford Languages

While the original definition of “tea” is specific to the tea plant, the more modern and loose definition of tea means that it is often used interchangeably with another similar term: “infusion”.

Definition from Oxford Languages

Both tea and infusions involve steeping natural matter in liquid- but while tea is almost always prepared with the purpose of drinking, infusions can be both ingestible or for topical-use only.

Check your witchy terminology:

This challenge is focused on teas and infusions- which are both unique from (but sometimes confused with) tinctures, as the liquid used in tinctures is usually alcohol . In some cases, teas, infusions, or tinctures can be considered to be concoctions. And all of the above, when crafted with magickal intent, can be considered to be potions.

Picture from Culinary Witch: Plant Potions: Tinctures, Infusions, Concotions

Both teas and infusions play a large role in magick- take a moment now to think about your sacred space, apothecary, and magickal collection. How many of the things you have could be considered “teas”, “infusions”, and/or “potions”?

This week is all about exploring teas and infusions - but as always, how you do so is up to you!

So are you ready? Because it’s…

CHALLENGE TIME!

Art by Anna Landin: Tea Witch #43: Jasmine

STEP 1 : Magickal Teas & Infusions

As a universal beverage, sacred drink, medicinal tool, and more- there are so many ways you might explore teas and infusions this week!

To help you get started, here are a few suggestions for ways you might enter the challenge:

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Tea Spells

Add a little magick to your morning brew with a tea spell!

Quick and Easy Tea Blessing

Meditate with Tea

Meditations with tea are some of the most popular (and, if I can sneak in my personal opinion here, most enjoyable!) types of meditations. Give a tea meditation a try this week!

Green Tea Mental Detox Meditation

Honey Ginger Healing Tea Meditation

Collection of Guided Tea Meditations on Spells8

Drinking Herbal Magick

Some (but not all!) medicinal herbs can be used to make delicious teas that are both good for the body and carry magickal qualities Study up on some Green Witch wisdom this week and experiment with making your own herbal teas with herbs you can grow in your garden!

Witch Plants: Herbs & Recipes Every Witch Should Know

Introduction to Herbal Witchcraft (from the Wicca Self-Initiation Course)

The Green Witch: Full Herbal Witchcraft Course

Tea Leaf Divination

Have you ever heard of Tea Leaf Readings? Reading leaves (and sometimes coffee grinds) is a traditional and fun form of divination. Learn how and give it a try- it is easier than many think!

Tasseography: How to Read Tea Leaves

Tarot & Tea: How to do a Double Divination

Beauty Magick

Both teas and infusions have a special place in beauty and glamour magick. While teas can be potions taken internally, infusions can be crafted into lovely skin toners, moisturizers, and more that carry an extra magickal boost!

And technically, what are baths if not for teas in which we steep ourselves?

Chamomile and Eucalyptus Healing Bath

Orange and Herb Attraction Bath

Study a Tea Tradition
Tea is used in similar yet unique ways across various traditions. For this challenge, you might pursue an interest in how tea is used in one of the following practices:

• Western herbalism
• Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
• Ayurvedic medicine
• local pagan practices
• personal recipes and treatments
• Etc.

Learn about a Tea Ritual
Tea takes the spotlight in numerous types of rituals. They may be pagan-based or geared towards magick-users, or perhaps be rituals of another kind such as the meditative Japanese tea ceremony or Chinese Gongfu tea ritual.

Consider learning about, trying, or designing your own tea ritual for the challenge this week

Wiccan Tea Blessing and Offering

Anti-AnxieTea Recipe and Ritual

Spells8 Group Ritual - Tea with the Coven on March 10th (members only)

…And more!

There are as many ways to enter this challenge as there are types of tea- that is to say, a lot!

Please feel free to be creative and pursue the theme this week in a way that best suits your interests and your unique magickal practice

Art from the Green Witch Tea Blog

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STEP 2 : Share Your Experience

Please click here for notes about challenge inclusivity

Everyone is welcome to join the challenge by practicing magick in line with the current theme. For those who don’t feel comfortable sharing, it is absolutely okay to follow along with the challenge but keep your entry personal. Feel free to join in spirit and do what feels most comfortable for you!

That being said, please know that if you would like to receive a prize and a public shout-out, it is required that you share your experience

To participate in the challenge, please share:

1. About your experience with teas and/or infusions in your magickal practice this week

For your entry to be counted, please write about your experience in the comments below and/or create a new thread in the forums.

Note : If you choose to create a new thread, please tag the challenge by adding a hyperlink back to this post so that I can easily find it- thank you!

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This challenge will close in 6 DAYS

To join in, please share your experience by:

Tuesday, March 15th at 7:00 AM CET (Central European Time)
( 2022-03-15T06:00:00Z )

(Note that the time zone is CET- you can use this time zone calculator to switch into your time zone!)

For their efforts, all participants will receive a special shout-out and a small prize!

Acknowledgments will be given in a Props and Presents Post that will appear in the forums on Tuesday.

After the challenge closes, you are still very welcome to post but please be aware that no additional prizes will be given. This discussion will remain open for about a week after the challenge finishes.

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Art by LostCaro: The Tea Witch

A warm reminder that all challenges are designed to be very open- everyone is encouraged to participate in a way that honors and reflects their unique practice

If you have any doubts about if something is acceptable to post or say, please double-check with the Forum FAQ and/or reach out to your friendly Moderator Team .

And for those new to challenges- welcome! Know that the goal of these activities is to help you further diversify and strengthen your abilities and to bring together the Spells8 forum family to inspire and support one another in creative ways

Picture from Patheos: The Magick of Tea

There’s magick in a cup of tea,
Pour a cup and you shall see!
Great power waits in every brew,
Each sip with love, from me to you!

Blessed be and happy tea drinking!

[christina4]

This sounds like exactly what I needed! A green tea mental detox. I have matcha green tea and I can use it for this ritual today!! It’s very much needed!! Thank you

[christine13]

This is a great challenge to explore!! Great idea @BryWisteria

[MeganB]

I have a mugwort tea blend that I absolutely can’t drink (it tastes like ) so maybe I can figure out a way to make it taste better for this challenge. I was really excited to get it because it’s blended with different herbs to help with trancework and vivid dreams

[Amethyst]

Nice one! This should be fun!

[rachel21]

Same @MeganB i bought it to do more dream work but it’s the worst tasting ever. I agree also that this will
Be a perfect challenge to mix in other herbs to make this work. I’m glad I am not the only one who feels this way. Lol.

[Susurrus]

So, for the first time, I’m having an outside-the-box thought that I’m not sure I can use for this challenge @BryWisteria, so if you could let me know if I am in the same area as the challenge. A couple (at least) I received a Poultice Blend. So I was wondering if a poultice pouch or mixture would count as an infusion depending on how it was applied. Sometimes you heat them, make them cold, I know you can add water (hot/cold/warm) to them also when applied. Would this be an acceptable entry if I used or made one up for a specific reason - like a cyst… on a certain wrist…

A fascination with the fragrance, shape, color, taste, and texture of plant leaves has led me to study the art of poulticing, which I call “laying on leaves.” Poultices may be applied as hot as 105 degrees Fahrenheit to increase circulation to the affected area, or they may be applied cold, which is especially effective for cooling burns. They fight infection and infiltrate the injured area with healing substances from the plant, such as antiseptic essential oils or tannins that shrink tissue and ease the pain. Poultices also pull poisonous or infected matter from wounds. Properly applied, the poultice may help resolve cysts, pustules, and splinters by reducing associated inflammation.

Because the plant material is most often applied directly to the skin, you should avoid spiny plants and common allergens. I’ve had good success using aloe, burdock, castor, chickweed, comfrey, dandelion, jewelweed, marshmallow, mullein, and plantain for making poultices. My herbal teacher always told me, “For a poultice to be good, it has to suck.” By this, he meant that the herbal material must adhere closely to the skin so its healthful compounds can permeate the tissues and the moisture can draw out foreign bodies or infection.

Source - Healing with Poultices - Mother Earth News

[anon87969570]

I have never found a tea that I could enjoy without at least a tablespoon of honey. To me, tea seems like perfumed water - great smell, little to no or unpleasant taste. Maybe I need to explore this topic more.

[Kasandra]

My kind of challenge! Tea is a major part of my Craft! I usually drink a cup as a form of meditation or before any magickal workings or spells. I’ll have to check this site to see if there are any tea mediations that I have missed.

[debra2]

This sounds interesting, since Tea is all I drink (since the last 4 months) coffee is hard on my kidneys so I quit drinking coffee, that I loved so much. I have found a couple of tea’s that I like and drink, but infusing or combining herbs to make a tea , interesting. Better refresh the Herbal Green Witch course again.

[Janae_Rochele]

I struuuuggle with tea 100% I do not like it. I’m going to have to find some kind of tea that I’ll be able to handle for this challenge. Everytime I want to join them, something always happens. NOT THIS TIME lol. So I’m looking at different teas that I may be able to stomach.

[BryWisteria]

@Christina4 Ohhh matcha tea! That sounds lovely, enjoy your green tea detox, Christina

@Christine13 I’m so glad you think so- enjoy your tea exploration, Christine!

@MeganB You could always use your Mugwort Tea as a Mugwort bath instead, and steep yourself in the soothing warm water! The only way I currently use mugwort is for baths, and it does make a lovely bath blend (although the color looks like how it tastes )

@Amethyst Hooray! I hope you have lots of fun with it- enjoy, Amethyst!

@Rachel21 That sounds like a really great experiment- good luck with your mugwort studies, Rachel! I’m looking forward to hearing how it goes for you

@Susurrus It sounds like it’s a combo of leaves and water working together- which is close enough to a tea for me! I’m really curious about how the poultice works for you and I hope you can find a good one that will help your wrist Good luck, Siofra!

@anon87969570 No worries, Ron- if I confess, it took me a really long time to learn how to like tea. When I first started drinking it, I needed to put a whopping three spoons of sugar in a cup just to make it palatable If you have the urge, I would recommend trying different types of tea and especially fruity teas (which often taste like warm, flavorful juice ) to find something that better suits your taste buds. Or, you can skip drinking it and experiment with infusions instead- you could make hygenic products or even craft something lovely to leave as an offering for a deity! Good luck and have fun with it!

@Kasandra I know tea is a big part of your magickal practice, Kasandra, and I’m looking forward to hearing how you’ll involve tea in your Craft this week! I hope you can find some neat new tea meditations!

@Debra2 You are a true tea enthusiast, Debra, and I’m sure whatever you do will be wonderful! Enjoy experimenting with your tea blends- I can’t wait to hear what you find

@Janae_Rochele No worries, I feel you- it took me a very long time to learn how to drink tea! I’ll share the same advice for you that I gave to Ron, which is to experiment with different flavors especially fruity blends (they really do taste more like juice! ). If that’s not your cup of tea (forgive me ) no worries at all- perhaps try working with infusions to make some beauty products, or make a tea and offer it on your altar to a deity or as a gratitude ritual! Good luck!

[jessica72]

Oakey dokey artichokey I’m not a tea or coffee drinker at all. Mum a coffee definatly yes. Me not so much. So we don’t even own teacups and saucers lol.

But I was out and about poking in shops and I found a really pretty teacup and saucer. I feel like a proper little lady. From never owning one. They are actually really pretty. I can totally see how one would like to collect them.

I actually asked mum… “can you help me brew some loose leaf tea please?”

Wish me luck. I am going to try some tasseography. Mum’s volunteered to be my guinea pig and drink the tea. Oh mums what would we do without them.

[Susurrus]

@BryWisteria yay! I have a blend already that I want to try. I already love this challenge.

[MeganB]

@BryWisteria

You could always use your Mugwort Tea as a Mugwort bath instead,

That’s a good idea Maybe I’ll give that a try instead of figuring out how to drink it lol

@jessica72

a really pretty teacup and saucer

That is so cute! I love it

@anon87969570

I have never found a tea that I could enjoy without at least a tablespoon of honey.

I generally add a bit of honey to my tea when I make it. I have found that the Kava tea I enjoy from Yogi Tea doesn’t require any sweetener for me!

[Amethyst]

What a lovely cup @jessica72! Good luck reading the leaves!

[Susurrus]

We have some English China Christmas cups & saucers that were someone on my mother’s side & passed to me by my Aunt, actually, it was a whole setup for like a Christmas dinner spread… anyway! My favorite part was the teacups & saucers.

[Phoenix_Fire]

I’m not sure because I’ve not been able to do one of the challenges yet but I’ve been doing teas based on the corresponding days. Though today being Thursday and associated to green, I do like me a good green and mint tea bit I’ve run out. But I’ve been doing a daily tea based on each days corresponding colours or herbs depending what I had but I am needing to get some more of a few.
But I’m not sure exactly what I need to do to participate in the weekly challenges. Do i need to upload photos or something specific or just generally share how I use tea in my practice??. I mostly drink it at end of day based on day but if I feel i need something specific on a different day like chamomile based on calming affect I will use it regardless of if it’s the corresponding day. . Not sure what I need to do to participate in the weekly challenges but any advice on what I need to do will be appreciated.

[BrightBear]

@jessica72, you’ve inspired me to find my teacups that are still packed from my divorce 4 years ago! I drink tea every single day and I haven’t used a teacup in years! Yours is lovely! I used to buy them on eBay and antique stores, but haven’t in quite a while.

[LadyDennaRahl]

As someone who loves herbology and using herbs as a means to assist medical needs, I am constantly learning new recipes and expanding my apothecary. For this challenge, I will share with you all a great deep sleep tea/infusion.

(note herbal medications are not a substitute for proper medical care always seek doctor’s advice and use in conjunction)

• one-pint water
• one once lemon balm dried and crushed, or 4 once fresh
• one once chamomile flower dried. four once fresh
• one half once hops cone two once fresh
• once forth once lavender berry (The unbloomed bud)
• once forth once dried hibiscus flower or one once fresh
• once forth once rose flower dried or one once fresh

Boil the water then add all herbs one minute before cutting the heat. Remove from burner and steep for 15-20 minutes.
Strain through a fine-mesh strainer and serve blood warm to hot. Drink slowly 30 min before bed. Sweeten lightly only with honey.

This can be made as a tincture as well