Calendula Healing Salve
Let’s make a healing salve that can be added to your home medicine cabinet to help heal cuts, bumps, scrapes & bruises
Life happens sometimes & why not be prepared?
Calendula Healing Salve
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I would like to share with you a few different recipes you can make to start filling up your home medicine cabinet. Far too often we reach for items that don’t always have the best ingredients for the sake of convenience. I know I've been guilty of such. We live in a world where toxic products are accepted because we don’t always know there are other options. I believe that if I want to live in a world with cleaner & greener options for my household &/or body products why not share the knowledge?
That is exactly what I am going to be bringing you next. In this post I am going to be sharing with you a simple 2 ingredient calendula healing salve. As always let’s answer a couple questions first & then I’ll share the recipe & tutorial.
What is a calendula healing salve?
It is also known as an ointment. They are generally made from mixing a medicinally infused oil, generally we use a vegetable oil, with beeswax. The ingredients are heated together on the stove & then pour it into a container to let it set then it’s ready to use.
With proper storage you can expect your salve to last several months to a year. I usually end up running out of product before it goes rancid. Proper storage simply involves keeping it in a dark cool place. Learn more about healing salves HERE.
When would you use a calendula healing salve?
It can be a treatment for everyday cuts, scrapes, skin lacerations, puncture wounds & traumas to the skin including bruising or swelling from injury.
This is NOT for deep penetrative wounds. Perhaps a set of stitches would be more beneficial in that case if it’s deep enough.
Although I can not give you any guarantees I can speak from personal experience this does help with bruising & swelling. I used it on a bruise of my own that was swollen & it healed in a fraction of the time it usually takes me to heal.
Due to her actions & affinities (where she likes to go in the body & what she does when she gets there) another thing you can do with this salve is use it on swollen lymph nodes for relief.
Calendula
Calendula officinalis L.
Calendula’s primary actions
Alterative: this tells us that she has the ability to open up the channels of elimination in the body.
Astringent: this tells us that she helps wounds heal, preventing stagnation of fluid, modulating inflammation.
Inflammation is interesting, we’ve been taught that it’s something that needs to be eradicated in a sense but that’s not quite right. You see we don’t want the inflammatory response to go away completely, it is a response of the vital force of the body. We just want it to reach a point of comfort. If we were to take the inflammatory response away, which is just the body telling us something is up, then we’re pretty much flipping the bird to the vital force telling it we know better.
Astringents are specific in treating damp heat type wounds when swelling, pus, redness & inflammation are present.
Lymphagogue: this tells us that she promotes lymph production & flow. Any time we see a word ending in “gogue” that signals to us that it is a stimulation of secretions.
When our lymph nodes are swollen, it’s the body’s way of indicating a heightened immunological activity with fluid stagnation (not moving) & a general need for detoxification.
Calendula Healing Salve
Those are just a few of the actions that we are concerned with.
The three main parts of the body she like to work on:
Lymphatic & immune system
Liver & gallbladder
Skin
Temperature: warming
Moisture: mixed moistening & drying properties
Planetary ruler: Sun
Elemental ruler: Water
Ruling principle: Sulfur
A few posts ago I shared with you the western alchemical map of creation. It is the blueprint of how we are made of the same elements. Learn more about that HERE.
The next ingredient I would like to talk about is beeswax. There are so many skin benefits beeswax can provide & here are just a few of them
Helps the skin attract & retain moisture
It softens & lubricates the skin
Prevents water loss
Provides a protective barrier to the skin
Provides vitamin A which helps regenerate the skin after damage
Contains antiseptic, antibacterial properties . Source.
For this recipe you will need medicinally infused oil. Learn how to make infused oils on a double boiler HERE & with a herbal infusing machine HERE.
The recipe makes 1-1 oz container of salve
1/8 cup of calendula medicinal infused oil
1.5 tsp of beeswax
______ grams max of Optional essential oil
Place your calendula oil & beeswax in a double boiler on the stove
Once completely melted & combined remove from the heat
Stir in essential oil if using
Pour into 1 oz tin & allow to cool before using.
Store the finished salve in a dark cool place.
Watch the video & tutorial HERE