Casting spells with castor oil.
Okay, we’re not really casting spells. But castor oil does hold many properties that can feel like magic when they do their job.
breaking down cysts, fibroids, moles, bone spurs
stimulating cell regrowth to heal wounds and decreases scar tissue
improving digettion and elimination
lubricating joints
easing inflammation and soothing sore muscles and menstrual cramps
growing lush, healthy hair
improving texture and tone of skin
bringing on labor (don’t try this without your midwife or doctor involved!)
relieving constipation (don’t try this without your bathroom nearby!!)
Again: please consult your healthcare practitioner before using castor oil while pregnant or before taking internally. It is a potent remedy that requires experience for dosage and proper timing.
Castor oil, pressed from the seeds of the plant Ricinus communis, is made up of 90% ricinoleic acid, named after the plant itself. A thick, viscous oil, castor has the ability to deeply penetrate the skin, delivering the beneficial aspects of this anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, and analgesic oil.
I’ve had a mole checked by my dermatologist and then frozen off, twice. Not a comfortable nor inexpensive experience. After it grew back a third time, I decided to turn to herbs. My teacher, Christa Sinadinos, wrote this amazing tome of herbal information. In it is her formula for Black Drawing Salve. It is said to help insect bites, bee stings, splinters, zits, boils, skin tags, and moles. Castor oil is a main ingredient. I made a batch and applied it to the mole, covered it with a Band-Aid to prevent staining my clothing (thanks to the charcoal in the formula, it is indeed a black salve), and reapplied daily for about three weeks. It wasn’t necessarily a pretty transformation—I was glad it wasn’t on a more public part of my body—but it went away and has not grown back.
I’m at the age when my belly is a beautiful composition of time, pastries, cocktails, and hormones. The high-waisted “Mom jeans” that I started purchasing after my daughter schooled me about my low-riders are no longer so comfortable around the middle. Give me my low-slung sweatpants, please! But my algorithm started sending me videos on castor oil packs over the liver for hormonal health and detoxification, and what do you know? I ordered one.
Castor oil packs are a great remedy to address cysts, fibroids, bloating, gas, constipation, and painful menstrual cramps. Castor helps increase blood flow, and its anti-inflammatory properties bring relaxation and relief. As with many herbal remedies, consistency is key. I have not been consistent with my pack, but I am using it now with a heating pad, and it’s super comforting. There are so many options out there as far as packs go. I linked mine in case you want to try it without going down the rabbit hole of sites. It’s comfortable and the oil included with the pack is organic, so I’m happy.
In the Ayurvedic tradition, castor has a relationship with thick, healthy hair. Massaging oil onto the scalp feeds the hair follicles which improves the health of the hair and scalp.
Cleopatra used castor to brighten the whites of her eyes, and the oil also lengthens and strengthens lashes, so ditch your mascara and dab a little castor on before bed. My daughter used castor to speed up the regrowth of her lashes when her eyelash curler (yes, we love those!) somehow cut her lashes?! I don’t know how that happened, but I was so proud of her when she turned to castor to help fix the issue. They grew back so quickly!
Can you believe there is more that this oil provides? As a topical anti-inflammatory and analgesic, castor oil can help relieve stiffness and pain of arthritic joints and overworked muscles. While you can simply massage castor oil into your skin, I went one further and created KOMBO, our newest in the line of Whipped Shea Butter Magic.
Kombo butter is extracted from the seed of the Pycnanthus angolensis tree in West Africa and is known for its pain-relieving properties. Combining this with castor oil, shea butter, lavender-infused sunflower oil, and camphor essential oil results in a comforting, circulatory stimulating butter that my hands and clients have been loving.
So, while I won’t share the result of my taking castor oil internally (some things truly are TMI), you can see I’ve experimented in many ways. Do you have a castor oil story to share with me? I’d love to hear!
We’ve reached the end of October, when the witches fly and the veil is thin. Let’s cast some spells for relief from pain of all sorts, the world over. May we all know peace and love, deep within our hearts and minds. These are the sorts of spells I like to cast. So mote it be.
