An Amulet and a Magic Potion for Oggún

A friend gifted me with a macuto, which is an odd-looking amulet connecting with the powers of a specific orisha. The one that I got of course is a macuto of Oggún, one my favorite great spirits.

 I love the smell of witchcraft in the morning. 

(The macuto is the green and black object with a cowrie shell.)

Amulets need to feed to be alive. So as food for the amulet I made a potion from herbs related to Oggún to anoint it with every Tuesday, Oggún's sacred day. I also reserved a bottle for anointing the altar image in my devotionals.

It's really been quite a while since I made some herbal stuff, I forgot how fun and delightfully messy it is. I was expecting the tincture to smell horribly because of the cumin and pepper, but I like how it turned out actually. Very strong yet very sweet smelling. I'm writing down the recipe for posterity's sake:


375 ml(lapad) Tanduay Rhum Dark
1 pack Fortune Menthol (20's)
10g bay leaves
25g anise seeds
20g black pepper (whole)
20g cloves (whole)
15g cumin powder
10g dried rosemary
A few drops of dragon's blood oil in each 75ml bottle

This kind of looks artsy.

Filtering, bottling and labeling. I had to buy these expensive (50 pesos) 15ml bottles from 

Beabi, due to time constraints and unwillingness to brave the Christmas shoppers at Divisoria.

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