This week I tried some herby things that didn’t really go to plan. Well, honestly, they absolutely blew!
First, I was trying to make some cocoa body butter, something I’ve made so many times before that i thought there was no way it could go wrong…not true. Somehow I ended up having to add beeswax just to get it to solidify again (were I not out of cocoa butter, it may not have gone so badly). The lesson, do not make something without having back up supplies, no matter what it may be.
Next, I tried to make some cayenne salve for my partner whose knee seems to have blown up. Now, this I was excited by. Not as excited as I am about the prospect of one day using my Solomon’s Seal in a salve, but as excited as I can get until that baby grows some more. After several days of working on it, the result was a very orange paste that has no warming effect I can detect whatsoever. Lesson learned on this one – USE THE FRESH FRUIT!
Disappointing results, certainly. A mild sense of failure, maybe. But I’ve come to enjoy the failures in my herby practice almost as much as the successes. Atychiphobia is the fear, or rather phobia, of failure. It can range from fairly mild to completely debilitating to some. I don’t know if it’s because I went to art school and faced some sort of failure daily, or if it’s just some innate part of me, but I can’t imagine a worse phobia to have. Failure may knock your ego or royally piss you off but it can also inspire you to do amazing things or make great change. Through failing in our practice, as in life, there is so much more learning going on.
If anyone out there is putting off trying something in their studies out of a fear of failing, I urge you to just do it anyway – afterall, what’s the worst that can happen? I mean obviously don’t go doing anything too dangerous but do have fun in your experiments! If things fail, learn from them – why did they fail, what can you try differently next time, did it really fail anyway? Write down those failures and own them. Don’t commit to just one experiment. Don’t stick to the same formula or recipe just because you know it works.
Not long after these failures I blended some home made St. John’s Wort tincture with home made Lemon Balm glycerite to make something truly amazing. And now I’m thinking what I’ll be tempted to try next.
Herbal She Wrote 
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