Info about Vitamins
Female Wiles - Herbs, Potions And Psychic Powers
• Herbs, potions and psychic powers
The handiness of psychic powers is grossly underestimated. This is because so few people like to admit they exist. I'm not even sure I think they do although I don't think they don't. I hope they do. I hope we are the psychic family we tell ourselves we are. Certainly we have many telepathic experiences and more often than not, 1 can guess what you are up to and thinking even though you aren't speaking or even in the same house. I do not actually practise magic or witch-doctoring myself but I like to think I could and I advise you to cultivate your own powers. They are not only helpful in child-raising but you will make many friends if you put it about that you have second sight.
• Psychic experience
My first was at school when I was five and had Just embarrassed myself by telling everyone I could sing like Elvis Presley. I demonstrated and they said, 'No you can't.' To restore myself in their eyes I boasted that I could make money. They said, 'Go on.' So I blew into the brown paper bag which had contained my packed lunch, popped the bag, opened it, and out fell a sixpence, stunning everyone but mostly me. I knew I had powers after that.
• Intuition
I am prepared to admit that a lot of it is intuition which can be womanly but not necessarily. Your father says he is a transmitter of thoughts but he isn't all that intuitive about other things.
You can and should cultivate your intuition by being endlessly curious about other people's behaviour and putting yourselves into their shoes. Not just in them, in them walking around, getting blisters and taking them off. After a while you get to feel things.
• Spells
These should be used only with utmost caution. Your auntie in Australia heard of a woman who had fallen out badly with her estranged husband, so stuck his photograph in the fridge and days later he collapsed. Outraged by some politician or other, my sister, a woman given to extravagance, cut his photograph from the paper and shoved it in the freezer. Feeling pleased, she told a colleague who cried, 'Get it out, get it out. Evil that you send out comes back to you threefold.' So your auntie rushed home, unpeeled the photo from the frozen peas and put a hot water bottle on it. The politician lived.
• In a similar vein - chain letters
These should be treated as items of evil and returned to the sender in triplicate.
• Potions
I'm only average on potions but have gleaned the following over many years as a woman, wife, mother and reader of very old books on household management.
• Aches and pains
For toothache: make a very small pellet of cotton wool, soak it in oil of cloves and with the sterilised end of a darning needle, push it into the cavity. I have never tried it but I like the sound of it. If you have no oil of cloves, take paracetamol and go to the dentist.
For vomiting: mix a solution of bicarbonate of soda and glucose and, provided you aren't suffering from poisoning, sip it. You may prefer to keep it in a glass by the bed and look at it which works almost as well. If you need to vomit, as in the time one of you attempted a drug overdose with four paracetamol, drink salt water. You will never attempt a drug overdose again.
To prevent sea sickness, fight nausea and diarrhoea and ease morning sickness drink a cup of ginger tea made with a teaspoon of grated fresh root or dried powder but I would counsel not travelling by sea when you are feeling ill and pregnant
To cure a cold, rub Vicks on to the soles of your feet. This makes your grandmother feel better and I thought she invented it, but I met a farmer who also swore by it.
To prevent leg cramp in bed, sleep with corks. This also prevents sleep.
Perspiration can be kept in check with a powdering of bicarbonate of soda in the areas prone to damp.
For nerves, as in exam, boy or job, take sal volatile as recommended by your grandmother or Rescue Remedy as recommended by Bach. When I was going through a very nervous patch owing to trying to be in too many places at once, I was prescribed beta-blockers. I took one and it felt like brain surgery.
All the women in our family are very susceptible to substances. When I took Melatonin, a synthetic hormone which is supposed to reduce jet lag, prevent ageing and re-align the body clock, I had no thoughts for three weeks.
• Handy hints with potions
For reviving old shoes: mix a tablespoon of milk with 1 dessertspoon of methylated spirits. Use sparingly. On the shoes. Drinking it will not have any noticeable effect on shoes.
To repel cockroaches, soak small cloths in eucalyptus and distribute them around your cupboards.
To get rid of moths from your food cupboard, throw out all your food, clean out the cupboards and every container three times (because moth eggs cleave to tiny cracks) and say a decade of the rosary.
Rule: You can go to jail for using unnatural substances and also round the bend. Even small amounts, lust keep that in mind.