Limpias and Herbal Remedies to Help Kickstart the New Year
The weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's eve are the time we usually let ourselves go
Photo: Unsplash
The weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s eve are the time we usually let ourselves go: we’re unsure about what day it is, we indulge, and especially with this pandemic, we have been stressing about our future more than ever. Now that we’re a few days into 2021 we’re trying to focus on new beginnings but considering little has changed that goal can feel overwhelming. Limpias have been our go-to for generations, helping us cleanse our bodies and revitalize our spirit. We’ve compiled recipes for limpias from curanderas and herbal remedies to help you focus on reviving your energy and getting rid of negativity.
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White Fire Limpia
Erika Buenaflor is a modern-day curandera, who acts as a spiritual counselor and meditation teacher. She has a master’s degree in religious studies and comes from a lineage of female healers from Chihuahua, Mexico. She routinely shares limpias on her Instagram account but one of our favorites is the White Fire Limpia. The purpose of this limpia is to manifest your thoughts and desires on a full moon to harness its power to your advantage. To start, you’ll need to write down what you’d love to manifest and then place a splash of rubbing alcohol and two handfuls of Epson salt into a pot. Carefully toss in a wooden stick, your hand-written intention, and dry herbs into the pot, she prefers basil and lemon balm. The amount of residue left over in your pot will reflect how gracefully your intention will manifest.
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I’itoi Onion and Ginger Elixer
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Felicia Cocotzin Ruix, the creator of Kitchen Curandera, has plenty of recipes to cleanse your physical body and your soul. She has been creating healing foods and remedies in her tiny abode kitchen for years. Her I’itoi Onion and Ginger recipe has many antibiotic properties, so it’s the perfect immunity booster during this time. You’ll need:
- One small bunch of I’itoi onions (or shallots)
- Two inch piece of ginger, washed and sliced
Cut up all your ingredients and place them in a small pot. Fill the pot with water and drizzle in a bit of honey. Bring the water to a boil then immediately turn down the heat and allow it to simmer gently for about 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow it to cool completely. Aim to drink this two to three times a day.
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Echinacea and Red Clover
Paloma Cervantes is a “Maestra” who was born and raised in Mexico responded to a call from her followers for herbs that help with allergies. She suggests these two herbs that when combined they are powerful healers: Echinacea and Red Clover. She recommends getting these herbs in capsules but you can also buy them in their purest form and boil them into a tea. Adding these two herbs to your daily diet will stimulate your immunity, something we all need right now.
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5 Minute Golden Milk
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If you have a love-hate relationship with pumpkin spice lattes then this five minute golden milk from Anima Mundi is for you. Costa Rican herbalist, Adriana Ayales created Anima Mundi to bridge ancient remedies to the modern world and she developed the Golden Milk concoction with several health benefits. It’s essentially turmeric with milk and other spices. Turmeric is key as an anti-inflammatory that is also known to help with depression. Here’s what you need:
- 1/2 cup hot water
- 1 cup milk of choice
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil or coconut cream powder *
- If not using our formulas, use:
- 1/2 tsp ground or freshly grated ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch ground black pepper
- Sweetener of choice
Activate your ingredients in hot water, and steep for ten minutes. Warm your milk on the side. Strain the ingredients, especially if using fresh ginger, then blend with milk and enjoy!
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Calendula Petals
Taylor Cordova, creator of The Flowerchild Bruja, offers calendula petals, which are high grade organic loose herbs, that contain solar energy and invigorate your aura. You can also apply these herbs topically to reduce inflammation in the skin. Most importantly, these herbs are used to encourage love, joy, optimism, and vitality. If you’re unsure how to do it on your own, she offers an. assisted energy cleansing session that’s flower powered.
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Moon Water
Bernice Dimas, founder and community based herbal educator of Hood Herbalism, has created moon water that supports your intuition, subconscious, and shadow parts of the self. Here’s how to create moon water:
- Pick a glass bowl of your choice. Clean and sanitize it.
- Add some fresh spring, filtered, or distilled water in there.
- Hold the bowl and bless the water. Communicate with it and let it know you will be placing it outside and will be gathering the medicine of the full moon. communicating with the elements is very important. It’s a relationship you are developing so honoring them will shift the vibration of your moon water.
- Pick a space outside where the water will receive the moon light.
- You can decorate the space by placing flowers around or setting up an altar.
- Place your bowl down and let the water infuse with the medicine of the moon light for a couple of hours.
- Bring the bowl back inside and put your moon water in a jar.
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Lung Support Tea
La Loba Loca is an educator and millennial herbalist based out of Los Angeles, California. She is all about offering herbal medicine for the people sharing recipes including one devoted to lung support tea. The concoction is designed to help you breath easier and deeper, great for your meditation sessions. You will need:
- 2 part mullein
- 1 part mint
- 1 part holy basil
- 1/2 part licorice root
Once you have all of your ingredients, mix them together and place one to two spoonfuls in a tea bag. Pour boiling water over the tea bags and let them steep for several hours or overnight.
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Floral Water
Denise Vallejo is a chef and founder of Alchemy Organica, a mobile kitchen with dishes centered around ancestral plants that are usually offered as a testimony of resiliency. She uses her plant medicine wisdom from her studies in Curanderismo to heal others on a holistic level. She recently started selling a floral water and it sold out instantly. This floral spirit tincture is a blend of citrus, herbs, flowers, roots, & spices with corresponding gemstones in a base of aloe and spring water. You can use it for cleansing altar spaces, add to offerings or add to a ritual bath. Mist any space to lift your mood since flowers naturally raise the vibration of any room. The spicy, orange notes instantly perk you up, so this also doubles as aromatherapy.
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Medicina Assistant
Panquetzani is an LA-based educator who practices traditional Mesoamerican medicine. You’ll find a wide variety of topics on her Instagram page but mostly relating to natural wellness and healing methods. One of her favorite medicinal sources is the sun, using it as a tool to make a powerful herbal infused oil which can then be applied directly on the body, or as a base for a soothing pomada. Here’s what you’ll need:
- A mason jar
- 1 to 2 cups of your favorite dried herbs
- Oil (think olive, aguacate, or castor)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Add your favorite dried herbs into a jar, pour an oil base to ensure all the herbs are covered, close it up nice and tight, then place it somewhere in your jardin, out of direct sunlight but somewhere where the sun shines indirectly. Leave it for 40 days. ⠀
