This is the book I wrote many years ago, so I am giving it to you as an original. Since this time, I have a much firmer understanding of herbs and what they do, but I want you to see how I started out! 🙂
For many years now, I have been making Miracle Salve. Gallons of it have gone through my kitchen into little containers to heal this or that, to various family members, friends, and those who have been sent my way via one or the other. At the very beginning of my Miracle Salve making endeavors, I thought I might actually like to be able to sell it, and make a little money, but that thought quickly faded as I realized the incredible healing potential behind this little miracle. I then changed my mind and decided rather than make money, I would help make miracles happen, by giving it away. And so for the past many years, I have made this little Miracle and given it to dozens and dozens of family members, friends, and acquaintances. The results always the same – that stuff is amazing! And without a doubt, they keep coming back for more.
I have seen it heal sunburns that were pretty severe, reduce the swelling on an injury within minutes of applying it, heal sprains, cuts, scrapes, skin rashes, patches of eczema, acne, sore muscles, twitching legs, pull out splinters of both wood and glass, and so much more. I really do have people calling me all the time telling me things like: “That is the only thing that would heal my baby’s bum.” or “I have been using it on my Planters Faciitis and it doesn’t hurt to walk any more.” or “I applied it to my wart every day with a band aid, and my wart is gone.” No matter what people have been using it for, it works! It just plain and simply works!
I have held to my reserve to not sell my Miracle Salve, and I believe it has been a blessing in my life. One of those small tender mercies, where once we decide to do a good deed, the universe bends on our behalf and blesses us in so many other ways. Yet, I always wished I could get the Miracle out to so many others, when one day, as I was making yet another batch of the salve, the thought fleeted through my mind, write an eBook about your Miracle and let others know what you know. Brilliant! And thus came this book that I now share with you: Miracle Salve – The reasons behind the Miracle.
Note: pretty much any one of these herbs could stand alone as an amazing healing herb, and create a salve that in itself would be a miracle, but each also adds a little bit extra to the mix, that creates a complete miracle cure. Having said that, keep in mind that if you don’t have the exact amount of a certain herb, or even if you don’t have any of that herb, you could still make the salve, just adjust the amount and keep going, or leave one out and keep going. There have been many times when I have been a bit short of the 3 parts, or 1 part of something, or have even been completely out of something else, and I just make it with what I have.
I keep a notebook of each time I make it and what I liked or didn’t like about what I added to it. It helps to keep notes on everything you make, allowing you to not have to remember every little detail and what worked best. For example: I have added Balm of Gilead to my Miracles salve, and I don’t like the smell of it as much, so I don’t add it any more. I add less Tea Tree Oil and more Lavender Oil, simply because it makes it smell so nice. Smell is an important part of healing.
Miracle Salve
3 parts Calendula
3 parts St. John’s Wort
3 parts Comfrey
1 part Lavender buds
1 part Plantain
Optional – 2 parts Arnica – for pain relief (I didn’t put this into my first couple of batches I made, but wouldn’t be without it now. It really does offer really fast pain relief) Little children tell me all the time how it stops hurting right away. Perfect! That is what we want.
Optional – 1 part Goldenseal – for anti bacterial to help stop infection from setting in
Optional – 1 part Yarrow flowers and leaves (I always add this now as well. Just read through the section on Yarrow and you will see why.)
Optional – Add Vitamin E Oil (I always have small bottles of vitamin E oil kicking around and add it into the oil. That extra boost of Vitamin E is priceless.)
Coconut oil
Beeswax
Optional – Add Essential Oils: lavender, lemon and tea tree. It depends on how much you are making, as to how many drops of EO’s you will need. Be generous. Also, you can add in whatever your favorite essential healing oils might be, or your favorite scents. I love the smell of Theives from Young Living and is also has incredible healing properties. I love the smell of Grapefruit and have added it before. If you love mint you could add peppermint or spearmint, or even wintergreen. (In fact you could grow these in your garden and add the plant to your oil infusion.)
Small plastic, tin, or glass containers
In a large jar, cover all of the dry herbs with Virgin Olive Oil. Make sure they are well covered, because they will swell somewhat and absorb the oil. The vitamin E oil should be added at this point as well, so it also absorbs the great healing properties of the herbs. Let this oil infuse on your counter for about four weeks. Shake it a couple of times a day, when you remember to. I have also used the quick method, which I don’t often do, and don’t love as much, simply because I am always afraid that I will heat the oil too hot, which will then kill so many of the great healing properties of the oils and herbs. So if you are going to do this method, take care to never allow your oil to reach boiling temperatures. This method involves placing your herbs in a crock pot for 24 – 48 hours on low with the Olive oil. Stir often and allow the herbs to soak well, generously covered with oil. The herbs will eventually turn crispy and that’s okay. After they have soaked, strain and squeeze out all excess oil into a pot and proceed as below. It is faster in a pinch, but there is just something wonderful about soaking it and allowing it to create it’s own miracle sitting on your counter.
Once you have reached the four week mark – give or take, because there is no exact timing that has to be met – strain the oil into a clean jar through a muslin bag or cheesecloth, squeezing the herbs good to get all of the oil you can out of them. Compost or toss the herbs and keep the oil for making the salve.
At this point the oil can be made into salve, or it can sit on your counter or in the fridge until you are ready to make the salve. I often make a large gallon jar of the oil, and make salve throughout the year as I need more, or others need more. It sits on my counter until I am ready to make another batch.
Measure equal amounts of oil, and coconut oil into a saucepan on the stove. Add in half as much grated beeswax. For example: 3 cups of infused herbal oil, 3 cups of coconut oil, gives you 6 cups of melted oil, and I would add in 3 cups of grated beeswax to that. If you live in a hotter climate, add a little more beeswax to solidify it better. I have sent this salve all the way to Africa, and the batch that I made to send there, I added half oil and half beeswax, in order for it to not melt.
On the stove, over medium heat, melt all the oils and beeswax, just until the beeswax is melted. You never want to bring the oil to boiling temperature, as it will begin to kill the healing properties of the oil. Just melt it enough to melt the beeswax, then remove it from the heat. At this point I just stir it for a minute to help cool it down slightly, then add in any essential oils you may want to add. I add generous amounts of lavender and lemon oil, and half as much tea tree oil. Oils can be added depending on what scents you love or what healing properties you are wanting.
Once the oils are added, stir it up good and quickly pour into your prepared containers, ready and waiting on the counter. Depending on how warm or cool your house is, it will set up fairly fast. If it starts to solidify in the pan before you get it poured, you can gently reheat it, keeping in mind, heating it may dissipate some of the essential oils, and you may have to re add them before pouring.
Once the salve has set in your containers, place the clean lids on them and label with the name and date you made it. That’s it! That’s all there is to the best healing salve in the world. Your own Miracle’s in a Jar, Miracle Salve.
Keep in mind as we review the great properties in each herb, I am only going to mention the healing properties that apply to the Miracle Salve. Herbs have so very many uses, internally and externally, and can be used in so many different forms. I am just addressing them, and how they help in my Miracle Salve formula. Do more research on each herb if you would like to know more about their amazing healing benefits
Calendula
Calendula, without a doubt, is one of the best herbs to use in any skin cream or lotion. It is one of my very favorite herbs. It is a beautiful flower, easy to grow, and it’s properties are amazing for healing and creating the perfect skin. It stimulates the production of collagen at the site of a wound, to help minimize scarring. It also has great antibacterial and immunostimulant properties causing wounds to heal in better time, and from the inside out, while healing scars at the same time. It promotes new tissue growth.
It helps ease muscle cramps and spasms and is anti inflammatory to help reduce swelling, which it is excellent at. It has amazing vulnerary action, making it helpful in healing stubborn wounds, acne, bed sores, varicose veins, rashes, insect bites, eczema, and most other skin conditions like, psoriasis, dermatitis, athletes foot, ringworm, and jock itch. It is beneficial for any sore, inflamed, and itchy skin conditions.
It heals, soothes and softens skin, making it a great base to have in a massage oil. Thus, rubbing Miracle Salve into sore muscles, inflamed, twitching or other, it is beneficial. Swelling from an injury is lessened greatly by the use of Calendula. It helps treats spider veins, varicose veins, leg ulcers and chilblains, all of which can be very painful and hard to deal with otherwise. Dry, chapped skin, Calendula is the healing tool. It will soothe the area and minimize the pain.
Nothing treats a diaper rash better than Calendula or Miracle Salve. It can also be applied to the skin to help treat nose bleeds, hemorrhoids, or inflammation of other body parts like the rectum, or the eyelid eg: conjunctivitis.
It’s herbal actions include: Antispasmodic, antiseptic, antimicrobial, astringent, cholagogue, diaphorhetic, vulnerary, lymphatic, emmenagogue, hepatic.
It can be taken internally as well, for a variety of ailments, including helping to move the blood through increased circulation. Drinking a tea has been shown to help ease stomach indigestion as well.
It’s benefits in the garden are great as well. It is a flower, easily grown, and easily self seeded for next years growth. It belongs to the Marigold family, but is not the traditional ornamental marigold, and therefore is also great for repelling insects like aphids, and attracting others like bees. It is easy to harvest, simply picking the flower buds, allowing them to dry and using in oil infusions. The more you pick the flower buds, the more flowers the plant will produce. Fresh flowers are edible and can be used in a salad, a cold drink, or tea or tincture.
If Calendula is that wonderful, why would we need to have all of those other things in the Miracle Salve? Good question. You could very easily have a Calendula salve and would obtain great healing power. Many people do it, and if that is all you have for herbs in your garden or home, then by all means, make your salve. You will love it and never regret doing so. Many of the following herbs you read about, will also share with you great healing properties in their own rights. Any of them on their own are fantastic, but when combined, you obtain the Miracle in the Salve.
St. Johns Wort
Full of powerful flavanoids, it helps protect, soothe, and heal skin, also having anti-acne and anti inflammatory benefits. Kills any bacteria and calms irritations, causing smoother and healthier skin. Restores elasticity to skin by hydrating it, and reduces wrinkles and lines. Great for treating skin conditions, wounds, eczema, minor burns, and hemorrhoids. A remedy for nerve pain, with natural antibacterial properties and helps fight inflammation.
Supports elasticity in your skin, by supporting healthy elastin production. It has natural essential oils that hydrate and plump up the skin. Tames inflammation, soothes itching and burning, and relieves irritations from eczema or small cuts. Works great on cuts, burns, bites and stings.
Strong anti inflammatory compounds make it an excellent choice for rubbing on arthritis problems, or muscles that ache from Fibromyalgia, other joint problems, and gout. It helps to speed up the healing process of burns, bruises, and wounds, by stimulating blood oxygen to those areas to encourage repair tissue.
Great comfort can be found from using on hemorrhoids or stretched skin.
Great for healing nerve pain with its anti inflammatory and anti viral properties. Has amazing nerve pain relieving qualities and is great for diabetic nerve pain, or Fibromyalgia pain. I have Fibromyalgia, and often use it to help settle down aches and pains.
Side effects are rare, but can be found in some people and include, dizziness, nausea, fatigue and confusion if taking St Johns wort internally. For use in a salve, there are no contraindications.
Comfrey
Comfrey is one of those herbs that has been labeled as one of the best-known healing herbs of all time. In salves, it has vulnerary and astringent properties, making it beneficial in healing minor wounds. It is known to aid in increasing cell production causing wounds to heal over rapidly, thus a small word of caution when using on a deep wound, it will heal the top layers over quickly, and sometimes we want it to heal from the inside out, not the outside in. It is also a demulcent, which soothes irritated tissue, and helps reduce inflammation. It aids in reducing scaring by its ability to increase cell production.
Comfrey leaves are full of astringent tannins, which form a protective surface over wounds that helps promote rapid healing. Comfrey works so fast at healing, that often herbs such as Goldenseal or thyme are added to salves – to prevent sealing bacteria inside, since these two herbs have such strong antibacterial properties. I also have a Goldenseal salve that I have made, which I will use with my Miracle Salve, if it is a deeper wound. I also use the Goldenseal salve on wounds that have just had Black salve applied.
Because it is also an astringent, it helps control and slow the bleeding. It relieves pain and speeds healing of pus filled wounds, as well as accelerates tissue healing of insect bites.
Comfrey is excellent to offer relief to gout, joint pain, arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, sunburns, fibromyalgia muscle pain. This makes it a good choice to massage Miracle Salve into sore muscles and joints, knee pain, etc.
Comfrey is often called Knitbone, due to its amazing ability to heal broken bones, and speed the healing of a wound. It is great to reduce the swollen area around fractures and wounds. Healing of sprains, swellings and bruises, to sever cuts, boils, abscesses and gangrenous conditions, the Comfrey leaf salve or poultice is excellent.
Lavender
Lavender is well known for it’s anti inflammatory, anti-fungal, antidepressant, antiseptic, antibacterial, and antimicrobial properties. It is also antispasmodic, analgesic, detoxifying, hypotensive, and sedative. Besides all of that wonderful goodness – it smells amazing!
All in all, it’s biggest claim to fame is its antiseptic properties to disinfect a wound and increase healthy cell growth, causing the wound to heal faster, and to decrease the appearance of scaring.
Lavender has the great ability to wash a wound clean, by disinfecting it. Just the smell of it in a salve offers a calming effect on the person with the wound. The scent of it is known to help lower blood pressure and heart rate, putting the injured person in a much more relaxed state of mind. One of the things it is well known for is treating burns and scalds. In Miracle Salve, it offers pain relieving properties, and stimulates the cells of a wound to regenerate more quickly than normal. It also is known to help prevent scarring.
It can be applied to insect bites and stings, and eliminates the pain and swelling almost immediately.
Is a good treatment for athlete’s foot and fungal infections. Good for rashes, sprains, sunburn, sunstroke, bruises and burns. Insect repellent, a natural antibiotic, and antiseptic
Plantain
Plantain grows abundantly wild where I live, and I think most places in North America. It is literally almost as abundant as the dandelion is, but isn’t as noticeable since it doesn’t offer us the showy yellow flowers and puffs of seed heads. It grows in cracks in the sidewalks, in the grass, in the rocks, in the fields, and doesn’t care about whether or not there is a little or a lot of sun. If only people understood the value of this little plant. I even allow it to grow in certain places in my gardens. There are two varieties of plantain, both extremely valuable in natural medicine.
Plantain is often listed as the number one herb for skin problems of all kinds, and is considered one of the best all around herbs. Many call it a miracle medicinal herb all on its own. I am only addressing the amazing properties it has to serve it’s purpose in the Miracle Salve, but it has many other benefits worth researching when it comes to over all health and healing both internally and externally. It is definitely worth studying this little treasured herb. In poultices, plantain can be used to treat any sort of skin problem, rash, cut, burn, sting, bite, poison ivy, blisters, infections, and so on. The leaves can be heated and applied to sore muscles, swollen joints, sprains and sore feet. It also has many beneficial ways of healing internally, but that is a book all in itself.
In the salve likewise it is beneficial in healing pretty much anything. It has great natural antibacterial and anti inflammatory properties making it a great aid in speeding the recovery of wounds by repairing tissue damage, and for skin itching problems, even those caused by Poison Oak, Ivy, Chicken Pox, Psoriasis, or Eczema.
Plantain is great for injuries also because of its coagulating properties, that is why if you can find the fresh herb and apply a poultice, it is the best first aid you could give, stopping bleeding problems. The roots, seeds flowers and leaves can all be used internally or externally. It can be used in place of, or as an additive to Comfrey in speeding the healing process and repairing damaged tissue, treating bruises and broken bones.
It is #1 in the field of blood poisoning treatment, used as a poultice on the outside and a tea for internally
Arnica
Arnica is well known for a couple of things when it comes to healing, first is its analgesic properties making it great for relieving pain, and second its amazing anti inflammatory properties. I love to use it in the Miracle Salve mostly for it’s pain relieving properties. It also has a wonderful smell, which is always great in a salve you are rubbing on your body. I often apply the Miracle Salve to many little childrens bumps, scrapes, and bruises, and without a doubt they always tell me it stopped hurting almost immediately.
Arnica is often the first remedy given in an injury, after a fall, muscle strain, or even surgery. It helps heal bruising, heals septic conditions such as boils, helps heal muscle exhaustion used as a muscle rub, and great to take away pain in painful joints.
It has great antimicrobial and anti inflammatory properties, and works great for muscle aches, spasms, pulled muscles, rheumatic pain, sprains, joint pain, insect bites and swelling from broken bones.
Caution for Arnica is that it is only used topically. It should only be used internally under the supervision of a health care provider or someone trained well in herbal medicines.
Yarrow
I started using Yarrow in my Miracle Salve, mainly because it grows abundantly in my yard. I have both the white flower and the red flower which return and multiply year after year. I prefer to use the white flowers with their leaves, as they have stronger medicinal properties, and I keep the red ones mainly for show, but could and would use them if needed. It really is another one of those herbs that one could spend much time studying and getting to know due to its wide range of healing properties. It can be taken both internally and externally for various health problems. Often, back in the day, my grandparents would brew up a Yarrow Tea and drink it to help dispel a fever and fight the flu bug.
I use Yarrow in my salves because it is great for stopping the bleeding in a wound and has antimicrobial and pain relieving properties. It can helps heal varicose veins and stagnant blood by moving the blood around.
Goldenseal
Goldenseal has a great reputation as an herbal antibiotic. In it’s own way, it is a form of Neosporin by helping to prevent infection from setting in. It is often used to treat skin inflammations. It has the amazing power to inhibit bacteria from sticking to tissue surfaces, watching them clean.
It is used to treat skin ulcers, rashes, abrasions, and is well known to treat acne. It is available in many medicines that treat eczema, itching, herpes, blisters and sores. It enhances the effectiveness of other herbs it is used with. Taken internally or as a lotion or salve, it magnifies the value of the other herbs
There you have it! Miracle Salve!
