Love Potions Vs Aphrodisiacs
By the Seed SistAs
The desire for Love Potions is not a new one. The ability to take the arrow of Eros into your own hands certainly has appeal. We, as magical herbalists, have often been asked for Love Potions and it’s an ethical and moral dilemma for any magical practitioner to consider who they are putting a Love Potion into the hands of.
What is a Love Potion?
The term Love Potion is kind of a misnomer. A Love Potion is essentially a Lust Potion, one that gets the sensual vibrations raised, heightens your senses and can emulate the feelings of intoxicating lust that help in the early stages before deep care and love set-in within a relationship. A form of sensual trickery that gets your loins communicating with your heart telling the Potion Drinker that they’re IN LOVE.
No, you’re not in Love, you’re just horny.
We’ve experienced this firsthand with a potion we made for giving you a boost when you go out. We combined chilli tincture for a spicy zing, daisy syrup for some joyful uplift and valerian to release inhibitions and took several drops on our way to a party. When we got there, still convinced we were just taking drops of something that would keep us dancing, we gave a few drops here and there to others at the event. Everyone that took the potion started to get hot and sweaty, and we soon had much more unwelcome interest than we’d bargained for. With folk asking for more love potions and starting to get sensual on the dance floor, we realised that we’d combined herbs that had created a Passion Potion. Our now infamous Passion Potion has seen the start of many a relationship, lead to babies being born and many other exciting stories, but we always encourage anyone with Passion Potion to be careful who you choose to give it to because you just might have them fall in lust with you.
We share a recipe for this in our book Poison Prescriptions (UK only).
Aphrodisiacs
Aphrodisiacs more generally can be intentionally worked within partnerships or for heightened self-pleasure, and may be helpful where there are issues around intimacy to enhance the experience and relax the participants. An aphrodisiac is defined as any food or drug that arouses the sexual instinct, induces desire and increases pleasure and performance. This word is derived from Aphroditaeí the Greek Goddess of love. There’s more on aphrodisiacs here.
While sex can be a journey of discovery, pleasure and connection, there can also be sex or sensual pleasure to reproduce. Procreation has been a moral, religious and even political issue in cultures historically the world over. Aphrodisiacs have been sought to ensure sexual potency.
An aphrodisiac is any food, drink, herb, or drug that stimulates sexual desire or arousal. These substances work in various ways to enhance sensuality, such as boosting circulation, increasing energy, or heightening nerve sensitivity. Aphrodisiacs can be categorised into three main types based on their effects: those that enhance libido, those that intensify sexual pleasure and desire, and those that improve physical performance or potency. Their effects often stem from their ability to influence the central nervous system by altering neurotransmitter levels or regulating sex hormones.
Herbal Aphrodisiacs – History and Actions
Through our fascination with aphrodisiacs over the years, we have explored some herbs from places other than the UK on our travels. Let’s have a look at some of them and some possible combinations for creating a potent Love Potion. We’ll look at three potent concoctions we’ve worked with over the years and some of their positives and pitfalls along the way.
We’ve included some that we haven’t grown here, but have worked with over the years, for creating love potions:
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Unity Drops
One of the first aphrodisiac blends we created featured damiana and schisandra. Through our studies, we learned about these herbs, and believed that damiana’s traditionally masculine energy would complement schisandra’s feminine associations. The result was incredibly potent—we called them Unity Drops. The combination created a sensation akin to soft pink ribbons gliding over bare skin, heightening sensuality to an almost overwhelming degree. While they may have been suitable for occasional use, in some cases, the intensity of arousal they induced was simply too intense. We ultimately decided to discontinue them for this reason. Let’s take a closer look at these two herbs and explore what might have been happening.
Damiana – Turnera diffusa
There are many potential reasons, actions or compounds that could be attributed to just damiana as an aphrodisiac. It was always a herb we were taught to work with as an adaptogen, but also for male impotency, issues with getting an erection. Having worked with damiana, the herb is multi-faceted. Actions attributed to damiana include antioxidant, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective, hypoglycemic, stimulant and energising and of course aphrodisiac. T. diffusa has been part of folk medicine since ancient times, and was considered to be one of the most important therapeutic agents in ancient Mayan civilisation especially as an aphrodisiac.
Damiana has shown to affect levels of the sex hormones in the system, increase sperm count and support the body postmenopausally. The effects on hormones lead to increased lubrication in the postmenopausal woman.
Much of the aphrodisiac qualities can also be attested to the anxiolytic action of the herb, and the smooth muscle relaxation initiating increased blood flow and tightened sensation and desire.
Schizandra – Schisandra chinensis
Schizandra is a herb that has seen centuries of fame in Chinese medicine and came to Western herbalism on the adaptogen train. Studies have confirmed the adaptogenic effects which could contribute to the sexual tonic and aphrodisiac qualities. Schizandra can also stimulate the central nervous system which will heighten a sexual or sensual encounter.
Schizandra is called Wu Wei Zi, which means five-flavour berry. Overwhelmingly, there is a sour taste that gets the taste buds going before it even enters the bloodstream.
Schizandra boosts the function of the kidneys and acts as a general tonic.
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“Female Viagra”?
On a trip to Morocco, after several weeks of being offered a delicious tea of what was locally being referred to as ‘female’ viagra’, we ascertained that it was in fact galangal. We’ve worked with galangal as the whole dried rhizome (a type of midfield root that new shoots grow up from), decocted in a pan. A decoction is where you cover the root in water, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. This makes a pink fragrant brew delicious as well and sensual-inducing.
Galangal – Alpinia galanga
This rhizome, grown in the Atlas Mountains, possibly arrived in Morocco with the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, that started in the middle of the 7th century CE, and was successful in the early 8th century. It brought both the Arabic language and Islam to the area and possibly galangal form Asia via Europe.
Pink aromatic and absolutely delicious, galangal certainly seems to enhance sensation and a feeling of euphoric rushes. Historically, galangal has been connected to improving male potency but the heightened sensual affects know no gender.
Galangal has been used for its emmenagogue, aphrodisiac, abortifacient, carminative, antipyretic and anti-inflammatory qualities and used in the treatment of various diseases, such as bronchitis, heart diseases, chronic enteritis, renal calculus, diabetes, rheumatism and kidney disorders.
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Passion Potion
As we described above this was one of our early potions for sensuality, starting as Party Potion, then becoming known as Dragon’s Breath because of the spice, but just made people believe their breath would stink, not that it would induce sensuality. We finally settled on Passion Potion. This mix also contains daisy syrup along with the valerian and the chilli. Daisy brings an element of joy and playfulness, but the chilli and valerian are the real aphrodisiacs of the combination.
Valerian – Valeriana officinalis
Not a classic aphrodisiac, we stumbled upon valerian in this realm by accident. After our encounter with the horny ravers at the party, we went to old herbals to see what was said about valerian. Sure enough, there it was, valerian was a known aphrodisiac for many years. Modern herbals often miss this out of the repertoire for valerian, but it’s time this aspect was rediscovered, shouted about from the rooftops. Valerian has become famed as a sleep herb but the relaxing qualities are part of what promotes the aphrodisiac effects. Apart from helping to take away anxiety induced inhibitions, valerian relaxes blood vessels, increasing blood flow to the extremities thus heightening sensation. Especially because this means the chilli can get to the places where it’s needed.
Chilli – Capsicum minimum
It is well known that chilli heightens the senses. Think about how you feel after a spicy meal? Blood flow is increased with the pushy stimulant action and endorphins are released. This really heightens the senses and encourages feeling happy and relaxed.
Your brain releases endorphins to block the nerve cells that receive the pain signals. This essentially turns off your pain. It helps you to continue functioning, even in painful or stressful situations. Because you naturally seek to avoid pain, you’re more likely to do something if it makes you feel good, i.e. get sensual.
Aphrodisiac Foods
Knowing that certain nutrients and compounds in the plants will have a physiological effect that impacts sexual function means that paying attention to a carefully crafted meal can be just as beneficial as creating a love potion in the aphrodisiac stakes. Some vitamins, minerals and antioxidants can affect blood flow and circulation, blood pressure control, blood sugar control and nutrient deficiency. These nutrients could therefore influence levels of arousal or improve sexual function. It is possible that any improvement will be noticeable in cases where a deficiency is being corrected. However, foods that resemble certain parts of the anatomy will trigger different hormonal responses, also increasing sensual desire, think oysters and figs.
Other renowned aphrodisiac foods, apart from chilli, figs and oysters, include chocolate, nuts, pomegranate, asparagus.
To Love Potion or Not to Love Potions
To have a consensual experience of heightened sensuality can create a loving, fun and even sacred space to enjoy exploring sexual experiences together with yourself, another, or even others. Creating a special space with dimmed lights, candles, sensual smells after a delicious light meal can be the perfect place to get connected, share intimacy on a deeper level, and embrace love potions.
These blog articles are herbal education resources, produced by the Seed Sistas. Gain insights and join us in the evolution of healthcare, please do leave a comment or question. Wellbeing empowerment for all…
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