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Alchemessence

New Plant Drop: Hydrosols Are Here 💧

Published about 13 hours ago • 3 min read

Remember that story I recently shared about Inanna, and how she came back from the dead with a little help from the water of life?

In the old Sumerian story, two tiny beings made from the dirt under a god's fingernails slip past the gates of the underworld and sprinkle the food and water of life on her body. She rises. And she reclaims her throne.

Tomorrow (November 14), Venus ends her retrograde and rises again as the Morning Star: Inanna's return, in cosmic form.

Which makes today, Friday the 13th -- lucky day of the goddess ;) -- the perfect time to release my 2026 hydrosol distillations.

​Explore the 2026 hydrosols​

✶ fresh from the still ✶

Medieval alchemists called the spirits dripping from their stills aqua vitae: the water of life.

My copper alembic makes a gentler water of life every summer, when the high desert lands I live upon turn into a very fragrant alchemical operation.

Every plant in this year's distillations was grown or wild-tended on my land, gathered by hand at its peak, and distilled fresh with reverence and soooo much love.

Since I don't filter these, each bottle holds the aromatic water plus the few beads of essential oil riding its surface, just as they leave the alembic.

This season's healing waters include:

  • Juniper · resinous and woody, a lovely protector
  • Incense Cedar · warm, dry, woody, gently balsamic
  • Engelmann Spruce · cool, green, and resinous, like high mountain air
  • Ponderosa Pine · green and fresh, gathered on my property
  • White Sagebrush · silvery, herbal, deeply cleansing (Artemisia ludoviciana, not the endangered white sage)
  • Great Western Sagebrush · the signature scent of the high desert, from wild Artemisia tridentata
  • Wormwood · green and bitter-bright with a cool camphor edge; absinthe's green heart
  • Rabbitbrush · honeyed and resinous, with warm hay and a bitter edge
  • Lemon Balm · bright lemon grown on a leaf, with a little honey underneath
  • Lavender · sweet and soft, from one wildly huge old plant in my garden
  • Marigold & Calendula · a golden co-distillation of sunny garden blossoms

Every label carries its harvest date because each water is a vintage. When one sells through, the next batch won't return until next summer's harvest.

​Shop the hydrosols​

✶ Resources ✶

Hydrosols are a very gentle and sustainable way to work with a plant. Mist your face in the morning, your pillow at night, your altar before practice, or yourself anytime. Anoint your pulse points, pour a splash into the bath, or keep a bottle on your desk for the afternoon slump. :)

New to hydrosols? Here's an article with everything you need to know.

Gifting this season? A hydrosol fits in a stocking with room to spare, and it's a lovely gift you know they won't find anywhere else :)

Which hydrosols do you have your eye on? I'd love to hear which ones stand out!

​Juniper Stokes is a botanical perfumer, soul alchemist, intuitive astrologer, and rewilding guide through mythic landscapes of the nature, spirit, and the cosmos. For over 25 years, she has been guiding soulful humans back to the heart of who they are and why they’re here.

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P.S. Curious why I call these sacred waters? Last year I wrote about Sun Simiao, the Taoist physician who refused the emperor three times and made plant waters the medicine of the people: The Sacred Waters: Hydrosols in Taoist Alchemical Medicine​

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There’s a beautiful calming point in the ear located just behind the little cartilage fold at the front of the upper ear. Hold it gently on both sides for one minute and take a slow breath. It’s especially lovely with a drop of anointing oil. ;)

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Alchemessence

Juniper Stokes | Spiritual Rewilding Guide

Alchemessence is your portal into the wild spirit within. As a shamanic practitioner, mystic, botanical alchemist, and artist, I offer an integrative pathway for awakening to your true essence through spiritual rewilding.

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