Medicinal Use: There may be no plant more beneficial to your skin than Witch Hazel. Because of its astringent properties, it’s one of the most effective natural acne treatments known to man — and it’s even been shown to help protect against skin cancer!
 
It has protective, divinatory and clairvoyant energies, and can be used in purification and banishing ritualsIn tincture form it is good as a mouth rinse and to ease hemorrhoids. As a compress, witch hazel can be applied to insect bites and other skin irritations.
 
Magickal Use: Witch Hazel is well known for its use as a dousing rod, capable of locating water. A Witch Hazel dousing rod will give a characteristic tug signaling that there is water nearby as it tries to draw from it. Keep this in mind when using Witch Hazel in magical practice; just as Witch Hazel tries to draw on water nearby, so too is it capable of drawing other energies to you, like love or clairvoyant energy.Witch Hazel gets its name from being commonly used to craft divination rods and its resemblance to the hazelnut tree. The Old English word for “witch,” wice, meant “pliable,” as it was thought that witch could bend other’s will.