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Herbs have been used medicinally and magically in many different cultures
and ages. Indeed the two functions ran parallel until the seventeenth
century and in the modern world they are moving closer again. The first
evidence of herbs for magical purposes was discovered by an American
anthropologist in 1960 at a 60,000-year-old Neanderthal burial site in a
cave in the Zagros mountains of Iraq. Analysis of the soil in the grave
around the human bones revealed large quantities of eight species of plant
pollen, including yarrow and groundsel. It seems likely that the body was
buried with herbs to protect and empower the person after death.
Healing herbs have been used for at least four and a half thousand years in
China and the Great Herbal, the first herbal healing book attributed to the
Chinese Red Emperor Shen Nung around 2,400BC, forms a basis for Chinese
medicine today.
In
western medicine, the earliest written records detailing the use of herbs in
the treatment of illness are the Mesopotamian clay tablet writings and the
Egyptian papyri. About 2000 B.C., King Assurbanipal of Sumeria ordered the
compilation of the first known western medical book containing 250 herbal
drugs. The Ancient Egyptian Ebers Papyrus, was written around 1500 BC and
contains 876 prescriptions made up of more than 500 different substances,
including many herbs. The Mother Goddess Isis was believed to endow all
medicinal knowledge, based on herb lore.
In
Rome, Dioscorides a Greek born in Cilicia, in the 1st century AD, who served
in the army of Nero, wrote De Materia Medica which contained text contains
950 curative substances, of which 600 are plant products and the rest are of
animal or mineral origin. Each entry consists of a drawing, a description of
the plant, an account of its medicinal qualities and method of preparation,
as well as possible side effects.
But herbalism has always primarily been the medicine and magic of ordinary
people. Though in western Europe, the witch burnings from the fourteenth to
the seventeenth centuries, meant that many village wise-women died with the
resulting loss of what had been mainly an oral herbal tradition, in remote
areas of Wales, Ireland, and Brittany, secret remedies have survived and are
still handed down through the generations (some suggest they go back as far
as ancient Druidic magical lore).
Since the late 1950s the US National Cancer Institute has tested more than
30,000 plants and found that nearly 10 per cent had positive results in
anti-tumour tests. About one-quarter of the prescription drugs dispensed by
community pharmacies in the United States contain at least one active
ingredient derived from plant material.
The most famous herbal book is Culpeper’s Complete Herbal written by
Nicholas Culpeper, the seventeenth century astrologer, physician and ardent
Parliamentarian. It is still on sale and contains magic-herbal remedies that
are effective today. Culpepper gives planetary associations for most herbs.
Herb Magic
Herbs have been used in rituals and divination by men and women throughout
the centuries. Infused herbs were read like tea leaves before 1885
when tea from India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) reached England in any
quantity. Pots of divinatory herbs, especially parsley, sage, rosemary and
thyme were assigned the names of different lovers to see which grew fastest
and strongest. Herbs were also placed in sachets which were pinned on
undergarments or placed under pillows for love, prosperity or happiness;
poppets or cloth dolls were filled with rosemary to attract lovers. Crushed
lavender was added to a tin tub when young maidens soaked in front of the
fire in Victorian times before a love tryst; fennel infusions were drunk as
teas to give courage; thyme was placed under pillows for prophetic dreams
and to improve memory; peppermint was added to hot water for mopping floors,
thereby removing negativity.
These herbs are still used in modern spell-casting and as interest in herbs
has become widespread, the more fragrant in the form of scented candles,
bath essences or pot pourri find a place in many homes. The following list
gives the most common herbs and spices that have retained magical
significance.
Herbs for magical empowerment
and protection
|
Acacia |
Money, love, protection, psychic powers,
herb of Lammas (beginning of August, first harvest) |
|
Allspice |
Money, luck, healing |
|
Angelica |
Banishes hostility from others,
protection, healing, visions. Herb of Candelmas, beginning of February
and Beltane, May Day, the old Celtic summer |
|
Balm, Lemon |
Love, success, healing |
|
Basil |
Love, exorcism, wealth, astral flying.
Conquers fear of flying in the real world. One of traditional herbs of
Candelmas |
|
Bay |
Protection, psychic powers, healing,
purification, strength and endurance. One of traditional herbs of
Candlemas and Mid winter Solstice |
|
Bladderwrack |
Protection against accidents or illness,
especially at sea, sea rituals, wind rituals, action, money, psychic
powers |
|
Burdock |
Protection against negativity, healing.
Love and sex magic, magical cure or coughs, hung around necks of babies
in southern US |
|
Caraway |
Protection, passion, health, anti-theft,
mental powers |
|
Cascara Sagrada |
Legal matters, money, protection |
|
Catnip |
Cat magic, love, beauty, happiness in
home, fertility charm |
|
Chamomile |
Money, quiet sleep, affection and family |
|
Cinnamon |
Spirituality, success, healing, powers,
psychic powers, money, love and passion |
|
Cinquefoil |
Money, protection, prophetic dreams,
especially about love, peaceful sleep, good health |
|
Clove |
Protection, banishing negativity, love,
money |
|
Clover |
Protection, money, love, fidelity,
banishing negativity, success |
|
Cohosh, black |
Love, courage, protection, potency |
|
Columbine |
Courage, love, the lion’s herb, retrieves
lost love |
|
Comfrey |
Safety during travel, money |
|
Coriander |
Love, health, healing |
|
Cumin |
Protection, fidelity, exorcism |
|
Dill |
Protection, keeping home safe from enemies
and those who have envy in their hearts; also for money, passion, luck |
|
Dittany of Crete |
Contact with other dimensions, astral
projection |
|
Echinacea |
Strengthening rituals and personal
intuitive powers |
|
Fennel |
Protection, courage, purification.
|
|
Garlic |
Protection, healing, banishing negativity,
passion, security from thieves |
|
Ginger |
Love, passion, money, success, power |
|
Ginseng |
Love, wishes, healing, beauty, protection,
passion, increases male sexual potency. Often used as a substitute for
mandrake root which is difficult to obtain |
|
Goldenrod |
Money, divination, finding buried
treasure, charm against rheumatism |
|
Grass, sweet |
Protection, wisdom. Purification, psychic
awareness |
|
Heliotrope |
Banishing negativity, prophetic dreams,
healing, wealth, invisibility in potentially threatening situations |
|
Juniper |
Protection, anti-theft, love, banishing
negativity. Health, protects against accidents; increases male potency |
|
Lavender |
Love, protection, especially of children
quiet sleep, long life, purification, happiness and peace |
|
Lemongrass |
Repels spite, protection against snakes,
passion, increases psychic awareness |
|
Lucky Hand Root |
Employment, luck, protection, money, safe
travel |
|
Maidenhair |
Beauty, love |
|
Marjoram |
Protection, love, happiness, health, money |
|
Meadowsweet |
Love, divination, peace, happiness,
gathered at Midsummer and associated with the Summer Solstice
|
|
Mint |
Money, love, increasing sexual desire,
healing, banishing malevolence, protection especially while travelling |
|
Moonwort |
Money, love, magical associated with
phases of the moon |
|
Mugwort |
Strength, psychic powers, protection,
prophetic dreams, healing, astral projection |
|
Mulberry |
Protection, strength |
|
Mullein |
Courage, protection, health, love and love
divination, banishes nightmares and malevolence, especially popular in
India and parts of the US |
|
Mustard |
Fertility, protection, increases mental
powers |
|
Parsley |
Love, protection, divination, passion.
Purification |
|
Pennyroyal |
Strength, protection, peace |
|
Pepper |
Protection, banishing malevolence,
overcomes inertia and gives focus, positive anger for change |
|
Peppermint |
Purification, energy, love, healing,
increases psychic powers |
|
Ragweed |
Courage |
|
Ragwort |
Protection. Fairy magic and the ability to
see fairies |
|
Rosemary |
Love, passion, increases mental powers,
banishes negativity and depression, nightmares; also for purification,
healing, quiet sleep, preserves youthfulness |
|
Rue |
Healing, protects against illnesses of all
kinds and speeds recovery from surgery or wounds’ increases mental
powers, love enchantment; banishes regrets and redundant guilt or anger
|
|
Sage |
Long life, wisdom, protection, grants;
wishes, improves memory ; a Halloween, Samhain, herb, the beginning of
the Celtic winter |
|
St.Johns Wort |
Health, power, protection, strength, love
and fertility, love divination, happiness; gathered on Midsummer Eve |
|
Sandalwood |
Protection, healing, banishes negativity,
spirituality, contact with guardian angels, Higher Self; a herb for
Lammas, the festival at the beginning of August celebrating the first
corn harvest |
|
Slippery Elm |
Prevents gossip and malice |
|
Tansy |
Health, long life,, invisibility against
potential danger; a herb of the spring equinox |
|
Thyme |
Health, healing, prophetic dreams,
increases psychic powers; improves memory, love and love divination,
purification, courage |
|
Turmeric |
Purification |
|
Valerian |
Love and love divination, quiet sleep,
purification, protection against outer hostility, inner fears and
despair |
|
Vanilla |
Love, passion, increases mental powers |
|
Vervain |
Love, protection, transforms enemies into
friends. Purification, peace, money, prophecy, preserves youthfulness,
peaceful sleep, healing. gathered at midsummer or when Sirius is in the
ascendant |
|
Vetivert |
Love, breaks a run of bad luck, money,
anti-theft, protects against all negativity |
|
Witch Hazel |
Mends broken hearts and relationships,
finds buried treasure and underground streams, protection |
|
Yarrow |
Courage, love, psychic powers, divination,
banishes negativity; brought into house at Midsummer for protection
against illness and domestic strife |
|
Yellow Evening Primrose
|
Finding what is lost |
|
Yerba Mate |
Fidelity, love, passion |
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