Folk Names: Common Thyme, Garden Thyme
Gender: Feminine
Planet: Venus
Element: Water
Powers: Health, healing, sleep, psychic powers, love, purification, courage
Magical Uses: Thyme is burned to attract good health and is also worn for this purpose. It is also used in healing spells.
Placed beneath the pillow, it ensures restful sleep and a pleasant lack of nightmares. Worn, thyme aids in developing psychic powers, and women who wear a sprig of thyme in their hair make themselves irresistible.
Thyme is also a purificatory herb; the Greeks burned it in their temples to purify them and so thyme is often burned prior to magical rituals to cleanse the area. In spring a magical cleansing bath composed of marjoram and thyme is taken to ensure all the sorrows and ills of the past are removed from the person.
Thyme is also carried and smelled to give courage and energy. If you wear it you will be able to see fairies.
Ginger (Zingiber officinale)
Folk Name: African Ginger
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Mars
Element: Fire
Powers: Love, money, success, power.
Magical Uses: Eating ginger before performing spells will lend them power, since you have been �heated up� by the ginger. This is especially true of love spells, in which ginger is much used.
Whole ginger roots are planted and grown to attract money, or the powdered root is sprinkled into pockets or onto money for this purpose.
Ginger is also used in success spells, or to ensure the success of a magical operation.
In the Pacific the Dobu islanders make much use of ginger in their magic. They chew it and spit at the �seat� of an illness to cure it, and also spit chewed ginger at an oncoming storm, while at sea, to halt it.
Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)
Folk Names: Samar, Sweet Fennel, Sheeh
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Mercury
Element: Fire
Deities: Prometheus, Dionysus
Powers: Protection, healing, purification.
Ritual Uses: The thyrsus, which figured in Dionysian ceremonies, was often made of giant fennel stalks with pine cones attached to the ends.
Magical Uses: Grown around the home, fennel confers protection, Wearing a piece of fennel in the left shoe will prevent wood ticks from biting your legs. Fennel is also hung up at windows and doors to ward off evil spirits, and the seeds can be carried for the same reason.
Fennel is used in purification sachets, as well as in healing mixtures.
Basil (Ocimum basilicum)
Folk Names: Albahaca, American Dittany, �Our Herb,� St. Joseph�s Wort, Sweet Basil,Witches Herb, Njilika, Balanoi, Feslien
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Mars
Element: Fire
Deities: Vishnu, Erzulie
Powers: Love, exorcism, wealth, flying, protection.
Magical Uses: The scent of fresh basil causes sympathy between two people, and this is why it is used to soothe tempers between lovers. It is added to love incenses and sachets, and the fresh leaves are rubbed against the skin as a kind of natural love perfume. In Eastern Europe it was once thought that a young man would love any woman from whose hand he accepted a sprig of basil.
Basil is also used in love divinations. Place two fresh basil leaves upon a live coal. If they lie where you put them and burn quickly to ashes, the marriage (or relationship) will be harmonious. If there is a certain amount of crackling the life of the pair will be disturbed by quarrels. If the leaves fly apart with fierce crackling the projected relationship is undesirable.
Do you want to know if someone is chaste or promiscuous? Simply lay a sprig of fresh basil on their hand. It will immediately wither if that person is �light of love.�
Basil bring wealth to those who carry it in their pockets, and is used to attract customers to a place of business by placing some in the cash register or on the doorsill.
The basil is also used to ensure that one�s mate remains true. Sprinkle basil powder over your body thoroughly while he or she is asleep, especially over the heart, and fidelity will bless your relationship.
Basil is strewn onto floors, because where it is, no evil can live. It is also used in exorcism incenses and in purification baths. Small amounts are sometimes placed in each room of the house to bring protection.
Basil is also used to keep goats away from your property, to attract scorpions, and to prevent inebriation.
Witches are said to drink about � cup of basil juice before flying off into the air.
Basil can also be used to diet, but only by a second party�s help, and without the dieter�s knowledge. According to an ancient spell, a woman (or a man, presumably) will not be able to eat a bite from any dish if basil has been secretly placed beneath it.
Basil given as a gift brings good luck to a new home.
Rosemary (Rosemarinus officinalis)
Folk Names: Compass Weed, Dew of the Sea, Elf Leaf, Guardrobe, Incensier, Libanotis (Greek), Polar Plant, Sea Dew
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Sun
Element: Fire
Powers: Protection, love, lust, mental powers, exorcism, purification, healing, sleep, youth.
Magical Uses: Rosemary, when burned, emits powerful cleansing and purifying vibrations, and so is smouldered to rid a place of negativity, especially prior to performing magic. It is one of the oldest incenses.
When placed beneath the pillow rosemary ensures a good sleep and drives away nightmares. Laid under the bed it protects the sleeper from all harm. Rosemary is also hung on the porch and doorposts to keep thieves from the house and is carried to remain healthy. Placed in the bath it purifies.
A chaplet of rosemary, worn, aids the memory, while the wood, smelled often, preserves youthfulness. To ensure the latter add a rosemary infusion to the bath water.
Rosemary has long been used in love and lust incenses and other mixtures, and healing poppets are stuffed with rosemary to take advantage of its curative vibrations. Rosemary infusion is used to wash the hands before healing work, and the leaves mixed with juniper berries are burned in sickrooms to promote healing.
If you wish to receive knowledge or the answer to a question, burn rosemary on charcoal and smell its smoke. Rosemary is also given to attract elves, and the powdered leaves wrapped in linen cloth and bound to the right arm dispel depression and make the emotions light and merry.
Rosemary is generally used as a substitute for frankincense.
Parsley (Petroselium crispum, Petroselinum sativum)
Folk Names: Devil�s Oatmeal, Percely, Persil, Petersilie, Petroselinum, Rock Parsley
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Mercury
Element: Air
Deities: Persephone
Powers: Lust, protection, purification.
Magical Uses: When eaten, parsley provokes lust and promotes fertility, but if you are in love don�t cut parsley- you�ll cut your love as well.
Though the plant has association with death and is often regarded as evil, the Romans tucked a sprig of parsley into their togas every morning for protection. It is also placed on plates of food to guard it from contamination.
Parsley is also used in purification baths, and those to stop all misfortune. A wreath of parsley worn on the head prevents (or delays) inebriation.
Caraway (Carum carvi)
Folk Names: Kummel, Alcaravea
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Mercury
Element: Air
Powers: Protection, lust, health, anti-theft, mental powers.
Magical Uses: The caraway serves as protection against Lilith, as well as all manner of evil spirits, entities, and plain old negativity. It is often carried for this purpose. Any object which holds some caraway seeds is theft-proof.
The seeds are also used to encourage fidelity, and are placed in sachets and talismans to attract a mate. When baked into cookies, bread, or cakes they are lust-inducing. Chewing the seeds is helpful to gain the love of one you desire.
They also strengthen the memory, and a small bag of the seeds placed in a child�s bed protects the child from illness.
Marjoram (Origanum majorana or O. vulgare)
Folk Names: Joy of the Mountain, Knotted Marjoram, Majorlaine, Mountain Mint, Pot Marjoram, Sweet Marjoram, Wintersweet
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Mercury
Element: Air
Deities: Venus, Aphrodite
Powers: Protection, love, happiness, health, money.
Magical Uses: Marjoram is used in love spells, and is also added to food to strengthen love.
Carried it is protective, as it is when placed around the house, a bit in each room, and renewed each month. Grown in the garden it offers shielding powers against evil.
Violets and marjoram, mixed together, are worn during the winter months as an amulet against colds.
Given to a depressed person marjoram brings happiness. It is also use in money mixtures and sachets.
Coriander (Coriandrum sativum)
Folk Names: Chinese Parsley, Cilantro, Cilentro, Culantro, Uan-Suy, Stinkdillsamen, Hu-Sui
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Mars
Element: Fire
Powers: Love, healing, health.
Magical Uses: Coriander has long been used in love sachets and spells. Add the powdered seeds to warm wine to make an effective lust potion.
The seeds are used for healing, especially easing headaches, and are worn for this purpose. If pregnant women eat coriander, their future children will be ingenious.
Clove (Eugenia carophyllus, Syzygium aromaticum or Caroyphyllus aromaticus)
Folk Names: Mykhet, Carenfil
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Jupiter
Element: Fire
Powers: Protection, exorcism, love,money.
Magical Uses: Burned as an incense, cloves attract riches, drive away hostile and negative forces, produce spiritual vibrations, and purify the area.
Cloves are burned as an incense to stop others from gossiping about you.
Worn or carried, cloves attract the opposite sex and bring comfort to the bereaved.
(Source: Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Hebrs)
