Folk Names: Aipo, Karafs, Elma
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Mercury
Element: Fire
Powers: Mental powers, lust, psychic powers.
Magical Uses: Chew the seeds to aid in concentration, or use in spell pillows to induce sleep. Burned with orris root, celery seeds increase psychic powers. The stalk, along with the seeds, induces lust when eaten.
Witches supposedly ate celery seeds before flying off on their brooms so that they wouldn�t become dizzy and fall!
Allspice (Pimenta officinalis or P. dioica)
Folk Names: Eddo, Madere, Basheen, Kouroubaga
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Mars
Element: Fire
Powers: Money, luck, healing.
Magical Uses: Allspice is burned as an incense to attract money or luck, and is also added to such mixtures. Allspice is also used to promote healing.
Summer Savory (Satureja hortensis)
Folk Names: Herbe de St. Julien, Garden Savory
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Mercury
Element: Air
Powers: Mental powers.
Magical Uses: Summer savory strengthens the mind when carried or worn.
Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)
Folk Names: Corona Solis, Marigold of Peru, Solo Indianus
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Sun
Element: Fire
Powers: Fertility, wishes, health, wisdom.
Magical Uses: Sunflower seeds are eaten by women who wish to conceive. To protect yourself against smallpox wear sunflower seeds around the neck, either in a bag or strung like beads.
If you cut a sunflower at sunset while making a wish, the wish will come true before another sunset- as long as the wish isn�t too grand.
Sleeping with a sunflower under the bed allows you to know the truth in any manner.
If you wish to become virtuous anoint yourself with juice pressed from the stems of the sunflower.
Sunflowers growing in the garden guard it against pests and grant the best of luck to the gardener.
Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus spp. globulus)
Do not use on the faces of small children.
Folk Names: Blue Gum Tree, Stringy Bark Tree
Gender: Feminine
Planet: Moon
Element: Water
Powers: Healing, protection.
Magical Uses: The leaves are used to stuff healing poppets and are carried to maintain good health. To relieve colds, ring green candles with the leaves and pods and burn them to the socket, visualizing the person (or yourself) as being completely healthy. Also hang a small branch or twig of eucalyptus over the sick bed.
String the immature (green) pods on green thread and wear to help heal sore throats. Placed beneath the pillow, the pods guard against colds.
The leaves are also carried for protection.
Oats (Avena sativa)
Folk Names: Groats, Oatmeal, Joulaf
Gender: Feminine
Planet: Venus
Element: Earth
Powers: Money
Magical Uses: Use in prosperity and money spells.
Cascara Sagrada (Rhamnus purshiana)
Folk Names: Sacred Bark, Bitter Bark, Ecorce Sacree, Yellow bark, Cittim Bark
Powers: Legal matters, money, protection.
Magical Uses: Sprinkle an infusion of cascara sagrada around your home before going to any court proceeding. It will help you win your case.
Cascara sagrada is also used in money spells, and worn as an amulet against evil and hexes.
Clover (Trifolium spp.)
Folk Names: Honey, Honeystalks, Shamrock, Three-Leaved Grass, Trefoil, Trifoil
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Mercury
Element: Air
Deity: Rowen
Powers: Protection, money, love, fidelity, exorcism, success.
Magical Uses:
TWO-LEAVED: If you find a two-leaved clover, you shall soon also find a lover.
THREE-LEAVED: Trefoil, or the three-leaved clover, is worn as a protective amulet.
FOUR-LEAVED: The four-leaved clover, if worn, helps men avoid military service. It also protects against madness, strengthens psychic powers, enables you to detect the presence of spirits, and leads the wearer to gold, money, or treasures.
If two people eat a four-leaved clover together, mutual love will result. Seven grains of wheat laid on a four-leaved clover will enable one to see fairies.
If you put a four-leaved clover in your shoe before going out you will increase your chances of meeting a rich new love.
FIVE-LEAVED: The five-leaved clover is powerful for attracting money, and should be worn for this purpose.
WHITE-CLOVER: White clover is used to work against hexes, and is worn or scattered around the premises for this.
RED-CLOVER: This clover, added to the bath water, aids you in dealing with financial arrangements of every kind.
Red clover is also used in lust potions and the infusion is sprinkled to remove negative spirits.
IN GENERAL: Clover keeps snakes away from your property, if grown there. When placed in the left shoe, and then forgotten, clover keeps evil from you. Worn over the right breast it brings success in all undertakings.
If you have been disappointed in love, wear clover near your heart in a piece of blue silk to help you through.
Ti (Cordyline tenninalis)
Folk Names: Good Luck Plant, Ki (Hawaiian)
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Jupiter
Element: Fire
Deities: Kane, Lono, Pele
Powers: Protection, healing.
Magical Uses: Ti leaves, when carried on board ships, keep storms away, and when worn ensures that the bearer won�t drown.
Planted around the house the ti creates a type of protective barrier. The gree ti should be used for this, not the red variety; though the latter is sacred to Pele, it traditionally gives bad luck to homeowners when planted.
A bit of ti placed beneath the bed protects the sleeper, and a ti leaf rubbed on the head relieves headaches.
Poppy (Papaver spp.)
There is a commonly available species that is safe, but there is also an illegal species which is not recommended for internal use.
Folk Names: Blind Bluff, Blindeyes, Headaches, Head Waak
Gender: Feminine
Planet: Moon
Element: Water
Deities: Hypnos, Demeter
Powers: Fertility, love, sleep, money, luck, invisibility.
Magical Uses: Poppy seeds and flowers are used in mixtures designed to aid sleep. They are also eaten or carried to promote fertility and to attract luck and money. At one time poppy seed heads were gilded and worn as talismans to draw wealth.
The seeds are also added to food to induce love, or are used in love sachets.
If you wish to know the answer to a question, write it in blue ink on a piece of white paper. Place this inside a poppy seed pod and put this beneath your pillow. The answer will appear in a dream.
Soak poppy seeds in wine for 15 days. Then drink the wine each day for 5 days while fasting. According to tradition you will be able to make yourself invisible at will.
Gorse (Ulex europaeus)
Folk Names: Broom, Frey, Furze, Fyrs, Gorst, Goss, Prickly Broom, Ruffet, Whin
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Mars
Element: Fire
Deities: Jupiter, Thor
Powers: Protection, money.
Magical Uses: Gorse is a good protectant against evil. In Wales hedges of the prickly gorse are used to protect the home against fairies, who cannot penetrate the hedge.
Gorse is also used in money spells; it attracts gold.
Slippery Elm (Ulmus fulva)
Folk Names: Indian Elm, Moose Elm, Red Elm
Gender: Feminine
Planet: Saturn
Element: Air
Powers: Halts gossip.
Magical Uses: Burn slippery elm and throw into the fire a knotted yellow cord or thread. Any gossip against you will stop.
Slippery elm bark worn about a child�s neck will give it a persuasive tongue when fully grown.
Garlic (Allium sativum)
Folk Names: Ajo (Spanish), Poor Man�s Treacle, Stinkweed
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Mars
Element: Fire
Deity: Hecate
Powers: Protection, healing, exorcism, lust, anti-theft.
Ritual Uses: Garlic was eaten on festival days to Hecate, and was left at a crossroads as a sacrifice in Her name.
Magical Uses: Garlic was once worn to guard against the plague. It is still used to absorb diseases. Simply rub fresh, peeled cloves of garlic onto the afflicted part of the body, then throw into running water. An old spell utilized garlic in protecting against hepatitis. To do this, simply wear thirteen cloves of garlic at the end of a cord around the neck for thirteen days. On the last day, in the middle of the night, walk to a corner of an intersection of two streets, remove the necklace, throw it behind you and run home without looking back.
Garlic is also extremely protective. Sailors carry some while on board ship to protect against its wreckage. Soldiers wore garlic as a defense in the middle ages, while Roman soldiers ate it to give them courage. It is placed in the home to guard against the intrusion of evil, to keep out robbers and thieves, and is hung over the door to repel envious people. Garlic is especially protective in new homes.
Worn, garlic guards against foul weather (mountaineers wear it) as well as monsters, and it also shields you from the blows of your enemies.
When evil spirits are about, bite into garlic to send them away, or sprinkle powdered garlic on the floor (if you don�t mind smelling it for some time). Garlic is also placed beneath children�s pillows to protect them while asleep, and brides once carried a clove of garlic in her pocket for good luck and to keep evil far from her on her big day. Rubbed onto pots and pans before cooking in them, garlic removes b=negative vibrations which might otherwise contaminate the food.
When eaten, garlic acts as a lust-inducer, and when a magnet or lodestone is rubbed with garlic it loses its magical powers.
Black Mustard (Brassica spp.)
Gender: Masculine
Planet:Mars
Element: Fire
Deity: Aesculapius
Powers: Fertiliy, protection, mental powers.
Magical Uses: The Hindus used mustard seed to travel through the air. A more down-to-earth use is carrying mustard seed in a red cloth sachet to guard against colds and to increase mental powers.
Italian peasants sprinkle mustard seed on the doorsill for protective reasons, and mustard seed buried under your doorstep will keep all manner of supernatural beings from your house.
When eaten, mustard seed increases fertility in women.
Centaury (Erythraea centaurium, Centaurium spp. erythraea)
Folk Names: Christ�s Ladder, Feverwort
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Sun
Element: Fire
Powers: Snake-removing.
Magical Uses: The smoke from burning or fuming centaury drives off snakes.
Scullcap (Scutellatia lateriflora, S. galericulata)
Folk Names: Greater Scullcap, Helmet Flower, Hoodwort, Madweed, Quaker Bonnet
Gender: Feminine
Planet: Saturn
Element: Water
Powers: Love, fidelity, peace.
Magical Uses: Sculcap is used in spells of relaxation and peace. A woman who wears skullcap protects her husband against the charms of other women.
Yellow Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis)
Folk Names: War Poison, Sundrop, Tree Primrose, Evening Primrose
Powers: Hunting.
Magical Uses: American Indians rubbed this plant against their moccasins and body to ensure a good hunt, and to cause snakes to avoid them.
Bodhi (Ficus religiosa)
Folk Names: Bo-Tree, Peepul Tree, Pipul, Sacred Tree
Gender: Masculine
Planet: Jupiter
Element: Air
Deities: Buddha, Vishnu
Powers: Fertility, protection, wisdom, meditation.
Ritual Uses: The plant is sacred to Vishnu who, like Buddha, was said to have been born beneath it. In the East, sacred fires are fed with this wood. Since Buddha also sat beneath this tree in meditation for six years, it is sacred to Him, and the heart-shaped leaves still tremble remembering the divine vibrations.
Magical Uses: If you feel evil near, simply circle this tree several times and the evil shall flee in terror.
Barren women walk naked beneath a bodhi tree to become fertile.
Use the leaves in meditation incenses and all mixtures designed to give wisdom.
Willow (Salix alba)
Folk Names: Osier, Pussy Willow, Saille, Salicyn Willow, Saugh Tree, Tree of Enchantment, White Willow, Witches� Aspirin, With, Withy
Gender: Feminine
Planet: Moon
Element: Water
Deities: Artemis, Ceres, Hecate, Persephone, Hera, Mercury, Belili, Belinus
Powers: Love, love divination, protection, healing.
Ritual Uses: Burial mounds in Britain which are sited near marshes and lakes were often lined with willows, probably for symbolic associations with death.
Magical Uses: Willow leaves are carried or used in mixtures to attract love, and the wood is used to fashion magical wands dedicated to Moon Magic. If you wish to know if you will be married in the new year, on New Year�s Eve throw your shoe or boot into a willow tree. If it doesn�t catch and stay in the branches the first time, you have eight more tries. If you succeed in trapping your shoe in the tree you will be wed within twelve months- but you�ll also have to shake or climb the tree to remove your shoe.
All parts of the willow guard against evil and can be carried or placed in the home for this purpose. Knock on a willow tree (�knock on wood�) to avert evil.
The leaves, bark, and wood of the willow are also utilized in healing spells.
If you wish to conjure spirits, mix crushed willow bark with sandalwood and burn at the waning Moon outdoors.
Magical brooms, especially Witch�s brooms, are traditionally bound with a willow branch.
Mullein (Verbascum thapus)
Folk Names: Aaron�s Rod, Blanket Leaf, Candlewick Plant, Clot, Doffle, Feltwort, Flannel Plant, Graveyard Dust, Hag�s Tapers, Hedge Taper, Jupiter�s Staff, Lady�s Foxglove, Old Man�s Fennel, Peter�s Staff, Shepherd�s Club, Shepherd�s Herb, Torches, Velvetback, Velvet Plant.
Gender: Feminine
Planet: Saturn
Element: Fire
Deity: Jupiter
Powers: Courage, protection, health, love, divination, exorcism.
Magical Uses: Mullein is worn to keep wild animals from you while hiking in untamed areas. It also instills courage in the bearer, and a few leaves placed in the shoe keeps one from catching cold. Mullein is also carried to obtain love from the opposite sex.
Stuffed into a small pillow or placed beneath your pillow, mullein guards against nightmares.
In India, mullein is regarded as the most potent safeguard against evil spirits, and magic, and is hung over doors, in windows, and carried in sachets. It is also used to banish demons and negativity.
In the Ozarks, men performed a simple love divination. The man went to a clearing where mullein grew and bent it down so that it pointed towards his love�s house. If she loved him the mullein would grow upright again; if she loved another it would die. Graveyard dust- an infrequent ingredient in spells- can be substituted with powdered mullein leaves.
At one time Witches and magicians used oil lamps to illuminate their spells and rites, and the downy leaves and stems of the mullein often provided the wicks.
(Source: Cunningham�s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs)
