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Herbal Impact

The Book of Herbs (by Northcote, Rosalind Lucy, Lady)
Compassionate Herbs (by Leyel. C. F.)
Meet Me by Moonlight
Botanic Drugs, Their Materia Medica, Pha... (by Thomas Stewart Blair)
A Garden of Herbs (by Rohde, Eleanour Sinclair)
Culinary Herbs; Their Cultivation, Harve... (by Kains, Maurice Grenville)

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the caldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt and toe of frog,

Wool of bat and tongue of dog,

Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,

Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Cool it with a baboon's blood,

Then the charm is firm and good.

- Scene I, Macbeth by William Shakespeare

While the witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth mix a gruesome list of ingredients, actual wiccan brews focus on the use of herbs. Like the language of flowers so prevalent in the Victorian era, herbs have been assigned special meanings. From acacia to zinnia, herbs are used for healing, protection, beauty, fertility, exorcism, transmutation, psychic powers, and raising the dead.

And you thought this wouldn’t involve zombies.

According to Lady Rosalind Northcote in The Book of Herbs, “The vegetable world, however, has attracted writers since the earliest times, and in the days when supernatural agencies were almost always brought forward to account for uncomprehended phenomena, it was not marvelous that misty lore should lead to the association of plans and magic. .... Some herbs were magical because they were used in spells and sorceries; others, because they had power in themselves.” Lady Northcote also notes that “Plants were also credited with strong friendships and ‘enmities’ amongst themselves.” Such “enmities” and friendships spoke of which herbs worked well together and which did not.

Traditional lore also attributes special affiliations between certain herbs with certain beasts. Lady Northcote comes to the rescue again with this example: “Ragworts is St. James’s [sic] Wort (the French call it Jacobée), and St. James is the patron saint of horses, therefore Ragwort is good for horses, and has even gained the name of Staggerwort, from being often prescribed for ‘the staggers.’”

Not surprisingly, casual internet research on the use of herbs in magic yields myriad online sources offering extensive lists of herbs and their traditional—usually Celtic—use.

Herbal medicine’s resurgence in popularity in the Western Hemisphere reminds us that, until the 20th century, most of human civilization relied upon the healing power of herbs to cure what ails us. In Compassionate Herbs, author Mrs. C. F. Leyel describes various herbs, their applications, and the preparations for treating wounds, for use as antiseptics, for use as astringents, to control pain, and to reduce fever. Today’s herbal remedies span six of the seven continents—you won’t find much in the way of herbs growing in Antartica—and include exotics such as garcinia cambogia to acai berry to coconut oil for use in weight loss, boosting metabolism, easing stiff joints, improving the condition of hair, skin, and nails, and enhancing the libido.

We’ll talk more on aphrodisiacs later.

The “buy local,” “slow food,” and organic food movements contribute to a growing awareness of where our food and medicine come from. Wary consumers also begin to consider natural (re: herbal) remedies when listening to commercials produced by pharmaceutical companies hawking their latest drugs and listing a litany of side effects that promise to be worse than the ailment the drug treats. Such awareness has evolved into the current tug-of-war regarding medical marijuana. In contrast, Chinese medicine still relies strongly upon herbal medicine.

Cannabis, the medicinal herb du jour, comes fraught with assumptions and misunderstandings held by both proponents and opponents. Strong anecdotal evidence shows amazing results, although the idea of using mind- and mood-altering drugs to treat illness incites many reservations. Still, the idea of a treatment that can be grown in your garden and prepared in your kitchen for a few dollars as compared to the bankrupting prices of modern drugs appeals to the average person who rightly fears and resents having to make the choice between putting food on the table and treating an illness.

For most people today, the idea of an aromatic herb garden arises from the desire to add extra flavor to their food. The most satisfying way to procure fresh herbs is, of course, to grow your own. We recommend A Garden of Herbs by Eleanour Sinclair Rohde and Culinary Herbs; Their Cultivation, Harvesting, Curing and Uses by Maurice Grenville Kains for a thorough discussion of kitchen herbs and instruction on their proper cultivation.

By Karen M. Smith