Magical Herbs L-P

Lilac

Syringa (Lilac) is a genus of about 20–25 species of flowering woody plants in the olive family (Oleaceae), native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and widely and commonly cultivated in temperate areas elsewhere. The genus is most closely related to Ligustrum (privet), classified with it in Oleaceae tribus Oleeae subtribus Ligustrinae. Lilacs are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Copper Underwing, Scalloped Oak and Svensson's Copper Underwing and Saras. Via Arabic ليلك lilak from Persian نیلک nilak meaning "bluish", ultimately from Sanskrit नील nila, which means "dark blue". The genus name Syringa is derived from Greek syrinx, meaning a hollow tube or pipe, and refers to the broad pith in the shoots in some species, easily hollowed out since ancient times to make reed pipes and flutes.

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The English common name "lilac" is from the French lilac ("shrub of genus Syringa with mauve flowers"), from Spanish lilac, from Arabic lilak, from Persian lilak, variant of nilak "bluish", from nil, "indigo", A pale purple colour is generally known as lilac after the characteristic color of the flowers of many kinds of lilac, especially  Syringa vulgaris. The wood of lilac is close-grained, diffuse-porous, extremely hard and one of the densest in Europe.The sapwood is typically cream-coloured and the heartwood has various shades of brown and purple. Lilac wood has traditionally been used for engraving, musical instruments, knife handles etc.When drying, the wood has a tendency to be encurved as a twisted material, and to split into narrow sticks. Lilacs are often considered to symbolize love (see language of flowers). In Greece, Lebanon, and Cyprus, the lilac is strongly associated with Easter time because it flowers around that time; it is consequently called paschalia. Syringa vulgaris is the state flower of New Hampshire, because it "is symbolic of that hardy character of the men and women of the Granite State" (New Hampshire Revised Statute Annotated (RSA) 3:5)."When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" is a poem written by Walt Whitman as an elegy to Abraham Lincoln. The poem was set to music by both Paul Hindemith and Roger Sessions. "Syringa" is the title of a poem by John Ashbery, from his collection Houseboat Days."Lilac Wine" is a song written by James Sheldon in 1950. Lilacs also drive away evil where they are planted or the flowers thrown. In New England the bush was planted to keep evil from the property and the fresh cut flowers can be placed in a haunted home to help clear it of any negative energy.

• mother/child bonding
• Gaia energy
• aligns chakras
• cheerfulness/ happiness

Burned to stimulate or increase the psychic powers, and to attract harmony into ones life.

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 Mandrake is the common name for members of the plant genus Mandragora, particularly the species Mandragora officinarum, belonging to the nightshades family (Solanaceae). Because mandrake contains deliriant hallucinogenic tropane alkaloids such as atropine, scopolamine, apoatropine, hyoscyamine and the roots sometimes contain bifurcations causing them to resemble human figures, their roots have long been used in magic rituals, today also in contemporary pagan traditions such as Wicca and Odinism. According to the legend, when the root is dug up it screams and kills all who hear it. Literature includes complex directions for harvesting a mandrake root in relative safety. For example Josephus (c. AD 37 Jerusalem – c. 100) gives the following directions for pulling it up:A furrow must be dug around the root until its lower part is exposed, then a dog is tied to it, after which the person tying the dog must get away. The dog then endeavours to follow him, and so easily pulls up the root, but dies suddenly instead of his master. After this the root can be handled without fear.Extract from Chapter XVI, Witchcraft and Spells: Transcendental Magic its Doctrine and Ritual by Eliphas Levi. A Complete Translation of Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie by Arthur Edward Waite. 1896... we will add a few words about mandragores (mandrakes) and kandroids, which several writers on magic confound with the waxen image; serving the purposes of bewitchment. The natural mandragore is a filamentous root which, more or less, presents as a whole either the figure of a man, or that of the virile members. It is slightly narcotic, and an aphrodisiacal virtue was ascribed to it by the ancients, who represented it as being sought by Thessalian sorcerers for the composition of philtres. Is this root the umbilical vestige of our terrestrial origin ? We dare not seriously affirm it, but all the same it is certain that man came out of the slime of the earth, and his first appearance must have been in the form of a rough sketch. The analogies of nature make this notion necessarily admissible, at least as a possibility. The first men were, in this case, a family of gigantic, sensitive mandragores, animated by the sun, who rooted themselves up from the earth ; this assumption not only does not exclude, but, on the contrary, positively supposes, creative will and the providential co-operation of a first cause, which we have reason to call God. Some alchemists, impressed by this idea, speculated on the culture of the mandragore, and experimented in the artificial reproduction of a soil sufficiently fruitful and a sun sufficiently active to humanise the said root, and thus create men without the concurrence of the female. (See: Homunculus) Others, who regarded humanity as the synthesis of animals, despaired about vitalising the mandragore, but they crossed monstrous pairs and projected human seed into animal earth, only for the production of shameful crimes and barren deformities. The third method of making the android was by galvanic machinery. One of these almost intelligent automata was attributed to Albertus Magnus, and it is said that Magnus' contemporary, St Thomas (Thomas Aquinas) destroyed it with one blow from a stick because he was perplexed by its answers. This story is an allegory; the android was primitive scholasticism, which was broken by the Summa of St Thomas, the daring innovator who first substituted the absolute law of reason for arbitrary divinity, by formulating that axiom which we cannot repeat too often, since it comes from such a master: " A thing is not just because God wills it, but God wills it because it is just. " The real and serious android of the ancients was a secret which they kept hidden from all eyes, and Mesmer was the first who dared to divulge it; it was the extension of the will of the magus into another body, organised and served by an elementary spirit; in more modern and intelligible terms, it was a magnetic subject. It was a common folklore in some countries that mandrake would only grow where the semen of a hanged man had dripped on to the ground; this would appear to be the reason for the methods employed by the alchemists who "projected human seed into animal earth". In Germany, the plant is known as the Alraune: the novel (later adapted as a film) Alraune by Hanns Heinz Ewers is based on a soulless woman conceived from a hanged man's semen, the title referring to this myth of the Mandrake's origins.The following is taken from "Paul Christian".pp. 402–403, The History and Practice of Magic by Paul Christian. 1963: Would you like to make a Mandragora, as powerful as the homunculus (little man in a bottle) so praised by Paracelsus? Then find a root of the plant called bryony. Take it out of the ground on a Monday (the day of the moon), a little time after the vernal equinox. Cut off the ends of the root and bury it at night in some country churchyard in a dead man's grave. For thirty days water it with cow's milk in which three bats have been drowned. When the thirty-first day arrives, take out the root in the middle of the night and dry it in an oven heated with branches of verbena; then wrap it up in a piece of a dead man's winding-sheet and carry it with you everywhere.

• Used in spell work for protection, fertility, money, love, health, increased psychic awareness, or to add power to spells.

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Marjoram is indigenous to the Cyprus and southern Turkey, and was known to the Greeks and Romans as a symbol of happiness.

Marjoram, traditionally considered a common kitchen herb, has also been beneficially used for many health issues:

• As an antidote to snake bites
• Bruises
• Conjunctivitis (pink eye)
• Coughs
• Headache
• Insomnia
• Lack of menstruation
• Menstrual cramps
• Motion sickness
• Joint and muscle pain
• Nausea
• Toothaches
• Colic (sharp intestinal pains in infants)

Note:

• Don’t use marjoram in quantities larger than those commonly used in cooking if you are pregnant. Overdoses may cause uterine contractions.
• It is not clear if marjoram is safe for infants and children – there is no research in this area.
• The active components of marjoram vary among plants and products. Levels of the volatile oil content may decrease with age.
• Decrease your dose or discontinue use of marjoram if you experience nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. Talk to your health care provider if these symptoms persist more that 2-3 days.
• Medical experts caution against consuming marjoram in quantities larger than those commonly used in cooking.
• You should know that the essential oils called ‘Oil of Marjoram’ and ‘Wild Marjoram Oil’ are made from thyme, not marjoram.

Nutmeg is as it name sounds a nut,  native to the rain forest Indonesian Moluccas Island. Nutmeg is the seed of the tree, roughly egg-shaped and about 20 to 30 mm (0.8 to 1.2 in) long and 15 to 18 mm (0.6 to 0.7 in) wide, and weighing between 5 and 10 g (0.2 and 0.4 oz) dried, while mace is the dried "lacy" reddish covering or aril of the seed.

The first harvest of nutmeg trees takes place 7–9 years after planting, and the trees reach full production after 20 years. Nutmeg is usually used in powdered form. This is the only tropical fruit that is the source of two different spices. Several other commercial products are also produced from the trees, including essential oils, extracted oleoresins, and nutmeg butter (see below).

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• Since ancient times, nutmeg and its oil were being used in Chinese and Indian traditional medicines for illnesses related to the nervous and digestive systems. The compounds in this spice such as myristicinand elemicin have been soothing as well as stimulant properties on brain.

• Nutmeg oil contains eugenol, which has been used in dentistry for toothache relief.

• The oil is also used as a local massage to reduce muscular pain and rheumatic pain of joints.

• Freshly prepared decoction with honey has been used to relief of nausea, gastritis, and indigestion ailments.

Note:

• Nutmeg should be used in moderation—a pinch or two is considered safe. However, large doses can trigger an acute psychiatric disorder. Nutmeg contains myristicin, which in large doses can cause hallucinations. Users may feel a sensation of blood rush to the head or a strong euphoria and dissociation. It can also lead to convulsions, palpitations, generalised body pain, vomiting, nausea and eventual dehydration. Followed by long, deep almost coma-like sleep, it can even cause death.
• Pregnant women and nursing mothers should avoid the use of nutmeg. It can cause miscarriage in pregnant women. It also inhibits prostaglandin production [involved in child birth process] and contains hallucinogens that may affect the foetus, if consumed in large quantities. It can also trigger dizziness, nausea and difficulty in urination.
• Touching nutmeg can cause allergic skin reaction. It should be kept out of reach of children and pets.

Burned to aid meditation, stimulate or increase the psychic powers, and to attract prosperity.

Oregano is a perennial herb, growing from 20–80 cm tall, with opposite leaves 1–4 cm long. Oregano will grow in a pH range between 6.0 (mildly acid) and 9.0 (strongly alkaline) with a preferred range between 6.0 and 8.0. Oregano means “mountain joy” and is a wonderfully aromatic, flavorful herb popularly used in Spanish and Mediterranean cooking. Oregano also goes by the name marjoram (though it is not to be confused with sweet marjoram).

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Oregano contains thymol and carvacrol, two oils which have remarkable bacteria-fighting power. 

• Acts as an anti-viral agent — Oregano oil can aid in protecting us against the common cold.
• Powerful anti-inflammatory
• Can help relieve congestion
• Emmenagogue — Oregano oil can aid in healing irregular menstruation and reducing the negative effects of menopause.
• Anti-allergen — Oregano oils produce a sedating effect on the hyper-sensitivity of allergies, offering relief for allergic reactions.
• Potent anti-oxidant capacity — Through neutralizing free-radicals, oregano oil helps us slow the process of cellular deterioration, thus slowing the process of aging. Anti-oxidants aid in protecting us from cancer, eye-diseases, muscle degeneration, as well as many nervous-system disorders. Rosmarinic acid, a component of oil of oregano, is an antihistamine, and a more powerful antioxidant than vitamin E.
• Digestive aid — Stimulates the flow of bile in the digestive organs
• Possesses powerful anti-fungal properties — With regular use, oregano oil can help protect us against fungal infections.

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Orris root

 Is a term used for the roots Iris germanica, Iris florentina, and Iris pallida. Once important in western herbal medicine, it is now used mainly as a fixative and base note in perfumery, as well as an ingredient in many brands of gin. It is also the most widely-used fixative for potpourri. Orris root is often included as one of the many ingredients of Ras el hanout, a blend of herbs and spices used across the Middle East and North Africa, primarily associated with Moroccan cuisine.  Orris root has been used in tinctures to flavor syrups; its taste is said to be indistinguishable from raspberry.  Orris root has been used for a long time to hold and find love. The root was carried and the powdered version was sprinkled around the home and on the body and put into satchels. It is sometimes known as “Love Drawing Powder”. In Japan Orris was used to protect against evil spirits and the root and leaves were hung around the house and placed in the bath water for personal protection. The root can also be used as a pendulum to answer questions.

• Treats sinusitis
• Natural Anti-inflammatory
• Natural Diuretic

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Patchouli (Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Benth; also patchouly or pachouli) is a species of plant from the genus Pogostemon. It is bushy herb of the mint family, with erect stems, reaching two or three feet (about 0.75 metre) in height and bearing small, pale pink-white flowers. The plant is native to tropical regions of Asia, and is now extensively cultivated in China, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Mauritius, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as West Africa.The heavy and strong scent of patchouli has been used for centuries in perfumes, and more recently in incense, insect repellents, and alternative medicines. The word derives from the Tamil patchai (Tamil: பச்சை) (green), ellai (Tamil: இலை) (leaf)In Assamese it is known as xukloti. Pogostemon cablin, P. commosum, P. hortensis, P. heyneasus and P. plectranthoides are all cultivated for their oils and all are known as patchouli oil. One study suggests patchouli oil may serve as an all-purpose insect repellent.More specifically, the patchouli plant is claimed to be a potent repellent against the Formosan subterranean termite.During the 18th and 19th century, silk traders from China traveling to the Middle East packed their silk cloth with dried patchouli leaves to prevent moths from laying their eggs on the cloth. It has also been proven to effectively prevent female moths from adhering to males, and vice versa. Many historians speculate that this association with opulent Eastern goods is why patchouli was considered by Europeans of that era to be a luxurious scent. It is said that patchouli was used in the linen chests of Queen Victoria in this way. Patchouli is an important ingredient in East Asian incense. Both patchouli oil and incense underwent a surge in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s in the US and Europe, mainly due to the hippie movement of those decades. Patchouli has a rich earthy small and so is used in money and prosperity spells and sprinkled around the base of green candles. You can also add it to money, purses or wallets to help you attract money. This lovely herb is also used in fertility talismans and is a substitute for graveyard dirt when it’s called for and who wouldn’t want to use that over the other yikes! Patchouli is added to love sachets and baths…why not get some for Valentines Day ;)……In Voodoo based magic Patchouli is used to separate but this is very modern and has no real history behind it. Patchouli is used to attract people and promote lust. The little fact in voodoo just shows some differences in culture and magic.

• Natural anti-depressant
• Use to reduce inflammation and fever
• Can be used to treat wounds
• Natural Aphrodisiac
• Reduces muscle pain
• Use on scalp to reduce hair fall
• Helps in healing and lessens scars in acne, chicken pox, measles or boils
• Natural Anti-Odor
• Used as a mosquito repellent
• Keep dried leaves in stored clothing to keep away pests.
• Add oil to mouth wash to freshen breath
• In spell work associated with love, wealth and sexual power

Burned to attract money, love, growth, mastery, sensuality and also to promote fertility.

Peppermint (Mentha × piperita, also known as M. balsamea Willd.) is a hybrid mint, a cross between watermint and spearmint. The plant, indigenous to Europe, is now widespread in cultivation throughout all regions of the world. It is found wild occasionally with its parent species. 

The leaves and stems are usually slightly hairy. The flowers are purple, 6–8 mm (0.24–0.31 in) long, with a four-lobed corolla about 5 mm (0.20 in) diameter; they are produced in whorls (verticillasters) around the stem, forming thick, blunt spikes. Flowering is from mid to late summer. Peppermint is a fast growing plant once it sprouts, it will grow very quickly and take over the bedding area.

Peppermint has a high menthol content, and is often used in tea and for flavouring ice cream, confectionery, chewing gum, and toothpaste. 

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• aids digestion,
• relieves the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome
• improve the immune system and aids in treating colds and flu.
• Effective remedy to treat and itching of hives, rashes, poison oak and poison ivy.
• Soothes scalp ailments such as dandruff and lice.

Burned for energy, mental stimulant, exorcism and healing