Welcome to my list of wortcunning and plant magick. The articles listed here in alphabetical order detail individual plants and fungi. Please follow the links through if you need more detail than you are seeing here. Each item does have a full article that includes lots of really fun information for gardeners, cooks, crafters and plant nerds like me. If you aren’t here to browse and know exactly what you’re looking for, use the search box up there on the right.

Source Materials and Interesting Sites

Dioscorides De Materia Medica – From the University of Pennsylvania PDF Library

Grieve’s Modern Herbal at Botanical.com

The Complete Herbal by Nicholas Culpepper at Project Gutenberg

Native American Ethnobotany Database

The Plant Lore and Garden Craft of Shakespeare (At Amazon) by Henry Nicholson Ellecombe

Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs by Scott Cunningham (At Amazon)

Alfalfa, Medicago sativa

Alfalfa resonates with the element of Earth and the planetary energy of Jupiter. It supports prosperity and will attract money if placed in your wallet or piggy bank with intention. It may also prove useful in any powders or container spells designed to grow wealth. Keep it in a jar in the pantry or weave it into a cross for a ward against poverty and hunger.

Allspice, Pimenta dioica (formerly P. officianalis)

Correspondences
Element(s): Fire
Planet(s): Mars

Carry allspice berries with you, eat something seasoned with allspice or wear the scent to ensure luck follows you, especially while gambling, making business deals, and investing in the stock market.

Use allspice to bring health to yourself and wealth to your household.

It can also be burned as money-drawing incense, added to a floor wash or tucked into a money bag.

Bittersweet Nightshade, Solanum dulcamara

Bittersweet nightshade symbolizes fidelity and hanging on for both the “bitter” and the “sweet” in a relationship or situation. The vine and flowers may be added to bridal wreaths or the berries added relationship container spells to bring in this energy. It can also help balance bitter memories with the sweet and help heal a broken heart. Place the dried berries in a bag to carry or keep under your pillow.

According to various lore(as related by Culpepper and others), it has historically been used to ward off the evil eye and diseases caused by magick by hanging it around the neck of the target. It may also be hung in a secret place inside the home to protect from such spiritual attacks.

This plant resonates with the energies of Saturn and Mercury and the Air element.

Black Nightshade, Solanum nigrum group

Black nightshade is a Saturn plant that corresponds to the element Water. It is useful for spells used to communicate with, appeal to or honor the dead and psychopomp but it will not produce an altered state of consciousness to see, communicate or travel with them. You can do this under your own power, however, bringing along some nightshade berries or better yet, a biscuit slathered with nightshade jam, as a hospitality gift. Dried berries can also be added to incense mixtures to burn during rituals to connect with the dead and psychopomps.

Or, black nightshade berries can be crushed and combined with vinegar and strained to produce a thin violet ink that will fade in time to blue, then gray. While it is by no means an archival ink, it is ideal for writing letters to the dead and appeals to the underworld gods. Once written and read allowed, the paper can then be buried or burned. Its ephemeral and Saturnine natures also make this an excellent ink to use for banishing spells.

Dried black nightshade leaves and berries can also be crushed to add to powders designed to define boarders and create barriers of protection, particularly from the wandering dead and from hexes cast at those contained within the barrier. The whole berries may be carried for the same purpose.

It is also used in lunar magic

Calendula, Calendula officinalis

If you enchant and apply makeup with intention as your sword and shield- calendula should be part of your skin care routine. Its firey, energetic nature and bright sunny disposition lends itself very well to that sort of magick. Calendula’s sun energy demands attention and claims authority. Make yourself a calendula oil infusion with intention and make this a base for moisturizers and other skin care products, applied with ritual.

Calendula’s protective nature lies in the fact that it is just so sunny that negative energy wilts in the face of it. Plant it around your home, near the door, place fresh flowers in vases around the house or sprinkle the petals around the perimeter to encourage joyful energy that grumps and doldrums can’t defeat. Kitchen witches: using the petals to bring their bright yellow color to your dishes will have similar effect. You can also add it to teas. The same effect helps re-energize a sick room and its patient to encourage recovery after a long illness.

Calendula is also associated with expanding psychic awareness and prophetic dreams. It is a strongly solar plant and the sun sees all and its light reveals all. To encourage prophetic dreams or to receive answers to your questions in your dreams, considering bring calendula to your evening ritual. You can use it in a night cream, drink it in a tea with other dreaming herbs with complementary attributes, or add it to a dream pillow. Use calendula in exactly the same way to protect dreamers from nightmares and other nighttime terrors.

Cayenne Pepper, C. annuum "Cayenne"

Cayenne can be added to powders for banishing. I like to string them up to dry above my windows and this has the added bonus of creating a protective barrier.

It can also be burned for banishing, but it will release capsaicin into the air and this is not good for humans or anyone else with mucus membranes. I do not recommend

Do add cayenne to any spell jars or sachets for protection, courage or to increase activity, restlessness or movement. You can also add it to sour jars to encourage someone to move out.

The energy of cayenne is of Mars and Fire. It is restless and aggressive. It wants to do something, to make things happen, to fix things, dammit.

Chickweed, Stellaria media

Chickweed corresponds to the element of water and the moon.

Dried chickweed leaves and flowers may be added to spells and magical oils for balance within relationships, sharing and equitable communities. Its many tiny seeds can be added to container spells for growth, increase, abundance, fecundity.

Cinnamon, Cinnamomum spp

Cinnamon is a warming herb that corresponds to both the element Fire and the Sun. It conjures up cozy feelings of safety, security and comfort. As such, it is used in magick for protection, prosperity and abundance spells to provide financial security and comfort. It also quickens and warms without being too hot to handle, thus it may be used for physical love and to “put a fire” under someone or a situation to get things moving along or speed things up without making them uncomfortable.

Add cinnamon to potpourri, simmer pots, break up some sticks into your coffee brew or use them to mull wine or cider to raise the whole vibe.

Use cinnamon to attract abundance, comfort and security to your home. Use cinnamon sticks to decorate a wreath on your front door. Hang a cinnamon broom inside your front door. Blow powdered cinnamon into your front door from the outside.

Sprinkle cinnamon over your money clip or wallet to encourage it to fill up with cash.

Add cinnamon to any spell to “heat things up” and get things moving.

Damiana, Turnera diffusa

Damiana brings the element of air and the planetary energy of Venus.

It is often used as an aphrodisiac and it absolutely works, but the reason it works makes it useful for so much more.

Damiana is a relaxing stimulant that helps quiet those nagging voices in our heads to bring us into focus of what’s important. It brings body and spiritual awareness, not just of yourself, but of those around you. It encourages connection and communication. It opens you up to receive information from the Universe and/or from the partner you are engaging with right now.

I personally used damiana in adorcism rituals.

Damiana can be used in a ritual bath, smoked or drunk in a tea.

Do not use damiana internally if you are pregnant or taking medication for high blood pressure.

Deadly Nightshade, Atropa belladonna

Belladonna is a plant of Saturn and Water. It has historically been used for astral projection and communicating with the dead. It is most notably known as an ingredient flying ointment.

Some modern uses of Belladonna include shadow work, communicating with the dead, astral projection, and protection during these activities. It is also associated with the Hero’s Journey involving the descent to and return from the Underworld.

While stories I have heard of Belladonna “trips” seem to support this work, as they are reportedly terrifying, involving space and time slips and seeing and talking to people no one else can see, I do not recommend ingesting this plant under any circumstances. Apparently it can take a long time to clear your system and might even cause permanent neurological changes. Thus, I recommend only symbolic use of belladonna.

It might be useful in a dressing oil but, since it can be absorbed through the skin, I would take care when applying it.

Horseweed, Erigeron canadensis or Conyza canadensis

Horseweed is a survivor that grows and reproduces rapidly in disturbed, burned and drought ridden ground. Use it for the energy of renewal, stubborn resilience and quick turn around.

Lavender, Lavandula angustifolia

Use lavender in dressing oils, sachets and spell jars for love, beauty, and attraction. Add it to bridal wreaths and bouquets to bring in this energy as well.

Add lavender to a sachet to tuck under your pillow for deep sleep and dream work. This is particularly useful if you do dream work for communication with spirits, Gods or even other humans. If you and your partner work together, make a fabulous massage oil for a pre-bedtime massage by steeping dried buds in a neutral carrier oil in a warm, dark place for a month (perhaps when the sun is in Pisces), then straining well.

Add lavender oil to a salt or sugar scrub for a ritual bath to wash away a broken heart or similar emotional hurts.

Use a bundle of lavender to asperge your ritual area. Also use it to asperge the area before a social event to keep communication friendly and feelings fond.

Add lavender magic to your sweet treats by mixing sugar and dried lavender buds together and letting it sit for a week or two, then sifting. This can easily be added to drinks, frosting and anything that calls for sugar.  Some people love the taste. It’s not for everyone.

Lavender corresponds to the element of Air and the planet Mercury.

Mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris

Mugwort resonates with the element of air and the planetary energy of the moon. It is most commonly used for dream work and divination.

Use mugwort in ritual baths, washes and incense (with sandalwood) to prepare yourself to receive messages from the universe, before divination, intentional dreaming and astral projection.

Place bags of mugwort under your pillow, or weave it into wreaths over the bed to encourage prophetic dreams.

Use mugwort oil, incense or wash to dress divination tools.

Mugwort can also be drunk as a tea to encourage dreaming and to open oneself up to prophecy.

Some people are allergic to mugwort. If you have hay fever or are allergic to rag weed you are at higher risk. Use mugwort with caution.

Peppermint, Mentha × piperita

Peppermint is an air herb that corresponds to the planetary energy of mercury. It is a cleansing and banishing herb. It clears the cobwebs, breaks up stagnation and brings in motion and movement. It also helps stimulate the mind to bring clarity and truth.

Add it to your soap (or just use Dr Bronner’s) to wash away all the negative energy you picked up all day (just be careful with your more delicate bits) and to bring your brain back from the mind numbing effects of another day at the office so you can be present for the rest of your day. Spray it around your house after an unpleasant person or situation has left to eliminate their influence.

(I see peppermint used a lot for love spells, but I don’t get it. Maybe it’s that tingly sensation?)

Plantain, Plantago spp

American, Lanceleaf and Broadleaf Plantago correspond to the element Water and the planet Venus.

Slip a plantain leaf into your shoe for protection while traveling.

Plantain is a tough and resilient plant that serves to help rejuvenate disturbed areas and impacted soils. As such, its energy is that of strength, thriving despite overwhelming odds and toxicity, and building something great from nothing.