| Olde Name | Common | Olde Name | Common |
| BLOODY
FINGERS: |
foxglove | MAIDEN'S RUIN: | southernwood |
| BLOOD: | elder or other sap | MASTER OF THE
WOODS: |
woodruff |
| CANDLEMAS
MAIDEN: |
snowdrop | MUG DE BOYS: | woodruff |
| CANDLEWICK
PLANT: |
mullein | MASTERWORT: | angelica |
| CROWN FOR A
KING: |
wormwood | MAY LILY: | lily of the valley |
| DEW OF THE
SEA: |
rosemary | MISTRESS OF THE
NIGHT: |
tuberose |
| DRAGONWORT: | bistort | PASSWORD: | primrose |
| DWALE: | deadly nightshade | QUEEN OF THE
MEADOW: |
meadowsweet |
| EARTH SMOKE: | fumitory | RAM'S HEAD: | american valerian |
| ELFWORT: | elecampane | SEVEN YEAR'S
LOVE: |
yarrow |
| ENCHANTER'S
PLANT: |
vervain | SLEEP WORT: | lettuce |
| EYE OF THE
STAR: |
horehound | SORCERER'S
VIOLET: |
periwinkle |
| EYES: | aster, daisy,
eyebright, etc., |
STAR FLOWER: | borage |
| FIVE FINGER
GRASS: |
cinquefoil | STAR OF THE
EARTH: |
avens |
| GOLDEN STAR: | avens | STARWEED: | chickweed |
| HONEY LOTUS: | melilot | THUNDER PLANT: | houseleek |
| JOY OF THE
MOUNTAIN: |
marjoram | TONGUE OF DOG: | hound's tongue |
| JOVE'S FLOWER: | carnation | UNICORN HORN: | true unicorn root |
| LITTLE DRAGON: | tarragon | WAX DOLLS: | fumitory |
| LOVE IN
IDLENESS: |
pansy | WITCHES ASPIRIN: | white willow bark |
| LOVE LIES
BLEEDING: |
anemone | WITCHES BELLS: | foxglove |
| LOVE PARSLEY: | lovage | WITCH GRASS: | dog grass |
| LOVEROOT: | orris | WITCHES BRIER: | brier hip |
| GRAVEYARD
DUST: |
mullein | ||
| LAD'S LOVE: | southernwood |
| Naturally this list could have been much more extensive, perhaps even endless and in all actuality it is simply impossible to address here all of them. Such an endeavor would be a compleat work within itself as the list entries would be paramount. however, I hope that the selection above will provide you with a bit more insight into the herbal ancestry that modern Witches have inherited. This is a prime example of the difficulty one encounters when studying the older grimoires. |
| The following "REDES" are wisdom's passed down over the centuries. Many I have acquired from individuals while others have been obtained from a variety of sources. These are fine example of items which you may desire to incorporate on the inner jacket of your shadows. They're lovely sentiments on wood burning or needlepoint projects. The possibilities are (as usual) unlimited! |
Herbal Redes:
| What can kill, can cure.
|
Be silent as the sacred oak!
|
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| If simple herbs suffice to cure,
'tis vain to compound drugs endure. |
No ear hath heard, no tongue can tell,
The virtue of the pimpernel. |
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| Snakes will not go where geraniums grow.
|
More in the garden grows
Than the Witch knows. |
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| If ye would herbal magick make,
Besure the spell in rhyme be spake. |
Plant your sage and rue together,
The sage will grow in any weather. |
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| It is a wine of virtuous powers,
my mother made it of wild flowers. ***NOTE-COWSLIP IS THE WILD FLOWER IN QUESTION. THE DRAUGHT IS MADE WITH SUGAR AND LEMONS. |
Borage and hellbore fill two scenes,
sovereign plant to purge the veins of melancholy, and cheer the heart of those black fumes which make it smart; the best medicine the Gods e'er made for this malady, if well assaid. |
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| St. John's wort and cyclamen
In your bed-chambers keep, From evil spells and Witcheries, To guard you in your sleep. |
Beware the oak, it draws the stroke.
Avoid the ash, it courts the flash . Creep under the thorn, it will save you from harm. |
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| Only the wicked grow parsley. | Sow fennel, sow sorrow.
|
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| Where Rosemarie grows the missus is master! | Eat an apple going to bed,
Make the doctor beg his bread. |
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| An apple a day keeps the doctor away. | I borage, give courage.
|
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| Where the yarrow grows,
There is one who knows. |
Trefoil, vervain, St. John's wort, dill,
Hinder Witches of their will. |
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| Woe to the lad without a Rowan Tree God! | Plant not a cypress vine,
Unless it brings death to thine. |
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| Rowan tree and red thread,
Put the witches to their speed. |
He who would live for aye,
Must eat sage in May. |
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| Headache, catarrh, the violet dispels,
And falling fits and drunkenness expels. Pepper, parsley, garlic, salt and wine, Use these, as sauce, lest meats should ill combine. |
Trefoil, vervain, John's wort, dill
hinder ***"witches"*** of their will. ***NOTE-THE TEXT APPEARS UNCHANGED. YOU MAY SELECT AN ALTERNATIVE...SAY FOR INSTANCE "goblins". |
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| Prunes cool the body and the bowels move--To all, in many ways, a blessing prove. | The radish, pear, theriac, garlic, rue,
All potent poisons will at once undo. |
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| Sell your coat for betony. | No mistletoe, no luck.
|
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| To enliven the sad with the joy of a joke,
give them wine with borage put in it to soak. |
Angelica, the happy counterbane, sent down from heaven by some celestial
scout, as well its name and nature both avow't.
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| This is every cook's opinion,
no savoury dish without an onion, but lest your kissing should be spoiled, your onions must be fully boiled. |
One to rot, One to grow.
One for the pigeon, And one for the crow. |
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| The fair maid who, the first of May,
Goes to the fields at break of day, And washes in dew from the hawthorn tree Will ever after handsome be. |
Happy the age, to which we moderns give the name of `golden', when
men chose to live on woodland fruits; and for their medicines took herbs
from the field, and simples from the brook.
|
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| If simple herbs suffice to cure,
'tis vain to compound drugs endure. |
For want of rest,
lettuce and cowslip wine-probatum est. |
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| There is a flower that shall be mine,
'tis the little celandine; I will sing as doth behove hymns in praise of what I love. |
Out nettle; in dock,
dock shall have a new smock. or Nettle out; dock in; dock remove the nettle sting. ***NOTE-THE LATER VERSION MAKES CLEARER THE PURPOSE OF THE RHYME. PERHAPS A SPELL. I COMBINE THE TWO INTO ONE PERSONALLY. |
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| By eating herb of fennel, for the eyes
a cure for blindness had the serpent wise; man tried the plant; and, trusting that his sight might thus be healed, rejoiced to find him right. ***NOTE-MACER'S CLASSICAL LINES SUGGEST THAT HE BELIEVED MAN RECEiVED THIS HERBS WISDOM THROUGH SERPENTS. |
Whose red and purpled mottled flowers
are cropped by maids in weeding hours, to boil in water, milk, or whey, for washes on a holiday; to make their beauty fair and sleek, and scare the tan from summer's cheek. ***NOTE-THE MOTTLED FLOWERS IN QUESTION ARE THOSE OF THE FUMITORY. WELL KNOW IN DAYS OF OLDE AS A COSMETIC WASH. |
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| Faerie-folkes, are in olde oaks. |
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| Pray to the moon when she is round,
Luck with you shall then abound What you seek for shall be found In sea or sky or solid ground. |
When the moon is at the full,
Mushrooms you may freely pull; But when the moon is on the wane, Wait ere you think to pluck again! |
| If the moon shows like a silver shield
You need not be afraid to reap your field. But, if she rises haloed 'round, Soon we'll tread on deluged ground. |
Sowe peasons and beanes, in the wane of the moone,
Who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soon. That they with the planet might rest and arise, And flourish, with bearing most plentiful wise. |
| New moon, new moon, I hail thee!
By all the virtue in thy body, Grant this night that I may see, He who my true love is to be. |
Olde moon in a mist
Is worth gold in a kist (CHEAST); But a new moon's mist Will never lack thirst. |
The hollow winds begin to blow.
The clouds look black, the glass is low;
The soot falls down, the spaniels sleep,
And spiders from their cobwebs creep.
Last night the sun went pale to bed,
The moon in halos hid her head.
The boding shepherd heaves a sigh,
For, see, a rainbow spans the sky;
The walls are damp, the ditches smell,
Closed is the pink eyed pimpernel.Hark! How the chairs and tables crack;
Olde Betty's joints are on the rack;
Loud quack the ducks, the peacocks cry;
The distant hills are looming nigh.
How restless are the snorting swine!
The busy flies disturb the kine;
Low o'er the grass the swallow wings.
The cricket, too, how sharp he sings.Puss, on the hearth, with velvet paws,
Sits wiping o'er whiskered jaws.
Through the clear stream the fishes rise
And nimbly catch the cautious flies.
The glowworms numerous and bright
Illumed the dewey dell last night.
At dusk the squalled toad was seen
Hopping and crawling o'er the green.
The whirling wind the dust obeys,
And in the rapid eddy plays.
The frog has changed his yellow vest,
And in a russet coat is dressed.Though june the air is cold and chill.
The mellow blackbird's voice is shrill,
My dog, so altered is his taste,
Quits mutton bones on grass to feast;
And see yon rooks, how odd their flight
They imitate the gliding kite,
And headlong downward seem to fall
As if they felt the piercing ball.
"'Twill surely rain"; I see with sorrow
Our jaunt must be put off tomorrow.
2 1/2 for chestnut, white elm, and the tulip tree
3 for black walnut
3 1/2 for black oak
4 for birch, sweet gum, chestnut-oak; red oak, scarlet oak, and sycamore.
5 for ash and white oak
6 for beech, sour gum, and sugar maple
8 for the shag bark hickory
