Plant range and properties: Widely used in folk magic around the world, this plant originally hails from Iran and Afghanistan. The part that is used is oleo gum resin, which is made from the root of the asafoetida plant. It is also very important in India where it is a vital part of Punjabi and South Indian cooking. It now grows in many other parts of the world. This plant has been prized as a spice and medicine throughout the Middle East, Mediterranean, and Europe for centuries, and was brought to these areas by traders from Persia.
Medical and magical uses: In Appalachia, asafoetida is sometimes called assifitiddy, which is a vernacular pronunciation. This fragrant resin was widely used in the mountains for magical purposes, despite originating from so far away. Hoodoo, a southern Black folk magic tradition, also holds this resin in high regard and uses it for very similar purposes.
Asafoetida is often burned alongside sulfur inside the house of an ill person or at the location of some witchcraft that’s been done.
To keep off disease, put some asafoetida in a little bag and tie it around the neck. Two balls of it in a baggie around a child’s neck will keep away evil, disease-causing spirits.
CAYENNE PEPPER
(
CAPSICUM ANNUUM
)
Plant range and properties: The magical use of peppers came to the mountains via the chains of slavery. Enslaved African people brought the use of these peppers to the New World. These peppers are said to originally come from French Guiana.
Medical and magical uses:
Red pepper and salt in the shoe or over the door keeps away evil.
The red pepper, as well as red cloth and red corn, is used to cast and break spells.
Carrying red pepper in your pocket is a surefire way to prevent conjuring.
In the great fashion of contagion magic, it is said that if a redheaded woman or a person of bad temper plants the peppers, the peppers will be the hottest, as if the temper itself finds its way into the shining red flesh of the peppers.
Wearing red pepper in the shoes will stop the chills, as well.
If you get red pepper in your eyes, don’t fret: the cure is to place your head into the henhouse.
GINSENG
(
PANAX QUINQUEFOLIUS
)
Plant range and properties: Ginseng is one of the most infamous of the mountain medicines and worldwide is regarded as a powerful and mysterious herb. Like other magical roots, such as the mandrake (Madragora spp.), the forked growth pattern of this often large, tap-rooted woodland native is almost humanlike in its shape. In old lore around the world, when a root resembles a human, it must be good for every part of them. Folktales abound about the unearthly and sometimes deadly screams mandrakes emit when they are pulled from the ground, and this lore made its way to Appalachia with English and German settlers. Some old root diggers, in homage to the older tradition of magical root digging, still warn that ginseng will scream if pulled at the wrong moon phase.
Indigenous folk practitioners used ginseng as a tonic and medicine for everything from hives to tuberculosis. It was also used as an aphrodisiac. In China and Korea, where similar species grow, there are also magical beliefs about this plant, and a five-thousand-year history of use as a near cure-all for everything from cancer to aging to digestive issues. Wherever this plant grows, it is highly revered.
When white settlers came into the mountains in the 1700–1800s, there was a near loss of this special plant due to serious overharvesting. While settlers did use ginseng for medicine, white folks did not prize the root for personal use like the Native peoples they learned about it from, instead realizing that it would sell for high dollars in the Chinese markets. The roots were mass harvested and sold East until nearly every plant was picked. Today we still feel the effects of this damage done by “Seng” diggers.
Ginseng can be grown in woodland areas with some ease, so be careful not to buy it without some knowledge of where it was harvested and how it was obtained. Better yet, imagine this plant to be a relic of the past until the wild populations bounce back to their former glory, before the sharp knife of the global plant trade cut them down. In spell work, substitute poke root (Phytolacca americana) to achieve similar means.
Medical and magical uses:
Ginseng is used not only to heal the body but also to remove wicked curses. To break a spell, mix red pepper, asafoetida, dog fennel, sulfur, sage, ginseng, sassafras, and mugwort in a brown paper bag or a red flannel bag. This can be tied around a horse or other animal’s neck if they are bewitched, or carried on one’s person to reverse harmful magic. A simpler charm bag to break curses and spells can also be made from just sulfur, powdered ginseng root, dog fennel, and asafoetida, wrapped in a red flannel bag.
If you know the identity of a witch who has done magic against someone, mix powdered and dry ginseng root, mugwort leaf, sassafras root, and henbane leaf together with molasses and the bewitched person’s hair. Roll this into a little ball and hide it away under the witch’s doorstep. When the witch steps over this “witchball,” their magic will be broken.
GOLDENROD
(
SOLIDAGO SPP
.)
Plant range and properties: Goldenrod is a common plant in the aster family, native to North America and Mexico. There are many species and nearly all of them have a history of use as medicine and magic wherever they originated. I use Solidago canadenisis, which is one of the most common species in Appalachia. It is the one you see waving from the roadsides, blazing yellow in late summer.
Medical and magical uses: Many people look at goldenrod with a scoff, as they believe it causes them to sneeze. In fact, they are confusing it with another yellow-flowered late-summer bloomer: ragweed. Goldenrod tea, made from the leaves and flowers, is actually a remedy against hay fever and other allergies. The genus Solidago means “whole,” which makes sense considering its uses for healing old sores and making whole what was once broken. The leaves were most often used for this purpose as poultices or in salves.
Cherokee peoples used the root of goldenrod as a tea for fevers, diarrhea, tuberculosis, and neuralgia. Using the root is a practice mostly confined to Indigenous medicine, but was later adopted by Western peoples. Over a dozen Native groups use up to twenty different species of goldenrod, marking it as a special plant in the medical and magical lexicon of this bioregion. In Black communities in the South, tea of the aerial parts was used for fevers, diarrhea, and yeast issues. In Appalachian folk medicine, the tea of the leaves and flowers is great mixed with spicebush (Lindera benzoin) twigs and aerial parts of boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) for colds and flus.
If you look at the stalks in autumn, there are often circular growths along the slender stems. These are called galls, which form from a grub living inside the stalks. These strange growths were carried to prevent rheumatic pain. Known in Appalachia as “rheumaty-buds,” these little galls were cruelly believed to only be effective as long as the little bug was still alive inside.
BLACKBERRY
(
