SASSAFRAS ALBIDUM
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Plant range and properties: This aromatic native American tree boasts unique botanical features as well as an interesting magical history. Sassafras is often easily identified by its unique leaf shapes, for it has what is botanically known as heterophylly, or multiple leaf shapes on one plant. It has the single lobe, the two-lobed “mitten,” and the three-lobed “dinosaur foot,” as this author likes to call it.
Medical and magical uses: This native Appalachian shrubby tree has a long history of use among First Nations people and settlers alike. Medicinally, its tender roots were dug in the spring and used to make a strong, pleasant-tasting tea or decoction. It was thought to be a blood cleanser and included in recipes for spring tonics with plants like spicebush (Lindera benzoin), mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum), goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), and other fragrant or bitter herbs.
In Appalachia, its uses were shared with Spanish and European settlers. It had a myriad of uses to the Cherokee as a tea, for everything from dysentery to sore eyes. The Cherokee even used it for weight reduction, which passed into use by European settlers and is still present today in the folk lexicon. Sassafras was one of the first plants exported to Europe from the New World in bulk, for it came to be thought of as a panacea and was also enjoyed as a social beverage with milk and sugar in European coffee houses. Indeed, it was even thought to cure syphilis and was second only to mercury for this application until it was decided that it did little to stop the “social disease.”
Certain medicine men among the Cherokee also used the root magically. They would chew it and rub it upon their faces and hands after being exposed to a sick person, whether biologically or spiritually, to safeguard their own magical abilities. Sassafras was also an ingredient in treating the wounds caused by magical projectiles known as ga:dhidv, which are the supernatural missiles of conjurers. Parallels in the Appalachian medicinal uses of sassafras root as a cleanser of blood can be seen here in its Cherokee uses as a cleanser of energy or spiritual contamination. Sassafras has many more ethnobotanical uses, and it is interesting to modern folk magic practitioners to note the correlations between its ability to ward off illness and pestilence as well as to attract prosperity both in its medical and magical uses.
As an amulet, wearing pieces of the sliced root around the neck was said to aid in the pain of teething, while a bag of the same around the neck could prevent general illness. In a North Carolina tradition, carrying some root pieces in one’s pocket would produce the same effect.
In African-American conjure traditions, sassafras is associated with financial affairs. Placing a piece of the root in a purse or wallet is said to prevent one’s money from running out.
There are also taboos surrounding not just the root but the wood. To burn the wood of sassafras was deemed unlucky, and in Kentucky, it was believed that burning the wood or even leaves of the sassafras would surely cause the transgressor’s mules or horses to die.
The wood had further uses as a stirring stick for making soap in the dark of the moon and to build beds that would protect the sleeper from disturbances from witches and other evil spirits.
Ships built with sassafras hulls were deemed safe from shipwreck, while chicken coops built with sassafras roosting poles were reputedly free of lice.
HORSE NETTLE
(
SOLANUM CAROLINENSE
),
APPLE OF SODOM, DEVIL’S TOMATO
Plant range and properties: This small, thorned, tomato-looking plant is common in Appalachia. This plant is considered a noxious weed due to its incredibly tenacious growth habits. The roots can reach a depth of ten feet or more, giving this plant a unique connection with the underworld that complements its deadly yellow berries. It is native to the Southeast despite its reputation as a terrible weed. It had many uses to the Cherokee even though every part of the plant is poisonous.
Medical and magical uses: The Cherokee made horse nettle root into beads and hung them around babies’ necks to help with the pain of teething. In Alabama, people used tea from the leaves to treat thrush and epilepsy.
In Europe, a relative of this plant, S. sisymbriifolium or blue-witch nightshade, was believed to counteract witchcraft, so people planted it by their front doors. Sometimes protection can come from an ally of the very thing you are trying to keep out.
There is a long association with witches and nightshade plants. I use horse nettle in place of belladonna (Atropa belladonna) for magical workings if I do not have access to it.
As far as poison berries go, pair horse nettle berries with poke berries and string them up dry to create powerful protection garlands—keeping them far out of reach of children and animals.
MUGWORT
(
ARTEMISIA VULGARIS
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Plant range and properties: Mugwort’s Latin name speaks of its magic: Artemisia vulgaris. The goddess Artemis, also known as Diana, lent her name to the genus of this plant, and indeed all of mugwort’s cousins are magical. Mugwort did more than adopt her name: it also adopted her association with the moon. Despite its common nature and plain appearance, mugwort was so well loved and revered in Old Europe that it was once called the Mother of Herbs, and with good reason. In an old English herbal, it is described how Diana discovered the powers of mugwort and two other plants and gave them to Chiron the centaur. Chiron made the first remedy from these plants and named them Artemis, after Diana. Mugwort is originally from Western Europe but is now widespread as a weed and is a very common plant throughout Appalachia.
Mugwort has small yellow to reddish oval flowerets that have the same down-like feeling as the underside of the leaves, giving it a silvery appearance. This silver down reminds me often of the moon, and indeed this herb has had lunar associations for thousands of years, all around the world. It also features sharply pointed leaves and a tall, slender stalk, all of which emit a beautiful and strange perfume when crushed.
Mugwort is closely related to the common wormwood, a plant historically known for its hallucinogenic properties and the famous ingredient in the equally notorious liquor, absinthe. Mugwort lacks the essential oil found in wormwood, however, and cannot be used as a deliriant in the same way. But mugwort does possess the abortifacient and hallucinogenic properties of wormwood (due to the active compound thujone, the same compound that makes absinthe hallucinogenic in theory), especially when taken in large doses or for extended time periods. Mugwort is also discernable from wormwood through simple differences in the leaves and flowers of the plant, which are fairly obvious to even the most casual observer.
There is evidence of mugwort being used in beer brewing from early Iron Age remains (500 BCE) that have been found at Eberdingen-Hochdorf in Germany. The remains also included charred barley and henbane seeds (another favorite plant of mine), as well as carrot seeds. These may have added other delightful intoxicating effects to the brews. Archaeobotanist Dr. Stika believes the early Celtic beer recipe contained mugwort seeds. Mugwort was also added to beer in medieval times as well—hops were not used in beer making until around 800 CE.
Medical and magical uses: In the Middle Ages, mugwort was known as Cingulum Sancti Johannis because of its use as a girdle for St. John the Baptist. Madame Grieve extols its folkloric uses and provides a pretty great overview:
There were many superstitions connected with it: it was believed to preserve the wayfarer from fatigue, sunstroke, wild beasts, and evil spirits generally: a crown made from its sprays was worn on St. John’s Eve to gain security from evil possession, and in Holland and Germany one of its names is St. John’s Plant, because of the belief that if gathered on St. John’s Eve it gave protection against diseases and misfortunes.
It seems that many of these beliefs were gathered from the Isle of Man, as well as the belief that mugwort gathered on St. John’s Night would protect against the influence of witches. The root of mugwort was also nailed against the wall of a house to banish the devil or other bad spirits, and braided wreaths of mugwort hung at a house or shed would protect it against fire and lightning.
Bald’s Leechbook, an herbal from around the ninth century CE, refers to the use of mugwort to cast out demonic possession by heating a large stone in the fireplace, then sprinkling it with mugwort and adding water to create a steam for the patient to inhale.
The connection between mugwort and midsummer is strong due to the influence of St. John’s Eve and the preceding pagan practices. In France, mugwort was worn on Midsummer Day to ward off aches and pains, and in Germany, mugwort crowns were worn and then cast into the fire. Much like mandrake and datura, mugwort carried many of its magical uses into Appalachia through European, especially German, settlers who brought it from their homelands.
To break spells, combine mugwort with red pepper, asafoetida, dog fennel, sulfur, sage, ginseng, and sassafras in a red flannel and wear it on your person or hang it on a cursed animal.
Mugwort is also included in recipes for witchballs to break enchantments. Powder the dried herb and mix with a bewitched person’s hair and molasses to form chestnut-sized balls. If you know the identity of the one who has laid the curse down, hide the balls under the witch’s doorstep and their enchantments will be broken.
To heal the various fevers of the South, mugwort is also included in mixtures to bring on sweat and increase circulation, as well as for parasites and other pests as a tea of the aerial parts.
