It’s Halloween and on this macabre Monday we have a few harrowing tales about some of your most beloved plants! Many people are led to believe that the plants they’ve come to know in their gardens and greenhouses are innocent, unassuming herbs and flowers, but some of these commonplace plants have wicked reputations throughout history.
Many common herbs found in your own kitchen actually have various superstitions related to them. For instance, in the Middle Ages, people would sprinkle Rosemary under their pillows and mattresses to prevent nightmares and evil spirits from haunting their dreams.
You may be used to finding Fennel in your sausages, but people once placed Fennel seeds in the keyholes of their doors to keep ghosts from sneaking in. They also hung Fennel in their doorways during Midsummer Eve to evil spirits away from their homes, as this was the night they were thought to come back to earth. (For many cultures that still celebrate the Summer Solstice or Midsummer Eve, herbs are still very significant.)
Many people still use Cleansing Sticks to purify their new homes, apartments and offices, but did you know that this practice actually dates back to Native American prayer ceremonies? Drying White Sage (some people also use Garden Sage) and then rolling it and wrapping it tightly into a small, compact bundle, allows the sage to smolder instead of burn up in a flash. The bundle is then carried from room to room, allowing the smoke to waft throughout the dwelling to keep negative energy and evil spirits away.
Achillea and Rue were both sprinkled around windows and doorways to keep ghosts, witches and evil spirits from entering a home. Rue, also known in traditional herbalism as “Witchbane” was also carried in bundles in peoples’ pockets to ward off witches. Now, witches have magic on their side, and after making a book of shadows, you’d think they’d have documented all of their deepest darkest secrets to find a way to counteract this practice (in the safest way possible of course). Or maybe they didn’t. I don’t know enough about witchcraft to make an accurate judgment, but people seemed to believe this idea. It was also thought that both Achillea (Yarrow) and Rue would protect a person from hexes and the “evil eye”. Achillea was also hung over babies’ cribs to protect their souls from witches.
These are just a few of the historically “haunted” herbs that you can commonly find in your garden or pantry. Most medicinal herbs were used for protection from plagues, hexes and witches…what people didn’t realize was that in most cases, it was the antiseptic, anti bacterial or anti fungal properties of the plant that protected them from the supposed hauntings and conjured plagues.
For a great book on herbal folklore and poisonous plants from A-Z, check out Amy Stewart’s book Wicked Plants.