|
Nasturtium
Latin Name: Tropaelum majus
Parts Used: Whole plant
Cultivation: Nasturtiums are tender perennials native to South America. In the North they are grown as annuals, in moist, well-drained soil in full sun.
Companion Planting: Grow nasturtiums near your tomatoes to keep away whiteflies. Nasturtiums also repel squash bugs and many cabbage pests.
Culinary Uses: Nasturtiums are edible; toss the leaves and flowers in salads or use the flowers as a garnish. They have a peppery flavor.
Medicinal Uses: Nasturtiums are a potent anti-microbial agent. They are useful intreating respiratory infections such as bronchitis, as well as viral infections such as influenza and the common cold. Use it fresh as a poultice for external infections.
Nelumbo nucifera - Latin name for Lotus
Nepeta Cataria - Latin name for Catnip
Neroli, Orange Blossom
Magickal Uses: Happiness, purification.
Nettle, Stinging Nettle
Latin Name: Urtica dioica
Parts Used: Flowers, leaves, and shoots
Cultivation: Nettles grow wild and will happily sprout anywhere you don't weed.
Culinary Uses: Believe it or not, nettles are actually edible-the sting disappears when it is cooked! Steam or boil them lightly and serve with butter and lemon; or add to soups, stews, and broth for added flavor and nutrition. Nettles are an excellent source of Vitamin C.
Medicinal Uses: Nettles are an excellent tonic for strengthening the entire system. They are astringent and may be used to stop bleeding such as nosebleeds or excessive uterine bleeding. And nettles (here's another surprise!) are specific for the treatment of eczema, especially childhood eczema. Cautions: Harvest nettles wearing gloves; they cause a painful stinging which can linger for days!
Magickal Uses: Nettles remove curses and protect from evil. Use in purification baths-cook first! Healing and breaks hexes.
New-Mown Hay
Oil: No such natural oil. Use bouquet of woodruff, tonka, lavender, bergamot and oakmoss.
Magickal Uses: Use to turn over a new leaf, get a fresh perspectiveon a difficult problem, break negative habbits (like addictions) and thought patterns.
Niaouli
Magickal Uses: Protection.
Nightshade
Magickal Uses: Break hexes.
Nosebleed - see Yarrow
Nutmeg
Latin Name: Myristca fragrans
Parts Used: Seeds
Cultivation: Nutmeg is a tropical evergreen tree growing in the Spice Islands.
Culinary Uses: Use in baking quick breads and desserts. Add a pinch to cream and cheese sauces, and, of course, toss it in eggnog.
Magickal Uses: Make a good luck charm by stringing together whole nutmeg, star anise, and tonka beans. Add ground nutmeg or nutmeg essential oil to prosperity mixtures. Sniff to increase pyschic power, annoint money, health and luck amulets or sachets, success, purification, consecration.
Oak
Magickal Uses: Wealth, success, consecration, purification.
Oakmoss
Oil: Bouquet of vetivert & cinnamon.
Magickal Uses: Money-drawing.
Ocimum Basilicum - Latin name for Basil
Old Woman - see Wormwood
Olive
Sacred to: Athene (Minerva)
Medicinal Uses: Enhances immune system, free-radicals, anti-viral, AIDS, STDS.
Magickal Uses: Honors Athene (Minerva)
Onion
Latin Name: Allium cepa
Parts Used: Bulb, leaves
Cultivation: Onions can be grown from seed, sets, or seedlings. Plant them in the spring for a fall harvest, or the fall before if you live in warmer areas. They prefer rich, well-drained soil with plenty of sun.
Culinary Uses: You can use onions in just about any way imaginable: raw, fried, baked, sauteed, stewed, pickled, stuffed... and in just about every cuisine: Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, American...Add onions to soups, stews, stuffing, bread, meat loaf, veggie dishes, stir fries, or alone. Red onions are the sweetest and their flavor frequently does not hold up well in cooking; white have the strongest flavor, and yellow are your "workhorse" onions. Use the greens sliced as a garnish, in salads and Mexican cuisine.
Medicinal Uses: Onions contain smaller doses of the same compunds that make garlic an effective healing agent. Onions help lower cholesterol and high blood pressure; and increase the production of HDL cholesterol which helps clear clogged arteries.
Magickal Uses: Purify your athame or sword by rubbing the blade with a cut onion, or place one beneath the kitchen sink to absorb negativity and disease. Rub warts with a piece of onion and throw it over your right shoulder. Dried onion flowers can be used as protective amulets, and onions grown around the home also offer protection. To cure baldness, rub your head with onion juice and lie out in the sun.
Orange
Magickal Uses: Solar uses, purification, wealth, success, consecration. Divination - as you eat an orange, think of a yes or no question. Count the seeds and if there are an even amount, the answer is no...if odd, yes.
Orange Blossom - see Neroli.
Orange Peel
Magickal Uses: House blessing.
Orchid
Magickal Uses: Love, marriage.
Oregano
Latin Name: Origanum spp.
Parts Used: Leaves
Cultivation: Oregano is a perennial hardy to zone 5. It grows in full sun in average soil with a pH of 6.8.
Culinary Uses: Oregano has a spicy flavor and is used widely in Mediterranean cuisines. Add it to tomato sauce, egg and cheese dishes, roasts, zucchine, eggplant, and potatoes.
Medicinal Uses: Use infusions of oregano leaves to treat indigestion, coughs, headaches, and delayed periods. Use a few drops of oil of oregano for toothache.
Magickal Uses: Place oregano plants around your house to protect it. Use it in love spells, and mix with violets to ward off colds.
Note: Oregano and marjoram are very closely related! You can substitute one for the other in pretty much every scenario, remembering that Oregano has a stronger flavor than marjoram.
Origanum majorana - Latin name for Marjoram
Origanum spp. - Latin name for Oregano
Orris, Florentine Iris, Queen Elizabeth Root
Latin Name: Iris x germanica var. florentina
Parts Used: Rhizome
Cultivation: Iris grow from a rhizome that should be planted above the soil level. They are hardy to zone 5 and prefer well-drained soil with plenty of sun.
Craft Uses: Orris root powder is a fixative commonly used in making potpourri. It has a strong violet odor, and can be added to herb sachets or pillows.
Magickal Uses: Use in love spells and sachets. Carry the root, or sprinkle your house and body with orris root powder to attract love. House blessing.
Panax quinquefolius - Latin name for Ginseng
Pansy
Magickal Uses: Love.
Parsley, Persil, Devil's Oatmeal, Perceley
Latin Name: Petroselinum crispum
Parts Used: Leaves, stems, roots, and seeds
Cultivation: Parsley is a hardy biennial. It doesn't transplant well, so sow the seeds where you wish it to grow. Cut the flowers off as they appear the second year or you will have all flower and no leaves.
Cosmetic Uses: Add parsley infusions to your bathwater to soothe and cleanse.
Culinary Uses: Everyone is familiar with the soggy piece of curly parsley that appears on your plate in restaurants. Curly parsley is used most often as a garnish as it has a relatively mild flavor. Flat or Italian parsley is used frequently in cooking and has a strong flavor that mixes well with just about any dish. Use it fresh (dried has NO flavor), and add to foods towards the end of cooking.
Medicinal Uses: Parsley has more vitamin C, proportionally, than an orance. Take infusions of parsley for bladder infections. It is also rich in other vitamins, like A, several B's, and contains good quantities of calcium and iron.Parsley increases milk production and tones uterine muscles. The chlorophyll acts as a natural breath freshener. Builds blood, high in potassium, helps the kidneys and acts as a diuretic. Cautions: Large quantities can cause decreased blood pressure and pulse. It can also irritate the kidneys if overused.
Magickal Uses: Parsley promotes fertility and encourages lust. Use it in purification baths. Sprigs of parsley were once used on plates to keep food from becoming contaminated. Wealth, success, funerals.
Passiflora incarnata - Latin name for Passionflower
Passionflower, Passionvine
Latin Name: Passiflora incarnata
Parts Used: Flowers and fruit
Cultivation: Passionflower is a tender perennial, hardy only to zone 7. It grows in fertile, well-drained soil in partial shade.
Medicinal Uses: Passionflower extract has a slightly narcotic effect and is frequently used as a non-addictive sedative. It is specific for anxiety, tension, and insomnia, eye tension, headaches.
Magickal Uses: Grow passionflower in your home to promote peace and calm troubles. The passionflower is associated with the Crucufixion, by virtue of the shape of the flowers and the number of its parts, although it was assuredly not known in Biblical times. Relaxing. Attracts new friends and greater popularity.
Passionvine - see Passionflower
Patchouly
Magickal Uses: Money, love, fertility, sex, physical energy.
Pau D'Arco
Medicinal Uses: Cancer, leukemia, tumors, yeast infection.
Pecan
Magickal Uses: To insure you don’t lose your job, get a small amount of pecans. Shell them and while eating, visualize yourself working and enjoying your job. Put a small amount of the shells at work where they won’t be found or removed.
Pennyroyal, Mosquito Plant, Pudding Grass, Tickweed
Latin Name: Mentha pulegium (European); Hedeoma pulegoides (American)
Parts Used: Leaves and flowers
Cultivation: European pennyroyal is a perennial, hardy to zone 5, that prefers rich, moist, slightly acidic humous in full sun to part shade. American pennyroyal is a hardy annual growing in average dry soil in full sun.
Medicinal Uses: Pennyroyal is an extremely effective abortifacient; however, the effective dose is also a toxic amount.It is used mostly as an insect repellent and is very effective against fleas, mosquitos, and ticks. Cautions: NEVER take pennyroyal internally except under direct medical supervision. It should NEVER be used by pregnant women.
Magickal Uses: Pennyroyal protects against the evil eye, prevents weariness while travelling, and promotes peace. Use for love and funerals.
Pepper
Latin Name: Piper negrum
Parts Used: Dried peppercorns
Cultivation: Pepper comes from a tropical shrub.
Culinary Uses: Pepper is a popular seasoning, second only to salt in its widespread use. Avoid the preground pepper and grind your peppercorns when you use them for added flavor. Black and white pepper are the two most common forms; they come from the same plant but are prepared differently. White pepper has its outer skin removed before drying; it has a milder flavor. There are also "gourmet" peppers available in an increasingly wider range of colors, each with a slightly different flavor. Use whole peppercorns in marinades; grind them for use in just about everything else.
Magickal Uses: Pepper protects against the evil eye. Mix it with salt and scatter throughout your house to dispel evil. Promotes courage.
Peppermint
Magickal Uses: Works slowly for drawing money, purification, love, healing. Annoint sleep pillows for restful dreams.
Periwinkle
Magickal Uses: Funerals.
Persil - see Parsley
Perceley - see Parsley
Petitgrain
Magickal Uses: Protection.
Petroselinum crispum - Latin name for Parsley
Phoradendrom scrotinum - Latin name for Mistletoe
Phytolacca americana - Latin name for Pokeweed
Pimpinella Anisum - see Anise
Pine
Magickal Uses: Smolder for money, purification, healing, exorcism, protection, success, consecration, house blessing, funerals.
Piper negrum - Latin name for Pepper
Plantain
Magickal Uses: House blessing.
Poke Root - see Pokeweed
Pokeweed, Crowberry, Inkberry, Poke Root
Latin Name: Phytolacca americana
Parts Used: Root
Cultivation: Pokeweed is a very hardy perennial shrub. It likes moist humous in full sun to part shade. It is rarely cultivated, as the whole plant tends to give off a nasty smell.
Medicinal Uses: Pokeweed is used to stimulate the lymphatic system and treat tonsillitis, mastitis, and mumps. Use it externally to treat skin disorders. Cautions: All parts of the fresh plant are toxic, as are the dried berries. It can cause fetal abnormalities if used during pregnancy.
Magickal Uses: Sprinkle an infusion of pokeweed around the house to break hexes. Crush the berries and use their juice as a magickal ink.
Polygonum Bistorta - Latin name for Bistort
Poplar
Magickal Uses: Funerals. Also add the buds and leaves to flying ointments to facilitate astral projection. Sometimes used as an ointment.
Pot Marjoram - see Marjoram
Pudding Grass - see Pennyroyal
Pulmeria
Magickal Uses: Love.
Purple Coneflower - see Coneflower
Psychotria ipecacuanha - Latin name for Ipecacuanha
Queen Elizabeth Root - see Orris
|
