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Reference

Compendium

Ingredients for spellwork: their formal and folk names, categories, deities and forms, with the sources behind them.

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    313 ingredients

    313 ingredients

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    Botanical Name
    Anemone hepatica

    Liverwort

    Liverwort here is the common hepatica, a small herbaceous perennial of the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, native to woodland in the temperate Northern Hemisphere. It stands only five to fifteen centimetres high, its leaves and flowers rising straight from a rhizome rather than from a stem above ground. The fleshy, three-lobed leaves are dark green with whitish streaks above and violet or reddish brown beneath, and they stay green through the winter. It is also known under the genus Hepatica, as Hepatica nobilis, but phylogenetic studies indicate that the hepaticas belong within Anemone. In Japan, where it is called yukiwarisō, the snow-breaking plant, it is celebrated at winter flower festivals and appears often in nineteenth-century art, and as Hepatica nobilis it holds the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Ethnobotanical records cited in the AHPA handbook describe its traditional use as a contraceptive, for pain during pregnancy, for absent menstruation and to bring on labour. Cunningham's entry notes that in England the name liverwort is given to another plant, Peltigera canina. In magical practice it is a love herb: a woman is said to secure a man's love by keeping liverwort in a sachet about her at all times.

    Caution

    Not for use in pregnancy except under a qualified practitioner's supervision (AHPA safety class 2b; Cunningham's pregnancy code), as it was traditionally used as a contraceptive and to bring on labour. In large doses its protoanemonin may irritate the kidneys and urinary tract, and the fresh herb can blister the skin; the compound is destroyed when the plant is dried. Its safety while nursing has not been established.

    Forms

    • Herb

    Correspondences

    Elements
    Fire
    Celestial Bodies
    Jupiter

    Folk Names

    • Common Hepatica
    • Edellebere
    • Heart Leaf
    • Herb Trinity
    • Kidneywort
    • Liverleaf
    • Liverweed
    • Pennywort
    • Trefoil

    Categories

    • Love
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