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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
    Piper nigrum

    Black Pepper

    Black pepper is the dried fruit of Piper nigrum, a perennial woody vine of the family Piperaceae native to South or South-east Asia; wild vines still grow in the Western Ghats of India. Climbing trees or poles to about four metres, it carries small flowers on hanging spikes that ripen into strings of small drupes. For black pepper the fruit is picked unripe, scalded briefly and dried until its skin shrinks into a wrinkled black coat; white pepper is the seed alone, stripped of the ripe fruit's flesh. Indian cooks have used it since at least 2000 BCE, and peppercorns were packed into the nostrils of the mummified Ramesses II. Rome imported it in bulk: Kynes describes great storehouses, ornate pots of gold and silver, pepper as far off as Hadrian's Wall, and peppercorns given as presents at Saturnalia. In medieval Europe it stood for wealth and paid dowries and taxes, and the token peppercorn rent survives in law; it was also thought an aphrodisiac. In magic, Cunningham adds it to amulets against the evil eye, wears it to free the mind of envy, and mixes it with salt to scatter round a property against evil. Kynes keeps a few peppercorns with her ritual tools to cleanse them and release old energy, and diffuses the oil in spells for justice or to break out of a rut.

    Caution

    AHPA safety class 1 and interaction class B: piperine, its pungent compound, can raise the body’s uptake of certain drugs, so clinically relevant interactions are plausible. Large doses may irritate the urinary tract, and overdoses can cause burning heat in the abdomen, thirst, vomiting, fever and occasionally convulsions; hives have also been reported. A four-year-old who habitually ate non-food items died after inhaling ground pepper. Animal studies found some anti-implantation activity, and safety while nursing is not established. These cautions concern the larger doses taken as medicine, not pepper used in cooking. Cunningham marks it safe.

    Forms

    • Fruit
    • Oil

    Correspondences

    Elements
    Fire
    Celestial Bodies
    Mars
    Zodiac Signs
    Aries

    Folk Names

    • Common Pepper
    • Peppercorn
    • Piper
    • True Pepper

    Categories

    • Banishing
    • Binding
    • Courage
    • Dream Work
    • Healing
    • Justice
    • Legal Matters
    • Protection
    • Release
    • Strength
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