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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

    NewCaution
    Botanical Name
    Centaurea benedicta

    Blessed Thistle

    Blessed thistle is an annual, thistle-like member of the daisy family, native to the Mediterranean parts of Europe and to western and central Asia, and introduced elsewhere, where it is often a noxious weed. It sprawls rather than standing upright, reaching about 60 centimetres, with reddish stems, leathery, hairy leaves edged in small spines, and pale yellow flowerheads wrapped in spiny bracts; the whole plant wears a light down. Grieve says the name came from its fame as a heal-all, thought able even to cure the plague, and English plague treatises praised it. In Much Ado About Nothing Margaret prescribes distilled Carduus Benedictus to Beatrice, punning on Benedick. Culpeper calls it a herb of Mars under Aries. Herbalists gave it as a bitter tonic and to bring on sweating in fevers, and Grieve records the warm infusion as a favourite for increasing a nursing mother's milk, a use Wikipedia notes has no scientific support; Northcote calls its medicinal virtues discredited. It is also a flavouring in alcoholic drinks. In magic Cunningham has it worn to protect against evil, added to purifying baths and used in spells to break hexes.

    Caution

    AHPA safety class 1. Allergic reactions have been reported, and anyone allergic to other daisy-family plants, such as feverfew or echinacea, should take care, since cross-reactions are common. Large doses, above about 5 g to a cup of tea, can upset the stomach and bring on vomiting. Cunningham marks it as not to be taken in pregnancy; AHPA finds safety in pregnancy and nursing not established.

    Forms

    • Herb

    Correspondences

    Elements
    Fire
    Celestial Bodies
    Mars
    Zodiac Signs
    Aries
    Deities
    Pan (Greek)

    Folk Names

    • Blessed Knapweed
    • Holy Thistle
    • Spotted Thistle
    • St. Benedict's Thistle

    Categories

    • Hex-Breaking
    • Protection
    • Purification
    See in Compendium