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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
    Pimpinella anisum

    Anise

    Anise is an annual herb of the carrot family, Apiaceae, whose homeland is south-west Asia and the eastern Mediterranean, growing two to three feet tall. Its lowest leaves are simple and shallowly lobed, the upper ones finely cut and feathery; small white or yellow flowers crowd into umbels and give way to the small ribbed fruits known as aniseed. Their sweet, liquorice-like flavour goes into sweets, cakes and drinks such as ouzo, sambuca, pastis, raki and arak. It was first grown in the Middle East and has been farmed in Egypt for some four thousand years; Dioscorides and Pliny knew it, and in Virgil's day it was already a spice. Romans closed a rich meal, and sometimes a wedding feast, with a spiced cake containing it, and the seeds were once taken in part payment of taxes. Theophrastus held that seeds kept by the bed brought sweet dreams, the Romans laid a sprig by the pillow against bad ones, and in medieval England it was believed to turn aside the evil eye. In magic a little pillow stuffed with the seeds keeps nightmares away, the herb goes into protection and meditation incenses, the seed into purification baths, and fresh leaves set about a room or round a magic circle drive off evil.

    Caution

    AHPA safety class 1. Allergic reactions have been reported, among them occupational asthma, a case of eye and nose symptoms with stomach upset, and swelling of the tongue. Some herbals advise against taking it internally in pregnancy; AHPA records that infusions may be used then, but not alcohol extracts or the essential oil. Safety while nursing is not established.

    The Oil form carries its own caution; the ingredient's page shows it.

    Forms

    • Leaf
    • Oil
    • Seed

    Correspondences

    Elements
    Air
    Celestial Bodies
    Jupiter, Mars, Mercury
    Zodiac Signs
    Gemini, Leo, Pisces
    Deities
    Apollo (Greek), Hecate (Greek), Hermes (Greek), Mercury (Roman)

    Folk Names

    • Aniseed
    • Aniseseed
    • Anix
    • Anneys
    • Sweet Cumin
    • Yanisin

    Categories

    • Banishing
    • Divination
    • Dream Work
    • Love
    • Prophecy
    • Protection
    • Psychic Work
    • Purification
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