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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
    Angelica archangelica

    Angelica

    Angelica is a tall biennial of the carrot family, Apiaceae, growing wild through the far north of Europe, from Russia and Scandinavia to Greenland, the Faroes and Iceland, always in damp ground near water. In its first year it makes only leaves; in its second a fluted stem rises as high as two and a half metres, carrying round heads of small greenish-yellow flowers. Grown as a vegetable and a medicine since the tenth century and taken up in Sámi cooking, it flavours gin and liqueurs such as Chartreuse and Bénédictine, and its stems are candied. It looks like several poisonous members of its family, so a wild plant must be identified with certainty. Northern European folklore held it a guard against contagion and enchantment. Grieve gives the belief that it blooms on the feast of Michael the Archangel and so keeps off evil spirits and witchcraft, and its old name, Root of the Holy Ghost; Anglo-Saxons wore the root on a string against spells, it shielded cattle from elf shot, Lapland poets were crowned with it, and the Cherokee and Delaware used it against evil spirits. Culpeper placed it under the Sun in Leo. In magic it goes into protection and exorcism incenses, is sprinkled round a house to keep evil out, and in a bath lifts curses and hexes; burning the root breaks a hex and consecrates ritual space.

    Caution

    AHPA safety class 2b: not for use in pregnancy except under the supervision of a qualified healthcare practitioner, because it was traditionally used to bring on menstruation. Safety while nursing is not established. It contains furanocoumarins, which can make skin that touches the plant react more strongly to sunlight, and some sources advise avoiding long exposure to the sun while taking it, though no case of such a reaction from internal use has been found.

    Forms

    • Leaf
    • Root

    Correspondences

    Elements
    Fire
    Celestial Bodies
    Sun
    Zodiac Signs
    Aries, Leo
    Deities
    Venus (Roman)

    Folk Names

    • Archangel
    • European Angelica
    • Garden Angelica
    • Masterwort
    • Norwegian Angelica
    • Root of the Holy Ghost
    • Wild Celery

    Categories

    • Banishing
    • Binding
    • Courage
    • Divination
    • Harmony
    • Healing
    • Inspiration
    • Knowledge
    • Manifestation
    • Peace
    • Protection
    • Strength
    • Success
    See in Compendium