Meet your plant allies
Much of what you will do in your spiritual journey will involve working with plants and plant material. Take some time to get to know the plants around you. These are the easiest and most readily available to you. You can also purchase material from local shops and online sources. But, as with many things in life, you'll get more out of the resources you use if you experience them in their personal settings. To get started, scroll through to any of the herbs listed below for basic information and suggestions on how to use the plant. For more in depth information, check out my books, A Witch's Guide to Wildcraft and Under the Sacred Canopy, available in book stores and online at Llewellyn.com or Amazon.com
BOXWOOD
Boxwood is an evergreen standard in the landscape. English boxwoods are naturally more compact and tidy, even when they grow to 8 feet in height. Their leaves are glossy, small and rounded. American boxwoods are more loose and billowy. The foliage is evergreen, a bit more oval than round and has more of a dull green look to it. Use the leaves in scrying incense and the wood for wanes and runes.
CHERRY
Cherry or Prunus is a tree found both in the wild and in the landscape and grows to 20-30 feet in height. It blooms white in the woods and typically pink or white in the landscape. You can also purchase cherry fruit from a grocery store. Gather the fruit for inks. The cherry pit is used for poppets. The bark is used in love incense.
CHICKWEED
Chickweed grows in a low mound. The first flush of bright green color in the dead of winter could very well be chickweed. The leaves will be hairless, stemless, and rounded to slightly oval in shape. Those star-shaped flowers have five petals that end with a slight split. The plant crops up in lawns, shrub borders, and flower. Chickweed is a moon herb, as you might have guessed by its very watery nature. Chickweed is good for lunar magick as well as for spells to attract or keep a lover. It can also be used in beauty spells.
JUNIPER
Juniper is an herb of the Sun. So many different varieties can be found, from the low growing Blue Pacific juniper to the knee-high Sargents juniper to tree form columns of prickly junipers. Even the tree commonly known as the Virginia red cedar is actually a juniper. The berries, foliage and bark are used in incense for healing, purifying and Sun magick. A tea of the needles can be used as a communal beverage during ritual.
IVY
Ivy (Hedera) protects and heals. Like all vines, it can be used for binding. Typically, it is evergreen and looks a bit like a maple leaf. You can find it growing on buildings and trees everywhere. In European Pagan magick, ivy is considered to be a feminine herb and can be used to honor the Goddess in her many forms.
Oak
Oak, or Quercus, is well known for lending strength to magick. A sun herb (or some say a Jupiter herb), it has been revered by many traditions in countless countries. In the United States, there are over fiftey-eight species of oaks that are native to our country. Because there are so many varieties of oaks, it’s hard to give one set description. The leaves can be simple and lance-shaped, like a willow or live oak, or they can be complex with three or more lobes. To complicate matters a bit more, the lobes can be rounded, like a white oak, or pointed to varying degrees, like a red oak. I can say oaks will likely be one of the tallest trees in the surrounding landscape and the gray to light brown bark is usually textured with small ridges or fissures.
Any part of the oak offers protection against almost anything. Males can use it for potency by carrying an acorn or a talisman made of oak. Anyone can use it in healing spells such as drawing a bath to which oak chips, an acorn, or some oak leaves are added. The wood makes excellent wands or walking staffs.
Oak Galls
POKE
Poke (Phytolacca americana) is ubiquitous in the South. Ruled by Mars, it is a perennial herb. If you can’t lay your hands on any of the traditional banishing or hexing (or unhexing) herbs, this is one you can rely on. The root is the part most often used for this.
The plant brings ground in the spring, often around abandoned fields and roadsides. The leaves are large and lance shaped. By late summer, berries begin to form. In time, these will turn a dark purple and are perfect for making magickal inks.
The question invariably comes up about the toxicity of poke. This plant is not poisonous but care should be taken if you intend to eat it. The leaves are the part generally consumed by people in my area but these have to be boiled repeatedly with fresh water before consuming. I don’t recommend eating the berries. The roots have some medicinal value but only under the supervision of a trained herbalist.
JUNIPER
Oak galls are found on oak trees and are not the same as oak apples. They have the same qualities as oaks - strength, health, protection, etc. Oak galls are thought to lend extra power to any incense or ritual spell. They also embody the energy of the Divine Male. Plus, you can make a durable ink by crushing them, boiling the remnants, straining the liquid, adding iron sulfate and a bit of gum arabic.