In the session we completed Plant Lore and started Dragons.

1/. Plant Lore

i/. Fern/Bracken

Has protective powers against evil, storms.  Protective amulets could be made from the dried and treated root of the Male Fern dug up on Midsummer Eve, a ritual had to be properly followed.  These looked like hands.

This led us to a rather gruesome side topic of healing and protective hands. There were gifted healers who could heal by touch.  These healing powers also applied to dead hands, which were best obtained from an executed person, a hand from the ordinary dead could be used but were not as powerful.  The ‘Hand of Glory’ was a charm used in the United Kingdom and most of Europe by sorcerers or occultists.  Cut from a criminal body and dried and pickled until hard it could be used as a holder for a candle made from dead man’s fat and other things, which had the power to stupefy any person who sees it, as if dead and unable to move, so was used as protection.

According to Nicholas Culpeper Adder’s tongue fern cures snake bites, ailments of the tongue, cuts & wounds, sore eyes, stomach aches & toothache

Fern seeds (bracken spores) will bring good luck, find hidden treasure, detect veins of gold, aid fertility, foretell marriage etc.  if collected following a strict ritual on Midsummer Eve, these could not be collected by hand, a hazel rod had to be used.

ii/.  St John’s Wort

It has been used as a treatment for various ills for a very long time and its name is now associated with St John the Baptist, a Christian church reference.

Nicholas Culpepper believed it was a treatment for fevers & palsy, bruises, wounds, vomiting, bleeding, internal obstructions, melancholy & madness, and to get rid of intestinal worms.

If collected in the proper way on Midsummer Eve it would foretell marriage.

iii/.  Mandrake (Mandragora)

There are a lot of legends about it.  It has physical attributes which can make it look like a crude human figure.

Nicholas Culpepper thought it looked like a carrot/parsnip.  He thought the leaves could be used in ointments and other applications and the dried root could be used as an emetic.

According to folklore it is a dangerous plant that screams when it is pulled up causing the person to drop dead or go quite mad. One could use a hungry dog to pick the mandrake by tying a thread to the loosened mandrake and then to the dog, putting some meat by it, letting the dog loose and running. The dog would pull out the mandrake and it would be the dog that died.

The dried root was said to promote fertility, cure insomnia, to relieve pain and promote visions.

2/. Dragons

Prominent in Britain and large parts of the world.

The terms dragon, worm and Serpent are interchangeable.  They can be composite beasts, with scales, legs, snake like, forked tails with optional wings and are formidable.  Found by or closely associated with water, seas, rivers, lakes, bottom of wells, caves, dens in woods, high ground.

They were not always hostile to humans, in the East they are associated with good luck and prosperity, the New Year Dragon in China and Japan.

In western lore they are mostly hostile to people.  We started to look at why there were so many stories in the folklore and why there was a split between eastern and western folklore.

Last Updated on March 15, 2024