A Magickal Herball Compleat.pdf - Magicka School

working within the Western Mystery Tradition, often there is a sophisticated set of
olfactory correspondences with desired outcomes to draw upon during ritualistic
work.
As well as helping to get rid of unwanted nebulous energies or enhancing
meditations, incense can have practical concrete applications. Zen Buddhists for
example use a compound containing citronella, a member of the grass family, to
keep away mosquitoes during meditation, whilst at the cathedral of Santiago de
Campostela in Spain, a mixture of hardened plant resins was regularly burnt in the
largest thurible [9] in the world during Medieval and Renaissance times, to purify
the air of the noxious smells of those who had gone on pilgrimage.
Embodiment
Another way in which plants or plant products are incorporated into ritual is when
it is believed that they actually contain the deity being worked with. This is most
famously evident within Eastern and Western Catholicism, where Christ is
considered to be present in the bread and wine of Holy Communion. This kind of
belief, though, is not just confined to Christians. Many Wiccans, for example,
believe that deity is immanent within nature; that is they believe that the God and
the Goddess are present in all things. Given this, everything present within a
Witch’s ritual is infused with the Divine and this, of course, includes any herb or
plant worked with, as well as the chalice of wine and the cakes and ale used at the
end of a ceremony, which are, of course, plant by-products.
Plants that Alter the Mind
"Were such things here as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten on the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner?"
Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3
Please Note: I do not recommend or condone using mind-altering plants or plant
by-products (including those that are perfectly legal to purchase [10]) and this
section is for informational purposes only. It is as well to bear in mind that a
number of these plants can cause death.
Many plants have mind-altering properties usually caused by a variety of alkaloidal
compounds. These range from well-known hallucinogens like Amanita muscaria,
also known as fly agaric or magic mushroom, which contains muscimol, to opiates
such as Mitragina speciosa or kratom, containing 7-hydroxymitragynine. But there
are many plants that, perhaps unexpectedly, have effects on the mind like
buttercup and catnip [11]. For most of human history, the effect of chemicals on
the brain has been poorly understood and explained in a variety of magickal and
religious terms. Some have seen that plants contain a particular spirit, demi-god or
god and that when ingested, or smoked and inhaled, the spirit becomes as one
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