Herbs ~ Bay & Juniper
by Amethyst
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Some time ago BAY and JUNIPER were written about, but only briefly. So I've decided to write about them both this month to give you a little more information about them.
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BAY
Botanical
Name: Laurus nobilis
Planetary
associations: Sun
Zodiac
associations: Leo
Element:
Fire
Gender:
Masculine
Magickal
classifications: Greene
Herbe, Herbe of Love, Magickal Herbe, Religious Herbe, Visionary Herbe
Invocatory:
Aesculapius, Apollo, Ceres, Daphne, Delphi, Eros, Faunus, Fides
Part
Used: Leaves & Berries
Synonyms:
Baie, Bay Laurel, Bay Tree, Daphne, Grecian Laurel, Laurier
d’Apollon, Roman Laurel, Sweet Bay (just to name a few),
The ancient Delphic priestesses chewed bay leaves to induce a prophetic
state, and also inhaled their fumes. This practice without
their years of training would be very dangerous, so don’t do
it!
Grieve ponders that the word bachelor (bachelor degree) is derived from
bacca-laureus. It is believed that wreaths of bay laurel were
used to crown the winning athletes at the first Olympics.
Branches of bay leaves can be woven into a crown and given as a gift at
rituals of initiation.
Bay can be used in clairvoyance and wisdom brews, although it has a
very strong taste, also you can place the leaves under your pillow to
induce prophetic dreams. Bay leaves mixed with sandalwood can
be burned to remove curses & evil spells. For anyone
with writer’s block, how about putting a leaf upon a blank
piece of paper to stimulate yourself.
JUNIPER
Botanical
Name: Juniperus communis
Planetary
associations: Sun, Mars,
Saturn
Zodiac
associations: Aries
Element:
Fire
Gender:
Masculine
Magickal
classifications: Herbe of
Protection, Herbe of Purification, Magickal Herbe, Religious Herbe
Invocatory:
Astarte, Hecate, Mars, Jupiter, Herod, Osiris, Ishtar, the Holy Family
Part
Used: Berries, Leaves, Oil
Synonyms:
Enebro, Gemeiner Wachholder, Gin Berry, Ginepro etc.
Juniper features in one of the most horrific of Grimms' Fairy
Tales.
The Juniper Tree in which a pregnant woman eats
the berries of the juniper tree which grows in the garden of her house,
as a result of which she becomes ill and lives just long enough to give
birth to a son. She is buried beneath the juniper tree and
after a period of mourning the father remarries; in time a daughter is
born and the stepmother becomes jealous, seeking to gain all of the
father's wealth for the daughter. She first physically abuses
and then kills her stepson and feeds his flesh in the form of a stew to
his father. His half-sister collects his bones and lays them
beneath the juniper tree in the garden, below which the boy's mother
had been previously buried. Amidst a magickal mist and flames
the bones are transformed into a bird who is able through his song to
reveal how he was murdered. By singing his song to various
enchanted listeners, he is able to gather to himself the things he
needs to dispense justice. He is clearly intended to be seen
as a magickal bird as his plumage is described as being beautiful and
he is able to lift aloft a huge millstone which he subsequently drops
onto his stepmother and kills her. Once justice has been
dealt out to the stepmother, the bird is transformed once, again into
the child and normality is resumed.
The shamanic initiatory elements within the Grimms' story are
unmistakable. The sequence of events may be summed up as:
initial death (by beheading, ie dismemberment), the return to the
cauldron/womb of transformation (ie the cooking pot), the stripping of
the traveller's flesh from his bones and the consumption of that flesh
by the traveller's life guide/father, the return of the stripped-down
traveller to his ancestors and the world tree, shape-shifting,
subsequent re-integration and return to the normal world. The
evil stepmother and her eventual death are merely late corruptions to
this traditional story so that it would appeal to Christian
morality.
References:
http://www.janih.com/lady/herbs/magick/B.html#bay
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5553814_laurus-nobilis-mystical-uses.html
Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbsby Scott Cunningham
A compendium of Herbal Magick by Paul Beyerl
http://www.silverenchantments.com/Herbs/juniper-berries.html
http://solitarywitch.yuku.com/topic/1437/t/Juniper-Juniperus-communis.html
http://www.flybynightmagick.com/past%20herbs.htm
http://www.janih.com/lady/herbs/magick/J.html#juniper
http://noeolor.wordpress.com/2008/07/04/22/
http://nicholsgardennursery.wordpress.com/2008/06/20/laurus-nobilis-the-true-bay/
http://www.eurofoodtech.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=34
http://www.planfor.fr/buy,juniper-common,1801,354,list,EN,354
