https://margauxcrump.com Margaux Crump Sun, 19 May 2024 00:30:56 +0000 https://margauxcrump.com en https://margauxcrump.com/Threshold-video Tue, 14 Feb 2023 17:19:43 +0000 Margaux Crump https://margauxcrump.com/Threshold-video Margaux Crump https://margauxcrump.com/Featured-Projects Tue, 14 Feb 2023 17:19:43 +0000 Margaux Crump https://margauxcrump.com/Featured-Projects <img width="1333" height="2000" width_o="1333" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/25de96563dc713ac6b3b80f39fe435dc1743ca545e23cc79d3c93b71859f640e/Margaux-Crump_Listening-Technology.jpg" data-mid="168414323" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/25de96563dc713ac6b3b80f39fe435dc1743ca545e23cc79d3c93b71859f640e/Margaux-Crump_Listening-Technology.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1125" width_o="2000" height_o="1125" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/47bcebccf2a1530876001d2a44b2927f1edf94a0c417d0e716fc2a7a129bcae0/Margaux-Crump_Grafts_02.jpg" data-mid="168414322" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/47bcebccf2a1530876001d2a44b2927f1edf94a0c417d0e716fc2a7a129bcae0/Margaux-Crump_Grafts_02.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="2000" width_o="1333" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/39c1f7c7c22e4d31d32505e91f7cef38fd37f8c5268b285d61f0f98ea4645e2a/Margaux-Crump_For-Release_lo-res.jpg" data-mid="168414320" border="0" alt="An image of a lit black candle atop a baroque column of black dripped wax. The column is supported by a glass candlestick standing in a large glass Petri dish filled with water. For Release is the physical artifact of a ritual Margaux Crump performed to release her fears." data-caption="An image of a lit black candle atop a baroque column of black dripped wax. The column is supported by a glass candlestick standing in a large glass Petri dish filled with water. For Release is the physical artifact of a ritual Margaux Crump performed to release her fears." src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/39c1f7c7c22e4d31d32505e91f7cef38fd37f8c5268b285d61f0f98ea4645e2a/Margaux-Crump_For-Release_lo-res.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1334" width_o="2000" height_o="1334" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/13a0a2e8b35ae7a71abd24b5fd9f65187de4a658671dbb6de6752f8987c83868/Margaux-Crump_Rock-Hard-Objects_01-web.jpg" data-mid="168414321" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/13a0a2e8b35ae7a71abd24b5fd9f65187de4a658671dbb6de6752f8987c83868/Margaux-Crump_Rock-Hard-Objects_01-web.jpg" /> <img width="1826" height="1218" width_o="1826" height_o="1218" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/140795c09c445d9119fc058af5d3c247b57a326b34e41d749c4f9c99db720c9f/Margaux-Crump_Gathering_detail_1.jpg" data-mid="168414324" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/140795c09c445d9119fc058af5d3c247b57a326b34e41d749c4f9c99db720c9f/Margaux-Crump_Gathering_detail_1.jpg" /> <img width="4676" height="4676" width_o="4676" height_o="4676" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bc0ba3e664fb4de1ecef47507ce90236b4394b000935063c9fd0be56cf64f266/Spells-for-Protection_01.jpg" data-mid="168414325" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bc0ba3e664fb4de1ecef47507ce90236b4394b000935063c9fd0be56cf64f266/Spells-for-Protection_01.jpg" /> https://margauxcrump.com/Artwork Tue, 14 Feb 2023 17:19:45 +0000 Margaux Crump https://margauxcrump.com/Artwork <img width="2000" height="1125" width_o="2000" height_o="1125" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/47bcebccf2a1530876001d2a44b2927f1edf94a0c417d0e716fc2a7a129bcae0/Margaux-Crump_Grafts_02.jpg" data-mid="168414330" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/47bcebccf2a1530876001d2a44b2927f1edf94a0c417d0e716fc2a7a129bcae0/Margaux-Crump_Grafts_02.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="2000" width_o="1333" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/25de96563dc713ac6b3b80f39fe435dc1743ca545e23cc79d3c93b71859f640e/Margaux-Crump_Listening-Technology.jpg" data-mid="168414331" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/25de96563dc713ac6b3b80f39fe435dc1743ca545e23cc79d3c93b71859f640e/Margaux-Crump_Listening-Technology.jpg" /> <img width="1826" height="1218" width_o="1826" height_o="1218" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/140795c09c445d9119fc058af5d3c247b57a326b34e41d749c4f9c99db720c9f/Margaux-Crump_Gathering_detail_1.jpg" data-mid="168414332" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/140795c09c445d9119fc058af5d3c247b57a326b34e41d749c4f9c99db720c9f/Margaux-Crump_Gathering_detail_1.jpg" /> <img width="4676" height="4676" width_o="4676" height_o="4676" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bc0ba3e664fb4de1ecef47507ce90236b4394b000935063c9fd0be56cf64f266/Spells-for-Protection_01.jpg" data-mid="168414336" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bc0ba3e664fb4de1ecef47507ce90236b4394b000935063c9fd0be56cf64f266/Spells-for-Protection_01.jpg" /> <img width="1140" height="2000" width_o="1140" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/af9687a313bf37a22689289b28d40ef8b833a273da2ce802f138230c27242a8e/Margaux-Crump_Death.png" data-mid="168818359" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/af9687a313bf37a22689289b28d40ef8b833a273da2ce802f138230c27242a8e/Margaux-Crump_Death.png" /> <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f0584e52a071a024f50209d926792f436c7f9cb986fd44d0c558a1513feaeb67/Jake-Eshelman-Margaux-Crump-Echoes-of-the-Witch-13.jpg" data-mid="168559013" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f0584e52a071a024f50209d926792f436c7f9cb986fd44d0c558a1513feaeb67/Jake-Eshelman-Margaux-Crump-Echoes-of-the-Witch-13.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1334" width_o="2000" height_o="1334" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/257371648df477da6302c78e3199eca73a52192aa517a1ca179242c41ed04377/Margaux-Crump_Parting-Gift_3-copy.jpg" data-mid="168414333" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/257371648df477da6302c78e3199eca73a52192aa517a1ca179242c41ed04377/Margaux-Crump_Parting-Gift_3-copy.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/eab0d627895d3638ef7133fddd30a20d1ee9f4534f0a102b23608ad5d59cbe41/Margaux-Crump_For-Seeing-Neither-Here-Nor-Elsewhere_in-use.jpg" data-mid="168414335" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/eab0d627895d3638ef7133fddd30a20d1ee9f4534f0a102b23608ad5d59cbe41/Margaux-Crump_For-Seeing-Neither-Here-Nor-Elsewhere_in-use.jpg" /> <img width="1626" height="2900" width_o="1626" height_o="2900" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/60078a094df7bad190b688687947494585639db06c6151f5ccbecd7b8734ec1d/Quantum-thumb_crump.png" data-mid="169704066" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/60078a094df7bad190b688687947494585639db06c6151f5ccbecd7b8734ec1d/Quantum-thumb_crump.png" /> <img width="1181" height="3000" width_o="1181" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e658b8e42fe0c0208d96b9b1e9f31486ad0f5561e0d9cbeb78efdb82fa5f5c5d/In-Bloom.jpg" data-mid="168414339" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e658b8e42fe0c0208d96b9b1e9f31486ad0f5561e0d9cbeb78efdb82fa5f5c5d/In-Bloom.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1502" width_o="2000" height_o="1502" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4174eaadf211e0d9be6d3e87bc9f5e6cb9fa95311c79656d041dc183a5891c3a/Stilled-Chimera_08.jpg" data-mid="168414343" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4174eaadf211e0d9be6d3e87bc9f5e6cb9fa95311c79656d041dc183a5891c3a/Stilled-Chimera_08.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="1250" width_o="2500" height_o="1250" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b55c1fe76c6db259e1d97bc8de17fded070089931ca0029b91e299cb9d473f75/Can-You-Hear-Me-Now_objects_web.jpg" data-mid="192763294" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b55c1fe76c6db259e1d97bc8de17fded070089931ca0029b91e299cb9d473f75/Can-You-Hear-Me-Now_objects_web.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1334" width_o="2000" height_o="1334" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/13a0a2e8b35ae7a71abd24b5fd9f65187de4a658671dbb6de6752f8987c83868/Margaux-Crump_Rock-Hard-Objects_01-web.jpg" data-mid="168414329" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/13a0a2e8b35ae7a71abd24b5fd9f65187de4a658671dbb6de6752f8987c83868/Margaux-Crump_Rock-Hard-Objects_01-web.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="2000" width_o="2000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9ffbfdbe66dc311595f1ea3dd9b3fc737ffa7316c23756c53f1ba8586e5ae162/14_Margaux-Crump_Smells-for-Protection.jpg" data-mid="192760360" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9ffbfdbe66dc311595f1ea3dd9b3fc737ffa7316c23756c53f1ba8586e5ae162/14_Margaux-Crump_Smells-for-Protection.jpg" /> <img width="1333" height="2000" width_o="1333" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/39c1f7c7c22e4d31d32505e91f7cef38fd37f8c5268b285d61f0f98ea4645e2a/Margaux-Crump_For-Release_lo-res.jpg" data-mid="168414328" border="0" alt="An image of a lit black candle atop a baroque column of black dripped wax. The column is supported by a glass candlestick standing in a large glass Petri dish filled with water. For Release is the physical artifact of a ritual Margaux Crump performed to release her fears." data-caption="An image of a lit black candle atop a baroque column of black dripped wax. The column is supported by a glass candlestick standing in a large glass Petri dish filled with water. For Release is the physical artifact of a ritual Margaux Crump performed to release her fears." src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/39c1f7c7c22e4d31d32505e91f7cef38fd37f8c5268b285d61f0f98ea4645e2a/Margaux-Crump_For-Release_lo-res.jpg" /> <img width="1692" height="2303" width_o="1692" height_o="2303" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8749f2e3cd9044df795f87d94286021e997e663d73a03dd3a71a32286c0ab4cc/Margaux-Crump_What-the-Stone-Saw_3.jpg" data-mid="210152579" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8749f2e3cd9044df795f87d94286021e997e663d73a03dd3a71a32286c0ab4cc/Margaux-Crump_What-the-Stone-Saw_3.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="1705" width_o="2500" height_o="1705" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c1d7271f11c8f8d14494331760f48eebcca3a7954218dfa821701ea971c5c359/Margaux-Crump_As-Above-So-Below_dipytch.png" data-mid="210384015" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c1d7271f11c8f8d14494331760f48eebcca3a7954218dfa821701ea971c5c359/Margaux-Crump_As-Above-So-Below_dipytch.png" /> <img width="2000" height="1335" width_o="2000" height_o="1335" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8881265eddb87fb1c1b7f89584deaffb8a85f663246ed296e98061fd59f0266f/Margaux-Crump_You-excite-me-the-way-your-gaze-touches-my-body_01.jpg" data-mid="168414342" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8881265eddb87fb1c1b7f89584deaffb8a85f663246ed296e98061fd59f0266f/Margaux-Crump_You-excite-me-the-way-your-gaze-touches-my-body_01.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1334" width_o="2000" height_o="1334" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a27dcebc4f8d50031d7e39c43e6c4aa68f02eb66150e500d67c0f536bbb42548/I-fell-for-you_Detail_03.jpg" data-mid="168414337" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a27dcebc4f8d50031d7e39c43e6c4aa68f02eb66150e500d67c0f536bbb42548/I-fell-for-you_Detail_03.jpg" /> https://margauxcrump.com/Consultations Tue, 14 Feb 2023 17:19:46 +0000 Margaux Crump https://margauxcrump.com/Consultations <img width="2500" height="969" width_o="2500" height_o="969" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/610920bdd8bc6a7b9939d848cf7efda6d178e548c1c6d0ff150e2981e81b2765/Margaux-Crump_Tarot-Process-2.jpg" data-mid="169225733" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/610920bdd8bc6a7b9939d848cf7efda6d178e548c1c6d0ff150e2981e81b2765/Margaux-Crump_Tarot-Process-2.jpg" /> Tarot, Astrology, and Creativity Consultations We are all gifted with the magic to re-imagine, re-story, and re-dream our journeys. Working with tarot, astrology, and the creative process, I offer supportive, confidential consultations that provide guidance, encourage self-knowledge, and open new pathways in our lives. My relationship to the cards and the night skies draws upon my deep well of artistic, mythological, and magical studies. This knowledge helps me connect the wisdom of ancient symbols and narratives to your present moment. I believe there are no good or bad cards, there is love in every planet, and all the archetypes offer teachings—if we choose to receive them. I approach tarot and astrology as vast collective artworks and as expressions of my studio practice. When we work with the cards and the cosmos, we are making art. Every spread or chart is a new narrative. Every consultation is a collaboration. Together, we’ll explore realms where the invisible becomes visible and you can source the power to co-create your stories with the stars.&nbsp; Offerings Creativity Consultation&nbsp; &nbsp; 60 min | $180&nbsp; &nbsp; BookOur human imagination is a sacred and powerful tool. I teach techniques I use in my own artistic process to stimulate the flow of creativity. Through practices such as bibliomancy, automatic drawing, and imagination journeying, we’ll create a safe and supportive space to explore your inner worlds. This is especially helpful if you’re curious about your creative potential or are experiencing blocks in your creative energy. Each consultation includes an initial discovery call to illuminate your specific situation so we can tailor a custom session that will better support you. Tarot Consultation&nbsp; &nbsp; 60 min | $120&nbsp; &nbsp; BookAn organic session that unfolds uniquely to you and your questions. The spread and cards will naturally evolve as we journey more deeply into your story. Mini Tarot Consultation&nbsp; &nbsp; 30 min | $65&nbsp; &nbsp; BookA three card spread to bring clarity to a single theme or situation in your life. Tarot Archetype Exploration&nbsp; &nbsp; 30 min | $65&nbsp; &nbsp; BookIs there a card that keeps showing up for you? Are you seeking clarity about an archetype that feels mysterious, alluring, or uncomfortable? We’ll journey into the card together to deepen your understanding of the wisdom it holds. Astrological Consultation&nbsp; &nbsp; 60 min | $150 new clients; $125 returning clients&nbsp; &nbsp; BookYour astrological chart is an ecosystem of stories, full of mystical creatures and ancient archetypes. We’ll explore how these tales manifest in your life and how you can consciously work with the energies and resources you always carry with you. This consultation includes your chart preparation. Astrological Follow-up Consultation&nbsp; &nbsp; 30 min | $65&nbsp; &nbsp; BookStarry-eyed after our first cosmic journey? Ready to go down the astrological rabbithole? Follow-ups expand upon what we explored during our initial consultation or can offer a deeper look into a specific topic or planet. Booking a Consultation Please email me using the contact form linked here to schedule a consultation. All sessions meet on online so we can work together wherever you are in the physical world. You can&nbsp;sign up for my newsletter to be informed of in-person workshop opportunities.&nbsp;Please see my Terms &amp; Conditions for my scheduling and cancellation policy. Book a Consultation In Gratitude&nbsp; I am grateful to my many teachers, human and otherwise, who have helped me along my path. I am especially grateful to my mother, Margaret Smithers-Crump, who was my first guide to the imaginal realms and who taught me how to see images as worlds; to Yoav Ben-Dov for igniting my passion for tarot through the understanding that the cards are a collective artwork; and to my dear friend Erika Blumenfeld for her many star whisperings. https://margauxcrump.com/Viriditas-Viola-odorata Thu, 11 Apr 2024 15:22:37 +0000 Margaux Crump https://margauxcrump.com/Viriditas-Viola-odorata Viriditas: Musings on Magical Plants Viola odorata Originally published in Issue 23 of Plantings: The Journal of the World Sensorium/Conservancy <img width="2000" height="914" width_o="2000" height_o="914" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/53d72f14e42f0e1237fb12b0bfd3a3fc31d31d7b5d57a63450f43d5fd31e8475/Margaux-Crump_Violets_2.jpg" data-mid="208792224" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/53d72f14e42f0e1237fb12b0bfd3a3fc31d31d7b5d57a63450f43d5fd31e8475/Margaux-Crump_Violets_2.jpg" /> As winter melts into spring, my thoughts are full of violets. They beckon to me, their vibrant flowers radiating like ultraviolet beacons amongst the early spring greens. As a tea, tonic, syrup, or salad, their verdant sweetness, fresh on my tongue, is rejuvenating after the cold season. Quite simply, violets make me happy. Known for their affinity with the heart, violet’s uplifting and gentle manner has a long magico-medicinal history. While the genus Viola holds over 500 species, historic magical writings most often concern Viola odorata, native to Europe and Asia and known for its ephemeral perfume. The common North American Viola papilionacea and Viola sororia, though less fragrant than Viola odorata, are just as rewarding to work with. <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3ecc0e63b970c438ac29294ade61c2fb912b5c34eb8a4ba6dcd8b3ff68c93b23/Margaux-Crump_Violets_3.jpg" data-mid="208784287" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3ecc0e63b970c438ac29294ade61c2fb912b5c34eb8a4ba6dcd8b3ff68c93b23/Margaux-Crump_Violets_3.jpg" /> Commonly called sweet violet, Viola odorata brings you to your knees. Low growing, they require a shift in perspective to greet them and receive their fragrance. Once your nose is to the ground, violet playfully teases you with a scent that is both intoxicating and elusive; ionone, the chemical responsible for violet’s sweetness, stimulates your olfactory receptors, but quickly inhibits them, temporarily vanishing your sense of smell. A few breaths later and you can sense violet’s perfume anew. Violet is a shameless floral flirt. Considered cooling and moistening, violet has anti-inflammatory, cleansing, and lymphatic properties. It is a well loved herb used in many traditional practices including Greek, Indian, Chinese, and European medicine. Ibn Sina recommended violet for cooling hot coughs and as a gentle purgative;1 Hildegard von Bingen prescribed violet oil for fogginess of the eyes and violet spiced wine for melancholy that affects the lungs;2 Nicholas Culpeper found violet effective in any pains arising from heat and all diseases of the lungs.3 Recent research on V. odorata demonstrates that it can inhibit tumor growth4 and suppress asthmatic coughs.5In the tradition of natural magic, violet is aligned with the planet Venus and all matters of the heart, passion, and desire as personified by the goddess of love. This attribution is usually supported by violet’s heart shaped leaves and seductive scent. Intriguingly, when plotted geocentrically, Venus’ eight-year orbit cycle creates a five-petaled or pentagram pattern, mirrored in violet’s five-petaled flower. Furthering this connection to desire, violet’s springtime chasmogamous flowers readily cross-breed. Etymologically, chasmogamous derives from the Greek words chasma (opening) and gamos (marriage). This propensity to hybridize reflects their open-hearted, venereal spirit. <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0e48adfe94bfeca9948582b58a8b868f5aa564f7c057151a081c6df71e85d101/Margaux-Crump_Violets_5.jpg" data-mid="208784289" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0e48adfe94bfeca9948582b58a8b868f5aa564f7c057151a081c6df71e85d101/Margaux-Crump_Violets_5.jpg" /> Under the power of Venus, Agrippa provides a recipe for a suffumigation with violet to induce divine inspiration and clear sight, but rather than the leaves and flowers, he works with the roots. He details: “...they say that fumes made with Lin-seed, and Flea-bane seed, and roots of Violets, and Parsly, doth make one to fore-see things to come, and doth conduce to prophecying”.6 This recipe is also mentioned in the 13th C Liber Juratus. As we move our gaze underground to the roots of V. odorata, we find violet’s hidden blooms. In the fall, violet produces cleistogamous flowers which remain buried and solely self-pollinate. Etymologically, cleistogamous derives from the Greek words cleistos (closed) and gamos (marriage). Violet’s subterranean self-fertilization complements their aboveground promiscuity and expands how we can understand the power of love. In addition to Venus, violet is also linked to the Virgin Mary and symbolizes purity, chastity, and modesty. This is illuminating when we consider violet’s cleistogamous flowers, that do not open to a partner, as a marriage to oneself. Thus, V. odorata troubles our present conception of virginity to reveal a more ancient understanding of the word. For instance, the Latin virgo means virgin, but it also simply means maiden, and the Greek word for virgin or maiden, parthenos, roots the Latin word parthenogenesis, meaning self-fertilizing. In this sense, virginity transforms into sovereignty and wholeness in one’s self, a system that continues to reproduce without external influence. Through their distinct biology and mythology, violets embody the many manifestations of love—whether of self or others. <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a20fa2a2acb0d1d37bb4b6ff7aee1efdeae7e94a12876e1757f64cf0f6a99d1d/Margaux-Crump_Violets_4.jpg" data-mid="208784288" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a20fa2a2acb0d1d37bb4b6ff7aee1efdeae7e94a12876e1757f64cf0f6a99d1d/Margaux-Crump_Violets_4.jpg" /> Continuing our underworld journey, violets are also known as flowers of the dead and can be used to protect against malefic spirits. According to Homer, Persephone Kore was abducted and taken to Hades while she was picking fragrant narcissus, roses, and violets. There the Kore maiden becomes a chthonic goddess, dread(ed) Persephone,&nbsp;who must spend six months aboveground and six months below. Her myth helps to explain the changing of the seasons, but it also helps us to understand violet’s dynamism and duality. One of the most fruitful ways to understand the power of violet is to cultivate your own personal relationship with them. Something as simple as carefully sitting with an open mind next to where they are growing can provide a wealth of information. How do you feel in their presence? What do you sense in your body? What images, memories, or thoughts appear for you? Another way to meet violet is to incorporate their fresh leaves and flowers in salads or as a garnish on meals. In the spring, I love to apply violet oil after bathing. As a lymphagogue, violet gently revitalizes my system after the quiet lull of winter. If this piques your interest, you can make your own infused oil. First, gather fresh violet in the morning after the dew has evaporated. Allow the flowers and leaves to wilt to help release excess water. You want there to be as little water as possible to prevent mold. Because violet naturally has a higher water content, I prefer to infuse the oil over low heat rather than allowing it to infuse in the sun for several weeks. To begin, brush off any debris and roughly chop your plant material. Place it in a pot. Cover it with your oil of choice (I like jojoba). Heat the oil to around 100–110℉ for a day, leaving the pot uncovered to allow excess moisture to evaporate. Allow the oil to cool and strain out all plant material using a cheesecloth or something similar. You can extend the oil’s longevity by storing it in the refrigerator. Violet oil can be used on the body and as an anointing oil for magical workings. <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d90dfcef094fd0b2662a640a1f7c9a48419bf5e787f2a5e8cbb3bb3eaa51f187/Margaux-Crump_Violets_6.jpg" data-mid="208784290" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d90dfcef094fd0b2662a640a1f7c9a48419bf5e787f2a5e8cbb3bb3eaa51f187/Margaux-Crump_Violets_6.jpg" /> 1&nbsp;Ibn-Sina, Canon of Medicine Book II: Materia Medica, trans. Department of Islamic Studies Hamdard University. (New Dheli: Jamia Hamdard Printing Press, 1998), accessed Apr 15, 2023, https://www.naimh.com/_files/ugd/ee530d_32edca193e5e4e039a0a2e27171c2a65.pdf. 2 Hildegard Von Bingen, &nbsp;Hildegard Von Bingen's Physica: The Complete English Translation of Her Classic Work on Health and Healing, trans. Priscilla Throop. Rochester, VT: Healing Arts Press, 1998. 3 Nicholas Culpeper, Culpeper's Complete Herbal &amp; English Physician. Bedford, MA: Applewood Books, 2007. First published 1653.4 Alipanah H, Bigdeli MR, Esmaeili MA. “Inhibitory Effect of Viola odorata Extract on Tumor Growth and Metastasis in 4T1 Breast Cancer Model,” Iran J Pharm Res. 2018 Winter;17(1):276-291. PMID: 29755559; PMCID: PMC5937098. 5 Qasemzadeh, M., Sharifi, H., Hamedanian, M., Gharehbeglou, M., Heydari, M., &amp; Sardari, M. et al. (2015), “The Effect of Viola odorata Flower Syrup on the Cough of Children with Asthma,” Journal Of Evidence-Based Complementary &amp; Alternative Medicine, 20(4), 287-291, accessed on Apr 15, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1177/2156587215584862.&nbsp; 6 Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy: Book One – Natural Magic, trans. Willis F Whitehead. Chicago: Hahn &amp; Whitehead, 1898. First published 1531. https://margauxcrump.com/Viriditas-Artemisia-vulgaris Fri, 12 Apr 2024 02:29:07 +0000 Margaux Crump https://margauxcrump.com/Viriditas-Artemisia-vulgaris Viriditas: Musings on Magical Plants Viola odorata Originally published in Issue 25 of Plantings: The Journal of the World Sensorium/Conservancy <img width="2500" height="1141" width_o="2500" height_o="1141" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/79c0373b35fa06ef8e4ebaeb0dc6582dab2b0277558d8c63f5ee805d8d9bc1f4/Artemnisia-vulgaris_1_hi-res.jpg" data-mid="208838497" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/79c0373b35fa06ef8e4ebaeb0dc6582dab2b0277558d8c63f5ee805d8d9bc1f4/Artemnisia-vulgaris_1_hi-res.jpg" /> Mugwort is steadfast. It is the first herb I worked with beyond everyday cooking and has been with me ever since. A perennial plant from temperate Europe, Asia, and northern Africa, Artemisia vulgaris has dark green pinnately lobed leaves with distinctive silvery undersides. It is robust and spreads easily by rhizome, tending to grow in large stands where the soil has been disturbed, often with a leggy haphazard habit. When crushed and warmed in the hand, it releases a pungent, herbaceous scent that is revitalizing and opening. To my nose it recalls tarragon, epazote, and eucalyptus. When I inhale it, my shoulders drop and my eyes close. It's a lovely aromatic. A. vulgaris has long been used medicinally and magically, earning it monickers like Mother of Herbs and my personal favorite, Naughty Man. Its genus name, Artemisia, is said to either derive from Queen Artemisia II of Caria, who was a botanist, medical researcher, and naval commander, or from Artemis Ilithyia (Roman Diana), Greek goddess of the hunt, childbirth, and wildlife. The Old English Herbarium notes that, “. . . about the three plants that we call artemisia, it is said that Diana found them and gave knowledge of their power and medicinal value to the centaur Chiron, who was the first to prescribe a medicine using this plant and who named the plant artemisia after Diana.”1 Mugwort’s healing properties were described by early medical writers such as Dioscorides, Galen, and Pliny the Elder, who tell us that it was primarily used for gynecological concerns, countering poison, gastrointestinal ailments, and fatigue. In traditional Chinese medicine, mugwort is ground and burnt in moxibustion, which can dredge meridians and stimulate the flow of qi and blood.”2 Recent research has demonstrated that A. vulgaris relaxes muscle spasms, prevents damage to the liver, relieves pain, and lowers high blood pressure, while also being antibacterial and antifungal.3 As a known emmenagogue, it was regularly employed for menstrual cycle regulation. In the 12th century Trotula, mugwort is recommended for inducing the menstrual cycle and for menopausal symptoms, as well as for uterine prolapse, easing birth, bringing about the after-birth, and encouraging conception.4 On the use of mugwort to induce menstruation, 15th century midwife Jane Sharp echoes the remedies of the Trotula, but in line with the laws of her time, cautions the reader to “. . . do none of these things to women with child, for that will be murder.”5 <img width="2500" height="1667" width_o="2500" height_o="1667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8d33896c3b40f8ec07496ba4cd8f0ce83e8ff7ab66c2c2f920f98beac1214979/Margaux-Crump_Mugwort-prep_2_hi-res.jpg" data-mid="208838499" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8d33896c3b40f8ec07496ba4cd8f0ce83e8ff7ab66c2c2f920f98beac1214979/Margaux-Crump_Mugwort-prep_2_hi-res.jpg" /> Today mugwort is commonly associated with the moon, sleep support, and dreamwork. This connection may be due to Artemis’ syncretization with the lunar goddess Selene. It could also be attributed to mugwort’s psychoactive compounds, such as α-thujone and β-thujone, which may induce vivid dreams.6 But the moon and mugwort were not always so intertwined. Speaking of the correspondences between plants, the stars, and the soul, the 14th century alchemist Paracelsus is said to have mused, “What is Venus, but the Artemisia that grows in your garden?”7 Similarly, Nicholas Culpeper lists mugwort as a venusian plant, which aligns with mugwort’s affinity for the internal reproductive organs and strong relaxant action.8 In the tradition of natural magic, Agrippa distributed mugwort to the astrological sign Libra, ruled by Venus. Like Ficino, he also lists mugwort as a receptor for the influences of the fixed stars Algol, the Goat-star (Capella), the Dog-star (Sirius), a star in the Heart of the Lion, the tail of the lesser Bear, Spica, and the tail of Capricorn.9 One of my favorite magical references to mugwort is found in the Nigon Wyrta Galdor, commonly known as the Nine Herbs Charm (Harley MS 585). Recorded in Old English during the 10th or early 11th centuries, the galdor was meant to be sung directly to the plants and then into the mouth, ears, and wound of the person being healed. As a whole, the spell calls upon a retinue of healing plants, aided by the god Wōden (Odin), to defeat the forces that make us unwell. Mugwort is sung to in the first section below: Remember, Mugwort, what you brought to pass, what you readied, at Regenmeld. You’re called Una, that most ancient plant. You defeat three, you defeat thirty, you defeat venom, you defeat air-illness; you defeat the horror who stalks the land.10 I love that the Nigon Wyrta Galdor portrays mugwort as capable of communication, remembering, and direct action.11 While we cannot assume the Germanic people’s beliefs on the personhood of plants, we can allow the spirit of the spell to bring us into a deeper relationship with the plants in our lives. If you’ve never spoken to a plant, I invite you to explore what might happen when we shift our awareness to see the plants we grow, eat, and walk by as extended kinfolk, or at the very least generally peaceable neighbors. <img width="2500" height="1667" width_o="2500" height_o="1667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/af86b5e20ac614bcf7657794e7edc75154b90de69642dc1499be1ec4f5331c80/Artemnisia-vulgaris_2_hi-res.jpg" data-mid="208838500" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/af86b5e20ac614bcf7657794e7edc75154b90de69642dc1499be1ec4f5331c80/Artemnisia-vulgaris_2_hi-res.jpg" /> Expanding its magical repertoire, Mugwort was also used to protect travelers. Dioscorides notes that, “If anyone has the herb artemisia with him while travelling it dissolves weariness, and if you wear it on your feet it drives away venomous beasts and devils.”12 The Old English Herbarium repeats this and adds that it also “expels demonic possession . . . and turns away the evil eye.”13 An entry in Bald’s Leechbook (Royal MS 12 D XVII) goes a step further, providing harvesting instructions: For a long journey over land, in case he tires, he should take mugwort in hand or put it in his shoe in case he grows weary, and when he wants to take it before the rising of the sun he should say these words first: ‘I will take you, O mugwort, (so that) I am not tired on the road.’ Make the sign (of the cross) on them when you take them up.14 In my own practice, I like to work with mugwort as smoke for clearing. I find it helpful in opening what is constricted and moving out what is stagnant, both internally and externally. Mugwort’s propensity for intangible clearing is mirrored in its ability to cleanse the body of tangible parasites. Though less effective than the closely related and aptly named wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), both species have demonstrated anthelmintic activity in recent studies.15 One of the ways we can attune to a plant’s esoteric attributes is to observe its morphology and ecologic behavior. We can further sense mugwort’s propensity for clearing in its allelopathic properties. The presence of monoterpenoid compounds concentrated in the soil within and bordering mugwort stands suggests that A. vulgaris releases its own monoterpene herbicide, allowing it to quickly dominate an area.16 In essence, mugwort clears&nbsp;competing plants from the soil where it wants to grow. Artemisia vulgaris is categorized as a noxious weed in many habitats. When possible, please plant the species native to your area or harvest A. vulgaris responsibly where it is growing wild. To help control the spread of Mugwort, harvest the plant in its entirety before it flowers. If you’d like to increase the potency of your harvest, consider harvesting when the moon is in Taurus or Libra, two signs ruled by Venus or follow the advice in Bald’s Leechbook and collect before sunrise. <img width="2500" height="1667" width_o="2500" height_o="1667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c7d8c713b5acad7d3c0f92f7dd0f251ee1b1e88f357be12451a3766124e4fab4/Margaux-Crump_Mugwort-prep_4_hi-res.jpg" data-mid="208838498" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c7d8c713b5acad7d3c0f92f7dd0f251ee1b1e88f357be12451a3766124e4fab4/Margaux-Crump_Mugwort-prep_4_hi-res.jpg" /> Harvesting and Drying A. vulgaris In my garden, I harvest right before the flowers open and just before sunrise. After greeting the plant and asking for permission, I clip stalks about 8–12 inches long, leaving generous foliage at the base of the plant to encourage a robust bushy habit. I then gently shake the stems and lay them on a clean cloth in the shade for a few minutes to encourage insects to leave. From here, I pick out any foliage that is wilted or browning so I have healthy stems for drying. I also check for any creatures who may be hiding so I can remove them and avoid bringing anyone indoors. If you are gathering from a dusty area, follow this by rinsing the stems in cool water and shaking them off. Once inside, I divide my stems into bundles about the diameter of a nickel or a quarter. The key is to make sure there is enough airflow within the foliage for even drying. Using kitchen twine or thin rubber bands, I tie the bundles and hang them from a drying rack or an upper kitchen cabinet knob. Mugwort dries beautifully in bundles hanging upside down. Once dry, the leaves have myriad uses, but I mostly find myself burning the loose leaves for smoke cleansing or brewing them as a digestive tea. 1 Anne Van Arsdall, Medieval Herbal Remedies: The Old English Herbarium and Anglo-Saxon Medicine (United Kingdom: Routledge, 2002), 153. 2 Deng H, Shen X, “The mechanism of moxibustion: ancient theory and modern research,” Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2013;2013:379291. doi: 10.1155/2013/379291. Epub 2013 Sep 12. PMID: 24159344; PMCID: PMC3789413. 3 Ekiert H, Pajor J, Klin P, Rzepiela A, Ślesak H, Szopa A, “Significance of Artemisia Vulgaris L. (Common Mugwort) in the History of Medicine and Its Possible Contemporary Applications Substantiated by Phytochemical and Pharmacological Studies,” Molecules, 2020 Sep 25;25(19):4415. doi: 10.3390/molecules25194415. PMID: 32992959; PMCID: PMC7583039.4 Monica H. Green, ed,&nbsp;The Trotula: An English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Women’s Medicine (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002). 5 Jane Sharp,&nbsp;The Midwives Book: Or the Whole Art of Midwifry Discovered (United States: Oxford University Press, USA, 1999),&nbsp; 221. 6 Michael Albert-Puleo, “Mythobotany, Pharmacology, and Chemistry of Thujone-Containing Plants and Derivatives,” Economic Botany 32, no. 1 (1978): 65–74. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4253892. 7 Franz Hartmann,&nbsp;The Life of Philippus Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim Paracelsus - Scholar's Choice Edition (United Kingdom: Creative Media Partners, LLC, 2015), 288. 8 Nicholas Culpeper, Culpeper's Complete Herbal &amp; English Physician (United States: Applewood Books, 2007), 122–123. First published 1653. 9 Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy: Book One – Natural Magic, trans. Willis F Whitehead, (Chicago: Hahn &amp; Whitehead, 1898). First published 1531.&nbsp; 10 Translation by Joseph S. Hopkins for Mimisbrunnr.info, 2020.11 A deeper discussion of relational autonomy and the Nine Herbs Charm can be found in: Matthew Hall, Plants as Persons: A Philosophical Botany (New York: State University of New York Press, 2011) 128–129.12 Dioscorides Pedanius, Tess Anne Osbaldeston, Robert P. A. Wood,&nbsp;De Materia Medica: Being an Herbal with Many Other Medicinal Materials Written in Greek in the First Century of the Common Era (South Africa: Ibidis, 2000), 513. 13 Arsdall, Medieval Herbal Remedies, 152. 14 Conan Turlough Doyle, “Anglo-Saxon Medicine and Disease: A Semantic Approach,” PhD diss., (University of Cambridge, 2017) Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository. doi:10.17863/CAM.14430.15 Caner A., Döşkaya M., Deǧirmenci A., Can H., Baykan Ş., Üner A., Başdemir G., Zeybek U., Gürüz Y., “Comparison of the effects of Artemisia vulgaris and Artemisia absinthium growing in western Anatolia against trichinellosis (Trichinella spiralis) in rats,” Exp. Parasitol. 2008;119:173–179. doi: 10.1016/j.exppara.2008.01.012. 16 Jacob N. Barney, Jed P. Sparks, Jim Greenberg, Thomas H. Whitlow, and Alex Guenther, “Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds from an Invasive Species: Impacts on Plant-Plant Interactions,” Plant Ecology 203, no. 2 (2009): 195–205. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40305728. https://margauxcrump.com/Viriditas-Portulaca-oleracea Tue, 16 Apr 2024 16:02:56 +0000 Margaux Crump https://margauxcrump.com/Viriditas-Portulaca-oleracea Viriditas: Musings on Magical Plants Portulaca oleracea Originally published in Issue 28 of Plantings: The Journal of the World Sensorium/Conservancy <img width="2000" height="910" width_o="2000" height_o="910" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2d9f06d8b200f29d4b95cc66f815b319e640e58e43ac39921b2a7eb78d10ae41/Margaux-Crump_Purslane_01.jpg" data-mid="209080457" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2d9f06d8b200f29d4b95cc66f815b319e640e58e43ac39921b2a7eb78d10ae41/Margaux-Crump_Purslane_01.jpg" /> Excruciating, unprecedented, endless, hellscape: these are some of the words that have been used to describe Houston, Texas this summer as it roasts under a heat dome with record temperatures and extreme drought. While those of us who are able and without roots seek shade and water, much of the usually lush plant life is dead. But sprawling forth from the cracks in the concrete, one little plant is thriving under the scorching sun. Portulaca oleracea, or common purslane, is a resilient succulent with fleshy green leaves and rusty red stems. Radiating outward from a single taproot, purslane adapts to almost any soil and can withstand periods of drought. With adequate rainfall, P. oleracea is bespeckled with little yellow flowers that produce ovoid fruits holding tiny black seeds. Happily gracing unassuming places like sidewalks, roadsides, and parched fields, purslane is often underfoot but rarely acknowledged. Though maligned as a weed by some, purslane is a powerhouse of nutrition, medicine, and magic. <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/67f13fd5d9a1e3222892abc9da8865d79410c0aaa28c9aa7b020bdd937ccf4f2/Margaux-Crump_Purslane_02.jpg" data-mid="209080320" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/67f13fd5d9a1e3222892abc9da8865d79410c0aaa28c9aa7b020bdd937ccf4f2/Margaux-Crump_Purslane_02.jpg" /> P. oleracea is beloved by cultures across the globe and utilized by many traditional medicine systems. Characterized as cooling and moistening, it has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and neuroprotective properties. It soothes coughs, relaxes muscles, aids in wound healing, and lowers cholesterol.1 Known as ma-chi-xian in Chinese, purslane is considered a long-life vegetable praised for its ability to clear heat, resolve toxicity, and ease the intestines.2 Dioscorides shares this assessment, recommending purslane for headaches, inflammation, burning conditions, wounds, and intestinal worms. He also notes that purslane is an anaphrodisiac which “dissolves the hot desire to sexual union.”3 Ibn-Sina echoes this, adding that excessive use may also cause day-blindness.4 Gerard’s Herball and Parkinson’s Theatrum botanicum, sing the same praises of purslane, but Parkinson spices things up a bit, sharing that purslane “juyce also is used with oyle of Roses . . . for blastings by lightening, or planets, and for burnings by Gunpowder, or other wise, as also for womens sore breasts.”5 Surprisingly, Hildegard isn’t a fan, holding that cold, mucus producing purslane “is not profitable for a person to eat.”6 You can’t win them all. <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d318a7d4c8f63a9bf46c1c4d34c753f2857a22e29b982742abdbd90d40a2ad60/Margaux-Crump_Purslane_03.jpg" data-mid="209080321" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d318a7d4c8f63a9bf46c1c4d34c753f2857a22e29b982742abdbd90d40a2ad60/Margaux-Crump_Purslane_03.jpg" /> Purslane is not classically witchy. It flies, for the most part, under the occult radar. It doesn’t have the bite of the baneful herbs brandished in popular media, nor does it have the mass appeal of the kitchen herbs, but it does have a solid and curious magical history making it more than deserving of a second glance on the sidewalk. P. oleracea is commonly aligned with the moon. Lunar herbs are often moist, juicy, succulent, and sometimes salty. Purslane is all these things. In Sylva Sylvarum, Francis Bacon notes, “The Influences of the Moon (most observed) are four; the drawing forth of Heat; the Inducing of Putrefaction; the increase of Moisture; the exciting of the Motions of Spirits.”7 This nicely reflects purslane’s medicinal classification as a cooling and moistening herb used to clear heat. Similarly, purslane’s lunar signature may also be seen in Ibn-Sina’s concern that overuse could induce day blindness, or the inability to see clearly by the light of the sun. The moon governs the night, sleep, and dreams. Purslane was historically worked with to induce sleep and protect dreamers. Ficino includes purslane in a recipe to bring sleep to the sleepless, instructing to “Strew their beds with the leaves of cold plants. Soothe their ears with low songs and sounds. Often moisten their heads with these baths, namely water in which the following have been boiled: bits of poppy; lettuce; purslain; mallows; and leaves of roses, of grapevine, of willow, and of reeds; with the addition of camomile.”8 Interestingly, this is not the only time purslane appears between the sheets. Writing well after Ficino, occult herbalist Paul Sédir notes that when placed in bed, purslane prevents the sleeper from having visions.9 Additionally, Richard Folkard shares how the same practice was “in olden times [...] considered a sure protection against evil spirits.”10 <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c74939f269be59362f84afb294d3da06c8d49d7bd072bf1a53587eeb003cc12a/Margaux-Crump_Purslane_04.jpg" data-mid="209080322" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c74939f269be59362f84afb294d3da06c8d49d7bd072bf1a53587eeb003cc12a/Margaux-Crump_Purslane_04.jpg" />One of the earliest magical references to purslane is found within the Greek Magical Papyri, in a section translating the cryptonyms used by scribes in sacred writings to hide the identities of herbs from the masses. Purslane’s codename is revealed to be “Blood of Ares,” and Ares, the dreaded Greek god of war akin to the fiery Roman god Mars, is quite unlike the cool, watery moon.11 Yet perhaps you only receive the name Blood of Ares if you are fierce enough to survive on the burning pavement during a Houston summer. Intriguingly, purslane’s survival instinct emerges under the moonlight. Purslane’s specialized physiology enables it to thrive in hot, dry conditions by switching from daytime C4 photosynthesis to nighttime CAM crassulacean acid metabolism.12 During CAM photosynthesis, in an effort to conserve moisture, purslane only opens its stomata to trap carbon dioxide at night. The carbon dioxide is converted first into malic acid and then during daylight into glucose for storage. This allows the plant to retain its water in the harshest circumstances.From a nutritional standpoint, purslane packs a sour punch. The presence of malic acid gives it a distinct tart flavor and it contains a wide variety of essential proteins, antioxidants, and metabolites that support everyday health.13 More specifically, purslane offers particularly high concentrations of potassium, magnesium, and calcium, as well as generous amounts of many other beneficial nutrients.14 Purslane is also a considerable herbal rarity as it’s an excellent source for immune-boosting omega-3 fatty acids that are typically only found in fish oil.15 While some of the early herbal texts privilege purslane seeds over the greens, the entire plant is edible and I love the juicy tang of fresh purslane leaves in the summer. If you can gently pinch the stem off with your fingers, it is also tender enough to eat raw with the leaves. The older stems may be fibrous, but they cook nicely. As with okra, purslane is mucilaginous and may become slimy when heated. If you aren’t a fan of gooey greens, I recommend enjoying purslane in salads or as a garnish. <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c3c6afa8c24fabdb9a852f8d71b97ab5e8ff19bfe87bc6676f026546e21c908e/Margaux-Crump_Purslane_05.jpg" data-mid="209080323" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c3c6afa8c24fabdb9a852f8d71b97ab5e8ff19bfe87bc6676f026546e21c908e/Margaux-Crump_Purslane_05.jpg" /> When it’s sweltering out, one of my favorite ways to eat purslane is in watermelon salad with salty feta, crunchy cucumbers, and fresh herbs. Simply chop the watermelon and cucumbers and place them in a large bowl. Add crumbled feta and torn herbs like basil and mint, along with a handful of purslane greens. To make the dressing, whisk good quality olive oil, lime juice, and salt in a small bowl and then drizzle it over the salad and gently toss. It’s a quick and flexible recipe that can be altered to taste. You can substitute stone fruit like nectarines or cherries for the melon, chevre could stand in for feta, and radish and red onion would be nice additions. Sadly, there can be too much of a good thing. Like spinach and sorrel, purslane contains oxalic acid, which can impede your body’s ability to absorb nutrients and increase the likelihood of kidney stones. To minimize these risks, I keep my portions on the smaller side and enjoy purslane with calcium rich foods, which bind to oxalates during digestion. Or if the taste of purslane is just not your thing, you can always take a cue from Pliny who attests that purslane’s beneficial properties are magically transferable by wearing the plant as an amulet around your neck.16 1 V Ghorani, S Saadat, MR Khazdair, Z Gholamnezhad, H El-Seedi, MH Boskabady. “Phytochemical Characteristics and Anti-Inflammatory, Immunoregulatory, and Antioxidant Effects of Portulaca oleracea L.: A Comprehensive Review.” Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : eCAM, 2023, 2075444. https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/2075444 2 Chinese Herbal Medicine. Materia Medica, trans. Dan Bensky, Steven Clavey, and Erich Stöger, 3rd ed. (Seattle: Eastland Press, 2004) 191-3. 3 Dioscorides Pedanius, T. A. Osbaldeston, and R. P. A. Wood, De Materia Medica: Being an Herbal with Many Other Medicinal Materials: Written in Greek in the First Century of the Common Era: a New Indexed Version in Modern English (Johannesburg: IBIDIS, 2000), 272-5.4 Ibn-Sina, Canon of Medicine Book II: Materia Medica, trans. Department of Islamic Studies Hamdard University. (New Dheli: Jamia Hamdard Printing Press, 1998), accessed Sep 15, 2023, https://www.naimh.com/_files/ugd/ee530d_32edca193e5e4e039a0a2e27171c2a65.pdf. 5 John Parkinson, Theatrum Botanicum: the Theater of Plants. Or an Universall and Compleate Herball, (London: Tho. Cotes, 1640) 722-4. 6 Hildegard Von Bingen, Hildegard Von Bingen's Physica: The Complete English Translation of Her Classic Work on Health and Healing, trans. Priscilla Throop, (Rochester: Healing Arts Press, 1998) 44. 7 Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: Or, A Natural History in Ten Centuries, (London: William Rawley D.D., 1683) 192, https://dlc.mpg.de/fulltext/-/226/. 8 Carol V. Kaske and John R. Clark, eds. trans., Marsilio Ficino / Three books on life; A Critical Edition and Translation with Introduction and Notes, (Binghamton: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, State University of New York at Binghamton, 1989) 157-8. 9 Paul Sédir, Les Plantes Magiques, (Paris: Chacornac, 1902) 165. 10 Richard Folkard, Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics : Embracing the Myths, Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-lore of the Plant Kingdom, (London: S. Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1884) 508.11 Hans Dieter Betz, ed. The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986) 168.12 R.C. Ferrari, B.C. Cruz, V.D. Gastaldi, et al. “Exploring C4–CAM plasticity within the Portulaca oleracea complex.” Scientific Reports 10, 14237 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71012-y 13 A Kumar, S Sreedharan, A.K. Kashyap, P Singh, N Ramchiary, “A review on bioactive phytochemicals and ethnopharmacological potential of purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.)” Heliyon, 8 (Jan 2021) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08669 14 M.K. Uddin, A.S. Juraimi, M.S. Hossain, M.A. Nahar, M.E.&nbsp; Ali, M.M. Rahman, “Purslane weed (Portulaca oleracea): a prospective plant source of nutrition, omega-3 fatty acid, and antioxidant attributes.” The Scientific World Journal, (2014), 951019. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/95101915 Y.X. Zhou, H.L. Xin, K. Rahman, S.J. Wang, C. Peng, H. Zhang, “Portulaca oleracea L.: a review of phytochemistry and pharmacological effects” BioMed Research International, (2015), 925631. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/925631 16 Pliny the Elder, The Natural History of Pliny, John Bostock and H.T. Riley, trans, (London: Taylor and Francis, 1855) Book XX&nbsp; ch. 81, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/57493/57493-h/57493-h.htm https://margauxcrump.com/Viriditas-Juniperus-spp Tue, 16 Apr 2024 16:36:16 +0000 Margaux Crump https://margauxcrump.com/Viriditas-Juniperus-spp Viriditas: Musings on Magical Plants Juniperus spp. Originally published in Issue 30 of Plantings: The Journal of the World Sensorium/Conservancy <img width="2500" height="1133" width_o="2500" height_o="1133" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/87f5c61ac321365011948742d84ba97ccc5912fedad2fe1c39f6bb2ca5b4bfd3/Juniper_01.jpg" data-mid="209080842" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/87f5c61ac321365011948742d84ba97ccc5912fedad2fe1c39f6bb2ca5b4bfd3/Juniper_01.jpg" /> As the rusty golden hues of autumn depart and winter begins to drift across the landscape, evergreens color my vision. Juniper in particular, encrusted with its silvery-blue cascade of berries, sparkles this time of year. In the winter, I feel especially attuned to the presence of its spiky leaves and coniferous ‘berries.’ Early this November, as I drove from Massachusetts to Texas, it seemed as though juniper was everywhere. And in many ways it is. From columnar trees to weeping shrubs, the genus Juniperus has a vast range across Asia, Europe, North and South America, and Africa. It’s abundant, hardy, and vigorous, thriving in conditions from lowland bogs to alpine tundra. Juniper and I are old friends. The window of my childhood bedroom was veiled by a large Juniperus virginiana and I would often watch the world unfold within its branches: the green anoles shifting from brown to brilliant chartreuse, the flittering juniper hairstreak butterflies, the orange house tiger napping beneath the canopy. Junipers are also alive with birds. Of course the visitors shift season to season and by location, but juniper often hums with mockingbirds, robins, and cedar waxwings, who love feasting upon the cones. <img width="2017" height="3000" width_o="2017" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3e1501675111afbec3d84c1de4ce9e1bee2b50502583228a6125b5d5bdd29b64/Juniper_Cedar-Waxwing_02.jpg" data-mid="209080651" border="0" alt="Cedar Waxwing in Juniperus virginiana Cedar Bird. Plate XLIII John James Audubon 1827-1838" data-caption="Cedar Waxwing in Juniperus virginiana Cedar Bird. Plate XLIII John James Audubon 1827-1838" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3e1501675111afbec3d84c1de4ce9e1bee2b50502583228a6125b5d5bdd29b64/Juniper_Cedar-Waxwing_02.jpg" /> Juniper has a long association with the sacred. Pliny tells us that the temple to Diana in Saguntum, Spain had juniper beams.1 In Tibet, the Reting monastery sits within a forest of juniper trees, which according to legend form a sacred landscape that is protected to this day.2 Similarly, in Welsh folklore, if you cut down a juniper tree, you will surely die within the year.3 From predynastic to Greco-Roman Egypt, juniper berries have been discovered in burials,4 sometimes placed directly on the dead.5 In the Greek Magical Papyri, a body of papyri from Greco-Roman Egypt, juniper is frequently listed as a material used for carving altars and shrines as well as for casting spells. For instance, in a slander spell to Hekate/Selene (PGM IV. 2622-2707), the practitioner is instructed to: Take a magnet that is breathing and fashion it in the form of a heart, and let there be engraved on it Hekate lying about the heart, like a little crescent. Then carve the twenty-lettered spell that is all vowels, / and wear it around your body. The following name is what is written: ‘AEYŌ ĒIE ŌA EŌĒ EŌA ŌI EŌI.’ For this spell is completely capable of everything. But perform this ritual in a holy manner, not frequently / or lightly, especially to Selene. At any rate, burn upon pieces of juniper wood an offering of Cretan storax and begin the spell.6 <img width="4000" height="4000" width_o="4000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/52dd4d64f8f2f37c6631b55a3c7c565f2ab237238b80d94a3bf2871c135ce6ab/Juniper_Hekate_Statue_04.jpg" data-mid="209080652" border="0" alt="Wood statuette of Hekate, Egyptian, Ptolemaic, 304&ndash;30 BCE, carved out of juniper wood. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1939" data-caption="Wood statuette of Hekate, Egyptian, Ptolemaic, 304–30 BCE, carved out of juniper wood. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1939" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/52dd4d64f8f2f37c6631b55a3c7c565f2ab237238b80d94a3bf2871c135ce6ab/Juniper_Hekate_Statue_04.jpg" /> Juniper’s association with the sacred is entwined with its powers of purification. Enrique Salmón shares that, “juniper is present at nearly every kind of indigenous ceremony in the Southwest. Prior to entering into the lodge, many sweat leaders will offer the participants a cup of an infusion made from the leaves of juniper. This is said both to purify the body and to produce a better sweat.”7 Cultures across the globe have used juniper as a form of incense, fumigation, and smoke medicine for thousands of years. In Tibet, juniper incense is helpful for meditation and for accessing deeper and clearer consciousness.8 In the Scottish practice of saining, juniper is burned to cleanse the home and barn by filling it with great amounts of smoke.9 This was done to ward off both evil and disease, usually on New Year’s Day, but also the quarter days. According to Scottish folk custom, juniper (iubhar-beinne or mountain yew) “had to be pulled by the roots, with its branches made into four bundles and taken between the five fingers, whilst the incantation was repeated:I will pull the bounteous yew, Through the five bent ribs of Christ, In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Against drowning, danger, and confusion.”10The necessity of harvesting juniper by hand—as opposed to cutting tools—is perhaps due to the belief that spirits do not like iron, especially the Sidhe who are important figures in Scottish folklore who must be respected. Saining with juniper also confers protection, especially on cattle. Likewise German lore tells of juniper driving monsters away from cows and horses.11 During the Tibetan ritual called lhasang, juniper is burned on mountaintops as an offering to deities in return for protection.12 While in Italy, holes or fissures in houses are brushed with Juniper to prevent evil spirits from entering and boughs are suspended above doorways because “witches who see the Juniper are seized with an irresistible mania to count all its small leaves, which, however, are so numerous that they are sure to make a mistake in counting, and, becoming impatient, go away for fear of being surprised and recognised.”13 The Navajo consider juniper a sacred medicine and string dried juniper berries together as ghost beads to ward off evil spirits.14 Throughout Classical Antiquity, juniper is also understood to dispel serpentine threats. Dioscorides notes in De Materia Medica that juniper fumes are useful for driving away snakes.15 Similarly in Egypt, juniper resin was applied to papyrus to deter hungry bookworms,16 and in the Ebers Papyrus (EB 85), juniper is said to treat intestinal tapeworms.17 Most dramatically, Greek mythology recounts how Medea, with divine support from Hekate, protects Jason from a giant serpent by applying a magical sleeping potion into its eyes using a freshly cut sprig of juniper.18 <img width="2500" height="1667" width_o="2500" height_o="1667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9a3e23ddf9d85ca752f6f9d74a8ca18e5f84a24d020a62722fc1e1ac84d7cf2b/Juniper_05.jpg" data-mid="209080649" border="0" alt="Juniperus virginiana" data-caption="Juniperus virginiana" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9a3e23ddf9d85ca752f6f9d74a8ca18e5f84a24d020a62722fc1e1ac84d7cf2b/Juniper_05.jpg" /> Historically, different communities work with different species of juniper. Considered hot and dry, J. communis is perhaps the most well known and is prized for its antiseptic, antioxidant, anti inflammatory, and anticancer effects. It is a well loved herb used in many traditional medicinal practices.&nbsp;Ibn Sina recommended J. communis as a wound healing agent and abortifacient;19 Nicholas Culpeper prescribed it as a diuretic and for digestion;20 while Hildegard von Bingen provided the following recipe for juniper curative wine: Take its fruit, cook it in water, strain this water through a cloth. To this water add honey and a bit of vinegar and licorice, and less ginger than licorice. Cook it again, and place it in a little bag, and make a spiced wine. Drink it often, whether fasting, or having eaten. It diminishes and mitigates pain in the chest, lungs, and liver.21The peoples of the Southwest have long worked with junipers including J. monosperma, J. osteosperma, and J. deppeana. Salmón notes a diffusion of the leaves is used to treat skin and urinary tract infections and provides relief from arthritic pain and rheumatism.22 J. recurva is a high altitude juniper loved by the people of the Himalayas and J. tibetica makes up the forest that surrounds the aforementioned Reting Monastery.23 Whereas the prickly J. oxycedrus is likely the species referred to in the Ebers Papyrus as a vermifuge. Yet for all their celebrated uses, it’s also important to note that some species of juniper are considered toxic and they should be worked with cautiously. <img width="1872" height="1498" width_o="1872" height_o="1498" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a706a5f81671edde6d28342a41d77e5f317626c82ee8878e00a12c5a4d74cba3/Juniper_06.jpg" data-mid="209080650" border="0" alt="A juniper in New Mexico. Possibly Juniperus scopulorum. Photo: Carolyn Florek" data-caption="A juniper in New Mexico. Possibly Juniperus scopulorum. Photo: Carolyn Florek" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a706a5f81671edde6d28342a41d77e5f317626c82ee8878e00a12c5a4d74cba3/Juniper_06.jpg" /> One of my favorite figures from juniper folklore is Frau Wacholder, the German spirit of juniper. When goods are stolen, it is Frau Wacholder who is petitioned to compel their return. It is said that the ritual takes place beneath a juniper with a branch bent to the earth.24 Perhaps juniper is a plant who watches, who sees, who knows. The German word wach, means awake. And the Brothers Grimm agree. In their notes for The Juniper Tree, they explain that the Wacholder “is a tree which rejuvenates, and is awake so far as is implied by quick, active, vivus, living.”25In my own practice, I bundle and burn juniper for cleansing and protection. Around the time of the winter solstice, I carefully harvest a few small juniper branches by hand. After bringing the branches indoors, I bind them together at one end with red thread and place them above my doorway. I like to imagine and entrust juniper as guardian of the threshold. My tradition is to burn the previous year’s bundle as a way to honor my ancestors and sain my house for the new year. As the many historical uses and traditions attest, there are boundless ways to incorporate juniper into your home, rituals, and wellness. If you’re not sure how, perhaps take some time to notice the juniper around you—where it grows, how it smells, how it feels—Frau Wacholder may be watching and she just might share some ideas. 1 Pliny the Elder, The Natural History of Pliny, John Bostock and H.T. Riley, trans, (London: Taylor and Francis, 1855) Book XVI ch. 79, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/57493/57493-h/57493-h.htm 2 Nathalie Bazin, “Fragrant Ritual Offerings in the Art of Tibetan Buddhism,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 23, no. 1 (2013): 31–38. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43307642. 3 Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society, History Quarterly Digital Archives, April 1984 Volume 22 Number 2, Pages 55–66, https://www.tehistory.org/hqda/html/v22/v22n2p055.html.4 Margaret Serpico, with a contribution by Raymond White, "Resins, Ambers, and Bitumen," in Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, eds. Paul T. Nicholson and Ian Shaw (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 433. 5 Lösch, Sandra &amp; Hower-Tilmann, Estelle &amp; Zink, Albert. (2013). Mummies and skeletons from the Coptic monastery complex Deir el-Bachit in Thebes-West, Egypt. Anthropol Anz. 70. 27-41. 10.1127/0003-5548/2012/0218. 6 Hans Dieter Betz, ed. The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986) 86–8. 7 Enrique Salmón, Iwigara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science, (Portland: Timber Press, 2020) 117. 8 Nathalie Bazin, “Fragrant Ritual Offerings in the Art of Tibetan Buddhism,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 23, no. 1 (2013): 31–8. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43307642. 9 F. Marian McNeill, The Silver Bough, Volume 3, (Glasgow: Stuart Titles, 1990) 113–114. 10 McNeill, The Silver Bough, 81.11 Richard Folkard, Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics : Embracing the Myths, Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-lore of the Plant Kingdom, (London: S. Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1884) 395–7. 12 Bazin, Fragrant Ritual Offerings, 31–8. 13 Folkard, Plant Lore, 395–7. 14 Salmón, Iwigara, 116–17. 15 Dioscorides Pedanius, T. A. Osbaldeston, and R. P. A. Wood, De Materia Medica: Being an Herbal with Many Other Medicinal Materials: Written in Greek in the First Century of the Common Era: a New Indexed Version in Modern English (Johannesburg: IBIDIS, 2000), 101–2. 16 Bridget Leach and John Tait, "Papyrus," in Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, eds. Paul T. Nicholson and Ian Shaw (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 240. 17&nbsp;Paul Ghalioungui, The Ebers Papyrus: A New English Translation, Commentaries, and Glossaries, (Cairo: Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, 1987) 29. 18&nbsp;Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4. 121 ff 19&nbsp;Ibn-Sina, Canon of Medicine Book II: Materia Medica, trans. Department of Islamic Studies Hamdard University. (New Dheli: Jamia Hamdard Printing Press, 1998), accessed Nov 1, 2023, https://www.naimh.com/_files/ugd/ee530d_32edca193e5e4e039a0a2e27171c2a65.pdf. 20&nbsp;Culpeper, Nicholas. Culpeper's Complete Herbal &amp; English Physician. Bedford, MA: Applewood Books, 2007. First published 1653. 21&nbsp;Hildegard Von Bingen. Hildegard Von Bingen's Physica: The Complete English Translation of Her Classic Work on Health and Healing, trans. Priscilla Throop. Rochester, VT: Healing Arts Press, 1998. 22&nbsp;Salmón, Iwigara,117. 23&nbsp;Bazin, “Fragrant Ritual Offerings, 31–8. 24&nbsp;Folkard, Plant Lore, 395–7. 25&nbsp;Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Grimm’s Household Tales, with the author’s notes, trans. and ed. Margaret Hunt, (London: George Bell And Sons, 1884) 399. https://margauxcrump.com/Viriditas-Narcissus-spp Wed, 17 Apr 2024 03:37:37 +0000 Margaux Crump https://margauxcrump.com/Viriditas-Narcissus-spp Viriditas: Musings on Magical Plants Narcissus spp. Originally published in Issue 33 of Plantings: The Journal of the World Sensorium/Conservancy <img width="2250" height="1021" width_o="2250" height_o="1021" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4f5e523d2a8fb7af238378936a82022c53cb05b9a54e57e78d2ba95a26d5a3ad/01_Narcissus_Banner.jpg" data-mid="209118922" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4f5e523d2a8fb7af238378936a82022c53cb05b9a54e57e78d2ba95a26d5a3ad/01_Narcissus_Banner.jpg" /> I smell them before I see them, like the breath of ghosts floating on the breeze. Their scent is richly indolic. It lays languid in my head with a strange sweetness that oscillates between floral and foul. Emerging in early spring from their underworld sleep, they call to us, their luminous star-shaped flowers glowing in the sunlight. Narcissus is utterly hypnotic—and entirely poisonous. Associated with both death and rebirth, narcissus is a psychopomp plant that we humans have been guided by since ancient times. The etymological root of the Greek word Νάρκισσος (Nárkissos) is “ναρκ- (nark-), meaning ‘stiff, numb,’ ‘grow numb, stiff, dead.’”1 And as Pliny the Elder clears up, Narcissus spp. “received its name, from ‘narce,’ [Latin for torpor or numbness] and not from the youth Narcissus, mentioned in the fable.”2 Hailing from Europe and northern Africa, the genus Narcissus holds around 40 species. These bulbiferous perennials have bold blooms consisting of a central corona surrounded by six tepals. Ranging from bright white to shades of yellow, peachy pink, and even green, their distinct flowers crown tall graceful stems surrounded by long linear leaves. Though not all Narcissus species are fragrant, all are poisonous and their onion-like bulb is the most toxic part. Yet the bulb, a reminder of cyclic time, is where their potent magic and poetic symbolism lies. <img width="1500" height="1875" width_o="1500" height_o="1875" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8064d54c7b70a4d0837dad8d0e88a9ab279b59eb2dc6c345a174809f6ad7ce02/02_Narcissus.jpg" data-mid="209118894" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8064d54c7b70a4d0837dad8d0e88a9ab279b59eb2dc6c345a174809f6ad7ce02/02_Narcissus.jpg" /> Flowers wilt, leaves wither, roots shrivel. Narcissus appears to die. But underground, protected deep within the bulb, the next cycle of life is brewing. As winter subsides, new roots form and young green shoots begin their journey toward the light. Narcissus is reborn. Invoking this symbolism, narcissus has long been used in death rituals. In Egyptian tombs, the bulbs have been discovered positioned on the neck and hands of mummies.3 The Greeks knew narcissus as the crown of the great ancient goddesses and placed them on the heads of the dead.4 And still today, narcissus cultivars thrive in cemeteries, silently spreading between the tombstones year after year. Narcissus is of particular significance to the chthonic and agricultural goddess Persephone. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Gaia grows narcissus as a lure for Demeter’s daughter, Persephone-Kore:5It [the narcissus] was a wondrous thing in its splendor. To look at it gives a sense of holy awe to the immortal gods as well as mortal humans. It has a hundred heads growing from the root up. Its sweet fragrance spread over the wide skies up above. And the earth below smiled back in all its radiance. So too the churning mass of the salty sea. She [Persephone] was filled with a sense of wonder, and she reached out with both hands to take hold of the pretty plaything. And the earth, full of roads leading every which way, opened up under her. It happened on the Plain of Nysa. There it was that the Lord who receives many guests made his lunge. He was riding on a chariot drawn by immortal horses. The son of Kronos. The one known by many names. He seized her against her will, put her on his golden chariot, And drove away as she wept.6In the hymn, Persephone’s communion with narcissus opens a portal to the land of the dead and sparks her initiation and transformation from maiden to queen of the underworld. The myth of her abduction by Hades, subsequent subterranean journey, and cyclical resurfacing embodies the seasonal life cycle of the natural world, especially vegetation. <img width="3136" height="3872" width_o="3136" height_o="3872" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bf35f485b238f403a4a2c5a495ba4abfe2b2d2044749f5a12ad3ce47ff1c3365/03_Narcissus_Persephone-Jar.jpg" data-mid="209118895" border="0" alt="Red-figure hydria (water jar) depicting the abduction of Persephone, ca. 340-330 BCE. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Gift of Miss Matilda W. Bruce, 1907" data-caption="Red-figure hydria (water jar) depicting the abduction of Persephone, ca. 340-330 BCE. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Gift of Miss Matilda W. Bruce, 1907" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bf35f485b238f403a4a2c5a495ba4abfe2b2d2044749f5a12ad3ce47ff1c3365/03_Narcissus_Persephone-Jar.jpg" /> Upon her daughter’s return from Hades, the hymn also details Demeter’s creation of the Eleusinian Mysteries, secret initiation rituals for the cult of Demeter and Persephone. The punishment for revealing the mysteries to the uninitiated was death, so we know very little about what occurred. Though it is generally accepted that each year, initiates re-enacted Persephone’s mythical descent and emergence from the underworld in an ecstatic spiritual experience that involved drinking sanctified kykeon, witnessing a very bright light, and often losing the fear of death. According to Cicero, the mysteries show how to “live in joy, and how to die in better hopes” (De Legibus 2.14.36).7 Ultimately, it is the alluring power of narcissus that leads to the revelation of the mysteries of life and death. Regarded as cleansing, drying, and narcotic, the mundane powers of Narcissus spp. were also well known. The early physician Dioscorides tells us that ingesting the bulb induces vomiting, but when beaten with honey and applied topically, it is beneficial for burns and joint pain. While Narcissus flower oil is “good for damage in the vulva, softening hardness and closures around it.”8 Similarly, Pliny the Elder warns that Narcissus “is injurious to the stomach” and acts as both an emetic and a purgative that produces “dull, heavy pains in the head.”9 He also prescribes Narcissus for deep ulcers and tumors. Ibn-Sina shares their assessments and adds that Narcissus affects the nerves.10 Recent scientific research has shown that Narcissus spp. contain powerful toxic alkaloids that protect the plant and have strong effects on the human body. These bioactive compounds are antitumor, antiviral, analgesic, and tranquilizing. They have demonstrated pronounced effects on the nervous system and their alkaloid Galantamine is presently used in the treatment of Alzheimer’s patients.11 Intriguingly, Galantamine also stimulates lucid dreaming.12 <img width="1500" height="2250" width_o="1500" height_o="2250" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7497b0b6c097bf2807c94ef811c3a527cafe2d519171eae45a46737ff5735c5a/04_Narcissus.jpg" data-mid="209118896" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7497b0b6c097bf2807c94ef811c3a527cafe2d519171eae45a46737ff5735c5a/04_Narcissus.jpg" /> Through the lens of magic, narcissus facilitates communication with the dead and the simple act of inhaling their perfume is a gentle way to work with them. Olfaction has long been used in occult practice as a portal to shift into altered states of consciousness. Scent permeates the thresholds that seemingly separate mundane experiences from the extraordinary—a process which is mirrored in our bodies on a physiological level. Olfaction is our oldest phylogenetic sensation and is uniquely able to trigger unconscious biological, physiological, and emotional&nbsp;responses. In this process, scent molecules bind to the tissue in our olfactory bulbs, which lead directly to our limbic system. Taken together, this is the shortest and most direct pathway physically linking our sensory perception with our surroundings. Put plainly, scent lifts the veil. I like to place a vase of Narcissus flowers on my altar as an offering to the ancestors, though they are supportive for any work involving the underworld, threshold crossings, dreams, and moving through grief. &nbsp;Narcissus spp. do not, however, play nicely with other flowers. They secrete a mucilage that causes wilting and death. If you must incorporate them with other cut blooms, you can greatly reduce this mucilage by placing them in a separate container of water for a few hours beforehand. I personally translate this biological behavior as a clear communication of their preferences, so I choose to work with them on their own. It is worth noting that because of their association with the dead, some traditions consider white Narcissus inauspicious omens that should never be brought indoors.13It’s important to use caution when working with Narcissus spp. Even handling the flowers with bare hands may cause contact dermatitis. To avoid opening an unexpected hell mouth, consider gloves—and always ask Narcissus for permission before harvesting.&nbsp; <img width="1500" height="1875" width_o="1500" height_o="1875" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8f8c3d0f9e82ba7c814fa942f821af5eabb4b8c699c326e4626d76e307fea9fa/05_Narcissus.jpg" data-mid="209118897" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8f8c3d0f9e82ba7c814fa942f821af5eabb4b8c699c326e4626d76e307fea9fa/05_Narcissus.jpg" /> 1 Ann Suter, Narcissus and the Pomegranate: An Archaeology of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002), p. 56. 2 Pliny the Elder, The Natural History of Pliny, trans. by John Bostock and H.T. Riley (London: Taylor and Francis, 1855) Book XXI&nbsp; ch. 75, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/57493/57493-h/57493-h.htm 3 Krzysztof Borysławski, Anna Niwińska, Andrzej Niwiński, Agnieszka Tomaszewska, Krystyna Wasylikowa, Agnieszka Zelazniewicz, “A Bulb of Narcissus on the Egyptian Mummy from University of Wrocław Collection,” Études et Travaux (Dec 2018): 111-22, https://doi.org/10.12775/EtudTrav.31.006. 4 Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus, ed. with introduction and notes by Sir Richard Jebb (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1889) lines 681-684. Perseus Digital Library. 5 According to Dr. Safron Rossi, the Kore epithet associated with Persephone, signifies the state of sovereignty and wholeness in oneself. See Rossi, The Kore Goddess: A Mythology &amp; Psychology, 2021. 6 Homeric Hymn to Demeter, trans. by Gregory Nagy, lines 10–20, https://chs.harvard.edu/primary-source/homeric-hymn-to-demeter-sb/ 7 Helene P. Foley, ed. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Translation, Commentary, and Interpretive Essays, STU-Student Edition, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994) 71. 8 Dioscorides Pedanius, T. A. Osbaldeston, and R. P. A. Wood, De Materia Medica: Being an Herbal with Many Other Medicinal Materials: Written in Greek in the First Century of the Common Era: a New Indexed Version in Modern English (Johannesburg: IBIDIS, 2000), 63 and 716. 9 Pliny the Elder, The Natural History of Pliny, John Bostock and H.T. Riley, trans, (London: Taylor and Francis, 1855) Book XXI&nbsp; ch. 75, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:latinLit:phi0978.phi001.perseus-eng1 10 Ibn-Sina, Canon of Medicine Book II: Materia Medica, trans. Department of Islamic Studies Hamdard University (New Dheli: Jamia Hamdard Printing Press, 1998), Sec. II, 453-4, https://www.naimh.com/_files/ugd/ee530d_32edca193e5e4e039a0a2e27171c2a65.pdf. 11 Jaume Bastida, et al. “Chemical and biological aspects of Narcissus alkaloids.” The Alkaloids. Chemistry and Biology (vol. 63, 2006), 87-179. doi:10.1016/s1099-4831(06)63003-4&nbsp;12 Stephen LaBerge, et al. “Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming: A double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study.” PloS One, vol. 13, (8 Aug. 2018), doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0201246. 13 Marcel De Cleene and Marie Claire Lejeune, Compendium of Symbolic and Ritual Plants in Europe, Vol. II: Herbs (Ghent: Man &amp; Culture Publishers, 2003) p. 212. .&nbsp; https://margauxcrump.com/Viriditas-Rosa-spp Sun, 19 May 2024 00:30:56 +0000 Margaux Crump https://margauxcrump.com/Viriditas-Rosa-spp Viriditas: Musings on Magical Plants Rosa spp. Originally published in Issue 36 of Plantings: The Journal of the World Sensorium/Conservancy <img width="2500" height="1128" width_o="2500" height_o="1128" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/60591c1fa5c7948c81365c40c42527018c017de7a002db504e2f122a61b21eeb/Rose_Banner.jpg" data-mid="211204265" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/60591c1fa5c7948c81365c40c42527018c017de7a002db504e2f122a61b21eeb/Rose_Banner.jpg" /> I’m haunted by a rose whose name I can’t remember. She lived in my aunt’s garden and as a child I was captivated by her beauty. Though I’ve lost the power of her name, I can still conjure an image of her in full bloom, glowing in the sunlight. The memory is potent. When I sit in it, I begin to feel the somatic echo of a trance state. I was completely taken by her. Perhaps I was susceptible to her charms because her vibrant petals of peachy pink, orange, and yellow appealed to my adolescent love for all things rainbow and glitter—my trademark t-shirt featured technicolor kittens playing with butterflies in beds of roses—or perhaps it was something more mysterious. Around this time I began to develop a friendship with someone in the garden I called Sparkle Rose. She was terribly small and totally invisible. I don’t remember the moment we met. One day she was simply there, flitting in and out of my awareness wherever I went, flouting the laws of space and time, though the garden did seem to be her favorite location. After several years together, our relationship drew to a close, but I don’t remember her ever leaving. As fantastic as it sounds, my experience with this rose is not extraordinary. The rose is an ancient plant with a long history. Fossil records from North America, Asia, and Europe are rich with roses1 and humans have maintained relationships with roses for millenia. Reaching back four thousand years, we find them painted into the frescoes of the Minoan Knossos Palace, three thousand years ago they were used to scent fragrant oil in pre-classical Greece,2 and two thousand years ago wild roses were grown in the gardens of the imperial palace of the Han Dynasty.3 We have long adored, ritualized, cultivated, hybridized, and monetized roses, our desire for them driving us to disperse them far across the earth. &nbsp; &nbsp; <img width="2500" height="1667" width_o="2500" height_o="1667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ecc79f5a1f0c6c26abc4ca4568067462e0366813b2bacb481263e0be2751efc7/02_Rose.jpg" data-mid="211204268" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ecc79f5a1f0c6c26abc4ca4568067462e0366813b2bacb481263e0be2751efc7/02_Rose.jpg" /> Roses belong to the genus Rosa, which contains more than 150 species. Today, after centuries of selective breeding, there are upwards of 30,000 cultivars including the resplendent Bourbon, Damask, China, and Tea. Yet most garden roses bear little resemblance to their wild ancestors. Human preference has transformed the five petaled wild rose into the showier many-petaled rose we find at the florist. Though technically, all roses still have only five true petals, the rest are modified stamens who have morphed into petaloids.4 And to trouble things further, roses have prickles, not true thorns. Considered cooling and astringent, the rose is routinely employed in early medical texts. In his highly influential De Materia Medica, Dioscorides tells us that “dried roses (boiled in wine and strained) are good for headaches, as well as the eyes, ears and gums, and pain of the perineum, intestine, rectum and vulva, applied with a feather or washed with the liquid.”5 In his Natural History, Pliny the Elder echoes this and provides thirty-two remedies derived from the rose. He adds that the rose is very valuable for treating dysentery, which is supported by our modern knowledge that roses, especially the hips, are incredibly rich in the antioxidant vitamin C. Nearly a thousand years later, the Muslim physician and philosopher Ibn-Sina prescribed the rose widely and is credited with first discovering how to use steam distillation to extract essential oils and hydrosol from roses. In the form of rosewater, rose oil, rose vinegar, rose honey, and rose sugar, the rose was added to hundreds of herbal remedies. Hildegard von Bingen encourages adding rose “to potions, unguents, and all medications. If even a little rose is added, they are so much better, because of the good virtues of the rose.”6 She also notes that, “One who is inclined to wrath should take rose and less sage and pulverize them. When wrath is rising in him, he should hold this powder to his nostrils. The sage lessens the wrath, and the rose makes him happy.”7 As a gentle nervine, rose creates a sense of calm and ease. The scent of rose alone lifts me out of my head and brings me down into my heart. And recent scientific research has shown that inhaling Rosa damascena oil has antidepressant effects, increases parasympathetic activity, and even improves sexual dysfunction.8 <img width="2500" height="1667" width_o="2500" height_o="1667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cafd37ee3fd9d0e59057d4058da168ab70f9ff24112a4c3d8ee0333644079c42/03_Rose.jpg" data-mid="211204380" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cafd37ee3fd9d0e59057d4058da168ab70f9ff24112a4c3d8ee0333644079c42/03_Rose.jpg" /> But well before clinical trials, the ancients knew that love and pleasure were entwined with the rose. The Greeks dedicated the rose to an array of deities including the Graces, the Muses, the Erotes, Dionysus, and above all Aphrodite, the goddess of love, pleasure, beauty, and procreation. From an evocative poem fragment scrawled on a potsherd, Sappho reveals that the sacred grove of Aphrodite/Kypris was filled with roses: ]here to me from Krete to this holy templewhere is your graceful grove of apple trees and altars smoking &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;with frankincense. And in it cold water makes a clear sound throughapple branches and with roses the whole placeis shadowed and down from the radiant-shaking leaves&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;sleep comes dropping. And in it a horse meadow has come into bloom with spring flowers and breezeslike honey are blowing &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;[&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ] In this place you Kypris taking upin gold cups delicately nectar mingled with festivities: &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;pour.9 ] δεῦρύ μ’ ἐκ Κρήτας ἐπ[ὶ τόνδ]ε ναῦον ἄγνον, ὄππ[ᾳ τοι] χάριεν μὲν ἄλσος μαλί[αν], βῶμοι τεθυμιάμε- &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;νοι [λι]βανώντῳ· ἐν δ’ ὔδωρ ψῦχρον κελάδει δι’ ὔσδων μαλίνων, βρόδοισι δὲ παῖς ὀ χῶρος ἐσκίαστ’, αἰθυσσομένων δὲ φύλλων &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;κῶμα κατέρρει· ἐν δὲ λείμων ἰππόβοτος τέθαλεν ἠρίνοισιν ἄνθεσιν, αἰ δ’ ἄηται μέλλιχα πνέοισιν &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;[&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ] &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ἔνθα δὴ σύ . . . . ἔλοισα Κύπρι χρυσίαισιν ἐν κυλίκεσσιν ἄβρως ὀμμεμείχμενον θαλίαισι νέκταρ &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;οἰνοχόαισον. The word κῶμα (kóma), translated in this fragment as ‘sleep’, can also be understood as a deep sleep induced by enchantment or supernatural means.10 In essence, the epiphany of Aphrodite is experienced through an altered state of consciousness that drifts down through the rose leaves. Venus, the Roman counterpart to Aphrodite, was also honored with roses. On the first day of April, her cult statue was ritually cleansed and offered new-sprung roses.11 Later that month during the Vinalia Urbana, sex workers visited Venus’ temple to pray for her blessings and “give the Mistress myrtle, and the mint she loves, And sheaves of rushes, wound in clustered roses.”12 In his book on floral chaplets, Pliny attests that it was a common practice to weave roses into crowns and garlands for sacrifices and celebrations, but that it was illegal to wear a rose chaplet during times of war as they evoked revelry, drinking, and debauchery.13 Much later during the middle ages, despite attempts by the early church to purge the Christian faith of pagan predilections—which of course included the wantonness of wearing rose chaplets—the rose infiltrated the church and became a Marian symbol. Of her many epithets, Mary was variously known as the Rose Without Thorns, the Rose of Sharon, and the Mystical Rose. In Durer’s Feast of the Rosary, she is even shown bestowing crowns of roses upon her worshippers. Indeed our desire for the rose runs deep and the rose is highly adaptable. Skillfully shedding sensual pleasure, the rose in Mary’s garden transcends the corporal in favor of tame ethereal beauty. <img width="4285" height="3625" width_o="4285" height_o="3625" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/56d5188dff393c4d667f109de64ab9ffdf8b4162b2d228d0eff8740407471197/04_Rose_Durer.jpg" data-mid="211204381" border="0" alt="Albrecht Durer, Feast of the Rosary, 1506, oil on panel. National Gallery, Prague." data-caption="Albrecht Durer, Feast of the Rosary, 1506, oil on panel. National Gallery, Prague." src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/56d5188dff393c4d667f109de64ab9ffdf8b4162b2d228d0eff8740407471197/04_Rose_Durer.jpg" /> But in another garden beyond the confines of the church, the rose retained its sexual symbolism. Le Roman de la Rose (The Romance of the Rose) was an Old French poem about the quest for love that employed the rose as a symbol for female sexuality. Presented as a dream sequence, the poem follows a male lover who seeks entrance to a pleasure garden so that he might pluck and possess a rose. Thwarted by the thorns, the lover receives counsel from an array of allegorical figures, including Venus, on the art of courtly love. It was a controversial and influential medieval bestseller. Transformation is a common theme with the rose. Especially when blood is involved. In some tales Aphrodite’s blood turns the white rose red, while others connect the rose to Christ’s blood and the spilt blood of Christian martyrs. But my absolute favorite is a Gnostic creation myth linking the rose to the birth of Eros and the blood of the first soul. Eros, born of the first blood, is a primordial being who is desired by the creatures of chaos and dispersed amongst them just as one lamp lights another. Soon the first soul (psyche) loved Eros “and poured her blood upon him and upon the earth. And out of that blood the rose first sprouted up, out of the earth, out of the thorn bush, to be a source of joy for the light that was to appear in the bush. Moreover after this the beautiful, good-smelling flowers sprouted up from the earth, different kinds, from every single virgin of the daughters of Pronoia. And they, when they had become enamored of Eros, poured out their blood upon him and upon the earth. After these, every plant sprouted up from the earth, different kinds, containing the seed of the authorities and their angels.”14 The alchemical poetry of desire, soul, and love precipitating the rose tickles my inner romantic. It’s a strangely satisfying myth. But of course, where there is birth, death is wont to follow. Across cultures, the rose has funerary significance, often adorning the body of the deceased, being left as offerings for the dead, and being planted at gravesites. Red roses grew in the Elysium fields of the Greek underworld and rose oil was used to anoint and protect cadavers.15 Likewise, the Romans were known to mix their ashes with crimson roses, wine, and fragrant oils. They also observed a festival of roses to commemorate their dead. During Rosalia, graves were tended, roses were left as sacrifices for the deceased, and a meal might be shared. This practice was so significant to Roman deathcare that they provided for the celebration of Rosalia in their wills.16 The Roman association of roses with the afterlife lived on in Dante, who envisioned the virtuous dead residing in a giant cosmic rose. In Canto XXXI of The Divine Comedy, he describes the realm of divine love as a hierarchical rose that is home to hosts of angels and departed human souls: 1&nbsp; &nbsp;In fashion then as of a snow-white rose2&nbsp; &nbsp;Displayed itself to me the saintly host,3&nbsp; &nbsp;Whom Christ in his own blood had made his bride, 4&nbsp; &nbsp;But the other host, that flying sees and sings5&nbsp; &nbsp;The glory of Him who doth enamour it,6&nbsp; &nbsp;And the goodness that created it so noble, 7&nbsp; &nbsp;Even as a swarm of bees, that sinks in flowers8&nbsp; &nbsp;One moment, and the next returns again9&nbsp; &nbsp;To where its labour is to sweetness turned,10&nbsp; &nbsp;Sank into the great flower, that is adorned11&nbsp; &nbsp;With leaves so many, and thence reascended12&nbsp; &nbsp;To where its love abideth evermore.13&nbsp; &nbsp;Their faces had they all of living flame,14&nbsp; &nbsp;And wings of gold, and all the rest so white15&nbsp; &nbsp;No snow unto that limit doth attain.16&nbsp; &nbsp;From bench to bench, into the flower descending,17&nbsp; &nbsp;They carried something of the peace and ardour18&nbsp; &nbsp;Which by the fanning of their flanks they won.17 <img width="1769" height="2730" width_o="1769" height_o="2730" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1b729ea6963e40b7ea01b2871ea160d43218ddf37004879046bcc437d91715d1/05_Rose_Wreath.jpg" data-mid="211204383" border="0" alt="A rose wreath found in a Roman tomb in lower Egypt. 2nd&ndash;3rd C CE &copy;The Trustees of the British Museum" data-caption="A rose wreath found in a Roman tomb in lower Egypt. 2nd–3rd C CE ©The Trustees of the British Museum" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1b729ea6963e40b7ea01b2871ea160d43218ddf37004879046bcc437d91715d1/05_Rose_Wreath.jpg" /> It naturally follows that roses also relate to the undead. In Romanian folklore, to prevent a vampire from escaping, “the coffin should be bound with trailers of wild roses.”18 The specification here of a wild rose rather than a garden variety is important. Domesticated roses are lovely, but wild roses are robust. Beautifully feral, they are autonomous and untamed. With their prickly, often dense bowering brambles, wild roses have very healthy boundaries. Encountering a wild rose is a magical experience. Their Venusian energy feels ancient and complex. I always stop to smell roses and if I’m lucky enough to come upon a wild rose in bloom, I tend to only partake in their perfume if a flower is on the edges of the bramble. Otherwise, the rose requires a blood sacrifice and a healthy dose of respect. <img width="2500" height="1667" width_o="2500" height_o="1667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/77073e99c3c2ad2c1f1eeab83a539c7eacaca82d429cd972f6c1cb633e615677/06_Rose.jpg" data-mid="211204384" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/77073e99c3c2ad2c1f1eeab83a539c7eacaca82d429cd972f6c1cb633e615677/06_Rose.jpg" /> With their Venusian vibes, roses are a classic choice for love spells. But I like to work with roses for protection magic. Especially wild roses. And while protecting the heart is certainly fair game, when asked nicely, the rose is happy to assist with most warding, boundary, and protection needs. The disincarnate included: according to Ethnobotanist Enrique Salmón, some indigenous tribes of North America believe wild roses ward off ghosts.19 However, before working with wild roses, or any plant for that matter, I highly encourage you to go outside and meet them. Sit down, introduce yourself, get acclimated, listen. Use all your senses. But save taste for plants you know are edible! If you have permission from the plant to take a cutting, leave an offering in return. I like to provide water or if I’m in a pinch, my own saliva. The intention here, outside of general politeness and the cultivation of curiosity, is to develop a working relationship that enables you to call upon the rose when needed. To perform a simple protection spell, find a quiet place where you feel safe and hold in your awareness a very clear understanding of what you are seeking protection from. Recall the specific sensation of the rose and ask them for help. If help is offered, visualize yourself surrounded on all sides by the rose’s brambles, knowing that what you are seeking protection from cannot cross your rose wall. Often, when we feel drawn to protection magic, a part of us is feeling unsafe. Rose is a powerful partner in these instances because of its affinity for the heart. Working with roses for protection is an act of self-love. To close the spell, place your hands over your heart, knowing you are worthy of safety and capable of maintaining healthy boundaries. 1 Herman F. Becker, “The Fossil Record of the Genus Rosa,” Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 90, no. 2 (1963): 99–110. https://doi.org/10.2307/2483008. See also. M. L. DeVore and K. B. Pigg, “A brief review of the fossil history of the family Rosaceae with a focus on the Eocene Okanogan Highlands of eastern Washington State, USA, and British Columbia, Canada,” Plant Systematics and Evolution, 266: 45–57 (2007) https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-007-0540-3 2 Jennifer Potter, The Rose: A True History, (Great Britain: Atlantic Books, 2010), 8. 3&nbsp;G. Wang, (2007). “A Study on the History of Chinese Roses From Ancient Works and Images,” Acta Hortic. 751, 347-356, DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2007.751.44 4 Amy Stewart, Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful, (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2008), 127. 5 Dioscorides Pedanius, T. A. Osbaldeston, and R. P. A. Wood, De Materia Medica: Being an Herbal with Many Other Medicinal Materials: Written in Greek in the First Century of the Common Era: a New Indexed Version in Modern English (Johannesburg: IBIDIS, 2000), 129. 6 Hildegard von Bingen, Hildegard Von Bingen's Physica: The Complete English Translation of Her Classic Work on Health and Healing, trans. Priscilla Throop, (Rochester: Healing Arts Press, 1998), 21. 7 Hildegard, Physica, 21. 8 Safieh Mohebitabar, et al. “Therapeutic efficacy of rose oil: A comprehensive review of clinical evidence.” Avicenna journal of phytomedicine vol. 7,3 (2017): 206-213. 9 Sappho, “Fragment 2”, in If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, trans. Anne Carson, (New York: Vintage Books, 2003) 10 Silvia Montiglio, The Spell of Hypnos: Sleep and Sleeplessness in Ancient Greek Literature, (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021), 18. 11 Ovid,"Fasti: Book IV: April 1: Kalends," Poetry in Translation, trans. A. S. Kline, accessed May 10, 2024, https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/OvidFastiBkFour.php#BkIVApr1.&nbsp;12 Ovid,"Fasti: Book IV: April 23: The Vinalia," Poetry in Translation, trans. A. S. Kline, accessed May 10, 2024, https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/OvidFastiBkFour.php#BkIVApr1 13 Pliny the Elder, The Natural History of Pliny, trans. John Bostock and H.T. Riley, (London: Taylor and Francis, 1855) BOOK XXI. An Account of Flowers. And Those Used for Chaplets More Particularly, https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D21#note24. 14&nbsp;The Nag Hammadi Library in English, ed. James M. Robinson, (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1990) 178.&nbsp; 15&nbsp;In Robert Fagle’s translation of The Iliad, Aphrodite anoints Hector’s corpse with oil of roses to protect it from Achilles. 16&nbsp;Ramsay Macmullen, “Roman Religion: The Best Attested Practice.” Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte Geschichte 66, no. 1 (2017): 111–27. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45019253. 17&nbsp;Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, trans. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, (Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1872) 151.&nbsp; 18&nbsp;Agnes Murgoci, “The Vampire in Roumania”, Folklore 37, no. 4 (1926): 320–49. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1926.9718370.&nbsp; 19 Enrique Salmón, Iwigara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science, (Portland: Timber Press, 2020) 211.&nbsp;