Friendship
Lemon Balm is bound to the moon and water. It is used in spells associated with healing, health, friendship, love, and success. Historically, it is a symbolic plant used to transmit messages between lovers.
- Latin name: Melissa officinalis
- Folk or Common names: Melissa, Sweet Balm, Balm Mint, Bee Balm, Blue Balm, Cure-all, Dropsy Plant, Garden Balm, Sweet Balm
- Ruler: Venus, Jupiter, Diana
- Planet: Moon or Neptune
- Gender: Feminine
- Element: Water
- Parts Used: Leaves, Essential Oil
- Tarot Card: The Chariot
- Basic powers: Love potions, aphrodisiacs, fertility anti-depressant.
Lemon Balm is used in spells to bring animal healing, compassion, endings, fertility, happiness, healing, longevity, love, mental, prosperity, psychic, release, success,and youth.
Lemon Balm has a long history, dating back to ancient Turkey where it was planted near bee hives to encourage the bees to return home to the hive rather than swarm away. It’s name, Melissa officinalis, is derived from the Greek word Melissa, meaning honeybee, and it was planted and used by the beekeepers of the Temple of Artemis to help keep the sacred honeybees content.
In ancient times Lemon Balm was planted by ones front door to drive away evil spirits. It is an herb which attracts, and is sometimes made into a charm and worn to bring a lover into one’s life.
Lemon balm (as herb or essential oil) may be used in as an ingredient or substitute for magick spells and formulas related to lunar matters (compassion, dreams, family, fertility, gardening, healing, love, peace, promoting sleep, prophecy, prophetic (or psychic) dreams), psychic awareness, sleep, and spirituality).
Lemon Balm was carried into Europe through Spanish trade routes, eventually making its way into the monastic gardens through out Europe. It was included in the formula for Carmelite water, a drink and perfume developed and closely guarded by the Carmelite friars and used as a drink to ward off nervous headaches and as a perfume to bring good cheer while masking strong odors in medieval and renaissance Europe.
Considered sacred to Diana, it is believed that it was once used in her temples. lemon balm was called “heart’s delight” in southern Europe. A tea made of the leaves brings calm, which is appropriate for magickal students while preparing for ritual work. Lemon Balm may also be used as a bathing herbe toward a variety of goals. It may be used as part of the ritual process of invoking the Goddess.
Writers over the centuries have praised lemon balm for its ability to dispel melancholy and in aromatherapy it is used to combat depression. Its pleasing scent makes it a popular ingredient in herbal pillows, often used to promote relaxation and sound sleep. Lemon balm is associated with the energies of the moon and used to help balance emotions, allowing us to perceive our feelings without becoming wrapped up in them.
Drink as an infusion to soothe emotional pains after a relationship ends. For magickal purposes, balm is ideally suited for healing those who suffer from mental or nervous disorders. It is also very useful for those of sound mind who need to keep their mental processes in superior condition.
Carry Lemon Balm in a charm or sachet to find love, or burn it as an incense when doing spells related to success. Drink as a Tea to ease emotional pain after the break-up of a relationship or other personal hurt.
Soak leaves in wine for several hours, strain, then share the wine with the object of your affection to influence love. Historically, it is a symbolic plant used to transmit messages between lovers.
It may be used when sharing a ritual bath with one’s partner; or it may be used to find the fulfillment of one’s personal desires. This usage of lemon balm opens one to the divine love of the Goddess, but is also believed to add energy to one’s being which makes you more appealing in the world of love and romance.
Lemon Balm guides us as we traverse the misty emotional state of the Moon and enables us to view our emotions and feelings without getting lost in them. Lemon Balm sachets placed under your pillow or near the bed are reputed to provide a refreshing, relaxing sleep. In folklore, Lemon Balm was used to ward off evil, and to promote good health, love, and good cheer.
Lemon Balm’s presence is quiet and strong. Running through the soil like her minty cousins, she spreads just under the surface with steady, clear intention. In this way, she reminds us good cheer and sunny confidence will proliferate even when we’re not aware of their presence on the surface of our lives. Lemon Balm magic is the magic of quiet, steady trust.
Lemon Balm’s effect on honeybees, attracting them and encouraging them to remain in their hives, reminds us to nurture our homes, our friends and family, our communities. Through the simple act of contributing to our household, we nurture ourselves. In this way, Lemon Balm asks us to seek joy and peace in the mundane tasks of life as a way of self-nurturing.
Thriving in both sun and shade, soils of a wide pH, dry and damp conditions, Lemon Balm teaches versatility, particularly in how we grow. If Lemon Balm has popped up in your life, it may be time to ask yourself what conditions are present in your life that you must embrace to thrive. Has a challenge surfaced that you resist? Have you identified an aspect of your life that feels unbearable, burdensome, like a whole lotta work? Lemon Balm can help you identify the trouble and find ways to adapt and thrive amidst it, or maybe in spite of it.
I like to think of Lemon Balm magic as the magic of relax-its-only-life. That’s the feeling I get from bruising her leaves and taking in her scent. However melancholy I may feel, whatever darkness or heaviness seems to plague my life, the scent of Melissa officinalis always brings a smile to my lips. Lemon Balm magic is the magic of steady, calm, persistent, good cheer.
Collected from a variety of sources including Herbal Riot
- Ruler: Venus
- Type: Flower
- Magickal Form: Flower, oil
The Sweet Pea is the flower often associated with the month of April. Work with this flower or oil to increase your vulnerability and openness. Sweet Pea helps to break down emotional barriers and walls of defense It is a great ingredient for lonely people who shut themselves off from others. Use to attract friends who are trustworthy.
Sweet pea oil is one of the most beautiful of all scents. It is worn to attract strangers of all kinds, some of whom may become lovers or friends. Wear as a personal oil.
From: The Encyclopedia of Magickal Ingredients and other sources
- Nature Spirits: Snow faeries, Storm faeries, Winter Tree Faeries
- Herbs: Holly, English Ivy, Fir, Mistletoe
- Colors: Blood Red, White and Black
- Flowers: Holly, Poinsettia, Christmas Cactus
- Scents: Violet, Patchouli, Rose Geranium, Frankincense, Myrrh, Lilac
- Stones: Serpentine, Jacinth, Peridot
- Trees: Pine, Fir, Holly
- Animals: Mouse, Deer, Horse, Bear
- Birds: Rook, Robin, Snowy Owl
- Deities: Hathor, Hecate, Neith, Athena, Minerva, Ixchel, Osiris, Norns, Fates
Power Flow:
To endure, die and be reborn. Earth tides turning. Darkness. Personal alchemy. Spiritual paths, Reach out to friends and family, the lonely and needy.
From: Moon Magic
Art by Jane Haworth
- Scientific Name: Galianthus nivalis
- Common Names: Fair Maid of February; Bulbous Violet; Emblem of Early Spring; Maids of February; Candlemas Bells; Mary’s Tapers; Moly
- Type: Flower
- Parts Commonly Used: The flower
- Basic Powers: Hope, Friendship in adversity, Passing of sorrow,
Snowdrops are often assigned to the month of January, and I’m not sure why because these little flowers are also known as “Candlemas Bells”. February 2nd is Candlemas (Festival Day of Candles), and Imbolc. The ancient festival marks the midpoint of winter and some recognize it as the last day of the forty day Christmas season. In the catholic tradition, candles were brought into the church and blessed as a symbol of hope and light. In a time of no electric lights, candlelight offered great protection and comfort during the dark days of winter.
By producing their own heat, snowdrops actually melt the snow in their surroundings. Like candles, Snowdrops offer us our own light of hope in the grey of winter days. They are the emblems of friendship in adversity, harbingers of spring.
The first sight of snowdrops growing wild represents the passing of sorrow. In various religions, they are a sign from the gods that good times will come once more. According to one Christian tale, an angel turned falling snowflakes into flowers to give Adam and Eve a sign of hope after evicting them from the Garden of Eden.
The fact that snowdrops are often found, in abundance, in the old convent gardens, it was believed that this little white flower was sacred to virgins. For this reason, it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In some places, during the Candlemas celebration, it was customary for young women, wearing white gowns, to walk in procession carrying snowdrops in their hands.
It was often said that any one wearing a snowdrop would have only pure and lofty thoughts; and that if a young girl ate the first snowdrop she found in spring, neither sun nor wind would tan her that summer.
The snowdrop flower – which is well loved not only for its simple beauty, but for its distinct, honey-like scent – has a surprisingly varied history in both ancient folklore and more modern storytelling. In Grimm brother’s original version of the fairy tale nowadays known as Snow White, the main character’s name was actually Snow Drop.
Every spring on March 1, the national Moldovan holiday, is celebrated. On this day people present each other with the traditional flowers. One of the old Moldovan legend says that once in a fight with the winter witch, that didn’t want to give up its place, the beautiful lady Spring cut her finger and few drops of her blood fell on the snow, which melted. Soon on this place grew a snowdrop and in such a way the spring won the winter.
However, in some folklore, snowdrops are seen as unlucky. The reason for this is perhaps that they often grow in cemeteries and churchyards. Along with other white flowers, superstition says it is courting disaster to bring snowdrops into the house. To do so is to invite death into the home, can mean the parting of a loved one and, in the west country, is thought to cause eggs to turn addled. One should never even pick wild snowdrops, especially from a graveyard. The sight of a single snowdrop blooming in the garden foretells of impending disaster.
According to Are You Superstitious, by Lore Cowan, it is particularly unlucky to bring snowdrops, or “Candlemas bells”, into the house on February 2nd, which is Candlemas, or Imbolc, and if you wish to be married within the year you should not bring them into the house on Valentine’s Day, 14th February.
Snowdrops have their use in medicine. The alkaloid Galantamine, which was first isolated from snowdrops, has been used to treat Alzheimer’s disease, neuritis and neuralgia. In parts of eastern Europe, rubbing snowdrops on the forehead was at one time a folk remedy used as pain relief.
Andreas Plaitakis and Roger Duvoisin in 1983 suggested that the mysterious magical herb moly that appears in Homer’s Odyssey is actually snowdrop. An active substance in snowdrop is called galantamine, which, as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, could have acted as an antidote to Circe’s poisons.
Note: This post was compiled by Shirley Twofeathers for Magical Ingredients, you may repost and share without karmic repercussions, but only if you give me credit and a link back to this website. Blessed be.
- Nature Spirits: Dryads
- Herbs: Chamomile, St. Johns wort, bay angelica, fennel, rue, orange
- Colors: Yellow, gold
- Flowers: Sunflower, marigold
- Scents: Frankincense, heliotrope
- Stones: Cat’s eye, carnelian, jasper, fire agate
- Trees: Hazel, alder, cedar
- Animals: Lion, phoenix, sphinx, dragon
- Birds: Crane, falcon, eagle
- Deities: Ganesha, Thoth, Hathor, Diana, Hecate, Nemesis
Power Flow:
Energy into harvesting; gathering, appreciating. Vitality, health. Friendships.
From: Moon Magic
Art by Jane Haworth