Skip to main content

Where Rosemary Flourishes - Rosemary Herb Lore in Hoodoo

hoodoo voodoo rosemary herb for witchcraft

Among unpleasant memories of magical practice is an occasion where I shared the circa 1920 recipe for Van Van I had seen in the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum on a hoodoo forum, and got laughed out of the room because it contained rosemary.

"Rosemary's for female domination!"

This idea has been popularized by Catherine Yronwode, attributing it to stem from a saying "Where rosemary flourishes, the lady rules." (The same are said about sage and parsley.) H.U. Lampe's 1974 book Famous Voodoo Rituals and Spells might be the source of the information, for he writes:

"Where Rosemary Flourishes, The Lady Rules", is an ancient saying. Rosemary is kept under the bed to insure faithfulness. Fore (sic) causing prophetic dreams, Rosemary is dipped into a mixture of vinegar, rum, water, gin, and wine. This is kept near the bed. Before retiring say, "Tibi impero ut quoedam viluero et velim adimpleos et facias."

The saying is originally English. A 1905 magazine offers some suggested reasons behind the saying, and the oldest version of it I've seen is in the originally circa 1860 Language and Sentiment of Flowers, which book remarks on its use in wedding bouquets and funeral wreaths (because it symbolizes or stimulates memory) before going on to remark:

There was a wide spread belief in the efficacy of the herb as a counter charm against witchcraft; the reason, probably, for its use at weddings and burials, and for its presence in the dock of the accused in courts of justice. The Portuguese called it Alicrum or Elfin plant and in Spain it is still worn as an antidote to the evil eye.

That the Spanish preferred it for protection and cleansing is likely the key to the alternative use as an ingredient in hoodoo for purification and luck-drawing purposes (the two being almost the same concept in older hoodoo -- you'll be lucky as long as you're free from curses.)

The early mentions of using rosemary this way tend to turn up from around the New Orleans area (where there was some significant Spanish influence due to Spain governing the area; an experiment called Spanish Louisiana.) Zora Neale Hurston recommends it in a few lucky recipes, such as this one for Fast Scrubbing Essence:

A mixture of thirteen oils. It is burned with incense for fish-fry luck, i.e., business success. it includes:
Essence cinnamon
Essence wintergreen
Essence geranium
Essence bergamot
Essence orange flowers, used also in initiation baths
Essence lavender, used also in initiation baths
Essence anice (sic)
Essence St. Michael
Essence rosemary
Talking of more recent workings, rosemary is used in hispanic magic spells to the extent of being a talismanic herb all of its own. You can buy a scented Rosemary Candle with a prayer to the Rosemary:

Holy Rosemary, ye that possess the divine powers of cleansing, healing, purifying and protecting, help me rid my home, work and family of all spells, jinx, envy and incantations, placed upon them. With your natural protective powers be my shield against my enemies, that no evil shall reach my properties or their surroundings. I have faith in you and in the Lord that you will guard us day and night.
 
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Cut and Clear Purification Spell - White Witchcraft to Forget the Past

The time has come. You're over and done with that relationship. It could be a romance, a friendship, a business partnership -- any sort of connection really. But now you're done, and you want all ties severed. This spell helps clear up any lingering energies and makes people let go of past feelings. You need: 1 bottle Jinx Removing salt Lemon verbena leaves Purification oil or Cut and Clear oil Personal or representational items of the person(s) you are removing yourself from (names and photos are easy) Purification incense 4 white candles You will also need to make your own Cut and Clear bath salt. For this you'll need about 1/2 cup epsom salt to which you add 5 drops each lemongrass oil, lemon or melissa oil, and rue or rosemary oil. It's important to make this salt yourself with only oils (no herbs) because we want it to run clean down the drain with no residue left behind to be cleaned up. Many spiritual bath blends contain herbal matter and curio...
Read more

Paper-in-Shoe Spells

A popular and very traditional hoodoo spell, often used for any situation where you need to control someone with magic , is the namepaper-in-shoe spell. It's very easy: you write the target's name 3, 7, or 9 times on a paper (depending on intent and who's giving instruction) then fold it up, sometimes after dressing it with oils or powders, then put it in your shoe. This "keeps the person underfoot" or "stomps out the trouble" or "puts pressure on them" or any other number of metaphors. I have had this work several times over the years. In one instance, I was working for a very unpleasant boss, on a short-term job. It was the last day, and I only had about 3 hours of work left on the project; and I wanted him to up my pay for the day since it almost wasn't worth the trip across town for the amount he was paying me, for only 3 hours. He was very reluctant. So I wrote his name 3 times on a 5-dollar bill he'd given me, and dusted it...
Read more

Ammonia - A Spiritual Cleansing Agent for Magick

Ammonia is a strong cleansing agent in hoodoo magick, both physically and spiritually. In Edwardian times it was advised as an old home remedy for a nerve tonic (see recipe below.)  "Household ammonia" or "ammonium hydroxide" is a solution of NH3 in water. Household ammonia ranges in concentration from 5 to 10 weight percent ammonia. The Romans called the ammonium chloride deposits they collected from near the Temple of Amun (Greek Ἄμμων Ammon) in ancient Libya 'sal ammoniacus' (salt of Amun) because of proximity to the nearby temple of Amun, the chief god of ancient Thebes. Salts of ammonia have been known from very early times; thus the term Hammoniacus sal appears in the writings of Pliny, although it is not known whether the term is identical with the more modern sal-ammoniac (ammonium chloride). In the form of sal-ammoniac (nushadir) ammonia was important to the Muslim alchemists as early as the 8th century, first mentioned by the arab chemist...
Read more

The Intranquil Spirit

(EDIT: Up to date information about the Intranquil Sprit can be found in my book  The Intranquil Spirit , available on Amazon.  This post has some incomplete information which is clarified in the book.) The Intranquility spell is, unfortunately, the first resort of many a rejected lover. In some ways it makes sense -- the more unhappy and forlorn one is about a breakup, the better this idea of making the other partner feel just as much so starts to sound. Unfortunately, this spell is often not well suited to a case. The purpose of the standard Intranquility spell is to have the person be tormented by the spirit until they make contact with you, or whomever the spell is being cast for. This means that if a person is already in good contact with their ex OR if they're one of those people who cannot restrain themselves from initiating contact, then this already is probably not the right spell for that case. If you've had an Intranquility spell cast and you make contac...
Read more

Planetary Hours and How To Use Them for Magic Spells and Conjure Work

The Planetary Hours are a belief that sections of each day are ruled by certain heavenly bodies, and that these times of day can be utilized by those who understand their secrets to improve success in certain types of ventures. Folks like Jim Haskins and Tarostar have printed slightly incorrect versions of "Venus Hours" which have been popularly repeated: the claim that 2 AM, 9 AM, 4 PM and 11 PM on a Sunday, 6 AM, 1 PM and 8 PM on Monday, etc, are Venus Hours is wrong. This is a problem that goes back to the 18th century at least -- the Petit Albert itself mentions the mistake. The error stems from the notion that planetary hours align to hours on the clock -- they do not. As the Albert puts it: "In order that there be no mistakes about the hours that each planet rules [...] one needs to reckon the first hour from the sunrise, and not by midnight, as some people have erroneously claimed." In other words, the planetary hours are reckoned by a solar clock. T...
Read more