My Guide to Herbs

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HAWTHORNE: Magickal uses include chastity, fertility, fairy magick, fishing magick, and rebirth. Also used for success in matters related to career, work, and employment. Place around the bedroom or carry to enforce or maintain chastity or celibacy. Sacred to the fairy. Used to decorate maypoles. Used in weddings and handfastings to increase fertility. Wear while fishing to ensure a good catch. Wear or carry to promote happiness and protect against lightning. Keep in a house to repel ghosts and evil spirits. An infusion of the herb used to wash floors will remove negative vibrations.

Also Called: Hawthorne, Haw, May Bush, May Tree, Mayblossom, Mayflower, Quickset, Thorn-apple Tree, Whitethorn, Bread and Cheese Tree, Quick, Gazels, Ladies' Meat

HAY: Pregnancy and fertility

HEAL ALL: Uses includes all purpose healing and successful gambling.

HEATHER: Protection, luck, and immortality. Dip in water and sprinkle it around in a circle to bring rain. Carry in sachets or charms to protect against rape and other violent crimes. Hang or use in home decorations to promote peace. Burn with fern to bring rain.

Also Called: Ling, Scotch Heather

HELIOTROPE: Cheerfulness, gaiety, prosperity, and protection. Use in rituals of Drawing Down the Sun or in magickal workings requiring strengthening of the solar aspects of the self. Place under the pillow to induce prophetic dreams. It is said that if you sleep with fresh heliotrope under your pillow, you will dream of the person that has stolen from your home.

Also Called: Turnsole, Cherry Pie

HEMLOCK: Use to paralyze a situation. Note: Highly poisonous, do not consume.

HENBANE: Dried leaves are used in the consecration of ceremonial vessels. Used in love sachets and charms to gain the love of the person desired. Thrown into water to bring rain.

Also Called: Hogs Bean, Devil's Eye, Henbells, Sukran

HENNA: Attracts love if worn close to the heart. Wear to ward off the evil eye and provide protection from illnesses. Also a great hair coloring agent.

HIBISCUS: Attracting love and lust, divination, and dreams. Carry in a sachet or burn as incense to attract love.

Also Called: Kharkady

HICKORY: Legal matters, love, lust, and protection

HIGH JOHN: An ''all purpose'' herb, the uses of High John include strength, confidence, conquering any situation, obtaining success, winning at gambling, luck, money, love, health, and protection. Useful in all ritual work pertaining to prosperity. Wash hands in an infusion of the herb before playing games of chance.

Also Called: High John the Conqueror, John the Conqueror, Jalap Root

HOLLY: Marriage, dream magick, luck, and love. Planted around the outside of the home for protection. Used as a decoration at Yule. When carried by men, is thought to heighten masculinity.

Also Called: Tinne, Bat's Wings, Hulm, Hulver Bush, Holm Chaste

HOLLY HOCKS: Increase success in the material world, increase flow of money, or acquire new possessions. Grown near the home to help the success of the family flourish.

HONEY: For attraction and solar magick.

HONEYSUCKLE: Draws money, success, and quick abundance; Aids persuasiveness and confidence, sharpens intuition. Ring green candles with honeysuckle flowers or use honeysuckle in charms & sachets to attract money. Crush the flowers and rub into the forehead to enhance psychic powers.

Also Called: Woodbine, Jin Yin Hua, Dutch Honeysuckle, Goat's Leaf

HOPS: Relaxing and sleep producing; a fantastic herb for dream pillows. Believed to increase the restfulness & serenity of sleep. Also used for healing rituals, sachets, and incense.

Also Called: Beer Flower, Hop Flower

HOREHOUND: Sacred to Horus. Protective; helps with mental clarity during ritual; stimulates creativity/inspiration; balances personal energies. Excellent for use in home blessings. Place near doorways to keep trouble away.

Also Called: White Horehound, Hoarhound, Marrubium, Bugleweed

HORSESHOE CHESTNUT: Magickal uses include money and healing.

Also Called: Buckeye

HYACINTH: Promotes peace of mind and peaceful sleep. Attracts love, luck, and good fortune. Named for Hiakinthos, Greek God of homosexual love, this is the patron herb for gay men. Guards against nightmares when used as an oil, burned as incense, or included in dream pillows. Carry in amulet or sachet to ease grief or the pain of childbirth.

HYDRANGEA: Hex-breaking, love drawing, bringing back a lover, fidelity, and binding.

HYSSOP: The most widely used purification herb in magick. Lightens vibrations and promotes spiritual opening; used for cleansing and purification. Said to protect property against burglars and trespassers. Used to consecrate magickal tools or items made of tin. The best herb for physical cleansing and washing of temple, ritual tools, or oneself (bath magick). Add to baths & sachets, infuse and sprinkle on objects/people for cleansing or hang in the home to purge it of evil & negativity.

Also Called: Yssop, Ysopo