HERBAL MAGIC (Wortcunning)

Although herbs are used in magic today for everything from astral projection to finding a lover, they are much more extensively used in medicine. The history of herbal medicine dates back to when records began. Illustrated medical treatments have been found on Babylonian clay tablets dated about 3000 BC. In 2000 BC there is written evidence from China, Egypt, Assyria and India that herbal magic was practised then. Over thousands of years our ancestors would have, by trial and error, found out very early what plants were poisonous and what were not. They would have soon understood which ones made them feel better or worse, even though they may not have known why (we still don’t know everything about plants today). They would have found out what plants could be mixed with others to make them more palatable and interesting and whether the mixture itself had any properties.

Some plants would have been found to bestow a ‘magical’ effect, for example, ‘magic’ mushrooms, peyote (Mexican cactus), tobacco, alcohol, marijuana and opium. These became venerated and exalted in their own right, as they still are in some countries. Trees and other evergreens became worshipped because they lived so long and didn’t seem to get older and weaker, but bigger and stronger. Corn was also worshipped, unlike any other plant.

Corn is an old Anglo-Saxon collective word for grain or cereals grown for food, i.e. corn, wheat, maize and oats; in particular it was made into ‘the food of life’ - bread. It is still the chief cereal crop for both humans and animals (except for perhaps rice). Our early ancestors believed that within the corn plant lived a spirit or goddess who they personified as a ‘corn dolly’ was made from the last of the harvest (mentioned in a previous lesson). This goddess had to be kept alive over winter, for her spirit was needed to make sure the newly planted crop would be as abundant as the year before, or more so. Without a good harvest people would die. This is a very difficult concept for people to understand today with a shop on every street corner selling bread every day of the year for very little cost. Apart from making bread, cakes and pastries, corn was used to cure inflammations, swellings, wounds and ulcers. It was also used to make liquors.

What else is corn used for?

Back to home page--------