Easy Access Planetary Herbs

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by

Hadron Templeton
in , , , , ,

A lot of spells often require strange herbs that you’re unlikely to have in your kitchen or garden. So for a newby, this means getting started involves buying loads of herbs that you don’t have or going out foraging for them and trying to identify them in the wild. Either way, that gate keeps the entrance to the craft. Even when you do order them online there is often a tendency to swap things around… as Catherine Yronwode says in her book Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic, there is a tendency to swap green for green and brown for brown. So rather than leaving it expensive and a tough climb to get started here are some easy access herbs you can often find in your kitchen or supermarket.

In old spell books we talk about these plants as having certain “virtues”. This doesn’t mean they exhibit any moral behaviour it means they have a secret strength. That’s the actual original meaning of virtue. We get similar words such as virile (which means strong) from the same root. Those virtues are often classified in old spell books as having strengths which relate to different to planets. The older books focus only on the planets visible to the naked eye (being Mercury through to Saturn. Also including the sun instead of the earth because they’re looking at the sky and the moon because it too is visible and moves in similar cycles.

Please let me know if there are more uses for each planet that can easily be distinguished from other ones so I can add them if I think they’re evidence based and not UPG. Most of these plants are either taken from Agrippa or Scott Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of magical herbs, most of the uses are taken from Agrippa or the Greater Key of Solomon.

Moon

For spells of illusion, impressions, dreams, spells of female fertility, unlock doors, safety in journeys, protection from storms, safety at night, astral work, necromancy.

Metal: Silver
Colour: Purple
Herbs: Cabbage, potato, turnip, cucumber, lettuce, coconut, grapes, lemon, cotton, Jasmine (in jasmine tea, the tea is green tea the jasmine is the petals mixed in) and willow

Mercury

For spells of technology, communication, magic, healing, gaining knowledge, opening doors and legal matters

Metal: Mercury / Quicksilver
Colour: Orange
Herbs: Majoram, parsley, dill, fennel, almond, brazil nut, pecan, pistachio, celery, mint, peppermint, pomegranate and lavender

Venus

For spells of money and business, calling people to come, love and socialising

Metal: Copper
Colour: Green
Herbs: Thyme, apple, apricot, banana, pears, plum, berries, tomato (most fruits, but check the others), wheat, barley, buckwheat, corn, rye, pea, vanilla, daffodil, daisy and rose

Sun

For spells of healing, invisibility, enlightenment, freedom, travelling, acquiring kingdom and for male reproduction

Metal: Gold
Colour: Yellow
Herbs: Tea, bay leaves, rosemary, cinnamon, cashew, walnut, hazel, pineapple, lime, olive, rice, sesame, cedar and marigold

Mars

For spells of war, success in attacking and defence, protection from diseases, calling hail and storms

Metal: Iron
Colour: Red
Herb: Coriander, cumin, ginger, allspice, pepper, basil, radish, garlic, onion, shallots, mustard, carrot, chilli, pine, thistle, tobacco, nettle, oak and holly

Jupiter

For spells of obtaining empire, spells against poverty, obtaining treasure, protection from earthly dangers and divine visions

Metal: Tin
Colour: Blue
Herb: Sage, clove, nutmeg, chestnut, fig, maple and dandelion

Saturn

For spells of causing possession with demons, chasing away spirits protecting treasures, causing ruin, destruction and death, earthquakes, obtaining submission and giving someone just desserts/rewards.

Metal: Lead
Colour: Black
Herbs: Cypress, yew, ivy and pansies (most Saturnian plants are poisonous so don’t feature much in the kitchen)

What can be done with these?

Well, a combination of ingredients with the virtue of a single planet should cause the virtues to increase. The virtue is a strength. They can then be factured into a fetish or talisman, by tying them together into an object, or they can be added to a small bag similar in concept to a mojo bag or putsi bag. The bag could appropriate colour this need not be a premade bag but a bit of fabric held together with string would do. Then some symbols representing the desired outcome can be made. These can be made by writing the desire up in strange characters and overlapping them to make a single symbol and then simplifying. The magician or witch can breathe the breath of life into it to bring it to life like it was a creature. (This I call making a construct, servitor or thoughtform). Instead an plain oil can be infused with these herbs and then used to dress a candle. At the appropriate time the spells should be made and allowed for the energy in it to be lifted up to the planet which has been chosen. If it’s the right time that desire should radiate down and the desired effect is encouraged to manifest.

What is the good time?

Selecting the right time to do a spells is quite important for a beginner. Even as an advanced practitioner I sometimes do a spell with no regard for what day it is and later discover that my success or failure sometimes overlaps with good and bad timing respectively. A spell should either be done on the planetary day and time or at a time that is astrologically fortunate.

Planetary days and hours

This idea seems to come to modern magic via the 16th century Key of Solomon, but Jake Stratton Kent has mentioned that it shows up in some Greek Sorcery long before this as well. So it could be very old. It certainly existed in Hellenistic astrology. While it comes under heavy criticism by astronomers and the author of The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage it’s a good starting place for magical practitioners.

The easiest way to remember what day is what is to think back to your secondary school French class or Latin-based language class because most of the romanced languages retained the Roman associations for the days in their names for the days. English is better for the weekend. In English we actually had Norse associations, but they’re not particularly useful for planetary magic.

English NameMeaning of EnglishFrench NameMeaning of French NamePlanet
MondayMoon dayLundiLune di – Moon dayMoon
TuesdayTiw’s day (Tyr’s)MardiMars di – Mars dayMars
WednesdayWoden’s day (Odin’s)MercrediMercure di – Mercury dayMercury
ThursdayThor’s dayJeudiJove di – Jupiter dayJupiter
FridayFreya’s day (Frig’s)VendrediVénus di – Venus dayVenus
SaturdaySaturn daySamediSambat di – Sabbath daySaturnday
SundaySun dayDimancheDominica – of the LordSun

So to start with pick the right day, but also pick the right hour. This is where it gets tricky because although there is 24 hours they’re not evenly spaced. There are good apps for picking the hour here is a link to one. https://www.lunarium.co.uk/software/Hours.jsp

So the day is divided up into 12 equal planetary hours between rise and set and the night is also divided into 12 equal planetary hours between rise and set. So, if you have a short day then the hours will be shorter to fit in the 12.

Roughly around the equinoxes there is roughly equal hours of day and night so a normal system of 12 1-hour planetary hours works for day and night beginning at sunrise. (A note I should make before someone desperately jumps in to correct me, is that the curvature of the earth means that the rays of the sun bend. This is similar to when you hold a straight pencil at an angle through the surface of the water and it appears to be bent. The light of the sun also gets bent. So when you seen the sun on the horizon technically, it has actually passed the horizon it just doesn’t appear so giving the appearance of longer days. But this was the closest example I could give. The equinox days are a tiny bit longer than the nights due to this effect but on a day where this is the case then 1 hour long planetary hours works).

At the winter equinox when the sun appears to rise around 8am and set around 4pm, the 8 hours of day light are divided into 12 planetary hours each one being about 45mins starting at sunrise and the night time hours are 1 hour and 15 minutes starting at sunset. At summer solstice with a 5am to 9pm day this effect is reversed with the 16 hours of daylight divided into 12 equal planetary hours of 1 hour 15 minutes each and the 8 hours of night divided into 12 planetary hours of 45 minutes long each. This are all rough estimates and not to be taken as a measurement of actual sunrise/sunset times. Remember these times are different from location to location.

The first planetary hour of the day at sunrise matches the day and the rest of the hours follow in the reverse order of how quickly they appear to move across the sky. For example Saturday’s sunrise begins with a Saturn planetary hour, then Jupiter, then Mars, then the Sun, then Venus, then Mercury then the Moon and finally back to Saturn again and the cycle continues. Note that for the most part they go in order of getting closer to The Sun with the exceptions that the Sun is in the place of the earth, because its the earth’s movement around the Sun that gives the Sun’s apparent movement in the sky and the Moon is the last since it only takes 28 days to loop around the earth.

I will conclude with the reminder than you can just use an app it’s sooo much easier.

HourMondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridaySaturdaySunday
Sunrise (1)MoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSun
2SaturnSunMoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenus
3JupiterVenusSaturnSunMoonMarsMercury
4MarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSunMoon
5SunMoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturn
6VenusSaturnSunMoonMarsMercuryJupiter
7MercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSunMoonMars
8MoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSun
9SaturnSunMoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenus
10JupiterVenusSaturnSunMoonMarsMercury
11MarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSunMoon
12SunMoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturn
Sunset (13)VenusSaturnSunMoonMarsMercuryJupiter
14MercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSunMoonMars
15MoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSun
16SaturnSunMoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenus
17JupiterVenusSaturnSunMoonMarsMercury
18MarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSunMoon
19SunMoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturn
20VenusSaturnSunMoonMarsMercuryJupiter
21MercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSunMoonMars
22MoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSun
23SaturnSunMoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenus
24JupiterVenusSaturnSunMoonMarsMercury

Alternatively you could study astrology and pick a time when the planet is in a beneficial sign like one it rules / is at home or where it is exalted or you could pick a time when the planet is in the house where you want to manifest the change. For example for money you could pick a time when Venus (often used for money) is in the second house (often interpreted as relating to money) or maybe in Taurus. Some people treat the Sun as a power house and like to pick times when the planet is about 30 or 60 degrees around from the Sun so the Sun powers it. Often this think would suggest that full moon is not a good time for moon magic unless you’re try to avoid solar influence.

For example

For moon spells which could be done on Monday at sunrise (the 1st planetary hour) or 7 12ths of the day-time later (the 8th planetary hour) or 3 12ths into the night (the 15th planetary hour). I recommend days 4 and 6 and 8 and 10 of a moon cycle where the Moon is waxing, but around a 30-degree or 60-degree arc with the Sun so it can help the moon manifest. Also the Goetia makes a point of saying even waxing days are the best days or when the moon is in a sign or house that compliments the intended goal like in Cancer or the 4th house.