verbascum
thapus
verbascum thapsus
Scrophularace
LORE
Protection
Purification
Religious
INVOCATORY
Circe
Odysseus
Ulysses
FOLK NAMES
Aaron's Rod
Blanket Leaf
Candlewick Plant
Clot
Doffle
Feltwort
Flannel Plant
Graveyard Dust
Hag's Tapers
Hedge Taper
Jupiter's Staff
Lady's Foxglove,
Old Man's Fennel
Peter's Staff
Shepherd's Club
Shepherd's Herb
Torches
Velvetblack
Velvet Plant
GENDER: Feminine
PLANET: Saturn
ELEMENT: Fire
DEITY: Jupiter
POWER
Courage
Protection
Health
Love
Divination
Exorcism
The down on the leaves and stem makes excellent tinder
when quite dry, readily igniting on the slightest spark,
and was, before the introductin of cotton, used
for lamp wicks, hence another of the old names,
'Candlewick plant.' An old superstition existed that
witches in their incantations used lamps and candles
provided with wicks of this sort.
Grieve in
A Modern Herbal goes on to write:
Both in Europe and Asia the power of driving away
evil spirits was ascribed to the Mullein.
In India it has the reputation among
the natives that the St. John's Wort once had here,
being considered a sure safeguard against
evil spirits and magic, and from the ancient classics
we learn that it was this plant which Ulysses took
to protect himself against the wiles of Circe.
According to Frazer in
The Golden Bough,
an old, pagan custom which long survived
in western France involved passing mullein
through Midsummer's Eve bonfire.
The mullein would protect the herds and the ashes
from the fire were considered most magickal.
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