Love charms, potions and aphrodisiacs

For the day that is in it, I thought I would provide a list of plants that have been used for love charms, potions or as aphrodisiacs, both in Ireland and abroad.

Early dog violet- Viola reichenbachiana

Plants that had a nice scent e.g. mint were thought have some power in love charms. These love charms were often used to predict who the person was going to marry. Here are some examples of how plants were used in the past:

• If a girl placed nine yarrow leaves under her pillow while saying a charm she would dream of her husband that night.
• Shamrocks (Trifolium species) with four leaves are said to bring good luck, but in some areas of the UK, finding one meant that you would meet your true love.
• Honeysuckle brought into the house was thought to be a sure sign that a wedding would soon follow. And if it was brought into a girl’s bedroom she would dream of her true love. But in other parts of the UK and Ireland it is considered bad luck to bring  honeysuckle inside.
• If a boy saw you with St. John’s Wort in your hand, he was sure to fall in love with you.
• If a woman put a leaf of bracken in a man’s left shoe on St. John’s Eve, she would make him fall in love with her.
• Ivy had many uses in love charms, one of them being, if a man picked 10 ivy leaves, threw 1 away and slept with the rest under his pillow, he would see his future love.
• When blowing dandelion clocks (seed heads), the number of puffs it took to blow away all the seeds was the amount of years it was until you would be married.
• Violets are dedicated to St. Valentine and it is a symbol for fidelity. It was also used in love charms.
• In England girls would wear thyme, mint and lavender to attract men. This is probably because of the attractive scent.
• A dangerous love charm involved the poisonous hemlock. Dried hemlock was mixed with food, the one who ate this would fall in love with you in return… Do not try this one at home, as it is deadly poisonous.
• Field scabious was used in love divinations. A girl picked a few flowers of field scabious and gave each the name of a boy she fancied. The flower which opened the best would predict the name of her husband-to-be.

Some plants were believed to have the power to make a person fall in love, these were called love potions. Some examples of uses of plants in these potions include:

• Witches used creeping-cinquefoil in love potions and spells.
• Vervain and root of bracken were used in love potions in UK.
• Tubers of the purple orchid made a very powerful love potion. The person who drinks the drink would fall head over heels in love with the maker of the potion.

Aphrodisiacs are substances that increase sexual desire. Many of the plants thought to be aphrodisiacs are deadly poisonous. They include Deadly Nightshade and Hemlock. Other less deadly aphrodisiacs include garlic, horse-radish, wormwood, mustard, opium-poppy and parsley.

Sunspurge and nettles were used externally to enhance sexual pleasure, but they can also cause pain when they come in contact with skin.

Kissing under the mistletoe is usually reserved for Christmas, but why not try it on Valentine’s day for a change… the only downside being that it might be hard to find in the wild.

There is no scientific evidence that love charms or potions work, but it often seems to work if the person using it believes that it will work. A little bit like a placebo effect.

I’m not recommending you go out and try any of these love potions or charms potions this Valentine’s Day, but if ever you do so, please bear in mind that some of these plants can be very poisonous and deadly if handled or ingested, so please do some research beforehand.

Above all, have fun and enjoy your love of plants.

 

 

 

A visit to Biddy Early’s cottage

Most of you will probably be wondering, ‘Who is Biddy Early?’. I hadn’t heard of her myself until a few months ago. I did some research and found out she was a ‘wise woman’ and herbalist in the early 19th Century. Her old cottage is for sale and happened to be about a 20 minute drive from my parents’ house in County Clare, between the towns of Feakle and Tulla. So I decided to pay it a visit.

The cottage is accessed by a muddy path from the main road leading up to the house, which is on the side of a hill in an area with lots of trees. The house is in ruins, the only thing still standing is four ivy-clad walls and some of the window frames. The cottage was restored in 1970’s by a local man Dr. Bill Loughnane T.D., but due to lack of funding, it fell into disrepair again. Apparently nothing but misfortune followed him after restoring the cottage.

Biddy Early’s cottage

The most striking thing is the fact that still, people leave little tokens or gifts in the cottage. They ranged from tiny bottles of alcohol, a sleeping bag, coins, stones, candles, a metal box, a few blue bottles (more on these later) and even a little Darth Vader statue (I’m not sure why this was here).

Outside the cottage was a mount of freshly disturbed earth. I’m not sure where this came from, but there were coins on top and possibly mixed in with the soil too, as well as a few burnt out tealights. Also outside the cottage beside the path was a large broken blue bottle.

A lot of wild plants were growing in, on and around the cottage. Elder, which keeps away evil spirits and witches;

Elder

Ivy, a symbol of life and an ingredient in many folk cures

Hart’s tongue fern, which was used to cure burns and warts

Blackthorn; a symbol of strength and protection; hawthorn, the tree of the fairies and of magical and protective powers; beech, brambles, used to cure many ailments including skin complaints;

Scaly male fern

Honeysuckle, gorse and Lords-and-ladies. These are all plants that you would expect to see around any derelict house. I expect there to be many more plants which have not appeared yet, at this time of year.

 

Biddy’s history

She was born in 1798, and both her parents died when she was 16. She was married four times, including her son in law. Most of her husbands died of drink related illnesses. This was probably because there was always drink in the house. Due to Biddy never accepting payment for her cures, she mainly received alcohol and food.

In 1865 she was charged with witchcraft and brought before a court in Ennis. The case was dropped as witnesses refused to testify against her.

In April 1873 Biddy Early died in her two roomed cottage, aged 75.

Blue bottle history

Biddy came into possession of a glass blue bottle at some stage in her life, some say the fairies gave it to her other people say her mother, who she got her gift from, gave it to her by coming back from the dead. Whatever way she came to possess it, she could predict people’s future and see what ailed them. She poured liquid from another bottle to cure people. No-one ever knew what was in this, but it cured most illnesses of both people and their livestock (mostly cattle). However, She would only cure people that she knew were meant to be cured. Before her death, she asked a local priest to throw her blue bottle into the nearby lake, which he apparently did. People have searched for it, but it has never been found.

Biddy had a well at the side of her house, the water from which is said to have magical powers, and if given with her consent could cure a person of any affliction

The curse of Biddy Early

There is a story that Biddy Early cursed the Clare hurling team. The curse was supposed to stop the team from winning the All-Ireland for more that eighty years. However, Bill Loughnane, who later bought Biddy’s cottage, wrote to the Irish Times after Clare ‘broke’ the curse by winning the 1995 championship.

He wrote, “Biddy Early is fondly remembered in Co Clare as an extraordinary woman who devoted her time to comforting and healing the sick. She is not known ever to have cursed anyone. She experienced some difficulty with one local clergyman of the day who, for reasons of his own, would have her labelled a ‘witch’ … Biddy Early died in 1875 before the foundation of the GAA and long before there was any inter-county competition!”

Some people say that they can still feel a good presence in the house. Whether this lingers from all the visitors, or from Biddy herself, I do not know. You might have to visit yourself to find out.

You can find a photo of the restored cottage in 1970 here: http://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/feakles-biddy-early-a-victim-of-moral-panic/

To find the location, use the photos in the property page, which you can find here:

http://www.daft.ie/clare/houses-for-sale/feakle/dromore-feakle-clare-574749/

For further reading, see this website:

http://www.independent.ie/style/sex-relationships/biddy-early-witch-or-woman-ahead-of-her-time-26683760.html

There are also two books published on Biddy Early:

E. Lenihan, In search of Biddy Early (Cork, 1987).

M. Ryan, Biddy Early—wise woman of Clare (Cork, 1978).