SATURDAY SATIRE: Folk Names


 

Saturday Satire: Folk Names

I’m dedicating my Saturday post to dispelling myths about witches, witchcraft, pagans, and magic. I hope you enjoy reading them.

Folk names for herbs have been used for centuries, and there are many to describe herbs and spices. One of the reasons for this is that different regions would have different names for the same plants. Another reason is that it helped protect the livelihood of the witch or healer because they would be the only ones who really knew what was in their potions.

Let’s say you boiled a spike, some gold, an Englishman’s foot, and some amber in a pot of oil and beeswax and slathered it on your skin. It probably wouldn’t do anything for you and might even make you sick. But if you knew that spike=lavender, gold=marigold, Englishman’s foot=plantain, and amber=St. John’s wort, then you could make a decent ointment for bug bites.

Sadly, some of these names were most likely used to condemn innocent people during the burning times. For those who don’t know, the burning times refers to the period in Europe when witch hunts were rampant. Thousands of people were convicted of witchcraft and burned at the stake during this time. No one knows how many were witches, but we know the majority were innocent of any wrongdoing. Anyone who used things like tongue of dog (houndstongue), devil’s plaything (yarrow), and from the loins (chamomile) to make “potions” would have been easy prey for a bloodthirsty mob. So many people were killed because of foolish things like this, and so much knowledge was lost. It was a truly dark time in human history.

While things have gotten better for witches, there is still a lot of fear that surrounds us. I hope you realize this is one less thing to be afraid of. Blessed be.

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