Let’s look at fantastic lavender’s magical properties and a few magickal things you can do with this herb.
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At the beginning of January 2023, Magickal Spot partnered with and acquired an incredible website Witchipedia.com, founded by Dawn Black. Dawn created Witchipedia in 2006 as an online reference and collection of magical and spiritual information and resources for Witches, Pagans, Heathens, and anyone on a magical spiritual path.
Since our websites merged, some of our articles also had to merge.
Below you’ll find Dawn’s thoughts on this topic as well.
What is Lavender?
Lavender is a branched, woody, and very fragrant shrub, which can reach 60 cm in height.
It is an evergreen aromatic plant and is present in almost all the coastal areas of the Mediterranean.
The flowers are harvested at the beginning of flowering, severing them at the base. It is antiseptic, antidepressant, antispasmodic, it can heal, helps with the digestive system, and can be used in tonics.
Its name derives from the Latin verb standing for cleaning, and washing because the flower was used to perfume water for washing.
Its mild scent, which even today in many families impregnates sheets and towels, and the delicate color of the flowers radiate serenity and freshness.
The perfume, together with the clean vibes, has evoked the symbol of virtue and purity of the soul.
Let’s Take a Look at Lavender Magical Properties
Lavender has always been used in magic rituals for its calming, sedative and peacemaking effects, as an aid in the purification rituals of the rooms, especially in the reception of the new born.
It is auspicious. It is indicated as a decorative herb of the Altar during the Litha (the midsummer solstice, 21 June) and for Lunghnassadh (1 August).
In the Handfasting (the neo-pagan union ritual), lavender plays the role of protector of marriage, bringing love and fertility.
It is woven into the bride’s crown, added to the dishes, especially in the wedding cake, and drunk in the ritual cup.
If it’s planted around the house it gives protection and serenity, it helps to calm the spirit and to remove the bad moods. It is used to prepare candles and pillows. It helps to sleep peacefully.
Purification
Lavender is a potent plant, used in purification rites, to ward off negativity, misfortune and bad mood.
Peace and love
Furthermore, it promotes happiness, love, the attainment of inner peace. If used together with other herbs, it enhances their effectiveness.
Protection
It protects the inhabitants and is made to dry in a bunch and hung behind the front door. If worn, it protects from the evil eye.
Lavender has always been used in rituals and love bags. The flowers, if burned, combine sleep, if scattered around the house give tranquility.
Serenity
It is an antidepressant herb.
It is even said that just looking at it can bring serenity to restless souls, perhaps also thanks to its color.
The stems can be burned like incense sticks to eliminate the smell of smoke from the house, perfume the environment, and purify it of negative energies.
In magic, the plant, thanks to its purifying and defensive virtues, is perfect in the preparation of incense and similar mixtures.
It is said to be functioning in attraction spells like Success and Fortune, and in fighting love ligaments.
What Else Can You Do With Lavender?
Lavender Incense Recipe
You can collect the stems to make batches of them to burn them as incense.
You must put them together with some thread to get a torch.
Once lit on a high flame, you must put it out shortly after (in about one or two minutes).
It will make a dense and bluish aromatic smoke.
The dried leaves can be used as a bed to place embers or burning-incense coals.
Lavender Purification Bath from Negativity
Boil a handful of angelica, hypericum, lavender, and rosemary flowers in a liter of water, and leave to infuse for ten minutes, then turn off the heat and leave to cool.
Finally, filter and add the mixture to your bath.
It is important to stay in the warm water as long as possible and repeat the bath every day for a week, in case you feel threatened by negative events, envy, etc.
Lavender Oil
Soak fresh flowering tops harvested in the balsamic period (July-August) in extra-virgin olive oil (possibly organic and cold-pressed).
Close the oil in a glass jar and expose it to sunlight for a month, shaking it once a day.
After a month, filter and squeeze the flowers, and store the oil in bottles/jars of dark glass, keeping them in the dark and dry place.
This oil can be used to grease candles, but also to cleanse the skin of impurities, to soothe the itching of insect bites. It also helps in case of redness, irritation, abrasion, and burns.
Friendship Bag
To strengthen a friendship, take white silk or cotton cloth, sew it on the sides and close it with a ribbon of the same color.
Inside the bag place seven chamomile heads, a lilac ribbon, three ears of lavender, a piece of pink quartz. Share it with your friend.
Child Protection Talisman
Collect three oak twigs, three pine branches, and some spikes of lavender, combine them with a wire, then tie them with a red ribbon.
Under the talisman, attach silver-colored bells to call the fairies to protect your children.
A Chant to Honor Lavender
“I feel Peace, Calm, Security, and Love.
I can forgive widely.
I have power over my thoughts: I don’t allow my thoughts to accelerate.
I am sure: my individuality expands freely.
I look at life with benevolence and gratitude. I love and accept everything in life.
I accept and forgive the past. I am peaceful and harmonious.
I am like the new dawn of every day: my thoughts are renewed, clean, fresh and bright.
I welcome the new and easily assimilate new ideas and attitudes.
Everything is changing in life … I, like the tree, let the original circulate like new sap in me
I know that the ways and paths of love can change, but love never changes in its essence, nor is it ever lost.
Thank you lavender for your heavenly scent (Repeat this three times).”
Final Thoughts
Lavender is beautiful to see and amazing to use to make some natural magic and work on some areas of your life in which you struggle the most like inner peace, negative vibes, and self-love.
Use it, and you won’t regret it!
Dawn’s Thoughts on The Lavender
Lavender (Lavandula spp) is an aromatic member of the mint family native to the Mediterranean region, Northern and Eastern Africa and parts of India.
It bears fragrant purple, white or blue flowers nearly all summer long and into autumn. The plant is a low-growing shrub with multiple stems and spikes of flowers [1].
History and Folklore
Some of the earliest recorded uses of lavender are by the Roman soldiers who used the wild-growing plant to perfume their bathwater and wash their clothes.
Because of the association with clothes-washing, medieval English washerwomen were referred to as lavenders. The poorest of these women were reputedly also prostitutes, and so the word came to have a double-meaning. One anonymous 16th-century poet wrote:
Thou shalt be my lavender
To wash and clean all my gear
Our two beds shall be set
Without any let
In Spain and Portugal, lavender was traditionally strewn on the floor of churches or thrown into bonfires to avert evil spirits on St. John’s Day. In Tuscany, pinning a sprig of lavender to your shirt is a traditional ward against the evil eye [3].
Propagation
Most lavenders prefer a warm, sunny spot with well-drained soil. Lavender is a plant that doesn’t like its “feet wet” so well-drained soil is of the utmost importance. It will tolerate some drought and heat quite well, however. Most lavenders will grow well throughout the Southwestern United States, but more Northerly regions may have trouble.
Plant your lavender where it will get full sun but be sheltered from harsh winds and not be in a drain path. Space the plants well apart to allow air circulation. It should be fed some compost the first year to get it started; After that, ignore it except for providing some protection from cold and wet.
A thick layer of mulch after the first frost will protect the roots in areas where repeated thawing and freezing may stress the plant.
For the best fragrance and essential oil production, the soil should be nutrient-poor and alkaline.
Lavender is a good companion for fruit trees, rue and any plant that might be troubled by whitefly or that would benefit from bees and other pollinating insects lavender attracts.
Lavender grows reasonably well in pots and can be brought indoors in cold or wet weather. It doesn’t need a big pot. Just an inch or two wider than the root ball is sufficient.
The important thing is that the pot drains well. Mix your potting soil with equal parts sand and put a layer of loose gravel in the bottom of the pot before adding your soil. This will encourage drainage. Water when the soil feels dry and try not to wet the leaves. Make sure your lavender plant gets plenty of sun.
Harvesting & Storage
For the best quality herb, harvest lavender flowers just as buds are beginning to open. Cut long stems and braid them into a lavender wand or hang them to dry individually.
Magical Attributes
Lavender is masculine in action and associated with Mercury in Culpeper’s Herbal. It is also associated with the element of air and the astrological sign Virgo.
It may be used as an asperging herb (to sprinkle water for purification purposes) and dried lavender sticks or wands can be burnt like incense.
It is also useful in spells to sharpen the mind, to encourage or strengthen pure love and to encourage fertility.
Household Use
Lavender deters fleas and moths. Place sachets of lavender buds or lavender wands in cupboards and closets or stuff them into pet bedding to help deter pests from these areas. Also, put sachets of lavender in your dryer to scent your laundry. These can be reused several times.
Healing Attributes
The scent of lavender is relaxing and uplifting all at once making it great aromatherapy for stressed-out or depressed individuals. Try adding some lavender oil to your bath or add it to a mild oil for a relaxing massage at the end of a hard day.
Stuffing a pillow with lavender buds may help insomniacs relax and fall asleep and soothes headaches.
Caution
The essential oil of lavender is particularly potent and should be used carefully. Large amounts of lavender should not be consumed internally by pregnant women or nursing mothers.
Culinary Use
Lavender is a good addition to wedding cakes because of its delicate flavor and its association with love and fertility.
To make lavender-flavored sugar, layer dried lavender buds and sugar in a jar and let it sit in a dark place for about a month. Sift out the lavender buds and enjoy your sugar in delicately flavored cakes, custards, and tea.