Green for Green, Brown for Brown
The Herb Shelf at Elemental Book & Curiosity Shop
In response to the last post I got a GREAT question from Dominique, the owner of Elemental Books and Curiosity Shop :
“As a retailer I’m familiar with the history of herbs in the not recent past. There use to be brown herbs and green herbs. Most people couldn’t identify Damiana from Lemon Balm and the industry certainly took advantage of the fact. Even today, well known retailers sell herbs that have been collecting dust on shelves for years. Does that mean that herbal Magick since the 60’s have been ineffective and only now that folks have become more educated does it work?”
I have been buying herbs at Botanicas and Occult shops my whole life. Some stuff I knew from growing it myself (or pulling it up as weeds…. I’m looking at you mugwort…) but other stuff I just trusted that the stuff in the bag was labelled correctly. In my 30’s when I started to re-delve back into Rootwork I looked closer and started to see stuff like this everywhere. I don’t want to name names but the policy of “Green for Green, Brown for Brown” was common for a long time. It was catherine yronwode first made me really look at this stuff closer – I was one of the first 100 students to take her Rootwork course back in the day.
So, to get back to the question of, Does that mean that herbal Magick since the 60’s have been ineffective and only now that folks have become more educated does it work? The answer is No.
As I said in the last post, it changes the work, but does not completely invalidate it. It is not a matter of a binary work/doesn’t work. It’s a matter of how it changes and what other components there are at play. Apart from the herbs there is a certain amount that the intent, the prayers, the consecrations, and the spirits will pattern the work. At very least you have a random unidentified pile of herbal gibberish patterned by magic to support your stated goal. This can be kind of interesting in itself, and will garner some result, but yes, having the correct herbs matters. When it comes to magic, I am of the school of thought that everything matters.
It is because everything matters that no one thing will make or break an operation. Even if you have a bag or oregano that you thought was Rue.