Herbal Love Charms:
A Little Look at the Folklore
By Laurel Reufner
This article has its roots in the old medieval folk ballad “Scarborough Fair.” My mother had always told me that the herbs being referenced—parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme—were used in a love charm or potion. It got me to wondering what other plants our forebears might have linked to matters of love. And now I get to share what I’ve found with you.
Perhaps one of the most interesting bits of lore uncovered while researching this article was that of sowing hempseed. A young woman would scatter a handful of seeds on the ground and then run away. Once she stopped to look back, she would be able to see her future lover reaping the miraculously grown grains. The area in which a girl lived determined the best time of year for performing the divination—usually Midsummer’s Eve or Day—but always at night. Sometimes the seeds would be sown in a church yard, but other times and places would have it happen in the deep woods. Oh, and an alternative time might be All Hallow’s Eve.
Yarrow was believed to be sacred to Venus, goddess of love, so it makes perfect sense for the herb to have ties to the folklore of love. Simply stick it under your pillow to dream of a future lover. One source suggested adding orange blossoms to the yarrow in order to dream of your future husband. I came across a couple of different verses to be said while tucking the yarrow in.
“Good morrow, good yarrow, good morrow to thee:
I hope ’gain the morrow my lover to see,
And that he may be married to me;
The color of his hair, and the clothes he does wear;
And if he be for me, may his face be turned to me;
And if he be not, dark and surly he be,
And his back turned to me.” (Vickery, 127)
Or:
“Thou pretty herb of Venus tree,
thy name is yarrow;
Now who my bosom friend must must be,
Pray tell me tomorrow.”
There was also a folk tradition of greeting any yarrow plants that one might pass while on their daily travels. “Good morrow, good yarrow, good morrow to thee.” (Vickery, 127)
Finally, the simplest way yarrow was used as a love charm involved placing a sprig into a buttonhole or pinning on a blossom in order to attract love your way. The beauty of much of this folklore lies in the simplicity.
Long before lavender came to be associated with chastity, it had a far more romantic reputation in the lore. Lavender sachets were carried to attract a lover (especially of the masculine variety). Lavender was burned as an incense for the same reasons. Perhaps spreading linens over the lavender bushes to dry, scenting them with the fragrance, served to keep a marriage happy.
Interestingly enough, lavender could either symbolize devotion and undying love or distrust. It all depended on which source for the language of flowers that you consulted.
I’m used to the lore on basil for prosperity, but did you know that keeping a pot of basil on your windowsill would attract love? Also, it was believed that if a young woman could get a young man to accept a sprig of basil from her hand that he would then fall in love with her.
Mandrake has a far bigger reputation with regard to lust, but according to the lore, it also has a place in love charm. Simply carry a piece of the root with you to attract someone your way. Of course, if you go far enough back in the lore, obtaining a mandrake from the wild was considered a dangerous prospect. It was believed that the root would emit a killing shriek when pulled from the ground. And if one already had a lover, then they both needed to carry a piece of the same root in order to remain together. (A branch from a bay tree, or even honeysuckle, could be used for the same purposes.)
One of my favorite flowers also plays a part in the lore—Johnny jump-ups, or violas. I’m lucky enough to live in an area where they grow wild and abundant in our yard, so I can pick my fill of them come spring. In a charming bit of lore, it’s claimed that placing the flowers on the closed eyes of a sleeping person would make them, upon awakening, fall in love with the first person they saw.
Apples may very well show up more often in folklore than any other plant. One of the simplest divinatory methods to find out a lover’s name was to peel an apple (an orange would also do) all in one go. Next, the peel was tossed over the shoulder and it supposedly would fall in such a way as to form the first initial of your future sweetie. In theory, this was best when done outside at night. If the peel breaks, it won’t work. Actually, some sources say that a broken apple peel is a sign that the querying party wouldn’t marry at all!
One could also divine information by twisting the stem of the apple while reciting the alphabet. Each twist of the stem represented one letter. Whatever letter the stem finally broke on represented the first initial of the future love.
Yet another method of apple love divination involves sleeping with an apple under your pillow. You should dream of your future love. The trick here would seem to be remembering your dream upon waking. However, considering how uncomfortable it might be to sleep on the lump made by an apple, perhaps the dreamer never fell into that sound of a sleep, making the task of remembering easier.
Want to know in which direction your future lover lived? For this one, an apple pip, or seed, was needed. Hold it between the thumb and a finger, squeezing tightly while turning in a circle and reciting the following rhyme:
“North, south, east, west,
Tell me where my love doth rest.”
One final bit of apple lore before I go—not only could the number of seeds tell one how many children they would have, but it would also help divine the future for a girl and her hoped-for love. I’m assuming that the querent already had a particular young man in mind. All she had to do next was count the number of pips:
“One I love,
Two I love,
Three I love I say;
Four I love with all my heart,
And five I cast away;
Six he loves
Seven she loves
Eight they both love;
Nine he comes
And ten he tarries,
Eleven he courts
And twelve he marries.”
Getting back to the “Scarborough Fair” ballad, does it really refer to a love charm? According to the relevant sources I used for research, the answer is probably not. Some writers suggest that the song is sung by a man to his former love and that it gives a series of impossible tasks to be performed before they can reunite. They also give quite a complicated history for the song, with our better known version probably dating to the nineteenth century, so the version we know isn’t even medieval.
Other sources claim that the song lists the attributes, in herbal form, necessary for a successful union. All of them draw heavily on what would be the symbolic meanings of the herbs, which it is assumed most people knew. According to the writer Beth Trissel, parsley would have represented comfort, sage was strength, rosemary was love, and thyme represented courage. I’m not sure how well I agree with it all, given the lore on parsley. It used to be considered the herb of death. However, Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs meanings for the herbs can pretty much back up Trissel’s thinking. And those are certainly virtues necessary for a successful relationship, as well as the ideal ingredients for the perfect love charm.
What is surprising about my research was just how difficult it turned out to be in tracing my way through the various books, articles, and bits of lore that I came across. One would think that there would be several herbal love charms about, but that’s not the case. Or at least it’s not the case in any of the sources I came across. What I usually found was a line or two about this herb or that and how it was used to divine, draw, or keep love, but there was usually little mention of how it was used, which is what I find to be the most interesting part.
So, it would seem that many of the bits of lore that helped our ancestors find their mates have been lost over the course of time. If the above is any indication, many of the rituals and actions for a given culture or area were very simple and, as such, were passed around by word of mouth, which is now unfortunately lost in the past. I’ll keep digging, though. It’s just too interesting not to.
Select Bibliography
Cunningham, Scott. Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1985.
Elisabeth. “My Funny Valentine: The Herbs and Spices of Romance,” allspice, February 10, 2012, http://tinyurl.com/nhfamvg.
Trissel, Beth. “The History and Romance Behind ‘Scarborough Fair,’” One Writer’s Way, January 23, 2011.http://tinyurl.com/loddwjc.
Vickery, Roy. Garlands, Conkers, and Mother-Die: British and Irish Plant-Lore. London: Continuum, 2010.
Laurel Reufner happily calls the gorgeous hills of Athens County, Ohio, home, where she lives with her husband and two daughters. She’s been earth-centered for around twenty-five years now and enjoys writing about whatever shiny topics grab her attention, especially mythology and history. She is slowly working on editing her first book and hopes to have it finished by the time you read this. Keep up with her at her blog, Laurel Reufner’s Lair (laurelreufner.blogspot.com) or like her Facebook page Laurel Reufner.