Foeniculum vulgare syn.
Anethum foeniculum
planetary ruler: Mercury
element: Fire
associated deities: Apollo, Dionysus, Prometheus, Adonis
magical virtues: Protection, purification, fertility, shamanic travel, courage, joy
According to Greek mythology, 82 the earliest humans lived naked, cold, and hungry, without hope or inspiration. The Titan Prometheus (“Foresight”) felt pity for them and implored the Olympian gods to help, but they refused, saying that they didn’t want humans to become more like gods. Deciding to act alone, Prometheus stole fire from the hearth of the gods and, concealing it in a fennel stalk, took it down to the earth. He taught humans how to warm their homes and how to use fire to cook. Bleakness and darkness were now illuminated by light and hope. People learned how to grow food, domesticate animals, craft metal, create art and writing, and pursue philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy. One spark of celestial fire concealed in a fennel stalk made all the difference.
Everything is illuminated and vitalised from within a divine spark from the gods; it animates all life. Inspiration sent by the gods is called the “fire in the head,” where thought and spirit meet to create something new. Sometimes we feel that the fire within has gone out, and this is when you can utilise the magic of fennel. The abbess Hildegard von Bingen said, “However fennel is eaten, it makes men merry, and gives them a pleasant warmth.” 83 If you are feeling stuck, low, and uninspired, Fennel Seed Tea can be employed in spells, rituals, and spiritual work to ignite the fire within, or use the seeds and dried herb in spells, rituals, incenses, charm bags, sachets, and talismans. Use Fennel Flower Essence if you feel worn down, apathetic, and indecisive; one spark is all that is needed to change a life—or, indeed, the world.
A stalk of giant fennel (Ferula communis) capped with a pine cone formed the thyrsus, 84 the wand able to “open up channels of life sustaining fluid from the earth” 85 carried by Dionysus, the wild god of fertility, winemaking, the theatre, and the divinely inspired madness that brings about insight and creativity. As the fennel stalk pushes its way from the earth in spring, it is suggestive of an erect phallus, and the thyrsus was a wand used in ritual and dance, a symbol of fertility, prosperity, and pleasure, the pine cone representing the “seed” issuing forth. Sometimes the thyrsus was displayed in conjunction with a wine cup, suggesting a male and female combination. Fennel may be used in spells and rituals of fertility, creative endeavour, vision quests, and shamanic travel. Use Fennel Metheglin, Fennel Seed Tea, an incense with fennel, put fennel seeds in charm bags and talismans, or use the incense to consecrate talismans. A giant fennel (Ferula communis) wand embodies creative energy directly from the gods and may be used to direct energy accordingly.
In Greece fennel also played a part in the Adonia, celebrating another vegetation god, the youthful Adonis, lover of Aphrodite. 86 This took place when, as Theophrastus said, “the sun is at its most powerful” during the dog days of late July. 87 During the festival women would plant small gardens, called Gardens of Adonis, in clay pots or wicker baskets. These were composed of wheat, barley, fennel, and lettuces. The women would climb ladders up to their rooftops, thereby placing the little gardens as close to the sun as they could. At this time of year the great heat gives an impetus to a plant’s growth, but they can become leggy and spindly, with the plant outgrowing its strength while young shoots wither in dryness. When the plants died, the pots were thrown in the river with images of Adonis. These rites were intended to invoke abundant rainfall in the coming season. 88 The gardens were left to grow for only eight days to come to maturity, in contrast to the eight months taken by the cereal crop under the auspices of the grain goddess Demeter. Thereafter August was sacred to the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone. 89
Fennel grows widely in the Mediterranean region, where it was often used as a fodder crop. 90 Both the scientific and Latin names derive from the Latin for “little hay.” 91 The town of Marathon, site of the famous battle between the Athenians and the Persians, means “place of fennel.” After the battle, the Athenians used woven fennel stalks as a symbol of victory. Roman soldiers mixed fennel seed with their meals to assure fighting strength and courage. 92 Taking Fennel Seed Tea or inhaling the fragrance of the seeds is refreshing and revitalising. Fennel Seed Tea can be taken when courage and stamina is needed, such as before an initiation or during the Lughnasa games. Wreaths woven from fennel can be used to crown the victorious contestants.
Fennel is a protective herb, used to dispel negative influences. It is one of the sacred herbs mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Nine Herbs Charm recorded in tenth century CE 93 to treat the “flying venom” thought to cause disease or those who had been “elf shot,” or bewitched with illness after being shot with fairy arrows. The nine herbs (fennel, mugwort, cockspur grass [or perhaps betony], lamb’s cress, plantain, mayweed, nettle, crab apple, and thyme) were used as a herbal salve with a recited charm, the Lacnunga, or Lay of the Nine Herbs. During the Middle Ages fennel was hung over the door on the dangerous Midsummer’s Eve to keep away evil spirits, fairies, and witches. The seeds were also pushed into keyholes in the belief that this would prevent ghosts from entering. For protection and purification, fennel can be used in incenses; add fennel seeds to charms, amulets, and talismans. Add Fennel Seed Tea or Fennel Leaf Tea to the ritual bath. Use to consecrate amulets or in a wash to cleanse ritual space and magical tools. Use Fennel Seed Tea or fennel infused oil (see page 17) to magically seal doorways and windows and prevent evil from entering.
During fasting, Fennel Seed Tea can be drunk to alleviate hunger pangs and ease the shock on the body’s digestive system.
culinary uses
The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all ate fennel’s seeds, aromatic leaves, and tender shoots. 94 The shoots were cooked as vegetables, the raw stalks were chopped into salads, and seeds were placed under loaves of bread as they were baked to add flavour. 95
The seeds, bulb, and leaves are used in cooking. The flowers and feathery leaves can be sprinkled into salads, soups, and sauces. The stems, which resemble celery, have a pleasant anise-like flavour. They can be diced into soups and salads, used for savouring stews and stir-fry vegetables, or eaten like celery sticks. Fennel seeds are used to flavour bread, cakes, pastries, soups, stews, sweet pickles, apple pie, and tomato-based sauces. The fennel “root” you can buy is Florence fennel (Foeniculum vulgare var. dulce). The edible white bulb is actually stacked leaves and not a root at all.
cosmetic uses
Fennel has skin-softening and anti-aging properties. Use Fennel Seed Tea as a wash to cleanse and tone the skin and to remove grime, excess grease, and dead skin cells. It will firm the skin, tighten pores, and reduce wrinkles. Fennel may be added to moisturising creams and lotions. A cream made from fennel seeds is also mildly antiseptic.
If you wake up with swollen and sore eyes, prepare a cup of Fennel Seed Tea, soak a cotton ball in it, and place it over your closed eyelids for ten minutes. Rinse with cold water.
Use Fennel Seed Tea as a hair rinse to cleanse chemical residues, revitalise hair, strengthen hair follicles, and treat dandruff and scalp problems.
Rub cellulite patches with a paste of ground fennel seeds and a little water or use the paste as an exfoliant.
Use the ground seeds in a facial steam for acne.
medicinal uses
actions: antacid, antispasmodic, anti-inflammatory, appetiser, aromatic, carminative, circulatory stimulant, diuretic, emmenagogue, expectorant, galactogogue, laxative, oestrogen modulator, rubefacient, vasodilator
Fennel has been used in healing since ancient times. In the third century BCE the Greek Hippocrates used it as a stomach soother for infant colic, Dioscorides recommended it to nursing mothers, and the Roman naturalist Pliny included the plant in twenty-two remedies. 96 The thirteenth-century Physicians of Myddfai declared that “he who sees fennel and gathers it not, is not a man, but a devil,” 97 while the mediaeval abbess and herbalist Hildegard von Bingen thought that fennel forced a person back into the right balance of joyfulness and that its benefits included good digestion and a good body odour. 98 Is it any wonder that the emperor Charlemagne mandated its growth in every garden? 99
Fennel contains a compound called fenchone, which helps relax the smooth muscle lining the digestive tract, and is therefore an antispasmodic herb used for gas pains, indigestion, and IBS. Many Indian restaurants have a bowl of fennel seeds provided as an aid to digestion. 100 Chew a few fennel seeds or drink Fennel Seed Tea twenty or thirty minutes before a meal to prevent cramping and dispel wind in the gut. It also has anti-acidic properties and is extensively used in commercial antacid preparations. A cup of Fennel Seed Tea can help ease heartburn. Commission E (the German equivalent of the FDA) endorses fennel for treating digestive upsets. 101
It is also used for treating cough and catarrh as Fennel Seed Tea is a mild expectorant, containing the phytochemicals cineole and anethole, effective in treating inflammation of the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract, helping remove mucus and phlegm from the lungs. Fennel Syrup is good for coughs, and double-strength Fennel Seed Tea may be gargled for sore throats and hoarseness.
Fennel is a diuretic—it increases urination. Its reputation as a weight loss herb may simply relate to its diuretic action, though fennel seeds have the reputation of supressing appetite. The ancient Greeks called fennel maraino, which means “to grow thin,” believing it contributed to weight loss, while Roman ladies took fennel to prevent obesity. 102 Culpeper also wrote that “all parts of the fennel plant are used in drink or broth to make people lean that are too fat.” 103 Fennel was used by those fasting on Christian feast days and was widely employed in old and modern slimming formulas. 104 Fennel Seed Tea or Weight Loss Tea may be useful if you are dieting.
Fennel has a mildly oestrogenic effect, so it is useful for women going through menopause. Drink Fennel Seed Tea and use Fennel Cream to combat vaginal dryness.
Eye inflammations such as blepharitis and conjunctivitis can be treated with a compress using cold Fennel Seed Tea applied over closed eyelids for ten minutes.
Lastly, a cup of Fennel Seed Tea may relieve a hangover.
Caution: Fennel is considered safe for most people, but do not use on children and avoid if you have bleeding disorders, hormone-sensitive cancers, are taking tamoxifen, and have endometriosis or uterine fibroids. Fennel may slightly decrease the effectiveness of birth control pills. Pregnant women should not take fennel as a medicinal herb internally as it is a uterine stimulant, though small amounts used in cooking are considered safe.
Recipes
Fennel Seed Tea
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, slightly crushed
250 millilitres (1 cup) boiling water
Infuse ten minutes in a covered container, strain, and drink.
Fennel Face Mask
3 tablespoons fennel seeds, crushed
80 millilitres (⅓ cup) water
100 grams (¾ cup) ground oatmeal
4 tablespoons runny honey
Put the fennel seeds in a pan with the water. Bring to boil and remove from the heat. Allow to infuse twenty minutes, then strain off the liquid. Combine this liquid with the oats and honey to make a thick paste. Apply to the cleansed skin of your face and neck. Leave fifteen minutes and then rub gently. Rinse off with warm water.
Fennel Leaf Tea
2 teaspoons fresh leaves
250 millilitres (1 cup) boiling water
Infuse five minutes, strain, and drink.
Weight Loss Tea
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, lightly crushed
1 sprig fresh parsley
1 green tea bag or pinch of green tea
250 millilitres (1 cup) boiling water
Infuse ten minutes in a covered container, strain, and drink.
Fennel Syrup
3 teaspoons fennel seeds
300 millilitres (1¼ cups) water
250 grams (1 cup) sugar
To make the syrup, first make a fennel decoction by crushing fennel seeds and boiling them in water for ten minutes. Remove from the heat, strain out the seeds through muslin, and measure out 250 millilitres of the decoction (we started with more water to allow for evaporation). Add sugar and heat gently until the sugar is dissolved. Simmer gently until thickened. Pour into sterilised bottles and label. This will keep six to twelve months, unopened, in a cool, dark place. Once opened, keep in the fridge for one to two months. If you wish, you can use honey instead of sugar.
Fennel Flower Essence
Gather five mature flowers. Float them on the surface of 150 millilitres spring water in a bowl and leave in the sun for three or four hours. Make sure that they are not shadowed in any way. Remove the flowers. Pour the water into a bottle and top up with 150 millilitres brandy or vodka to preserve it. This is your mother essence. To make up your flower essences for use, put seven drops from this into a ten-millilitre dropper bottle, and top that up with brandy or vodka. This is your dosage bottle. The usual dose is four drops of this in a glass of water four times a day.
Fennel Cream
100 millilitres (7 tablespoons) solid coconut oil
2 teaspoons fennel seeds, crushed
10 millilitres (2 teaspoons) vitamin e oil
In a double boiler, put the coconut oil and crushed fennel seeds. Simmer gently for sixty minutes. Strain through a double layer of muslin into a sterilised jar. When slightly cool but before it sets, stir in the vitamin E oil. This balm helps lubricate the vaginal walls and reduce sensitivity. Fennel has an oestrogenic effect, coconut oil helps restore the body’s natural hydration, and vitamin E helps bring back the natural balance.
Fennel Metheglin
3 fennel roots
2 sprays rue
2 kilos (6 cups) honey
juice of 2 lemons
yeast and nutrient
5 litres (21 cups) water
Wash the fennel roots and boil them for forty minutes in one litre of the water. Strain and return the liquor to the pan with the honey and boil for two hours. Skim off any scum and then add the rue. Cool to lukewarm and add the lemon juice, yeast, and nutrient. Strain into sterilised demijohns and fit an airlock. After fermentation has finished (after it has stopped bubbling), syphon off into a clean, sterilised demijohn and fit an airlock. After about a year, you can syphon your fennel metheglin into sterilised bottles.
82 Hesiod, Theogony, online at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D1, accessed 14 December 2017.
83 von Bingen, Causae et Curae.
84 Rätsch and Müller-Ebeling, The Encyclopedia of Aphrodisiacs, and Farrar, Gardens and Gardeners of the Ancient World.
85 Segal, Dionysiac Poetics and Euripides’ Bacchae.
86 Marcel Detienne, The Gardens of Adonis (Princeton University Press, 1977).
87 Anna Franklin, Lughnasa, History, Lore and Celebration (Lear Books, Earl Shilton, 2010).
88 D’Andréa, Ancient Herbs in the J. Paul Getty Museum Gardens.
89 Anna Franklin, Lughnasa, History, Lore and Celebration (Lear Books, Earl Shilton, 2010).
90 Michael Stewart, “People, Places and Things: Fennel,” Greek Mythology: From the Iliad to the Fall of the Last Tyrant, http://messagenetcommresearch.com/myths/ppt/Fennel_1.html, accessed 25 September 17.
91 Brunton-Seal and Seal, Kitchen Medicine.
92 D’Andréa, Ancient Herbs in the J. Paul Getty Museum Gardens.
93 Edward Pettit, Anglo-Saxon Remedies, Charms, and Prayers from British Library MS Harley 585: The “Lacnunga,” 2 vols. (Lewiston and Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2001).
94 D’Andréa, Ancient Herbs in the J. Paul Getty Museum Gardens.
95 Ibid.
96 Castleman, The New Healing Herbs.
97 Pughe, The Physicians of Myddfai.
98 von Bingen, Causae et Curae.
99 https://jonbarron.org/herbal-library/foods/fennel, accessed 13 September 17.
100 Castleman, The New Healing Herbs.
101 Ibid.
102 Castleman, The New Healing Herbs.
103 Culpeper, Culpeper’s Complete Herbal.
104 Brunton-Seal and Seal, Kitchen Medicine.