Monday, June 30, 2014

How To Keep Witches Away

It is customary to gather St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) on today’s Feast of St. John’s Birthday - June 24.  

”Wort” is from Old English wyrt (German Würze), which means “plant”, but is used mostly in compounds.  Since ancient times “singent’s wort” was known to relieve melancholy or depression, as does borage… which every garden should have.  It would be hung above doors, windows and sacred images (hence the hyper-icum ”above image”) to keep witches and evil spirit away.  Burning those witches might have something to do with its effectiveness as well, now that I think about it.


Oh! And eat some snails.  It is a Roman custom to eat snails on the Feast of John the Baptist.

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