Blue lotus: the Nile flower that opens with the sun
The flower at the nose of Ra, the petals in Tutankhamun’s collars, and the modern story of an Egyptian high. What the record says about blue lotus.
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Vervain: from Pliny’s Gauls to the Druid revival
Pliny said the Gauls cast lots with vervain. In 1754 a Cornish antiquary turned them into Druids, and the herb books have repeated it ever since.
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Rue: the herb of grace and the evil eye
Pliny called it a chief medicinal plant, Culpeper gave it to the Sun, and Naples pinned silver sprigs of it on babies against the evil eye.
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Mugwort, the eldest of worts
An Old English charm, a Midsummer fire, Culpeper’s Venus and the moxa roll. How one grey-leaved weed turned up in almost every tradition that touched it.
Photo credits on each article.