A book-in-progress
©Eileen Holland, all rights reserved
www.open-sesame.com

Laurel

[Caution: Laurel contains volatile oils. Ancient practices notwithstanding, it should never be chewed or ingested. When used as a culinary herb, a bay leaf is added to a dish while it cooks, to flavor it, then removed before the dish is eaten. As a medicinal herb, laurel is used externally via modes such as tinctures and poultices, or it is infused like tea and the leaves are discarded before the tea is drunk. Pregnant women should avoid all contact with laurel because it may cause miscarriage.]

NAME
 Names for laurel include Alloro (Italian), Baie, Bay, Bay Laurel, Bay Leaf, Bay Tree, Daphne (Greek), Evergreen Laurel, Grecian Laurel, Greek Laurel, Green Bay, Indian Bay, Labhrás (Gaelic), Laurier or Laurier d'Apollon (French), Lorbeer (German), Noble Laurel, Poetís Laurel, Roman Laurel, Sweet Bay, and True Laurel. It meant 'Glory', 'Renown', and 'Words though sweet, may deceive,' in the old Language of Flowers. In bloom, laurel signified 'Perfidy'.
 In botany it is Laurus nobilis, an aromatic perennial evergreen shrub or small tree that is native to the Mediterranean. Its glossy dark green leaves are waxy, pointed, and have lighter undersides. Laurel blooms early in the spring with umbels of small yellowish flowers. Its fruit is a blackish-purple berry that contains one seed. Cultivated extensively in both the Old and New Worlds, laurel will grow to over 60 feet under the right conditions. The most aromatic laurel is grown in Greece.

MYTH and LORE
 In Greek mythology Leto clasped two laurel trees (or, alternatively, an olive tree) as a charm to ensure the easy delivery of the twins Artemis and Apollo. When he was grown, Apollo was struck by one of Cupidís arrows and he conceived a selfish passion for the nymph Daphne, who was also a priestess of Gaia. She spurned his advances, so he tried to rape her. Daphne appealed to Gaia (or Zeus, or her father, the river god Peneus, in other versions of the myth) and was metamorphosed into a laurel tree to prevent her rape. Still desperate to possess her, Apollo plucked leaves from the tree and wove them into a crown for himself. Laurel, which is called daphne in Greek, thereafter became his sacred plant.
 Apollo was often depicted wearing a laurel chaplet. Laurel groves were planted around his temples, and his worshipers wore laurel crowns in his honor. An eiresione is an olive or laurel  branch that is wreathed in wool. It has the magickal power to attract blessings, and to protect against evil. Olive branches are primarily used for this, but an eiresione made with a laurel branch shows that one is under the protection of Apollo.
 The nymph Daphne is a devolved form of the pre-Hellenic lunar goddess Daphoene (also called Daphonesissa), whose shrine was located on Delphi before the Hellenes introduced Apollo. Daphoene was served by a college of laurel-chewing orgiastic priestesses, the Maenads, who gave the oracles. The myth of Apollo slaying Python at Delphi can be interpreted as the Hellenes taking possession of Delphi, and replacing the serpent oracles of Daphoene with the oracles of Apollo.
 In Hellenic Greece the Maenads, Wild Women, were female followers of Dionysus. They chewed laurel at Full Moon to induce frenzy, then rushed out to assault travelers and tear children and animals to pieces. As an intoxicant, laurel is connected with poetry. There was a college of priestesses at Tempe who chewed laurel leaves to induce poetic and erotic frenzy.
 Laurel is associated with other Greek deities as well. Hermes invented fire by striking laurel and pomegranate together. Nike,  goddess of victory, is often depicted as a winged woman holding a laurel crown aloft, ready to place it on the brow of a victor. The Dioscuri and the Muses were often depicted wearing laurel crowns. Laurel is also sacred to Daphnis, a son of Hermes by a nymph. His mother exposed him in a laurel grove on the Mountain of Hera, but he was rescued and fostered by shepherds. Daphnis is also said to have been born in a laurel grove. In Roman mythology, Venus was sometimes depicted holding laurel.
 Laurel trees were once believed to be invulnerable to lightning. It was also thought that devils, lightning, thunder,  or witches could not hurt humans where a laurel tree grew, and that standing beneath a laurel tree protected you from lightning, thunder, and witches. There was also a Christian Slavic belief that witches rode on dark hail clouds. To make them fall, peasants mixed laurel leaves with wormwood and Catholic holy oil, and burned them as incense over charcoal. They also shot at the hail clouds, cursing the witches, and placed upturned chairs and sharp farm implements about, to increase the danger to falling witches.

HISTORY
 The most famous and most accurate oracle in the ancient world was that of Apollo at Delphi. Gasses, said to come from the decaying corpse of the vanquished Python, emanated from the earth there. They also bubbled through the nearby Pool of Castalia. The Pythia (Pythoness), chief priestess of Apollo, chewed laurel leaves for oracular inspiration. Wearing a laurel crown, she sat with her thighs parted on a three-legged brass stool that was adorned with laurel. In her right hand she held a sprig of laurel, and in her left hand she held a brass bowl of water from the Pool of Castalia.
 The tripod sat over a chasm on the slope of Mt. Parnassus (or a vent in the floor of the temple, according to other sources). In any case, she sat in a place where she could breathe the intoxicating vapors that issued from the earth. She entered a trance state, then began to rave convulsively (or she remained calm but spoke in Cretan, according to other sources). Her fits were ascribed to the gods, and her words were interpreted by the priests for the people who came to consult the oracle.
 Ancient Greeks worshipped by wearing crowns of laurel leaves while they burned frankincense on their altars. Male initiates of Apollo wore laurel but did not chew it as an intoxicant. It was taboo for anyone except the Pythian priestess of Apollo to chew laurel.
 Greeks awarded laurel crowns to poets, musicians, and winners of athletic competitions such as the Olympic Games. Crowns of laurel leaves were awarded for excellence or courage in the Greco-Roman world. They were worn while making offerings, and at feasts held to honor deities. Laurel crowns were also symbols of excellence and victory. This custom survives in expressions such as nobel laureate, poet laureate, etc.
 Romans also awarded laurel chaplets to poets.  Roman rulers kept a special laurel grove from which branches were cut whenever one of them celebrated a triumph. Afterwards the caesar planted a laurel shoot in the grove, and his life was thereafter connected with the welfare of this new laurel tree. If it withered, that was taken as a death omen for the caesar.
 Caesars, Roman generals celebrating triumphs, and Roman magistrates presiding at the Circus games all dressed as Jupiter. They reddened their faces with vermillion, wore laurel crowns and gold-embroidered purple robes; carried laurel branches in their right hands and eagle-topped ivory scepters in their left hands. They rode in chariots drawn by four horses wearing laurel wreathes, while slaves held heavy golden crowns wrought in the shape of oak leaves over their heads.
 Februa were what Romans called instruments that could purify the negativity caused by contact with taboo objects. Laurel was a februa. In a typical ritual, a person jumped three times over the flames of a sacred fire, and was then asperged with water shaken from a laurel branch.
 Laurel symbolized celebration, glory, joy, and victory to Romans. It was used at weddings to make a bed or garnish for wedding cakes. They also baked one laurel leaf into a wedding cake as a charm for the fortunate one who received that slice. The Latin expression loreolam in mustaceo quaerere, to look for a bay leaf in a wedding cake, is equivalent to the English expression ëto look for a needle in a haystackí.
  Laurel symbolized victory over sin and death to Christians.

CORRESPONDENCES
Sun/Jupiter/Venus/Fire/the first hour after sunrise on Sunday, Thursday or Friday/the first hour after sunset on Sunday, Monday or Wednesday/Sunday/Thursday/Male/Winter/February/April/
September/Leo/Pisces
 Color: green, yellow
 Animal: bull, rooster
 Goddess: Artemis, Artemis Daphnaia, Ceres, Cerridwen, Fides, Gaia, Hecate, Isis, the Muses, Nike, Venus, Vesta
 God: Adonis, Apollo, Apollo Daphnaios, Asclepius, Bialobog, the Dioscuri, Eros, Faunus, Helios, Jupiter, Mars, Ra, Veive, Zeus
 Evocation: Buddha, Daphne, Daphnis

USES
 One way to understand and appreciate an herb is to know what it can do. Laurel can be used for action, banishing, clairvoyance, consecration, divination, meditation, prophecy, uncrossing, defensive magick, dream work, purification rituals, trance work, and Fire spells/magick. Laurel can also be used for workings that are related to achievement, calm, clarity, commitment, creativity, defense, determination, dreams, endings, fidelity, energy, fairies, fame, fortune, happiness (alone or with palm), harmony, healing, honor, immortality, inspiration, initiative, justice, joy (alone or with palm), knowledge, light, love, loyalty, magick, manifestation, memory, mindfulness, money, opportunity, oracles, order, organization, passion, peace, perseverance, power, protection, psychism, purification (alone or with anise, rosemary, or sulfur), release, resourcefulness, silence, sleep, strength, success, sunlight, tranquility, transformation, triumph, vigor, victory, visions, will, wisdom, wishes, yang, clear speech, creative work, divine accolade, eternal life, full expression, good fortune, good luck, happy marriage, heroic ambition, inner power, long marriage, magickal energy, magickal power, negative omen (if bush dies or leaves are withered), oracular inspiration, prophetic dreams, prophetic visions, psychic development, psychic dreams, psychic power(s), psychic protection, psychic purification, psychic visions, safe sleep (in dream pillow), silent power, spiritual expression, spiritual purification, the sacred, games of chance, prophetic dream visions (in dream pillow), and purification by water (as an asperging tool).
 Laurel can also be used to attract women, break spells, end procrastination, purify evil, realize vision, refuse love, reward courage, share talent, synthesize energy, clear the home, develop psychic ability, get a job, overcome/remove hexes, pressure an enemy, protect the household, strengthen spiritual power, win in court, avert evil and negativity (worn), banish/clear negative energy, break/end/overcome bad habits, break up/clear negativity, increase/strengthen mental powers(s), overcome death or opposition, succeed in games of chance, overcome fear of failure or risk;  avert evil, negativity, or evil spirits; protect against abuse, evil, hexes, lightning, spirits, storms, witches, evil spirits, an attack on your luck, or the the influence of evil spirits.
 Dried figs wrapped in laurel leaves are a charm for abundance. An opal wrapped in a laurel leaf is a charm for invisibility. A laurel branch wreathed in wool can be used to invoke Apolloís protection. A laurel crown woven with flowers is a charm that boosts the power of workings done on Thursdays.
 In the body, use laurel for workings that are related to bronchitis, bruises, cough, diabetes, earache, limbs (with juniper), skin, arthritis/ rheumatism, circulatory system, digestive system, easy childbirth, fast childbirth, sleep disorders, and heart disease/disorder. It can also be used to avert illness, open breathing, overcome addiction, relieve pain, open the brain, treat colds/flu, activate the throat chakra, soothe inflammation/inflammatory diseases; protect against cough, infections, or diseases/disorders/illness; and relieve migraine (on forehead) or muscle pain (in bath).
 Laurel can be burned as incense. It may be used for everything given above, as well as for trance, psychic release, and to aid divination. If itís legal where you live, incense of cannabis with laurel and barley is specific for trance. The Secretum Secretorum recommends ìfumigations of juniper, gale or bay leaves to open the brain, dispose well the head, strengthen the limbs, shoulders and arms, make the face and countenance gladly and prolong it from age, and to comfort all five of the bodily wits.î
 Remove the negativity of war from returning soldiers by  smudging them with laurel incense, by using a laurel branch or twig to asperge them with water, and by having them wear laurel crowns or garlands. Laurel also averts the spirits of slain enemies.
 To remove negativity caused by unethical business practices from merchants, smudge or otherwise purify a pitcher and fill it with water that is sacred to the god Mercury. (Romans had a dedicated spring for this, but you might use spring water in which mercury dimes have been left overnight, or spring water which has been infused with herbs or trees of the god Mercury, such as almond, cinnamon, or willow.)
 Dip a sprig of laurel into the water, or sprinkle the sprig with the water, and repeat as needed to use the sprig to asperge all goods that are for sale and other important business items. State your intent while doing this, saying aloud that you banish the negativity that was caused by deceptive advertising, overcharging  customers, or whatever generated the negative energy. This ritual will be voided, however, if the merchant engages in unethical practices again.
 Laurel is a kitchen herb that is used, fresh or dried, in bouquet garni, sauces, soups, stews, etc. It is also a pickling spice. Essential oil of laurel is used in perfume. Laurel berries yield an oil that has been used in making soap.
 During less sanitary periods of human history laurel was used as a strewing herb, to improve the smell of residences. Laurel also averts insects. Muslin or cheesecloth bags of it can be added to grain stores to keep them free of infestation, and small bags of laurel and pepper can be added to flour containers for the same purpose.

WHEEL OF THE YEAR
 Laurel is closely associated with the holidays of Yule, Christmas, and New Year. Branches of laurel and palm are positive omens at Yule, charms for joy and happiness. Roman Christians used laurel for Christmas decorations. In Germany wooden pyramids were decorated with fir or laurel, and decked out with tinsel and small candles. This was one origin of the modern Christmas tree.
 Romans burned laurel incense on their altars on the Kalends of January (January 1). Sabines celebrated the feast of the goddess Strenia on January 1. As part of the celebration they burned laurel incense, gave gifts to loved ones, and decorated branches of laurel and palm with dates, figs, sweets, and gilded fruit.
 The traditional Roman New Year gift was a laurel branch and a glass jar filled with dried dates and figs in honey. This was a charm to ensure that the new year would be sweet and contain good fortune. Caramelized dough with almonds and dried figs wrapped in laurel leaves are modern Italian New Year gifts. They are charms for abundance in the new year.
 On April 21 Romans celebrated the Palilia of the goddess Pales, during which laurel was used in several ways. Sheep folds were decorated with laurel branches. Laurel was burned as an offering, along with juniper, olive, pine, rosemary and sulfur. As part of the purification rites that day, people jumped over three smoldering bonfires and were then asperged with water from laurel branches.
 Greeks celebrated the Pyanepsia of Apollo in October. As part of the festivities, a special eiresione was carried in procession. It was made of laurel, wrapped in purple and white wool, and decorated with  ornaments of cups, harps, autumn fruits, vine-branches made from pastry dough, and small vessels of wine, water, and olive oil. It was used like a wand to bestow blessings, especially fertility, then hung over the front door as a charm to  attract blessings. It was replaced with a new eiresione when its magick was spent, at the next yearís festival.
 Laurel is appropriate for the sabbats Imbolc, Midsummer, and Yule.