ENTER CODEX

The Folk Magic of Flowers: May Day Herbs and Traditions

The first of May is the hinge between spring and summer in the European folk calendar, and has been for as long as there are records of folk practice in the British Isles and across Northern and Western Europe. Beltane in the Gaelic tradition, Walpurgis Night in the...

Rose: The Herb of the Heart in Every Tradition

Rosa (various species, most commonly Rosa gallica, Rosa canina, and Rosa damascena in herbal practice) is one of the most universally present herbs in human culture, and its consistent association with the heart, with love, with grief, and with the emotional life is...

Herbs and the Solstice: Midsummer Plant Traditions

The summer solstice marks the year’s longest day and the point at which the light, having reached its peak, begins its long turn toward winter. In the folk calendars of Northern and Western Europe, this transition point was one of the most significant of the...

Meadowsweet: The Herb of the Meadow and the Medicine Chest

Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) is a beautiful white-flowered plant of wet meadows, riverbanks, and ditches in the British Isles and across Northern Europe. It flowers through July and August, filling the summer air with a honey-sweet, slightly almond-like fragrance...

Yarrow: The Wound Healer of Ancient Battlefields

Achillea millefolium takes its genus name from Achilles, who, according to the myth, was taught by the centaur Chiron to use yarrow on the wounds of soldiers in battle. Whether or not the myth is historically accurate, yarrow pollen has been found in Neanderthal...

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