Eye of Newt?

[Nikki]

Ever read a spell and wonder, "What is that?

 

Here's a list that I came across awhile back that might help. 

 

Adders Fork:-- Adders tongue

Adders Tongue: -- Dogstooth Violet
An Eagle:-- Wild Garlic
Ass's Foot:-- Coltsfoot
Bat's Wings:-- Holly
Bear's Foot:-- Lady's Mantle
Bird's Eye - Germander Speedwell
Black Maidenhair:-- Black Spleenwort
Black Sampson:-- Echinacea
Blood from a Head:-- Lupine
Blood from a Shoulder:-- Bear's Breeches
Blood Leather:-- Reindeer Moss/Rock Tripe/Caribou Lichen
Blood of a Goose:-- A Mulberry Tree's Milk
Blood of an Eye:-- Tamarisk Gall
Blood of Ares:-- Purslane
Blood of Hephaistos:-- Wormwood
Blood of Hestia:-- Camomile
Blood:-- Elder sap or another tree sap
Bloodwort:-- Yarrow
Bone of an Ibis:-- Buckthorn
Bread and Cheese Tree:-- Hawthorne. Whitethorn, Hazels,
Bull's Blood:-- Horehound
Bull's Foot: - Coltsfoot
Burning Bush:-- Fraxinella, Bastard, or False/White Dittany
Calf's Snout:-- Snapdragon
Candelmas Maiden:-- Snowdrop
Capon's Tail:-- Valerian
Cat's Foot - Canada Snake Root or Ground Ivy
Cheeses:-- Marsh Mallow
Chocolate Flower:-- Wild Geranium
Christ's Eye:-- Vervain Sage
Christ's Ladder:-- Centaury, Centaury Gentian, Century Red Centaury
Clear Eye:-- Clary Sage
Click:-- Goosegrass
Clot:-- Great Mullein
Corpse Plant:-- Indian Pipe. Fungus
Courtesy:---Summer Wind
Crowdy Kit:-- Figwort
Crow's Foot:-- Wild Geranium
Cuckoo's Bread:-- Common Plantain
Cucumber Tree:-- Magnolia
Cuddy's Lungs:-- Great Mullein
Daphne:-- Laurel/Bay
Devils Dung - Asafoetida
Devil's Plaything:-- Yarrow
Dew of the Sea:-- Rosemary
Dog's Mouth - Snap Dragon
Dogs Tongue - Conoglossum Officinale
Dove's Foot:-- Wild Geranium
Dragon Wort:-- Bistort
Dragon's Blood - Calamus
Earth Smoke:-- Fumitory
Elf's Wort:-- Elecampane
Enchanter's Plant:-- Vervain
Englishman's Foot:-- Common Plantain
Erba Santa Maria:-- Spearmint
Everlasting Friendship:-- Goosegrass
Eye of Christ: - Germander Speedwell
Eye of Newt:-- Mustard Seed
Eye of the Day:-- Common Daisy
Eye of the Star:-- Horehound
Eye Root:-- Goldenseal
Eyes:-- Aster, Daisy, Eyebright, etc
Fairy Smoke:-- Indian Pipe
Fat from a Head:-- Spurge.
Felon Herb:-- Mugwort
Filwort. Centory. or Feverwort
Five Fingers:-- Five-leaf grass or Cinquefoil
Fox's Clote:-- Burdock
Frog's Foot - Bulbous Buttercup
From the Belly:-- Earth-apple.
From the Foot:-- Houseleek.
From the Loins:-- Chamomile.
Gazel's Hooves: - Quickset, Albespyne,
Goat's Foot - Ash Weed
God's Hair:-- Hart's Tongue Fern
Golden Star:-- Avens
Gosling Wing:-- Goosegrass
Graveyard Dust:-- Mullein
Great Ox-eye:-- Ox-eye Daisy
Hag's Taper:-- Great Mullein
Hagthorn:-- Hawthorn
Hair of Venus:-- Maidenhair Fern
Hairs of a Hamadryas Baboon:-- Dill Seed
Hare's Beard:-- Great Mullein
Hawk's Heart:-- Heart of Wormwood
Heart of Osmund:-- Royal Fern
Herb of Grace:-- Vervain
Hind's Tongue:-- Hart's Tongue Fern
Holy Herb:-- Yerba Santa
Holy Rope:-- Common Agrimony
Hook and Arm:-- Yerba Santa
Horse Hoof:-- Coltsfoot
Horse Tongue:-- Hart's Tongue Fern
Hundred Eyes - Periwinkle
Innocence:-- Bluets
Jacob's Staff:-- Great Mullein
Joy of the Mountain:-- Marjoram
Jupiter's Staff:-- Great Mullein
King's Crown:-- Black Haw
Knight's Milfoil:-- Yarrow
Kronos blood:-- ocedar
Ladies' Meat- May Flower blossom
Lad's Love:-- Southernwood
Lady's Glove - Foxglove
Lamb's Ears:-- Betony
Lion's Hairs:-- Turnip leaves
Lion's Tooth:-- Dandelion
Little Dragon:-- Tarragon
Love in Idleness:-- Pansy
Love Leaves:-- Burdock
Love Lies Bleeding:-- Anemone
Love Man:-- Goosegrass
Love Parsley:-- Lovage
Love Root:-- Orris Root
Maiden's Ruin:-- Southernwood
Man's Bile:-- Turnip Sap
Man's Health:-- Ginseng
Master of the Woods:-- Woodruff
May Lily:-- Lily of the Valley
May Rose:-- Black Haw
May:-- Black Haw
Maypops:-- Passion Flower
Mistress of the Night:-- Tuberose
Moonwort:-- and actual Fern
Mutton Chops:-- Goosegrass
Nose Bleed:-- Yarrow
Old Man's Flannel:-- Great Mullein
Old Man's Pepper:-- Yarrow
Old-Maid's-Nightcap:-- Wild Geranium
Oliver:-- Olive
Osmund the Waterman:-- Royal Fern
Password:-- Primrose
Peter's Staff:-- Great Mullein
Pig's Tail:-- Leopard's Bane
Poor Man's Treacle:-- Garlic
Priest's Crown:-- Dandelion leaves
Pucha-pat:-- Patchouli
Queen of the Meadow Root:-- Gravelroot
Queen of the Meadow:-- Meadowsweet
Queen of the Night:-- Night Blooming Cereus or Vanilla Cactus.
Ram's Head:-- American Valerian
Red Cockscomb:-- Amaranth
Ring-o-bells:-- Bluebells
Robin-run-in-the-grass:-- Goosegrass
Scaldhead:-- Blackberry
See Bright:-- Clary Sage
Seed of Horus:-- Horehound
Semen of Ammon:-- Houseleek.
Semen of Ares:-- Clover
Semen of Helios:-- White Hellebore
Semen of Hephaistos:-- Fleabane
Semen of Herakles:-- Mustard-Greens
Semen of Hermes:-- Dill
Seven Year's Love:-- Yarrow
Shameface:-- Wild Geranium
Shepherd's Heart - Shepherd's Purse
Silver Bells:-- Black Haw
Sleep Sand: - Dill Juice
Sopewort:-- Soapwort/Bruisewort
Sorcerer's Violet:-- Periwinkle
Sparrow's Tongue:-- Knotweed
St. John's Herb:-- Hemp Agrimony (not St. John's Wort)
St. John's Plant:-- Mugwort
Star Flower:-- Borage
Star of the Earth:-- Avens
Starweed:-- Chickweed
Sweethearts:-- Goosegrass
Sweet-scented Cactus. Large-flowered Cactus
Swine's Snout:-- Dandelion leaves
Tanner's Bark:-- Common Oak
Tarragon:-- Mugwort
Tartar Root:-- Ginseng
Thousand Weed:-- Yarrow
Thunder Plant:-- House Leek
Titan's Blood:-- Wild Lettuce
Toad - Toadflax
Tongue of Dog:-- Hound's Tongue
Tongue of a Turnip: - Turnip leaves
Torches:-- Great Mullein
Unicorn Horn:-- True Unicorn Root
Unicorn Root:-- Ague Root
Unicorn's Horn - False Unicorn Root
Wax Dolls:-- Fumitory
Weazel Snout:-- Yellow Dead Nettles
Weed:-- Ox-Eye Daisy
White Man's Foot:-- Common Plantain
White Wood:-- White Cinnamon
White:-- Ox-eye Daisy
Witch's Asprin:-- White Willow/Willow Bark
Witch's Brier:-- Brier Hips
Witches' Gloves: - Foxglove
Wolf Claw:-- Club Moss
Wolf Foot - Bugle Weed
Wolf's Milk:-- Euphorbia 

 

 

I don't recall where it came from and don't verify it's accuracy, but it's interesting nonetheless.

 

Something tells me this list might be from Cunningham's Magical Herbs.... but I don't own any of his books.

 

Some believe that 'eww' factor some ingredients have been sanitized overtime and various plant forms were substituted for the real thing.

 

 

Here's another list  for your viewing pleasure.http://forums/topic/8525-ancient-herb-names/?do=findComment&comment=113092

 

Enjoy.

[RoseRed]

Or it could be the actual dried eyes of a salamander type creature.  I think this whole 'there's a plant for that' to replace icky ingredients is much newer than using actual animal parts.  I could be wrong.

[Nikki]

Wish I had an answer.

[froglover]

Dragons Blood was very popular in East Anglian love spells and curses according to old 19th century newspapers I was reading through at one time, apparently it had a pharmaceutical use but chemists found it hard to keep in stock because of demand. As i recall the spell was a simple one, you said the name of your target person and made the appropriate wish while throwing a pinch of the herb into the fire. (I've never knowingly seen it, it was described as a resin). It was said to be in widespread use by people who wouldn't normally be called witches or wizards.

 

Possibly, possibly, it was just a late subsitute for the real blood of real dragons.

[froglover]

I didn't see "liver of blaspheming Jew" in the list (it is one of the cauldron ingredients from Macbeth) but Jew's Liver is quite plausible as an English folk plant name. These are people who call perfectly innocent dishes names like Toad-in-the-Hole and Spotted Dick for heavens sake. I don't suppose they are late substitutes for real toads or um whatever. Pass the Dead Horse.

[Evergreen47]

Froglover,

 

Dragon's Blood is indeed a resin. It has been derived in the past from myriad plants, but most notably Draceana and Daemonorops. You can buy it in balls of resin and it's a popular incense scent. I find Dragon's Blood a very powerful binding agent in my spells, and I use it for ink in works that require writing. I find the nature to be much like a dragon of lore: powerful and so far removed from humanity that you can neither label it as good or evil, it just is and can be both based on what I've called on it for.

 

Sorry if that was off topic; I just love DB.

Edited September 16, 2015 by Evergreen47

[Nikki]

 

Froglover,

 

Dragon's Blood is indeed a resin. It has been derived in the past from myriad plants, but most notably Draceana and Daemonorops. You can buy it in balls of resin and it's a popular incense scent. I find Dragon's Blood a very powerful binding agent in my spells, and I use it for ink in works that require writing. I find the nature to be much like a dragon of lore: powerful and so far removed from humanity that you can neither label it as good or evil, it just is and can be both based on what I've called on it for.

 

Sorry if that was off topic; I just love DB.

 

 

Oh, I am huge DB fan, too !!!! I keep it in several forms and use it frequently. It's not everyone's thing -- but its energy works really well with mine.

 

 

Off topic? Nah.... this is as good a place as any to discuss ingredients...me thinks.