Types of Magical Action

✾ Affliction

Malevolent magic which brings disease, discomfort, misfortune, or malady to body, crops, or livestock; plants with a toxic, irritating nature are naturally aligned with this power. Similarly, punitive plant parts such as spines and thorns are allied.

✾ Allure

The power of attraction and desire- usually physical, and often by way of projected appearance and atmosphere; usually used to coerce or seduce.

Plants in this category typically possess spirits of a sexual nature. Aphrodisiacs may be used if intended for consumption, but they may also be used in spells, cosmetics, or incense. A plant radiating this power may also serve the functions of preparing one's body as a worthy offering to, or temporary habitation of, various spiritual powers.

✾ Beneficience

The power of aid, assistance, blessing, or other betterment; good luck, or favor- Divine or otherwise.

✾ Binding

Control and restraint of spirits. Binding may also refer to the tasking of spirits, binding them to a specific charge.

✾ Coercion

The power to compel and control a person or entity to do as one pleases.

✾ Commerce

Promoting the flow of money and other forms of material success, specifically as it regards business ventures.

✾ Conduction / Potentiation

Conduction is the general ability to channel or conduct power- both in regards to sending and receiving. This is usually only pertinant to woods prized for use as wands, staves, and other magical tools made from wood.

Potentiation is the general ability to increase the strength of a magical operation, particularly through the addition of certain plant additives known themselves for increasing such powers.

✾ Consecration

Also called ‘hallowing’, consecration is the ritual imprinting of sacred or magical intent and purpose upon a person, object, or place. Consecration plants are often aromatic, and parts most often used are essential oil, leaves, flowers, or resin- usuallt in conjunction with the cleansing properties of water (as in a prepared wash or bath, or with a perfumed oil).

✾ Curse-Lifintg/ Hex-Breaking

That power which aids in dissolution and dispersion of maleficia, or the projected malevolent or baneful magical force.

✾ Cursing

Malevolent magic for the intentional infliction or harm on a person. Plants possessing the powers of cursing are often poisonous, or have thorns or spines. Others may be deliberately rotted or diseased before use.

✾ Deception

That power which may confuse, deceive, or mislead. Herbs possessing such powers tend to have some physical property as an irritant, or may generate large quantities of smoke when burned.

✾ Discord

A disruptive power which serves to incept, exaggerate, or amplify conflicts between persons. Plants to which the powers of discord are sometimes linked to Love or War.

✾ Divination

Entreating entities for the revelation of past, present, or future unknowns.

✾ Enchanted Speech

The provision of an increased power to the voice, which can then be used as a means of enchantment upon others. It may serve poets, professional singers, salespeople, suitors, those involved in legal proceedings, and, of course, liars and seducers. When used, a portion of a plant or some other preparation is typically placed in the mouth.

✾ Exorcism

The forceful expulsion of a noxious spirit from a person, place, or object. Plants used in exorcism are diverse, but their unifying quality is often force. This may take the form of a dominating odor, toxic actions, or a fierce and combative nature. Some traditional ones, however, may have pleasant aromatic properties, or be cleansing instead.

✾ Fertility

Together with the love charm, fertility magic is one of the oldest and best-documented types of magic. The charms and spells so used frudify crops and gardens, livedock, and the human body, remediate waste ground or poisoned land, and heal corporeal trauma. Botanical materials naturally aligned with fertility magic are fruits and seeds. Flowers aligned to the sexual are also frequently used.

✾ Fidelity

The encouraging or compelling of sexual fidelity between spouses or lovers. They typically contain two components: A magnification of the energetic bond between lovers, and the creation of a barrier against the charms and temptations of others.

✾ Fortification

The power of strengthening the mind, body, and spirit.

✾ Gambling

A power for increasing skill, acuity, charisma, and sometimes the gaining of favor from the spirits of Commerce.

✾ Healing

That power which simultaneously rids disease, and nourishes the body or mind. Plants to which this power is attributed are almost always part (or a remnant) of a tradition of magical medicine; they work upon the level of various entities to augment the cure being sought, rather than being the cure themselves.

✾ Harmony

That essence which increases resonance between persons, and decreases the dissonance. It is usually used for the pacification of quarrels, or for situations in which large and diverse groups of persons must work together toward a common goal. Plant portions valued for the work of harmony often include flowers and their essences and oils.

✾ Home Warding

Anything which protects the home- whether from intruders or spirits, weather events, or other unwanted events or visitors.

✾ Hunting / Foraging

Any power which aids a Hunter or forager. It may function by attracting of spirits sympathetic to the hunter or forager; cloaking oneself while traversing the terrain; befuddlement or trickery of prey to weaken its defenses; enhancing the strength and cunning of the hunter; locating and seizing prey, or making them more visible; and many other means. The best Hunting and Foraging allies are herbs native to the area one is hunting or foraging in, or which are traditional land offerings in the region.

✾ Impotence / Sterility

To disrupt arousal, libido, or the ability to procreate. Plants embodying this power are often anaphrodisiac, abortifacient, or mutagenic, or otherwise present some kind of hostility to the reproductive system. Likewise, they may also be sympathetically symbolic of reproductive organs.

✾ Invisibility

The power to go unseen or unnoticed. They often contain one of two elements, or both: First is to numb the eyes of those watching. And the second is to conjure divertive illusion, or distractions which draw their attention elsewhere.

✾ Longevity

That power to slow the ravages of time and the elements upon the body, as well as fortify the powers of juvenation.

✾ Necromancy

The power to raise, or communicate with, the spirits of the dead.

✾ Oneirogenesis

The power to provoke and call up dreams. This power chiefly arises from the use of specific plants, often with oneiric and hallucinogenic properties.

✾ Protection from Malefica

Protection from magic users with ill intent, and their works- as well as, traditionally, protection from the Evil Eye.

✾ Protection from Noxious Spirits

Here, a ‘noxious spirit’ is defined as any abhorrent, uninvited, or unwelcome spirituous entity. A noxious spirit may offend in other ways, too, however- such as causing illness, corruption, confusion, lethargy, and other contraindications to life, health, and magical operation. It is interesting to notice that a significant amount of the herbs historically credited with the powers to drive away such entities have strong antiseptic and antimicrobial properties.

✾ Purification

To remove unwanted spiritual detritus from the body, soul, and space, especially prior to participation in ritual or religious observance; rites using purificatory plants are often used in the context of a previous contamination, the source of which varies. It might result from a dead body, an evil spirit, the breaking of taboo, the spilling of blood, or proceed as a baneful influence from the gods themselves. It does not inherently imply moral impurity, however.

✾ Reconstitution

Power which aids a person’s return to the world of the flesh, after being immersed in the world of spirit. This is achieved many ways, the most common of which is the process called ‘earthing’. It may also be achieved through the consumption of food and other plant powers.

✾ Revelation

A power revealing that which is hidden. This includes locating lost objects, but it may also include unmasking that which is masked, and revealing mysteries.

✾ Snaring

The creation or use of ‘spirit-traps’ for trapping and confining troublesome entities. In some cases, once the trap is sprung, or is otherwise ‘full’, it is buried in a location far from the home.

✾ Stop Gossip

The power to silence rumormongers and the indiscreet, and prevent them from continuing to speak ill about you or others. In old spells and charms this is a frequent operation, and many of them feature plants.

✾ Summoning

The power to conjure a spirit. Many plants used are highly fragrant. Others have gained a reputation for being ‘spirit food’, meaning that their presence is attractive to spirits of all kinds, and invite their company.

✾ Vampirism

A baneful working of malefica that acts as magical parasitism; a process that is, quite literally, the leeching of power from another.

✾ Warfare

The process of protecting the soldier and ensuring triumph, or empowering combat weapons such as firearms, or even bringing about warefare itself and encouraging its participation.

✾ Wealth

Powers invoked, summoned, and manipulated for an increase of either currency of material wealth. Plants used in such work are frequently known for their powers or symbolism of fertility.