Blue Vervain cut (Verbena hastata)

The Romans called vervain herba sacra, the sacred herb, and swept their altars with it. The American blue vervain has inherited much of that work.

Origin & Traditional Use

Verbena hastata is a tall North American perennial of wet meadows, with thin candelabra spikes of small blue-violet flowers. It was traditionally used as a bitter herbal tea. Most of the old magickal lore belongs to its European relative, Verbena officinalis, and practitioners have long used the two in the same way.

Uses by Tradition

Witchcraft & Folk Magick

• Purification: steep it and sprinkle the water around a room or over altar tools to cleanse them.
• Protection: hung in the home or carried in a sachet against harm.
• Love: added to love sachets and baths.

Hoodoo & Rootwork

• Peace: vervain is used in washes and sachets to bring peace and calm to a home.
• Blessing: added to baths and washes for good fortune and protection.

Ceremonial & Occult Magick

• Aspersion: the Key of Solomon lists vervain among the herbs bound together to make the sprinkler for holy water.
• Consecration: used to wash and bless tools before ritual use.

A Simple Working

• Steep a tablespoon of blue vervain in a cup of hot water for ten minutes.
• Strain it into a bowl and add a pinch of sea salt.
• Light a white chime candle.
• Dip your fingers in the water and sprinkle it over your altar and tools.
• Speak a blessing over each item.
• Pour the rest at the base of a tree.

Pairs Well With

• Hyssop, for purification washes.
• Lavender, for peace in the home.
• Sea salt, to strengthen a cleansing water.
• A white chime candle, for consecration and blessing.

Lore & History

Pliny the Elder wrote that the Gauls used verbena in divination and that the Druids gathered it at the rising of the Dog Star, leaving honey on the ground in return. Roman envoys carried it as a sign of their office.

What You Receive

Cut dried blue vervain, available in 1 oz, 2 oz and 1 lb.