Catnip cut (Nepeta cataria)

How to Use It

Witchcraft & Folk Magick

• Familiar bonding: offer catnip to a cat companion during ritual or keep a little on the altar to strengthen the bond.
• Love sachet: blend with rose petals in a small pouch to draw affection and friendship.
• Happy home: hang a bundle or keep a jar in the kitchen for warmth and good humour in the household.
• Courage: following the old root lore, a pinch is added to charms for boldness when you must stand your ground.

A Simple Working

• Set out a pink candle, a tablespoon of catnip and a tablespoon of rose petals.
• Carve the name of the person or the quality you want to draw into the candle.
• Rub the candle lightly with a drop of olive oil and roll it in the mixed herbs.
• Sprinkle the remaining herbs in a circle around the candle holder.
• Light the candle and speak your intention once, plainly.
• Let the candle burn down and keep the herbs in a sachet afterwards.

Pairs Well With

• Rose petals, for love and affection.
• A pink candle, for gentle attraction work.
• Lavender, for peace in the home.
• Damiana, when the work turns from sweet to passionate.

What You Receive

Cut and dried catnip, available in 1 oz, 2 oz and 1 lb.

Origin & Lore

Catnip (Nepeta cataria) is a mint-family herb native to Europe and Asia and long naturalised in North America. It was grown in kitchen gardens, used in cooking and brewed as a tea in England before Chinese tea was common. Cats, of course, found it first.

An old English herbal claimed that chewing the root of this mild plant would turn the gentlest person fierce and quarrelsome.

English folklore tells of a hangman who could not bring himself to carry out an execution until he had chewed catnip root, a story repeated in older herbal books. The plant’s old names catmint and nep both go back centuries in English gardens.