Flax Seed (Linum usitatissimum)

How to Use It

Witchcraft & Folk Magick

• Money: a few seeds kept in the purse or pocket, or in a jar with coins, so that money never runs out.
• Protection: flax seed mixed with red pepper and kept in a small box in the house as a ward.
• Beauty: in old European custom, children danced among the flowering flax so they would grow up beautiful.

A Simple Working

• Set out a teaspoon of flax seed, three coins and a small lidded tin or jar.
• Place the coins in the tin.
• Pour the flax seed over them, counting the money you want coming in.
• Add a bay leaf with your aim written on it.
• Close the tin and keep it with your purse or wallet.
• Add a pinch of seed every payday.

Pairs Well With

• Cayenne pepper for the traditional protection box.
• Bay leaf for a written money petition.
• Five finger grass for money and luck.
• Cinnamon to speed money work.

What You Receive

Whole flax seed, available in 1 oz, 4 oz and 1 lb.

Origin & Lore

Flax is the plant behind both linen cloth and linseed oil. Its stalks were retted and spun into the linen that clothed ancient Egypt and medieval Europe, and its seed was eaten, pressed for oil and traditionally used in household herbalism.

In German folk belief, Holda walked the land during the Twelve Nights to see that the flax on every distaff had been spun, rewarding the diligent and punishing the idle.

Holda, also called Frau Holle, was the patron of spinning in German folklore, and flax was her plant. Tales told that she would tangle the unspun flax left on a distaff at the year’s end, and that she brought the gift of flax-growing to humankind.