The Compendium

What the craft is made of

Stones, herbs, colours and hours — what practitioners have taken them to mean, and how widely that reading is shared.

All 115 Crystals & stones 41 Herbs 40 Candles & colours 10 Materials 8 Sabbats & moon phases 16

40 entries

Angelica Herb A great hollow architecture of a plant, named for an archangel and worth respecting. Appears in 0 workings Ash Herb The spear-tree and the world-tree, still leafing late in every damp lane. Appears in 0 workings Basil Herb The kitchen's warmest leaf, and the plant Culpeper lost his temper over. Appears in 0 workings Bay laurel Herb The victor's leaf — sharp, glossy, and long in the habit of crowning people. Appears in 1 working Birch Herb First tree back onto bare ground — the broom, the beginning, the clean slate. Appears in 0 workings Calendula Herb The pot marigold, opening with the sun and closing before rain, more or less. Appears in 0 workings Chamomile Herb Small apples in the grass — patience with a scent. Appears in 0 workings Cinnamon Herb Bark worth a war — the warmest and most commercial spice in any cupboard. Appears in 0 workings Clove Herb Unopened flower buds from a handful of islands — heat, numbness and old empires. Appears in 0 workings Comfrey Herb Knitbone — a great sprawling healer with a hard rule attached. Appears in 0 workings Dandelion Herb A sun, then a moon, then a wish — the most cheerful invasion in the lawn. Appears in 0 workings Dill Herb Kitchen-garden protection, pickle jars, and a very old word for lulling. Appears in 0 workings Elder Herb A hedgerow tree with a resident: milk-white flowers, black berries, and old manners. Appears in 0 workings Fennel Herb Aniseed feather and a hollow stalk — and a family you must never guess at. Appears in 0 workings Garlic Herb The poor man's treacle — pungent, unglamorous, and trusted everywhere it grows. Appears in 0 workings Hawthorn Herb May in flower and blood in fruit — the fairy tree of the English field. Appears in 0 workings Hyssop Herb Purging and purple — the cleansing herb of the psalm, whatever the psalm meant. Appears in 0 workings Jasmine Herb Night-scented, small and white — the flower that waits until you cannot see it. Appears in 0 workings Juniper Herb Blue berries on a spiteful little bush — smoke people have trusted for millennia. Appears in 0 workings Lavender Herb Clean linen and quiet rooms — the most domesticated of the calming herbs. Appears in 0 workings Lemon balm Herb Bee-herb, gladdening-herb — a lemon-scented mint that never quite behaved. Appears in 0 workings Mint Herb Cool, invasive, unkillable — prosperity for anyone who can keep it in its pot. Appears in 0 workings Mugwort Herb The dreamer's weed, growing out of every neglected verge in the country. Appears in 0 workings Nettle Herb Punishing to touch and generous to work with — the weed that follows people about. Appears in 0 workings Nutmeg Herb A seed that made fortunes, harmed the careless, and still sits in the spice rack. Appears in 0 workings Oak Herb Slow, immense and civic — the tree Europe used to swear on. Appears in 0 workings Onion skin Herb The papery gold nobody keeps — dye, divination, and the outside of a common thing. Appears in 0 workings Plantain Herb The footpath weed — flat, ribbed, ignored, and named in the oldest English charm we have. Appears in 0 workings Rose Herb The flower everything else is compared to, and still not simple. Appears in 0 workings Rosemary Herb Remembrance and hearth-smoke, from a shrub that outlives the gardener who planted it. Appears in 1 working Rowan Herb Scarlet berries with a star at the base — the protective tree of the north. Appears in 0 workings Rue Herb Bitter grace — beautiful, blue-green, and not to be handled lightly. Appears in 0 workings Sage Herb Grey, dusty and unhurried — the herb people reach for when a house needs settling. Appears in 0 workings St John's wort Herb Midsummer yellow — the flower that bleeds red and interferes with everything. Appears in 0 workings Star anise Herb A spice shaped like a diagram of itself — and one that must be bought carefully. Appears in 0 workings Thyme Herb Small, stubborn and everywhere at once — courage measured out in tiny leaves. Appears in 0 workings Vervain Herb The altar herb of half of Europe, and nobody can quite say why. Appears in 0 workings Willow Herb Water-loving, quick to root, and the tree behind aspirin's family name. Appears in 0 workings Wormwood Herb The most bitter thing in the garden, and long treated as the most potent. Appears in 0 workings Yarrow Herb A battlefield plant with lace for flowers, and the stalks of the oldest divination still in use. Appears in 0 workings