In the Garden: Meet the Green Lynx Spider

 Meet the fair verdant lady, the Green Lynx Spider.  I met this big girl in her favored environment, leafy green shrubs- my white and yellow lantana to be specific.  I was cutting flowers for smudge sticks when a large green leaf fell on my hand. Then I noticed it had 8 legs and was munching on a honey bee!  Step back... that is the greenest spider with the most vicious looking barbed legs I've ever encountered. This was a very large female of the species and quite lovely. I got a couple good shots of her with my camera phone before she dropped her snack and turned around to brandish her long front legs at me.

According to Candice Hawkinson, a Galveston County Master Gardner, this spider is "aptly named for their bright green body color and capability of running very fast, then jumping on its prey like a cat, Peucetia viridans, is North America’s largest lynx spider. These long-legged hunting arachnoids are known by the Spanish name araña (spider) verde (green) or the Latin “viridis” meaning green"
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/galveston/beneficials/beneficial-48_green_lynx_spider.htm

 This is a hunting spider that can see up to 4" in the day. She jumps like her namesake the lynx, using her barbed legs to capture insect pray.  Not a web weaver but usually on a drag line.  Also not usually a biter, non-poisonous, but will aggressively protect her egg sack and her young.

"Once the egg sac is attached to the plant, the female either sits right on top of it, with her legs wrapped around it or hangs upside down from the sac. Either way, she guards the egg sac continuously and vigorously, rushing at anything that threatens it. This is common in the spider world. The female Green Lynx Spider shows great parental care, protecting her eggs and later, when the egg sac hatches, guarding her young until the spiderlings can fend for themselves. Each egg sac contains 25 to 600 bright orange eggs, with an average of 200 eggs. The post-embryo remains in the egg sac, requiring 11 to 16 days to hatch. 

"The first instar spiderling is bright orange, has functional eyes, a digestive tract and spines. After about 2 weeks the young spiderlings emerge. (Spiderlings undergo their first molt inside the egg sac). The female spider helps the young to emerge by tearing open the egg sac. Unlike the wolf spiders, in an emergency, Green Lynx Spiderlings can make their own exit holes from the egg sac. They remain near the egg sac for 10 days or more, before dispersing by ballooning. Usually the spiderlings emerge in the fall, catch whatever tiny insects they can capture"

She's a spitter!  "Peucetia viridans is the only spider that can squirt or spit venom, aside from spitting spiders (Scytodidae). Although Green Lynx Spiders aggressively attack its insect prey, they very seldom bite humans"

Crafting Hedge Besoms with Sweetgrass and Spurge Weed

 Yesterday I made a variety of besoms ranging from 3ft to 1ft long.  A majority of the materials used are hand gathered either in my garden or in local fields.  I also added other fragrant dried herbs and grasses to them.  I took a few of my long sweetgrass braids and unbound them, which gave me the most delicious smelling grass waves to work with.  This larger example pictured above has a base of broom weed with sweetgrass and lichen covered twigs.  Wild dove and guinea fowl feathers, vintage lace, as well as a bronzed triqueta finish the piece.

 Pictured below is a small example of common spurge weed that grows in my hard Texas clay soil.  They create very large low laying medallions that can be pulled up and tied into a tassel to dry.  If you cut or trim them while they are fresh, you will see a white milky sap called 'latex' ooze out of each tiny stem.  Not only does it make quite the sticky mess, it can cause skin irritation and is toxic in large amounts.  Use gloves or wait until plant has dried before trimming.  I tie these little bundles to various prepared sticks that I have collected- lime wood, rose wood, bougainvillea wood, live oak wood, butterfly bush wood... each with its own properties and associations.  I love the waving pattern of bougainvillea especially for a small altar broom.

 Burt the cat was not happy that I removed the spurge fluffs from his paws. He forgave me when I traded it for some freshly picked catnip.

Nature's Naughty Herbs - the baneful components of magick

The Usage of Baneful Herbs & Curios…

    This is a cautious journey into the darker side of Nature and her fiercer aspect as manifested in the so called ‘baneful’ herbs.  While there are as many ethical codes as there are types of Witches, remember that every herb has its own blessings and curses.  For instance, you might regularly sprinkle nutmeg on your pies yet if you were to consume a whole nutmeg pod, you most certainly would die a painful death!  You must decide for yourself if your usage is educated, just, and worth the risk.  Baneful herbs tend to be toxic, making them stronger and faster acting both physically and spiritually. 

    Until the mid 1900’s most of these herbs were widely used in pharmaceutical and folk magic practices.  Marijauna infusions, belladonna eye drops, cocaine cough drops, and opiate elixers for female remedies could be found at any common drug store. However, due to their toxic and addictive nature many of these plant based products are very difficult to find today in medicinal, dried, or seed form.  Some common herbal ingredients from earlier times such as marijuana and fly agaric are simply outlawed in most countries now.  Others, such as belladonna in pinkeye relief drops, are still used in very limited circles. As the number of synthetic medicines grow and regulations against homeopathic healing continues, the availability and usage of baneful herbs in traditional folk magick and healing has also waned.    
 Vintage medicine labels showing the usage of baneful herbs & modern illegal substances.
Considering the potential health and legal risks of using baneful herbs, why would any practitioner do so?  Used in magick and medicine for centuries, these botanical curiosities can lead to hallucination, coma, or painful death if not applied properly.  Then again, so can the misuse of modern pharmaceutical medicines.  For those of us who are drawn to traditional hedge witchery, herb craft, and the Green Path, to not seek these herbs and their wisdom leaves a void in our practice… maybe in our very energy, our ability to heal, and the possibility to communicate with the spiritual Green. The symbolism and spiritual power of these plants is derived from humanity’s oldest consciousness and relationship with our environment.  Before grocery stores, before even farms, we foraged ALL of our medicines and food from the Earth.  The loss of this relationship and level of knowing pains many of us. 

"Upon the poison path, we may speak of many 'firsts'- the initial sting or bite of a poisonous animal; the first adverse reaction from a prescription drug; the first experience of anesthesia;  the first apparition borne of an hallucinogenic substance.  This inceptive consciousness may also be applied to Astral Poison: heartbreak, betrayal, emotional violence, nightmare.  Each situation may be regarded as initiatic..."  

-Daniel A. Schulke 'Veneficium: Magic, Witchcraft, and the Poison Path'

Beyond the health risks, some practitioners find themselves in dread of any herb termed ‘baneful’, actually considering these plants to inherently carry evil spirits or negative properties.  Traditionally some of these herbs are used to draw spirits (datura) while others exorcize them (larkspur)- some are employed to do both (wormwood).  They may be used to sow discord or confusion (poppy seed, devil's shoe string). Certain herbs are said to be able to possess a lover to the heights of passion while others destroy a couple’s relations or cause impotency and infertility.  Visions, a sense of flying, and hallucinations of dancing hoards are said to be invoked by certain botanical applications. Hexing, cursing, tricking, goofering, domination, or bending over are all ways of describing the darker affects of baneful herbs.  There is a real fear among many spiritualists of opening a dark door that cannot be closed again… of somehow drawing malignance and danger to oneself with these plants.  However, others feel that how the herb is approached and the intention of the user is what actually determines a baneful or beneficial working.  The study of cursing does not necessarily mean one practices willful malignancy.  A doctor must know the poison to provide an antidote and so to a Witch must know how a curse was cast and even use a bit of the same ingredients in the undoing.

    You can work with any plant’s energies and symbolic properties for positive goals.  Developing a relationship and educated familiarity with any plant can lead you to an awareness of its ‘spirit’ or ‘familiar’.  These beings may then choose to aid you in your workings and journey if tended to properly. You may try creating talismans, coordinating the planetary associations of specific plants with various sigils, stones, and days. Roots, leaves, and berries can be added to medicine bundles, mojo bags, or gris gris bags.  You could craft a spell bottle to enshrine the plant's spiritual anima.  Certain herbs lend themselves well to poppets as the heart or stuffing of the doll.  Additionally glass pendants or tiny bottles of various herbs may be worn to invoke their specific power.

In popular American magickal practices, many commonly speak of meeting 'animal spirits' but fewer acknowledge a genuine consciousness emanating from plant life.  There are many older traditions to look to in reawakening this connection.  Dryad traditions throughout Europe, many of the Devi beings in Asia, and certainly the seguro plant spirits of Andean culture's can help in this work.  In the later case:

"Always on altars are seguros, magical amulet bottles filled with perfume, plants, and seeds...

(this is then) a "friend" or "ally", someone you can turn to for advice and information, who will listen and share your problems.  (These are) plants chosen for their specific healing and spiritual qualities. A seguro can help you maintain and deepen your link to the sacred because, of course, it contains your plant ally. If there are other plants you have journeyed to or would like to learn from, these can be added to the seguro as well and, when you know the language of your ally, this plant spirit will communicate your desire to the other plants, which will also offer their healing and support. You therefore gain access to the natural world and its powers more widely" 

 http://www.alumbo.com/article/37185-Plant-Spirit-Shamanism-The-seguro.html

Above: found on Pinterest, original artist unknown (let me know if you find the source)
Sealed baneful herb spirit bottles with Datura, Bittersweet Nightshade, Mandrake, Fly Agaric, and Black Henbane

The List
A variety of common baneful herbs and substances used in the magickal process. There are of course many more that could be added based on historical symbolism or toxicity.

Abrus, also called Rosary Pea, Precatory Bean (Abrus precatorius)

Barberry

Bats Head Root

Blood Root

Castor Beans

Chine Berries

Cinquefoil, Witch’s Grass

Coca

Datura, Jimsonweed

Devil’s Shoestring

Fly Agaric

Foxglove, Digitalis

Guano, Bat  excrement

Hawthorn

Hellbore

Hemp

Henbane

High John the Conqueror

Lemon Verbena

Licorice Root

Lily of the Valley

Lobelia

Lotus

Mandrake, European

May Apple Root, American Mandrake

Mistletoe

Mullein

Nightshade, Belladonna, Monkshood

Periwinkle

Poison Arrow Plant (Acokanthera species)

Poison Hemlock

Poke Root

Poppy

Rue, Ruda

Sulfur, Brimstone

Tonka Bean

Vandal Root

Wolfsbane or Monkshood, Aconite (Aconitum species)

Wormwood

Yew 

The List of Nots!

-This is NOT a medical document and in no way suggests the consumption or medicinal usage of said herbs. 

-This is NOT an approval of recreational drug usage or the acquisition of illegal substances. 

-The author NOT in any way responsible for the use or misuse of any herb nor is she responsible for any allergic reaction. 

-Additionally, this is NOT an exhaustive list of every toxic plant in the world.  Many ‘nice’ herbs may also be problematic if misused.  The practitioner takes upon themselves all magickal and physical risks associated with the handling of these plants or formulas.  These substances are potentially toxic and deadly. 

-The author also does NOT guarantee the outcome of any specific spell and offers these materials as curios only.  The success or failure of any magickal working is dependent upon the practitioner’s own belief system.

Notice to Reader!

    If you do choose to work with baneful herbs, avoid burning the plant material for this can cause toxic fumes.  The chemical properties can also be absorbed through the skin by direct contact and heavy smoke.  Do NOT ingest or smoke these!  Consider wearing gloves and especially avoid contact with open cuts or abraded skin.  Thoroughly washing hands, face, utensils, and vessels after handling these plant products. Clearly label storage bottles!  Keep out of reach of children or pets!

    Another point to consider, many baneful herbs are sacred to darker chthonic entities who will expect an offering for the collection and usage of said plants. Carefully consider these deities, your own ethics concerning self defense and attack, and the greater Web of being before proceeding.  Many witches, herbalists, and shamanic practitioners never feel capable of handling such fire… are you really ready?