====== Banana ======
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---- dataentry herbs----
latin_names: Musa sapientum
folk_names: Maia (Hawaiian), Bacove, Sanging
gender_tags: Feminine
planet_tags: Venus
element_tags: Water
deity_tags: 
effect_tags: Fertility, Potency, Prosperity
----
</div>
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===== Ritual Uses =====
In sacrifices to the Gods, a banana stalk was sometimes used as a substitute for a human, both in Hawaii and Tahiti. Until the kapu (code of taboos) in Hawaii was broken in 1819, certain kinds of bananas were among foods forbidden to women on pain of death. The banana plant is also used in contemporary voodoo rites, in which it represents the gods, since both they and the banana's flowers are herma-phroditic.
===== Magical Uses =====
The banana is used to increase fertility, and also to cure impotency. Perhaps because of these magical powers, if a bride is married under a banana tree she cannot help being lucky.

The leaves, flowers and fruits of the banana are used in money and prosperity spells, due to the tree's fruitfulness.

Curiously enough, an old belief tells us that a banana should never be cut, only broken.
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