====== Corn ======
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latin_names: Zea Mays
folk_names: Giver of life, Maize, Sacred Mother, Seed of Seeds
gender_tags: Feminine
planet_tags: Venus
element_tags: Earth
deity_tags: 
effect_tags: Protection, Luck, Divination
----
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===== Ritual Uses =====
The Corn Mother, or Goddess, is a deity of plenty and of fertility, long worshipped throughout the East and North America. The Zunis utilize different colors of corn in their religious rituals. Blue corn meal is used to bless and is scattered as an offering.
===== Magical Uses =====
Reach into a bin of corn, pull out any ear, count the grains. Allow twelve grains of corn for each year and it will tell your age.

An ear of corn is placed within the cradle to protect the baby against negative forces. A bunch of cornstalks hung over the mirror brings good luck to the household, and a necklace made of dried red corn kernels prevents nosebleed.

Pollen from corn was used to make rain by ancient Meso-American peoples, probably by tossing it into the air.

At one time, in the mountains of the United States, if a birth was difficult, red corncobs were burned on the doorstep of the cabin (or even under the bed) to speed up the process.
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