====== Garlic ======
---- dataentry herbs----
latin_names: Allium sativum
folk_names: Ajo (Spanish), Poor Man's Treacle, Stinkweed
gender_tags: Masculine
planet_tags: Mars
element_tags: Fire
deity_tags:
effect_tags: Protection, Healing, Exorcism, Lust, Anti-Theft, Purification, Conscious Mind, Health, Physical Energy
part_tags: fresh cloves, fresh flowers
----
===== Ritual Uses =====
Garlic was eaten on festival days to Hecate, and was left at a crossroads as a sacrifice in Her name.
===== Magical Uses =====
Garlic was once worn to guard against the plague. It is still used to absorb diseases. Simply rub fresh, peeled cloves of garlic onto the afflicted part of the body, then throw into running water. An old spell utilized garlic in protecting against hepatitis. To do this, simply wear thirteen cloves of garlic at the end of a cord around the neck for thirteen days. On the last day, in the middle of the night, walk to a corner of an intersection of two streets, remove the necklace, throw it behind you and run home without looking back.
Garlic is also extremely protective. Sailors carry some while on board ship to protect against its wreckage. Soldiers wore garlic as a defense in the middle ages, while Roman soldiers ate it to give them courage. It is placed in the home to guard against the intrusion of evil, to keep out robbers and thieves, and is hung over the door to repel envious people. Garlic is especially protective in new homes.
Worn, garlic guards against foul weather (mountaineers wear it) as well as monsters, and it also shields you from the blows of your enemies.
When evil spirits are about, bite into garlic to send them away, or sprinkle powdered garlic on the floor (if you don't mind smelling it for some time). Garlic is also placed beneath children's pillows to protect them while asleep, and brides once carried a clove of garlic in her pocket for good luck and to keep evil far from her on her big day. Rubbed onto pots and pans before cooking in them, garlic removes negative vibrations which might otherwise contaminate the food.
When eaten, garlic acts as a lust-inducer, and when a magnet or lodestone is rubbed with garlic it loses its magical powers.
===== Aromatherapy =====
The powerful scent of fresh garlic is, as the old herbalists were apt to say, “too well knowne to need description.” There are lovers and there are haters of this innocent plant, and they never seem to agree. However, garlic has a long and colorful history in magic and its permeating scent certainly has a place in magical aromatherapy.
If you enjoy the taste and especially the smell of garlic, use it as needed. If you detest “the stinking bulb,” substitute some other aroma for the following uses.
To use, peel a fresh clove of garlic. If you have access to garlic plants, cut one flowerhead from the plant and place in water as usual. Garlic flowers are attractive and have a more subdued form of the characteristic scent.
//Protection//: Visualize the aroma wrapping around you, repelling negative energies.
//Purification//: Breathe in the stinging odor while visualizing it sweeping you clean of negative thoughts, of depression and of all forms of obsession.
//Health//: If you eat fresh garlic every day, as we’ve often been encouraged to do, sniff it (while visualizing its health-giving energies mingling with your body) before eating it.
//Physical energy//: When you’re dragging around, smell the sharp, intense odor. Visualize sunshine or fiery rays of light sinking into your body through your nose. It’ll really get you going.
//Conscious mind//: To stimulate thought processes and to encourage mental awareness, lightly inhale the scent.
Remember: Don’t used dried or dehydrated garlic (or that adulterated substance known as “garlic salt”). Use the real thing.