On the Virtues of Plants & Stones : Some French Folk Customs
The content of this article is appreciatively sourced from H. Berton’s book Sorcellerie en Auvergne (Borée, 2003). Whilst the original article dates back from 2018, it thus migrated from an old blog of mine to this one, with a fair amount of amendments, changes, and additions.
“Je coupe ta verdeur” : On gathering, petitioning and storing plant allies
In order to harvest the green ally and ensure we retain the potency of its virtues by drawing its blessings in (or, at the very least, avoid its ire), some proper protocol need to be followed:
One must avoid cutting the plant with any vile metal, and particularly iron.
In the French countryside, it was customary to use a bronze or copper blade, and preferably even sometimes a gold or silver coin to dig up the plant’s roots.
It is said that the plant spirits abhor processed iron, known to repel and hurt them. But there is also a logical, scientific explanation of a remarkable empiric coherence, one that our predecessors might have been able to observe : iron salts quicken the action of the tannins contained in certain plant juices, significantly altering their components.Some particular plant spirits are reputed to be uncooperative or even vengeful if disturbed, so one had to dispel their harmful influence. This is particularly true of poisonous beauties such as foxglove or belladonna.
On their way to harvesting the plant, one was not to talk to anyone about their intention of plucking it, so as not to inadvertently warn the spirit – and thus counteracting any intention to flee it may have.
Drawing a circle in the ground around the plant, using a wand or a knife, or even the finger, was said to isolate the reaper from the wrath of the spirit, while preventing this being from escaping its plant host.
As to the plucking of the plant itself, it was recommended, with more fierce spirits, to do so backwards / in reverse, without looking, to protect oneself from the spirit’s anger.Whatever the matter, one was expected to explain to the plant the intended, specific use for which it was plucked.
The following prayers, pleas and propitiations were favored by popular use :
« Je coupe ta verdeur parce que tu purifies toutes les humeurs qui entraînent l’Homme sur des chemins d’erreur et d’injustice ; par le Verbe vivant qui a fait l’Homme sans le regretter. »
“I will cut your greenness, so you could purify all the moods that lead Man on the paths of error and injustice; by the living Word who made Man without any regrets.”
[Supposedly from abbess Hildegarde de Bingen, who also advocated to cut the plant with the left hand]
Or :
« Ô toi par qui s’endort la nature, toi qui fais fuir le jour et amène la nuit, toi qui nous cache le soleil, qui engendre toutes les herbes et les donne aux humains pour la guérison… Celle qui vous a créée avec vos propriétés salutaires veut bien que je vous cueille. »
“O thou by whom nature falls asleep, thou who drive away the day and bring about the night, thou who hides the sun, who generates all the herbs and gives them to the humans for healing… She who made thou with all thy salutary properties allows me to pick thou.”
[There is no surviving, clear indication (that I am aware of) as to who this mysterious ‘She’ could be.]
Or :
« Lève-toi, lève-toi, va guérir X… Je sais que tu dors, mais j’ai besoin de toi. »
“Wake up, wake up, and come to heal X… I know you are asleep, but I need you.”
This latter one is a personal favorite to wake, charm, raise and rouse the spirit and power of a particular plant.
As an example, please see below the hymn / invocation I once composed and devised for the Great Mullein :
O’Maolain
Cuingeal Coinneal Coinnle Mhuire
Siobhag
Wake up,
Wake up and come !
I know you are asleep
But I need you.
Candlewick
Light of the hedge
Wake up, wake up !
Thou who are both the Witch’s candle and the Shepherd’s club
Thou who giveth light and breath to the dead,
And can taketh it from the living too –
Wake up, wake up !
Hag’s taper
And Hekate’s torch
Aaron’s rod
And Lucifer’s staff :
Wake up, wake up !
Devil’s lanthorn in the dark
Velvet plant
Flannel leaf and Feltwort :
Wake up, wake up !
Hare’s beard or ears
Ice leaf
And Beggar’s blanket :
Wake up, wake up !
Graveyard Dirt
Light of the Underworld
Mighty lamp of Dragon’s flame
Mollis malandrium
Verbascum thapsus :
Wake up, wake up !
Bouillon-blanc
Herbe de Saint-Fiacre
Grand Chandelier
Cierge de Notre-Dame
Queue-de-loup
Wake up, wake up –
For I call you
And I need you
O Great Mullein.
As for the subsequent uses and proper storage of the plants thus gathered, particular rules also prevailed.
It was generally understood that drying a plant would make it loose a large part of its properties.
Whenever possible, one is to always favor the use of fresh plants.If dry plants must be used, then they are to be hung in a bouquet, or spread on a flat surface, to dry in the open air and never by the fire or in an oven.
Plants are to be stored in glass jars or paper bags once fully dried. Iron containers are absolutely prohibited.
The power of a cut plant slowly fades and disappears, so one has to discard their harvest after a year.
Oeuf de serpent & pierre de crapaud : On identifying, using, and collecting peculiar stones
The curious lore of precious stones is well known and compiled, of course, but in the French countryside, it was apparently unremarkable pebbles which were most sought after and elevated by the common folk.
The country is blessed with a great many variety of landscapes sightings. Sea, sand, extinct volcanos and green mountains flourish alongside dense forests, arid counties and rocky plains. Snow, ice, sun and rain molded the geological aspects of the territory and shaped the land we know today. The French soil is thus particularly rich and diverse, with a wealth of gemstones and semi-precious crystals abundant throughout the country, but there also exist a few rocks, pebbles and stones that countryside witchcraft and folk magic practices recognized and used long ago.
Here now follow a few of them.
Mythical Origins
It is believed that French underground waters, currents and flows, meet and merge and mutate and mate to form a great serpent, sometimes confused with a dragon.
Birthed in the churning of secret pools, the land serpent creates and destroys, and shapes the landscape – snaking its way into the terrain, leaving lakes and rivers in its trail. The Serpent arises, unearthed, where lie sacred wells and springs, thus imbuing them with its essence and bestowing them their great healing virtues long before the palm of saints blessed them. The Serpent dug caves for fairies to dwell in (and, indeed, we French people believe most fairies to reside in caves, caverns and grottos : many mountainous regions thus have their own « Grotte des Fées »); and then for Men to live and inhabit. The Serpent’s head is crowned with bright, shining gemstones, and its long, sinuous body set with marvelous crystals of vibrant colors, enbedded between its scales and full of powerful properties. The Land Serpent is a mythical guardian, and the first, primitive and primordial of our Genius Locii.
All stones store the virtues of the spirits inhabiting the land they dwell on.
Great Stones
French menhirs and dolmens still draw people today, whether it be for pilgrimage or individual quests. They were considered gatekeepers of the underworld, marking the boundary between this world and the other. Korrigans still dance among stone circles by moonlight. Such standing stones are mostly known for the healing rituals taking place under their towering silhouette, or for any other manner of transfer medicine they favour. But other uses include fecundity and fertility rites, where women in particular would come to rub their genitals on the most phallic parts to propitiate a good matrix (see for instance the Pierre Piquée, Aubière, Puy-de-Dôme).
Wobbly stones were used to baptize children and bestow blessings upon a newborn child : one would leave the baby safely at the basis of the rock, then shake the stone gently to gift them strength, happiness and protection. Some say such stones were able to move on their own accord, adding an extra blessing to the rite.
Holey / Holed Stones
Known as hagstones in the British Isles, French people name them « pierres trouées » (holed stones), « pierres à cupules » (cupules), or « pierres à empreintes » (print stones). These names all refer to stones naturally pierced with one or multiple holes, particularly through the influence of water – mostly rain and saltwater. They are considered powerful healing allies against all sorts of fever and afflictions, including ailments of the eyes, sterility, and skin diseases. With stones large enough, placing the suffering body part directly inside the hole – the head, a limb, a finger – was said to cure anything, from intellectual defect to sprains or warts. According to tradition, the pierced stones were said to bear the marks of various spiritual beings such as angels, demons, fairies, mythical heroes, giants (Gargantua) or saints.
Domestic Stones
« Pierres de lune » (Moon stones), quartz and white stones
It is no secret that I come from the Alpine regions, where one is able to dig up their own quartz in the mountains or drag the rivers to discover large pieces with diverse inclusions (sometimes even finding gold, if the « Dames Blanches » – White Ladies – don’t catch you first). Once, in Marseille, I managed to unearth big chunks and nuggets of red smoky quartz the size of my palm while hiking on an inlet. It is said quartz comes from the old glaciers around : these are pieces of ice so ancient they don’t melt anymore.
When I was a child, I spent hours looking around for small, shiny white stones : my mum called these « pierres de lune » (moon stones) and my child brain thought they silently cracked and fell directly on Earth for us to find if we were lucky enough. I was thrilled to own myself a very small part of the Moon, and treasured all my discoveries. Nowadays, pure, milky-white stones still exert a certain fascination upon me, and I believe them blessed by the People of the Hills.
Reptile stones
Some of the most popular stones are the well-known « pierres à venin » (venom stones) – either granite, quartz or variolite, sometimes schist or limestone. These are typically small, black stones with green stains that were said to be body parts belonging to ancient reptiles, snakes and other venomous beings long gone – perhaps the Land Serpent itself. While they do come from various fossils, prehistoric tools or natural rocks, they are also called « pierres-serpent » (snake stones) and sometimes even known as « pierres de salamandre » (salamander stones). One would need to polish them carefully on sheep skins for hours before using them to cure snake bites or to draw the poison of venomous beasts out of an afflicted limb.
But it is without a doubt the famous « œuf de serpent » (snake egg), known since druidic times, which was the pride and joy of any accomplished folk practitioner – bequeathed with care, and handled with reverence. In the Isles, these are often known as fairy bread or loaves, revealing something about their affiliations.
According to Pliny’s Natural History, XXIX.52 :
“There is also another kind of egg, of much renown in the Gallic provinces, but ignored by the Greeks. In the summer, numberless snakes entwine themselves into a ball, held together by a secretion from their bodies and by their spittle. this is called anguinum. The Druids say that hissing serpents throw this up into the air, and that it must be caught in a cloak, and not allowed to touch the ground; and that one must instantly take flight on horse-back, as the serpents will pursue until some stream cuts them out. It may be tested, they say, by seeing if it flaots against the current of a river, even though it be set in gold. But as it is the way of magicians to cast a cunning veil about their frauds, they pretend that these eggs can only be taken on a certain day of the moon, as though it rested with mankind to make the moon and the serpents accord as to the moment of the operation. I myself, however, have seen one of these eggs; it was round, and about as large as a smallish apple; the shell was cartalaginous, and pocked like the arms of a polypus.”
Some village practitioners would claim to find them in viper nests, or in places where snakes would fight – thus making the stone either a fossilized snake egg, or a stone believed to have formed through the coagulation of snake’s slime and bodily juices : the snake would dribble and roll the stone with its body when fighting, giving it its round, spherical shape.
Mine comes from the Parmelan mountain, where they are at times so easy to find (particularly after storms) that they actually litter the path to climb the top of the mountain.
One would keep their reptile stones safely in jute bags, or store them in clay containers, and as their various names suggest these were employed against snake bites, bug stings and skin diseases. The stone would be left in water for some time (anywhere between half an hour to a full day), then half of it would be drunk and half of it and poured onto the afflicted body part to cure the disease away. But reptile stones were also hung on beasts (cattle, dogs, cats…) to protect them against fairies.
Other (un)remarkable servants
The « pierre des yeux » (eye stone) is a stone found in swallows’ nests. It can cure any eye disease.
The « pierre de crapaud » (toad stone) is named after its shape and color, making it look like a toad. Some say one could find it inside the toad’s head, some say it is the toad brain. Used just like the pierre à venin, but simply by rubbing the stone on the needing area.
The « pierre du sang » (blood stone) is a red-colored pebble, used to stop hemorrhages and other blood problems by direct application.
The « pierre de la Croix » (Cross stone) is usually a flat gray pebble with a white pattern evoking the Cross. These were especially popular in Bretagne and Auvergne, and were known as particularly powerful talismans. They protect their bearer from the evil eye, any nocturnal fears, spell craft, and can also cure one from bleeding, diarrhea and rabies.
The « pierre des femmes » (women stone) are limonite nodules known to help women in labour, quickening the delivery. Interestingly enough, they were also used, if combined with the right sacred plants, in abortive rites and preparations.
Various other stones also included the « pierre de la tête » (head stone, used against migraines – often simple quartz pebbles); « pierre de la peste » (plague stone, a black pebble – self explanatory); « pierre des dents » (teeth stone – idem) or « pierre des cauchemars » (nightmare stone, a holed silex hung on the bedroom door or put under the bed to prevent bad dreams).
In Conclusion
Aside from the remarkable body of local lore this insightful guidance from French terroir provides us with as it pertains to plants and stones, what is most striking with these ancient practices, superstitions and beliefs, particularly from a magico-religious perspective, is that they attest in no uncertain terms of the deep respect our close Ancestors from as little as 200 years ago had for their environment – back to a time where most people still harbored a degree of grounded awareness of the unity of nature, and of those invisible we share the world with.
The question of right relationship with spirits and forces unseen was crucial to survival, and the complex set of strategies deployed to ensure peaceful interactions reveal some of this rich vision and layered understanding our predecessors had about their surroundings.
Unto us, now, the carrying of these living traditions.