Solanum Ducamara. A lesson in asking for what you need
The thing about spellwork, whether delivered from the book, from divine instruction or from your own inspiration is that you often find yourself in need of something very specific and not exactly easy to find. In this case, I’m creating a powerful talisman for dreamwork, for jumping between the worlds in the liminal space of sleep and dreams. It seems, I have need of a flower from a night flowering plant.
So I travelled to my favourite woods, a place that is still ancient and wild. It is a place where I’m sure I can hear the trees whispering to me. This place has taken care of me in the past and return I take care of it in anyway I possibly can.
Armed with offerings and a trash bag for collecting any litter I might find on the forest floor, I silently asked the forest to take me to what I needed. Then I just followed the current of the land beneath my feet all the while breathing slowly and deeply, thinking ‘nightshade’ ‘nightshade’ ‘nightshade’.
And the forest, provided. I found this beauty, Solanum Dulcamara or Bittersweet, on the edge of an area that was coppiced a few years ago and is now starting to take shape.
Bittersweet is a nightshade, associated with Hermes and Hekate, deities who both have the ability to travel between the realms, and it can be used in a salve to commune with the dead. Medically, it’s good for eczema and other skin irritations. It’s also very, very common and easy to grow, cuttings will root easily in water.
You don’t want to eat it though, it’s mildly poisonous. Obviously. But is exactly what I was looking for.
