A system used by magicians, alchemists, Pagans, and others to disguise the actual herbs and minerals used in their rituals with other, sometimes far-fetched names. Thus, "strawberry juice" would be disguised by calling it "baby's blood" (in retrospect a questionable choice), thus throwing uninitiated and untrained people attempting to perform a magickal technique off the track by giving them misinformation.
Many grimoires and books of magic use animals and their parts as codes for herbs and other materials. Here are a number of them, some from the Greek Magical Papyri (see PGM XII:401-44), a work composed between 200BC and 500AD. Others come from Galen and Dioscorides, who are other ancient sources. ...
Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Sandra Kynes, author of several books, including The Herb Gardener's Essential Guide, Plant Magic, and the new Witches' Encyclopedia of Magical Plants, among many others.
Although a few old books...