The Magic of Flowers: A Guide to Their Metaphysical Uses & Properties - Tess Whitehurst 2013

Foxglove
The Flowers

While foxglove can be fatally toxic (do not consume!), Western medicine has employed her heart-healing and strengthening properties since the physician William Withering experimentally applied a traditional herbal healer’s remedy to a patient in the second half of the eighteenth century. Foxglove is now the main component in the family of life-saving heart medicines known as digitalin.

On a subtler and more mystical note, faeries love her, she’s highly protective, and she can help us get in touch with our wildness, joy, and magical power.

Magical Uses

Courage

Through simultaneously bolstering our heart energy and protecting our heart chakra, foxglove can help infuse us with the courage to live our greatness, follow our dreams, speak up for ourselves, and generally thrive in the midst of any number of formerly fear-inducing (or shyness-inducing) conditions. This can be especially helpful for situations such as:

✵ auditions

✵ interviews

✵ social gatherings

✵ sports events

✵ necessary confrontations

✵ performances

✵ starting a new job

✵ stepping out of your comfort zone in any way

To receive foxglove’s courage-enhancing benefits, try taking the essence (since she’s toxic, only make your own if you are very comfortable with doing so safely; otherwise, purchase from a reputable dealer) or employing her in any way mentioned in the “orientation” section. You also might create the following mist potion.

LIQUID COURAGE MIST POTION

Add six drops foxglove essence to a mister of rose water, along with six drops geranium essential oil. Shake well. Mist your body and aura before any event during which you’d like an extra dose of courage and protection.

Faery Connection

One might think of faeries as nature devas or nature spirits—the sentience of things like plants, rocks, the earth, the air, the sunlight, and the water. It follows that people who are drawn to this book (like you) are already profoundly connected to the faery realm. Still, taking a moment to consciously connect with faeries can be a wonderful way to spiral more deeply into the magic of the natural world and to the fun, whimsical, magical aspects of our spirituality.

Faeries love foxglove. When we cultivate and spend time with foxglove, we can more easily perceive the faeries and curry their favor. For this purpose, plant foxglove plants in your yard, cultivate them from seedlings, or spend quality time with them while they are blossoming.

And if you’d like to bring out your wild, faerylike nature and dwell more consistently in the realm of faery, consume the essence regularly as desired. (On a side note, this will activate your wild beauty and bewitching charm, so don’t be surprised if you find yourself drawing more admiring glances and romantic overtures.)

Heart Healing

From a holistic perspective, although they occupy the same space, you might think of us as having two hearts: a physical heart and an energetic one. Still, the physical and spiritual worlds are inextricably linked—they support, enhance, and mirror one another—so these two heart centers are actually like two sides of a single coin. And foxglove’s magic can help heal, support, and strengthen both. For example, magically employing foxglove can help support any of the following conditions (though this would not take the place of appropriate medical or psychological attention):

✵ a broken heart

✵ depression

✵ grief

✵ gear

✵ high blood pressure

✵ any physical heart conditions or challenges

Protection

Negative energy doesn’t want to mess with foxglove: she bites! In other words, like the heroine of an action movie, she might be a good guy, but you definitely don’t want to be on her bad side. This is probably why—as author Scott Cunningham relates—housewives in Wales derived a black dye from foxglove, which they used to paint protective crosses on their floors in order to “keep evil from entering the house.”

Foxglove’s protective magic can be especially helpful for those who are overly sensitive or who feel especially emotionally vulnerable or open for whatever reason. She can help us create natural boundaries and get in alignment with our inherent protective intuition.

Here are some ideas for employing her protective magic:

✵ Mist yourself with the liquid courage potion to create a protective shield.

✵ Take the essence.

✵ Plant foxglove near your front door and perhaps (for added protection and as desired) any other door to the outside of the house.

✵ To protect your home from negative people, entities, or energies, and to help yourself feel safe in your home, on a Tuesday during the waxing moon, mix nine drops foxglove essence with a small amount of equal parts menstrual blood and olive oil. Using this mixture, very lightly anoint the outside of all door frames three times: once on each side

and once in the middle of the top.

✵ Dry a foxglove blossom and tie it into a piece of red flannel, along with a hematite and a clove of garlic. Keep it on your person for extra protection while out in the world, place it near an entrance to keep negativity from entering, or hang it near the head of your bed to protect you while you sleep.

Magical Correspondences

Element: Water

Gender: Female

Planet: Mars