Plant Witchery: Discover the Sacred Language, Wisdom, and Magic of 200 Plants - Juliet Diaz 2020

Cattail Typha latifolia
A Compendium of Plants

ESSENTIAL PROPERTIES

abundance, reflection, manifesting, love

Cattail, with its instantly recognizable thick brown sausage-like flower, stands tall out of the marshes and swamps she loves. Her flower produces a fluff that can be used as tinder to start a fire or for insulation, and is also an effective insect repellent. When dried, the flower can be dipped in tallow or wax to make a torch, and the dried leaves (called rushes) may be twisted to make chair seats.

MEDICINAL PROPERTIES

Cattail is also edible, and her pollen is high in protein. The underground stem of the cattail, called the rhizome—can be eaten in much the same way as maize or rice, and was used as such by Native Americans. The roots may be eaten like potatoes, and young shoots can be boiled until tender and eaten like asparagus. There really aren’t that many plants that can be consumed in quite so many ways! Cattail can also be made into a poultice for bruises, cuts, burns, and scars, and when made into tea she helps alleviate upset stomachs and indigestion.

MAGICAL PROPERTIES

Cattail is most powerful when worked with in love and sex Magics. She can amplify passion, so try placing her dried flower in your bedroom. If you’re looking to awaken intimacy with yourself, wrap a red silk ribbon around the dried flower, setting your intentions as you do so, and then keep the flower in your bedroom. The dried leaves can also be used in weaving Magic—as you weave, set intentions for manifesting what you desire, or weave to amplify your other Magics, keeping the finished mat in your sacred space. I like to weave cattail leaves into tiny mats for my crystals, to amplify their energies.

PLANT WISDOM

Cattail is the plant of reflection, and is particularly useful when working on personal development. She teaches us to consider whatever is inside that is keeping us from growing, rising, and embodying our best selves. She clears out toxic energies and behaviors. Work with her in collaboration with your healing work, and instantly feel her presence as she pulls the things that need to be addressed to the surface. In dreams she is like a whisper in the wind, softly swaying as if to mesmerize you. She captures your true essence and stops time so that you are in the presence of your truest self.