Bistort: Magical Properties & Uses

Bistort is used for fertility and the sharpening of psychic sight, its coiled root tying it to serpent and dragon symbolism. Burn or carry it in workings for conception and abundance, or add it to incense meant to open inner vision. The snake-root association also lends it to workings of renewal and shedding. A herb of the deep, twisting places.

Bistort root is one of the most astringent of native herbs, rich in tannins, used in folk medicine for diarrhoea, sore mouths and throats, and minor bleeding, taken as a decoction or gargle. The young leaves are edible and were long cooked into the northern English Easter-ledge pudding. Use the root sparingly; gentle in normal amounts.

The Morrigan

Bistort takes its name from the Latin for twice-twisted, after its coiled, serpent-like root, and old names like dragonwort and snakeweed followed from the same resemblance. In northern England the young leaves were gathered in spring for Easter-ledge pudding, a bitter Lenten dish eaten for generations. The serpent-root link gave it folk associations with fertility and with the older dragon-lore of the land. Culpeper placed it under Saturn and prized the astringent root.