Calendula: Magical Properties & Uses

Calendula is the flower of protection at the threshold, solar joy, and prophetic vision. It is placed beneath beds for prophetic dreaming; strewn at doorways for household protection; and added to sachets for legal matters: where its association with the sun and with solar justice gives it particular relevance in workings around fairness and favourable outcomes. It is also a fire herb in the sense of the tended, domestic flame: good for the protection of the hearth and the home's resources. In sun ritual it represents the full, generous power of the summer sun at its most accessible and least overwhelming.

Calendula (Calendula officinalis) has an extraordinarily well-documented history as a wound-healing and anti-inflammatory herb. Its triterpenoids and flavonoids are genuinely anti-inflammatory and promote wound healing; it is approved in Germany as a herbal medicine for skin inflammation and wound healing. It is widely used in contemporary skincare preparations for these properties. Culpeper recommended it extensively for skin complaints and wound care. It is also used orally as an anti-inflammatory digestive herb, and the petals are edible with a mild, slightly bitter flavour.

Mary (Virgin), Oshun, Sol

Bright as the noonday sun in petal-form, calendula (pot marigold) takes its Latin name from the Roman calendae, the first day of each month, because it was observed to bloom reliably through most of the year. In medieval Europe it was strewn beneath the bed to bring prophetic dreams; in the language of flowers it represented grief and constancy simultaneously. During the American Civil War it was used extensively as a wound-healing herb by field surgeons who had run out of conventional supplies: a documented emergency application of its genuine healing properties. The petals were used as a yellow dye and as a saffron substitute in food across Northern Europe.