Cinnamon: Magical Properties & Uses

Cinnamon is the herb of swift action and the amplification of intention. Its primary magical uses are drawing money and prosperity, speeding up any working that has stalled, and raising the overall energy of a ritual space. As a solar herb it carries the full, committed power of the midday sun: it does not build slowly but arrives with force. Used in anointing oils it amplifies whatever working is being dressed; added to incense blends it accelerates them. It is also an aphrodisiac herb in the folk tradition and features in the majority of love-drawing formulae in Southern American folk magic.

Cinnamon has been used medicinally since antiquity. The most well-researched contemporary application is blood sugar regulation: clinical trials have demonstrated that cinnamon consumption improves insulin sensitivity and reduces fasting blood glucose in type 2 diabetes, though results are mixed. It is strongly antimicrobial and antifungal and was used as a food preservative in the medieval period for this property. Culpeper recommended it for cold and weak stomachs, kidney complaints, and easing childbirth.

Aphrodite, Venus, Ra, Apollo

Cinnamon is among the oldest traded spices in the world: known in China as early as 2700 BCE and reaching Egypt and the Levant via trade routes so closely guarded that merchants invented fantastic stories about its origin to prevent competition. It is mentioned in the Old Testament as a component of the holy anointing oil Moses was commanded to prepare. The Egyptians used it in embalming. Pliny the Elder, who wrote at length about its commercial value, observed that it was worth fifteen times its weight in silver. Throughout the ancient world it was a luxury of religious and royal significance.