Cinquefoil: Magical Properties & Uses

Cinquefoil is the herb of the five-fold blessing: work with it for love, money, health, power, or wisdom, or for workings that require all five simultaneously. Its primary use in contemporary magical practice is in prosperity and luck workings: carried in a sachet, worn on the person, or added to incense it draws good fortune comprehensively. In love workings it draws love that encompasses friendship, physical attraction, and the meeting of minds. In protection workings the five-petalled structure is itself a natural pentagram: it is carried and hung as a protective symbol that requires no construction.

Cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans and related species) has been used in European herbal medicine as an astringent, fever herb, and digestive tonic. Culpeper recommended it for fevers, sore throats, and diarrhoea: all consistent with its tannin content, which gives it genuine astringent properties. It has been used in gargles for sore throats and in washes for skin conditions. The root is particularly astringent and has been used in folk dentistry. It is generally considered safe at normal doses.

Zeus, Jupiter

Five-fingered as a hand cast in plant form, cinquefoil is the herb of the five-fold blessing: love, money, health, power, and wisdom, each represented by one of its five petals. The association with the number five runs through its entire magical history: it was painted above doorways in medieval Europe in the specific form of a five-pointed star. Culpeper noted it was under Jupiter's dominion. In folk magic across France and England it was dipped in wine given to those under oath to ensure truth was spoken. It was one of the most widely used herbs in European folk magic for attraction and luck workings, appearing in grimoires from the medieval period through the 18th century.