Echinacea: Magical Properties & Uses

Echinacea's primary magical uses are in strengthening and fortifying workings: it is appropriate as an offering to strengthen a deity relationship, to increase the effectiveness of other herbs in a working, and in spells for courage, endurance, and the reinforcement of boundaries that have become weak. Its Mars rulership and fire quality make it an activating herb rather than a passive one. In healing workings it supports the body's own defences rather than treating specific symptoms: this same quality in magical use makes it appropriate for workings that need the practitioner's own resources reinforced and supported.

Echinacea (primarily E. purpurea, E. angustifolia, and E. pallida) is one of the most extensively researched herbal medicines. The evidence for its use in reducing the duration and severity of upper respiratory infections is positive, though not conclusive: a 2015 Cochrane review found some benefit. It is believed to work through immunomodulation. It should not be used continuously for long periods; it is used short-term at the onset of infection. It may interact with immunosuppressant medications and should not be used in autoimmune conditions. It is generally considered safe for short-term use in healthy adults.

Healing deities, Sun deities

The purple coneflower of the North American prairies: most important of all the healing plants to the peoples who first held its knowledge. The Lakota, Cheyenne, and many other indigenous peoples of the Great Plains used Echinacea as their primary wound herb, their snake-bite treatment, and their remedy for infections and fevers. The knowledge of Echinacea's medicinal properties came to Western herbalism entirely through indigenous American practice: it was unknown to European herbalism until the 19th century, when its use was adopted first by Eclectic physicians and then by the wider herbal tradition. It is now the best-selling herbal supplement in the United States.