Parsley: Magical Properties & Uses

Parsley is the herb of the threshold between the living and the dead: used in workings that involve communication with ancestors or the recently departed, and in protective workings that specifically address the influence of the dead on the living. Its Mercury rulership makes it useful in communication workings generally; its Underworld associations make it specifically appropriate for the communication that crosses the veil. In prosperity workings it draws steady income and financial stability. In purification workings it clears the effects of grief and sustained connection to the dead. It is also used as a general protective herb when stronger herbs are not available or appropriate.

Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) is among the most nutritious of culinary herbs: it is rich in vitamins C and K and in iron, making it a genuine nutritive addition to food. Medicinally it is used as a diuretic and for urinary tract health. Culpeper recommended it for kidney and urinary complaints. The seed oil is a stronger diuretic than the leaf. Parsley should not be used medicinally in pregnancy as it is a uterine stimulant. The root is used in some European folk medicines as a digestive herb. It is safe at culinary doses.

Persephone, Hecate, Charon

The herb of both the dinner table and the Underworld: in ancient Greece, to need only parsley was to stand at death's very door, the phrase referring to those so close to death they could not eat even the most basic food. Parsley was associated with Persephone and strewn on graves; in Rome funeral feasts began with it. Yet it was also placed in salads and carried as a general digestive herb throughout the ancient world. Culpeper noted it was under Mercury's dominion. In folk tradition parsley growing vigorously indicated a household ruled by a strong woman; a failing parsley plant was a sign of ill omen. It was believed that parsley seed went to the devil and back nine times before germinating: explaining its notoriously slow and unreliable germination.