Tormentil: Magical Properties & Uses

Tormentil is a protection and grounding herb, its red-bleeding root the heart of its charm-work. Carry the dried root against ill-wishing and the evil eye, as the Highland tradition did, or use it in workings for stability and standing firm. A steadying herb for when the ground feels uncertain. Note this is the British bloodroot, not the toxic American Sanguinaria.

The root is markedly astringent, rich in tannins, and was a trusted folk remedy across the Scottish Highlands for diarrhoea, dysentery, and sore throats, taken as a decoction. The same astringency tanned leather and fishing nets. Gentle in normal use. Do not confuse the plant with American bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), which is toxic and entirely unrelated.

Brigid

Tormentil's root bleeds red when cut, and that single fact gave it a place in the protective charm-work of the Scottish Highlands and Hebrides, where the red root was carried against ill-wishing. Its name comes from the Latin tormentum, for the gripping pain it was used to settle. Islanders boiled the root to tan leather and to ease the gut, and Culpeper, placing it under the Sun, praised it highly for stopping fluxes and bleeding.