The Lancs Green Witch
10 Magical Herbs You Probably Already Have in Your Kitchen
Discover 10 everyday kitchen herbs and spices you can use in witchcraft, including rosemary, basil, bay, mint, thyme, cinnamon and ginger.
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One of the quickest ways to make witchcraft feel unnecessarily complicated is to look at somebody else’s beautifully photographed apothecary and assume you need to buy the entire thing. You don’t. You definitely don’t need to spend £80 at a witch shop before you’re allowed to start practising. In fact, if you wander into your kitchen and open the herb and spice cupboard, there’s a good chance you’ve already got the beginnings of a perfectly useful little magical collection. Rosemary. Basil. Thyme. Mint. Bay leaves. Cinnamon. They’re ordinary kitchen ingredients, but they’re also plants and spices with long histories of folklore, symbolism and magical associations. So before you start shopping, have a rummage through the cupboard. You might be surprised by how much witchcraft is already in there.
Can You Really Use Supermarket Herbs for Witchcraft?
Yes.
There isn't a special magical variety of rosemary that only becomes witchy once it's been put into a little glass bottle with a cork in it.
Dried culinary rosemary is still rosemary.
The basil in your spice rack is still basil.
The bay leaves you bought for cooking don't suddenly lose their magical correspondences because they came from Tesco.
There can be something lovely about growing, harvesting and drying your own plants. Buying herbs from a specialist supplier can also give you access to plants you wouldn't ordinarily find in the kitchen.
But neither is a requirement.
For beginner spellwork, use what you already have and learn about it.
That's far more useful than buying dozens of unfamiliar ingredients simply because they look appropriately witchy.
1. Rosemary
Magical associations: Protection, cleansing, remembrance, purification
If I had to recommend just one herb for a beginner witch's cupboard, rosemary would be very high on the list.
It's wonderfully versatile.
Rosemary is commonly associated with protection and cleansing, making it useful in protective spell jars, charm bags, cleansing work and household magic. Its associations with remembrance also make it particularly meaningful for workings involving memory, ancestors and things we want to honour or remember.
You can add dried rosemary to a spell jar, place some in a protection sachet, use a sprig symbolically during cleansing work or incorporate it into an altar arrangement.
It's also one of those herbs worth remembering when a spell recipe calls for something you don't have.
Try it for: Protection • Cleansing • Remembrance • Home magic
2. Basil
Magical associations: Prosperity, success, protection, harmony
Basil might make you think of pasta before prosperity, but there's absolutely no reason it can't do both.
In magical practice, basil is commonly associated with prosperity, success, luck and protection. It's particularly useful for spells concerning work, money, business, opportunity and the home.
Try adding dried basil to a prosperity jar, using it in a charm bag for success, or including it in a simple working focused on bringing abundance into the household.
For a little everyday kitchen witchcraft, you can also cook with basil intentionally, focusing on prosperity, happiness or household harmony as you prepare the meal.
Try it for: Prosperity • Success • Protection • Household harmony
3. Bay Leaves
Magical associations: Wishes, success, protection, victory
Bay leaves are brilliantly simple magical tools.
One of their best-known modern magical uses is writing an intention or wish onto a dried bay leaf. The leaf can then be kept on an altar, placed inside a spell jar or otherwise incorporated into the working.
You'll also find bay associated with protection, success, victory and achievement, which makes it particularly useful for career, study and goal-focused magic.
And because the leaves are relatively large and flat, they're considerably easier to write on than trying to inscribe your intentions onto a piece of dried rosemary.
Try it for: Wishes • Success • Protection • Achievement
4. Mint
Magical associations: Prosperity, clarity, energy, cleansing
Mint has a wonderfully fresh, lively character that lends itself beautifully to magic concerned with movement, clarity and renewed energy.
It's also traditionally associated with prosperity and can work well in money and abundance spells.
Use dried mint in spell jars and sachets, incorporate fresh mint into kitchen witchcraft, or simply keep a living mint plant as part of your magical garden if you have the space.
Although perhaps keep it in a pot.
Anyone who has ever planted mint directly into a garden will understand why.
Try it for: Prosperity • Clarity • Energy • Cleansing
5. Thyme
Magical associations: Courage, protection, purification, strength
Thyme is another little kitchen herb with a surprisingly useful collection of magical associations.
It's often connected with courage, strength and protection, making it a good choice when you're facing something difficult and need a little magical reinforcement behind you.
It can be added to protective charm bags, spell jars and confidence workings, particularly where you're looking for quiet courage rather than enormous dramatic energy.
Think job interviews, difficult conversations, new beginnings or simply getting through something you'd rather not have to deal with.
Try it for: Courage • Protection • Strength • Purification
6. Cinnamon
Magical associations: Prosperity, success, passion, speed
Cinnamon is one of those ingredients that appears everywhere in modern magical practice, particularly in prosperity work.
It's commonly associated with abundance, success, attraction, passion and speeding things along.
A small amount of ground cinnamon can be incorporated into prosperity spells, while cinnamon sticks work nicely in jars and altar arrangements.
Because of its warming associations, it can also work beautifully in seasonal magic during autumn and winter.
Just remember that cinnamon can irritate skin and airways. Being culinary doesn't mean every possible magical use is automatically sensible.
Try it for: Prosperity • Success • Passion • Motivation
7. Sage
Magical associations: Wisdom, cleansing, protection
If you've got ordinary culinary sage in your cupboard, you already have another useful magical herb.
Garden sage is associated with wisdom, protection and cleansing and can be incorporated into spell jars, sachets and household workings.
And no, cleansing with sage does not mean you have to burn enormous bundles of it until nobody in the house can see the other side of the room.
You can use sage without creating any smoke whatsoever.
Place it in a cleansing sachet. Add it to a spell jar. Use it symbolically during a ritual. Combine it with other protective herbs.
There are plenty of options.
Try it for: Wisdom • Cleansing • Protection • Household magic
8. Chamomile
Magical associations: Peace, luck, prosperity, calm
You might not have dried chamomile sitting beside the oregano, but there's a reasonable chance you've got chamomile tea somewhere in the cupboard.
Chamomile is commonly associated with peace, luck and prosperity, making it particularly useful when you want something gentler.
It can be incorporated into peaceful home workings, sleep-related rituals, luck spells and prosperity magic.
If you're using a chamomile tea bag magically, check the ingredients first. Some herbal teas contain blends rather than a single herb.
And if you intend to drink it, treat that as herbal consumption rather than assuming magical use automatically means something is appropriate for everyone.
Try it for: Peace • Luck • Prosperity • Rest
9. Black Pepper
Magical associations: Protection, banishing, boundaries
Yes. The pepper grinder counts too.
Black pepper has a strong, sharp character and is commonly used magically for protection, banishing unwanted influences and reinforcing boundaries.
That makes it particularly useful when the intention isn't simply protect me, but more along the lines of this is not welcome here.
You only need a little.
Add it to a protective spell jar or use it as part of a working concerned with boundaries and removing unwanted energy.
Please don't start enthusiastically blowing pepper around your house as a cleansing method.
Your sinuses have done nothing to deserve that.
Try it for: Protection • Banishing • Boundaries
10. Ginger
Magical associations: Energy, success, confidence, passion
Fresh ginger, dried ginger and ground ginger are all commonplace kitchen ingredients, and ginger's fiery character makes it an interesting addition to magical work.
It's often associated with energy, confidence, success and passion.
That makes it useful when a spell needs a bit of get up and go behind it, particularly for motivation, courage, career or success workings.
It can also fit beautifully into kitchen witchcraft, where the magical intention becomes part of preparing and eating the food itself.
Try it for: Energy • Success • Confidence • Passion
You Don't Need to Use All Ten
Please don't read this list and immediately go and buy the three you're missing.
That would rather defeat the point.
Instead, look at what you already have.
Perhaps you've got rosemary, basil, bay and cinnamon.
Brilliant.
You've already got ingredients that can cover protection, cleansing, prosperity, success, wishes, remembrance, abundance and plenty more.
Start there.
Choose one herb and learn a little more about it. Look at its magical correspondences, folklore and traditional uses. Notice where those associations overlap with other plants.
Then actually use it.
The aim isn't to collect herbs.
It's to learn how to practise with them.
One Herb Can Have More Than One Magical Use
You'll probably have noticed something while reading the list.
The correspondences overlap. A lot.
Rosemary and sage can both be used for protection and cleansing.
Basil, mint and cinnamon all have associations with prosperity.
Rosemary, bay, thyme and black pepper can all fit into protective work.
That's useful.
It means you don't necessarily need the exact ingredient listed in somebody else's spell.
Instead, ask what that ingredient is supposed to be doing.
If a spell calls for a particular herb because of its protective correspondence and you don't have it, look at the protective herbs you do have.
This is where herbal witchcraft starts becoming your own practice rather than a collection of recipes you're frightened to alter.
What Can You Actually Do With Kitchen Herbs?
Once you've chosen your herb, there are plenty of simple ways to work with it.
You could:
- Add it to a spell jar
- Put it into a charm bag or sachet
- Place it on your altar
- Use it symbolically in a ritual
- Incorporate it into kitchen witchcraft
- Add it to a seasonal working
- Use it alongside candle magic, with appropriate fire safety
- Grow the living plant
- Keep a little bowl of herbs as part of an intention or offering
- Use suitable culinary herbs intentionally while preparing food or drink
You don't need to make an elaborate spell every time.
Sometimes consciously adding basil to dinner while focusing on abundance and a happy home is enough.
Everyday witchcraft is still witchcraft.
A Note About Safety
Being able to eat a herb does not mean every method of using it is safe.
Something sold as a culinary ingredient may still irritate your skin, create unpleasant smoke, be unsafe for pets or cause problems when used in concentrated amounts.
Herbs can also interact with medications or be unsuitable for some people during pregnancy or because of existing health conditions.
And essential oils are not interchangeable with dried herbs. They're concentrated plant extracts with their own safety requirements.
Before drinking, burning, applying or otherwise using an unfamiliar plant, check that your particular method is appropriate.
If you're only using it symbolically in a jar, sachet or on an altar, there's often no need to do anything more dramatic with it anyway.
Start in the Kitchen, Not the Witch Shop
There is absolutely nothing wrong with buying beautiful magical tools.
I sell witchy things. I'm hardly going to pretend I don't understand the appeal of them.
But buying things and practising witchcraft aren't the same thing.
If you're just starting out, don't worry about building the perfect apothecary.
Open the kitchen cupboard.
Find the rosemary.
Learn why witches use it.
Make something with it.
Then perhaps learn about the bay leaves next week.
Over time, you might decide you want to grow your own herbs, explore plants that don't usually appear in the spice rack or put together a small herbal apothecary containing the ingredients you genuinely use.
But you can do all of that later.
For now, use what you've got.
You don't need permission to start practising, and you certainly don't need an £80 shopping list.
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