“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” h.keller

 Powerful Plants: Aconitum Lore

According to witch lore, aconite root or leaves are used to protect against negative energies during rituals. In traditional Chinese medicine, it was believed that aconite root, or fu zi in Mandarin, was powerful enough to raise the dead.

Aconite is a sacred plant of the goddess Hecate. According to the Roman poet Ovid, the first aconite grew from the spittle of Cerberus, the hound of Hades, a multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the Underworld to prevent the dead from leaving.

Werewolves are said to be repelled by the plant, or even tamed by it. Others, however, believed that having contact with wolfsbane on a full moon could actually cause shape-shifting. Patients who suffered from lycanthropy (the delusion of being a wolf) were prescribed regular—and lethal—doses of wolfsbane by their medieval doctors.