I’d like to hear people’s methods in determining the magical uses of a rare or unusual herb, crystal, animal, etc.
For example, I came across this purple succulent plant that doesn’t grow natively. It looks a bit otherworldly. Google, books, and people have said nothing about the benefits of using succulents in spells. Certainly this plant must have a benefit towards a magical purpose. So how would you find out?
You would probably have to find out the name of the plant, find out it’s lore( if any), what medicinal uses it has and then cross reference some grimoires or books on herbology for similiar traits as the purple plant.
Or do it the old shamanic way and ask it.
Talk to the plant spirit itself. How else do you think witches and shamans of old got shit done?
Thanks, everyone. I’ve tried to speak with the succulent. Either it’s speaking in a language I don’t yet understand, or I am not able to tune into it. I got nothing.
I’ve yet to discover a book or Google result detailing succulents in magic. I’m unfamiliar with cacti and succulents in magic, in general. Could it be that there really is no use for them in magic? I sincerely doubt that though.
What exactly did you do?
When I talk to plants, I usually give them an offering and place my hands on then gently. Just breathing rhythmically and calling out their name softly.
If it’s being difficult, it just might need to be given offerings regularly until it responds.
That’s an interesting technique. I’ll give that a try, Euoi.
Usually what I do is, first I briefly ground myself and clear my thoughts, in order to relax and prepare to receive the plant’s message. Then I’ll hold my hand over it, just shy of touching it. I’ll call its name, ask it a question, and then wait quietly for a response.
I gave it an offering of water. Here’s hoping it butters up this plant.
A succulent doesn’t really need water.
Try wine, milk, or honey.
This is interesting talking to the plants spirit is a great idea, may i suggest that you start by asking what element it represent, then what zodiac if any, ask where on the tree of life it is. Looking at images of succulent my gut reaction is air, maybe cause of the pointy leafs. When you do find out, please post your result, it will be interesting.
Also put it next to your bed and ask the spirit of the plant to appear in your dreams. I think it was an Amazonian tribe that would sleep next to a plant for days to gain communication with the spirit.
If you find out the name of the plant, let me know. I study herbology and I have books full of nothiing but plants and their magickal uses including planetary associations etc. Can you describe the plant or show a photo? Is it a plant, flower , or cactus?
@RavensAscent
Great! From what I can gather, it’s called an Echeveria purple pearl. It’s a succulent, so perhaps cactus family?
I’m trying to upload a jpg of the plant now, but though it’s only 56KB, I keep getting this message: “Your file is too large. The maximum attachment size allowed is 192KB.”
The leaves are thick, fleshy, with little pointed tips. I’ll keep trying to upload a photo.
@panlupa
I’ll move the plant close to my bed and try that. I wonder if it works on dried herbs as well. It looks like I’ll my moving my herb pantry into my bedroom for a while.
@proeng
Interesting idea! It didn’t occur to me to refer to zodiacs and the tree of life. I’ll try this as well. I’ll definitely keep everyone posted to the results.
@Euoi
Oh, I thought to give the plant an offering that it could take beneficially into itself. I’ll try leaving it a bowl or glass of honey, wine or milk next.
Here’s the succulent:
Hmm, that is rare? I see a lot here in AZ.
Again, they’re not native where I am. You’re lucky, this is a beautiful plant. 
The petals seem thick and resemble some type of aloe vera plant, you may be able to break them open and use the liquid inside for something. Give me a few minutes to check my books. It’s possible this plant may not be listed in them but one of my books is considered the holy grail of herbology encyclopedias with plants from all over the world, so if it’s not in there, you may have to resort to a library.
That plant, if the name you gave me is the right one and I believe it may be because the pictures in the book matched your photo very closely, it has medicinal healing qualities like an aloe vera plant. You can essentially break open the petals and rub the liquid on a cut, wound, scratch, or even a muscle sprain and the liquid will seep inside your skin and heal the wound or attempt to lessen the sprain.
It is similar to the flower buds that grow on cacti but it is not poisonous, and it’s not technically classified as a cactus either because it has no spikes, no outer defense mechanism to keep animals from eating it. If ingested, the liquid is not harmful but it may have a bitter taste which can be a little unpleasant so it’s not recommend for cooking or kitchen magick.
It can also be used for gaining luck, love spells, and protection. You can remove a petal and place it in a glass corked bottle and make a protection spell bottles out of it for your home, or if you use a small enough piece, you could get a tiny bottle and could carry it in your pocket or bag for self protection. So it’s mainly protection and healing but since it’s a purple plant, it’s possible you could use it for psychic or 3rd eye enhancement purposes.
It falls into the same species of plants as those little green hens and chicks that spread out of control and break open your flower pot.
Wow, this is a lot of information, RavensAscent! Thank you!
What book did you get this from?
I also found out that this plant, like most succulents, is hardy and can withstand desert climates. In addition, they readily propogate - injure the plant by pulling off a leaf or starving it of water, and new plants will sprout out of its stem and leaf cuttings, ready to continue its lineage. So, perhaps that does attest to its protection qualities, as it is strong enough to protect its own survival against such onslaughts.
It does have a strange weakness: If you water it and it gets strong, direct sunlight, the water stored in its fleshy leaves can “cook” inside. The plant takes on what appear to be scabs, as if to let you know it’s burning.
I’d always wondered how other people learn what to do with their herbs. I don’t always get the same information from a plant that others do. Take datura for example. Someone told me that it’s good for dream magic and psychic repair. But talking to datura and researching it myself, my impression was completely different, in that datura possesses strong baneful qualities. Since I have no reason to curse anyone right now, I haven’t worked with datura.
Different species of the same plant will always have differing qualities.
True.
And Salpinx, we even had those plants in Florida. I grew up in Florida near Orlando, and we had a different version of the same type. When I started researching this for you my dad was asking why I was pulling out my plant books so I showed him your photo and he said oh yeah, we had those in Florida. Now, I remember that I have some photos of that plant, we had a mote like pond that went all the way around our home and in the back it connected to a giant waterfall near our pool, and we had those plants placed in the mulch bed near the pond like every 12 feet. But ours were a pink variety with shades of dark pink and hot pink. I think they call that variety “rose” but I’m not sure.
I will see if I can locate the photos, I have them in box which I recently organized by type of photo, so it should be easy to find at least one of them. I will look for it later on this evening as I am in the middle of something right now, and I will post it here.