Basil is the herb most of us meet first, torn over tomatoes, and its name gives away how seriously people once took it: basilikon, the royal plant. It has been treated as sacred for a very long time. Its cousin tulsi, holy basil, grows in a pot at the door of countless Hindu homes as a living form of the goddess Lakshmi. In Italy a pot of basil on a balcony was a sign that a young woman was ready to be courted. Across the Mediterranean and Latin America it is the herb of a happy, prosperous household, and an old saying holds that where basil grows, no evil goes. At Plentiful Earth we carry basil as cut dried leaf from one ounce to a pound, as basil ritual oil in three sizes, and as basil water, agua de albahaca, for baths and floor washes.
What Is Basil Used For in Magic?
Basil is used for money, protection, love, and peace in the home. In hoodoo and Latin American folk practice it is a leading money and business herb: shopkeepers sprinkle basil water across the threshold each morning to draw customers, and a basil leaf is kept in the cash drawer. It is equally a herb of domestic harmony, added to baths and floor washes to end quarrels and sweeten the mood of a house. It protects by keeping trouble out rather than fighting it. Traditional correspondences give basil to Mars and the element of fire, which suits its warm, peppery scent.
What You'll Find Here
Cut basil leaf. Dried Ocimum basilicum in one-ounce, two-ounce, and one-pound bags, for sachets, spell jars, loose incense, baths, and floor washes.
Basil oil. A basil ritual oil by Espiritu in two-dram, one-ounce, and sixteen-ounce sizes, for dressing candles, anointing doorways, and adding to washes.
Basil water. An eight-ounce bottle of agua de albahaca, the ready-made basil water used in limpias, spiritual baths, and for sprinkling around a home or business.
How Do I Use Basil?
For a business, steep a handful of basil leaf in hot water, strain it, and sprinkle the cooled water across the doorstep before opening, working from the street toward the register. For peace at home, add the same infusion or a splash of basil water to your mop bucket and wash the floors from the back of the house to the front door. For money, dress a green candle with basil oil and roll it in the crumbled leaf. Our dried herbs are sold for ritual and craft use rather than for the kitchen.
Explore Related Collections
Basil works beside the other household herbs in dried herbs and cleansing herbs, and with the ready-made spiritual washes and colognes of the botanica shelf. For money work see money oils, green candles, and prosperity and abundance, and for the home see cleansing and home blessing.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the magical properties of basil?
Money drawing, business success, protection of the home, love, and peace between people. It is ruled by Mars and fire in most Western herbals.
What is agua de albahaca?
Basil water. It is a staple of Latin American and Caribbean folk practice, used in spiritual cleansings, baths, and to sprinkle homes and shops for good fortune and harmony.
Is basil the same as holy basil?
No. Culinary sweet basil is Ocimum basilicum. Holy basil, or tulsi, is Ocimum tenuiflorum, a related plant sacred in Hinduism. Their folk uses overlap, but they are different species.
How do I use basil for money?
Keep a leaf in your wallet or till, sprinkle basil water at your business door, or dress a green candle with basil oil on a Thursday or Friday during the waxing moon.
Can I cook with this basil?
Our dried herbs are packaged and sold for ritual, incense, and craft use, not as food products.
