Names: British myrrh, garden myrrh, sweet fern, sweet chervil, British chervil
Medicinal Uses: Infusion used for flatulence and coughs. Roots have antiseptic action and were used to cure the bites of mad dogs and snakes. Steeped in wine, they were a remedy for consumption. Eat as a general tonic.
Household Uses: The entire plant is edible. John Gerard, garden keeper to Queen Elizabeth, reports its leaves and roots were commonly eaten in salads in his day. The fresh leaves can be used as a sweetener for diabetics, and can be cooked with tart-tasting fruits....such as crabapple. The seeds can be cooked into cakes and biscuits, and make an aromatic furniture polish. Used to flavor chartreuse liqueur.
Traditional Magical Uses: It is said that this plant "comforts the heart and increases a lust for life."
Shamanic Magical Use: This is the herb of Alfheim, used to honor the alfar and the fey. It is a pair with Fennel - "felamihtigu twa", the mighty two, and they are most often used in conjunction. Tea of Sweet Cicely and Fennel protects against elf-shot; tea to drink or salve rubbed on the afflicted area treats cases of it. Sweet Cicely also aids in the Gift of Sight, in this case the ability to see beauty beneath ugliness, power beneath simplicity, and possibility beneath limitation. It is a useful plant when faced with clients who are living in a swamp of negativity, and you have to find them some hope. Drink in tea or smoke it or eat the seeds (preferably six of them).
