Plants have been in use for various cures for thousands of years. Some animals
have been observed to eat certain plants when sick. Though tribal shamans aka
witch doctors were good for this, it was never their sole specialty nor limited to
them. Folk knowledge incl. medicinal uses of plants. Some plants overlap food
and medicinal use, some like cabbage having health value mostly understood
now by doctors but prized as food while others like Rosemary and Oregano
are used as spices in cooking, strewing for nice smell, and medicinally on
purpose as medicine.
In animist cultures, everything is thought to have a spirit or be under some
false god's tutelage but this is a mere rationalization of the plant's abilities.
the spirit idea may involved notions of an actual entity that may need placation
when or before picking the plant, or more of a sense of the nature of the plant
itself. The American southeast notion of a "haint" which can be anything from
a spirit entity to an atmosphere or a psychic charge or something is a good
concept to understand this.
Basically, if you hear of some plant being of some astrological, pagan false
god or spirit accompanied nature, you can ignore all that and not worry you
are engaging in disguised paganism if you use it. those are ascriptions after
the fact, and have nothing to do with their effectiveness. IF it bothers you
however, then don't use it. simple.
Modern sloppy information often claims that "witches" were misunderstood
healers, herbalists, but in fact everyone used herbs to some extent (folk
knowledge) and the Christian monks were using them extensively for their
own health and as a mission of medicine to those sick who turned to them
or lived near them. Monastic medicinal herb gardens and olive groves were
nothing unusual.
In pagan times, there was almost no charitable institutions of any kind, Julian
the Apostate when he tried to revive paganism found he had to compete with
Christian charity, so ordered the reopened temples to engage in food distribution
for free something never done before by them. In attempting to revive the
bloody gladiatorial events, he found a major lack of interest. Even though the
population retained a large pagan contingent, the social and spiritual influence
of Christians among them for generations had softened their taste and lessened
the desire for murder and mayhem. So the games had to be called off not for
rain but for lack of interest. Not no interest, just way too little.
St. Benedict's Thistle and Blessed Thistle, not the same plant, and St. John's
Wort are examples of Christian monastic influence on herbalism, these names
obviously not predating Christianity.
Note on St. John 's Wort, the most effective is Hypericum perforatum, so named
because of apparent perforations or holes in the leaf visible when held up to
the light. These are oil globules in thin layers of leaf cell, not actual holes.
If the plant doesn't have these, it is not the real St. John's Wort.
A lot of "St. John's Wort" plants, in some cases even labeled hypericum perforatum, is
NOT hypericum perforatum. Though it may have some use as an anti depressant
it won't be as good as the real thing. And it may be anything from useless to
minimal effective in warding off spirits and demons etc. Viewed as invasive and
having a photosensitizing effect on cattle and sheep that eat it, the real thing is
under heavy attack in many states. Aka Klamath Weed in California. When buying
baby plants you may be in for a bad surprise. I have run into this with plant
sellers. If buying seed you can't be sure until it has grown enough for you to
hold a leaf to the light.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monastic_garden
http://www.lewespriory.org.uk/the-original-herb-garden
Priory of St. Pancras Lewes.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Monastic+herb+gardens&t=h_&ia=images&iax=images
