A Witch's Garden: Heliotrope

Disclaimer

This is NOT a page about Wiccans or neo-pagans, and I do not advocate the belief that Wiccans are Satan-worshippers and/or baby-killers. I am well aware that they are not. This is a starting point for historical research into the great witch craze of 1100-1700 AD. And please, don't ask me for spells.

Heliotrope

Heliotrope has long been believed to confer invisibility. Boccaccio's Decameron refers to it as a stone, saying, "Heliotrope is a stone of such extraordinary virtue that the bearer of it is effectually concealed from the sight of all present" (Thiselton-Dyer 61).

Similarly, Dante writes in Inferno (XXIV. 92),

Amid this dread exuberance of woe
Ran naked spirits winged with horrid fear,
Nor hope had they of crevice where to hide,
Or heliotrope to charm them out of view (Thiselton-Dyer 61).

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A Witch's Garden is copyright 1997-1998 to Shantell Powell.
The preceding botanic illustration is from The Virtual Garden Search Engine, part of the Time Life Electronic Encyclopedia.