HERBS: Dill (REMEDIES, LORE, MAGICK)

[Guest guest]

DILL

====

 

CULTIVATION:

Dill is a aromatic annual with finely divided leaves to 2-3 feet high,

on spindle-shaped roots, bearing umbels of yellow flowers.

 

Dill prefers full sun, and needs protection from wind. Soil should be

rich, and well drained, but tolerates most other soil. Sow in ground

from spring to midsummer. Do not plant near fennel as they

cross-pollinate. Dill self-seeds, and seeds remain viable for 3-10

years. Germination time is about 21 days, foliage is ready for use in 70

days, and seeds are ripe in about 100 days. Grows in zone 3-10. Thin

and transplant 9-12 inches apart. Can also be grown indoors.

 

Gather leaves when young. Pick flowering tops just as fruits begin to

form. Dry or freeze leaves, dry ripe seeds. Leaves do not dry well, and

the only way to preserve them is to freeze dill in small batches.

 

 

CULINARY USES:

Sometimes described as similar in flavor to caraway, aniseed, and

fennel. Dried leaves retain only a little flavor. When cooking use

generously, and add at last minute.

 

The dill leaves go well with fish, cream cheese, and cucumber. Add one

flower head per jar to pickled gherkins, cucumbers, and cauliflowers, or

ground up seeds and add to herb butter, mayonnaise, and mustard.

 

Add whole seeds to potato salad, pickles, bean soups, salmon dishes and

apple pies. The longer you cook dill leaves, the less flavor they have.

Add dill the last minute, just before you serve the food. Dill is most

commonly used to give dill pickles their characteristic aromatic flavor.

 

 

MEDICAL USES:

Excellent as dill water for digestive problems in children, especially

flatulence. Seeds contain Slilicic acid, calcium, phosphorus, and other

valuable minerals salts, and can be used in a salt-free diet. This is

also good for the digestive system.

 

The herb relaxes the smooth muscle of the digestive tract. One study

showed it's also anti-foaming agent, meaning it helps prevent the

formation of intestinal gas bubbles. Dill seed oil inhibits the growth

of several bacteria that attack the intestinal tract, suggesting it may

help prevent infectious diarrhea caused by these microorganisms.

 

Urinary tract infection are usually caused by one of the bacteria

inhibited by dill. Add up to 1 teaspoon of dill seed oil to your bath.

It just might help.

 

Make your own dill water. Crush 1 ounce of ripe dill seeds with a pestle

and mortar and soak for 3-4 hours in 1/2 pint of hot water. Strain and

sweeten with 1 tablespoon of honey. This will help with digestive

problems.

 

WARNING:

Generally regarded as safe, for healthy non-pregnant, non-nursing adults

 

COSMETIC USES:

Dill is particularly good for strengthening the nails, because it is

full of silicid acid which assists nail grows. Chew a few dill seeds

regularly if you have problems with brittle nails.

 

*********************************

 

Dill~ Anethum graveolens

 

Positive Qualities: Experiencing and absorbing the fullness of life,

especially its sensory aspects.

 

Patterns of Imbalance: Overwhelm due to overstimulation,

hypersensitivity to environment or to outer activity, sensory congestion.

 

The cacophony of modern living conditions can stun, and even stifle, the

sensory capacities of most persons. With the advent of the technological

age, the soul is literally bombarded with countless sense impressions -

what one sees, hears, tastes, smells and touches in the course of a day

can be quite staggering. Soul hygiene requires that these sensorial

impressions be assimilated; otherwise psychic indigestion and nervous

overwhelm result. In prior times, those who wished to develop

spirituality sought remote environments and ascetic living conditions

which diminished sensorial stimulation and freed the soul for higher

spiritual work. Dill flower essence helps to harmonize the psychic life

within the context of daily work and modern living. Through the dill

flower, the soul not only learns to discriminate and regulate sense

experience, but even more importantly to allow the sens life itself to

become a vehicle for enlightenment. Rather than being dulled and

subdued, the senses can be refined and clarified, becoming ever more

luminous and transparent. By consciously encountering sensory

experience, a new kind of clairvoyance and clairsentience arise in the

modern soul. Dill flower essence assists the soul in transforming

sensory overwhelm into an ability to perceive the sense world as a

manifestation of spiritual archetypes.

 

From the Flower Essence Reperatory by Patricia Kaminski and Richard Katz

 

=====================================

 

Dill: You can easily grow Dill at home on your windowsill. It thrives on

full sun and doesn't like to be overwatered so keep the soil semi-dry.

You can pull off a bit of dill anytime you want to add it to your

cooking. Magickally, it is associated with protection, general good

fortune and monetary gain.

 

*****************************

Dill - Protection, Money, Lust, Luck

*****************************

 

DILL (antethum graveolens)

COMMON NAMES: Dilly, garden dill

MEDICINAL PART: Fruit

DESCRIPTION: Dill is an annual plant widely cultivated as a spice but

also found growing wild in North and South America and in Europe. The

hollow, finely grooved stem grows 1 to 3 feet high and is striped dark

green and white with bluish spots. The leaves are bluish-green,

bipinnate with filiform leaflets; the base dilates into a sheath

surround the stem. Flat, compound umbels of yellow flowers appear from

July to September, producing eventually the oval, ribbed dill seeds.

 

PROPERTIES AND USES: Antispasmodic, calmative, carminative, diuretic,

galactagogue, stomachic. Dill tea, made with water or white wine, is a

popular remedy for upset stomach. Dill also helps stimulate appetite,

and a decoction of the seed may be helpful for insomnia as well as for

pains due to flatulence. Nursing mothers can use dill to promote the

flow of milk, particularly in combination with anise, coriander, fennel,

and caraway. Try chewing the seeds to clear up halitosis.

 

PREPARATION AND DOSAGE: Steep 2 tsp seeds in 1 cup water for 10 to 15

minutes. Take 1/2 cup at time, 1 to 2 cups a day.

 

(from " The Herb Book " by John Lust)

 

*****************************

 

DILL (anethum graveolens)

Generally considered safe

FOLK NAMES: Aneton, Dill Weed, Dilly, Garden Dill, Chebbit, Sowa,

Keper, Hulwa, Buzzalchippet

GENDER: Masculine

PLANET: Mercury

ELEMENT: Fire

POWERS: Protection, money, lust, love

 

MAGICAL USES: The herb is protective when hung at the door and carried

in protective sachets. Placed in the cradle it protects children. And

if it is placed over the door, no one ill-disposed or envious of you can

enter your house.

 

Dill, owing to the number of seeds the plant produces, is used in money

spells.

 

Added to the bath, it makes the bather irresistible, and dill stimulates

lust if eaten or smelled (which is why dill pickles are so

popular).

 

Smell dill to cure hiccoughs.

 

(from " Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs " by Scott Cunningham)

 

***************************

 

DILL

 

Other than for relieving stomach gas, Dill is used primarily for its

aromatic properties, in flavoring pickles and the like. The green,

ground, is excellent in salads, but it has a more interesting history as

a Magickal Herbe. As such, it is a good choice for kitchen magick, to

bring an air or well-being to your guests.

 

Dill is an Herbe of Protection. It has been used to repel negative

energies and black magic. It keeps one's mind clear, and gives strength

to reason. It has been used to protect the user from falling prey to

the results of the belief in superstition.

 

Dill is also an herbe used in blessings, particularly those for the home

and the kitchen.

 

(from " The Master Book of Herbalism " by Paul Beyerl)

 

***

compiled by pianogirl...