Deertongue Herb (Vanilla Leaf)
Carphephorus odoratissimus (Tilisa odorata, Liatris odoratissima)

Deertongue, which is also called vanilla leaf, has clusters of soft and fuzzy tongue shaped leaves around a central flower stalk and is native to the southern US coastal region (North Carolina to Florida). It is a traditional ingredient in love spells and sex magic, perhaps on account of the color of the flowers but also because its scent is wonderfully intoxicating. Deertongue has also been an ingredient in traditional Third Eye Tinctures, which are used to increase psychic abilities. Some consider this magic herb as associated with Aries, Scorpio, and Sagittarius, and it is often thought of as a Mars/Fire herb. Deertongue is considered a stimulant medicinally, which might partially account for its pairing with Mars. It was also used to flavor tobacco, that most Martial of herbs. (This process ceased in the 1970s due to over harvesting, but you often can still find this wonderfully aromatic leaf in pipe tobacco blends.) In its growth, though, deertongue is more like a Jupiter herb—it can grow quite tall and has purple flowers.

Deertongue has been used to keep moths out of linens and to scent chests. In the past it was sometimes combined with mullein to make a fragrant poultice for swollen limbs. It was also tinctured and combined with the scent of orange blossom, rose, and orris to create the old-time scent known as "new-mown hay." Deertongue contains the same chemical as tonka beans (coumarin), which gives them their wonderful vanilla-like scent, and they have traditionally been substitutes for each other (and for vanilla bean and sweet woodruff) in ritual work. Oddly enough, though, deertongue is also sometimes accepted as a substitute for galangal or Low John, perhaps because of its association with sex magic. We have also often found deertongue featured along with what most would think of as Mercury herbs, like lavender or dill, in conjure aimed at more typically Mercury tasks, like communication, helping marriages stick together (through increasing communication), convincing people of something, or compelling someone to speak the truth, which are all language connected tasks that would be under Mercury's rulership. We even came across a spell to make others stop saying bad things about a person by rubbing it on the soles of one's shoes.

Deertongue is also known as deer's tongue (deerstongue), dog-tongue, wild vanilla, vanilla leaf, Carolina vanilla, and folia liatris

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Deerstongue herb, chopped
1 oz. $9.85

Uses in Witchcraft & Magic:

Love Magic
Sex Magic
Love Spells
Communication-related Workings
Venus/Mercury/Mars Herb