Black Mallow Flowers
Malva sylvestris

In previous centuries, blue mallow flowers were strewn in front of one's house or worn as a garland for Mayday/Beltane celebrations in England. Culpeper considered this a Venus herb, and it is good for love magick, but it's also useful in Water magick. Blue mallow promotes spiritual healing and peace. It can be incorporated into a dream pillow for soothing nightmares or drunk as a tea or added to a bath to soften one's character. A nice Venus or Dark of the Moon ink can be made from blue mallow. This magick herb has more than a bit of Saturn in it, both because of the color and because it is a hedgerow plant, one that likes to grow on borders, a traditional Saturn location.

In Herbalism

This herb is cooling and demulcent (soothing) and has traditionally been used as poultice on the belly to ease internal aches or against the stings of Martial insects (typically Venus work). It is good mixed with eucalyptus in a tea for coughs or boiled with a bit of honey to make a gargle for sore throat. It was once a remedy for epilepsy ("falling sickness").

Other Uses

Blue mallow is great for adding color to pot pourri. It also dramatically colors floral teas and has been used to color bitters. A tincture of the flowers will show the presence of alkalinity by changing color. Blue mallow is also known as high mallow, cheese-cake, cheese-flower, cheese-log, common mallow, ebegumeci, groot kaasjeskruid, high mallow, malva, mallards, mauls, schloss tea, Althea zebrina, and French hollyhock. These flowers do not have a fragrance.