Lamium purpurum, Purple Dead Nettle, "the devouring purple monster", is a weed that grows around winter/springtime (annual), and part of the mint family.
Identifiable by its' square stem, fuzzy green leaves, small purple flowers (on top), and its' "dead" purple leaves on top.
The plant can be quite short, but also can grow up to 30 cm tall, and 18 cm wide. The taste of the plant is quite mild but unique.
Here is a video identifying one: https://youtu.be/nqL3SAV5ejQ
I've been told that the entire plant is edible, and since it is common I thought I'd come here to ask if anyone has used it before?
I know it is connected to the archangel, St.Micheal, because of the time that it blooms and is sometimes referred to as purple archangel.
I would generally like to know if anyone has used it before, in tea, pouches, for heath benefits, anything! Because I have just started to collect it and would love to hear stories/experience with it!
"Although there is little magickal powers attributed to dead nettle because of the "No Sting" in the nettles, never under estimate the powers and energies of this potent spell herb for banishing, expelling and cleansing negative, stinging harmful energies from the surroundings and self. Like its latter name "Archangel" this little seemingly benign herb is a warrior and conqueror of gracefully overtaking any nasty situations without the use of retaliation. It's energies are calming and cooling of heated emotions, helps with clear thinking and decision making in chaotic times and circumstances. It will boost and add to the energies of any herbs associated with and used for: confidence, courage, calmness, peace, strength, graceful persistence, clear thinking and emotional balance"- http://ritualscentz.blogspot.com/2014/03/purple-dead-nettle-lamium-purpureum.html
That pretty much says most of what it does, and to answer uses, since it is edible I would say it could be used in most forms of magick pertaining to its qualities, for example...maybe a safe tea-like potion taken internally to help boost courage (not sure if there is a recipe for that or not), sachets (there is a sachet recipe on that site actually), confidence and/or protection jar spells, things like that. Since its a safe herb you could pretty much use it in any form of spell is what I'm getting at, even the ones that require drinking or eating something to make the spell work (just make sure the other ingreds are safe as well!!).
I've used it a few times in really small courage spells before I have something important to do (I have bad anxiety) and it seems like it's worked well for me, but how well things work really comes down to the individual practitioner, I think ^_^
