Orris Root: The Magical Root For Women

Have you noticed that there is one root that appears time and time again in magic love spells for women? Did you wonder what about Orris Root that makes it so powerful? And why is it used for love spells for women, and not men?

There are good reasons why it shows up so often.  Orris root has been used as a medicine, in perfume, and for magic for millenia. This article will explain not just what orris root is, but why it has been long associated with magic love spells for women, and how you can use it yourself. 

What is Orris Root?

Orris, also called Queen Elizabeth root, comes from the rhizomes of two types of iris flowers – iris germanica (called the “bearded iris” or the “German bearded iris”) and iris pallida(called “sweet iris” or “Dalmatian iris”).  A rhizome is a plant bulb that grows horizontally underground and sends out roots.

Today, orris root’s primary commercial use is in perfumes.  It emits a scent of violets, with notes of raspberry and pepper.  The oil from orris root also helps to bind together other scents, acting sort of like a scent-glue.  With orris root oil, the other scents work better together.

Orris root is also used in the production of some gins, to add a floral, sweet smell.

How Orris Root is Cultivated

The irises used to produce orris root grow best in rocky soil, but that kind of environment makes the use of machine harvesting difficult.

Because of that, orris root cultivation is still done mainly by hand, which both limits the amount available and raises the price.

Irises grow best in may, while harvesting is usually left to the summer months, when the flowers rhizomes are dug up from the earth.  An iris must be allowed to grow for at least three years before its first harvesting.  When it is dug up, part of the rhizome is left behind so that the same iris can be replanted.

The Magical History of the Iris

The iris has been used for religious and magical purposes for thousands of years.  It was carved into the brow of Egyptian sphinxes, where it represented Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, who was the god of the sun and the moon.

The name “iris” may come from the name of the Greek Goddess, Iris, who was a messenger of Hera and travelled to earth on a rainbow.  Dioscorides, writing about the iris in the 1st century AD, said,

“Whence for the variety of colours it is likened to the heavenly rainbow”.  

The ancient Greeks adorned their palaces with depictions of the iris worn by royals, even as far back as 4,000 years ago in Minos at Knossos.

Orris root was used by the ancient Romans for its medical qualities.  It was used to cure an upset stomach, help a cough, and aid in going to sleep.

By the 15th century, innkeepers in England were mixing orris root with anise (which smells like licorice) to scent their linens, according to the wardrobe accounts of Edward IV.

The iris began to be used heavily in cosmetics in Europe during the middle ages thanks to Catherine de’ Medici.  When she moved from Florence, in Italy, to France in 1533 took with her “florentine talc”, a powder made from ground irises used to whiten the face.  The practice was adopted by the nobility of France, according to the BBC.

Katherine Beal, in her book “Flower Lore and Legend”, writes of the iris:

“The roots, which had many of the properties of honey, were used in the preparation of forty-one different remedies.”

Why Orris Root is considered Magical For Women

Because of its long history, it’s difficult to determine when and where exactly orris root began being used magically.  However, we can use our knowledge of the way magic works to figure out why it was used magically.

The doctrine of signatures is the belief that the shape or nature of a plant can indicate what God or the gods intended humans to use it for.  A signature is something that can be detected with one of our senses in concert with the mind giving it meaning.  

Julia Gives a wonderful explanation of a signature in this paper:

“The doctrine of signature is really a poetic language describing a multidimensional reality in which different facets of signature are simultaneously true, and in which the interplay of the countless elements cannot be exhaustively and finally interpreted.”

The idea has been around since at least the time of Dioscorides, who we mentioned above.  He wrote the “De Materia Medica”, a book about the medical uses of plants, which he derived from the doctrine of signatures. The first herb covered in this book is the iris. He covered the uses of 600 plants and over 1,000 medicines that could be made for them.

A similar idea occurred to Plato who created his Theory of Forms. This concept postulates that the physical world is not as real as the world of ideas, which exist outside of time and space. Physical objects may share aspects of an idea and are thus linked together on a higher, more real plane of existence. For instance, no circle in the physical world is truly perfect, but every circle shares in the “Ideal” circle.

If the doctrine of signatures is used to examine why the iris is so often found in magic love spells for women to attract men, the first thing we have to notice is the shape.  To put it bluntly, an iris can resemble a woman’s vulva, the outer parts of her genitalia.

Georgia O’keeffe made this similarity famous in her paintings of enlarged flowers in the early 20th century.  Though O’keefe herself resisted the sexual interpretations of her paintings, her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, said that each floral image was an interpretive representation of the female reproductive organs

The second aspect of the iris that defines its magic signature is the scent of the orris root itself.  As it matures, the dried rhizome takes on notes of violet, with a distinctly feminine quality that has lent itself to perfumes for centuries.

How to Use Orris Root In Your Magic

The simplest way to bring the magic of orris root into your life is to carry some of it with you. Just carry some of the whole, diced, or powdered orris root with you in your purse or in your pocket and let it go to work for you.

But if you’d prefer not to have to carry a root around you all day, here are some other options.

In a Perfume

Many perfumes use orris root for its scent and its ability to bind other scents together into a cohesive whole.  

Chanel No 5 ($180 / 3.4 oz) has been around since 1921 and exudes “the very essence of femininity”. While it’s ingredients are closely guarded secret, it’s rumored to contain high quantities of orris root based on its scent.  

If you’re not interested in paying quite that much, then you should definitely consider Derek Lam 10 Crosby at less than half the price per ounce ($37 / 1.7 oz). Combining white mimosa with orris, the muted floral scent just hints at the muskiness of orris root

In a Magic Bath for Domination

If there’s a specific man you have in mind, you can combine the love magic with the domination magic of licorice to bring him under your control.

To a warm bath add:

• 2 pinches of powdered orris root to draw love
• 2 pinches of licorice root for domination and control of a person
• 1 pinch of master of the woods root for control of situations

Or, you could just use a splash of Follow Me Boy conjure oil.

After you immerse yourself in the bath, light a red candle. Bring an image of the man into your mind and hold it there as vividly as you can while you dunk yourself under water 9 times.  

Let the candle burn as you bath, and blow it out when you’re done.

In a Mojo Bag to Attract Love

Mojo bags, also called gris gris, are used to contain the magic of multiple herbs and roots in one place so you can carry them around with you all day.  For this mojo bag you’ll need:

• A whole orris root
• Rose bud petals
• A lodestone (a magnetic rock)

Those ingredients will attract love in general. If you have a specific man in mind, you can target the spell by adding one of his hairs.

Place the ingredients in a piece of square red flannel, and tie it all up with string.

Mojo bags need to be fed to keep the spirit within alive and working.  You can feed this mojo bag a few drops of rum or whiskey once a week to keep it happy.

In a Candle Love Spell

Another way to attract a specific man is with a candle. Candles are a great way to perform magic because they concentrate the mind and feed light and smoke to the spirits working for you.  

Write the name of the man you want in your life on a piece of paper, and fold that paper towards you three times. Flatten it as well as you can and place it under a large red candle.

Sprinkle the candle with orris root powder.  As you light the candle, say the man’s name 5 times. Burn the candle for one hour a day for 7 days, and expect to see results by the end of that week.

For Divination

If you have questions you need answered about love, over a man in particular or just in general, you can use orris root the same way you would use a crystal for divination.

Make a small hole in a whole orris root, and tie a short length of red string through it. On a flat surface, establish a working space where one direction indicates a Yes answer and the opposite direction indicates No. You can use a third direction for Maybe if you wish.

Hold the thread with your non-dominant hand and rest the elbow of that arm firmly on the table.  Ask the orris root your questions about love, and watch which way the pendulum moves to indicate the answer.