Welcome to White Rose of Avalon my Darlings. Today’s post is about the famed Faery plant Foxglove. Foxglove’s scientific name is Digitalis purpurea. One of the most important things to note about Foxglove is that the plant is very poisonous, so she must never be ingested! My inspiration to do this post is that I have had Foxglove appearing to me a lot lately, during Tarot readings, with cards appearing that showcase the flower, and during meditation and dreams. Clearly, this Faery Flower has captured my attention, and wants to be recognized, so that is why I just had to write about her today! I want to begin by sharing the many other folk names for this plant. Those names are Cow-Flop, Deadmen’s Bells, Digitalis, Dog’s Fingers, Elf Gloves, Fairy Bells, Fairy Caps, Fairy Petticoats, Fairy Thimbles, Fairy Woman’s Plant, Fairy Weed, Floppy-Dock, Floptop, Folk’s Gloves, Fox Bells, Foxes Glofa, Goblin’s Gloves, The Great Herb, Lion’s Mouth, Lusmore, Los na mbas side (Irish Gaelic), Our Lady’s Glove, Witches’ Bells, and Witches’ Thimbles. Foxglove is a plant that features downward-pointing tubular-shaped flowers in purple or white (with White-flowered Foxglove having the scientific name D. purpurea var. alba), the interior of the flower has lace-like patterns. The first year of a Foxglove plant consists only of a base rosette of leaves, while in the second year, she produces tall spires of flowers reaching three to five feet high!
Some basic information about Foxglove from a metaphysical perspective is that the plant is considered feminine, is ruled by the planet Venus, and is associated with the Water element. The most important and famed usage for Foxglove is for protection workings. Some other magickal things she can be used for include awareness, balance or harmony, communication, creativity, challenges or obstacles, emotions, healing, initiation, peace, relationships, release, and truth.
Growing Foxglove in your garden is an excellent way to invite the Fae into your space and home. The Fae absolutely adore this lovely purple or white-flowered plant! Growing Foxglove in your garden is also an excellent way to tap into the plant’s inherent protective properties. I also want to relay a usage for Foxglove that Scott Cunningham mentioned in Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs. He stated that in the past housewives in Wales used to use Foxglove to make black dye. This black dye was then used to paint crossed lines on the stone floors of their cottages, which was said to keep evil from entering the home! I really love this old folk tradition associated with this very powerful protective plant.
Next, I want to mention some more specific ways to use Foxglove magickally. Holding a leaf of Foxglove between your figures without removing it from the living plant as you whisper a greeting to Spirits is said to be appreciated. A picture of Foxglove can be added to your altar to help in befriending the Fae. A picture of Foxglove can be meditated upon in order to help in facing a challenge, and the picture can be used to invite harmony into a workplace! The inclusion of Foxglove can enhance spells for protection and symbolically release something from your life. In this way, the plant is an excellent addition to Shadow Work rituals!
Finally, I want to end with a little bit of folklore associated with Foxglove. It is thought that the most famed common name for the plant comes from one of the other common names, Folk’s Gloves, which is a reference to the fact that the Fae were said to wear the plant as gloves! The word eventually got altered over time, with Folk’s Gloves getting run together into Foxglove. It is believed that the Fae love this plant so much that children should not pick the flowers or else they risk being taken away to Faeryland! If flower stalks of Foxglove are bent over it was a sign that the Faeries or Pixies were inside the blossoms, or that Fae were near. In another very Fae turn, the bells of the Foxglove Flowers are said to make a magickal sound. Some folklore from County Leitrim in Ireland stated that Foxglove was actually dangerous to the Fae and used to make charms to ward against them. This is actually not very uncommon for Faery-associated plants, as several are said to both attract the positive-intentioned Fae and ward off ill-intentioned Fae! In fact, this is likely why Foxglove was often used to detect a Changeling, with infants being bathed in the juice of the plant, or having the plant being placed in the cradle, this act was believed to convince the Fae to bring the human child back. However, like most, if not all, of the Changeling tests, this one was very cruel, because Foxglove is toxic, so bathing a child in this juice could cause immeasurable harm!
I am very glad that she has been making herself known to me, and that I can form a relationship with her through meditative work, as she is such a very wild flower that gives off major Fae energy even when you just see her picture. It is a deep blessing to have her coming to me as a new Plant Spirit Ally!
I hope you have enjoyed this little deep dive into Foxglove. Do you have any connection to Foxglove as a Plant Spirit Ally? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is Foxglove. I found the image on https://www.terriwindling.com/blog/2019/06/foxgloves.html.
Tarot Note: I have a page offering tarot and oracle readings for those interested in these services! I am very happy to be offering these readings to my treasured readers at White Rose of Avalon! Link to page: https://whiteroseofavalon.life/tarot-and-oracle-readings/
Further Reading
- Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs by Scott Cunningham
- Magical Faery Plants: A Guide for Working with Faeries & Nature Spirits by Sandra Kynes
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