The Thyme of the Fairies
They say that planting thyme in your garden will attract the fae. I first read this in a Lucy Cavendish book when I was younger, and since then every time I plant a herb or fairy garden, my first addition is always thyme. The fairies are drawn to its delicate leaves and soft-sweet fragrance.
While planting thyme in your garden calls in the fae, it also creates a protective cushion between our world and theirs. I’ve always liked this – the idea that in the presence of thyme, neither realm can be harmed, allowing us to coexist peacefully.
It’s not just fairies that are beckoned. Bees love thyme flowers! A flourishing patch of thyme flowers is said to be the secret to harvesting the finest honey.
In certain cultures, elixirs crafted from thyme were said to grant us the ability to see fairies, and the potency of these elixirs was at its peak when wild thyme was used.
Fae folk, as endearing as they are, have a long history of being a little bit pesky; they like to steal trinkets and treasures from our homes. To ask for it back, take a bundle of thyme and some honey and venture into the forest on a full moon along with a note asking for it back. Leave it somewhere for them to find. Some believe that when you get it back, you need to leave another bundle of thyme to as a token of gratitude.
History & the Magickal Uses of Thyme
Greek mythology tells of how thyme was created from the tears of Helen of Troy. Devastated by the Trojan War, she cried so much that a patch of thyme grew from where her tears met the land. It became a symbol of courage, and was given to Roman soldiers before battle – this tradition was continued in the Middle Ages in England. The Ancient Egyptians used it as part of their embalming process and as a pain reliever.
Thyme is loved for it protective and mystical properties. Burning thyme for protection from evil spirits or negative energies is a common practice in folk traditions and witchcraft, and adding thyme to tea to ward off nightmares is a way to bring peace and tranquility to your dreams. It’s also used for love and attraction, psychic abilities, intuition, and ancestral work, and is associated with Freya and Aphrodite.
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, with sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin, weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.
