Bay Leaves Spiritual Benefits and Magical Properties

The bay leaves spiritual benefits that practitioners name most often are protection, success, wishes, clearer dreams, cleansing and calm. Each one traces back to the laurel tree that the ancient Greeks gave to the god Apollo, and you can work with all of them using the dried leaves sold for cooking.

No study shows the leaf itself does any of this, but a small ritual with it can give you a real moment of focus.

For more plants with old stories behind them, browse our magical herbs collection. Bay also sits beside rosemary, thyme and basil in our list of herbs for protection.

Below, you will find each use with a simple way to try it, where the belief comes from, and how to keep yourself and your pets safe.

What Are the Spiritual Benefits of Bay Leaves?

You will see the same six uses in almost every book and forum that talks about bay.

• Protection for your home, your car and yourself.
• Success and victory before an interview, an exam or a match.
• Wishes, money and luck, often written right on the leaf.
• Dreams and intuition, with a leaf under your pillow.
• Cleansing a room with a little smoke.
• Peace and calm after a fight or a hard day.

Most of the neat lists you see online come from modern herb books, which in turn borrowed from Greek and Roman stories. So the meanings you read are old, but the exact “bay is for X” rules are newer than they look.

Here is our honest view. The benefit you can count on is the pause a ritual gives you (you stop, name what you want and hold something real in your hand).

Whether the leaf adds anything beyond that is a matter of belief, and that is completely alright.

○ Where the Bay Leaf’s Power Comes From

In the Roman poet Ovid’s telling, the nymph Daphne ran from Apollo and begged her river-god father for help. He turned her into a laurel tree. Apollo could not have her, so he made the tree his own, wore its leaves and promised that its crown would belong to winners.

That is why winners at the Pythian Games, held at Delphi for Apollo, were crowned with bay laurel. You may have read that Olympic champions wore bay too, but they did not. At Olympia, the prize was a crown of wild olive.

The Romans added a belief that explains why you see bay listed as a protection herb.

The Roman writer Suetonius says the emperor Tiberius always wore a laurel wreath when the sky turned stormy, “because it is said that that kind of leaf is not blasted by lightning”. If even lightning would not touch the leaf, you can see why people trusted it to guard a home.

The bay even turns up in the Bible. The King James Version of Psalm 37:35 compares a wicked man “in great power” to “a green bay tree”, though the English Standard Version notes that the identity of this tree is uncertain.

So the verse is about power that does not last, not about using bay leaves.

○ The Oracle of Delphi and the Laurel

You will often read that the Pythia, Apollo’s priestess at Delphi, chewed bay leaves or breathed their smoke to see the future.

The Pythia was a role that many women held over the centuries, and most of the writers who describe her lived long after the oracle’s early days. Their stories do not agree with each other, but they share one thing: laurel was everywhere in her temple.

There is a twist here.

In a 2014 paper, the researcher Haralampos Harissis pointed out that sweet bay is harmless and could not cause the frenzied state the old texts describe. He argued that the “laurel” at Delphi was probably oleander, a poisonous plant that ancient writers often lumped in under the same name.

So please do not copy the Oracle. You do not need to chew or breathe in anything to use bay for intuition.

Bay Leaf for Protection

Protection is the use people search for most, and it is also the easiest, because none of it needs fire. Pick the one that fits your home.

• Over your front door. Tie a few dried leaves with string and hang them above the door, or tuck one leaf on top of the frame.
• In window corners. Place a leaf on each windowsill, especially in rooms where you sleep.
• In your pocket or bag. Carry one whole leaf when you go somewhere that makes you uneasy.
• In a jar. Fill a small jar with salt, a bay leaf and a few cloves, close it and keep it near the door. Many witches keep a jar like this by the door for years.
• In your car. Slip a leaf into the glove box before a long drive.

When you place the leaf, say what you want it to do in plain words, such as “Only kindness comes through this door.” Swap old leaves for fresh ones when they crumble or when a new season starts.

Bay Leaves for Success and Victory

This is the meaning closest to the old stories, so many people feel it is bay’s strongest. Here are three ways to borrow a little of that winner’s crown:

1. Cook with bay the night before. Add a leaf to a soup or a pot of rice before a competition, a presentation or a test, and take it out before you eat.
2. Carry a leaf on the day. Keep one in your wallet, your pencil case or your shoe for an interview, an exam or even a court date (people on Reddit ask about that one too).
3. Make a small wreath. Bend a few sprigs into a circle, hold it, close your eyes and say a line in the present tense, like “I walked out of that interview knowing I did well.”

Picture a scene to go with it. You are sitting in a waiting room before your interview, your hand finds the dry leaf in your pocket, and you think of all the practice you put in. That calm moment is the real gift (and yes, you still need to study).

Bay Leaves for Wishes, Money and Luck

In the best known wish ritual, you write your wish on a dry leaf and burn it, so that the smoke carries it up to the Universe. We have a full step by step guide to the bay leaf manifestation ritual, so we will not repeat it here.

If you would rather not use fire, you can try one of these.

• A wallet leaf. Write an amount or a short money goal on a dry leaf and keep it behind your cards.
• A money bowl. Place a bay leaf in a small bowl with a few coins, some rice and a cinnamon stick, and set it somewhere you pass each morning.
• A wish under a candle. Write your wish on a leaf and set an unlit candle on top of it as a reminder.

Treat any of these as a way to keep your goal in front of you, not as a payment to the Universe. If a stranger messages you offering to cast a money spell for a fee, it is a scam.

For more ways to work with your goal, see our guide on how to manifest.

Bay Leaf Under Your Pillow

Why put bay leaves under your pillow? Tradition holds that the leaf brings you clearer dreams and sometimes the answer to a question you are stuck on. The idea borrows from Apollo, the god of prophecy, and from the laurel of his temple.

You can try it like this.

1. Write one question on a slip of paper, such as “What should I do about the job offer?”
2. Wrap the paper around a dry bay leaf and slide it under your pillow or into the pillowcase.
3. Keep a notebook by your bed, and write down whatever you remember the moment you wake.

Do not worry if nothing shows up on the first night. Dreams can be shy, and you may only notice a theme after a week of notes.

When you want help reading them, see our guide to the spiritual meaning of dreams.

Burning Bay Leaves for Cleansing

Many practitioners burn a dry bay leaf to clear a room after an argument, an illness or a move. The idea is that as the smoke drifts out, the heavy feeling in your room goes with it.

Before you try it, know that bay leaves do not always burn quietly. On Reddit’s r/witchcraft, one person described a leaf that spat and flared, and others explained that the oil inside the leaf does this, more so when the leaf is fresher.

So if your leaf crackles, you do not need to read it as a bad omen. It is just the oil.

If you choose to burn one indoors, keep it small.

1. Use one dry leaf, not a bundle, and hold it with tweezers or tongs.
2. Light it over a fireproof bowl with a little sand or salt in the bottom.
3. Open a window before you start, and let the leaf go out by itself in the bowl.
4. Stay with it until the ash is cold.

The fire safety rules you follow for candles fit here too. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) says to keep candles at least 12 inches from anything that can burn, and to blow every one out before leaving a room or going to sleep.

Smoke is the other thing to think about.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) names burning candles as one source of the tiny particles in indoor air, says these particles can affect your lungs and heart, and notes that people with heart or lung disease (asthma among them), children and older adults may be at greater risk.

If you or someone at home has asthma, or you have pets or birds, skip the smoke and use a smoke-free version instead:

• Simmer a few bay leaves in a pot of water on the stove and let the steam fill the kitchen (stay nearby and turn it off before you leave).
• Wipe your door handles and windowsills with water that bay leaves have soaked in.
• Walk through each room holding an unlit leaf and say your intention out loud.

Bay Leaves for Peace and Calm

Tradition also links bay to peace, maybe because a victory crown also meant the fight was over.

The next time you feel pulled into a conflict, try carrying a small cloth sachet of dried bay leaves. When you feel your temper rise, hold it, take three slow breaths and smell the leaves before you answer.

You may have read that bay leaves calm you because they contain linalool. That claim usually points to a 2010 study by Linck and colleagues in Brazil, which found that mice breathing linalool showed less anxious behavior.

It did not test bay leaves or people. So enjoy the scent for the pause it gives you, not as a treatment.

Which Bay Leaf Should You Use?

For any of the uses on this page, you want true bay, the leaf sold as a cooking spice. NC State Extension describes this plant, Laurus nobilis, as having leathery, fragrant leaves about 1 to 3 inches long with smooth edges.

Not every leaf you see sold as “bay” is the same plant. A 2017 study by Raman and colleagues found that several other leaves are sold under the name, including Indian bay leaf (tej patta), which comes from a cinnamon tree, and California bay. The authors note that their smell and flavor differ from true bay and that some substitutes can cause health problems.

Indian bay is a lovely part of Indian cooking and worship in its own right, but it is a different herb.

The most important rule is this: never pick “laurel” from a hedge or a garden plant.

NC State Extension lists cherry laurel as highly poisonous, with leaves, seeds and stems that contain cyanide-forming compounds. Mountain laurel is just as dangerous, and NC State Extension lists every part of it as poisonous. If you did not buy it as a cooking spice or grow it yourself as Laurus nobilis, do not use it.

Bay Leaves, Pets and Eating

You can cook with bay leaves safely, and a few simple habits keep it that way.

The ASPCA lists bay laurel as toxic to dogs, cats and horses, and says it can cause vomiting and diarrhea. Eating a lot of whole leaves can also block the gut, so keep your leaves, jars and money bowls where pets cannot chew them.

If your pet eats some, call your vet or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435 (a fee may apply).

People should not swallow whole leaves either. RxList, which carries a professional herb monograph, explains that the whole leaf cannot be digested and calls swallowing it likely unsafe.

Doctors writing in the Annals of Internal Medicine have reported a bay leaf stuck in the lower throat and food pipe, so always take the leaf out before serving.

We leave bay leaf tea out of this post on purpose.

RxList says there is not enough reliable information on the safety of taking bay leaf while you are pregnant or breastfeeding. RxList also warns that bay might lower blood sugar too far alongside diabetes medicines and add to sleepiness with sedatives, so talk to your doctor first if any of that applies to you.

Around the House

Bay is a kitchen herb first, and slow cooking is where it shines.

Add one or two leaves to soups, stews, beans, rice and sauces that simmer for a long time, and remove them before serving.

Many households also tuck bay leaves into flour, rice and cupboards to keep pests such as cockroaches and pantry moths away. We could not find a good study showing that it works, so think of it as an old kitchen habit.

If you have a real infestation, call a pest control service.

Let the Laurel Remind You

Apollo wore the laurel for something he could not have. You can carry it for something you are working toward, whether that is a calm home, a good result or a dream you want to understand.

Pick one use from this page and try it this week.

Notice how you feel when you hold the leaf. Happy manifesting!

Frequently Asked Questions About Bay Leaves