Lavender Magical Properties: Peace, Sleep, Love and Lore

Lavender magical properties start with peace. In folk magic and modern witchcraft, you use this soft purple herb first to calm yourself or your home, and after that for sleep and sweet dreams, love, cleansing and quiet protection. Much of that list grew up in modern books, but its oldest root is very simple (lavender has always been a washing herb).

You will find lavender’s neighbors in our magical herbs collection, and our list of herbs for protection shows you where it sits beside stronger guardians like bay and rosemary. The oil and the smoke both need a little care from you, so everything about pets, children and pregnancy is in one place, in Using Lavender Safely.

Lavender Magical Properties

Ask a practitioner what lavender is for and you will almost always hear “peace” first. When you read about the spiritual benefits of lavender, this is the heart of it.

• Peace and calm. A bunch on your table, a sachet in your bag, or a drop of oil on a candle when your room feels tense.
• Sleep and sweet dreams. Sachets by your bed and bedtime rituals, often with chamomile or mugwort.
• Love. Love sachets, baths and kitchen magic, with an odd twist you will see below.
• Cleansing. Washes, sprays and smoke to clear your space after a hard day.
• Protection. Soft protection for your home and the people in it.
• Happiness. Many modern lists add joy and a lighter mood.

If you only use lavender for one thing, we think it should be peace and sleep. That is where its old uses and its modern ones meet, and it is the easiest place for you to start.

○ Where the Correspondences Come From

The oldest pairing you will see is lavender and the planet Mercury. It comes from Nicholas Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, an old English herbal that says plainly, “Mercury owns the herb; and it carries his effects very potently.”

In astrology, Mercury rules speech, travel and quick thinking. So you might carry lavender before an exam, a long trip or a hard conversation.

The rest of the list (love, sleep, chastity, long life, happiness, peace) comes from modern books, and many shop pages you find will follow Scott Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs. Most lists give lavender the element Air, and a few say Water.

We like Water, since the herb’s very name is probably about washing.

You may also see Neptune or Venus on newer pages. No old herbal names them, so pick the pairing that fits the work you are doing and do not worry about the rest.

Lavender in Old Lore and the Bible

Maud Grieve, whose A Modern Herbal is still the classic English guide to old plant lore, thinks Spanish lavender was probably the kind the Romans used to perfume their baths, “whence probably the plant derived its name” from the Latin lavare, to wash. Notice the “probably”. You will find that even the experts are not certain, but the washing story fits everything that came after.

○ Is Lavender in the Bible?

Probably not, though you will read that it is all over the internet.

The idea comes from an old doctor, Dr Fernie, quoted in Maud Grieve’s herbal. He wrote that the Greeks called lavender Nardus, and that St. Mark mentions it as spikenard, the costly perfume a woman poured over Jesus.

If you ask Bible plant experts, most point elsewhere. Old Dominion University’s Plants of the Bible says the perfume came from Nardostachys jatamansi, a short plant “that grows in the hills of northern India”.

Wikipedia’s page on that plant says lavender “has also been suggested as a candidate”. So lavender is a minority guess for spikenard, and you can safely ignore any page that states it as fact.

○ Mary’s Drying Plant

If you like Christian folklore, you will love this one. The University of Dayton’s Marian Library explains that in the Mary garden tradition, lavender is called “Mary’s Drying Plant”, because Mary is said to have washed the infant Jesus’s swaddling clothes and looked for a place to dry them. She chose a lavender bush.

You will often read that the bush had no scent until that day. It is a sweet detail, but no old source we checked carries it, so hold it as a story.

If the legend speaks to you, dry your washing near a lavender plant, or tuck a sprig into a drawer of clean linen as a small blessing on your home.

○ The Asp in the Lavender Bush

Old lore did give lavender one dark side. Maud Grieve passes on the belief that the asp, “a dangerous kind of viper”, made its home in lavender, so the plant “had to be approached with great caution”.

You can read this as a hidden lesson. Peace guards itself, and a calm person is not a defenseless one.

That is the only negative symbol for lavender we could trace.

Lavender for Sleep, Dreams and the Third Eye

If your nights are restless, lavender is probably the first herb you will reach for. You use it to quiet a busy mind and invite soft, easy dreams.

Be honest with yourself about what it can do, though. The NCCIH (the US government’s center for complementary health) says it is unclear whether lavender aromatherapy helps with sleep quality, insomnia, anxiety or stress.

So treat lavender as a bedtime ritual, not a treatment. If you have struggled to sleep for weeks, talk to your doctor as well.

○ A Lavender Bedtime Ritual

This ritual leans on lavender’s oldest job, washing.

1. Make a small sachet of dried lavender buds earlier in the day. Any little cloth bag will do.
2. Put your phone on the other side of the room when you start getting ready for bed.
3. Wash your face and hands with cool water, and picture the day running off with it.
4. Sit on the edge of your bed with the sachet, and name one thing from today that you are ready to put down.
5. Rub the sachet between your palms to wake the scent, then breathe it in slowly.
6. Set it on your nightstand or tuck it at the corner of your pillow.
7. If you wake in the night, reach for the sachet instead of your phone.

Picture the night before a big exam. You wash your face, sit down with your little bag of buds and say, “I have done enough for today.” The worry does not vanish, but your mind has one soft thing to hold instead of the test.

Want vivid dreams rather than deep rest? You can pair lavender with mugwort for dream work, or with chamomile when you simply want a calmer night.

○ Lavender and the Third Eye Chakra

You will often see lavender linked with the third eye chakra, the energy point between your eyebrows that is said to govern intuition. The link is about color (lavender’s blue purple sits close to the indigo of the third eye), and some writers choose the violet crown chakra instead.

No old tradition ties lavender to either one. It is a modern pairing, and you may still find it helpful.

To try it, sit quietly with a sprig or your sachet, breathe in the scent and rest your attention between your eyebrows. Say a short affirmation such as “I trust what I know” a few times, and let whatever comes up come up. For more on that energy point and the other six, see our chakra guide.

If you like to anoint that spot with oil, dilute it well first and test it on your inner arm (more on that below).

Lavender for Spiritual Cleansing

You can use lavender to clear the heavy feeling a room holds after an argument, a visit from someone draining or a long, sad week. Many practitioners also believe it clears out spirits or unsettled energy that have passed through a home.

Our position is simple. Water came first in lavender’s story, so start with a wash or a spray, and save smoke for when you really want it.

Lavender is also a good choice if you would rather not burn white sage. You get a soft, familiar scent and a cleansing herb with its own long history.

○ A Lavender Wash for Doors and Floors

1. Steep a handful of dried lavender in a bowl of just boiled water, like a big pot of tea.
2. Let it cool, then strain out the buds.
3. Add it to your bucket of cleaning water, or keep it in a bowl with a clean cloth.
4. Wipe your front door, its handle and the doorstep first.
5. Then wipe your floors, working from the back of your home toward the front door.
6. As you wipe, picture the heaviness leaving with the water.
7. Pour what is left out the front door or down an outside drain.

You can do this when you move into a new place, after guests leave, or at the start of each season.

○ A Lavender Room Spray

For a single object, a corner of your room or your altar, a spray is easier than a bucket. Fill a small spray bottle with water and a splash of witch hazel, then add a few drops of lavender essential oil.

Want a sharper, more awake cleanse? Add a little rosemary oil too.

Shake the bottle before every use and mist the air, not your skin. Keep the spray away from your pets’ faces, beds and bowls.

○ Burning Lavender: Spiritual Meaning and Safe Steps

When you burn lavender, it is said to carry its calm into every corner of a room, clear a space before a ritual and drive out anything unwelcome. The smoke has real roots too, since Maud Grieve records that Spanish lavender was burned in bonfires on St. John’s Day, “when evil spirits are supposed to be abroad”.

But smoke is still smoke, so go easy. The UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health has reported that pollutants from burning incense caused an inflammatory response in human lung cells in a lab study.

The EPA also counts burning candles among the activities that put fine particles into the air indoors. If you do burn lavender, keep it short.

1. Open a window first.
2. Light the tip of a small, tightly tied bundle of dried stems, then blow out the flame so it smolders.
3. Carry a heat-proof dish under the bundle as you move from corner to corner, so the ash has somewhere to fall.
4. Press it out in a bowl of sand or water when you finish, and stay with it until no ember is left.

Skip the smoke entirely if someone you live with has asthma or a breathing problem, or if you keep a pet bird. The wash above does the same job without it.

Lavender for Protecting Your Home

Lavender’s protection is the quiet kind. You use it less to fight something off and more to keep your home soft, safe and kind.

That idea is old. Maud Grieve writes that in Spain and Portugal, Spanish lavender was strewn over the floors of churches and houses on festive days, and that lavender was one of the herbs in the Four Thieves’ Vinegar, a mixture famous in the Middle Ages.

Here are a few ways you can use it.

• Hang a bunch of dried lavender upside down just inside your front door.
• Keep a small bowl of dried buds on the table where your family eats, as a wish for kind words at meals.
• Tuck a sprig into your travel bag or the glove box of your car (Mercury, after all, is the planet of travel).
• Wipe your door handle with the lavender wash before guests arrive.

If you share your home with a cat or a dog, hang your lavender high and keep loose buds in closed jars.

Lavender in Love Spells

Lavender’s love magic is soft and kind. You use it for affection, a sweeter mood between two people, and drawing in a love that feels safe.

Oddly, you will find some modern lists that name lavender for both love and chastity. We read that as a hint about the kind of love it suits best, which is steady rather than wild.

To make a love sachet, put dried lavender, a few rose petals and a small slip of paper with a kind wish for your love life into a pink or purple bag. Carry it in your pocket, or keep it under your pillow. It works just as well as a self-love sachet when the person you most need to be kind to is you.

Cooking with intent is the other classic. Planning a date night at home? Add a little culinary lavender to shortbread, lemonade or honey, and keep your wish in mind as you stir.

Wikipedia notes that culinary lavender is usually English lavender, so look for that on the label when you buy it.

Lavender Oil in Magic

Lavender oil carries the same meanings as the dried herb (peace, sleep, love and cleansing), just in a stronger form. That is why so many of you search for the magical properties of lavender oil on its own.

A drop does what a handful of buds does.

• Dress a candle. Rub a drop from the middle of the candle out to each end while you say your wish.
• Wake up a sachet. Add a drop to an old sleep or love sachet when its scent has faded.
• Bless a bath. Mix a few drops into a spoonful of carrier oil first, since oil floats on water and can sting your skin.
• Anoint yourself. Dilute it well, test it on your inner arm, then touch a little to your wrists or third eye.

Never drink lavender oil or add it to your food or tea. Even Maud Grieve, writing when lavender was an everyday medicine, warned that the oil “in too large doses is a narcotic poison”.

Everyday Lavender Around the House

○ Linen, Moths and Laundry

Your grandmother’s linen drawer probably smelled of lavender, and for good reason. Maud Grieve writes that the dried flowers were still widely used to perfume linen, and that their strong scent also helped keep away moths and other insects.

So fill a few small sachets for your drawers and wardrobe, and squeeze them now and then to wake the scent. For your washing, stir a few drops of lavender oil into a bottle of white vinegar and use a splash in place of fabric softener.

You can also make a simple bug spray with witch hazel and a few drops of lavender oil. Spray it around your doorways and windowsills rather than on your skin.

○ Lavender Syrup for Kitchen Magic

Lavender in food amounts is likely safe, according to the NCCIH. A syrup is the easiest way for you to bring it into kitchen magic.

1. Put equal amounts of water and sugar in a small pan with a spoonful of dried culinary lavender.
2. Bring it to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
3. Lower the heat and let it simmer briefly.
4. Take the pan off the heat and let the syrup steep as it cools.
5. Strain out the buds and keep the syrup in a clean jar in the fridge.

Stir it into lemonade, tea or yogurt, and say your wish as you stir. A little goes a long way (too much lavender tastes like soap).

Sea, Red and White Lavender

Three names confuse a lot of people, and one of them is not lavender at all.

○ Is Sea Lavender the Same as Lavender?

No. Sea lavender belongs to the Limonium genus, the papery flowers your florist calls statice, and Wikipedia notes that despite the name these plants are not related to the lavenders or to rosemary.

You may see sea lavender called “Lethe’s bramble” and sold as a memory herb. We could not trace that name to any source, so we have left that lore out.

Bought statice by mistake? In a recent r/witchcraft thread on Reddit, one practitioner answered exactly this question with a rule worth keeping, that “the metaphysical uses of any substance derive from mundane uses”. Statice keeps its color long after it dries, so you might give it memory, remembrance and things you want to last, like a friendship (just do not eat it or brew it).

○ What Is Red Lavender Used for Spiritually?

We could not find a red-flowered lavender with its own folk tradition. When you hear “red lavender”, it usually means one of two things.

The first is an old medicine. Maud Grieve describes a “tincture of red Lavender”, a popular cordial made with the oils of lavender and rosemary plus cinnamon, nutmeg and red sandalwood, and she says that in the eighteenth century it was known as “palsy drops”.

The second is a plant. The lavenders sold as red or pink are usually Spanish lavender, whose flowers Wikipedia describes as pink to purple, with showy, petal-like tufts on top. Maud Grieve says its scent is closer to rosemary than to ordinary lavender.

So we suggest you give red or pink lavender a warmer job than the purple kind. Use it for love with a little more passion, courage in a relationship, or protection with some fire in it, since the old red tincture was lavender warmed with cinnamon and nutmeg.

○ White Lavender

White lavender is a rare color form of true lavender. Maud Grieve quotes the old herbalist Parkinson on “the rare white”, and adds that white lavender is said to have grown in the garden of Queen Henrietta Maria.

You can give it the jobs white carries everywhere, which are purity, peace, a fresh start and blessing a new home. If you find a white plant at a nursery, it is a lovely one to grow by your front door.

Using Lavender Safely

Lavender is one of the kinder herbs. But kind is not the same as harmless, especially once it is an oil.

In food amounts, lavender is likely safe, the NCCIH says. It also notes that lavender taken by mouth can cause diarrhea, headache, nausea or burping in some people, and that lavender might interact with sedative drugs or herbs, which matters if you have surgery coming up.

Never swallow lavender essential oil. MedlinePlus says it is mainly the linalyl acetate and linalool in the oil that are poisonous, and that while small amounts are generally not poisonous to adults, children can react to small amounts.

Poison Control warns that swallowing essential oils such as lavender oil can cause drowsiness, tremors or seizures, stomach upset and mouth irritation. If someone swallows it, get help right away, and in the US you can reach the Poison Help line on 1-800-222-1222, MedlinePlus says. Outside the US, call your local emergency number.

On your skin, the NCCIH says lavender products can cause allergic reactions in some people. Always dilute the oil in a carrier oil and test a small spot on your inner arm before you use it anywhere else.

The NCCIH also mentions a few cases of breast swelling in children who used lavender skin products, though it is unclear whether lavender caused it. So keep oils and lavender skin products for adults, and ask a doctor before you use them on a child.

If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, the NCCIH says little is known about whether lavender is safe. Culpeper’s old herbal even listed it among herbs that bring on a woman’s period, so enjoy the scent of a fresh sprig and ask your midwife or doctor before you use anything more.

Your pets need their own care. The ASPCA lists lavender as toxic to dogs, cats and horses because of its linalool and linalyl acetate, with nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite as the signs.

The ASPCA adds that concentrated essential oils “can absolutely be a danger for pets”, and that a home with birds is better off with no essential oil diffuser. If your pet eats lavender or licks the oil, call your vet or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center on (888) 426-4435 straight away.

Do you want a lavender sachet in your wardrobe or clothes dryer with a cat around? Use dried buds in a closed sachet your cat cannot chew, and leave the oil out.

Some people are simply allergic to lavender. If the scent gives you a headache, itchy eyes or a rash, stop and choose another calming herb instead.

When the Day Feels Heavy

The next time a day sits heavy on you, put a handful of buds in hot water and breathe in the steam while it cools. Then wipe your front door with it, and let the water carry the day out.

It is a small act, and that is the whole idea. People have been washing their worries away with lavender for a very long time, and you are welcome to join them.

Frequently Asked Questions about Lavender