photo by Gavin Shoebridge at http://www.gavinshoebridge.com

The Magickal Avocado Tree

by Isabella @TheWandCarver

Gender: Feminine; Planet: Venus; Element: Water; Power: Love, Lust, Beauty; Dieties: Thoth, Seshat, Osiris

Persea is a genus of about 150 species of evergreen trees belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae.[2] The best-known member of the genus is the avocado, P. americana, widely cultivated in subtropical regions for its large, edible fruit. – Wikipedia

Avocado/Persea is a sacred tree of the Egyptians. The ancient Egyptians usually made their wands out of acacia or persea (avocado tree), and the wood cuttings should be used in sacrificial fire – just sacrifice the branches, nothing else, please. Priestesses of Apollo chewed the leaves and inhaled their smoke to induce a psychic state of mind, however, I would not recommend this as per this documentation:

The leaves of avocado in doses exceeding 20 g fresh leaf per kg bodyweight, produced damage to the mammary gland with decreased milk production in an animal study. [3] Six of 21 goats feeding on fresh avocado leaves from pruned
trees, showed clinical signs of cardiac distress. [6] Ingestion of avocado leaves also caused lung oedema, hydro-thorax, severe myocardial degeneration, necrosis and fibrosis in 15 Cameroon goats. [7] In a study, nine out of 120 ostriches died from congestive heart failure within 96 h of ingesting avocado leaves and immature fruit in an avocado orchard containing Hass and Fuerte cultivars.[27] Finally, researchers from Kenya observed dyspnoea, pulmonary oedema, abdominal enlargement and signs of elevated liver enzymes from two dogs which had a fondness for avocado fruits.

The ancient Aztecs believed the fruit of the Avocado would infuse one with lust. Growing an Avocado plant is said to bring love into the home. If you don’t want to plant the pit, you can carry it with you to promote beauty. And, of course, we know wands made from avocado branches are powerful. What then, about the leaves? Apart from being dangerous to ingest? What can the leaves do for us in a magickal sense? I’d be happy to tell you.

We know that the very tree is revered by some very powerful Egyptian deities. It is associated with love and beauty. Many aren’t aware that, if you do not “enchant” your herbs, artifacts, etc., that they may or may not help very much. All enchantment is, basically, is telling a herb, leaf, wand, artifact, stone, etc. what you wish it to do. Whilst not much is written about the leaf of the Avocado/Persea tree, it is indeed just as magickal as any other leaf of any other tree, perhaps more so, if you know what you expect of it.

My son, whom is of the Egyptian pantheon, and a very strong Shaman, uses the dried Avocado leaves, crushed and ground, along with some other herbs that are sacred to Egyptian deities as an offering to Anubis and Bastet (along with a few Tiger’s Eye stones for Bastet). He also finds that ground bits of Avocado leaf in certain oils he makes for use in his practise adds a bit of extra power. He also scatters the ground-up leaves to the four corners for certain rituals and also burns a pinch of the ground, dried leaves in outdoor ceremonies and sometimes only a small pinch in certain incenses, depending on what he is seeking in the ritual. I don’t think it’s harmed him yet, still, I recommend due care in burning the leaves. Certainly don’t burn them in an enclosed area.

We will be offering packets of dried Avocado leaf on our Etsy shop at a nominal cost soon. Thank you for reading and blessed be! )O(

*Some information is from Cunningham’s Encyclopaedia of Magickal Herbs, by Scott Cunningham 1985-97, Llewellyn