Ragwort is a yellow daisy like flower that bloom in early spring. It is often seen growing in moist fields or banks of creeks and streams.
Historically Ragwort is a magical herb of protection. It can be worn in an amulet to protect from evil charms and witches’ spells.
In Ireland Ragwort is known as the Fairies’ Horse. It is said the wee people galloped about on the yellow blossoms at midnight. Midnight is also the magical hour for witches to use Ragwort stems to fly!
In ‘415 Raspberry Picket, The Cursed Seed,’ Uncle Rubus uses the Ragwort stems to flee from a flying monster that emerged from the ancient tomb within a Hopewell Indian Earthworks.
{The foul smelling head cut through the cold air gnashing its yellow fangs. The group ran toward the car only a hundred feet away but the creature bobbed up and down and turned on a dime blocking their escape to the car in the parking lot.
“Run for the woods across the field,” bellowed Rubus with his chest nearly about to burst as he sucked in the freezing air. “We can hide in the trees,” he panted not really thinking there was much shelter in the bare woods. Rubus was disgusted with himself he had left his bag of magical herbs in the car. He wracked his mind trying to think of an herb that may be in the field or the woods he could use to fight or even slow down the Flying Head. He had fallen behind and the women and the children were nearly to the field. He wondered why Dag did not use her magic lasso but figured she was too scared fleeing for her life to face the monster.
Rubus reached the edge of the uncut weedy field; he could hear the head whistling through the air a few feet behind him. The field was thick with spent goldenrod, thistles, and stalks of tall woodland daisies going to seed. His foot got caught on a stem and he nearly tripped and fell but caught himself. There was something very familiar about this tall furrowed stout stemmed weed … this was something very important, something very useful … then it came to him, it was the tall stem of the Ragwort flower. He remembered! In ancient days witches could escape persecution by using this stem to fly and flee danger. Yes the four or five foot stems were small and brittle but they just might give them an edge to get away from the monster. There was more on his mind than just the flower stem, his lungs and legs hurt so bad he could barely think … midnight … yes now he remembered, the stems only would provide flight at midnight.
He glanced down at his watch as the big hand passed over ‘12’ on his dial. Screaming he called out to the others, “Break off a Ragwort stem … it’s four or five feet tall and has a thick furrowed stem … Carefully climb on them and push yourself off the ground and the stem will carry you skyward!”}
415RaspberryPicket.com
RL Patterson
Ragwort
415 Raspberry Picket Trilogy 