Common Correspondences - Healing , Protection, Strength, Wealth, Love, and Exorcism
Basil (Ocimum Basilicum) is an herb native to Africa and South East Asia. It’s scientific name translates to fragrant (ocimum) and kingly (basilicum). I also found that there is a myth that when the Greek warrior Ocimus fell to a gladiator basil sprung from the ground he died upon, leading to the first part of its name, but I couldn’t find extensive sourcing for this (I just found it interesting). I also found talk of basil getting its name from the mythical creature the basilisk, but that seems to be widely discredited. There is a lot of lore around basil, specifically in Europe and India. Let’s start with the Indian mythology.
In India, basil is referred to as Tulsi, a sacred plant used in worship of the God Vishnu. We’ll begin with Jalandhara. Jalandhara was born of Shiva’s rage and the ocean. He had a great strength and could defeat any challenger. When he came of a marriageable age, he sought out the hand of Vrinda (human incarnate of the goddess Lakshmi), a powerful woman and great devotee of the God Vishnu. Vrinda was greatly in love with her husband, and during her devotion and prayers to Vishnu, in petition of her husband, Jalandhara became invincible.
But things did not stay peaceful for long. In his invincibility, Jalandhara became arrogant and began to covet heaven. He sent attacks on heaven mercilessly. A petition was made to Lord Shiva. Since he was born of Shiva’s anger, surely he was the one who could defeat Jalandhara. But Jalandhara’s arrogance had overtaken him. When Shiva urged him to lay down his arms, Jalandhara began yelling at him. He dared Shiva to send his wife away to prove his power.
After this insult, Shiva gather his forces to attack, but in all of his power, Jalandhara trapped the troops in an illusion. At this point Vishnu was called upon. Vishnu was told that it was one of his greatest devotees that, through her prayers to him, was providing Jalandhara with his unending source of power. Vishnu decided to do the unthinkable; he would trick his devotee.
He disguised himself as Jalandhara. As Vrinda started her prayer ritual, Vishnu (looking like her husband) stopped her mid-prayer. He proclaimed that he had won against Shiva, and instructed her to start preparing for the celebration. At this time, with the prayer suspended, Shiva took his chance and killed Jalandhara. Vishnu dropped his illusion and revealed the death of Jalandhara to Vrinda. Her grief stopped her heart. The Gods reincarnated her as Tulsi.
Here I will note that Lakshmi (Vrinda) is the goddess of wealth, love and prosperity, thus why we have those correspondences for basil. You can read the myth in it’s entirety here. And I highly suggest you do!
The idea of holiness seemed to cling to basil as it spread to Europe, as it is also used in the Orthodox church where priests would use the plant to anoint parishioners with holy water (thus where we find the exorcism and healing in it’s correspondences).
Another interesting bit comes from Greece. When basil made its way to Greece, the people noticed that it would not grow around rue. Rue was used in medicine at the time to draw poison out from wounds. Logic led to the belief that since basil couldn’t grow around an anti-poison, it must itself be poisonous. This line of logic continued to that basil could only be grown in places of abuse, so whilst planting basil, one was supposed to curse and swear at the ground. Amusingly enough, this belief has bled to modern times. The French have a saying, “semer le basilic” which directly translates to “sowing basil” and colloquially means to rant and rave.
Along the same lines, its connection with poison seemed to lead to a more bizarre lore. It was believed that if you placed a basil leaf under a rock in a moist place, it would turn into a scorpion in two days time. There were also those who would tell you that if smelled basil a few too many times, you could grow a nest of scorpions in your brain. I’m a bit skeptical of this story, but to each their own.
In Crete this seemed to manifest in even another way! Basil came to be an emblem of the devil. Cretans would put basil in there windows and by their doors as a charm against his influence. So in a very round about way, we’ve come to why we associate it with protection!
So that’s it! I hope this sheds some light into how much history goes into a simple correspondence chart.
Sources: wikipedia.org, gardeningknowhow.com, ourherbgarden.com, https://dictionary.reverso.net/french-english/, https://hindumythologyforgennext.blogspot.com/2012/05/jalandhara-and-vrinda-story-of-tulsi.html
