Juniper

Juniper (juniperis communis)

Folk names: Enebro, Gemeiner, Wachholder, Geneva, Gin Berry, Ginepro, Gin Plant

Gender: Masculine

Planet: Sun

Element: Fire

Powers: Protection, Anti-Theft, Love, Exorcism, Health

Magickal Uses: Used throughout Europe as a protective herb, Juniper alos guards against theft. It was probably one of the earliest incenses used by Mediterranean Witches. Juniper hung at the door protects against evil forces and persons, and it is burned in exorcism rites. A sprig of the plant protects its wearer against accidents and attacks by wild animals. It also guards against ghosts and sickness.
  Juniper added to love mixtures, and the berries are carried to increase male potency.
  When carried or burned, juniper helps the pyschic powers and breaks hexes and curses, and drives off snakes.
[From Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs]

   When you smear the body with oil of juniper it protects against snakebite..   and burned in sickrooms the odor cleanses the air and relieves the congestion by shrinking swollen air passages.  Using it on Sundays is especially effective since this is the planet it is associatede with.
[From: Seasons of the Witch datebook]

Organic Juniper Berry Essential Oil


   This plant is associated with the ancient Canaanite goddess Asherah (also worshipped by the Hebrews, much to the dismay of the Prophets). In another part of the world, during the Celtic festival Samhain, juniper was burned for its aromatic smoke, which was said to aid in clairvoyance and contact with the dead (the berries are full of essential oil and make a good addition to incense). Juniper is typically connected to Jupiter (the berries actually contain some tin, the planetary metal), and this magick herb is often used in purification, a Jovian task. Usually the type of cleansing involved is the blessing and protection of a home or of one's family and animals. But this plant's connection to clairvoyance shows that it has more than a bit of Moon to it. I consider it to be specifically the Dark of the Moon, partly because of the dark color of the berries and partly because its use in Samhain, which is just a Dark of the Moon time of year, as far as I'm concerned. It's a real fall/winter night scent. This essential oils is steam distilled from organically grown Juniperus communis in Croatia. 

Combining With Other Essential Oils

   The fresh, balsamic, woody scent of juniper berry, something like pine needles only richer, with a touch of savoriness and a whiff of camphor, combines well with bergamot, cedar, clary sage, cypress, eucalyptus, fennel, frankincense, grapefruit, lavender, lemon, mandarin, pine, rose geranium, rosemary, sage, sandalwood, and vetiver.

Juniper makes a fine purifying and sanctifying incense allied with various planets. Juniper berries contain the planetary metal for Jupiter (tin), and their color and warming action suits that planet as well. The spicy warmth of Juniper berries purifies the aura, clarifies thought, and protects from negativity. In aromatherapy, juniper berry is used against anxiety, to improve memory and mental clarity, and for sedation. This herb also has Moon aspects--as a diuretic, for instance--and it would make a good herb for the Dark of Moon, because among its many fragrances (pine predominating), it contains camphor, a Moon scent, and it is a beautifully dark color. It's also in Fire of Azrael incense, which is made of equal parts of juniper berries, red sandalwood, and cedarwood. Boiling destroys the essential oils. The berries make an olive brown dye using alum, copper, or cream of tartar as mordants. We now also have dried juniper tips - the tips of juniper branches - which are nice for grinding into incense or in pot pourri.
[From:
http://www.alchemy-works.com/herb_juniper.html  ]

Juniper Berry Benefits And Information


Juniper berry is the fruit of a short shrub that grows throughout the northern hemisphere. In the Middle Ages, people believed that the aromatic scent of juniper berry could ward off infections, including the plague and leprosy.

The oil of juniper has been used medicinally for hundreds of years to treat stomach and digestive problems as well as kidney and bladder conditions. Native Americans used it to treat many illnesses, and it was also an important part of their diet. Dried juniper berries were ground and made into cakes that were used to prevent hunger when other food was scarce.


The active ingredients in the oil of juniper berries can help to reduce intestinal gas and stomach cramps. It can also help to dissolve and eliminate uric acid from the body, making it useful in the treatment of kidney stones, which are comprised of uric acid.

Juniper berry is also said to help reduce blood sugar levels. If taken in small amounts, it can help increase appetite, and it is thought to help decrease congestion associated with asthma as well.

Juniper berry is probably best known in nutritional circles for its strong diuretic properties. This herb is also used as an ingredient in gin. In fact, gin was originally produced as a diuretic by a Dutch pharmacist who lived in the 1500's. Because it stimulates the flow of urine, juniper berry is excellent for flushing the kidneys and bladder to remove toxins and treat urinary tract infections.

It also helps to relieve bloating. Juniper berry has antiseptic properties that can further promote the health of the urinary system by fighting bacterial infections. It has anti-inflammatory properties as well and has long been used as a folk remedy for gout, arthritis and muscle pain. When used to treat conditions related to urinary function, juniper berry is often combined with other herbs.

There are dozens of active ingredients in juniper berries, including compounds known as monoterpenes. One of these is an alcohol (terpinene-4-ol) that produces the diuretic effect for which the herb is so well known. The berries are also excellent sources of a number of vitamins and minerals, including B-vitamins, vitamin C, calcium, chromium and iron.

As a nutritional supplement, juniper berry is available in capsules, tablets and liquid extracts. It can also be used in bulk form or to make a tea.

While juniper berry is useful in treating urinary tract infections and acute kidney stones, it should not be used by people with chronic kidney disease as it may over-stimulate and further weaken the kidneys. This herb should only be used for short periods of time to treat acute conditions, specifically for no more than 30 days.

Prolonged use can cause an excess loss of potassium, a mineral that is important for muscles to function properly. Pregnant women should not use juniper berry as it may induce uterine contractions and cause miscarriage. In addition, women with heavy menstrual flow should avoid juniper berry because the herb may interfere with the absorption of iron which is lost in high amounts with heavy menstrual flow.
[From: http://vitamins.ultimatefatburner.com/juniper-berry-review.html ]


And from "A Modern Herbal" by M. Grieve

---Habitat---The Juniper is a small shrub, 4 to 6 feet high, widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere. It occurs freely on the slopes of the chalk downs near London, and on heathy, siliceous soils where a little lime occurs. It is a common shrub where bands of limestone occur, as on some of the Scotch mountains and on the limestone hills in the Lake district.


The berries are used for the production of the volatile oil which is a prime ingredient in Geneva or Hollands Gin, upon which its flavour and diuretic properties depend.

---History---Although these valuable berries are produced from a native shrub, the berries of commerce are chiefly collected from plants cultivated in Hungary. The oil distilled on the Continent, principally in Hungary, is chiefly from freshly-picked berries. It has, hitherto, not been possible to produce the oil competitively with Southern Europe because of the relative cheapness of labour and the vast tracts of land over which the trees grow wild. But the rise in the price of foreign oil of Juniper berries since the outbreak of war has directed attention to the possible extended production of the oil either in Great Britain or her northern colonies. Sunny slopes are likely to be the best places to cultivate the shrub for the berries. The yield of oil, however, varies considerably in different years.

There is a wide difference in the chemical and physical characters of the oil distilled on the Continent from fresh and that in England from imported berries, which in transit to this country have become partially dried.

Commercial oil of Juniper is obtained chiefly from the ripe fruit and is stated to be in all essential qualities superior to the oil of Juniper from the full-grown, unripe, green berries used medicinally, which occurs as a colourless or pale greenish-yellow, limpid liquid, possessing a peculiar terebinthic odour when fresh, and a balsamic, burning, somewhat bitter taste.

Juniper berries take two or three years to ripen, so that blue and green berries occur on the same plant. Only the blue, ripe berries are here picked. When collected in baskets or sacks, they are laid out on shelves to dry a little, during which process they lose some of the blue bloom and develop the blackish colour seen in commerce.

There is a considerable demand on the Continent for an aqueous extract of the berries called Roob, or Rob of Juniper, and the distilled oil is in this case a by-product, the berries being first crushed and macerated with water and then distilled with water and the residue in the still evaporated to a soft consistence. Much of the oil met with in commerce is obtained as a by-product in the manufacture of gin and similar products.

In Sweden a beer is made that is regarded as a healthy drink. In hot countries the tree yields by incision a gum or varnish.

---Medicinal Action and Uses---Oil of Juniper is given as a diuretic, stomachic, and carminative in indigestion, flatulence, and diseases of the kidney and bladder. The oil mixed with lard is also used in veterinary practice as an application to exposed wounds and prevents irritation from flies.

Spirit of Juniper has properties resembling Oil of Turpentine: it is employed as a stimulating diuretic in cardiac and hepatic dropsy.

The fruit is readily eaten by most animals, especially sheep, and is said to prevent and cure dropsy in the latter.

The chief use of Juniper is as an adjuvant to diuretics in dropsy depending on heart, liver or kidney disease. It imparts a violet odour to the urine, and large doses may cause irritation to the passages. An infusion of 1 oz. to 1 pint of boiling water may be taken in the course of twenty-four hours.

In France the berries have been used in chest complaints and in leucorrhoea, blenorrhoea, scrofula, etc. They are nut given in substance.

The oil is a local stimulant.

---Dosage---Oil of Berries, B.P., 1 to 5 drops. Oil of Wood, 1 to 5 drops. Fluid extract, 1/2 to 1 fluid drachm. Spirit of Juniper, B.P. and U.S.P., 20 to 60 minims. Oil, 2 to 10 minims. Elixir of Potassium Acetate and Juniper as a diaphoretic, 4 fluid drachms. Comp. Spirit, U.S.P., 2 drachms. Solid extract, 5 to 15 grains.
[From: http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/j/junipe11.html ]