Mandrake: legend, history and safe symbolic use

How to read the labels Historical what the old sources say. Later tradition what later writers added. Modern modern practice and my own notes.

No plant has a stranger reputation than the mandrake. Its forked root can look like a small human body, and for more than two thousand years people have told stories about it: that it shrieks when pulled, that it grows beneath gallows, that it brings love, fertility and fortune. It is a plant to read about, draw and dream on. It is not a plant to use.

Safety first: mandrake is poisonous. True mandrake contains tropane alkaloids, the same family of compounds as belladonna. Never eat, drink, smoke, burn or rub mandrake on skin, and never trust a seller’s “safe” preparation. “American mandrake” (mayapple) is a different plant and is also highly poisonous. This page gives no preparation instructions and never will. If someone has swallowed any, contact a poison center or emergency services.

At a glance

How witches work with mandrake today

Modern Mandrake is often sold online as a dried root or “poppet.” Prices are high, identification is uncertain and the risks are real. Cunningham himself notes that because mandrake was scarce and costly, witches and magicians used substitutes, including apples and ash roots.

Image magic. A botanical print of the forked root, or a medieval illustration, on the altar carries the mandrake’s meaning of protection, fertility and hidden power.

Safe poppets. Instead of a mandrake root, carve or sew a small figure from an apple, a piece of ash wood or a harmless root vegetable. The old practice of using substitutes is itself part of mandrake lore.

Sigils. Turn the word “mandragora” into a sigil with my sigil design methods for protection or fertility work.

Hekate devotion. Cunningham links mandrake with Hecate. Many devotees use pictures of her plants rather than the plants themselves, as I explain in my page on Hekate’s symbols.

Story work. Read the legends aloud at Samhain. Mandrake lore is wonderful storytelling.

Tarot pairing. I pair mandrake with The Hanged Man: roots, suspension and power that looks strange from the outside.

Journal prompt. Which “forbidden” thing fascinates me, and can I honour that fascination without being harmed by it?

Try this: an apple poppet for protection

1. Choose a firm apple. Cut it in half crosswise to show the five-pointed star of seeds.
2. With a small knife, carve a simple face or figure into one half.
3. Hold it and name what you want it to guard: a home, a project, a person (with their consent).
4. Place it on your altar on a dish for one night with a picture of a mandrake beside it.
5. The next day, bury the apple in the garden or compost it. The protection lives in the act and your intention.

Legend, literature and history

Historical Theophrastus, writing in ancient Greece, recorded that root-cutters drew circles around the mandrake with a sword before digging it. In Genesis 30, Rachel and Leah bargain over mandrakes, which were associated with love and fertility. Josephus describes a different magical root, baaras, pulled up by a dog because it was deadly to touch, a motif later attached to the mandrake.

Later tradition Medieval herbals illustrated mandrakes as little human figures, sometimes with a dog tied to the root to pull it up. Hildegard of Bingen’s Physica said the mandrake grew from the same earth as Adam and so was especially open to the devil’s influence, and should be purified in spring water before use. In German lore, the Alraune was said to grow beneath gallows. John Gerard’s Herball (1597) dismissed the shrieking tale as an old fable. Shakespeare’s Juliet fears “shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth.”

Modern Mandrakes appear in modern fiction, most famously as screaming potted plants in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which has kept the old legend alive for a new generation.

Safety

Poison. True mandrake is a toxic nightshade. Symptoms of poisoning can include dry mouth, blurred vision, a racing heart, confusion and hallucinations, and can be fatal.

Mayapple. The North Carolina Extension Plant Toolbox rates mayapple’s toxicity as high and notes that contact with leaves or roots can cause severe skin and eye irritation.

Buying. Do not buy “mandrake” to burn, brew or anoint with. If you already own a root, keep it sealed, labelled and out of reach of children and pets, and wash your hands after touching it.

What next

Read belladonna, mandrake’s sister in history and in danger, and the avoid list in my guide to herbs.