pinkstarsgirlie in nocturne_alley @ 2002-06-04 20:32:00

Current mood:	accomplished
Current music:	S Centaur 7 - Don't stop stirring

*~FoR.*.GiNnY.*.aNd.*.PrOFeSsoR.*.sNaPe~*
Hiiii Ginny!!! ^_^ Here is the compatibility chart you asked for, for you and your mystery crush who is born on 31 July (you can tell me who it is! I swear I won't tell anyone!! ^_~), hope you like it!



442 Conjunction Sun - MoonPositive aspect: It's an excellent aspect for a union: you are made to go well together, as you are both quiet and shy in nature and craves for a sense of security. ^_^
118 Trine Sun - JupiterPositive aspect: Both of you are surrounded by people who really care for you as you are charming, agreeable and know how to entertain their friends generously and warmly. You go well together, and appreciate the joys of life together. ^_^
99 Trine Sun - Uranus Positive aspect: The Sun will be enriched by this relationship with Uranus, which will lead to the discovery of a new world, original and full of change. You will go well together, but Uranus is unstable and certainly too independent to enter into marriage. :|
76 Trine Mercury - Mars Positive aspect: You are both very attached to wherever your heart feels most at home. You are also equally sentimental and will treasure the little things in life. ^_^
72 Sextile Moon - Mars Positive aspect: Great physical passion and, as with every passion of this type, there are storms in the air. ^_^
-65 Square Jupiter - Uranus Negative aspect: There are scars from the past from either one of you that will lead to problems of insecurity and turmoil later in life. :c
-43 Opposition Venus - Neptune Negative aspect: The attraction is certainly there, but the relationship will only last a short time. Venus misunderstands
the other and will, without a doubt, be the only one who really is in love. Neptune may have his heart set on someone else. :`c
36 Trine Venus - Pluto Positive aspect: Whatever the outcome, you'll always be friends. ^_^

There you go!! Are you going to ask him to the Ball??? =^_~=

And here is my detention essay for Professor Snape, even though I still have no idea why I have to be punished for "Potter's cheek" and no one will tell me what happened to his cheek! >:/ Oh well. :/ Special thanks to Hermione for looking through my essay for me and correcting all my mistakes!! *huggies* :D :P :D

The uses of henbanes in the 13th century

Henbane, whose botanical name is Hyoscyamus niger, is a member of the Solanaceae order of plants which includes such innocuous members as the humble potato and tomato but also highly poisonous and notorious ones such as belladonna, mandrake and the daturas. It is one of the legendary witch plants, renowned in folklore for its claimed magickal qualities and it features in many of the recipes for witches' flying ointments which have been preserved in the records of the witch trials in an various other sources.

According to the Hogwarts English Dictionary, the plant makes its appearance in the English language as henne-belle, a form which is recorded as early as 1000 ce in the writings both of Æfric and subsequently in a number of early English medical manuscripts of the 11th century. It seems likely that this form derived at least in part from the bell-shape of the plant's flowers. The more familiar (and modern) form henbane was first recorded in the mid 13th century. The -bane part refers to an archaic Old English word for death, so the name as a whole refers to a belief that poultry, most notably hens, were particularly vulnerable to the effects of eating its seeds.

The same idea is found in the name wolfsbane, one of the common traditional names for aconite (aconitum napellus), which was not only sacred in Greek myth to Hecate and therefore to Cerberus, the three-headed hound who guarded the gates of the underworld, but also refers to the one-time use of the plant for poisoning meat left out as bait for wolves. Henbane is not officially considered a native of Britain, its natural range being through southern Europe and across western Asia, though according to Milgram Plantalot, writing in the 1930s, it was at that time fairly frequent throughout Britain and Ireland and was known to grow wild in some 60 counties in Britain. She suggests that it may have originally escaped from herbalists gardens and subsequently at least partially naturalised.

In medieval medicine, the seeds were heated over coal or charcoal until they produced fumes which were then inhaled as a painkiller or other treatment for toothache. Whether this merely stupefied the patient so that he was unaware of the pain or whether it temporarily eased the pain while leaving him fully conscious is unclear. The ancient Egyptians are also known to have smoked henbane for their dental problems, though the native Egyptian henbane, Hyoscyamus muticus, contains higher concentrations of alkaloids and therefore produces even more powerful effects than our more familiar European variety.

The ancient Greeks believed that people under the influence of the herb became prophetic, and the priestesses of the Oracle of Delphi are claimed to have inhaled the smoke from smouldering henbane. Penny Silyn associates henbane with the rune Is (representing statis) and says it (the rune) is ruled by "Rinda, goddess of the frozen north" and is connected with "Verdandi, the Norn representing the present, 'that which is eternally becoming'." Modern magickal thinking considers henbane to be ruled by Saturn, which does seem not inappropriate for a herb which is so effective at bringing a swift death to those who use it rashly. However, astrologers of earlier times considered the plant to be ruled by Jupiter although henbane generally grows in "saturnine" places, especially the ditches where the contents of cesspits and privies were dumped, it should more properly be considered a herb of Saturn.

Willow Grenfinjer, meanwhile, says that henbane can be used for rituals of necromancy and the summoning of spirits and astral entities but cautions against the use of henbane internally "by any but the adept". She suggests that the plant can be used more safely as an incense - though given the uncertain and unpredictable results which have been reported from burning henbane herb or seeds this would appear to be at best a questionable recommendation if only because of its very vagueness. Henbane was once also believed to have aphrodisiac properties and was an ingredient of love potions, though whether such potions were to be swallowed or rubbed on assorted (and perhaps relevant) body bits is not made clear.

*~The End!~* ^_^

Peace, hope and stars,
*~.Lavender.^.Brown.~*

Comments: