Culpeper placed angelica under the Sun, and it was among the most esteemed of protective plants: carried, hung and burned to guard against witchcraft, evil spirits, poison and the plague, its very name an assurance of angelic favour, so that no witch, it was said, could work harm where angelica grew. It was strewn and its root worn as an amulet, and it served in charms of blessing and exorcism. A large, sweet, useful garden herb, angelica carries a symbolism entirely of light and protection, the archangel's gift against the dark, drawn from its imposing growth, its heavenly name and its old repute as a shield in time of pestilence.
A serious practical caution belongs with the plant even though it is not itself dangerous: angelica closely resembles several genuinely deadly members of the carrot family, including poison hemlock and water hemlock, and foragers gathering wild angelica have been fatally poisoned after misidentifying one of these lookalikes as the beneficial herb, a real and recurring hazard documented in modern poisoning statistics. This resemblance, rather than any property of angelica itself, is the practical reason modern foraging guides urge extreme caution or expert identification before gathering any wild member of this plant family at all.