A Herb of Mercury, and Against Witchcraft

Culpeper placed dill under Mercury, the planet of the airy, quick and communicative in his scheme, a fitting ruler for a light, fine-leaved, fast-growing herb. In European folk magic dill had a double edge: it was hung in the house and laid in the cradle to guard against witchcraft and the evil eye, and it was also an ingredient of charms to win love and to still a scolding tongue. A folk rhyme paired it with vervain as herbs that hinder witches of their will. These protective and calming meanings grow directly from the plant's soothing reputation and its clean, settling aroma.

In Scandinavian folk tradition dill was tucked into a bride's shoe or carried at a wedding for luck, and brewed as dill water it was a long-standing remedy given to colicky infants, a practice that survives today in commercial gripe water preparations, continuous folk medicine given here as history rather than guidance. Dioscorides and other classical physicians recommended dill for digestive complaints and to increase a nursing mother's milk, an ancient use that helped shape its later reputation as a herb particularly suited to infants and young mothers, a tradition of folk pharmacy repeated here as history and not as medical advice.