Borage

Borage (Borago officinalis) is a self-seeding annual with rough, hairy leaves and an abundance of vivid star-shaped blue flowers that are among the most cheerful sights in a kitchen garden. In the magickal tradition, borage is the herb of courage and joy, called upon when fear or sorrow weighs a practitioner down and the will to act needs strengthening.

The plant’s energetic character is light and uplifting rather than fierce. Where a herb like black cohosh offers assertive, martial courage, borage offers the kind that comes from inner cheerfulness: the steadiness of someone who genuinely believes things will be well, and who acts from that confidence rather than in spite of fear.

History and origins

Borage’s association with courage is ancient by the standards of European herbalism. Pliny the Elder wrote that borage made men merry and drove away sadness. The medieval herbalist traditions of Britain and the Continent repeated and elaborated this character, and the phrase “borage for courage” appears in various forms across centuries of herbal literature. John Gerard’s Herball (1597) repeats the traditional claim that borage comforts the heart and drives away melancholy.

A folk etymology claimed the plant’s name derived from the Latin cor (heart) and ago (I bring), which would make it literally “I bring heart.” Modern botanists doubt this derivation, tracing the name instead to the Arabic abu rash (father of roughness, referring to the hairy leaves). But the etymology that practitioners carried forward was the one about courage, and it shaped how the plant was worked for centuries.

Borage’s use spread widely across Europe and into the Americas wherever European settlers traveled. It is a resilient, fast-growing plant that escaped cultivation easily and naturalized across temperate regions.

Magickal uses

The primary magickal use of borage is for courage before trials. Before any situation requiring boldness, a confrontation, a legal proceeding, a creative performance, or a difficult conversation, practitioners carry borage or wash with a borage infusion. The herb is considered particularly appropriate for situations where the fear is mixed with legitimate difficulty; it does not override necessary caution but supports the will to act despite it.

For lifting sorrow and heaviness, borage is used in ritual baths and floor washes. A strong infusion poured into bath water is said to clear the energetic residue of grief, disappointment, or prolonged worry. The bright blue flowers are floated in the bath water when available.

As a psychic herb, borage appears in incense blends before divination and meditation. Its effect is considered opening and clarifying rather than intensifying, making it a good choice when the practitioner wants receptive awareness without the more dramatic effects of heavier psychic herbs.

Borage flowers placed on an altar or in a vase are said to keep the space cheerful and maintain high spirits during workings requiring sustained effort.

How to work with it

For a simple courage carry-charm before a difficult event, take a pinch of dried borage leaves or flowers and place them in a small blue or yellow cloth. Add a chip of yellow citrine or tiger’s eye. Hold the sachet and breathe slowly and deliberately, setting the intention that your heart is steady and your will is clear. Carry it in your pocket through the event.

For a spirit-lifting bath, steep a large handful of fresh or dried borage in a quart of hot water for twenty minutes. Strain and cool. Add the liquid to warm bath water. Float a few of the blue flowers if you have them. Soak for at least fifteen minutes, allowing the warm scent to lift heaviness from your body and your mood.

To make a courage and clarity incense, combine dried borage with frankincense granules and a small amount of dried lemon peel. Burn on a charcoal disc in a ventilated space before any working requiring clarity and steady nerve.

In myth and popular culture

Borage’s association with courage runs through European literature with remarkable consistency. The phrase “borage for courage” appears in various forms from at least the sixteenth century, and it was cited by John Gerard in his celebrated Herball of 1597, where he wrote that borage flowers placed in wine would “exhilarate and make the mind glad.” The physician Nicholas Culpeper included borage in his 1653 “Complete Herbal” under the governance of Jupiter, attributing to it properties of strengthening the heart and driving away sorrows, an attribution that placed it among the classic cordial herbs whose domain was both physical and emotional.

In classical antiquity, Pliny the Elder wrote in his “Naturalis Historia” that borage, which he called Euphrosynum (from the Greek for “cheerfulness”), was of such power to drive away sadness that it was added to wine drunk before difficult enterprises. This ancient recommendation, known to the educated physicians and herbalists of the medieval period, gave borage’s courage associations the weight of classical authority.

In Welsh folk tradition, borage was sometimes associated with the virtue of steadfast courage in the face of injustice, and its bright star-shaped blue flowers are occasionally read symbolically in decorative arts of the medieval period. The flower appears in illuminated manuscripts as a background motif, its distinctive shape lending itself to stylized representation.

Myths and facts

Borage’s uses and properties are straightforward in historical tradition but are occasionally overstated in contemporary herbal and magical writing.

• The folk etymology connecting borage’s name to the Latin word “cor” (heart) and “ago” (I act), meaning roughly “I bring heart,” is linguistically unsupported. Modern botanists trace the name instead to the Arabic “abu rash” (father of roughness), referring to the plant’s hairy stems and leaves. The heart etymology, though repeated for centuries, is a folk derivation rather than a historical fact.
• Borage is sometimes described as a powerful psychic herb comparable to mugwort or blue lotus. Its psychic-opening properties are considered mild and supportive rather than intense; it is appropriate for general clarifying use before divination but does not produce the vivid dreaming or altered states associated with stronger herbs.
• Fresh borage leaves are high in pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which can accumulate in the liver with heavy or prolonged consumption. The magical use of borage as an occasional incense, in carried sachets, or as a brief ritual wash presents negligible risk, but practitioners should not use large quantities of fresh leaf material internally on a regular basis.
• Borage’s flowers are genuinely edible and are a traditional decoration for salads and drinks in cooking. The flowers have a mild cucumber-like flavor and are safe for most people; the restriction about pyrrolizidine alkaloids applies primarily to the leaves rather than to the flowers.
• Borage is sometimes confused with comfrey, which also contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids and which can look similar as a young plant. The distinctive star-shaped blue flowers of borage make mature plants easy to identify; if in doubt about a plant’s identity, do not use it.