Catnip

Catnip is a herb of magnetic attraction and joyful ease. Its most famous quality, the feline euphoria triggered by its nepetalactone compounds, is a literal enactment of what the herb does magickally: it makes you irresistible to what is drawn to you, creates a response of spontaneous delight, and invites an atmosphere of playful warmth that is genuinely hard to resist. Catnip does not force or compel; it creates the conditions under which what is meant for you wants to come closer.

The plant is a member of the mint family, Nepeta cataria, a perennial with soft grey-green leaves and small lavender-white flowers that grows readily in most temperate climates and is famously easy to cultivate. Its softness in texture and scent mirrors its energy: gently attractive, never harsh.

History and origins

Catnip has been used in European folk medicine since at least the medieval period, primarily as a mild sedative and digestive herb. Its magickal associations with love and happiness appear in multiple sources on herbal folk magic from the early modern period onward, and its connection to cat-related symbolism is a natural extension of its observable effect on cats.

The goddess Bast, the Egyptian cat goddess associated with protection, pleasure, music, and the home, is one of catnip’s natural divine correspondences. Bast’s temples kept sacred cats, and offerings to her often included things pleasing to cats. The Norse goddess Freya, who is also associated with cats and with love and beauty, provides another divine link.

In contemporary practice, catnip’s association with familiar work and cat magick reflects both its historical divine connections and its practical role in building relationship with living feline companions.

In practice

Dried catnip is the most versatile form for magickal use. It can be burned as incense, added to sachets, used in candle dressings, and offered to feline familiars as a form of shared ritual. Fresh catnip is wonderful as a garden plant, attracting cats to your outdoor space and creating a small living focal point for cat-associated work.

Catnip combines particularly well with rose petals for love workings, with lavender for happiness and peace, and with lemon verbena for an uplifting blend.

Magickal uses

For love attraction, catnip is included in red or pink sachets alongside rose petals, damiana, and lavender. The working is typically aimed at drawing compatible romantic energy generally rather than compelling a specific person, in keeping with the herb’s naturally attractive rather than forceful character.

For familiar work with a cat, gifting catnip to your feline companion before a ritual or meditation is a way of sharing the working with them and of acknowledging their participation. The cat’s heightened state may attune them more closely to the energetic work of the ritual.

For joy and happiness workings, catnip is burned as incense, added to bath sachets, or worn as a charm to draw lightness and pleasure into daily experience. Its effect is gentle and cumulative rather than dramatic.

How to work with it

For a love attraction sachet, combine two tablespoons of dried catnip with a tablespoon of dried rose petals, a piece of rose quartz, and a few dried rose buds in a pink cloth bag. Tie with pink ribbon, hold the bag to your heart, and speak your intention for love to come to you with ease and joy. Carry in your bag or keep at your bedside.

For familiar bonding, offer your cat a small amount of fresh or dried catnip while sitting quietly together before a ritual. Allow the cat to respond as it will. This is a gesture of recognition and invitation: you are acknowledging the cat’s own perceptive nature and asking them to share the working space with you.

For a happiness-drawing incense, burn a small amount of dried catnip with dried lemon peel and lavender on a charcoal disc, holding the intention of joy and lightness entering your space. This is a simple, pleasant, and effective working for days when the atmosphere feels heavy.

In myth and popular culture

Cats and their associated plants appear prominently in the mythology and religious art of several ancient cultures. The Egyptian goddess Bastet, worshipped from at least the early dynastic period and most intensely during the Late Period (664-332 BCE), was depicted as a cat-headed woman and presided over protection, pleasure, music, fertility, and the home. Her sacred city of Bubastis was the site of a major annual festival that the Greek historian Herodotus described as among the largest and most joyous in Egypt. Sacred cats were kept at Bastet’s temples, and the Greek cat plant, which ancient Egyptians recognized as particularly attractive to cats, carried the goddess’s implied blessing.

In Norse mythology, the goddess Freya rides a chariot drawn by two large cats and is associated with love, beauty, sexuality, war, death, magic, and the seidr practice. The cat’s independence, hunterly precision, and comfort with both darkness and hearth made it a natural attribute of a goddess who moved freely between domestic and wild, human and divine. Catnip’s role in connecting practitioners to cat-associated divine figures draws on both the Egyptian and Norse traditions, offering an accessible botanical bridge to Bastet and Freya as love and protection goddesses.

In contemporary popular culture, cats and their association with witchcraft has been a persistent theme from the early modern familiar tradition through the twenty-first century’s internet culture of cat worship. The familiar as a witch’s companion, often depicted as a black cat, descends from early modern English demonology and has transformed in popular culture into a beloved and playful archetype. Books including Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series and films including Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989, directed by Hayao Miyazaki) feature cat companions whose relationship to magical practice reflects a long cultural tradition. Catnip appears in popular media as a lighthearted element of cat-magic; its role in serious magical practice is less often depicted.

Myths and facts

A few misconceptions about catnip in magical practice deserve clarification.

• A widespread assumption holds that catnip affects humans similarly to the way it affects cats, producing a mild euphoric or psychoactive state. Nepetalactone, the compound responsible for the feline response, produces no psychoactive effect in humans. Catnip tea has mild sedative properties that humans have used for centuries, but this is a gentle calming effect unrelated to the dramatic feline euphoria.
• Some practitioners believe that catnip’s primary magical use is in familiar work and that it is too specific to be useful for general practitioners. Catnip’s Venus and Water correspondences make it appropriate for any love, happiness, or attraction working, entirely independently of whether the practitioner works with cat familiars.
• A common belief holds that catnip loses its magical potency once it has been used with a cat. There is no traditional basis for this claim; the herb’s magical character is not altered by a cat’s interaction with it, and sharing catnip with a feline companion is itself considered a form of relationship-building rather than a depletion of the herb’s power.
• Some sources describe catnip as a substitution for other Venus herbs when those herbs are unavailable. While catnip is indeed a Venus herb, it carries its own distinct character; it works best when chosen for its own qualities of gentle attraction and joyful ease rather than as an interchangeable stand-in for rose or damiana.
• A widespread misconception holds that catnip is only useful in sweet or gentle workings. While its character is gentler than forceful herbs like ginger or black pepper, catnip’s quality of making things irresistibly attractive to what is meant for you has real directional power in any attraction working where the goal is genuine compatibility rather than compelled response.