Ivy

Ivy is the plant of the long hold. Where other vines are seasonal, ivy is evergreen and seemingly inexhaustible, climbing over stone walls and through tree canopies, outlasting the structures it embraces, and returning each spring with fresh green growth no matter how thoroughly it has been cut back. This quality of irrepressible persistence gives ivy its primary magickal correspondence: loyalty, tenacity, and the bond that endures beyond circumstance.

The vine also carries within it a more complex and ancient history, one that connects it to Dionysus and the realm of ecstatic release. This second face of ivy sits alongside the domestic image of the faithful vine clinging to its support. Both are genuine: ivy holds on, but it also grows in unexpected directions and can encompass what it loves to the point of overwhelming it.

History and origins

Ivy’s association with Dionysus is one of its oldest and best-documented correspondences. In Greek tradition, ivy and the grape vine were the two plants sacred to the god of wine and transcendence, and ivy was specifically worn by those seeking to prevent or mitigate intoxication, since the plant was believed to counteract the effects of wine. Revellers, poets, and initiates wore ivy crowns.

In Celtic tradition, ivy is represented in the ogham alphabet as Gort, the twelfth letter, associated with the hunting of spiritual truth, the persistence required to find it, and the labyrinthine quality of a search that doubles back on itself. Gort is placed in the time of harvest and descent, reinforcing ivy’s connections to Samhain and the approach to winter.

In the English seasonal folk tradition, ivy is always paired with holly, the two evergreens brought inside at midwinter representing the balance of feminine and masculine forces, the trailing vine and the upright spiny tree.

In practice

Ivy’s energy in ritual is patient and persistent. It is well suited to long-duration workings where the intention needs to take hold over time rather than producing immediate results. A jar spell or sachet incorporating ivy will work slowly and thoroughly, establishing a hold rather than creating a sudden change.

In love workings, ivy represents the fidelity component: the staying-with, the long commitment, rather than the initial attraction. It is paired with rose for romance, with lavender for tender affection, and with yarrow for healing in long-term relationships.

Magickal uses

Ivy is used in binding workings with the specific intent of preserving fidelity and loyalty. This is ethically worked as a spell on oneself, a statement of one’s own commitment, rather than as a binding of another person’s will. A length of ivy wound around an object representing a relationship or a promise, then placed on an altar or buried at a threshold, is a traditional form of this work.

For protection of the home, ivy growing on or near the building was considered in British folk tradition to protect the household against misfortune. Living ivy on the exterior wall is the most traditional form; for those without a garden, a potted ivy placed at the entrance accomplishes a similar function symbolically.

Ivy is also worked with in grief and healing after loss. Its persistent vitality and its association with what endures beyond endings make it a companion plant for those working through bereavement or the end of a significant relationship.

How to work with it

To make a fidelity charm, braid three lengths of ivy vine together while speaking your intention for loyalty and commitment in a relationship or endeavour. As you braid, name what you are committing to with each strand. Tie the ends with green thread and place the finished braid on your altar or hang it near the entrance of your home. Allow it to dry in place.

For a long-duration jar spell using ivy, place three ivy leaves in a small glass jar along with relevant herbs for your intention, a slip of paper bearing your written goal, and a protective stone. Fill the jar with spring water, seal it, and place it in a dark cupboard. Check on it at each full moon; if the leaves remain green, the working is active. When they have completely dried, the spell has either completed its work or needs refreshing.

To connect with ivy’s Dionysian aspect, braid or weave a small crown of fresh ivy and place it on your altar during creative or ecstatic ritual, invoking the quality of inspired abandon that the plant once symbolised at the Bacchic rites.

In myth and popular culture

Ivy’s most prominent mythological association is with Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, ecstasy, and theatrical performance. In ancient sources, ivy and the grapevine are his two sacred plants, and his devotees, the maenads, wore ivy crowns in their revelries. The plant was also said to prevent or mitigate the effects of wine, and the Greek author Pliny describes how ivy berries were believed to counteract intoxication, a belief reflected in the ivy crowns worn at symposia. In Roman religion, ivy is similarly associated with Bacchus, and the laurel and ivy wreath became the standard decoration for triumph and poetic inspiration alike.

The British folk tradition of the Holly and the Ivy, preserved most famously in the Christmas carol of the same name, encodes a seasonal drama of masculine and feminine principles. The carol as it survives is partly Christianized, but the underlying structure of two evergreens representing opposing but complementary forces is widely considered older than its Christian overlay. Robert Graves elaborated this mythological reading considerably in “The White Goddess” (1948), which, while contested by scholars, influenced a generation of poets and pagans in their understanding of ivy’s symbolic role in the seasonal mythology of the British Isles.

In Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” the fairy queen Titania sleeps in a bank where oxslip and wild thyme grow, and the bank itself is associated with the enchanted and liminal space of fairy activity. Climbing plants including ivy carry this quality of threshold and crossing between worlds in folk tradition, growing over ruins and bridging the living and the dead.

Myths and facts

Several misunderstandings about ivy circulate in gardening literature and in magical practice.

• English ivy (Hedera helix) is not native to North America and is classified as an invasive species in many parts of the Pacific Northwest and other regions; planting it outdoors in these areas harms native ecosystems, and practitioners in affected regions are better served by using it in contained pots rather than as garden plantings.
• The belief that ivy growing on a house causes structural damage is contested by building conservation specialists, who note that well-established ivy on sound masonry is more likely to protect the wall from moisture damage than to harm it; where damage occurs it is typically from ivy roots entering pre-existing cracks.
• Ivy is sometimes described as entirely toxic. The berries and leaves of English ivy are mildly toxic if ingested, particularly to children and animals, but handling the plant is generally safe for those without skin sensitivity; the principal hazard for many people is the contact dermatitis that the sap can cause.
• In magical literature, ivy is sometimes attributed solely to Capricorn and Saturn, as if its only quality were restriction and persistence. Its Dionysian heritage gives it an equally valid association with ecstasy, inspiration, and the dissolution of ordinary boundaries.
• The claim that ivy was used in formal Celtic religious rites as a druidic sacred plant is often made without documentary support; the ogham connection is more reliably attested than any specific druidic ritual use.