John The Conqueror Root
The root known as High John the Conqueror or John the Conqueror root is said to be the root of Ipomoea jalapa, also known as Ipomoea purga, an Ipomoea species related to the morning glory and the sweet potato. The plant is known in some areas as bindweed or jalap root. It has a pleasant, earthy odour, but it is a strong laxative if taken internally. It is not used for this purpose in folk magic; it is instead used as one of the parts of a mojo bag. It is typically used in sexual spells of various sorts and it is also considered lucky for gambling. It is likely that the root acquired its sexual magical reputation because, when dried, it resembles the testicles of a dark-skinned man. Because of this, when it is employed as an amulet, it is important that the root used be whole and unblemished. Dried pieces and chips of the root are used in formulating oils and washes that are used in other sorts of spells.
Cecil Adams has written that John the Conquer root is the root of St. John's wort. St. John's wort root is thin and thread-like root, while John the Conquer root is a tuber. As the blues lyrics below make clear, John the Conquer root is carried by the user, and the spell is cast by rubbing the root, which could not be done with a filamentous root.
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Famous quotes containing the words john, conqueror and/or root:
“Oh for some honest lover’s ghost,
Some kind unbodied post
Sent from the shades below!
I strangely long to know
Whether the nobler chaplets wear
Those that their mistress’ scorn did bear,
Or those that were used kindly.”
—Sir John Suckling (1609–1642)
“The conqueror at least; who, ere Time renders
His last award, will have the long grass grow
Above his burnt-out brain and sapless cinders.
If I might augur, I should rate but low
Their chances: they are too numerous, like the thirty
Mock tyrants, when Rome’s annals wax’d but dirty.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“The love of money is the root of all evil.”
—Bible: New Testament St. Paul, in 1 Timothy, 6:10.