"The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved." Song of Solomon 7:13 Tanakh. I've always loved plants, growing them and working with them (I trained as an herbalist), and the plant I love and adore above all is the mandrake. For thousands of years, the mandrake was considered a mystical plant. Depictions of mandrakes adorned the temple walls in Egypt as a fertility symbol. In the bible, the plant helped Leah to conceive and bore Jacob's son (Gen 30:16-17). It was said to have belonged to King Solomon in the Old Testament. The Greek associated the mandrake to Hecate, the goddess of magic and witchcraft. Aphrodite, a goddess of beauty and fertility, was also called "The Mandragoritis" in reference to the plant. Mandrakes feature prominently in De Materia Medica (widely considered as the first book of herbal medicine) as an aphrodisiac and fertility plant. First a plant linked to the earth, women, and fertility, the mandrake became a witch’s plant during the Middle Ages, and Shakespeare popularized the myth that "the shrieks of an uprooted mandrake would kill anyone who hears it." Known as "Alraun" in Germany, a root of mandrake was believed to bring wealth and protection to anyone who owned it. Roots were often passed down through the generations and were very expensive. I think those legends are linked to the fact that the root of the mandrake is shaped like a small human and thus was used as a witch's familiar. Its mystique comes from the fact it's both a fertility medicine and a poison (it contains alkaloids), a giver of life and a taker of life. It also comes from the deep earth (the root is very long!), connecting both the physical and the underworld realms. Side note: If you are the original minter of this NFT and want to adopt a real mandrake root, send me a message! It's still a rare and valuable plant. Card: Regeneration and plenty.
