Materia: Lemon Balm – Melissa Officinalis

Overview

Magically, lemon balm is an herb of restoration, love, and renewal. Its legacy in alchemical traditions speaks to its transformative nature, offering longevity and vitality. It mends wounds of the heart and body alike, invites love into one’s life, and revitalizes the weary. Pliny’s ancient assertion of its power to staunch bleeding reflects a broader truth: lemon balm seals wounds of separation, sorrow, and sickness, promoting balance and renewal. Its radiant essence bridges vitality and serenity, making it a healer of both the seen and unseen.

In both medicine and magic, lemon balm carries an ancient wisdom that resonates deeply in modern life. It is a balm not only for the stresses of daily existence but also for the spirit, connecting us to timeless mysteries of healing, love, and restoration.

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Botany

Common Name: Lemon Balm
Botanical Name: Melissa Officinalis
Family: Lamiaceae

Native Region: Eurasia
Geographic Distribution: Widely cultivated as an ornamental plant and insectary.
Botanical Description: Melissa officinalis is a perennial herbaceous plant in the mint family. Plants grow bushy and upright, to a maximum height just over 3 ft (1 m). The heart-shaped leaves are ¾ – 3¼ in (2 – 8 cm) long, and have a rough, veined surface. They are soft and hairy with scalloped edges and a mild lemony scent. During summer, it produces small white or pale pink flowers that are popular with pollinators. 

Harvesting and Safety

Parts Used: Aerial parts
Harvesting Guidelines: Leaves and soft aerial parts are harvested in summer, ideally on sunny afternoons to maximize the content of essential oils. Depending on climate, it may be cut back aggressively and produce several harvests per year.

Safety Issues: Lemon balm is generally considered safe. There is evidence it can inhibit thyroid hormone levels, so it is contraindicated in individuals with hypoactive thyroid conditions (Chevallier 2016).

Medical Usage

Energetics: Cooling and drying
Actions: Antidepressant, antioxidant, antispasmodic, antiviral, carminative, diaphoretic, calmative nervine
Uses: Lemon balm is both relaxing and uplifting, making it an excellent nervine for anxiety and mild depression. Because of its action on both the nervous and digestive systems, it is an effective remedy for stress-induced digestive upset, such as IBS (Herbal Academy 2021). Because of its antiviral action, it can be used in the treatment of viral infections, particularly those that include gastric symptoms, such as gastroenteritis (Easley 2016). It can be used topically as a soothing antiviral treatment for shingles and cold sores (Chevallier 2016).
Pharmacology: The medicinal action of lemon balm is derived from its content of eugenol, mildly astringent tannins, and a variety of terpenes: geranial, neral, carophyllene, geranyl acetate, citronellal, and linalool.

Specific Indications:

• For anxiety and mild depression, lemon balm can be taken either as a tincture or an infusion (Herbal Academy 2021).
• For viral gastroenteritis an infusion of lemon balm is recommended, to soothe and rehydrate (Easley 2016).
• An oil can be prepared by adding a few drops of lemon balm essential oil to olive oil, and applying this topically to soothe cold sores and shingles (Chevallier 2016).

Preparation and Dosage:

• Infusion, ¾ cup up to 3 times daily
• Tincture, ½ tsp up to 3 times daily
• Add 5 drops of lemon balm essential oil to 1 tsp of olive oil, and apply topically as needed for shingles and cold sores.

Magical Usage

Temperature: Watery – Cool and moist
Astrology: Greer and Heliophilus associate it with Jupiter (Greer with Jupiter in Cancer), Cunningham places it under the Moon
Folklore: Lemon balm is often used in love magic, for example being included in a magical bath for drawing love. It banishes melancholy and revives vital spirits (Greer 2005).

Pliny said that lemons balm’s healing powers were so great that if it were attached to a sword, the bleeding of wounds created by that sword would be immediately staunched. It can also be used in spells to attract success – unsurprisingly, given the associations with Jupiter (Cunningham 2000).

Lemon balm plays an important role in alchemical spagyrics, where it was attributed great virtues in health and longevity. A tincture of lemon balm is often one of the first preparations presented to students of alchemy (Heliophilus 2017). The First Entity of Melissa is another alchemical preparation, whose virtues were described thus by Lesebure in the seventeenth century:

One of my most intimate friends prepared the Primum Ens Melissae, and his curiosity would not allow him to rest until he had seen with his own eyes the effects of this arcanum, so that he might be certain whether or not the accounts given of its virtues were true. He therefore made the experiment, first upon himself, then upon an old female servant aged seventy years, and afterwards upon and old hen that was kept at his house. First he took, every morning at sunrise, a glass of white wine that was tinctured with this remedy, and after using it for fourteen days his finger and toenails began to fall out, without, however causing any pain. He was not courageous enough to continue the experiment, but gave the same remedy to an old female servant. She took it every morning for about ten days, when she began to menstruate again, as in former days. At this she was very much surprised, because she did not know that she had been taking a medicine. She became frightened, and refused to continue the experiment. My friend took, therefore, some grain, soaked in that wine, and gave it to the old hen to eat, and on the sixth day that bird began to lose some feathers, but before two weeks had passed away, new feathers grew, which were much more beautifully coloured; her comb stood up again, and she began again to lay eggs.¹

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References

• Chevallier, A. (2016). Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine. Penguin Random House.
• Cunningham, S. (2000). Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs. Llewellyn Publications.
• Easley, T. (2016). The Modern Herbal Dispensatory. North Atlantic Books.
• Greer, J. (2005). Encyclopedia of Natural Magic. Llewellyn Publications.
• Heliophilus. (2017). Alchemy Rising: The Green Book. Scarlett Imprint.
• Herbal Academy. (2021). Introductory Herbal Course – Recipes and Monographs. Herbal Academy.

1. Heliophilus 2017 ↩︎