Flax

From Traditional Witchcraft Wiki Project

Flax (also known as Common Flax or Linseed) is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. The New Zealand flax is unrelated. Flax is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent.[1] It was extensively cultivated in ancient Egypt.

It is an erect annual plant growing to 120 cm tall, with slender stems. The leaves are glaucous green, slender lanceolate, 2-4 cm long and 3 mm broad. The flowers are pure pale blue, 1.5-2.5 cm diameter, with five petals. The fruit is a round, dry capsule 5-9 mm diameter, containing several glossy brown seeds shaped like an apple pip, 4-7 mm long.

In addition to the plant itself, flax may refer to the unspun fibres of the flax plant.

Flax And The Besom

Use of Flax in the "FFF" Blessing

Robert Cochrane made famous the blessing "FFF" (Flags, Flax & Fodder), and in his letters he speaks of the relationship between these three blessings and the "elements":

"Flags are a form of rush, a plant that grows in European waters - so the answer is Flags, water, Flax, being the weaver's plant & blue - thus representing the Goddess of Birth & Death (Fate) being the principle of Air, and Fodder - which means grass, the Earth. The ancients swore an inviolable oath by grass roots."

From Cochrane's third letter to Jo Wilson

Doreen Valiente in Witchcraft For Today gives it as "FFFF", which she says stands for Flags, Flax & Fodder, thus a blessing of somewhere to live (flags or flagstones), clothes on your back (flax), food to eat (fodder) and the fourth "F" being Frigga, thus the blessing of love and in particular sexual love.