Cleanse

Fern is very hot and dry and has a little bit of juice in it. It holds within itself great power, namely such a power that the devil flees from it [and it even has certain energy which is like the power of the sun. As the sun lights up dark places, so the fern chases away apparitions, and evil spirits disdain it.] In the place where it grows, the devil rarely practices his deceptions. The fern avoids and shrinks back from any home or place where the devil resides. Thunder, lightning, and hail rarely fall near a home where there is fern. Hail also rarely falls in the field where it is growing. Magic and incantations of demons—as well as diabolic words and other phantasms—avoid a person who carries a fern with him. If any image is prepared for carrying out injury or death, it is not able to harm one who has a fern with him. For a person is sometimes reviled through an image in such a way that he is harmed by it and becomes mad.

In paradise, when the devil drew the human being to himself, a certain sign was made on the devil to remain on him, as a reminder, until the last day. When a person invokes the devil by some words, through which his deceptions are accomplished, the sign is touched. He is often invoked to injure a person, or to fulfill the will of the person over whom the words are spoken. Sometimes a person is blessed by the image which was made, and it furnishes him with prosperity and health. However, hatred and envy make evil, and evil is joined to evil. The wickedness of the devil always lies in wait for a person—looking at what evil has accumulated in him—and adds to it.

A human being has both good and evil knowledge, and good and bad herbs were created for him. Fern sap has been placed for knowledge, and in its honest nature, goodness and holiness are signified. All evil and magic things flee and avoid it. In whatever house it is, poison and phantoms are not able to complete their work. Whence, when a woman gives birth to a child, fern is placed around her, even around the infant in his cradle. The devil beseiges the infant less since, when he first looks at the infant's face, he hates him intensely.

Fern is also effective as the following medicines. One who is virgichtiget should take fern, when it is green, and cook it in water. He should frequently bathe in that water, and the gicht will cease. In summer, when it is green, put the leaves over your eyes often while you sleep.

It will purify your eyes and take away their fogginess. One who is deaf, so that he does not hear, should tie fern seed in a little cloth and place it often on the ear. He should be careful that it does not enter the head through the ear, and he will again receive his hearing. And, one who is virgichtiget in his tongue, so that he cannot speak, should place fern seed on his tongue and the gicht in his tongue will cease, and he will again speak. Indeed, if a person who is forgetful and ignorant holds fern seed in his hand, his memory will return, and he will receive understanding; thus he who was incomprehensible will become intelligible.

~ Hildegard von Bingen, Physica