Slippery Elm Meaning and magickal uses

An inner bark for halting gossip, soothing tension and keeping words kind.

• Intentions: Protection, Banishing, Peace
• Element: Air
• Planet: Saturn
• Zodiac: Capricorn
• Day: Saturday
• Moon phase: Waning Gibbous
• Parts used: Inner bark

Safety: Avoid it in pregnancy; the whole bark was historically misused to end pregnancies. Ask a doctor before swallowing it while breastfeeding or on medication, since it can slow absorption of medicines. Slippery elm is an at-risk wild plant, so buy from sustainable, cultivated sources and use only a little. Keep away from pets.

How to use it

• Stop the gossip. Write the subject of the gossip, not a person's name, on a slip of paper. Wrap it with a pinch of slippery elm, tie it with yellow thread and set it under something heavy until the talk quiets.
• Soft-words pouch. Carry a little slippery elm in a pouch before a tense meeting to help you speak calmly, listen well and keep sharp or hurtful words from slipping out.
• Children's blessing. Folklore says a knotted yellow cord with slippery elm, hung where children sleep, helps them grow into clear and kindly speakers. Keep any cord out of a young child's reach.

Works well with: Yellow Candle, Blue Lace Agate, Saturday, Elm, Air

Folklore

Slippery elm is a North American tree whose inner bark turns slick and soothing when wet, which gave it its name. Many Indigenous nations of eastern North America used the bark long before European settlers learned of it, and it later traveled with pioneers in saddlebags. In American folk magick it became the herb to stop gossip, burned or carried to quiet idle tongues. Because overharvesting has made the tree vulnerable, a small amount used with care is all you need.