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Piper longum (Piper officinarum)
Long pepper is related to the
more familiar peppercorn, but it is hotter and
at the same time a bit sweeter. This magick
herb has interesting possibilities for
incense, especially for times when you want
the sweeter side of Mars - such as for works
involving sex magick (interestingly, long
pepper is still considered an aphrodisiac in
Ayurvedic medicine and is mentioned in a
rather dangerous (and painful) recipe in the
Kama Sutra: long pepper, black pepper, and
datura are mixed with honey, with which the
penis is anointed: "It will utterly devastate
your lady." No mention what it will do to
you). In Indian astrology, long pepper is
associated not with Mars but with the Sun and
helps in the cultivation of independence,
courage, self-esteem, and strength of will. In
Persian astrological magick, long pepper was
connected with the "great sinister Saturn."
And in European magick, long pepper also has
baneful associations - for instance, it was
part of the recipe for preparing the fabled
Hand of Glory.
In Herbalism Before black pepper arrived in Europe, long pepper was used as a stimulant and carminative there. The medieval French rabbi Rashi recommended holding a long pepper between one's teeth to cure bad breath. This would most likely work on account of the essential oil content. Medieval Europeans considered long pepper an antidote to poison hemlock (don't test this out!). Long pepper is ground and mixed with honey and given for a cold in India. It's one of the three ingredients in the Ayurvedic medicine trikatu (long pepper, ginger, and black pepper). There, long pepper is considered a stimulant and a treatment for arthritis. Long pepper is a good digestive. It gets rid of worms and kills giardia parasites. But do not use this herb if you are taking Propranolol (Betachron, Inderal), as long pepper potentiates it. Culinary Uses
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Long pepper 
Sex Magic
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2004, 2005, 2006 Alchemy Works; No reproduction
without permission |
Long Pepper
A dead man's hand (the
hands of criminals were preferred) was
squeezed in a cloth, usually a strip of
shroud, to get the blood out. The hand was put
into an earthenware jar with salt, salt petre
(or nitre), long pepper, and verdigris (copper
oxide) for two weeks to dry it out and to
preserve it, then it was dried further in the
sun during the dog days of summer (that is,
under the Dog Star, Sirius, which often
watches over baneful work and is in
conjunction with the Sun in the period
mid-July to early August). When the hand was
finally dry enough, it was used as a
candleholder rather than being lit itself. The
Hand of Glory was said to make the owner
invisible and to paralyze anyone who saw it,
so it was very desirable amongst professional
housebreakers. The picture shows an actual
Hand of Glory from a British museum.
The Romans used both
long pepper and black pepper, but they
preferred the long pepper. It isn't a
substitute for regular black pepper because of
its underlying sweetness (it's been compared
to a combination of white pepper & mace or
cardamom). In the medieval Europe, long pepper
was used extensively in cooking in sweet or
savory dishes before the discovery of the New
World and the introduction of chiles. It was
the hottest spice available. It also was an
ingredient in alcoholic drinks. A special mead
for the sick was flavored with the warming
spices of long pepper, ginger, grains of
Paradise, and cloves, for instance. A
14th-century recipe for hippocras, a spiced
wine drunk at the end of dinner as an aid to
digestion, includes cinnamon, ginger,
spikenard, galingal, cloves, long pepper,
nutmeg, cardamom, and grains of paradise.
Yum!