10 Herbs for Protection, and the Bear's Root That Tops the List

People have reached for herbs for protection for as long as there are records of plants and people together. Scottish households hung rowan by the door. Rural Spanish families tucked garlic under a baby's pillow. Ute, Comanche, Pueblo and Diné families carried or scattered one root more than any other in the mountains of the Southwest and Northern Mexico: osha, the plant they call bear root. Osha also happens to be the root we bottle.

Ten herbs for protection, by tradition

White sage

Sage is the herb most often burned in Native American smudging. New World Encyclopedia's entry on smudge sticks records that sage was burned "to drive out evil spirits, negative thoughts and feelings," and that the Sioux kept their ceremonial pipe in a bundle with sage boughs.

Cedar and sweetgrass

Cedar smoke was used to bless a home among Northwest and Western Canadian Native peoples, burned during prayer as a purifier. Sweetgrass was its partner. The same entry sums up the pairing in one line: "The sage drove out the negative and the sweetgrass attracted the positive."

Rue

In Early Modern England rue was the "herb of grace," the name Ophelia uses in Hamlet. People carried sprigs and hung them over beds and doorways, as Atlas Obscura's history of protective plants records. In 16th century Friuli, in northeast Italy, the Benandanti told witch trial judges they fought witches with stalks of fennel and rue.

Garlic

Ethnobiologist José A. González, writing in 2014 on garlic in Spanish folk tradition, found that rural families carried cloves in their pockets and placed heads under babies' pillows against the evil eye. "The protective function of garlic bulbs against the evil eye is recognized throughout the western cultural context," he wrote. If you came here looking for herbs for protection from evil, garlic has the longest paper trail in Europe.

Rowan

Scottish Highlanders planted rowan beside their houses and left it alone, because the tree was said to guard the dwelling it grew beside. Trees for Life records the old rhyme "Rowan tree and red thread / make the witches tine their speed," and rowan crosses bound with red thread sewn into coat linings from Scotland down to Cornwall.

Juniper

New Year's Day was a "great saining day" in the Highlands, according to The Scotsman's history of Hogmanay customs. Families burned juniper in the house and the byre to protect cattle and home from evil, then opened the doors and revived everyone with whisky.

Hawthorn

Hawthorn branches hung over doorways in Britain and Central Europe into the 19th century. In the Balkans, hawthorn wood was carved into stakes against vampires, and a Serbian village was reported sharpening them as late as 2012.

St. John's wort

Gathered on Midsummer Eve and hung in doorways and windows across Ireland, Scotland and Wales, St. John's wort was kept against witches and thunderstorms, per the Farmers' Almanac's survey of herbal folklore.

Osha, the bear's root

Nine of these ten herbs guarded doors and hearths. Osha travelled with people, which puts it at the top of our list.

Why osha is the protection herb with the deepest record

Osha (Ligusticum porteri) is a member of the carrot and parsley family that grows high in the mountains, from 1,500 to 3,500 metres. The bear is in almost every name for it. The Lakota call it mato tapejuta, "the bear's medicine." The Ute name means bear. The Zuni word anshe also means bear, and may be where "osha" came from.

The bear is there for a reason. Diné (Navajo) tradition credits the medicine to the bear, saying people learned the root by watching bears dig it up, chew it and rub it into their fur. Observer Shawn Sigstedt later watched Kodiak bears do the same thing.

Natasha Myhal's 2017 University of Kansas thesis on osha ethnobotany pulls the protection records together, and they cover more ground than any other plant on this list:

• The Southern Ute use the root for "spiritual protection and warding off evil" (McBeth, 2008).
• Comanche elders, as Sanapia described, carried the root in small cloth sacks to keep snakes away (Jones, 1972).
• Pueblo people carried it, or tied it to their livestock, against rattlesnakes (Moore, 1977).
• Hispanic families in New Mexico, who call it chuchupate or oshá, carried the root to keep snakes off (Ford, 1975) and to ward off evil spirits and curses (Torres, 1961).
• Diné families placed the powdered root around the hogan, shade houses and sheep corrals as protection against snakes (Clifford, 2016).
• Rarámuri families of Northern Mexico carried it against snakes and tied it around a newborn's neck to protect the infant (Irigoyen-Rascón and Paredes, 2015).

Native Languages of the Americas adds the Yuki and some Paiute bands, who tucked pieces of root into their moccasins against rattlesnakes. A piece of osha also turned up in a Utah medicine bundle dated to between 200 and 600 years old. For the full picture of the plant, from where it grows to how it's harvested, read our complete guide to osha root.

Rarámuri families also brewed the root as a tea for stomach pain and fever. That's why osha turns up in searches for herbs for protection and healing: one root did both jobs in the same households.

A daily ritual with Bear Root

Carrying a dried root in a cloth sack made sense on a trail a century ago. Today the practical way to keep osha with you is a tincture. Bear Root is osha from the mountains of Northern Mexico, extracted and kept in a 50 ml dark Miron glass dropper bottle that keeps light off the extract. A bottle lasts 30 to 50 days.

How people use it, any time of year:

1. In the morning, before coffee or the commute, put one dropper under the tongue and hold it for 20 to 30 seconds, then swallow.
2. Or stir a dropper into your morning or evening tea. The taste is earthy and warming, with a sharp, celery-like bite from the root. Our guide to making bear root tea has more ways to drink it.
3. After a hike or a run, add a dropper to your water bottle.
4. Keep to 1 to 2 droppers a day.

Pair the dropper with a moment you already keep, like a minute of quiet before the house wakes up. The Southern Ute kept osha for spiritual protection, and a morning dropper keeps a plant with that history in your own routine.

Bear Root considerations

The product page recommendation: "Contains alcohol. Not recommended during pregnancy. If you're nursing or taking medication, ask your doctor before using it."

Questions people ask about protection herbs

What is the most powerful herb for protection?

Every culture names its own. Scots planted rowan, Spaniards carried garlic, and across the mountains of the Southwest and Northern Mexico at least seven Native peoples, from the Southern Ute to the Rarámuri, plus Hispanic families in New Mexico, carried osha, which gives it one of the widest records of any protection herb.

Why is osha called bear root?

Bears dig up the root, chew it and rub it into their fur. Diné tradition holds that people learned the plant from watching them, and the Lakota name mato tapejuta means "the bear's medicine."

What herbs are used for protection and cleansing?

White sage, cedar and sweetgrass are the herbs most tied to Native American smudging. In Scotland, juniper smoke filled the house and byre on New Year's Day.

How do people use Bear Root every day?

One to two droppers a day, held under the tongue for 20 to 30 seconds or stirred into tea, water or juice.