#aconites

season 9, episode 11: First Born.

Crowley appears next to Dean in a bar, holding a red carnation presumably taken from a jar on the table.

Red carnations make good cut flowers and a cheaper alternative to roses. Symbolically, different colored carnations signify different things; both pink carnations and white ones have been on Supernatural before. Red carnations may stand for socialism, the labor movement, revolution, or mourning, as well as love and passion like all red flowers. US President McKinley considered red carnation to be his lucky flower; he was assassinated in 1901, whereupon red carnation was made the state flower of Ohio. The musical Hadestown uses red carnations both in promotional materials and on stage, likely in reference to the show's themes of labor and revolution. The flower's presence in this shot may relate to mourning or Crowley's political standing as the disputed King of Hell.

Later, Tara offers up a beautiful handwritten recipe for a weapon-location spell and the corresponding array of components, minus one. Fortunately for me, most of these components are plants! The jars she pulls from her wall safe don't look like much, but the recipe calls for wolfsbane, Angelica Archangelica, Oil of Copal, sacred juniper branch, essence of kraken, flower urchin spike, and Psilocybe Semilanceata, in that order.

Wolfsbane has appeared on the show before. Someone evidently deemed it vital to substantiate this section of the spell recipe with the eminently unnecessary information "Queen of poisons," "Aconitum," and "Family Ranunculaceae" in addition to the helpful directions "Use flower center only. Use also roots and stems from below ground." The taxonomy is correct, just useless, and being poisonous is the plant's best known attribute. The directions are more telling. The flower centers are in a sense decentralized; there are nectaries enclosed in the upper "hood" of the flower and reproductive organs open to the air below. Even if an insect manages to make its way through the flower, whether by climbing into or chewing through the hood, the nectar contains alkaloids toxic to some seekers. Allegorically, or magically, this could align with the search for the weapon. Furthermore, the roots are where wolfsbane's toxins are most concentrated; this suggests emphasis on the more poisonous parts of the plant, likely symbolic of the weapon the spell is intended to locate.

Angelica Archangelica is the binomial given to garden angelica. In contrast to wolfsbane, angelica is edible, though easily confused for several poisonous plants. The show writers likely selected angelica solely for the broader thematic relevance of its name, which is fully unrelated to the weapon-location spell's purpose, and would have been far better suited to the angel-tracking spell Sam and Castiel attempt later.

Oil of Copal likely refers to an oil extracted from the resin of a copal tree. Three distinct species produce copal resin. Protium copal is native to Central America; Hymenaea courbaril commonly grows in Central and South America; Hymenaea verrucosa is native to East Africa. Incense is made from all three. My extremely cursory research suggests that copal oil is extracted from copal resin via steam; the spell recipe says "Oleoresin derived from steam of Holy Water," which I choose to interpret as corroboration. Oleoresin is a combination of oil and resin secreted by trees in self-defense. The magical function of this ingredient is unclear, but it likely contains some divine power and smells nice.

The sentence fragments "blessed fire. Burn sacred juniper branch" appear in the oil of copal section, with a note in the left margin reading "Best gathered amongst black rock." Some juniper trees can certainly grow in rocky terrain. The word 'gathered' implies multiple branches. The purpose of their burning isn't specified; perhaps to boil the holy water with which the oil is extracted from the copal resin? It is also unclear whether "sacred juniper" denotes a particular species within the Juniperus genus or any juniper held to have spiritual significance; the former would likely be easier to harvest. Juniper is, however, lacking in symbolism and literary reference. Its most notable characteristic for our analysis perhaps is having berries which can be distilled by steam into oil.

Essence of kraken is deeply mysterious; there is an utter paucity of information from both the recipe and characters. Tara says she never found any such essence; Crowley says he has a warehouse full of it; they both fail to mention what it is or how it is made. The only written direction is "Contain in a vial, pure and uncut," which doesn't even clarify whether the substance is solid or liquid! This deplorable dearth of description makes it impossible to determine with any real certainty whether essence of kraken is a euphemism for a plant, but given the Cthulu doodle in the margin, it's probably just some damn squid ink. It would be pretty cool to see some hunters go after a sea monster for once, though, or anything fully inhuman.

Flower urchin, by contrast, is verifiably not a plant. As the name implies, it is a venomous sea urchin. Interestingly, the spines do not deploy the urchin's venom. According to Wikipedia: "Instead, the venom is administered through the flower-like globiferous pedicellariae." The spell recipe's instruction to use a spine is therefore inconsistent with the emphasis on toxicity implied by the collection directions provided for wolfsbane. Perhaps the writers simply did not dig up this bit of biology; perhaps they deemed it too confusing. Additionally, the recipe declares "best black," but as far as I can tell, no part of this species of urchin is ever black.

Psilocybe Semilanceata, or liberty cap (as the recipe discloses), is a species of fungus, so named for the resemblance of the mushrooms it bears to Phrygian caps, which became a symbol of liberty upon being confused with the pileus worn by freed Roman slaves. Fungi are of course not plants, but at least resemble plants in their relatively immobile, vegetative behavior, and practical applications for human life. Mushrooms specifically are the short-lived above-ground reproductive organs of fungi otherwise composed of root-like mycelium structures, similar to ephemeral plants. Liberty cap mushrooms in particular are potently psychoactive. Possession and use of this species is predictably restricted in many countries, but clearly that hasn't stopped Tara. The recipe dictates "Count odd number, best to use 13." Presumably this means 13 mushrooms. The fungus' purpose in the spell is unclear; effects include visual hallucinations comparable to LSD, elevated heart rate, spasms, and bad moods, which do not transparently correspond to either location-seeking or weaponry.

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He never worried despite their age. Dante, for as much as he loved his grandparents, almost believed them invincible despite his own age. It was ridiculous he definitely knew, but that’s just who they were. Mawmaw and Pawpaw were always there. Since he could remember they’d always been there. After his parents death the pair took care of him like he was their own son. Never daring to bring bad memories or letting his nightmares overcome him. How was he meant to keep going without her? How was he meant to be strong for his grandfather who had just lost the love of his life? Dante could only stare at the room around him. Watch the people that came and went though his attention they lacked to obtain. “  Excuse me.  ” he said through hoarse vocals, as he made for the first exit in search of some air. He couldn't think straight, let alone envision how he was meant to get through the rest of the night.