The four-leaf clover is a rare genetic mutation of the common white clover (Trifolium repens) which has three leaflets. Steeped in ancient folklore, this little plant is now found rampant in fields and meadows, on roadsides and the edges of sidewalks, as well as residential lawns and yards where people often find it to be a nuisance to eradicate. However, in centuries past, both the three leafed and four leafed varieties were valued in Celtic druid culture, esteemed as a sacred plant that held the power to ward off evil spirits and were carried as talismans. The number three held significance, representing the belief in the connection of natural cycles and places, such as the past, present, and future, or the upper, lower, and celestial realms. The  four-leaf clover, being rare, held a more potent magic, allowing for a fiercer level of protection and an ability to sense harm. It also warded off misfortune, which is a belief that is most likely the root for the 4-leaf clover’s iconic  ‘Good Luck’ symbolism.

In the European middle ages, the four leaf was thought to hold powers in connection to the fairy realm. During this time, fairies were mysterious beings that bore supernatural threats to humans; lore of them stealing human children and replacing them with ‘changelings’ abounded. These were not the whimsical, tiny winged creatures the Victorian era would transform them into, they were dangerous and the four-leaf clover offered a way to ‘see’ through their glamour and enchantments should one be lucky enough to find one. This extended to the belief of the enchantments of witches as well and ointments with four-leaf clovers could be made and spread over the eyes for ‘enchantment breaking’ purposes. Though their value had a slightly different charge, we can see how during this time, they became associated with fairies and what would ultimately become a kind of whimsy.

During the Victorian era, four-leafed clovers, while still imbued with good fortune, also took on a sentimental role. In the Language of Flowers books, the four leaf clover represented a love token, ‘Be Mine.’ In English botanist Maxwell Tylden Masters' 1869 Vegetable Teratology, he writes that the four-leaf clover

“ was gathered at night-time during the full moon by sorceresses, who mixed it with vervain and other ingredients, while young girls in search of a token of perfect happiness made quest of the plant by day.”

These young girls would place them under their pillows to dream of future husbands or place them in their shoes in hopes to walk in the path of their true love. It also appeared on postcards celebrating birthdays and the New Year, occasionally appearing alongside other ‘charms’ we still consider to be good luck such as the horseshoe and the lady bug. The Victorians would press their found 4-leafs  into books for safe-keeping, wear them in lockets or within wallets, and design their own jewelry in its shape, a nod to how the Druids would carry them for protection and to repel misfortune. Though the folklore evolved, its main function as a potent and special folk magic charm remained, and still does to this day.

Here, we’ve paired the traditional shape of the four-leaf clover with an interesting detail, a single eye sits in the center of one side. This eye is meant to act as an additional guardian over your luck, as the single disembodied eye has been known since the Ancient Egyptian era to be a symbol of protection.

Wear to see through the enchantments of others, as an amulet of protection against misfortune and ill-luck, as a love token, or, as most commonly known, as an auspicious  good luck amulet.