This lovely yellow-flowering herb (Hypericum) is in the news these days for its proven anti-depressant qualities. But early people had another use for hypericum: they hung it over their doors and above their religious statues to ward off evil spirits. In Northern Europe, women wore hypericum to repel demon lovers, and the herb was burned in Midsummer ritual bonfires to banish devils. In England, when the Feast of St. John was substituted for the pagan celebration, the plant was still thrown into the flames but under its new name--St. John's Wort. ("Wort" is the Anglo-Saxon word for herb.) The next time you reach for St. John's Wort to banish the blues, you might ask yourself which devil you're chasing.