About book Cunningham's Encyclopedia Of Magical Herbs (Llewellyn's Sourcebook Series) (2000)
i love this book - i wander around the yard with it - i practically read it to my plants. the history and folklore adds so much to my gardening experience and i get totally excited when somebody asks about this or that herb i have in a dish near my front door or tied in a bundle over the fireplace. each plant reference includes: latin name, folk name, gender, planet, element, deities, powers, uses, whether or not it's poisonous, and a black n white botanical sketch of the plant. mint is no longer mint - it's a plant at the end of driveway keeping out evil spirits and promoting good neighbor relations. i don't really believe in evil spirits but since all the neighbors stop to rub and sniff the plant and also say hello, i cannot argue with this book! it's also amusing to think of ones grandmother wandering around town with a potato in her purse trying not to catch a cold. we have come a long way with modern science but have lost so much of the romance of 'lore'. why can't we have both!
Certainly not the sort of book one would read from beginning to end, but a very useful reference book and one I use often. The index allows you to look up herbs by the proper name, Folk name or Latin name. For each herb you will find the related Gender, Planet, Element, Deities, Powers as well as magical and ritual uses. Only drawback here is while Cunningham's reference list is long, he does not indicate which source is used to back up the claimed properties of each herb. While this book is great as a quick reference book, it will not tell you why a plant is related to a specific planet or deity. This book also provides a very basic introduction to working magic, the basic principles of magic and how to use herbs to make oils, ointments, sachets and more. The illustrations leave a little something to be desired, if you are looking for a tool to help you identify different herbs, this may not be your best option.
Do You like book Cunningham's Encyclopedia Of Magical Herbs (Llewellyn's Sourcebook Series) (2000)?
Originally posted here:http://nancythroughthelookingglass.bl...The Book is clearly laid out and easy to use, with many different herbs and flowers covered, many common ones and a few herbs I'd never heard of and objects thought of as magical items, like carrots and potatoes. It Gives you the name of the herb with a line drawing of it it's folk names gender planet element and powers, as well as it's magical uses.I'd recommend the book to anyone with an interest in herbs whether it be magical or not as it gives some fascinating information about the plants and their folk history. If your interest in them is magical then it's also very good as a reference book and has chapter on the powers of herbs and how to perform magic with them which is easy to understand, it explains how to charge herbs before using them in spells amongst other things.I use this book quite regularly in my work and think it would give a valuable contribution to any pagan library.
—Nancy
