Occult Botany

• Includes a dictionary of nearly 300 magical plants with descriptions of each plant’s scientific name, common names, elemental qualities, ruling planets, and zodiacal signatures, with commentary on medico-magical properties and uses • Explores methods of phytotherapy and plant magic, including the Paracelsian “transplantation of diseases,” ritual pacts with trees, the secret ingredients of witches’ ointments, and the composition of magical philters • Explains the occult secrets of phytogenesis, plant physiology, and plant physiognomy (classification of plants according to the doctrine of signatures) Merging the scientific discipline of botany with ancient, medieval, and Renaissance traditions of occult herbalism, this seminal guide was first published in French in 1902 as a textbook for students of Papus’s École hermétique and sparked a revival in the study of magical herbalism in early twentieth-century France. Author Paul Sédir, pseudonym of Yvon Le Loup (1871-1926), explains the occult secrets of phytogenesis (the esoteric origin and evolutionary development of the plant kingdom), plant physiology (the occult anatomy of plants), and plant physiognomy (classification of plants according to the doctrine of signatures). Unveiling the mysteries behind planetary and zodiacal attributions, he provides readers with the keys to make their own informed determinations of the astral properties of plants. Moving from theory into practice, Sédir explores various methods of phytotherapy and plant magic, including the Paracelsian “transplantation of diseases,” the secret ingredients of witches’ ointments, and the composition of magical philters. In the third section of the book, Sédir offers a dictionary of magical plants that covers nearly 300 plant species with descriptions of their astral signatures, occult properties, and medico-magical uses. Compiled from an array of rare sources and esoterica, this classic text includes a wealth of additional materials and supplemental charts and diagrams drawn from Sédir’s occult colleagues, all of whom adopted and expanded upon Sédir’s pioneering system of plant correspondences.

A visually entrancing and esoteric guide to connecting with plants through the senses. In The Spirit of Botany, artist and perfumer Jill McKeever reveals her personal rituals and creative methods of using aromatic botanical materials in incense, perfume, tisanes, ritual baths, and much more. In addition to dozens of recipes, McKeever offers her reflections on sustainability, synesthesia, creativity, and her own experience of turning her passion for this work into the indie perfume brand, For Strange Women. Appropriate for hobbyists and career alchemists alike, The Spirit of Botany features inspiring photography and a mysterious aesthetic, immersing readers in the countless biological, emotional, energetic, and spiritual benefits of aromatherapy and herbalism.

• Explains how to work with baneful herbs through rituals and spells, as plant spirit familiars, as potent medicines, and as visionary substances • Details the spiritual, alchemical, astrological, and symbolic associations of each plant, its active alkaloids, how to safely cultivate and harvest it, and rituals and spells suited to its individual nature and powers • Shares plant alchemy methods, magical techniques, and recipes featuring the plants, including a modern witches’ flying ointment Part grimoire and part herbal formulary, this guide to the Poison Path of occult herbalism shares history, lore, and information regarding the use of poisonous, consciousness-altering, and magical plants. Author Coby Michael explains how, despite their poisonous nature, baneful herbs can become powerful plant allies, offering potent medicine, magical wisdom, and access to the spirit realm. Detailing the spiritual, alchemical, astrological, and symbolic associations of each plant, the author explores their magical uses in spells and rituals. He focuses primarily on the nightshade family, or Solanaceae, such as mandrake, henbane, and thorn apple, but also explores plants from other families such as wolfsbane, hemlock, and hellebore. He also examines plants in the witch’s pharmacopoeia that are safer to work with and just as chemically active, such as wormwood, mugwort, and yarrow. The author shares rituals suited to the individual nature and powers of each plant and explains how to attract and work with plant spirit familiars. He offers plant alchemy methods for crafting spagyric tinctures and magical techniques to facilitate working with these plants as allies and teachers. He shares magical recipes featuring the plants, including a modern witches’ flying ointment. He also explores safely cultivating baneful herbs in a poison garden.

The discipline of Occult Herbalism encompasses the knowledge and use of the magical, spiritual, and folkloric dimensions of plants. This perennial wisdom animates many global spiritual traditions, especially those which have maintained their integrity of transmission even in the face of industrial development and cultural destruction. Often concealed within the deepest strata of the Western Esoteric Traditions, this green strand of wisdom, though obscured, is a potent legacy of all magic, sorcery, and occult science. In addition to the hard sciences of botany, ethnology, agriculture and ethnopharmacology, a number of pathways can assist the magical herbalist in furthering the depth of understanding and integrity of personal approach. Thirteen Pathways of Occult Herbalism circumscribes the metaparadigm of herbal magical practice, providing useful examples of its manifestation, as well as demonstrating its time-honored routes of inquiry.

A never-before-translated occult classic that brings the science of herbal medicine back to its Hermetic roots • Includes a large collection of recipes for spagyric medicines and quintessences, with detailed step-by-step instructions, adapted from celebrated spagyrists such as Paracelsus, Pseudo-Lull, Philipp Ulstad, and Nicaise Le Fèvre • Provides botanical and medicinal classifications of over 600 plant species along with their astral natures, elemental qualities, and planetary and zodiacal signatures • Explores advanced methods and techniques and shares the author’s secret formula for a universal circulatum First published in French in 1911, this practical guide to the art of spagyrics begins by outlining the ancient yet often forgotten Hermetic foundations of herbalism. Author Jean Mavéric provides botanical and medicinal classifications of over 600 plant species along with an in-depth study of their astral natures, elemental qualities, and planetary and zodiacal signatures as well as practical advice on the appropriate times to harvest plants and administer herbal remedies and quintessences. Reviewing the general principles and procedures of premodern chemistry, Mavéric then explores the secret doctrines and operations of the spagyric art. He offers a large collection of recipes for spagyric herbal preparations adapted from celebrated spagyrists such as Paracelsus, Pseudo-Lull, Philipp Ulstad, Jan Baptist van Helmont, Oswald Croll, and Nicaise Le Fèvre, providing detailed step-by-step instructions for a veritable pharmacopeia of spagyric extracts, tinctures, elixirs, liquors, oils, unguents, salts, aquae vitae, and quintessences. Mavéric also shares his intricate theory of astral medicine and advocates a seasonal “Hermetic diet” designed to keep the humors of the body in equilibrium and prevent the onset of illness. In the final section of the book, Mavéric focuses on the more advanced methods and techniques of Paracelsus, Helmont, and George Starkey, unraveling the mysteries of manufacturing alkalis, alkahests, and menstrua and divulging his own secret formula for a universal circulatum. Available now for the first time in English, this occult classic unveils the art of extracting spagyric essences to a modern audience while also bringing the science of herbal medicine back to its Hermetic roots.

The Green Mysteries is the product of twenty-five years of experiential research on the spiritual and occult properties of plants. Presenting a vast array of trees and herbs from many spiritual traditions, this exhaustive compendium examines their folklore, magical uses and spiritual essences. While presenting the material through both magical and mythopoetic narrative, the stance of the book is also grounded firmly in supportive disciplines such as botany, chemistry, and anthropology and also includes up to date phylogenetic and pharmacological findings. Interspersed with the encyclopedic plant entries are short narratives addressing such concepts as the Witches' Flying Oinment, intoxicating incense, the herbal dimsension of Alchemy, and the 'Green Saints' such as Al-Khidir, the medieval Wildman, and the forest-dwelling Nymphs who nourished the Greek gods. More than a mere collation of previously existing works on plants, much of the material is drawn directly from the author's private field notes, diaries, and manuals of magical operation, presented in an angaging narrative style. Illustrated with with over 270 original illustrations by Benjamin Vierling, commissioned for the project.

David Attenborough meets Lemony Snicket in The Big Bad Book of Botany, Michael Largo’s entertaining and enlightening one-of-a-kind compendium of the world’s most amazing and bizarre plants, their history, and their lore. The Big, Bad Book of Botany introduces a world of wild, wonderful, and weird plants. Some are so rare, they were once more valuable than gold. Some found in ancient mythology hold magical abilities, including the power to turn a person to stone. Others have been used by assassins to kill kings, and sorcerers to revive the dead. Here, too, is vegetation with astonishing properties to cure and heal, many of which have long since been lost with the advent of modern medicine. Organized alphabetically, The Big, Bad Book of Botany combines the latest in biological information with bizarre facts about the plant kingdom’s oddest members, including a species that is more poisonous than a cobra and a prehistoric plant that actually “walked.” Largo takes you through the history of vegetables and fruits and their astonishing agricultural evolution. Throughout, he reveals astonishing facts, from where the world’s first tree grew to whether plants are telepathic. Featuring more than 150 photographs and illustrations, The Big, Bad Book of Botany is a fascinating, fun A-to-Z encyclopedia for all ages that will transform the way we look at the natural world.

In many esoteric traditions, there exists an iconic or linguistic corollary between the concepts of 'poisoner' and 'sorcerer', suggesting a sinistral magical kinship often interchangeable with witchcraft or maledictive magic. Indeed, the use of plant, animal and mineral toxins is a strand of magic originating in remotest antiquity and reaching the present day. Beyond its mundane function as an agent of corporeal harm, poison has also served as a gateway of religious ecstasy, occult knowledge, and sensorial aberration, as well as the basis of healing cures. Allied with Samael, the serpent of Eden whose Hebrew name in some translations is 'Venom of God', this facet of magic wends through the rites of ancient Sumer and Egypt, penetrating European Necromancy. Alchemy, the arcane the rites of the Witches' Sabbath, and modern-day folk magic survivals. This second edition of Veneficium, newly expanded, examines the intersection of magic and poison, collecting the authors early essays on this magical kinship, and exploring the toxicological dimensions of occult power