Essential Herbal Wisdom: A Complete Exploration of 50 Remarkable Herbs.© 2009 by Nancy Arrowsmith. Llwellyn Publications. Woodbury,
MN ISBN 978-0-7387-1488-2
Originally published as Herbarium Magicum by Allgeria, an
imprint of Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH, Berlin, 2007.
Disclaimer:
No disclaimers here; I’ve never met the author and I have
nothing what-so-ever to do with the publisher.
Personal Expertise:
I am considered by myself and a few others perhaps to be
a wort cunner; an herb worker. My business and all of my free time are taken up
with my deep rooted love of all things herbal.
Review:
If you love all things herbal like I do, you may have come
to the conclusion that many herbals are quite repetitive; almost like there’s a
basic herbal somewhere from which most modern herbals are born and usually by
the cut and paste method. Well actually for the most part they seem to be
rehashes from A Modern Herbal by Grieve[1]
with hopefully some added info as well. That’s not to say that there aren’t
some notable exceptions. Until I happened upon Essential Herb Wisdom I hadn’t
bought an herbal in many years. In fact I had pretty much quit looking since so
many of the books I picked up seemed to simply be reworded copies of the books
I already had.
Quite by accident, in that I was not looking to buy a new
book on herbs, I happened upon this book at the Enchanted Crystal in Running
Springs, California. I am in the habit of perusing books whether or not I’m in
the market for a new one. After all the best spouses seem to be found when you
think you’re not looking so why not books as well?I think it was the subtitle that got my attention; “A
Complete Exploration of 50 Remarkable Herbs”. Most herbals outside of Mrs Grieve’s classic do in fact
contain within them a little information about a whole bunch of herbs but they
don’t completely explore them and for some people that’s just fine. A large
percentage of magickal “herbalist” know a little bit about a whole bunch of
herbs but have never really and completely explored many of the herbs they work
with.
As a Pagan, I am of course not only interested in the
medicinal properties of herbs but also the magickal properties, folklore and
history of the herb. If you’re like me in that respect then you’ll like this
book.
For instance, while it would be very hard for any one
book to cover all of the folk names of a particular herb the author Nancy
Arrowsmith does as good a job as can be done in my opinion. She even covers
many of the names used by non-English speaking cultures which is understandable since the book was originally written in German. She explores everything from the history of the name to cultivation techniques,
appearance to magickal merits, culinary virtues to modern medicine; there are
so many sub-headings denoting the various information on each herb that I dare
not list them all here for sake of brevity. Let it suffice to say that each
chapter devoted to each herb has pretty much everything you ever wanted to know
about that herb that can be learned outside of actual hands-on experience. How
many herbals do you have that include entries entitled, “Uses in Husbandry”?
The herbs covered are not obscure or hard to get and only
a few of them have any real toxicity issues and even then they are slight for
the most part and the author gives great care in explaining them. I dare say that unless you are the newest of newbies to the herbal arts you are at least slightly familiar with all the 50 remarkable herbs. The book is
well written, easy to read and an incredible wealth of information.
To sum it all up I highly recommend this book to anyone
from beginner to expert. In my opinion it’s a great place for a budding
herbalist to start and I believe that even the most learned expert will find
useful information. I usually have at least one or two criticisms about any
book I read but for the life of me I can’t think of any in regards to this
wonderful herbal.
Happy Herbing!
Raven Womack
Raven's Flight
The Magickal Apothecary
[1] A
Modern Herbal (In Two Volumes) by Mrs. M. Grieve. ©1971. Dover Publications.
New York, NY. ISBN 0-486-22798-7. Considered by many including myself to be a
must have reference for anyone studying herbs and botanicals.
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