Taylors Herbal: Now Available!

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Taylors Domestic Herbal is a good (and extremely early) example of the kind of medical literature sold by apothecaries and other figures at the dawn of the era of semi-standardized organic medicine. It deviates from the greater rigor in dosage and measurement from works beginning a few decades later (not to mention the wider variety of species available due to colonial importation), and from the often religiously or superstitiously-informed content in such works in the previous century.

It lists a wide variety of species both domestic and wild, and their usages- some are innocuous (like chamomile or turnips), while some are now generally regarded as highly toxic (like foxglove and datura.)

50 pages.

Slacks Herbal: Now Available!

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This work is one of the foremost herbals of the mid 19th century Thompsonian period. Containing a series of ailments, specific recipes for everything from pills and powders to tinctures and injections, and a lengthy materia medica, Slacks Herbal is considerably longer and more dense than most comparably styled works of the era.

It is worth noting that since this work is from the Thompsonian school, it predominantly fixates on a few herbal simples; more than half of the recipes here contain at least one of the following cure-alls: Lobelia, cayenne pepper, agrimony, comfrey, or chamomile.

130 pages.

Frays Golden Recipes: Now Available!

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At the dawn of the 19th century, most popular domestic tip books contained ritual magic or at least prayers and explicit superstition. By the time of this particular work in the late 19th century, those had disappeared leaving herbal medicine, simple tips, recipes, and so forth; indeed, the path from grimoire, to this type of text, to modern woodcrafting and recipe books is fascinating.

It contains a slew of herbal remedies for disease and injury, as well as tips for basic issues such as illness in livestock and so forth- although some of the remedies are not a great idea, some of them remain in alternative medicine even today. It ought to be noted that this booklet had a very long printing run; I have seen scans of editions post-dating this one by 20 years.

66 pages.

The Indigenous Drugs of India: Now Available!

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This intermediate-length medical work is one part anthropological text, one part recipe book, and one part good medical history. About 90% of the entries here are herbal; but it lists some minerals and chemical compounds and even a couple of insect species, all of which were apparently sold through the Indian subcontinent as medical materials in the 1860s.

The fascinating blend of scientific rigor with what amounts to folklore here is spectacular; I'm a bit of a sucker for such works since I studied anthropology myself; the occultist may find this text useful since it is basically derived from a blend of ayurvedic, islamic, and pan-european medical practices and explicitly involves the spiritual side of life (which tends to be the case whenever mortality is addressed.) It contains both local and Latin terminology.

135 pages.

Travel Means Work, Too!

Today I will be traveling overseas! I haven't disclosed where for security reasons- but just because I'll be soaring over the ocean doesn't mean it isn't a perfect time to do some literary work; indeed, there's not a whole lot else to do except plug my laptop in and watch my own films because the on-board movies will probably suck ass.

I decided to plow through an interesting receipt book and botanical text called "The Family Companion and Physician." It's of middling length and contains a series of treatments for ailments, some preparations of herbal and other compounds, and a short lecture on related topics. I am not sure what proportion of it I'll be able to complete over the Atlantic Ocean but regardless, at least I'll have something to do while movies or music play in the background.

Flower Lore: Now Available!

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This is one of the most comprehensive works I've edited- a near 200 page compilation of lore all related to the botanical, paired frequently with poetry and Shakespearean verse, with more than a few references to civics (at the time the idea of a national flower was apparently hotly debated- it does mention my own state, Vermont, choosing the red clover as state flower- which it still is!)

The number of references within mythology are impressive- especially Greek mythology and some of the Christian iconography of yesteryear- including of course perhaps the most famous with Saint Patrick and the four leafed clover. As an interesting aside there's one little patch of white clover here on my property that spawns four leafed clutches at about a hundred times the normal rate (must be a mutant) and once I found one with seven in there. Altogether, this is a fine work, and right down my alley as a botanical enthusiast and lover of spiritual folklore.

190 pages.

The Family Nurse: Now Available!

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This excellent work is at once a manuscript of folk medicine, an apothecarian work, a recipe book, and a compilation of basic life tips from the 1830s; indeed, it is one of those "receipt books" from the era which, in domestic work, displaced some of the more odd content of the prior eras' cosmopolitan grimoires. Gone is the alchemy in favor of more rational medicinal workings.

Containing a fairly lengthy herbal remedy section and recipes for ointments and salves as well, it's surprising how much of the content is still utilized today- it humorously refers to the banes of both alcohol and opium while suggesting sometimes a little kick of gin should be added to a recipe or two, to solve for "patient discomfort."

163 pages.

The Art of Rita Metzner: Illustrator of "Weeds as Medicine" and "Valuable Herbal Prescriptions"

Some time ago I decided it was impossible to personally illustrate all of the herbal works I desired to release; I needed someone to do that part of the work for me, having edited or partially edited a half dozen or so works I couldn't complete. Rita Metzner had submitted a link to her art along with many others and was selected as the best possible candidate for an illustrator. Indeed, the result is very nice. As you can see, she doesn't do just herbal works, but also some rather fantastical (dare I say vaguely occult?) works as well.

Link to Rita's Instagram

Below I wanted to display a couple of the herbal pictures; the first from the (completed, processing) Weeds as Medicine, the second from Herbal Prescriptions, which should be complete before the beginning of July or just thereafter.

The Blessed Thistle.

Poppy Plant.

Primitive Physic: Now Available!

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This wonderful text dates all the way back to the middle of the 18th century. Mostly herbal and folk remedies, it is an extensive receipt-style work covering over 100 specific conditions for which, often, there are several distinct methods of cure listed. Some of the remedies it lists are dangerous and as such I will mention here that in no way do I condone or encourage its use as a medical guide.

Some things are mentioned more frequently within Wesley's treatise here; agrimony, chamomile, vitriol, and a few other materials are listed dozens of times; others, such as quicksilver, are less frequently employed in his physic system. Overall, it's one of the more comprehensive guides to folk remedy from its era, predating many similar types of work that came half a century or more after its manufacture.

122 pages.

John George Hohman's Pow Wows: An American Grimoire - Now Available!

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John George Hohman's "Pow Wows" is one of the best occult texts I've edited. Dating to the 1820s, it was spawned by the Pennsylvania Dutch folk traditions of the era, and may be variously seen as Americana, German-derived occultism, a grimoire, or a snake oil combination of herbal and prayer book.

Within this edition I retained the publishers' inclusions (which Hohman did not write) because they were present in the first edition, but removed the long and largely pointless running index, which for some odd reason was at the end of the work when it ought to have been included as a condensed table of contents.

The material covers herbal medicine, folk healing, prayers and invocations, a few magickal formulae, the construction of a couple of simplistic talismans (on paper) and protective spells, as well as hex breaking.

100 pages.

Hohman's Pow Wows (or; Long Lost Friend)

Now that the Universal Fortune Teller of Mrs. Bridget is complete, it's time for a new edited work; and thankfully this time it's in semi-modern English and comes from the United States.

Hohman's "Pow Wows" has nothing at all to do with Mesoamerican ritualism; which is funny given the connotations of the title- instead, it's a fusion system between German ritualism (influenced, as I will explain, by French ritualism) and Americana, a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition from the dawn of the 1800s.

The work itself is about the same length as, and contains some material similar to, the Petit Albert of 1700s era French renown- in my estimation the French cycle has influenced the content of this work, based on its eerie level of similarity- although it is within the realm of possibility that the similarities are due to traditions which were simply popular enough to have spread around Europe; after all, there's no certainty that all content in the Petit Albert originated in France (indeed, it mentions Hungary and other regions explicitly for a few of its passages.) It's broken into similar sections and covers similar maladies such as the bite of mad dogs (rabies of course) and headaches, hysteria, and other conditions.

One part herbal, one part prayer/incantation booklet, and one part folkish tradition, this rivals the Petit Albert for "most in depth ritual system" I have ever edited. It is likely that I will list this with the grimoires, since that is essentially what it is, even if it is also technically a work of folk magick.

I expect that it will be around 110 to 120 pages when completed, and it's quite a nice work.

Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum: Now Available!

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Of all of the works I have edited this might be the most amusing. Written in the Medieval era, it was translated into English surprisingly early by John Harington in 1608.

Its content is one part herbal, one part dietary guide, and one part social tract. It praises sanitation, hand washing, and moderation in drinking, but also encourages the reader to clean their teeth by burning leek and henbane and directing the smoke into their mouth with a funnel (a potentially dangerous practice- henbane is a potent deliriant.)

With references to the four humors and bloodletting, it certainly gives a decent look at the general medical practice of the era; perhaps one part good suggestions to two parts utter madness. Nonetheless, the herbal and philosophical content makes it perfectly occult in manner.

24 pages.

Fruits of Eden: Herbalism and the Occult NOW AVAILABLE

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After many months, "Fruits of Eden" is now finally available. Last night I finished the last touches on the cover art, and uploaded all the files to Amazon.

The end result I am quite proud of- I never considered myself to be particularly artistically inclined other than in architectural drawing (which came in handy for a few of the illustrations for the charcoaling and garden design chapters of this work) and underestimated my ability to draw botanical works in a way that would be acceptable for a published work.

The book is 240 pages in length, fully illustrated, with a long index at the end for herbal species whether included in the four encyclopedic chapters or not. The work would have been far too long had all species involved with any occult field been included, since virtually any species is either directly or indirectly used in some manner except, perhaps, common clumps of lawn grass.

Thankfully, for the reader, the end result contains virtually the same information as it otherwise would have (I actually added a bit of extra material during my final edit as well) for a fraction of the price as well; the hardcover-only release formerly planned would have been about four times as expensive for just the basic edition, far more for those that were going to be bound in leather. The final touch of pizazz came with the lettering of the front cover- typically I use a font generation system and don't freehand the title letters like I did here.

Anyone interested in botany, how-to occultism, occult history, or pragmatic garden design (involving methods normally not discussed such as charcoal making as a soil amendment process) will probably enjoy this work. I hate to toot my own horn, but a bit of tooting might be called for since it went through three edits with all artwork made by hand and edited for weeks.