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Title: Herbal Magick: A Witch's Guide to Herbal Enchantments, Folklore, and Divination
Author: Gerina Dunwich
Published: New Jersey: New Page Books, 2002
Page Count: 240
Total Page Count: 29,993
Text Number: 87
Read For: general Paganism research, sent to me by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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Short review: In Herbal Magick, Dunwich sets out to provide a general introduction to herbs: their magical use, folklore, planetary and elemental alignments, and relationship to the gods. Such a broad scale in so few pages means that almost nothing is covered in detail and while Dunwich sets out to do a lot, she actually accomplishes very little. Magical herbal uses generally consist of sachets and divination methods: beyond putting herbs under their pillow and following a few diverse divination rituals, the reader is taught nothing about the use and power of herbs. The sections that claim to be cultural or historical contain no references, and it is difficult to discern their veracity (if any exists at all). The encyclopedia of herbal correspondences at the heart of the book contains plant name, planetary ruler, elemental ruler, and gods that held it sacred (if they exist) and lacks any information about magical role of or ways to use the herb. Furthermore, the text is eclectic to an extreme and contains no footnotes and very little attribution (and where it does exist, it is mainly to Reader's Digest and Scott Cunningham), making the information it does contain extreme diverse, unsupported, and difficult to find more information on. Dunwich draws on every culture under the sun but appears to know next to nothing about any of them. The best parts of this book are the personal tangents about the author's personal and family relationship to herbs and herbal magic, which briefly explore a few aspects of living herbal traditions and systems of use. Outside of those tangents, this book has little to offer.
( Long review. )
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
Author: Gerina Dunwich
Published: New Jersey: New Page Books, 2002
Page Count: 240
Total Page Count: 29,993
Text Number: 87
Read For: general Paganism research, sent to me by
circle_of_ashesShort review: In Herbal Magick, Dunwich sets out to provide a general introduction to herbs: their magical use, folklore, planetary and elemental alignments, and relationship to the gods. Such a broad scale in so few pages means that almost nothing is covered in detail and while Dunwich sets out to do a lot, she actually accomplishes very little. Magical herbal uses generally consist of sachets and divination methods: beyond putting herbs under their pillow and following a few diverse divination rituals, the reader is taught nothing about the use and power of herbs. The sections that claim to be cultural or historical contain no references, and it is difficult to discern their veracity (if any exists at all). The encyclopedia of herbal correspondences at the heart of the book contains plant name, planetary ruler, elemental ruler, and gods that held it sacred (if they exist) and lacks any information about magical role of or ways to use the herb. Furthermore, the text is eclectic to an extreme and contains no footnotes and very little attribution (and where it does exist, it is mainly to Reader's Digest and Scott Cunningham), making the information it does contain extreme diverse, unsupported, and difficult to find more information on. Dunwich draws on every culture under the sun but appears to know next to nothing about any of them. The best parts of this book are the personal tangents about the author's personal and family relationship to herbs and herbal magic, which briefly explore a few aspects of living herbal traditions and systems of use. Outside of those tangents, this book has little to offer.
( Long review. )
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
