A herbarium of 82 magical plants and trees and 24 fungi — rulers, seasons, folklore and clear safety warnings — with a blend maker for sachets, incense, oils and washes, when to gather each plant, the festivals that use it, and your own herb cabinet with the blends it can make. Two pictures open the herbarium: the gatherer's year, a wheel of what is in season each month with the festivals on its rim, and Culpeper's garden, seven planetary beds whose leaves show how safe each herb is. Grind a sachet or incense blend yourself in a mortar, working the pestle round until the leaves are powder, sunwise or against the sun as your aim asks.
mixer19 lessons explain the ideas behind this tool.
Safety first. This is a guide to magical lore and external, symbolic use — sachets, altars, incense and charms. It is not a foraging guide or medical advice. Never eat or drink a wild plant or fungus because of anything here: many are poisonous, some deadly ones look like edible ones, and herbs can interact with medicines and pregnancy.
Each month carries a leaf for every plant here that flowers or is gathered then in Britain. The eight festivals stand on the rim. Tap a month.
January · now
Green: kitchen-safe · gold: use with care · red: poisonous or deadly · violet: controlled. Tap a plant to find it below.
Culpeper's English Physitian (1652) gave nearly every herb a ruling planet. Here they grow in seven beds round a sundial, one for each planet, each leaf coloured by how safe the plant is. Tap a bed to show only its herbs.
He matched herb to illness by sympathy, a herb of the planet that caused it, or by antipathy, a herb of the opposing planet. Lore only: not medical advice.
Ocimum basilicum · ♂ Mars (Culpeper) · Fire
Money and love charms; a pot by the door for protection.
Culpeper repeats the old claim that basil breeds scorpions. In Italy a pot of basil on the balcony signalled a woman ready to receive her lover.
Greek and Roman medicine
Every plant is hot or cold and moist or dry, in a degree from one to four.
Sources: “Pharmacy of the Greeks and Romans”, PMC; Cunnan, “Degrees of heat”
Planetary rulers marked Culpeper are from The English Physitian (1652); elements and the rest follow later tradition, which varies. Seasons are typical for Britain. See also Planetary Herbs and Herbal Preparations.
A few things to do with this tool, from a first try to a habit. Each one you tick counts as practice for the day, towards your streak and milestones.
Kept in this browser. Notes you send to the journal are kept there as well.