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    good herbalism books/resources

    I have a number of herbals and bookmarked websites, but there are four that I use most and value most highly:

    -Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs is a thorough resource with elemental and astrological associations, history, and uses. Rarely cites his sources, but that's my only complaint.

    -Marie Rodway's A Wiccan Herbal is 126 pgs, but I've found it to contain more useful information than several herbals I own that are each twice or thrice its length. Collected from a variety of priest/esses whose bios are in the back.

    -Charlotte Erichsen-Brown's Medicinal and Other Uses of North American Plants: a Historical Survey with Special Reference to the Eastern Indian Tribes is exactly what it says on the tin, and exhaustive. Each plant or tree has between a paragraph and a couple pages of listings by date, location, and source of references to its medicinal and household uses.

    -The English Spice Index has little magical but lots of historical, botanical, and medicinal information on each spice and herb. Only lists things used in cooking, but because it pulls from worldwide food habits, you'd be surprised how much is there.

    What resources have you found to be most useful?

    #2
    Re: good herbalism books/resources

    I have a library... most of mine are directed towards medicinal herbalism, with a lot of field guides. I also have a personal affinity with entheogens & poisonous plants.

    Angier, Bradford

    - Field Guide to Medicinal Wild Plants

    Avalon Wolfe, Frankie

    - The Complete Idiot's Guide to Herbal Remedies



    Bagust, Harold, compiler

    - The Firefly Dictionary of Plant Names: Common and Botanical

    Balch, Phyllis A., CNC

    - Prescription for Herbal Healing

    Boon, Heather & Michael Smith

    - The Complete Natural Medicine Guide to the 50 Most Common Medicinal Herbs

    Buchanan, Rita, ed.

    - Taylor's Guide to Herbs

    Burnie, Geoffrey, cons. Ed.

    - The Little Guides: Herbs



    Caduto, Michael J.

    - Everyday Herbs in Spiritual Life: A Guide to Many Practices

    Chevalier, Andrew, FNIMH

    - Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine

    Culpeper, Nicholas

    - Culpeper's Complete Herbal



    Department of the Army

    - The Illustrated Guide to Edible Wild Plants



    Foley, Denise & Eileen Nachas

    - Women's Encyclopedia of Health and Emotional Healing

    Forte, Robert, ed

    - Entheogens and the Future of Religion

    Foster, Steven & Hobbs, Christopher

    - Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs (Peterson Field Guides)

    - Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants (Peterson Field Guides)



    Gabriel, Ingrid

    - Herb Identifier and Handbook

    Garrett, J. T.

    - The Cherokee Herbal: Native Plant Medicine from the Four Directions

    Graves, George

    - Medicinal Plants

    Green, Aliza

    - Field Guide to Herbs and Spices

    Grieve, Mrs. M.

    - A Modern Herbal, Vols I & II (I don't personally recommend this one other than as anecdotal/historical usage of plants. Some of the information is leading and potentially harmful or mostly useless)




    Harrar, Sari & Altshul O'Donnell
    - The Woman's Book of Healing Herbs

    Heinerman, John - these books are mostly for wholistic/vegetarian living, with some good recipes

    - Heinerman's Encyclopedia of Healing Herbs and Spices

    - Heinerman's Encyclopedia of Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs

    Hoffman, David

    - The Complete Illustrated Herbal

    Hsu & Assoc.

    - Oriental Materia Medica

    Hutchens, Alma R.

    - Indian Herbalogy of North America



    Keville, Kathi

    - Herbs: An Illustrated Encyclopedia

    Kirk, Donald R.

    - Wild Edible Plants of Western North America

    Knute, Adrienne

    - Plants of the East Mojave (Mojave Nat'l Preserve Press)

    Kowalchik, Claire & William H. Hylton, eds

    - Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs

    Krochmal, Arnold & Connie

    - A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants



    Lima, Patrick

    - The Harrowsmith Illustrated Book of Herbs

    Lust, John

    - The Herb Book

    McNair, James K

    - All About Herbs (Ortho Books) - mostly gardening tips

    McVicar, Jekka

    - The Complete Herb Book

    Miller, Lucinda G., PharmD, DBCPS & Wallace Murray, PhD, eds

    - Herbal Medicinals: A Clinician's Guide

    Millspaugh, Charles E.

    - American Medicinal Plants

    Moody, Mary, cons. Ed.

    - Encyclopedia of Flowers

    Moore, Michael - RIP. I loved this guy. I still love his books!

    - Los Remedios: Traditional Remedies of the Southwest

    - Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West

    - Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West

    - Medicinal Plants of the Desert and Canyon West

    Murray, Michael, MD & Joseph Pizzorno, MD

    - Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine



    Ody, Penelope

    - The Complete Medicinal Herbal



    Parker, Robert, et. Al. - a comprehensive field guide with excellent photos, no herbal/practical use, but will tell you how to eradicate almost anything you consider to be a 'weed'.
    The forum member formerly known as perzephone. Or Perze. I've shed a skin.

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      #3
      Re: good herbalism books/resources

      And of course there is always Tylluan Penry's 'The Magical Properties of Plants... and how to find them' published by Capall Bann:



      www.thewolfenhowlepress.com


      Phantom Turnips never die.... they just get stewed occasionally....

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        #4
        Re: good herbalism books/resources

        Persephone - you should pick up Jonathan Ott's Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History to go with the Wasson, Schultes and Ratsch books. It's HUGE, and very complete - a masterpiece.
        Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: good herbalism books/resources

          [quote author=B. de Corbin link=topic=556.msg7980#msg7980 date=1288351461]
          Persephone - you should pick up Jonathan Ott's Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History to go with the Wasson, Schultes and Ratsch books. It's HUGE, and very complete - a masterpiece.
          [/quote]

          Yeah, with a masterpiece price on it!

          I've been drooooling over it for awhile, but when I had the opportunity to blow a sizable chunk of my salary, I went with the Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants. Some of the pharmacology books on my wishlist are redunkulously expensive, too. I just can't see trying to download an eBook, though. How can I make notes in the margins?
          The forum member formerly known as perzephone. Or Perze. I've shed a skin.

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            #6
            Re: good herbalism books/resources

            Buy a wodge of paper and ink and print it off?

            * * *
            You can find some of my creative writing at http://libbyscribbles.com

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              #7
              Re: good herbalism books/resources

              [quote author=Maythe link=topic=556.msg8181#msg8181 date=1288389388]
              Buy a wodge of paper and ink and print it off?


              [/quote]

              I... I have this fetish for books. A cheap imitation would never satisfy me the same way ;D
              The forum member formerly known as perzephone. Or Perze. I've shed a skin.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: good herbalism books/resources

                No it's never quite the same is it? However it would allow notes in the margin... which you'd NEVER do to the original of course?!
                * * *
                You can find some of my creative writing at http://libbyscribbles.com

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                  #9
                  Re: good herbalism books/resources

                  [quote author=Maythe link=topic=556.msg8187#msg8187 date=1288390605]
                  No it's never quite the same is it? However it would allow notes in the margin... which you'd NEVER do to the original of course?!
                  [/quote]

                  Why not? It's my book!

                  We're getting way off topic though - this is going from 'herbal books/resources' to the care & feeding of personal libraries
                  The forum member formerly known as perzephone. Or Perze. I've shed a skin.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: good herbalism books/resources

                    Lol true. I'd do it to a cheap paperback, but not my expensive, difficult to get hold of copy of something which could be called a masterwork.

                    Ahem

                    Back on topic. My books are ones for a dabbler, rather than a medical herbalist.

                    I really like Jekka McVikar's Jekka's Complete Herb Book. Richard Mabey's New Age Herbalist is pretty good and for a bit of fun, James Wong's Grow Your Own Drugs. Aromatherapy Bible by Daniele Ryman has quite a bit of info on herbs as well as oils.
                    * * *
                    You can find some of my creative writing at http://libbyscribbles.com

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                      #11
                      Re: good herbalism books/resources

                      [quote author=perzephone link=topic=556.msg8056#msg8056 date=1288367112]
                      Yeah, with a masterpiece price on it!
                      [/quote]

                      Yup - I can't remember what it was - maybe $80 for the paperback, but worth it - it repeats a lot of information in the other books, like The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants, but it also contains a lot of bits that you won't find anywhere else - like Ott's own research.

                      Keep it on your list - when you get it, you won't regret it!

                      (I have way too many books. I'm going to get one of those Kindle thingies for general reading - you can make margin notes with them - , and buy only paper books for editions I want to have in my library, like books with meanigful pictures or photographs in them, or artistic printings)
                      Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

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