Harold Roth is a leading authority on plant/herbal magic. His new book, The Witching Herbs, is an in-depth exploration of 13 essential plants and herbs most closely associated with witchcraft-13 because it's the witching number and reflects the 13 months of the lunar calendar. The plants are poppy, clary sage, yarrow, rue, hyssop, vervain, mugwort, wormwood, datura, wild tobacco, henbane, belladonna, and mandrake.
Roth writes simply and clearly on a vast amount of esoteric information that is not easily found elsewhere and will be greeted enthusiastically by those who already have extensive experience and libraries. It is unique in that it combines mysticism with practical instructions for growing each plant, based on Roth's 30 years of gardening expertise. Each chapter focuses on one plant and includes information on its unique plant spirit familiar, clear how-to instructions for magical projects, and pragmatic information on growing and cultivating.
Roth writes, "This book is a great choice for intermediate-to-advanced witches who would like to work more closely with the traditional witching herbs, especially the baneful plants with their rather difficult spirits. Working directly with spirits is one of the fundamentals of the Craft."
The Witching Herbs is the essential plant-worker's guide. Roth is not only a successful gardener, but also a magician and scholar of the occult. No other book blends clear, practical gardening techniques with equally lucid and sophisticated plant magic so successfully.
About the Author
Harold Roth is among the foremost authorities on plants within the modern occult community. For over 15 years, he has owned and operated Alchemy Works, an online store focused on herb magic, where he crafts and sells incense, potions and magical oils, as well as seeds.
Industry Reviews
Connecting with plant spirits by growing magical plants yourself is the ultimate in herbal magic, according to this debut. Roth leans heavily on a modernized version of the ancient Doctrine of Signatures that teaches practitioners to look to a plant's morphology to understand its use, adding clues from growth patterns, traditional medicine, and chemistry as well as from traditional lore and personal gnosis. Though there are extended planting and care notes for every plant, Roth makes his picks according to their reputation in traditional European witchcraft rather than ease of cultivation. He includes several of the baneful herbs he calls the Weird Sisters--datura, mandrake, belladonna, and henbane--but, although some traditional recipes are included in the practice section, Roth never recommends consumption, stating that practitioners should pursue them through direct spiritual contact rather than by stepping onto the rickety bridge of alkaloid consumption. Sections on practice included in each entry add up to a primer in herbal magic methods, so readers learn how to make tinctures with clary sage, dry and powder herbs with yarrow, and unguents with vervain. Roth views the herb magician as spiritual seeker rather than rules-bound potion maker, an attitude that can be unfortunately rare in more encyclopedic botanical magic guidebooks. --Publishers Weekly (Mar. 2017)-- "Reviews"
A book that will take you far beyond the basics of magickal herbalism. Much more than a this for that compendium, it will teach you to open your eyes, ears, feelings, touch and sense of taste to any herb you may encounter, so that you may divine its magical use. --Ellen Evert Hopman, author of Secret Medicines from Your Garden: Plants for Healing, Spirituality, and Magic, A Druid's Herbal of Sacred Tree Medicine, and other books devoted to herbalism and Celtic plant lore-- "Reviews"
At last! A guide to a subject very dear to my heart, and Harold Roth is just the man for the job. Added bonus: several of the most important plants from the correspondences of the Fifteen Behenian Stars. A must-have for goetic gardeners everywhere! --Jake Stratton-Kent, editor of Conjure Codex, author of The True Grimoire (Encyclopaedia Goetica Book 1), and other books of power-- "Reviews"
Harold Roth is a master of the witchcraft plants. His knowledge encompasses their magical, spiritual, and therapeutic aspects, their blessings and their banes. In The Witching Herbs, his long-awaited first book, Roth has crafted a brilliant guide to the witches' garden, teaching us how to grow and nurture its most prized plants, how best to access their gifts, navigate their dangers, and communicate with their plant spirit familiars. The Witching Herbs is a must for every witch's library. --Judika Illes, author of Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells, The Big Book of Practical Spells, and other books devoted to the magical arts-- "Reviews"
Harold Roth is an extraordinary man--wise, generous, and deeply entwined in the mysteries of the green world from first-hand experience growing, using, and loving plants. His work adds to our deeper understanding of our plant allies, fleshing out folklore and putting our traditions into deeper context. I've learned so much from him and know that with The Witching Herbs, you will too. --Christopher Penczak, award-winning author and co-founder of the Temple of Witchcraft-- "Reviews"
Harold Roth's The Witching Herbs offers an original perspective on the magical dimension of plants, rooted not in the repetition of occult texts but in the soil itself, as accessed by hands, head, and heart. --Daniel A. Schulke, author of The Green Mysteries and Veneficium: Magic, Witchcraft and the Poison Path-- "Reviews"
In The Witching Herbs, Harold Roth has approached the plant as book and narrative; seeing the plant itself as the author of its own mystery; a mystery only grasped in fullness by the direct interaction with the plant, where it is nurtured from seed to adulthood and in the process turns into a teaching spirit. Roth roots his work in the doctrine of signatures, mediated by the patient dedication to the plant itself, and, in this, he has manifested a work softly born by the whispers of the 13 plants themselves, flanked with folklore, myths, and the frustrating and rewarding poetry of practice. It is a book easy to recommend, a delight to read, a book that deserves a place not only on the bookshelf, but as a companion in the garden of witching herbs. --Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold, author of Craft of the Untamed, Palo Mayombe: The Garden of Blood and Bones, and Exu and the Quimbanda of Night and Fire-- "Reviews"
