The Witch's Cabinet: Plant Lore, Sorcery and Folk Tradition

Plant folklore contains a persistent group of plants associated with witches, and baneful magic. These spells, rituals, and taboos reflect a hidden dimension of the vegetal world, mantled with ominous attributes. The Witch's Cabinet contains thirteen essays on these dark plant aspects, revealing their powers, fearsome qualities, and occult uses. Certain trees were considered cursed and thought to carry afflicted power, to be exploited by witches. Particular roots and flowers were used for causing disease, conjuring demons, or bringing nightmares; other plants fell under the governance of Satan, or were used to gain the powers of witchcraft itself. A particularly pernicious reservoir of corrupt power was the graveyard, with a unique retinue of plants all its own. Not all such herbal lore is malevolent; countless teachings reveal how certain plants --sometimes the same ones which are considered cursed-- can protect a person from witches, evil spirits or other users of malefic magic. Other plants of dark character, like the Hawthorn, were in perpetual communion with the souls of the dead, and possessed the power to reveal hidden treasure. As a meditation of the shrouded dimensions of plant folklore, The Witch's Cabinet approaches this often-disquieting garden holistically, a gathering of allied power-plants, many of which contain keys of spiritual transformation, healing, and occult mysteries of the plant world. In addition to the enigmatic original drawings of artist Peter Köhler, the book also contains an introduction by Daniel A. Schulke, author of Thirteen Pathways of Occult Herbalism.