Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs - Scott Cunningham 1985

Preface

Acknowledgments

My thanks go to these and many other individuals who shared information or offered criticism: Don Kraig, for suggestions on an early draft of this work; Ron Garst for spending a few evenings talking of oils and incenses; Ed and Marilee Snowden for (again) allowing me access to their library, as well as to Ms. Snowden for proofreading the final manuscript; Daniel Weime for sharing his herbal secrets and allowing some to be published here, and to all my friends who supported and encouraged me during the completion of this work.

Preface

I was a young man when I began to write what was eventually to become Magical Herbalism. Frustrated at the lack of information concerning herb magic and at the surfeit of interest in my teachers and fellow occult students I set out to investigate this nearly lost art.

This search took me through worlds and experiences of which I had scarcely dreamt. Nights spent reading ancient books and manuscripts while sipping herbal teas led to practical application; I collected herbs by moonlight and brewed up spells on deserted beaches. Slowly the pieces fell into my hands. At last I gathered up the threads of the ancient ways and, from them, wove a system of herb magic.

The more I experienced herb magic the more I realized its true powers. It may well be the most ancient and yet the most practical form of magic, for its tools grow all around us, even in the concrete-laden cities in which so many of us live.

After witnessing the power of herbs I decided to write a book explaining these lost ways. Thus, Magical Herbalism was born. Five years and several drafts later it was published.

During this process my research into and work with herb magic hadn’t halted. Most of what I was learning could not be incorporated into Magical Herbalism, and so I decided that it had to wait for a later book. My early work was almost solely concerned with Old World plants, and this is reflected in Magical Herbalism. In recent years I have investigated the magical uses of plants of North and South America, the Near East, the Far East and Polynesia. (Some of these Polynesian plants have been included in this work, but the majority must wait for a future book on Hawaiian magic: Hawaiian Magic & Spirituality, Llewellyn, 1994.)

With the amount of new information I had uncovered I soon realized that the second herbal would be a veritable encyclopedia of herb magic. Hence, this book.

The present work is not a guide to herb magic, only minimal information is given in these pages concerning it. That ground is covered in Magical Herbalism. Do you wish to attract a lover? Carry a bag of rose petals or an orris root. Want to stop a toothache? Chew an elder twig and drive it into a wall. This is the type of magic that abounds in these pages—quick, uncomplicated, non-ritualistic. All-purpose spells are presented in the first section of the book for use where needed.

While most of the magic presented here deals with everyday problems, more complex subjects are also broached in the text—invisibility, materialization of spirits, attaining immortality and so on. Such information is presented because it is traditional, interesting, and romantic, not necessarily for its practical application. Similarly, the references to guarding against sea serpent bites and causing fairies to appear are included because such information fires the imagination, a necessity for effective magic.

This is not a book of quaintly impossible spells; it is an infinitely practical collection of herb magic which anyone can put to use.

I have limited myself strictly to the magical uses of herbs in this book; no medicinal information is presented here because there are a wealth of reliable guides available in this area. I have also bypassed the mythological and historical backgrounds of most of the plants except where relevant.

Those who seek destructive magic within these pages will be disappointed; none exists here, for such magic leads to its user’s destruction.

A work of this type can never be completed; more secrets lie in waiting for discovery. It is the author’s responsibility to decide when to stop nurturing and send a book out into the world to find its legs. I do so now, with the hope that it will stimulate others toward discovering and using the secrets of herb magic.