It has taken me forever to get this review up but it is finally up so here we go…
This book is for those who have a love of gardening and a flair for alchemy. If you don’t like either, then leave this book to those who do.
So we have moved past the introduction and into the first chapter which is Working with Plants. It gives you the basic guidelines in how not to harm the plants when picking them, dealing with poisonous plants and the normal warnings. Now for me personally, I am allergic to 23 varieties of grass, 20 types of trees and life itself (recently), so yeah I have to severely modify what I can do and live through my mother who I am giving this book to when she starts her garden in a couple weeks.
Next is the Herbalist’s Tool & Pantry, it gives you a rundown of items that you need to purchase and store separate from your regular kitchen tools. The preparation for harvesting the plants are written in great detail and laid out easily in front of you.
Making Oils/Oleums Philtres, and the Teas, Elixirs, and Tinctures chapters are basically your meat and potatoes, in understanding how to make what you need without burning yourself or screwing up or even killing yourself. It states throughout the book not to drink poisonous mixes, so if you do and die, well you were warned dumb ass. Now my favorite method in this section is the salves and sprays, as this will be how I will do a lot of my mixes. Having that quick Daemonic spray for workings will be very handy in the upcoming months.
In Preparing Herbal Mixtures for Incense chapter, you can get down and dirty by hand-making your incense. I am lazy so I will be buying mine. Though I will charge them like I normally do.
In the Other Preparations chapter, you have the uses for bath salts, soaps and candle uses. This will be a good one to keep in the self. Having bath salts is perfect for when you want to purify before a ritual.
Plant Reference section, is pretty explanatory. It gives a very generous list (14 pp.) of magickal plants and what they can be used for. The same for the Bases section and Miscellany Magickal Recipes and Random Daemons.
The next three chapters are my favorite: Cursing Recipes, Death Daemonic Recipes and Divination Recipes. Ahhh, the love I have for these three keeps me warm at night.
The next few chapters Magickal Inks, Dukante Hierarchy Recipes, Goetic Hierarchy Recipes, and Grimoirium Verum Recipes gives you more than enough hands on experience to keep you busy for a few months trying them out.
Rituals sections are always a win/win in my book with, any Occult read I pick up. There are nine healthy rituals, love the number, that will keep you busy and build your energy up when working with charging your mixtures.
The second to last section, The Magickal Gardener, I skimmed through. I kill plants you heard me, not on purpose, but because I am so absolutely horrible in Gardening that Satan and Eury told me to take a seat. No lie, I suck ass at gardening, but my mother has a green thumb and can grow anything. This has all types of tips and hints in growing your garden so it is good to take heed and take notes.
Last section is a list of resources to grow your magickal library so you can have a basement like mines; that literally has books on tables, shelves, chairs, the washer and dryer and every square inch of floor. Actually if I could float, I would be able to go into my basement. Seriously, a lot of books.
This book is a wealth of information, filled with recipes, rituals, formulas, and tried and true favorites that I love. So get online, order a few few friends and enjoy your summer trying out some of the philtres and tinctures. Try not to cut a finger, blow up your alchemy set up, or poison you neighbor (well unless, you know). Enjoy the read and have fun. I know I am.
Serenity of the Dark 