A Magickal Herball Compleat.pdf - Magicka School

economy. This affected use of herbs in medicine and in cooking as well, where,
within the dark overcrowded slums of early urban life, they were less easy to find.
It is perhaps no accident that Britain, the first and the greatest of the early
industrialised nations, became well known for the lack of herbs within its food
preparation; something that only relatively recently has become fashionable again
[30].
These days there often seems to be a losing battle between herbalists, multi-billion
dollar drugs companies and government regulatory departments, where those who
produce pharmaceuticals do their best to downplay the benefits and expose the
“dangers” of using herbal preparations, whilst simultaneously lobbying to have
herbs legislated out of existence [31]. Modern medicine attempts to be as exact a
science as possible and to this end tries to give standard and precise drugs, in well
defined combinations, to cure disease and illness. Herbs by their very nature are
often seen as being difficult to administer in such a precise way and, because of
this, have tended to play little part in orthodox medicine. Throughout most of the
twentieth century, herbal preparations used for therapeutic effect were relegated to
being seen in varying degrees as “alternative medicine”. However, as use of
pharmaceutical drugs has become ever more widespread, and tales of harmful side
effects better known, more and more people have revisited the knowledge of the
past. Many modern herbalists, whilst acknowledging the difficulty of precise
herbal doses, stress that herbs often act far more gently on the human body and
that the plants also contain many other ingredients that are beneficial, besides
those that have the specific curative property required.
There is also something slightly counter-cultural about being interested in herbs.
Many drugs companies are seen as fleecing poorer nations, or, in effect,
withholding medicines from those who cannot afford them in developing
countries by making drugs prohibitively expensive. At the same time there is
suspicion that big drug’s money seems to hold such sway over the political
institutions of Westernised nations and considerable concern over their dealings
with genetically modified plants, the patenting of seeds and so on. For many, the
choice to use plants grown freely in nature to effect cures is not only about the
perceived superiority of natural medicine, it is also a stand against monolithic and
virtually unaccountable big business that seems to threaten not only human life
but the well being of the planet itself. It is therefore no surprise that herbalism is
often strongly identified with what it means to be a Witch or a Pagan, both of
which are strongly counter-cultural religious choices that stand in part for a desire
to see a more harmonious use made of Earthly resources. And for these groups
especially, herbs are not only seen as having practical medicinal uses, or as a
nutritious and wholesome way of flavouring cooking, they are also recognised as
having important properties that enhance mystical visions and aid magickal
workings. Modern Pagans often see herbs in a similar way to how many of our
ancestors would have done in pre-industrial or ancient cultures, where they were
valuable and amazing forms of plant life that could do incredible and little
understood things in many areas of life. Today we can explain herbal curative
properties with science, and their use in magick has often become standardised
16