A Magickal Herball Compleat.pdf - Magicka School

• Fire is primarily hot and secondarily dry.
• Water is primarily cold and secondarily wet.
• Air is primarily wet and secondarily hot.
• Earth is primarily dry and secondarily cold.
An object or thing could be seen to have the quality of a particular Element, or a
combination of them, and it would have been natural to classify herbs in this way.
For example, chilli, which produces a hot sensation on the skin or when tasted,
would generally be seen as having fiery qualities; whilst lavender would be
attributed to Air because of what was seen as the airy nature of its many leaves.
Detailed tables could be made of all manner of plants attributing them to Fire,
Water, Air and Earth. These attributions were always more of an art than a
science, although over time standard agreement appears to have been reached [2]
(see Appendix One).
Incredibly, classification of herbs and herbal cures, designed with reference to the
Four Elements, are to be found in Ancient Greek herbals all the way up to the
work of Nicholas Culpeper, and have been present in many European and some
non-European cultures for over two thousand years [3]. For English readers,
Culpeper’s work is the most readily accessible and within the pages of his English
Physician [4] he divides herbal preparations according to their Elemental properties,
be they hot, cold, moist or dry.
Herbs and the Four Humours
How, though, could knowledge of the relationship between herbs and the
Elements be used medicinally? The answer is through finding meaningful
correspondences. The Roman medical practitioner, Galen, records that
Hippocrates used the properties of the Four Elements when formulating his ideas
about the Humours of the human body [5]. These were Yellow Bile (seen as fiery
in nature), Phlegm (seen as watery), Blood (airy) and Black Bile (earthy). Thus the
Elements were seen to directly correspond to the Humours. The trick to
maintaining health was in keeping the Four Humours as balanced as possible. If
an imbalance occurred then it could be treated with substances designed to restore
harmony. An imbalance in Yellow Bile could be cured with the use of a medicine
that counteracted its fiery properties, and this could mean that an herbal
preparation with watery qualities was indicated. Similarly, an imbalance caused by
Black Bile might be treated through the use of a tonic created from airy herbs, and
so on.
The Doctrine of Signatures
Another plank of the pre-scientific theories of the medical properties of herbs was
provided by the Doctrine of Signatures. This was the idea that objects from the
natural world, resembling human body parts in colour or form, might be useful in
curing ailments or enhancing certain bodily functions. There are hints of thoughts
along these lines in the writings of the Galen [6] but the notion really began to
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