The Green Mysteries: Arcana Viridia, An Occult Herbarium
by Daniel A. Schulke
illustrations by Benjamin A. Vierling
The Green Mysteries is a complete lexicon of the spiritual, magical, and occult properties of plants. Containing more than 400 individual entries, this occult herbal focuses especially upon plant power as an emanation of spirit, and how herbs are utilized in the active practices of magic and ritual. It includes trees and herbs from the Americas, as well as native European plants familiar to students of the Western Esoteric Tradition.
Prepared with the modern occult practitioner and researcher in mind, it draws from diverse sources of herb lore, folk magic practice and myth, as well as religious and occult traditions. Interspersing the encyclopedic plant entries are short narratives addressing the spiritual dimensions of the vegetal world, the concept of wildness, and the practice of occult herbalism. Much of the material is also drawn directly from the author's experience working with the plants themselves.
Many of the featured herbs also feature tables of correspondence, linking the plants to gods, spirits, planetary attributions, and psychological states. As a further arena of investigation, some also feature a Spirit-Retinue, a grouping of thirteen personified attributes, virtues and powers demonstrating the plant’s dominion of power within the human sphere. The text is also augmented with recipes and 'The Dream-Book of Sylvanus', a short dream interpretation manual examining the significance of specific plants in dreams.
The Green Mysteries is accompanied by over 300 original illustrations by artist Benjamin A. Vierling, prepared in collaboration with author especially for this volume. Paying homage to the traditions of the European herbal, these faithful botanical renderings uniquely embody the viriditas of each herb ―its ‘sacred green power’― as well as its magical character and arcana.
Daniel A. Schulke is an author and herbalist living in Northern California. His previously published works include Veneficium: Magic Witchcraft and the Poison Path and Thirteen Pathways of Occult Herbalism. He is also co-editor of the journal Clavis: Occult Arts, Letters, and Experience.
Benjamin A. Vierling is a Californian painter and illustrator working in traditional media. His art has been seen in publications by Three Hands Press, Ouroboros Press, and Red Wheel Weiser Books. He has exhibited at Esoteric Book Conferences and both received a Decennary Retrospective and lectured at the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle.
Three Hands Press
paperback
English
April 11, 2023
Illustrated edition
476 pages
7.25 x 2 x 11.25 inches
