Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants Paperback – October 1, 2003

When I picked up this book, I thought it looked very good. I don't think however, I was quite prepared to be as impressed as I was with the work. It is not just a work about herbs and Witchcraft and their history, but a treasure trove of world cultural traditions and the folk healing modalities.As a professional herbalist, I was really very happy to see the amount of research and documentation that went into this book. It really delves into the European shamanic traditions and healing arts and folk religions attached to them. This is something, which is sadly quite lacking in alot of literature that is about "shamanism". So much of of it is a hodge podged mess of European and Native American practices and lots of urban legend. Not so with this book. You get a clear idea where the lines of the histories of Witchcraft and folk medicine practices got blurred and blown far out of proportion by way of legend and outright lies. And you also get an in depth look at how many of these plants were used. The authors pull no punches, poisons, halucinagens and abortifacients can be found listed in this book. I think this is the first time in many years that I have seen an herbal book which dared to list them, let alone discuss them. I also learned about some plants that I had no knowledge of before and I am always up for that! This, I believe is how Witches in the past truly practiced, and how many still practice to this day throughout the world. The focus however is on European Witches and Western herbalism.Witchcraft Medicine is clearly a scholarly work, but it it is not so much that the subject is at all dry and uninteresting to read. It was for me quite the contrary. I couldn't put it down! There is no relgious-centric slant to it at all. There are no sensationalist claims about 8 million Witches being murdered during the so-called Burning Times, for example. It's just lots of very straight facts, which is important. There may be a few nit-picky inaccuracies as far as mythologies, but when is there not? To be completely honest, there is a lot that is junk out there, and this book I would count among my top ten historical herbals on my personal bookshelf. This book is a very impressive body of work. Note that there are not really recipies or proportions as to using these now.EDIT: The Print Version is Better Than the Kindle Version:I stand by my original review of this book. It is an excellent guide into the herbs that are legendary within traditional witchcraft and shamanism. Cerrtainly, there are other books out there that will give you more how-to's than this one will as this one is a general, historical overview. As both an occultist and an herbalist, I think you can do far worse than a book like this one and Christian Rasch is probably one of the foremost authorities in the world on the topic of herbalism as it pertains to shamanic and witchcraft practices.I have the print version of this book and naturally because I travel a great deal and I want to have it available to me in electronic form, I purchased the Kindle version. One of the nice things about the print version are the wonderful watermarks of each page based on old witchcraft woodcuts, etc. Amazon, has not yet worked out all of the kinks in the electronic version for Kindle, so it is easy to feel as if you are being deprived of the many many images that are in the print version. I also own Chrstian Rasch's book, "Psychoactive Plants" in print version, however with the Kindle version of the same book being $60, I am going to wait until the technology catches up to where what is on my screen loooks closer to what I have in print form.

Purchased this book as a reference for a medicinal herbs class. Lots of useful information.

Such a cool book. I sat down and devoured most of it at once. Love the cool folk history... I didn’t realize how much the history was “missing” from other herbal texts. Great addition to your library.

I am at page 50 and I have been so egar to read every page. Do not hesitate to order. If it's on your list, let it be the next in line. Its thrilling, empowering and educational to all. No experience needed. Just an interest in folklore, medicine truth.

Lots of history and usage information

Liked the history and cooking

A most excellent book! The writing, the knowledge is all incredible. The immense research is obvious. If you are a student of the 'True Healing Witch' then i highly recommend that this book be in your study library.

I gave it a good rating because it had a small piece of information which i did not know. And it was of a topic i am intimately familiar with but did not know this one part. And with that part it has lead me along a bread crumb trail that will answer what I question.