The Healing Power of Celtic Plants: Their History, Their Use, and the Scientific Evidence That They Work

by Angela Paine

Our knowledge of the Celts, who spread all over Europe a few thousand years ago, has been growing rapidly over the last few decades. One of the most fascinating aspects of their culture was their use of plant medicine. Angela Paine, who has degrees in plant chemistry from London University and has published extensively and internationally in scientific journals, provides here both a history of their use, a guide to using them today, and an account of their effectiveness in healing.

Genres: Magic

240 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 2006

Reviews

[Suzanne Ruthven · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my kind of book ... and ‘music’ for the eyes ... having come from the land around Llyn-y-van-vach, that ‘small lake deep in the wildest part of Carmarthenshire’. This is not the usual fare for New Aeon introductions to one of the basic fundamentals of traditional folk-medicine and wort-lore but an erudite guide covering the history, myth and symbolism of twenty-five plants known to the British Celts and used by them medicinally. The author obviously believes that to fully understand a subject it is necessary to immerse yourself in the doctrines on Celtic medicine, together with a comprehensive study of the history and beliefs of the time. She has a BSc in Human Physiology and PhD from the School of Pharmacy, London University, in medicinal plant chemistry, has been on research trips to Africa and South America to collect plant material used as medicine, and collaborated with scientists around the world, publishing internationally in scientific journals. Immersed in the Celtic tradition, she runs workshops on Celtic Medicinal Plants and in ‘Healing Power of Celtic Plants’ reflects this tremendous depth of knowledge in a beautiful, evocative style of the bard.
“I found myself living, deep in the countryside in a green, leafy, watery place, overlooking trees, meadows and hillsides with badger sets, and the deep blue hills of Wales in the distance. I was surrounded by plants that had been used as medicine for centuries, plants native to Britain, plants with a history. This magical place with its sacred wells and standing stones was steeped in Celtic mythology. I was drawn in, absorbed and seduced by ancient traditions kept alive by poets and story-tellers.”
Intent on keeping her subject pure, Angela Paine consulted the twelfth century secular herbal, the book of the Physicians of Myddvai, which drew on ancient Celtic tradition. “As I began to collate my list of herbs from this early herbal I noted that not all of them were indigenous to Britain. Herbals of this period made frequent mention of plants imported to Britain by the Romans. No doubt the Celts had adopted many of these plants by this time but the ancient Celts probably would not have had access to many non-indigenous plants. I decided to concentrate only on plants native to Britain. From these, I selected those that we still use as medicine today, many of which have been extensively researched. This list of medicinal herbs was to become the body of the book.”
It is often said that Magic is a blend of Science and Art and ‘Healing Power of Celtic Plants’ is the perfect scholarly blend without ever being dry or academic. I’m always being asked by students to recommend a serious, magical book on wort-lore and finally I have one that I can – hand on heart – and have already added to the recommended reading on the Arcanum course.
Melusine Draco: Author and Principal at Coven of the Scales

[Rhea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite being charming, I found this book to be inconsistent and misleading. While I loved Paine's personal insights and experiences with the herbs she writes about, and she does indeed include some lesser-known herbs (which I really enjoyed reading about), her research is questionable and her proofing is inconsistent. She often sights Robert Graves as a source of Druidic information, which while his writing is enjoyable, it is often based on his own imagination and fantasy and not actual fact. Paine also switched between multiple spellings of various celtic words, (Myddvai and Myddfai, for example) which was very distracting.

I feel that if Paine had stuck to the celtic folklore she seems to be so passionate about, and avoided her copy+pasted approach to the medicinal/scientific information, and broadened her research material to include more widely accepted sources this book would have been stronger. But then again, it would have been an entirely different book :p

[Elisheva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty informative book but inconsistent. Some herbs show extensive research (which I know isn't the author's fault) and lore; others have hardly any. It's also altogether missing some important herbs. No Yarrow? Quoi?