Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Magical Plants

by Susan Gregg

The magical properties and uses for nearly 300 plants show readers how to improve their lives using the spiritual properties of the nature around them. Entries describe how to use spells or rituals and potions that solve everything from shooing evil spirits out of a reader’s house to finding the perfect mate. Susan Gregg shows readers how to concoct tinctures, oils, and bath salts, work with dried leaves, fresh plants and flowers to call in fairies and plant divas that will enhance your life.

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Gardening, Witchcraft, Health, Magic, Wicca

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2008

Reviews

[Ashley Wold · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading the folklore and medicinal uses, but I was annoyed with the errors, especially with the botanical Latin.

Example: Llex is actually Ilex, Sambucuus is Sambucus, Althea is Althaea, Nepta is Nepeta, Dancus is Daucus, Sanquinaria is Sanguinaria, etc! That's not even getting into the errors in specific epithets.

I know I'm a botany geek, and therefore a bit more picky about these things (and most people probably wouldn't even notice), but if you can't get the nomenclature right, why bother including it?! There were SO many mistakes in spelling them. 😱

[Allaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Holy smokes, the errors! I'm not even a serious student of plants and I spotted so many that I lost track of them. The one that sticks out in my mind as being rather blatant was the section on mandrake being illustrated with an almond tree. There were errors in the text, but those all ran together in my mind and I can't think of a specific example.

While it is an interesting book, after finding so many errors in the text I can only really use it as casual browsing book. If I find something interesting that I want to know more about I immediately dump the book and pull out another reference.

Hopefully the new edition does not suffer from the same level of stupid errors that this one does. This book had so much potential.

[Tee · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 two stars off for the lack of reference to pacific body parts or ailments, very disappointed.

[Fira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for the most part. Some of the pictures don't match up with the plants described, however. Which can be dangerous depending on the individual.

[Juli Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

A great idea, but ultimately I found a few ID errors and other gaps in information that led me to believe this isn't the best source.

[Sally · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have entitled this an "overview" rather than an "encyclopedia" of herbs, plants and flowers. The photos were often nice, but sometimes confusing. I'm not about to set up an alter to my "green allies;" I wasn't after the magical information. But I suppose that a lot of magical lore overlaps traditional medicinal lore. That's what I was interested in. Each entry was very brief.

Pretty, but not terribly practical, from a medicinal point of view. Now if you want to know what to wear in your amulet, or what to bury near the front door to bring you good luck, or to enhance your sex life, or prosperity, you might be more interested in this book than I was. ;)

[Sherry]

This book has beautiful pictures of herbs, spices, plants. Each page is one or two descriptions of what the botanical name is for the plant, where and how it grows, it's magical properties and how to harness the powers and any medicinal value. This book was interesting and I took notes but you would need an eidetic memory or a copy of the book in order to keep track of the several hundred magical plants. The other thing I learned is that most plants are protectors of your home or repel negativity. The other nice thing would be if the book was consistent on where the plants can be grown and zones.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely lovely reference book. The design is slick, the pictures are beautiful, and the mythology about the plants is delightful.

I've read poor reviews from people who picked this up as a medical reference. As the title fortells, this isn't that type of text. It sprinkles in folk cures for sore throats and bellyaches, but if you're looking for alternative medicine, look elsewhere.

[Aunt]

I didn't know this was out already. I got to see the original from the printer while I was in HI in April! Looks to be very thorough and I'd like to use while growing herbs for use in my daily nutrition and whole health routine.

[Susie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to flip through and read all of the alternative uses for plants. I read this many for research purposes, it was not super in depth, but a good place to start and a nice introduction.

[Kai Sousa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is just a gorgeous book.