There was a time, not so very long ago, when herbalism was so exotic and/or
discredited as to be almost unheard-of. Nowadays, most people know
peppermint for tummy troubles and camomile for anxiety, but it was not so a
few decades ago.
Toward the end of that time, when the back-to-nature movement and the
self-sufficiency drive had raised the profile of natural healing, a number of
volumes were published on herbalism, including this one. It is based on
extensive raids on library resources (probably the University of California
system) and includes a lot of material from older sources.
Jeanne Rose's Herbal bears the strong stamp of the decade in which it
was published. Some of the material that is in this book has been discredited
or pronounced dangerous by modern herbalists. On the other hand, much of the
material that Jeanne Rose gleaned from extensive research is not covered in
more modern herbals. So this herbal includes anecdotal documentation of
magickal/symbolic uses of the herbs as well as physical ones.
Not only does
Rose include an 'Organic Materia Medica,' describing plants and their uses,
but she also gives a wide variety of recipes for various conditions and
problems. Many of these come under the heading of magic: aphrodisiacs, brain
recipes, herbal baths, beauty recipes; and there are useful notes on Sachets
and Potpourris as well as making scent beads, incense, and rose materials.
Also included is a section on 'forbidden secrets,' those highly toxic recipes
recommended for flying and other manipulative arts, as well as astrological
signs of plants, the languages of herbs, flowers and woods, etc.
Because of the age of the book, some of its recommendations may prove odd or
even startling to today's reader-- see the rather offputting recipe for
'Douche Juice a la Bob'-- and some are downright illegal -- massage oil with
cocaine as an aphrodisiac! In addition, Rose
evidences a really nasty case of fat bigotry, so skip the polemic on 'Fat and
how not to be' unless you need some illustrations resembling the Venus of
Willendorf, especially since the diet recommended is about as healthy as
colonic purges. On the other hand, there is a plethora of recipes for useful
beauty treatments and muscle rubs.
Rose must have ransacked the contents of a
dozen large libraries to gather this information, and a partial bibliography
is included. Some of the recipes are attributed to sixteenth and
seventeenth-century sources, as well.
While I would recommend checking all herbal medical uses from this herbal in
another, more modern one, I would also recommend this as a good beginner's
herb text for magickal/folk magic herb information and background material.