Onomasticon of Occult Herbs: Names, Identities and Epithets of Sacred Plants

The great procession of common plant names, given to them by humans, forms a unique passed down through time. In religion, magic and myth, these names serve a greater function than mere verbal signifiers; they operate at transcendent levels of spirit. In traditions of magic, religion and mysticism, a plant name may speak of its healing power, its legends, or its associations with gods or spirits. In anthropological contexts, these names also speak to the plant's steward culture, in which traditional interaction with the plant is embedded. Onomasticon of Occult Herbs is a cross-cultural lexicon of 3,000 plant names, with special focus on those herbs used in ceremonial and spiritual practice. In addition to selected annotations on the names and information on linguistic sources, the book also contains the introductory essay "The Litany of Green Saints", which examines the powers behind the names.