The Green Mysteries is the product of twenty-five years of experiential research on the spiritual and occult properties of plants. Presenting a vast array of trees and herbs from many spiritual
traditions, this exhaustive compendium examines their folklore, magical uses and spiritual essences. While presenting the material through both magical and mythopoetic narrative, the stance of
the book is also grounded firmly in supportive disciplines such as botany, chemistry, and anthropology and also includes up to date phylogenetic and pharmacological findings. Interspersed with
the encyclopedic plant entries are short narratives addressing such concepts as the Witches’ Flying Oinment, intoxicating incense, the herbal dimsension of Alchemy, and the ‘Green Saints’ such
as Al-Khidir, the medieval Wildman, and the forest-dwelling Nymphs who nourished the Greek gods. More than a mere collation of previously existing works on plants, much of the material is drawn
directly from the author’s private field notes, diaries, and manuals of magical operation, presented in an angaging narrative style. Illustrated with with over 270 original illustrations by
Benjamin Vierling, commissioned for the project.
