Practical Witchcraft: Dirt Poor Witchcraft pt. 1- Don't buy expensive herbal products, look at the ground and your spice cupboard.

 Dear Reader, 

I apologize that this post is a day late. I'm still trying to reorient myself timewise after being sick for about a month. If you're like me you don't have an extravagant budget to get all the latest herbal products recommended by the big name folks in the pagan and witchcraft community. Don't panic or think you can't do that money drawing spell that you planned to help your budget a bit. You have options that you may not have realized were there.

Now before I give you a list of some of these options for you to consider, I want to recommend a couple of books that have been extremely helpful in my process of 'wildcrafting' magic. I honestly don't know why folks call it wildcrafting when it's the way it has been done since antiquity. Intimate knowledge of the land and what is there to use is how everything was done in the 'old days'. (Now, I won't say that the old days were better, after all people were dying of curable disease because they didn't have antibiotics, for example.) 

The first book I am going to recommend to you comes in two volumes. I can't recall if it is still in print, I think it is. It is M. Grieve's A Modern Herbal. This book is a bit dated as it was initially published in the 1930s, but Margaret Grieve took an academic approach to her topic matter that is timeless and easily understood. This book also has some print images in the style of James Audubon's artistic images of plants.

The next book I recommend is more current (having come out in the early '00s). The Nurse's Guide to Herbal Remedies is a book chock full of information that ranges from how to use a given herbal remedy to medications derived from it and things that contraindicate with it. I can't recall the author. The book got stolen from me about three months after I got it. To say the least I wasn't pleased. I may have the title wrong, but that is what my gut is telling me is correct.

The third book I recommend is The Encyclopedia of Medical Plants from Andrew Chevalier. This book has high quality illustrations of the plants that he discusses. It's basically a step down from The Nurse's Guide to Herbal Remedies. It does not get into what medications you should not mix it with or what medications are derived from it. But it does tell you what a given plant is used for, what parts are used, and how to prepare them for use.

Finally, I recommend is Cooking with Herbs and Spices by Andi Cleve, et al. This is a book I cross reference with the Encyclopedia of Medical Plants. It works very well to allow me to use my spice cupboard to treat minor ailments. While herbalism is awesome and can work very well, it is a supplement to modern medicine, not a substitute. 

With these four books in your library, you have the ability to step outside and look in your own yard or garden for the plants that will help you. In some cases, however, you need to check with your state's department of environmental conservation to make sure that what you're planting isn't an invasive plant in the region. If it is, put it into a pot and keep it under close watch. Don't allow seed pods to fall into your garden or fluffy seeds blow off to the four corners.