An herbal in the old style, entry by entry: the virtues, the shadow, the poison, and the proper preparation of each plant — set down as the old writers would have it.
Kyle Bamboo · August 25, 2026
Rue, Ruta graveolens, is the Sun’s fierce herb of protection and bitter repentance—a plant of apotropaic power so ancient that its very name has become a word for sorrow and regret. I hold it among the most formidable and dangerous plants in the garden, a sovereign remedy of the old pharmacy now rightly approached with … Read more
Kyle Bamboo · August 25, 2026
Yarrow, Achillea millefolium, is the great styptic and fever-herb of Western herbalism—a plant ruled by Venus yet bearing a martial edge, equally famed for stanching the blood of warriors and for divining the secrets of the heart. I hold it to be one of the true normalizers of the green medicine cabinet, and no herbalist’s … Read more
Admin · August 6, 2026The first time I opened a jar of valerian root, I thought it had been stored next to garlic and wet dog. It was not a pleasant smell. It was, in fact, a smell that makes you question your life choices. But I had read enough alchemical texts to know that this was exactly the … Read more
