Brujo Ryan's Book of Magical and Medicinal Herbalism: Ancient Secrets for Modern Witches
Contemporary witchcraft has lost something crucial in its evolution from underground practice to mainstream spiritual movement—the occult secrets of combining astrological magic with medicinal and magical herbalism, the ancient art of working in deliberate harmony with celestial powers to amplify the healing and transformative properties of plants. This grimoire restores that lost knowledge, teaching practitioners how to time herbal preparations according to planetary hours, lunar phases, and zodiacal influences to dramatically increase effectiveness. True witchcraft operates as both art and science because real witches—not the TikTok performers or the Instagram aesthetics collectors but the actual practitioners whose work produces measurable results—experiment with plant medicine, test effectiveness using observational methods that predate formal science by millennia, and refine techniques based on what actually works rather than what sounds mystical. This is not woo woo spirituality divorced from material reality; this is practical magic that produces real physiological effects in human bodies because plants contain active compounds that interact with our biochemistry in predictable, documentable ways.
The first witch was not a woman who read a spell in a book or bought crystals at a metaphysical shop—she was the brave soul who went out into nature, observed which animals ate which plants, experimented on herself with different preparations, and discovered through trial and sometimes dangerous error that certain herbs eased menstrual cramps that had been considered inevitable suffering, cured illnesses that killed her neighbors, and healed wounds that would have festered and turned gangrenous. The first witches were herbalists and healers who built pharmacopeias through direct relationship with the green world, passing knowledge to daughters and granddaughters in unbroken chains stretching back to the Neolithic revolution when humans first began deliberately cultivating medicinal plants. These women understood fertility magic not as symbolic ritual but as practical application of herbs that genuinely increased chances of conception, knew how to treat what we now call erectile dysfunction with plant preparations that improved blood flow and hormonal balance, and most dangerously of all, possessed the knowledge to perform herbal abortions and concoct poisonous potions that could quietly eliminate a cheating, abusive, or violent husband who threatened their survival or their children's safety.
These are "the mothers"—the wise women, the cunning folk, the healers who held herbal secrets that made them simultaneously essential and terrifying to their communities. They were feared precisely because their knowledge gave them power that patriarchal structures couldn't fully control: the power over life and death, over fertility and sterility, over health and sickness. This knowledge passed from mother to daughter or granddaughter in whispered teachings, practical demonstrations, and apprenticeships that began in childhood, creating lineages of plant wisdom that persisted despite active persecution. Male allies who ran with these women and learned witchcraft directly from the mothers existed throughout history, many of them queer and gender non-conforming individuals who found acceptance in magical communities that mainstream society rejected. Men who fell under the influence of the Divine Feminine and learned to honor rather than dominate the creative forces of nature were also called witches, understanding that this path required setting aside patriarchal conditioning to access powers that refuse domination.
Not much has fundamentally changed over the last several thousand years despite dramatic shifts in technology, culture, and social organization. Everything modern medicine knows about pharmacology ultimately derives from this ancient body of herbal knowledge that continues evolving and expanding even today—pharmaceutical companies still send researchers into rainforests to learn from Indigenous healers, still synthesize plant compounds discovered by traditional practitioners, still build billion-dollar drugs from molecules that witches identified centuries ago through direct experimentation. The difference is that corporations now patent what was once common knowledge freely shared within communities, that doctors prescribe isolated compounds instead of whole-plant preparations that work synergistically, and that the same medical establishment that profits from witch-discovered medicines still dismisses herbalism as quaint folk practice lacking scientific validity. Meanwhile, practitioners of the craft continue being attacked, hunted, and condemned by ignorant adherents of Abrahamic religions who fear any spiritual power they cannot control through institutional hierarchy.
This grimoire celebrates rather than apologizes for witchcraft's dangerous knowledge, refusing to sanitize history or pretend that magical herbalism has always been gentle healing divorced from politics, survival, and sometimes necessary violence. Brujo Ryan's Book of Magical and Medicinal Herbalism teaches the complete scope of plant magic including the herbs our ancestors used for fertility and contraception, for healing and harming, for protection and revenge, for ecstatic vision and deadly poison. You'll learn which plants ease menstrual pain and which induce uterine contractions, which herbs increase libido and which decrease unwanted fertility, which preparations heal infection and which cause it, which compounds alter consciousness and which stop hearts. This is adult herbalism for practitioners who understand that the same knowledge that heals can harm, that power requires responsibility, and that witches throughout history have used their skills for survival in hostile environments where conventional morality often meant accepting victimization.
The book provides detailed materia medica covering hundreds of magical and medicinal plants, complete instructions for preparing teas, tinctures, salves, oils, and potions, guidance on timing herbal work according to astrological correspondences for maximum effectiveness, and safety protocols addressing herb-drug interactions, toxic dosages, and situations requiring medical referral rather than herbal treatment. Special sections cover women's health from menarche through menopause, men's sexual and reproductive health, elder care, childhood illnesses, mental and emotional wellness, and the herbs traditionally used for curse work, binding, protection, and spiritual cleansing. Each plant profile includes both scientific information about active compounds and traditional magical associations, demonstrating how empirical observation and symbolic correspondence work together in effective practice.
Written by Philip Ryan Deal from decades of study with traditional healers across multiple cultures and extensive personal experimentation with plant medicine, this grimoire honors the mothers who preserved this knowledge through centuries of persecution while making it accessible to contemporary witches regardless of gender, ancestry, or previous training. There has never been a better time to be a witch—we have access to global herbal knowledge through digital resources, legal protections previous generations lacked, and growing communities of practitioners who refuse to hide their power or apologize for their craft. This book gives you the tools to join that legacy, to become dangerous in the best possible way, and to wield the green magic that has sustained witches since the first human discovered that certain leaves eased pain and others opened doors to the spirit world.
For the witches who know plants are allies, medicines, and weapons.