{"id":17461,"date":"2021-07-08T14:00:57","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T19:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/?p=17461"},"modified":"2021-07-08T14:00:57","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T19:00:57","slug":"occult-botany-review-and-giveaway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/?p=17461","title":{"rendered":"Occult Botany Review and Giveaway"},"content":{"rendered":"
I have got some SUPER, SUPER sexy book porn for you today! I have the translated, edited, and annotated \u201cOccult Botany: Sedir\u2019s Concise Guide to Magical Plants\u201d by Paul Sedir. Sedir, pseudonym of Yvon Le Loup, passed away in 1926, but not before becoming a pivotal figure in the French occult revival. \u201cOccult Botany\u201d was first published in 1902 as a textbook for students of Papus\u2019s Ecole hermetique where he was a professor. This is being presented in a 448-page hardcover tome loaded with original illustrations and built-in ribbon bookmark. I told you it was sexy!<\/p>\n
As much as there is to applaud and celebrate with this text coming back in to print, we first need to appreciate R. Bailey, who went above and beyond in the translation of \u201cOccult Botany\u201d. If you treat yourself to this book, and you rightfully should, do not ignore the \u201cTranslator\u2019s Forward\u201d. Bailey provides us with a brief biography of Sedir and explains the sometimes-convoluted hoops he had to jump through to insure that \u201cOccult Botany\u201d was understood by modern readers. Bailey translated French and Latin, astrological and elemental symbols, AND used other texts that were available during Sedir\u2019s time to help fill in any gaps that were discovered. All of this carefully noted so that the reader can clearly tell where everything is from. Seriously.<\/p>\n
Now that I spent a whole paragraph praising the translator, let\u2019s say we actually discuss what Sedir offers in \u201cOccult Botany\u201d? This book is a wonderful, if sometimes dated, resource for lovers of plants and their magical potential. Part One, \u201cThe Plant Kingdom\u201d, discusses the vital forces at play in the plant kingdom. The assorted correspondences between individual plants and the planets, colors, aromas, and flavors. Part Two, \u201cPlants and Humans\u201d, explores the nature of our relationship with plants. Sedir talks about plants restoring organic deficiencies in the physical body, restoring electromagnetic deficiencies through herbal therapeutics, and help heal the astral body through their incorporation into rituals. He also suggests humans can return the favor by cultivating them using occult horticulture, restore them with vegetation magic, and resurrect them using plant palingenesis (reproduction of ancestral characteristics in the development of an individual organism). Part Three, \u201cA Concise Dictionary of Magical Plants.\u201d Here are individual plants with illustrations, their elemental qualities, ruling planets, zodiacal signatures, and occult properties.<\/p>\n
\u201cOccult Botany\u201d has 3 appendixes. Appendix One is devoted to occult medicine. Sedir defines occult medicine as, \u201cany therapeutic system that, when confronted with the pathological symptoms of the physical body, bases its diagnoses on an astral examination of the patient and treats the patient\u2019s life force in its invisible form.\u201d Appendix Two is dedicated to Paracelsian physiology, an early medical movement based on achieving balance of the body\u2019s microcosm and macrocosm. The last appendix is \u201cOn Opium Use\u201d. Yes, opium. I won\u2019t tell you what Sedir says about it, you\u2019ll have to read the book to find out!<\/p>\n