A Wiccan Bible - Exploring the Mysteries of the Craft from Birth to Summerland

Liber ab Planta (Book of Plants—Condensed^1109

“Eye of newt and toe of frog,

Wool of bat and tongue of dog,

Adder’s fork and blind worm’s sting,

Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing.”

—William Shakespeare, Macbeth act 4 scene 1

Of course I wasn’t the first to address the connection between Witchcraft and these

seemingly disgusting ingredients. If you have read any recent examinations of Witch-

craft, chances are you already know that the ingredients listed above are merely folk

names for plants. Yes, there are exceptions to this. There are a few rather disgusting

ingredients in a few of the classic recipes that are not innocent reference to herbs, but

there are also a great many disgusting ingredients in modern day French cooking. Let’s

just face it, without our cultural bias, a blind worm’s sting is no more or less disgusting

than a plate full of snails.

In our rebirthing of the elder Pagan religions, we have included those elder religion’s

involvement with plants so much that today it is hard to find a book on Wicca that does

not have a recipe or two for incense, oils, or other brew. One can look at this in two

ways; they can look at the ‘what’ or the ‘why’ of the matter. Look at the ‘what’ and you

will probably see recipes for magick potions to do just about everything from making

money to winning back a departed love. I have even seen recipes for raising the dead.

Now, one can look at all of this and say Wiccans are some truly zany people, or one can

examine the ‘why’ of the matter.

The why of the relationship between Wiccans and plants is humanity’s symbiotic

relationship with the first order of life. This is reflected, in part, in the use of the phrase

first order of life to describe plants. Although we weren’t there at the moment of cre-

ation, it seems reasonable to believe plants came first because the animals that inhabit

our world simply cannot live without the oxygen created by plants. Even fish need oxy-

gen, although they acquire it in a different way.

So when you see the myriad of Wiccan books that provide incense recipes based on

sandalwood, know also that at least one variety of sandalwood (Santalum freycinetianum

var. lanaiense) was placed on the endangered species list in January of 1986. Here we

see that the secrets of Wicca, the recipes, are built into our religion in the hope that

they will guide the Wiccan’s initiatory path in the direction where they discover the

mystery that plants are sacred. Sure, someone might just build the statement into the

Wiccan religion, but what will it mean to you if you just read it rather than discovering

it for yourself? Would you better understand water as wet if someone tells you or if you

put your foot into a puddle? Would you better understand fire is hot if someone tells

you or if you put your foot into a bonfire? The answer is that you will better understand

water and fire if you put your foot into them.

As reported by Alex Kirby of the BBC, the World Conservation Union estimates

that in 1998, more than 12 percent of our world’s plant species faced extinction. The

WCU further estimates that if current rates continue, between one third and one half

of the current plant life found on the Earth will become extinct by the latter half of this

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