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by Paul Huson 
A Practical and Yet Mystical Introduction to Herbalism
This book has two faces, one masking the other. Huson presents his book as a practical herbal, explaining how to use herbs in cooking and perfumery, as aphrodisiacs and to increase longevity, to live healthily and look beautiful at the same time. It also features a chapter on where to buy herbs, brief descriptions of the basic plants, and how to start an herb garden. Huson also includes a brief but thorough history of herbalism through the ages. As he points out, the aim throughout the book was practicality. Accordingly, my wife Fayaway and I have found something useful in each of these chapters. Perhaps the best thing to come out of this book was the inspiration to plant a garden, which has provided us with an eternally renewing source of herbs for our experiments in cooking, perfumery, and natural healing. Huson tells us, in clear but entertaining language, how to make practical use of these marvelous plants. Herbs carry an occult reputation before them, and Huson makes it easy to apply the power of these wonderful gifts from nature in one's daily life. That he has written a practical herbal without losing sight of the mystical qualities of herbs and their importance to us in these days of ecological crisis is all the more amazing, and is one of the joys of this book. The mysticism which infuses these pages is the face behind the mask: Huson's reverence for the earth is apparent throughout, particularly in his evocation of the magical essence of herbs and how we feel once we become aware of their beauty, grace, and power. Without preaching, he shows us how herbs can help us live closer to the earth, in accord with its rhythms, and he reminds us that we are part of something larger than our species and the societies we build. By reading this book, and taking part in the activities here, Fayaway and I have renewed our connection with the organism which is the earth, and of which we are but a small part. In this, then, the book is merely disguised as a practical herbal: always behind, beneath, and within Huson's words is an awareness of the beauty and simple grandeur of the plant life on this planet, and our part in the globe's cosmic order. Huson walks a fine line between practical and mystical without losing his way. It is the sort of herbal that the utilitarian Benjamin Franklin and the reverent Ralph Waldo Emerson might have produced together. It is fitting, then, that the practical and the mystical have become in some sense identical, in this day and age. We as a species have laid waste to the planet, and our circumstances are even more dire than they were when this book was first published. It is a matter of simple survival that we see how we are connected with the rest of the universe, and bring ourselves in line with the cosmos. Failure to do so will mean our certain extinction, as well as that of the ecosphere. This book is a fine place to start learning again of our connection with the earth and to return to simpler ways. Reading it is also a pleasant way to pass the morning in the garden or a rainy afternoon, perhaps while drinking one the teas recommended herein. The Select Bibliography lists books which, though perhaps more comprehensive on any of the various facets of herbalism described here, do not present the information with the same wit, joviality, and reverence for the earth that Huson does. I also enjoy his drawings, inspired by medieval herbals. I'd take this book over any other herbal, any day of the week. It conjures up, as no other herbal I've encountered does, Marvell's lines "a green thought in a green shade". It is recommended for beginners in the study of herbalism in general, as well as those who are specializing in one area of the field, and who want to know more about the other uses of these wonderful plants. |
