The Royal Herbal

Hortus Regalis The Garden of the King

And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. — 1 Kings 4:33

What follows is a chronicle of plants as it might have been kept in the lost garden of the ancient wise — the herbarium of Adam who first named the green things of Eden, the discourse of Solomon from cedar to hyssop, the visions of Hildegard among the simples of her cloister. The medieval herbal is its outward form. Its inward form is older, and grows from the same root as the Tree of Life.

Every plant is a letter in the divine alphabet of the garden. The rose blooming from the cross is the heart redeemed. The lily of the field is the soul that toils not nor spins. The hyssop dipped in blood is purification. The vine is Christ, the wheat is His body, the olive is the oil of anointing. To know the plants rightly is to read the garden as scripture — and to walk beside the wizard whose tower stands beside the herb-bed and the orchard.

This herbal gathers the plants of the Royal Art — sovereign and humble, fragrant and venomous, fair-flowered and dark-rooted — and places each within the Great Work of which all green life is a part.

On the Herbal Tradition

The herbal is among the oldest of sacred sciences. Its sources reach into the temples of Egypt, where the lotus was the sun's seat upon the morning waters and the papyrus was the pillar of the marsh. From Theophrastus in the gardens of Athens, through Dioscorides in the camps of Rome, through the Persian and Arabic physicians, through the Hortus Sanitatis of the Middle Ages, through Hildegard's Physica, through Culpeper's Complete Herbal mapping every plant to its planet — the lineage is unbroken. To name a plant is to know it. To know it is to be physician, magus, gardener, priest in one office.

Through the medieval and Renaissance ages, the illuminated herbal joined the bestiary upon the wizard's shelf — handwritten and painted volumes describing each plant in its appearance, its virtues, its planetary signature, the diseases it healed, the visions it brought, and the lessons it offered the soul. Real herbs were placed beside the mandrake and the moonwort without distinction, for both alike were creatures of God's symbolic order. To know the plants was to know the world — and to wield it.

The Royal Art continues this work as the restoration of the symbolic order through which the garden is read as a living book.

I. The Sacred Trees

Before the garden of herbs is opened, the trees must be named. These are not plants among other plants but pillars — the great trees that hold the cosmos open, that root into Eden and rise into the heavens, that become the Cross upon which the world is redeemed. They stand at the head of the herbal as the world-axes from which all lesser greenery branches.

The Trees of the Garden

The Tree of Life — Pillar at the center of Eden; the Sephirothic tree of the Kabbalists; the axis mundi of every cosmos.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil — The doubled tree; bearer of the fruit by which the Fall was tasted; in mystic reading, the second tree that one day folds back into the first.

The Burning Bush — Tree alight yet not consumed; presence of the divine Name; the alchemical fire that purifies without destroying.

The Cross (Lignum Vitae) — The dead tree made living; the second Tree of Life raised upon Calvary; root of the Royal Art's central mystery.

The World Ash (Yggdrasil) — Norse axis-tree binding the nine worlds; the gallows upon which Odin hung to win the runes.

The Bodhi Tree — Beneath whose branches the Buddha awoke; eastern emblem of enlightenment under the green canopy.

The Great Trees of the Field

The Oak — Lord of the forest; sacred tree of Zeus and the Druids; pillar of strength and patient endurance; emblem of the King.

The Cedar of Lebanon — Royal wood of the Temple; pillar of Solomon's house; emblem of the just made fragrant by long years.

The Olive — Tree of peace; bearer of the oil of anointing; the dove returned to the Ark with its leaf in her beak.

The Vine — I am the true vine. The Christic plant; bearer of the wine that becomes blood; emblem of the sacred fellowship.

The Fig — First leaf to clothe fallen Adam; under whose shade Nathanael was seen; cursed by Christ for fruitlessness.

The Apple — Fruit of Eden and Avalon; bearer of knowledge, immortality, and temptation; the golden globe.

The Pomegranate — Many-seeded fruit of the underworld; Persephone's bond; emblem of resurrection and of the Church.

The Palm — Tree of victory and of paradise; spread before Christ at his entry into Jerusalem; the date-bearing pillar of the desert.

The Yew — Tree of churchyards and immortality; longest-lived of the green ones; gatekeeper between the worlds.

The Rowan — Protector against ill; the witch-tree of the threshold; bearer of red berries against the dark.

The Hawthorn — Tree of May and of faerie; the white blossom that opens the year; Joseph of Arimathea's staff at Glastonbury.

The Mistletoe — The golden bough; parasite that bears no root; gathered with a sickle of gold by the Druid; emblem of the soul that dwells between earth and heaven.

The Ash — Tree of the spear and the staff; lesser shadow of the world-tree.

The Birch — White-barked tree of beginnings; first tree of the runes; the witch's broom.

The Willow — Tree of mourning beside the waters of Babylon; lunar tree; companion of the harp.

II. The Great Garden of Plants

What follows is the central body of the herbal — the plants of the Royal Art arranged within the Great Work. The four alchemical stages — Nigredo, Albedo, Citrinitas, Rubedo — provide the outer order. Within each stage, the plants are gathered under their ruling planet, after the lineage of Culpeper and the older astro-botanists. The same plant may bear several signatures; it is placed where its strongest meaning lies.

Nigredo — The Blackening

The bitter herbs of dissolution. Plants of the dark earth, of the cypress grove, of the mourning vigil. The garden in winter; root and bone; the prima materia returning to its first matter.

Saturn — Lead, the cold root, the dark sap

Yew (Taxus) — Tree of the churchyard; longest-lived; its needles bear the gentle poison of slow eternity.

Cypress — Pillar of the cemetery; the pointed flame that does not flicker; Mediterranean tree of mourning.

Hellebore — Black flower of winter; Helleborus niger, the Christmas rose risen from the snow; ancient cure for melancholy.

Comfrey — Knit-bone; black root; healer of the wounded earth-body.

Blackthorn — The thorned hedge; bearer of the sloe; staff of the Irish witches and the bata.

Ivy — Clinging vine of the ruined wall; dweller upon dead stone; emblem of fidelity to what has passed.

Mars — Iron in the bramble

Nettle — Stinger of the unwary; iron-rich; the herb that punishes and then heals.

Thistle — Crowned warrior of the field; emblem of Scotland; the sharp grace of austerity.

Briar — The hedge of sleeping princesses; the wall of thorn around the awakening kingdom.

Crown of Thorns — Whatever bramble was woven into the Passion; the lower kingship turned to mockery, awaiting transmutation.

Mercury — Bitterness made wisdom

Wormwood (Artemisia) — Apsinthos; the bitter star of the Apocalypse; mother of absinthe; the herb of sober vision after intoxication.

Rue — Herb of grace; bitter cleanser; protection against the Evil Eye.

Luna — The dark waters

Willow — Tree of mourning; the harps hung upon its branches by the waters of Babylon; the salicylic spring of pain's relief.

Black Poppy — Bloom of the underworld; Persephone's flower; the cup of Hypnos and Thanatos.

Plants of the Stage

Wormwood — The bitter herb that begins the cure.

Mandrake (in its dark aspect) — The screaming root pulled from the earth at midnight; first matter in human shape.

The Black Lotus — Symbolic flower of the deepest waters; the unconscious before its rising.

Albedo — The Whitening

The white garden after the long winter. Snowdrop pushing through the frost; white rose of the dawn; lily of the field. Lunar consciousness, the silver garden under the rising moon.

Luna — Silver, the white pool, the still water

Lotus (white) — Egyptian flower of the morning sun upon the Nile; emblem of the soul rising from the muddy depths.

Water Lily — Nymphaea; the moon afloat upon the pond; the soul's first whiteness.

Jasmine — Night-blooming; fragrance of the lunar bride; the white star upon the dark vine.

White Poppy — Demeter's flower in her gentler aspect; sleep that heals rather than ends.

Moonwort — Fern of silver; herb of locks and unbindings.

Venus — Copper made fair, the bride's first ornament

White Rose — The rose of Sharon; the rose without thorn; the unstained flower of the Bride.

Lily — Lilium; the flos florum; trumpet of the Annunciation; the lily of the field which Solomon in all his glory could not surpass.

Lily of the Valley — Convallaria; the small lily of the shaded place; emblem of the hidden Christ.

Myrtle — Sacred to Aphrodite; Esther's other name; the bridal wreath of the Mediterranean.

Snowdrop — Galanthus; first bloom through the snow; emblem of hope and of the Candlemas.

Lady's Mantle — Alchemilla, the alchemist's herb; gatherer of the morning dew that the alchemist would distill into the aqua sapientiae.

Mercury — Quicksilver washed clean

Lavender — Silver-blue spike of the Mediterranean hill; the herb of cleansing and clarity.

Fennel — Tall feathered stalk of Prometheus; bearer of the secret fire; aid to the eyes and the inner sight.

Dill — Anise-fragrant herb of the kitchen and the cradle.

Caraway — Seed of the bread; emblem of fidelity.

Sol — The morning star

Daisy — Bellis; the day's-eye; small sun upon the meadow grass.

Edelweiss — Star of the alpine snow; the white sun upon the high places.

Jupiter — Tin, the gentle benefactor

Sage (white) — Salvia; herb of long life; the cleansing smoke of the cabin and the temple.

Borage — Ego borago gaudia semper ago; the cucumber-cool herb of courage and good cheer.

Hyssop — Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; the brushing herb of the threshold and the lintel.

Plants of the Stage

Lily — The annunciation flower; the sign that the Albedo has come.

White Rose — The unstained.

Mistletoe — White berries on the bare branch; the sign hung between the worlds.

Dew (Ros) — The white water of dawn, gathered in the aqua coelestis of the alchemists.

Citrinitas — The Yellowing

The solar dawn upon the garden. The marigold opening to the rising sun; the saffron stigma red-gold in the snow; the fields ripening toward harvest. Illumination breaking through the silver mist.

Sol — Gold, the kingly herb, the heart's flower

Sunflower — Helianthus; turner toward the sun; emblem of devotion.

Marigold (Calendula) — The little sun upon every meadow; opens at the dawn, closes at the dusk.

Saffron — Crocus sativus; the kingly spice; threads of red-gold worth their weight in the metal they imitate.

Bay Laurel — Crown of the poet and the victor; sacred to Apollo; tree of the Pythia's vision.

St John's Wort — Hypericum; the herb of midsummer; light-bringer in the season of the longest sun.

Chamomile — The little apple of the ground; calmer of the body; gold-rayed flower of the cottage door.

Frankincense (in its solar aspect) — Resin of the desert tree; smoke of kings before the Christ-child.

Venus — Copper bright as bronze

Apple Blossom — The pink-and-white herald of the orchard's coming gold.

Daffodil — Narcissus; trumpet of the spring; the flower over which the river-youth wept.

Goldenrod — Solidago; the late-summer staff of yellow stars.

Jupiter — Tin, the king's open hand

Dandelion — Lion's-tooth; the small sun in every lawn; the wishing-clock of the seed-head.

Broom — Planta genista; the yellow wand of the Plantagenets; royal herb of the heath.

Gorse — Spined and golden; the unconquerable bloom of the moor.

Mercury — Quicksilver gilded

Anise — Herb of the seer; clearer of the mind.

Marjoram — Amaracus; herb of joy; the dolphin's herb of the Greek isles.

Mars — Iron tempered to bronze

Saffron Crocus (autumn) — Mars in his refined aspect; fire become spice.

Orange — Fire-fruit of the southern garden; gold of the Hesperides.

Plants of the Stage

Marigold — The garden sun.

Saffron — The kingly thread.

Bay Laurel — The poet's crown.

Dew of Gold (Ros aureus) — The morning dew refined; sign that the Citrinitas approaches.

Rubedo — The Reddening

The garden in glory. The red rose at meridian; the pomegranate split open with its jeweled seeds; the vine heavy with the wine that becomes blood. The Stone made manifest in the bloom.

Sol — Gold in glory

Frankincense and Myrrh — The two resins of the magi; gold made smoke; the kingly and the bitter united upon the altar.

Red Sandalwood — Pterocarpus; heartwood of the kingly fragrance.

Mars — Iron made instrument of the King

Red Rose — Queen of all flowers crowned in her crimson aspect; the rose blooming upon the cross; the rosa mystica.

Red Poppy — Papaver; the field of remembrance; the blood spilled upon the ground that quickens the seed.

Hawthorn (in fruit) — The red-berried May; heart-medicine of the herbalists.

Cinnamon — Bark of fire and gold; one of the spices of the holy anointing oil of Exodus.

Dragon's Blood — Resin of the Dracaena; red gum that bleeds from the wound in the bark; ink of the magicians.

Venus — Copper in the Rubedo

Pomegranate Flower — Five-petalled red star; signature of the seeded fruit to come.

Damask Rose — Rose of the perfumer and the alchemist; from whose petals the aqua rosae is distilled.

Rosehip — The fruit of the rose; sweet-tart capsule of the Rubedo's lingering medicine.

Saturn — Lead transmuted

Pomegranate — Persephone's fruit; Saturn's queen returned from the underworld bearing the seeds of resurrection.

Black Cherry — Fruit of the dark wood made wine.

Jupiter — Tin made royal

Vine (in fruit) — Heavy with the grape; bearer of the wine that becomes the blood.

Wheat (in ear) — Heavy with the grain; bearer of the bread that becomes the body.

Plants of the Stage

The Red Rose — Crowned bloom of the completed Work.

The Vine — I am the true vine.

The Wheat — The bread of life.

The Pomegranate — The seeded fruit of the resurrected garden.

The Olive (in oil) — The anointing of the King.

The Lily and the Rose Together — The two flowers united upon the breast of the Bride; emblem of the wedded perfections.

III. The Witch's Garden

The dark plants and the visionary plants — those that grow in the borderlands of seeing, that the wise gather only with the proper word and the proper hour. The medieval herbal set the rose beside the mandrake and the saffron beside the henbane, for both alike were creatures of God's symbolic order. This final chapter continues that gesture: the visionary, the venomous, the faerie-touched, the witches' simples and the magicians' herbs.

Of the Visionary Cup

Mandrake (Mandragora) — The man-rooted plant; uprooted at midnight with the cry that kills the gardener; root of love-philtres and oracular dream.

Henbane (Hyoscyamus) — Pythonium; the seer's herb; some say the smoke breathed by the Pythia at Delphi.

Belladonna (Atropa) — Beautiful Lady; named for Atropos who cuts the thread; the witch's eye-dilator and the visionary's gate.

Datura (Thorn-apple) — Flower-trumpet of the night; the dangerous oracle; the dream-state from which not all return.

Opium Poppy — Demeter's gift; the milk of forgetfulness; the dream of the underworld carried in the bulb.

Ergot — Fungus of the rye; mother of the medieval visions and — by some readings — of the Eleusinian kykeon.

Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) — Red-capped mushroom of the birch wood; in some readings the Soma of the Rig Veda; the small sun beneath the tree.

Peyote (Lophophora) — Cactus of the sacred desert; the mescaline button of the Native American Church.

Ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis) — Vine of the soul; brew of the Amazon visionaries.

Of the Lethal Cup

Hemlock (Conium) — Cup drained by Socrates; the philosopher's calm parting; the long sleep without dream.

Aconite (Wolfsbane, Monkshood) — Hood of the dark monk; sacred to Hecate; the swift killer of the bestial passions or of their bearer.

Foxglove (Digitalis) — Fairy thimbles; the gentle poison that quickens or stills the heart according to the dose.

Oleander — Beauty of the southern garden; every part of her toxic; emblem of the deceiving fair.

Yew (in its poison) — The needles whose tea is the long sleep.

Nightshade — Witch's berry; deadly cousin of tomato and potato.

Of the Faerie Garden

Hawthorn — The May-tree; threshold of faerie; do not sleep beneath its branches at noon.

Elder — Tree of the Elder-Mother; cut not without asking permission of her.

Fern (and the fern-seed) — Said to bloom only at midsummer midnight; gatherer becomes invisible.

Four-leaf Clover — Eye of the second sight; finder of the hidden way.

Vervain — Verbena; the holy herb; consecrated by the Druids and the Christians alike.

Mugwort — Artemisia vulgaris; the dreamer's pillow; herb of Saint John's Eve.

Wood Sorrel — Oxalis; small white flower of the deep wood; the faerie shamrock.

Of the Witch's Pharmacy

Tansy — Bitter herb of the women's medicine; emblem of memory.

Pennyroyal — The midwife's herb; bringer of the late blood.

Motherwort — Leonurus; the heart-herb of the women in childbirth.

Juniper — Berry of the gin and of the scrying smoke.

Yarrow — Achillea; herb of the wounded warrior; thrown for the I Ching.

Rue — Herb of grace; the bitter shield against the Evil Eye.

Of the Resin and the Smoke

Frankincense — Smoke of kings; resin of Boswellia burned at the altar.

Myrrh — Bitter resin of the desert; oil of embalming and of anointing.

Storax — Resin of Styrax; one of the four temple incenses.

Galbanum — Resin of Ferula; component of the ketoret of the Tabernacle.

Copal — New World resin of the Maya altars.

Dragon's Blood — Already named; the red ink of the magicians.

Within the Royal Art Opus

The Royal Herbal is one volume in the wizard's tower of the Astral Library — companion to the Bestiary, the Lapidary, the Atlas, the Book of Hours, the Book of Angels, the Book of Emblems, the Grimoire, the Songbook, the Genealogy, the Tarot, and the Book of Correspondences. Each plant set down here is also a station the Exiled Prince meets along his Arc — the mandrake to be uprooted in the Nigredo, the lily to be received in the Albedo, the marigold to be opened in the Citrinitas, the rose and the vine to be crowned in the Rubedo. To know the plants is to read the garden as scripture, and to walk into the Tale already armed with its language. The wizard knows his herbs as the knight knows his beasts; both are the language of the Royal Art, and both grow upon the same divine field.

Related Pages

Symbolic Codex

The Astral Library of Light

The Royal Art: Magnum Opus

The Arc of the Prince

Sources