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The Herbal Lore of Wise Women and Wortcunners: The Healing Power of Medicinal Plants
This “deep excursion into the heart of herbalism” pulls back the curtain on centuries of herbal medicine and offers an inventory of useful plants for the modern herb gardener or homesteader (Rosemary Gladstar)
Traditional herbalists or wise women were not only good botanists or pharmacologists; they were also shamanic practitioners and keepers of occult knowledge about the powerful properties of plants. Traveling back to the healing arts of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, The Herbal Lore of Wise Women and Wortcunners takes readers deep into this world, through the leechcraft of heathen society and witches’ herb bundles to the cloister gardens of the Middle Ages. It also examines herbal medicine today in the traditional Chinese apothecary, the Indian ayurvedic system, homeopathy, and Native American medicine.
Balancing the mystical with the practical, author Wolf Storl explains how to become an herbalist, from collecting material to distilling and administering medicines. He includes authoritative advice on herb gardening, as well as a holistic inventory of plants used for purposes both benign and malign, from herbs for cooking, healing, beauty, and body care to psychedelic plants, witches’ salves for opening alternative realities, and poisonous herbs that can induce madness or cause death. Storl also describes traditional “women’s plants” and their dyeing cloth, spinning and weaving, or whipping up love potions. The Herbal Lore of Wise Women and Wortcunners is written for professional and amateur herbalists as well as gardeners, urban homesteaders, and plantspeople interested in these rich ancient traditions.
Traditional herbalists or wise women were not only good botanists or pharmacologists; they were also shamanic practitioners and keepers of occult knowledge about the powerful properties of plants. Traveling back to the healing arts of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, The Herbal Lore of Wise Women and Wortcunners takes readers deep into this world, through the leechcraft of heathen society and witches’ herb bundles to the cloister gardens of the Middle Ages. It also examines herbal medicine today in the traditional Chinese apothecary, the Indian ayurvedic system, homeopathy, and Native American medicine.
Balancing the mystical with the practical, author Wolf Storl explains how to become an herbalist, from collecting material to distilling and administering medicines. He includes authoritative advice on herb gardening, as well as a holistic inventory of plants used for purposes both benign and malign, from herbs for cooking, healing, beauty, and body care to psychedelic plants, witches’ salves for opening alternative realities, and poisonous herbs that can induce madness or cause death. Storl also describes traditional “women’s plants” and their dyeing cloth, spinning and weaving, or whipping up love potions. The Herbal Lore of Wise Women and Wortcunners is written for professional and amateur herbalists as well as gardeners, urban homesteaders, and plantspeople interested in these rich ancient traditions.
392 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
41 people are currently reading
465 people want to read
About the author
Wolf-Dieter Storl
70 books121 followersBorn in Saxony, Germany in 1942 with a green thumb and the gift of writing, and emigrating with his parents to the United States in 1954, cultural anthropologist and ethno-botanist Wolf Dieter Storl has had a special connection to nature since childhood. His specific area of research is shamanism and healing in traditional societies with a focus on the role of plants in all aspects of life, including sacred symbolism, magic, medicine, foods, and poisons. He has pursued this interest in many parts of the world.
After finishing his PhD in Anthropology (magna cum lauda) on a Fulbright scholarship in 1974 in Berne, Switzerland, he taught anthropology and sociology in Grants Pass, OR. During this time he also offered an organic gardening course that was extremely popular. He was one of the pioneers of the organic/biodynamic gardening movement. While preparing for his doctoral exams in Switzerland he also lived in an experimental community and helped tend a five-acre organic garden. There he had the good fortune to learn from master gardener, Manfred Stauffer who specialized in composting any organic matter.
Storl is also an avid traveler and has gathered much experience observing nature around the entire globe and spending time with people who are very connected to the nature that surrounds them. From1982 -83, he spent a year as an official visiting scholar at the Benares Hindu University, in Varanasi, India. After returning to the United States in 1984, he spent much time with traditional medicine persons of the Cheyenne and taught courses at Sheridan College in Sheridan, Wyoming. He has traveled and conducted research in South Asia, India, Mexico, the Canary Islands, South Africa, and much of Europe, pursuing ehtnobotanical and ethnomedicinal interests. He has written some twenty-five books and many articles in German and English, which have been translated into various languages, such as English, Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Japanese, Danish, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Czech. Storl is a frequent guest on German, Swiss and Austrian television and has also appeared on BBC.
After another visit in India and Nepal in 1986, he and his wife moved to Germany where he began to write books as a freelance writer and offer freelance lectures. He lives with his family on an old estate in the foothills of the Alps where he has a large garden.
Storl’s books are unique in that he does not treat nature only with cold objectivism. He is able to delve into nature's depths and supports his experience with ancient lore from all over the world that has been, for the most part, left on the wayside in the wake of objective science. He theorizes that science is not always as objective as it claims to be. He invites his readers on a journey into a world of nature that is completely alive and has its own rhyme and reason. Myths and lore from many cultures also have a prominent place in his writings, as he claims that the images portrayed in this way often tell us more about the true nature of things than dry facts can do.
Credentials:
MA from Kent State University, instructor there from 1967 – 1969 in anthropology and sociology.
PhD in Anthropology (magna cum lauda) from University of Berne Switzerland, Fulbright scholarship, 1974.
Organic, biodynamic gardener since 1970. First book, Culture and Horticulture from organic gardening course notes of three years on request of students.
Since 1986 freelance author living in Germany with family.
Wolf D. Storl also writes in German as Wolf-Dieter Storl
After finishing his PhD in Anthropology (magna cum lauda) on a Fulbright scholarship in 1974 in Berne, Switzerland, he taught anthropology and sociology in Grants Pass, OR. During this time he also offered an organic gardening course that was extremely popular. He was one of the pioneers of the organic/biodynamic gardening movement. While preparing for his doctoral exams in Switzerland he also lived in an experimental community and helped tend a five-acre organic garden. There he had the good fortune to learn from master gardener, Manfred Stauffer who specialized in composting any organic matter.
Storl is also an avid traveler and has gathered much experience observing nature around the entire globe and spending time with people who are very connected to the nature that surrounds them. From1982 -83, he spent a year as an official visiting scholar at the Benares Hindu University, in Varanasi, India. After returning to the United States in 1984, he spent much time with traditional medicine persons of the Cheyenne and taught courses at Sheridan College in Sheridan, Wyoming. He has traveled and conducted research in South Asia, India, Mexico, the Canary Islands, South Africa, and much of Europe, pursuing ehtnobotanical and ethnomedicinal interests. He has written some twenty-five books and many articles in German and English, which have been translated into various languages, such as English, Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Japanese, Danish, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Czech. Storl is a frequent guest on German, Swiss and Austrian television and has also appeared on BBC.
After another visit in India and Nepal in 1986, he and his wife moved to Germany where he began to write books as a freelance writer and offer freelance lectures. He lives with his family on an old estate in the foothills of the Alps where he has a large garden.
Storl’s books are unique in that he does not treat nature only with cold objectivism. He is able to delve into nature's depths and supports his experience with ancient lore from all over the world that has been, for the most part, left on the wayside in the wake of objective science. He theorizes that science is not always as objective as it claims to be. He invites his readers on a journey into a world of nature that is completely alive and has its own rhyme and reason. Myths and lore from many cultures also have a prominent place in his writings, as he claims that the images portrayed in this way often tell us more about the true nature of things than dry facts can do.
Credentials:
MA from Kent State University, instructor there from 1967 – 1969 in anthropology and sociology.
PhD in Anthropology (magna cum lauda) from University of Berne Switzerland, Fulbright scholarship, 1974.
Organic, biodynamic gardener since 1970. First book, Culture and Horticulture from organic gardening course notes of three years on request of students.
Since 1986 freelance author living in Germany with family.
Wolf D. Storl also writes in German as Wolf-Dieter Storl
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 25, 2012
First of all I have to admit that I am completely biased with regard to this book – Wolf Dieter Storl is one of my favourite writers and the German version of this book has been my all-time favourite book on herbalism ever since I came across it more than 20 years ago. It has been my treasured companion ever since.
This book is not about clinical herbalism and formulations – there are already dozens of such books on the market. Wolf-Dieter Storl is a cultural anthropologist by training, not a medical professional. He is also a passionate plant person and gifted story-teller who skilfully weaves his coss-cultural perspectives into the narrative.
The book introduces the reader to different healing philosophies from around the world, from Ayurveda, to Chinese Medicine, to Native American practices, thus putting our own dominant system into a comparative context.
He takes us on a journey that goes way beyond the reductionism prevalent in modern medical science and instead conveys the art and craft of traditional herbalism embedded in the cosmology of the ancients. In western herbal tradition that includes astrology. Storl manages to explain the often complex concepts of astrology in non-technical terms, which enables the student to understand the nature of plants from a completely different angle.
The scope of this book is phenomenal and the insights and pearls of wisdom contained within are priceless. The book covers the uses of herbs not just in terms of their medicinal uses, but comprises the whole sphere of the wise women – food and spices, aromatherapy and beauty care, aphrodisiacs and fertility, gardening and growing herbs, shamanic uses of herbs and more.
He also provides the reader with invaluable advice on how to become a ‘wortcunner’. 'What is a wortcunner anyway?' most people will ask. Storl explains the term in the first few pages. 'Wort' is an old word for herb and root, etymologically related to ‘Ur’ the source and origin of things, while 'cunner' is related to ken=knowing and kin=a close relative. So a wortcunner understands the whole entity of an herb intimately, as a close relative, because the totality of a herb (or person) is more than the sum of its constituents.
This book is a joy to read, taking the reader on a literary walk down the secret garden path to the plant devas themselves. I have learned more about the art and craft of traditional herbalism from these pages than from any other source, and I am delighted that this book is now, finally, becoming available to the English speaking world! A 'must read' for any student of herbalism who wants to go beyond formulas and constituents.
This book is not about clinical herbalism and formulations – there are already dozens of such books on the market. Wolf-Dieter Storl is a cultural anthropologist by training, not a medical professional. He is also a passionate plant person and gifted story-teller who skilfully weaves his coss-cultural perspectives into the narrative.
The book introduces the reader to different healing philosophies from around the world, from Ayurveda, to Chinese Medicine, to Native American practices, thus putting our own dominant system into a comparative context.
He takes us on a journey that goes way beyond the reductionism prevalent in modern medical science and instead conveys the art and craft of traditional herbalism embedded in the cosmology of the ancients. In western herbal tradition that includes astrology. Storl manages to explain the often complex concepts of astrology in non-technical terms, which enables the student to understand the nature of plants from a completely different angle.
The scope of this book is phenomenal and the insights and pearls of wisdom contained within are priceless. The book covers the uses of herbs not just in terms of their medicinal uses, but comprises the whole sphere of the wise women – food and spices, aromatherapy and beauty care, aphrodisiacs and fertility, gardening and growing herbs, shamanic uses of herbs and more.
He also provides the reader with invaluable advice on how to become a ‘wortcunner’. 'What is a wortcunner anyway?' most people will ask. Storl explains the term in the first few pages. 'Wort' is an old word for herb and root, etymologically related to ‘Ur’ the source and origin of things, while 'cunner' is related to ken=knowing and kin=a close relative. So a wortcunner understands the whole entity of an herb intimately, as a close relative, because the totality of a herb (or person) is more than the sum of its constituents.
This book is a joy to read, taking the reader on a literary walk down the secret garden path to the plant devas themselves. I have learned more about the art and craft of traditional herbalism from these pages than from any other source, and I am delighted that this book is now, finally, becoming available to the English speaking world! A 'must read' for any student of herbalism who wants to go beyond formulas and constituents.
July 15, 2025
There were parts of this book I liked, and some parts that were somewhat helpful, but for the most part, I did not enjoy this book. I was intrigued by Wolf-Dieter Storl's work as I had listened to an interview podcast, and had read the collaborative "Witchcraft Medicine" where I found much of what he was saying to be very interesting.
Upon reading this book, I felt immense disappointment and feel like I could have spent my money elsewhere. The first few chapters of the book focus far too much on traditional vs western medicine, being overly critical of western medicine, which does have its place, and naively romanticizing non-western culture and the use of certain traditional medicines without offering any balanced critique against unethical practices within traditional medicine such as over-harvesting and harm to animals.
While this book may be a decent primer for those interested in earlier herbal practices, I feel that this book could easily be skipped in the study of herbalism, without any loss to knowledge or wisdom, as it offers very little practical information, and some of the information provided could have been easily foraged elsewhere.
While the works of Schulke and perhaps even Pendell are often thought to be inaccessible, there are other books and authors which also provide older viewpoints. I still highly recommend the earlier work "Witchcraft Medicine" which is a collaboration between Wolf- Dieter Storl, Christian Ratsch and Claudia Muller Ebelling, the works of Corrine Boyer, Harold Roth, and the work of Ellen Evert Hopman.
Upon reading this book, I felt immense disappointment and feel like I could have spent my money elsewhere. The first few chapters of the book focus far too much on traditional vs western medicine, being overly critical of western medicine, which does have its place, and naively romanticizing non-western culture and the use of certain traditional medicines without offering any balanced critique against unethical practices within traditional medicine such as over-harvesting and harm to animals.
While this book may be a decent primer for those interested in earlier herbal practices, I feel that this book could easily be skipped in the study of herbalism, without any loss to knowledge or wisdom, as it offers very little practical information, and some of the information provided could have been easily foraged elsewhere.
While the works of Schulke and perhaps even Pendell are often thought to be inaccessible, there are other books and authors which also provide older viewpoints. I still highly recommend the earlier work "Witchcraft Medicine" which is a collaboration between Wolf- Dieter Storl, Christian Ratsch and Claudia Muller Ebelling, the works of Corrine Boyer, Harold Roth, and the work of Ellen Evert Hopman.
July 6, 2014
Phenomenal blend of science, folk medicine and lore, history, astrology and mythology, and practical information. A wonderful read.
August 20, 2012
Found this on my first trip to Powell's in Portland, and I was devouring it all the way home. Excellent reference for understanding the connections between modern western herbal models and regional traditions. Full of 'herbal lore,' bits of forgotten history and good practical advice. Also, unlike some herb books, this one was an absolutely delicious read. I've finished the book, but there are bits in here that I will never finish re-reading.
July 14, 2017
Interesting book and I got a lot of information from it. It was a little more "crunchy" that my personal perspective but it's good to read all kinds of things to define what you believe.
The author is obviously very passionate about herbs which is awesome but I was taken out of the narrative by the overly poetic tone and over exclaimed sentences (!!).
The author is obviously very passionate about herbs which is awesome but I was taken out of the narrative by the overly poetic tone and over exclaimed sentences (!!).
December 16, 2024
Taking my time going through this writing notes but it’s full of interesting historic information from an anthropological perspective. But I’d read most anything endorsed by Rosemary Gladstar so take that for what it’s worth.
October 31, 2019
He understands the ancient uses of the plants and the lore that was preserved in their names and uses. Great book!!
June 26, 2023
Pretty deep intense herbalism, talking about different traditions, cultures, astrology, and how it all impacts herbalism; lots of history; really interesting stuff, for not for the lay herbalist.
July 20, 2023
Great book--had to return to the library but will get it out again!
Read
May 25, 2025It was ok. Some really interesting parts, but also some more boring sections.
February 12, 2023
Neopagan revisionism.
June 19, 2013
Pre-do-bra !
Nema tu nabrajanja biljaka koja je za šta....ovo nije knjiga za štrebere....ova knjiga uči nešto mnogo bitnije. Nakon nešto povijesti herbalistike i kratkog opisa nekoliko drevnih i uspješnih medicinskih sustava ( koji na čovjeka ne gledaju kao na stroj kojemu treba mijenjati dijelove) uvodi u način razmišljanja koji je više duhovan, animističan. Nekako kao da potvrđuje neki moj staaari i nejasni osjećaj....da sad malo satiriziram.....osjećaj da kojekakva moderna kemičarska praznovja i materijalističke bajke o tzv. "aktivnim tvarima" i nemaju baš puno veze sa zdravljem :) , a da ni zdravlje kako ga duhovno retardirani mesari u bijelim kutama opisuju ...se može stavit pod upitnik ..... ma zapravo zajebi ovo kaj pričam i rađe pročitaj knjigu !!!
"Witchcraft medicine" kojoj je Wolf-Dieter Storl jeda od suautora mi je slijedeća na redu :)
Nema tu nabrajanja biljaka koja je za šta....ovo nije knjiga za štrebere....ova knjiga uči nešto mnogo bitnije. Nakon nešto povijesti herbalistike i kratkog opisa nekoliko drevnih i uspješnih medicinskih sustava ( koji na čovjeka ne gledaju kao na stroj kojemu treba mijenjati dijelove) uvodi u način razmišljanja koji je više duhovan, animističan. Nekako kao da potvrđuje neki moj staaari i nejasni osjećaj....da sad malo satiriziram.....osjećaj da kojekakva moderna kemičarska praznovja i materijalističke bajke o tzv. "aktivnim tvarima" i nemaju baš puno veze sa zdravljem :) , a da ni zdravlje kako ga duhovno retardirani mesari u bijelim kutama opisuju ...se može stavit pod upitnik ..... ma zapravo zajebi ovo kaj pričam i rađe pročitaj knjigu !!!
"Witchcraft medicine" kojoj je Wolf-Dieter Storl jeda od suautora mi je slijedeća na redu :)
July 7, 2014
This is not just another book listing herbs and their uses, in fact very little of it can even be used as a reference guide in this way. Rather it talks about the history of plant medicine, and how you can come into this knowledge for yourself without relying on endless texts. A good read, and very interesting.
January 28, 2013
Liked it over all, but since each chapter covers a different topic in brief I was often left wanting to know more about things that weren't going to be talked about and wanting less of others. Still good and worth a read for most herby folks.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews