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Cures and Curses
The author of the best-selling A Witch's Guide to Gardening has done it again! Cures and Curses throws light on the medical art's inheritance from medieval witchcraft with a wise and delightful presentation of ancient recipes for such afflictions as whooping cough and headache -- recipes which were actually naive attempts to placate evil spirits by herb sorcery.
Mrs. Jacob goes on to trace the same characteristic in ancient and modern dietary prescriptions and in beliefs and practices concerning conception, childbirth, christenings, marriage, death and burials -- as well as housewives' habits, modern sanitation, and every-day customs which derive from ancient necromancy.
She takes pleasure in revealing the elements of magic or pseudo-magic which are a constant accompaniment to much that passes for common sense. In fact, Mrs. Jacob makes the reader delightedly aware that the days of the witch's curse, her spells, charms and animal familiars, are by no means fully eclipsed, and that they are in many respects here to stay.
Gardeners and herb-lovers will be bewitched by this book, for it offers much information on herbs and plants which were used throughout history in prescriptions and recipes against all dire machinations of evil forces. And, of course, this book will be adored by any amateur witch you may happen to know. Vividly written, Cures and Curses will cast its unique spell over any reader willing to be charmed.
Mrs. Jacob goes on to trace the same characteristic in ancient and modern dietary prescriptions and in beliefs and practices concerning conception, childbirth, christenings, marriage, death and burials -- as well as housewives' habits, modern sanitation, and every-day customs which derive from ancient necromancy.
She takes pleasure in revealing the elements of magic or pseudo-magic which are a constant accompaniment to much that passes for common sense. In fact, Mrs. Jacob makes the reader delightedly aware that the days of the witch's curse, her spells, charms and animal familiars, are by no means fully eclipsed, and that they are in many respects here to stay.
Gardeners and herb-lovers will be bewitched by this book, for it offers much information on herbs and plants which were used throughout history in prescriptions and recipes against all dire machinations of evil forces. And, of course, this book will be adored by any amateur witch you may happen to know. Vividly written, Cures and Curses will cast its unique spell over any reader willing to be charmed.
144 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1967
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