The Magickal Botanical Oracle; Plants from the Witch’s Garden

Maxine Miller and Christopher Penczak
ISBN 978-0738774077
Llewellyn Publications
$33.95

The Magickal Botanical Oracle deck includes of thirty-three cards with intricately detailed line drawings, some black and white and some accented with color. Each card highlights a different plant traditionally used in magic, such as hemlock, hellebore, moonflower or poppy, and features an illustration of the particular plant as well as the artist’s interpretation of its spirit and effects. Each image also includes the symbols for the plant’s elemental and astrological associations. Printed on cardstock with a matte finish, the backs of the cards feature an image from card 33, The Witch’s Garden, which shows the spirits of mandrake and datura with their roots entwined and holding an upright pentacle between them, with flowers of other plants arranged to form a middle pillar below.

The deck is packaged with a 224-page guide book that details the meanings of each card and includes several suggested spreads. For each card, Miller and Penczak provide the Latin name of the featured plant, its elemental and planetary associations, its magical uses and associations, its medicinal uses, its divinatory meanings—both upright and reversed—and an affirmation that can be used as a mantra for meditation and an access point for the plant’s energy. If you are curious about magical herbalism, this deck and book can provide an excellent starting point in your journey into plant magic. For anyone already engaged in magical work with plants, this deck will provide another means to hear their messages and a method for deepening your conversation with the spirits of magical plants.