Astrological Practice Of Physick [Paperback]

Contrary to modern beliefs, the medieval world was not one of superstition and ignorance. True, they lacked what we know as science, but on the other hand, they were in possession of a coherent philosophy of life, handed down to them from the Greeks and Romans, which had been further hammered out in a thousand ways over the course of centuries. When luck was with them (the period was, above all, poor), medieval peoples were surprisingly successful in dealing with the problems of everyday life.

Joseph Blagrave used planetary hours to harvest herbs in the hour of the planet which ruled it. So, for example, Angelica, which is ruled by the Sun, is harvested in the first hour after sunrise on Sunday. Nightshade, ruled by Saturn, is harvested in the first hour after sunrise on Saturday. Onions, ruled by Mars, are harvested in the first hour after sunrise on Tuesday. Such plants and herbs are supercharged. They exude the energies of the planet which rules them. Astrological medicine hinges on astrological definitions of the ailment, as in what planet caused the injury, which then determines the plant which has the same - or the opposite - planetary energy. It is therefore essential that plant has the maximum amount of the appropriate planet's energy. Such is the fundamental basis of Blagrave's practice.

The book starts with a list of herbs & plants, sorted by planet. In general this is similar to what you will find in Culpeper's Herbal, though with variations. Blagrave assigns numerical values to the planets (Mars gets the numbers 2, 4, 7 & 9, the Sun gets 1, 3, 4, 10 & 12) & seems to assign specific numbers to specific plants, but the exact passages are missing & were presumably deleted by the author in advance of the original publication, as there is a large gap in pagination. A guess is that he ran out of money and rationalized the omission because he had earlier published an herbal. Blagrave's herbal should be reprinted, but it is extremely rare.

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