Energetic Herbalism is a guide to sacred (Eastern) herbal traditions presented by Kat Maier. Due out 26th Nov 2021 from Chelsea Green Publishing, it's 392 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.
The author is a clinical herbalist (with 3 decades of experience), physician's assistant, and holistic
practitioner. She teaches herbalism, energetics, and elemental medicine (humors, seasonal medicines, the western pre-Christian/Druidic calender). If that sounds like this book contains a fair bit of new age
'woo', well, it does, honestly. That being said, I (firmly 'school of
western medicine' and about as non-'woo' as it's possible to be) found
quite a lot of interesting food for thought here. It's a well
structured and well-written book. The author seems to have a balanced sense of both indigenous (Asian) traditional herbal medicine and an awareness of the western medical system and she manages to have an encouraging and
supportive voice with a foot in each camp. She's not strident or preachy or condescending and she presents the information in a reasonable and measured way.
For readers who are interested in
alternative/eastern philosophy & healing, this is well written
and accessible, containing quite a lot of info. The chapters present the material in an understandable
and logical manner: basic information, followed by recipes and tutorials. The text throughout is enhanced by line drawn illustrations by Lara Gastinger.
Graphically the book is light and clean looking with
high contrast text and clear directions.
Four stars. Interesting alternative ideas and recipes. This would be a good choice for public library acquisition, smallholders, foragers, and students of natural healing.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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