Garden Necromancy: Summoning Spirits Many, many plants have historically been associated with the dead and the spirit world; often these were grave goods (offerings buried with the dead), or plants traditionally grown in cemeteries. The plant traditionally associated with raising the dead is the yew, but there are many other plants which are associated with [...]

Floromancy Like plants, most men have hidden properties that chance alone reveals. —Maxims La Rochefoucauld For ages, man has looked to plants for help in making decisions or using them to attempt to tell the future, especially in love. Nowadays, it’s mostly children who use flowers or plants this way–for instance, the game of picking [...]

The Bloud of Hearbes This was so weird, I just had to put it on a page. I found this recipe in A Garden of Herbs, by Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, who in turn found it Delights for Ladies by Sir Hugh Platt, which was published in 1594. (This is reproduced exactly as I found it [...]

People Die So That Plants May Live Note: I am NOT advocating human sacrifice as a method to increase garden yield. I just wanted to make that clear. In times past, in many different cultures all around the world, human beings were sacrificed in the hope that their blood would ensure the harvest would be [...]

The Mint Pool This is an idea that probably properly belongs in the Botanic Cathedral, but I thought the idea was so lovely that I’d give it a page of its own. The mint pool was a part of the garden before the ninth century, often part of the cloister garden. Helen Noyes Webster, in [...]

Pomanders Here’s a easy little craft item that is both *gothy* and *herbal*. Pomanders have a long and glorious history. They were once carried by the populace because physicians considered them protection against disease. The well-to-do carried intricately designed hollow metal balls filled with scented herbs (these expensive notions were favorite gifts to give on [...]

So You Want to Make a Zombi… Almost everyone has heard of zombies. Most people have even heard that zombies really do exist, even if they bear little resemblance to their shambling, brain-eating fictional portrayal in Night of the Living Dead. The creation of these real zombies is the result of administering a “zombi poison”, [...]

The Garden in Gothic Revival Gothic Revival, an architectural movement in the 18th and 19th centuries, began with temples and porticos in English landscape gardens. These gardens were often used as laboratories for architectural innovation, since the expense involved in constructing small structures in the garden was far less than that required to construct an [...]

Plants Suitable for Planting in Cemeteries Many cemeteries today offer perpetual care, and there is little contribution a family can make to a gravesite. But smaller and more rural graveyards still allow, or even need, the involvement of family members in the landscaping around a loved one’s grave. Goths that are interested in performing community [...]

Natural Black Dye for Hair and Clothing Herbal Black Hair Dye Here are two recipes I found in World of Herbs, by Lesley Bremness, which are natural formulations for darkening hair. I haven’t tried these, so I can’t vouch for their effectiveness or safety. I also suspect that these would only be useful if your [...]