Now and again, a book emerges with the power to shift the cultural narrative—much like Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind, and Diana Beresford-Kroeger’s To Speak for the Trees—each illuminating our consciousness and redefining our relationship with Nature.
Plant Magick was one of those books that kept coming up in conversations during late 2022 until, finally, a copy arrived on my desk—courtesy of our witchy office manager who ordered one for our library. At House of Hackney, books are where we find inspiration; we absorb their words and philosophies and transform them into the visual, using the power of creativity to tell stories.
But Plant Magick was different. It had the aura of the Bible, with its gilded block printing, embossed insignia, and weighty, sacred presence. Turning its pages, the reader embarks on a profound journey, exploring Nature as both muse and teacher, and the magic that surrounds us—if only we open our eyes. It became our in-house bible, revealing the wonders of the natural world through a rich visual narrative of local and Indigenous artists, poets, herbalists, and witches. Each voice shares a story of deepening their relationship with Nature, all echoing a common truth: we are Nature.
Through its pages, we discovered that Plant Magick is just one volume in the Library of Esoterica, a mesmerizing collection conceived and curated by the magical Jessica Hundley. In an uncertain world, these books serve as a beacon—reminding us of the enchantment waiting just beyond our doorstep.
In a twist of serendipity, despite living on opposite sides of the ocean, Jessica and I shared a dear friend in common, leading to an introduction. And so, here we are—both accepting each other’s invitation to collaborate and celebrate our shared mission of honouring the wisdom of Nature, weaving its magic into our work, and inspiring others to reconnect with the natural world.
What began as a book on my desk has blossomed into a creative partnership—one rooted in a shared reverence for the enchanted, the unseen, and the profound beauty that surrounds us.
Frieda Gormley, House of Hackney Founder
We’ve come together with The Library of Esoterica to bring you a season of spellbinding essays, events, art and interiors, with the plant as muse, as part of our Year of Anima Mundi.
We begin with a message from The Library of Esoterica’s editor, Jessica Hundley, about reawakening our connection with Nature.
NATURE REMAINS
By Jessica Hundley
After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, love, and so on – have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear – what remains? Nature remains; to bring out from their torpid recesses, the affinities of a man or woman with the open air, the trees, fields, the changes of seasons – the sun by day and the stars of heaven by night.
– Walt Whitman, Specimen Days, 1892
We live in an era of isolation and disconnection, our screens a surrogate for bodily experience, a two-dimensional world slowly replacing our immersion in the living, breathing, material realm. Our time online replaces our time in nature – our hands in warm soil, or tracing the rough edges of tree bark, our feet sunk into soft grass or stepping through a pine-needle path, above us, bright sun streaming through a stained- glass canopy of green. We have become separated, by industrial and technological revolutions, from the wild and growing things, cast out from Eden, not through an act of original sin, but of our own volition.
Look around, eyes open and one soon realizes that we remain in the Garden. The earthly delights are not hidden beyond high walls, but instead, wait just outside our door. With this volume of The Library of Esoterica, we hope to plant this seed of awakening, providing a reminder to open ourselves up, once again, to the natural realm, to the plants, cacti, fungi, flowers and trees that heal and sustain us. We explore the symbolism, ceremony and our ritual relationships with the botanical world. We trace the historical roots of plants and fungi in myth, religion, and magickal practices around the globe. And we celebrate botanicals as muse, both in popular culture and in the visionary art inspired by psycho- active plants, cacti and mushrooms.
Nature, in her generosity, offers us potent medicines and nourishing foods and restorative spiritual, mental and emotional sustenance. By exploring the history of our relationship with the natural world, we find traces of our lost selves, our own stories threaded through the myths of the ancient deities once worshiped by our ancestors.
And as we begin again to comprehend our deep and symbiotic connection with Mother Earth, the hope is that we will listen to and learn from her, becoming better and more gentle stewards, nurturing the environment that in turn nurtures all life on this planet.
THE LIBRARY OF ESOTERICA
PLANT MAGICK
PLANT MAGICK
Throughout the ages, metaphysical traditions have been translated into sacred and visionary art. The Library of Esoterica explores the symbolic language of our most potent universal stories.
The fourth volume in The Library of Esoterica explores the historic roots of plants in myth and magickal practices. Through essays, interviews, and more than 400 images—from ancient Egyptian stonework to Victorian botanical art, to contemporary works celebrating nature —
Plant Magick chronicles the symbiotic relationship between plants and people.
Add a little magick to your life.
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