Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book. This is a pretty short read; 376 pages, so it was quick to get through. This is a practical guide to the celebration of Beltaine and the sacred herbs of spring. "Explores the identification, harvest, and safe practical and ritual use of more than 90 plants and trees. Details rituals for honoring the traditional Gods and Goddesses of spring, such as the Goddess Chloris, the Goddess Flora, and the Daghda. Reveals which herbs to use for luck, magic, protection, purification, abundance, fertility, and love as well as the herbs of the Faeries and Elves and herbs for journeying to the Otherworld and for contacting the High Gods and Goddesses." This was an interesting read and I learned a lot.

While I enjoyed a lot from this book, I didn’t learn anything new or different from it. I feel this book encompasses a lot of correspondences that are well known and has been bundled into one book, which is excellent when you want to work with that sabbat., but it didn’t offer anything new to me. I don’t feel seasoned witches with learn anything new from this book but the book is handy to have when working at a specific time, it does save having information everywhere. I highly recommend this book to beginners of the craft.

These type of books are always great to read, take notes from, and have around because they are usually chocked full of helping information. This book fits right into that category, it is fantastic for what it is and really gives all the information you may ever need in regards to springtime herbs and their uses in everyday life. I loved this book and the detailed descriptions it provides!

I loved this book! A wonderful reference guide to springtime and the many different plants, herbs and trees of the season. She examines the customs, foods, drinks, and rituals of May Day across many cultures. Discussing the gods and goddesses of spring, Hopman details the rituals for honoring them as well as traditional poems, prayers, incantations, folk rhymes, and sayings related to this time of year.

I am conflicted on this book. On one hand, the book does a lovely job of discussing Beltaine with its rituals/celebration. On the other hand , it does not really identify plants and trees. And while it does a good job at what it sets out to do, it is not what I thought I was getting.

Beautiful. artwork is your first impression of this lovely collection of plant lore, information on receipes and use as well as Beltane. I love that Celtic lore was included. This is a book to buy in hard cover to add to your collection. Its truly lovely to read and very informational.


Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for the opportunity. I highly recommend this book for all who want to learn about spring herbs.

I like how the author included Celtic folklore and the history of Beltane. It was interesting to read a book that explores herbs, trees, and flowers related to a specific sabbat. I enjoyed the information that was included on fairies. Only negative is I wish there were pictures for the herbs.

This book was interesting, but I could only read it in small doses before I'd start to get drowsy. Overall it was a decent book, but probably not one that I will buy.

Posted at: https://www.flyingthehedge.com/2020/03/book-review-sacred-herbs-of-spring-by.html

Review: "Hopman's previous book, The Sacred Herbs of Samhain, keeps popping up in my Amazon suggestions and I've seen it reviewed and posted about numerous times over the past couple of months. I am certainly interested in the book and when I was given the opportunity to review her newest book, The Sacred Herbs of Spring, I jumped on the opportunity. I was not disappointed! Hopman is a Druid and master herbalist, and it shows in her writing. Each chapter is filled with herbs and plants scared to Beltane based upon what you can use them for. Much like my herbarium posts, Hopman discussed each plant's folklore and their medicinal uses. For many of the plants, she also includes delicious recipes for culinary dishes as well as herbal remedies. Each description also comes with an extensive warning, allowing the reader to make an informed choice as to which plants they may or may not want to use. Furthermore, Hopman includes extensive research and cites her sources faithfully. As a scholar, I greatly appreciated her attention to detail.

My favorite chapter was over herbs to use to contact spirits and the Otherworld, but I felt some of the entries were lacking. There was much more Hopman could have included in this chapter, but for those interested in Otherworldly travel, it's a great introduction to some of the herbs you can use. Apart from otherworldly travel, Hopman also includes extensive sections on protection, clarity, love, and to attract nature spirits. She ends the book with a discussion of Beltane traditions, folklore, and foods. Her writing style is authoritative and scholarly but not boring. She weaves a story about each herb, sucking the reader in. I gobbled this book up in three days and strongly encourage anyone interested in plant folklore or herbal uses purchase this book up!

My only complaint about the book is that it does not, in fact, include a detailed description of what the plants look like. While I know a lot about herbs, there were some that I was not sure what they looked like and found myself Googling them. The temporary ARC I read had botanical prints at the beginning of the book, but not paired with the herbs in each chapter. I strongly encourage readers, especially those with limited herbal knowledge, to pair this book with a companion field guide. Hopman includes all the scientific names, so using a field guide should be rather easy. When it doubt, avoid using an herb unless you are 100% sure you are picking the right thing. Buying online from a reputable dealer is best for those unskilled in herbal identification.

The Sacred Herbs of Spring by Ellen Evert Hopman is available for pre-order now and will be released on May 1st, 2020 so pick up your copy today!"

The Sacred Herbs of Spring is way more than just a wee book about herbs.

It tells you lots of interesting information about Beltane and how to celebrate it.

Well Researched and beautifully illustrated its a great read and one that you will go back to time and again.

Thank You to Net galley and Destiny Books for the ARC. My review is my own opinion.

A well researched and well written book full of informations and entertaining.
It's a good read, recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

It is interesting to read about herbs, trees, and flowers in the context of a specific holiday (Beltane) and history - I enjoyed learning more about the beliefs and practices of the Celts, Greeks, Romans, and others.

If you're looking for detailed plant information though, this probably isn't the book for you: The details are scattered throughout multiple sections broken out by ritual, there aren't many images to help identify plants for foraging, and many of them seem to be poisonous(!).

A really interesting look at herbs and plants linked to this sabbat and time of year. Topics like origins of Beltaine, the 3 worlds (Celts), some fairies, how to make some stuff and more. Nice for those who have an interest in herbs and the sabbat.

A beautifully illustrated and lovingly researched book. An excellent resource for those interested in Celtic folklore and/or green witchcraft.

I had such high hopes for this book based on the lovely cover and the description of "Explores the identification, harvest, and safe practical and ritual use of more than 90 plants and trees." As an avid forager and herbalist, I love reading books that celebrate plants. Unfortunately, this is far more a book for people who are looking for Celtic spells and rituals for plants than an ID book or helpful herbal guide.

The only illustrations in the whole book are some pages of public domain illustrations in the first 20 pages or so before the book starts. These are lovely, detailed, color drawings, but they are widely available on the internet since they are public domain images from the likes of Elizabeth Blackwell and other wonderful botanical artists of the distant past.

It is absolutely untrue that this book gives information for identification of any of these herbs. In most cases, no ID information is given at all. In some cases there is very vague stuff like "Bittercress blooms in April and May, when the cuckoo first begins her song. The flowers look like little smocks hung out to dry, giving the plant one of its nicknames." I suspect that the author included those public domain antique images before the start of the book as the ID information, but that seems like a stretch. They're not even included next to the entries of the plants, and in each case it is one small (1/4 of a page) illustration, sometimes of only a part of the plant. For instance, the elder image shows elderberries and elderflowers but not the general size and shape of an elder shrub, the characteristic corky bark, or other important identification information to tell it apart from other berries or flowers.

There is quite a lot of in-depth information about things like how to contact fairies to help you (and how they may snatch you away if you dance too wildly), various rituals to do on various holy days for Druids, Celtic magickal lore, and so on. If you are looking for this kind of book, this will be a great fit.

There are some nice recipes for foods and teas (mainly) but they are generally taken from the internet (many are from one particularly site--the nerdy housewife or something like that). Again, if you are looking for information like recipes and foraging/gardening information, there is much better information online.

The author does not tell her own background in foraging, herbalism, gardening, or even paganism (Druidism? Wicca? she never even says her own faith or who this book is geared towards that I could find -- perhaps it's common sense if you follow whatever faith this is geared towards but as an outsider to this path I have no idea). I have no way of knowing if she knows a thing about these plants or even these rituals or if it's all taken from online sources. There is a brief introduction in the beginning, but it's by another author and only gives his background. It's very hard to take someone's advice with no information at all about who they are and whether they're qualified to give it -- especially as she gives advice about using mushrooms that are hallucinogenic and mentions very poisonous mushrooms that can quickly cause death (again, remember that there is no identification information provided other than Latin names of these mushrooms or any other plant prescribed in the book -- and the mushroom ID picture shows a small variety of mushrooms with no names attached to them).

This will be a nice book for some readers. There were a few recipes I marked to try (mostly I made a note to look for that nerdy housewife's site) but for the most part this was a miss for me. The author clearly did a lot of research and I do believe it can be helpful for people looking for that particular type of information, which is why I gave it 2 stars instead of 1.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.