The Complete Folk Herbal: An Illustrated Guide to Natural Remedies and Everyday Healing by Rebecca Beyer

Vibrantly animistic and remarkably hypnotic, the Nine Plants Spell (Nigon Wyrta Galdor, popularly known as the Nine Herbs Charm) is an Old English healing galdor, a spell, that invokes nine personified plants and the pagan god Wōden to defeat a serpent before exploding in a psychedelic climax. One of the most mysterious items in the Old English corpus, and originally sung, chanted, or otherwise performed to treat an unknown malady, the Nine Plants Spell provides a rare window into a living landscape from a lost time, dripping with mysticism and mystery, humming with life. This third edition features new essays, art, and supplementary items to further assist in navigating the spell’s many mysteries.

Hopkins’s translation in the film Hamnet (2025)

Hopkins’s translation notably appears in the 2025 film Hamnet directed by Chloé Zhao. Zhao’s film is an adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell’s novel of the same name (2020, Tinder Press). Mention of the spell is not found in O’Farrell’s novel and is specific to the film. “It is a great joy to play a role in presenting the Nine Plants Spell to such a large audience in the contemporary period, surely providing the most exposure the spell has received since Anglo-Saxon England”, says Hopkins.

Poison Prescriptions is a stunningly illustrated grimoire of some of the most notorious plants: henbane, datura, belladonna, among others. It is also a practical guide to plant magic, medicine and ritual, offering advice to professional and home herbalists, to those interested in forgotten lore and the old ways, and to all those who wish to reclaim control of their own wellbeing.

This book urges the resurrection of the ancient tradition of using these witching herbs in ritual and medicine. Now is the time to relink magic and medicine in the context of modern herbalism and contemporary witchcraft.