Thirteen Pathways of Occult Herbalism. Daniel A Schulke

the degree of human dependency of civilization, or the privileges of the economic classes likely to be reading these pages. After all, the posh and carefully curated ‘retreat’ is a major offering of the modern travel industry; wilderness survival skills courses, though appealing to a different customer base, occupy the same category. These events are not hermitage, but diversions from the everyday, designed as competitive commercial products, and are offered and mediated by others, at a price for every budget, accompanied by safety policies and written assurances of satisfaction. To be clear, there are no such attributes to the Pathway of Disappearance.

      The Pathway of Vanishing or Disappearance implies dwelling within the wild, and severance from humanity without trace, as a form of ascetic practice. It is an act, and also a stance of power, needful for occult understanding. In as much as isolation and privation provides clarity by bodily removal from ‘background noise,’ so too does the severed bond of connectivity with all associations, and the endlessly self-proclaiming ‘loudness’ of humanity. This is the knowledge born of silence, a lesson taught all too effectively by Diviner’s Sage (Salvia divinorum), whose revelatory spirit, when used traditionally, departs in the presence of the obnoxious.

      This recalls the magical lesson of ‘Being Inaccessible’ in Carlos Castaneda’s The Journey to Ixtlan, a message more relevant than ever in the present age of electronic interconnectedness. In cutting such ties, one understands that time, ultimately, is one’s own, and how one accounts for it is ultimately a personal choice; for many, a very private one. The same applies to motion, thought, deed, and spiritual devotion.

      Although the philosophers and prophets of human religions have made great use of this Pathway, the concerns of the Hermit in the Wilderness are especially appropriate to the student of occult herbalism. The diminishment of self-importance, the destruction of the ego in the name of gaining something greater. Such is the act of Vanishing to oneself, such that in the process one discovers oneself anew, the realm of magical understanding aligned with the Wildman and Wood-wife, the barbarous and atavistic beings dwelling at the margins of civilization.

      Apart from the estates of soul incepted by the absence of humanity, we may also consider the presence of those powers attending on hermitage. The necessities of survival are of course paramount, incepting a shift in consciousness concerning personal responsibility, and locatedness as an organism nature. Besides direct observation of (and reliance on) the plants themselves, one awakens to unique ‘languages’ which interconnect flora, fauna, geology, and weather. Such are the ciphers of the Book of Nature, there to read if one dares. Within the lonely places of the wild, it is also true that dreams assume a wholly different character than that experienced previously, as the waking phenomena to which one is tethered has drastically shifted. In truth it may be said that the Path of Disappearance is such that it includes components of nearly every other pathway here mentioned, but in a particularly pure and concentrated form, the Alembic of Natura.

      Yet to those who seek this way, beware the many possibilities of disruption and disheartenment. At the distant primordium of Christianity, the Egyptian hermits fled the cities seeking a closer connection to their God and his angels in the desert. In the beginning, they found demons, with whom they struggled in righteousness. In time, they discovered something resembling God. As their ascetism drew ever-greater numbers of people to the solitude of the wastes, and even became competitive—such that each sought to prove how much more righteously he suffered that his brother—they discovered demons once again.

      Τοποθεσία • Topothesía

      THE PATH OF WITNESS

      The essence of the Path of Witness is the discipline of phenology, a term from the Greek phainō (to reveal or bring to light) logos (study), thus the study of appearances. As a pathway of Occult Herbalism its associated term is topothesía, meaning a locale or place, and thus we may also consider it to be the ‘Pathway of Rootedness,’ as its work arises from dwelling in one locale for an extended time, and incepting a certain intimacy with the powers and entities that animate its natural processes. Long practiced by farmers as a way of understanding the land, the seasons and plant and animal life, it represents a kind of ‘folk empiricism’ which provides precise information concerning the patterns of Nature in a given locale.

      Phenology, the study of life cycles progressed over the solar year, is an essential ally of the esoteric herbalist. Whether one is a botanist, a naturalist, a healer, or a practitioner of occult arts and science, anyone can make a phenological calendar and thereby learn an immense amount of directly relevant information about plants. This practical approach can be applied to the local wild plant populations, or to those under cultivation in farm and garden, or, ideally, both. In essence, one seeks to discover the Hand of Nature by direct observation—not with a single plant, but by recording a portrait of as many as possible. This pathway demands a respectful approach, and one that may readily be educated. The collection of actual specimens is not required, save for those that shall indwell the mind and heart.

      The essential work of phenology is calendrics, and the building of biological chronologies. Against a backdrop of time, plant growth and development are recorded in detail and its progression studied in relation to selected plants and their interactions with other populations. Examination of growing habit, life, reproduction, and death or dormancy is essential, noting difference between subdivisions of locality. This Pathway is of crucial importance to farmers, vintners, beekeepers, ranchers, horticulturists, and others who make their living off the land. The quality of a crop, such as wheat or grapes, is directly related to its phenologics, and assists in the husbandry of future crops and their associated products. Also subsumed within this cycle are geological processes, such as the effects of landslides and deposition, and the particulars of microclimate. The skeleton of a very simple annual approach might document the following phases of life:

      Sprouting / Setting of Buds. What annual plants emerged first? Which deciduous trees broke dormancy first? Was there a new succession of weeds, in response to seasonal conditions of the past year?

      Leafing. What particulars characterized the vegetative growth cycle, and were any pests present? How can the general vigor of the herb or tree be characterized in comparison to past phenological cycles?

      Flowering. How early did the flowers appear this year, as opposed to the year before? Can the difference be attributed to weather patterns, plant diseases, drought, or pests? If fragrant, what do the flowers smell like, in the present moment, and last year at flowering time? What pollinators visited?

      Fruiting and Harvest. Aside from such characteristics as flavor, health of fruit, and quantity of harvest, what differences can be discerned between this year’s crop and the last?

      The Dropping of Leaves and Dormancy. At the turn of Autumn, how quickly did the leaves turn, and how long did they stay on the branches? Was the Autumn so warm that certain annuals had an exceptionally long lifespan? In the dead of Winter, what did the bark on the deciduous trees look like, and what procession of wildlife made use of the evergreens?

      The phenological calendar is often drawn in a circular form, with the seasons of the year progressing around its hub, with various concentric rings representing various species. Simple individual models can be made to accommodate various grouping of plants such as fruit trees, annual medicinals, grain crops, or cut flowers. The visual display of information should be made in the manner most suiting the practitioner, and in terms of the information documented, there is no limit save the boundaries of the imagination. I have kept phenological calendars of plum trees of different varieties, and how their life cycles over time are related to wine made from their fruits.

      The Path of Witness may, upon first consideration, seem quite the opposite of what is understood to be ‘occult’ discipline, but let us consider that the information thus collected is ignored by most, and thus is ‘hidden.’ It is, therefore, a kind of concealed knowledge readily offered in generosity by the Hand of Natura to those who would listen. Consider too that gardening books and botanical manuals give only general information about how and where an individual plant species plant might grow: the most accurate