A NEW book opens the door on how plants can help us to better understand the world.

Wild Enchantments: Let Plants Be Our Teachers blends the insights of Stroud herbalist Nathaniel Hughes with the paintings of Fiona Owen, who also lived in Stroud for many decades.

Complete with a set of plant wisdom oracle cards, the book invites readers to learn from plants, offering a radical and immersive approach to herbalism and plant connection and a doorway to self-awareness, healing and interrelation with all life.

Nathaniel weaves 30 years of clinical experience and knowledge into this work, along with a deep sensitivity and attunement to the natural world.

“Wild Enchantments invites readers to move beyond traditional uses of herbs as remedies, exploring plants as guides that inspire a deeper, more reciprocal relationship with nature.

“Our aim is to encourage individuals to connect directly with plants, allowing them to uncover paths of healing and ways to re-mythologise our understanding of the world,” he said.

“The book is a call to pay attention to the millions of years of evolutionary wisdom held within the natural world.

“By engaging with plants in this way, we invite readers to explore new ways of being that are rooted in reciprocity, community, connection and care for both people and the land.

“The book is a doorway into deepening your journey of relationship with the living world that surrounds and sustains us.

“The journey is sometimes challenging, sometimes ecstatic, sometimes confusing and sometimes full of wonder but in listening to the plants, we may grow the roots of a more profound, enduring connection with life itself.”

Wild Enchantments is Nathaniel’s third collaborative publication with Fiona Owen.

Fiona has created paintings, intricately gilded with gold leaf and layered with alchemical symbolism and sacred geometry.

Introducing readers to 33 plants in turn, the book explores their qualities and invitations, sharing tips and techniques for meeting each plant, and working with them ritually, and safely.

Wild Enchantments is published by Quintessence Press.

See weedsintheheart.org.uk/wildenchantments