There is a rosemary bush in a garden and a working that needs some of it. This is the fullest consent procedure in the whole practice, and unlike the gemstone version it is out loud, it involves waiting, and it ends with you giving something back. Herbs, plants and trees are all living, breathing beings — and much like the elementals found on gemstones, they need to be accessed in a proper manner, especially if you are going to use them. These entities are known as dryads, nymphs or tree spirits, and the disposition attributed to them is warm: most of these entities are gentle and loving and will cooperate with the Apprentice or Wizard, if properly approached.1
If properly approached is the condition, and the rest of the procedure is what proper means. The first move is a statement rather than a request, and it is spoken. Approach them with a sincere heart and state verbally to the herb, plant or tree what is required of it.
Verbally. Not silently, not mentally, not as a felt intention — the gemstone protocol's prayer was explicitly silent, and this one is explicitly not. You stand in front of the plant and say what you need from it.
And the sequence puts disclosure before the request. The plant is told what is wanted before it is asked for anything, which is the same order the gemstone cleansing uses when it has you tell the stone its purpose before the formulas.
The second move has no equivalent anywhere else in this material. The Apprentice must again state verbally that his or her intentions are not evil at all, and that permission is being asked to use the plant, tree or herb.
Two things in one sentence, and both are unusual. A declaration about your own motives — you say aloud that what you intend is not evil. And the word permission, which appears nowhere else in the practical material. Stones are recognised and thanked; plants are asked.
Then the wait: after some minutes. No sign is described and no answer is specified. Nothing tells a practitioner what a refusal would look like, and nothing tells them what to do if they think they have received one. But the minutes are there, and they are the only pause of their kind in this practice — every other procedure moves straight from the words to the work.
The taking is constrained twice, and then it is followed by a bill. Take only what is needed, and do it making sure that the herb, plant or tree is the least damaged. Two separate limits: on quantity, and on injury. You could take exactly what you need and still cut clumsily, and the second clause forbids that.
Then the tribute, and this is what makes the plant protocol different in kind from every other consent procedure here. As a tribute to the entity in the herb, plant or tree, the Apprentice or Wizard must place water, fertilizers — the natural kind — and caress its stem or bark lovingly. Water. Fertiliser, and specifically the natural kind. And a caress.
Two of those three are material. The gemstone protocol closes with thanks, which costs nothing; this one closes with something the plant can actually use, delivered on the spot. It is the only place in the practical material where a practitioner gives a non-human being a physical thing.
And the stated result has two halves: this will guarantee that the entity will not be infuriated, and that the part taken will go away with its blessings. Infuriated is a much stronger word than anything used about a gemstone spirit, which merely goes away if neglected. A plant spirit can be angered, and the tribute is what prevents it.
The uses divide cleanly by which part of the plant kingdom you are dealing with. Herbs and plants are used for their magical properties, and their parts are imbibed, made into ointments, or worn by people. Beyond that, Wizards create wonderful magical potions — used by the wizard, or given to non-magical folks to help them in their daily lives.
That last clause is the same move the gemstone material makes with enchanted stones given to family and friends. The practice keeps producing objects that leave the practitioner's hands and go to people who know nothing about any of this. Trees are used for their woods. Many trees are considered magical, and their woods are excellent for the creation of wands and staffs — which must be carefully crafted by wandmakers following precise instructions as to the creation and enchantment of such magical pieces.
So the wand a practitioner uses has a plant spirit's history behind it. Somebody stood in front of a tree, said what was needed, declared their intentions were not evil, waited, took the least, and left water and fertiliser at its roots. And then a wandmaker turned it into an instrument that runs all four worlds at once.
The list that follows runs to well over a hundred entries, and exactly two of them are prohibitions rather than uses. Belladonna: a very poisonous plant, and should never be used. Valerian: very poisonous, it should never be used.
⚠ One of those is correct and one is not. Belladonna — Atropa belladonna, deadly nightshade — is genuinely lethal; its tropane alkaloids kill, and historical magical use of it is exactly the sort of thing that killed people. Valerian is not poisonous. Valeriana officinalis is a common sedative herb sold over the counter in most countries, used for sleep and anxiety, with a mild side-effect profile.
Reported as printed. The practical effect of the error is harmless — a reader avoids a safe herb — and it is worth noting only because it shows the prohibition list is not a reliable safety guide. A reader should not infer that everything not on it is safe, and the material's own list is 135 plants long with two exclusions.
The closing advice in this section has two reasons attached, and the second is the interesting one. The Apprentice will do well in acquiring some of these herbs and plants. First reason: the material components will be readily accessible. That is logistics.
Second reason: the Wizard will have developed a worthy relationship with each individual plant spirit. Read that as the point rather than as a bonus. Buying dried rosemary in a jar gets you the material and no relationship, because there is nobody to have approached. Keeping a rosemary bush means the same spirit is asked repeatedly, given water and fertiliser repeatedly, and caressed repeatedly — and the relationship accumulates across every use.
Which is the one place in this practice where a long acquaintance with a non-human being is described as something a practitioner builds rather than something they perform once.
The whole procedure, in order. Go to the plant with a sincere heart and say out loud what you need from it. Verbally — this is not the silent prayer the gemstones take.
Then say, also out loud, that your intentions are not evil, and ask permission. Both halves; the declaration and the request are named separately. Wait some minutes. No sign is specified and none is promised. The pause is part of the procedure.
Take only what you need, cutting so the plant is damaged as little as possible. Pay the tribute before you leave: water, natural fertiliser, and a loving caress of the stem or bark. This is what stops the entity being infuriated and sends the cutting away with its blessing.
And keep the plant if you can. The stated reward for growing your own is not convenience but a worthy relationship with that particular spirit, built up over repeated asking. Never touch belladonna. And treat the two-name prohibition list as incomplete rather than as clearance for everything else.
The consent protocol, the tribute and the names given to plant spirits are asserted with no tradition named and nothing quoted. This is the Eldest Tradition warrant on the source stub. 🚩 SINGLE SOURCE.
Dryad and nymph are genuine Greek terms for tree and nature spirits and are used correctly. The practice of asking a plant's permission before harvesting is widely attested across many traditions, and the specific four-step form here is this system's own. ⚠ The belladonna warning is correct and the valerian warning is not. Valerian is a common over-the-counter sedative herb, not a poison. Both are reported as printed, with the correction attached, because a list of two exclusions from 135 entries is not a safety screen.
⚠ Herbs here are described as imbibed and made into ointments, and potions are described as given to non-magical people. Nothing in this material discusses dose, contraindication, interaction or identification error, and misidentified plants are a real and recurring cause of poisoning. Unresolved: nothing states what a refusal looks like. Permission is asked, some minutes pass, and the procedure continues to the taking regardless.
Follow the permission step and the plant can decline. You state your intentions, you ask, and you wait — which is only meaningful if the answer might be no, and if it might, then taking anyway would be a wrong done to a living being. Follow the sequence and the answer is assumed. After some minutes, take only what is needed. No sign is described, no refusal is defined, and the next instruction is the harvest. Nothing in the procedure branches.
Both are in one paragraph. And the tribute settles it in a way the wording does not: you pay afterwards to keep the entity from being infuriated, which is what you would do if you had taken something without a clear yes.
Abe / Aberewa — the Palm Tree as Divinity — Both traditions treat a specific plant as somebody you can address, and in both the practitioner goes to the plant rather than summoning anything. The tree stays where it is and the person walks over.
The Akan account has the woman consult the palm about childbearing — she asks a question and the tree is a party who answers. The traffic runs from the tree to the person, and what she comes away with is information. Here the traffic runs the other way, and neither corpus notices what that does to the relationship. A wizard approaches to take — leaves, bark, root — and everything in the protocol is built around that: the declaration of good intent, the request for permission, the minimum damage, the water and fertiliser left behind. A tradition where the plant gives counsel has no need of a tribute, because nothing was removed. A tradition where the plant gives material has to invent one, and does — which is why this is the only consent procedure in the whole practice that ends with the practitioner handing something over.
Sharpest implication. This is the only procedure in the entire practice where a non-human being is given a physical thing. Water, natural fertiliser, and a caress of the stem or bark — paid on the spot, to prevent the entity being infuriated and to send the cutting away with its blessings. A gemstone spirit gets thanks. A plant gets fed.
Generative questions.