"The Witch's Apothecary" book review

Last Updated: July 25, 2023

“The Witch’s Apothecary” book by Lorraine Anderson is now available everywhere. If you love to celebrate not only nature, but the turning of the wheel with all the witches’ holidays… this beautiful book is for you. And when I say beautiful, the illustrations throughout the book by Tonia Tkach are absolutely stunning. They’re gentle soft, and bring Lorraine’s words to life from the page.

Lorraine writes from the heart regarding her own experiences, and includes fantastic detail from Latin names to magick maker tips throughout that reaffirm her authority on the subject. You read it and can know that with every “Caution – this is photosensitive” to storage instructions for the recipes, Lorraine truly wants the best for your own personal practice whilst confidently promoting witchcraft as more than a practice, but a lifestyle too that “goes beyond the Instagram-worthy altar shot.” Can you see yet why I love this book? The purpose of the book is a way to show you how to live with intentionally more magick, to enjoy the therapeutic potion-making process, and to put it short – this is a book that every witch needs.

What's In The Book?

Recommended?: Yes, absolutely

Content: 200+ pages of recipes, correspondences, detail witches’ holiday tips, witchcraft tips, nature care and a strong love for a self-care practice. Within these pages you will find tinctures, body butters, spiritual washes, incense blends, creams, perfumes, room sprays and so much more.

Artwork: Sweet “cottagecore” vibes from illustrator Tonia Tkach that changes with the seasons within the book itself.

Inclusivity: Feminine based, but not ruling out Men or masculine energy directly to engage with the creations and the potion recipes etc. An example is the “Divine Non-binary Blend”

Environmental Impact: TBC; Printed & Bound in China. (No charitable mentions, such as 1% for the Planet, etc) However the book does discuss sustainability, which is a massive factor when it comes to creating anything, and it does discuss Fair Trade practice as part of our own witchcraft journeys.

Unique Book Points: The detail of the correspondences, the process from beginning to end (such a whole section dedicated in depth to the tools need AND their correspondences) the actual love of witchcraft that comes through – versus other herbal guides which whilst very scientific and helpful, provide minimal guidance when it comes to witchcraft use.

Overall, I think “The Witch’s Apothecary” should be part of your codex library, your Grimoire items, especially if you use nature items a lot in your practice. Feeding back to epic books like Dr Alice Tarbuck’s “The Modern Craft” and the ethics involved, it’s an excellent choice. I would say this book is for witches who want to explore glamour magick for confidence and self-love purposes, to explore herbalism more, to embody their green witchcraft roots. A completely different way to celebrate the witches holidays, if you normally do the tarot, bread and the booze thing if you’re a lazy witch like me. If you want to make your own potions, lotions and washes, this is a huge recommendation from me, so you’ll have to read it yourself and play with the potions to see if it’s really for you.

The Downside of the Book

It’s literally seasonal for the holidays, and for plants. If you’re not a greenthumb, if you’re not big on celebrating the seasons or the witches holidays, then this really isn’t for you. Whilst you can learn about Lorraine’s practice, from an almost biographically written point of view, if you have no interest in the greener aspects then you likely won’t want this book. But that’s literally all I can say on this – the book is explicitly clear it’s regarding green witchery.

My Favourite Chapter

Samhain, Chapter 7. As a lover of divination, I always go to where the veil is thin, and despite us having 20+ degree days here in the UK, there is always a countdown to the Witches’ New Year. Grief and mourning is something a lot of people shame away from, unfortunately, and it’s nice to see it being embraced with love in this chapter whether through the words or through the recipes (“Blood” offering and the Grieving body oil being my favourites).

Why I Loved This Book

It’s so bloody in depth! For my own herb series on the website, when I was writing about love or divination or money, it was a pain to look in all the different places to find a little bit of information “to be sure”. This book has all the correspondences you need in one spot, plus the bibliography list alone is a big list of stuff to add to your own library.

I feel that those who would love this book are those who want to embrace the green, herbal side of witchcraft more, and those who love celebrating not only the Wheel of the Year but also their own personal natural cycles.

If you’re interested in learning more about “The Witch’s Apothecary” book, you can do so here. Any click-throughs may lead to the affiliate programme awarding us compensation which helps compensate the writers on the website, pays towards the web hosting and all the other boring behind-the-scenes bits.

Thank you for reading my review! Until next time xox