With roots resembling human figures that contain hallucinogenic alkaloids, the mandragora plant, also known as the mandrake, has been associated with a variety of religious, medicinal and spiritual practices throughout history. The Greeks, the Egyptians and Pagans across Europe have used it in rituals all the way up to today, where it is still used in Wiccan and Heathanery practices. This fascinating book examines the history, uses and depictions of this mysterious half-human-half-plant-entity.
Three Becomes Two Becomes One Becomes None explores the medicinal and magical mandragora plant, and the many stories that grew around it across history. Artist Leonie Brandner's writing moves from the beginning of recorded storytelling to ancient Egyptian and Greek mythology, tracing the lines the mandragora has left behind in medicinal books, folklore and eventually the impact the plant had in the hunt on so-called witches in the Middle Ages.
Gently weaving her own perception and encounters with the plant through her rigorous historical research, Leonie Brandner creates a kaleidoscopic image of human-plant-imaginations across time.
Published by Onomatopee. 196 pages, colour illustrations throughout, 15 x 20 cm, paperback, English.