Working with Heramael: A Two-Inch Verum Seal Pendant, Healing Lore, and Plant Virtues
Heramael, and a domain of healing knowledge
He also makes known the virtues of plants, where they are to be found, when to pluck them, and their making into a complete cure. That is a very particular domain, and it shapes this whole article. It is a domain of knowledge, not of instant remedy: knowledge of illnesses, knowledge of plants, knowledge of place and time, and knowledge of preparation.
That distinction matters, and it should be stated plainly at the outset. A pendant for Heramael work is a tool for study and for traditional practice, not a medical device, and this article does not claim that wearing it, holding it, or working with it will heal any person or condition. What it can do, honestly, is gather a course of study: the study of healing lore, of plant virtues, and of the careful, patient work by which plants are known, gathered, and prepared. That study is itself a serious discipline, and it deserves an article of its own.
The Grimoire Companion entry for Heramael gives the same domain, in briefer form: a Chief who teaches the art of healing, the complete knowledge of any illness and its cure, and the virtues of plants, where they grow, when to gather them, and how to prepare complete cures, with healing and nature as his tags.
Starting with the work, not with the tool
Spirit work is not shopping, and a pendant does not do the work for you. Before you wear a seal pendant for Heramael work, be clear about what you are studying, and what you are asking for. A vague purpose produces a vague working, and a vague working is hard to read afterwards. If you cannot state the matter in one clear sentence, write it down, leave it overnight, and come back to see if it still reads true. That pause is part of the work, not a delay in it.
Ask yourself, concretely: are you studying healing lore in general, or a particular plant, or a particular tradition of preparation? Are you a practitioner who already works with plants, and who wants a focus for that work, or are you beginning, and seeking a disciplined way to learn? Those are different starting points, and they call for different study, and for different ordinary-world steps alongside any ritual work.
If you are working in the Verum system, work from the instructions and teaching you already follow in that system. A general article like this one is not a substitute for proper teaching, and it should not be used to invent a purpose for a spirit you have not studied. And if the matter before you is a real illness, in yourself or in another person, seek proper medical care first, or at the same time. Traditional healing lore is not a substitute for a doctor, and it should never be used to delay care that is needed.
How the pendant is made here
This pendant is a cast seal, two inches across in the Verum tradition. The general making described for cast seals on this site applies here: lost wax cast seals, in pure metal actually cast, starting with a wax version, which is much higher quality than the 3D printed versions, using metal powder and plastic, that you find around the internet. A cast seal has weight, and a surface that will wear, very slightly, with use, and that wearing is part of its life as a worn tool.
Two inches is a substantial size for a worn seal: large enough to hold in the hand, to see clearly, and to feel its weight against the chest, but still a pendant, made to be worn rather than only displayed. Seals of this kind are pictured as just discs, and you can get them like that if you prefer, but a bail is either cast onto them or soldered on, depending on the metal used, so you can use the seal as a pendant. That bail is what turns a disc into a wearable tool, and it should be checked from time to time, as any bail on a heavy pendant should be.
A pendant that will be worn for years, through study and through work with plants, is worth the waiting time its making requires. Listed cast seals of this kind take approximately two to three weeks to make, and unlisted versions take longer, because their waxes have not yet been carved. That waiting time is part of the making, not an inconvenience to be resented.
Working with a seal pendant, in practice
A pendant is worked with by wearing it, and by handling it, and the handling is itself a practice. Hold the seal in the hand while you study a plant, or a text on healing lore, and let the weight of it remind you of the question you are holding. Put it under a candle during a working, so that the light and the seal are together for the duration of the rite. Put oil on it, if your practice calls for anointing, and let the oil mark it for the purpose. Carry it with you when you go out to look for plants, wear it as a pendant day by day, and show it to the desired person when your practice calls for the seal to be presented rather than merely worn, in the sense Athena describes for seal work generally.
For Heramael work, the carrying matters in a particular way. A pendant that never leaves the house will gather only house associations. A pendant carried into a garden, a wood, or a place where plants grow, worn while you are actually looking, noting, and learning, gathers associations of a different kind. Take it, respectfully, into the places the work belongs to, and let the work be shaped by those places, and by the plants themselves, observed in their own seasons.
That does not mean wearing it carelessly. A two-inch cast pendant is a solid piece. Keep it on a cord or chain that can bear its weight, keep it in a proper place when it is not being worn, and do not wear it into situations where it will be damaged without need. A tool that is cared for lasts, and a tool that is neglected tells you, every time you pick it up, that the work itself has been neglected too.
The virtues of plants: what knowing a plant actually means
Knowing the virtues of a plant, as Heramael's domain describes it, is not the same as knowing its name. A name can be looked up in a moment. A virtue is learned over time, by observation, by reading, by handling, and by learning from people who have worked with the plant before you. It includes where the plant is to be found, in what kind of ground, in what kind of light, and at what time of year, and when to pluck it, at what stage of its growth, and at what hour, if your tradition specifies an hour.
That knowledge is practical, and it is also a discipline against haste. A practitioner who gathers a plant without knowing it, without knowing its season, or without knowing how it should be prepared, is not practising healing lore. He is merely gathering. The lore lies in the discrimination: this plant, at this time, in this place, prepared in this way, for this purpose, and not another plant, at another time, prepared another way. That discrimination is learned slowly, plant by plant, and it is the opposite of a general claim that all plants heal all things.
Keep a record of your plant study in the same spirit: date, place, plant, stage of growth, conditions, what you observed, what you read, and what you will return to next. Over months, that record becomes a body of knowledge that no single outing could give. A pendant on the chest is a reminder to open the notebook. The notebook, kept daily, is the work itself.
Place, time, and preparation
Place first, because a plant gathered in the wrong place, or in a polluted place, or in a place where it does not properly grow, is not the plant the lore describes, whatever its name may be. Learn the habitat, and learn to leave a place as you found it, or better, taking only what you need, and only where gathering is lawful and permitted.
Time second, because a plant is not the same thing at every stage of its life. Leaf, flower, root, and seed are different materials, gathered at different times, and prepared differently. A practitioner who gathers at the wrong time, out of impatience, will have the wrong material, however good his intentions. Learn the season, and learn to wait for it. Waiting is part of plant work, and it teaches patience in a way reading alone does not.
Preparation third, because a plant, however well gathered, must be made into something usable, and that making is itself a craft: drying, steeping, infusing, or otherwise preparing, according to the tradition you follow, with clean tools, in a clean space, and with attention to what is actually happening, rather than to what you hope will happen. A preparation made carelessly is a careless preparation, whatever the plant, and it should be named as such, honestly, rather than excused.
Safety, honesty, and the limits of lore
Plant lore carries real risks, and honesty about those risks is part of practising it well. Many plants are toxic, or toxic in the wrong dose, or toxic in combination with medicines, or allergenic to particular people. Traditional use does not make a plant safe, and a plant that is safe for one person, in one preparation, may not be safe for another. Never ingest, apply, or recommend a plant preparation on the basis of a general article, or on the basis of a seal pendant, without proper identification, proper teaching, and, where health is concerned, proper medical advice.
That limit applies to this article as well. It describes a course of study, and a tool for that study. It does not prescribe any plant, any preparation, or any treatment, for any person or condition, and it does not promise that study, or a pendant, will cure anything. If you are ill, or if someone you care for is ill, see a qualified medical practitioner, and use traditional study as study, alongside proper care, not instead of it.
Within those limits, plant study is a rich and rewarding discipline. It connects a practitioner to seasons, to places, and to a long line of people who have learned, plant by plant, what the green world offers and what it withholds. That connection, cultivated patiently, is worth more than any single remedy claimed hastily, because it lasts, and it grows, year by year, like the plants themselves.
Keeping a record, and knowing when to stop
Keep a short record for each working: date, purpose in one sentence, what you studied, what you did, and what you noticed afterwards, over days and weeks, not just on the night itself. For Heramael work, that record might include the plant studied, the place visited, and the preparation attempted, in plain language, with failures noted as honestly as successes. If nothing changes, that is also information. It may mean the question was unclear, the timing was wrong, the work was not appropriate, or simply that the matter needs more time.
Do not repeat the same working endlessly in the hope that repetition alone will force a result. Do the work properly, once, observe, and then decide, calmly, whether a second working, a different approach, or no further working is the right next step. Repetition without reflection is not persistence. It is noise.
And as with all work of this kind, the pendant is made for the work, blessed before sending, and sent to you to use in your own practice. What follows from that practice, in terms of magical or medical result, is yours to observe, not mine to guarantee, and no medical result is promised here at all. That is about the work itself, not about delivery dates for physical items.
Heramael seal pendant, two inches, Verum
If you are doing traditional Verum work with Heramael, and you want a seal pendant you can wear, hold, and carry into the places where plant study happens, this is the pendant I offer.
It is a cast Daemon Demon seal pendant, two inches across, for traditional work with Heramael, who teaches the art of healing, including the complete knowledge of any illness and its cure, and who makes known the virtues of plants, where they are to be found, when to pluck them, and their making into a complete cure. This article makes no medical claim for the pendant itself, and it is offered as a tool for study and traditional practice, not as medical treatment. I make no promise about what it will do for you, only that it is made by hand, for this work, and not mass produced.
If you want the pendant for that work, this is the one I offer: Heramael cast Daemon Demon seal pendant 2 inches Verum, $216 CAD. View the product
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