By (author) Lynn Shore
A beautifully illustrated handbook for urban witches that combines green witchcraft with city life.
Rich with herbal and esoteric wisdom, this delightful and thoughtful guide provides an essential basis for magical practitioners living in cities to connect with nature, magic and community.
This book is for urbanites who want nature and magic in their lives. Written by an experienced herbalist, who eats street weeds, talks to crows, casts spells, and brews potions; this book shows how to walk a magical path while riding the waves of urban life.
Divided into three sections, The Green City Witch covers the lifestyle, knowledge, and techniques of real witches who love nature and city life. The lifestyle section covers how to work sustainably, grow roots in new towns, align with the seasons, and forage; all within city limits. The urban nature section contains an extensive directory that details how to engage with fascinating lifeforms that thrive in city buildings, streets, and parks. From spider plants to knotweed, and parakeets to earthworms, the plant, animal, and bug lore entries offer magical symbolism, folklore, foraging or care advice, and practical ways to weave them into daily life. The techniques section explains how to achieve magical goals with rituals, sigils, spells and charms, blood magic, shapeshifting, and divination, all with local, natural, sustainable materials.
The Green City Witch is an invaluable resource for beginners and experienced magical practitioners alike, who wish to embrace the endless magical potential and gifts of urban nature.
By (author) Lynn Shore
Lynn Shore is a herbalist, educator, and green witch. Born in Bristol, study, and work led her to several UK towns and cities. In 2005 she settled in Amsterdam and founded Urban Herbology which connects city people with nature through walks and courses. She also runs a community herb orchard, where locals, plants, and wildlife grow together. Lynn and her family live in a plant and book-filled apartment. Most often out gardening, foraging, or concocting strange brews; helping others find peace in nature is her mission.
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'The Green City Witch' opens up the seemingly mundane urban environment to reveal the enchantment at its heart. This wealth of information on lore, ritual, spell work and even urban foraging, offers magical city dwellers a comprehensive guide with a host of ethical and sustainable suggestions that will enrich any magical practice.' - Philip Carr-Gomm, author of Druid Mysteries.
'The Green City Witch' is packed full with useful magical practices, tips, rituals and ponderings that will give any would-be Urban Witch a great foundation on which to build their practice. The seasoned Witch will also find much to interest and inspire.' - Eimear Burke, Chosen Chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids.
'The Green City Witch is a potent breath of green magic for the urban soul. It is a sacred guide for those who hear the whisper of the wild, even beneath the hum of traffic and neon lights. Within these pages lies the wisdom that magic is not bound to forests or faraway places — it thrives in alleyways, window boxes, rooftop gardens, and the cracks of city pavements...' - Barbara Meiklejohn-Free, The Highland Seer, High Priestess, best-selling and award-winning author of over 30 books, oracle decks, calendars, and diaries.
'The Green City Witch by Lynn Shore emphasizes the sacredness of all things and gives simple and practical ideas of how to integrate this into everyday life in a city, The book includes a very helpful foraging calendar, spells, charms, magical operations and all the tools needed for successful green magic A lovely, evocative exploration of how to live in the city and still remain contact with nature and its rhythms. Recommended.' - Elisabeth Brooke, medical herbalist and author of A Woman’s Book of Herbs – A Witches’ Guide to Healing Body, Mind and Spirit, and Women Healers Through History.
'Lynn Shore takes us on a magical journey of interconnection with Nature, through simple practices that build relationship with the natural world around us, often hidden in plain sight in our urban landscapes. This wonderful, accessible book is generous in its offerings and abundantly filled with imaginative ways to include Nature as part of our regenerative lifestyle choices, and to embed these practices in our everyday lives. It provides an essential toolkit for all who are interested in finding ways to shift out of our old separation thinking patterns and begin to experience what it feels like to live in an interconnected world of belonging and wholeness.' - Glennie Kindred, author.
'A lush, lyrical guide to weaving enchantment through concrete and steel, The Green City Witch is a love letter to the wild soul of the urban landscape. With wisdom rooted in lived practice and heartfelt observation, Lynn Shore invites us to find spirit in weeds between paving stones, magic in pigeon feathers, and kinship with mosses and street trees. Practical, poetic, and powerfully empowering, this is a book for witches who walk the city with bare feet on brick, who compost their spells, and who know the green breath of the Earth still pulses beneath every slab of asphalt…' - Sian Sibley, traditional Welsh witch, leader of Dragon Oak Coven, and author of Unveiling The Green and Black Paths and Green Cathedrals.
Although we are all part of nature, in our urban world we often lead a denatured and disconnected life. Unlike our ancestors, we no longer have a community of elders and knowledge keepers showing us how to live in natural balance. However, even in a city environment, there are still paths back into nature, paths back into connection with spirit, and here is a book to guide us. Lynn shows us that in every moment there exists the potential to experience the magical aspects of nature, a magic so often hidden in plain sight.' - Stephen Taylor, author of The Humoral Herbal.
'This book is a rare and thoughtful companion for anyone drawn to the healing presence of plants. Blending practical herbal knowledge with a sense of quiet wonder, it invites the reader into a deeper, more personal relationship with the green world—whether that’s a familiar backyard weed or a more elusive medicinal ally.
Part field guide, part contemporary grimoire, it offers clear, grounded insight into working with plants, while also encouraging a more intuitive and respectful way of listening to them. The writing is warm, accessible, and gently reflective, making space for both experienced herbalists and curious beginners to explore the magic and medicine of everyday nature.
Rather than overwhelming with information, this book nurtures connection. It reminds us that herbalism is not only about remedies, but also about slowing down, paying attention, and engaging with plants as living beings. It’s a book to return to often—whether for practical guidance, gentle inspiration, or quiet reflection.
For those seeking a more rooted and meaningful way to engage with plant medicine, this book offers a steady, thoughtful path—one that honors both tradition and the quiet wonder of the natural world' - Dr Carolina Ivanescu, Assistant Professor of Religion and Society, University of Amsterdam.
