In my memoir titled “The Princess of the Wraiths” I describe that in 2007 a small building was demolished in the garden of Quinta Santa Hildegarda, my Cuernavaca house. Furthermore, I described how I transformed that area into a biodiversity garden. Now I shall state how that happened. This explanation will be by far more detailed than the brief paragraph in my book.
Usually, when a natural environment is harmed, nature restores herself. For example, after a volcano eruption, all plant life that is covered by lava is destroyed. After lava dries and becomes a lava field there are just rocks and nothing else. Soon bacteria and prokaryotic archaea arrived due to wind currents. They start colonizing the rock and fixating nitrogen from the air.
This allows plants to start living in the rocks. As nutrients become more common in the soil, new plant species arrive. The new plant species need to compete for resources with the first species that arrived in the lava field. This often leads to some species becoming more common and others just disappearing. In that way, the habitat changes. Different plants are eaten by different species of animals, so also animal diversity changes as well. As the soil becomes richer in nutrients due to the activity of bacteria, prokaryotic archaea, chlorophyte algae, plants, and fungi, the habitat changes more times until a full-grown forest reappears in a place that was formerly destroyed by a volcano. This does not only happen with volcanic eruptions. It also occurs after hurricanes or anthropogenic disturbances.
For example, in my book “The Princess of the Wraiths” I state how all mangroves in Celestún and Sisal were destroyed by Hurricane Gilbert when I was a child. Years later, they recovered themselves and now are full-grown forests. This process by which nature restores herself is known as ecological succession.
As I stated at the beginning of this blog entry, I wanted to have a garden in the place where a building was demolished. I decided to test nature to see how she would restore herself, so I wanted to see what would happen if I did not disturb the land. Many garden plants are exotic species. Instead of planting a garden full of exotic species I wanted to have a garden of native plants. To achieve that I would allow ecological succession to happen. I would see how nature would restore that land without any human help. I did not even remove the demolished building. I wanted to see how plants could grow in the bare building materials. After all, Cuernavaca is close to the lava field that was produced by Mount Chichinautzin, a volcano, after it erupted. The lava field was colonized by plants even if it originally lacked fertile soil.
Ecological succession happened soon after I left everything undisturbed in the demolished building. Some plants started to grow over the bricks. Their roots started to destroy all the building materials. Some of these plants were trees, that started to grow vigorously. I decided to avoid watering the plants. I wanted only plants that were suited to the rainy season of Cuernavaca. In that way I would achieve having a fully native garden that would reflect the wild biodiversity of Cuernavaca.
At some point small herbs stopped growing, as a huge vine started to cover the whole garden. That was useful, because as soon as dry season started, the dried leaves were transformed into soil by bacteria and fungi. That allowed herbs to grow again, but this time the herbs were not species that grew over bare rock. Eventually, the trees grew. Bocconia and Ficus trees shaded the garden. Forest herb species were able to grow in the shade. That is similar to the original biota of the place where Quinta Santa Hildegarda is found, as such an area was full of forests in old times.
Now, there is soil in that place. It is full of native wildlife. I did not pay for any of the plant species that grow there, as they arrived due to the wind, and to the birds that visit the garden. The plants that are growing there are the most suitable for the insects that live in Cuernavaca, as they are not exotic plants. The native insects obviously coevolved with the native plants.
You can read about ecological succession and other ecological phenomena in my memoir “The Princess of the Wraiths.”
You can read the book online on Scribd.
The so-called “Princess of the Wraiths” is the villain at the end of the book.
Peregrinus Hierusalemsis
Genre: YA Memoir
Publisher: Books to Hook Publishing, LLC.
Date of Publication: 21st of June 2025
ISBN: 979-8-89283-269-4
Word Count: 262,705
Cover Artist: Katarzyna Burzmińska
Book Description:
Biologist-turned-author Peregrinus Hierusalemsis presents “The Princess of the Wraiths: an herbal, bestiary, human zoo, and memoir,” a captivating book that intertwines science, spirituality, and personal growth. This memoir offers a profound look at the intersections of love, knowledge, and resilience, all while reflecting on the author's rich experiences.
Peregrinus describes the cultural experiences that he lived while growing up in Mexico between the years 1984 and 2002. He also discusses his later life in the United Kingdom and Sweden. During this time, the 2000s culture is explored.
At its core, the book conveys a powerful message: knowledge and wisdom are the ultimate tools for living a successful life. Through deeply personal anecdotes, Peregrinus touches on universal themes such as the influence of global events on individual lives, overcoming fears, seeking spiritual teachers, and navigating love and relationships. Richly illustrated with 94 handmade natural history and people-focused illustrations, this memoir provides not only an intellectual feast but also a visual delight.
Key highlights include childhood fears of ghosts, mystical experiences, navigating young adult relationships, and insights into the biodiversity of our natural world. Peregrinus also sheds light on his experience avoiding toxic relationships, a lesson that inspired the title, “The Princess of the Wraiths.” The Princess of the Wraiths is a woman who is able to produce nightmares using hypnosis. Defeating her was Peregrinus’s greatest challenge. Through this work, readers will uncover how science and spirituality can coexist to offer a broader understanding of reality.
This unique memoir is available for free online, making it an accessible and enriching read for anyone interested in exploring the depths of science, spirituality, and personal evolution.
FREE Download at Scribd
Excerpt:
Regarding death, my grandmother
Lorenza used to tell me an anecdote that happened to her while she was a kid.
She was an orphan, so she went to live with her grandmother, who became her
primary caregiver. My great-great-grandmother lived in Los Ranchos de San José,
a village close to Villa Guerrero, State of Mexico. In her house, there was a
black cherry tree (Prunus serotina). One night, a great horned owl (Bubo
virginianus) perched on a branch of the tree and started to vocalize. My
great-great-grandmother thought that such an event was an omen. She claimed
that meant that she would soon die. Thus, she told Lorenza to do whatever she
could to scare the owl. My grandmother Lorenza was unable to scare the owl. The
owl vocalized in the same place for several nights, and my
great-great-grandmother died less than a month after the owl started hooting. After the burial, Ismaela arrived to tell her
niece Lorenza that she should leave the house to go to live with her, as
Lorenza was still a kid. When both were leaving the house, Lorenza claimed that
she did not want to leave the building, as she was able to listen to the
ghostly voice of my dead great-great-grandmother who was calling her inside…
According to the Graeco-Roman
Olympian religion, Ascalaphus was an angel of the Hades God. Hades is the
dwelling place of the souls of the dead. The task of Ascalaphus was to snatch
the souls of dying people to Hades. Ascalaphus was transformed into an owl by
Persephone the Kore, the queen of Hell. Since then, owl Ascalaphus has visited
dying people before they finally died. That is why Pliny the Elder stated in
his “Natural History” that the Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo) was an
extremely bad omen. Spanish bishop St. Isidore of Seville transferred this
superstition to Christian Catholicism in his book “Etymologiae.”
Peregrinus Hierusalemsis is a biologist, writer, and seeker whose life has woven together science, philosophy, and spirituality. A graduate of the University of Edinburgh (2010) with a degree in biology, he has published scientific papers on biodiversity and worked in plant sciences, entomology, and molecular biology since 2009. His professional passion lies in systematics, the classification of living things, while his personal explorations reach into philosophy, metaphysics, and the world’s ancient spiritual traditions.
From early encounters with eastern philosophy in childhood karate lessons in Mexico, to late-night debates on western philosophy with friends, to the guidance of a spiritual teacher during his A-level years in the UK, Peregrinus has always sought to understand life’s hidden patterns. These experiences, alongside his scientific training, shape his unique voice which can be described as a bridge between the empirical and the mystical.
His debut work, The Princess of the Wraiths: an herbal, bestiary, human zoo, and memoir, invites readers into a journey that blends memoir with natural history, spiritual reflection, and philosophical inquiry.
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