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Tag Archives: plant medicine

The Poison Path Herbal, by Cody Michael

The Poison Path Herbal: Baneful Herbs, Medicinal Nightshades, & Ritual Enthogens, by Coby Michael
Park Street Press, 978-1644113349, 256 pages, 2021

Any book that has a large warning at the start of it gets my attention. The Poison Path Herbal: Baneful Herbs, Medicinal Nightshades, & Ritual Enthogens by Coby Michael is not here to play. It’s here to teach you reverence and respect for this particular path, and above all, it’s here to transmute your life.

A practitioner of the Poison Path of occult herbalism and cultivator of entheogenic herbs, Michael is perfectly positioned to take the reader on this journey through the misunderstood baneful herbs. As well as practicing, he also contributes to the Pagan Archives at Valdost University, writes regularly for The House of Twigs, and maintains his own blog on Patheos Pagan called Poisoner’s Apothecary. Somehow in the midst of all that, he teaches classes and online workshops on plant magic, baneful herbs, and traditional witchcraft. 

Michael dives right into the subject, explaining that this book is “focused on the magical and spiritual uses of baneful herbs, entheogens, and plant spirit allies as well as their history and mythology.”1 He goes on to explain a few terms that are used generously throughout the book such as baneful which “refers to the ability of a thing to cause harm, and because of this threat, the baneful thing becomes taboo and gains a sinister reputation.”2

Baneful things, especial when talking about plants, can cause bodily harm and in some cases death if the practitioner isn’t clear on what they are doing. The book is separated into three parts, with part 1 covering off the basics of the poison path, Part 2 discussing the three ways of the poison path, and the last section which deals with bringing that knowledge together in practice. It’s very well laid out and a thoughtful path to follow if you are just starting your journey on this particular path.

Be warned though: this isn’t a gardening book, nor is it a how-to for using plants to hex your ex or find a job. Some of the information presented might be bit overwhelming if you don’t have a regular spiritual practice; as with any undertaking similar to this, you can expect to be changed by the process. Michael cautions against simply jumping in and instead recommends learning about the herbs’ chemistry and how the various plants affect human physiology. 

I had the notion of reading this book and then being able to find alternative solutions for my anxiety. Anxiety is not fun and presents different symptoms in many forms in those who experience it, and for me personally, it can be debilitating at times. I don’t like taking prescription medication because it makes me feel dull, so looking for another way to help myself is what prompted me to read this book. After going through it however, I realize that there’s much more to this than simply making a cup of herbal tea and wrapping myself up in a cozy blanket while I wait for the mind-goblins to quieten down. This is an actual path to follow and it is directly linked with Shadow Work. There is no spiritual bypassing here.

Fortunately, Michael seems to have understood this, as he writes clearly about the various families of plants and lists what they are used for. He also addresses the notion of using poisonous plants as spirit allies in magical practice despite the danger they present. He stresses the importance of personal exploration, as there is no substitute for your own counsel in such personal things. Such learnings do have a price though, as Michael clarifies, “…we learn to work with our own shadow as well as the darker forces of the natural world.”3

Having laid out the various plant families and their uses, Michael moves on to discuss the crossroads on the path of poison. This is where it gets a bit advanced; if you aren’t familiar with planetary influences you might find yourself scratching your head and wondering what the hell you’re reading. On the assumption that the reader has a working knowledge of planets and their influences, Michael writes brilliantly about Mercury, Venus and Saturn: the three paths of poison. He arranges them visually in a triangle, a shape that represents the traditional threefold worldview that many pagan cultures subscribe to. 

This collection of planetary influences is the basis for the Poison Path, and a profound one. Michael says, “The archetypal forces of Saturn, Venus, and Mercury are aligned with the currents of magic, witchcraft, and plant lore, providing powerful allies to one’s craft… their association with boundaries and liminal spaces in addition to their correlation with the other world and witchcraft mythos are the powerful themes expressed in this book.”4

Those themes run through the book, making the reader either cringe at the thought of having to learn more information on planets and such, or is an absolute delight to those who have working knowledge and wish to add to it. Planetary magic is not easy, and when baneful herbs are included as an accompaniment it becomes challenging for those not accustomed to specific terms and phrases. 

There is a lot of information in The Poison Path Herbal that might not be appropriate for those who live in the ‘good vibes only’ section of the chorus, as much of this book is dedicated to personal gnosis and the responsibility inherent in achieving that gnosis. I will be adding this book to my collection simply because it doesn’t coddle or coerce: this book demands your undivided attention and promises great rewards for doing so. Alternatively, if you aren’t prepared to go all in, you might want to pick up a different book. Out of respect for the writer, if you aren’t prepared to shovel your personal shit, don’t try to use this book as a way to cover it up.

Psychedelic Consciousness, by Daniel Grauer

Psychedelic Consciousness: Plant Intelligence for Healing Ourselves and Our Fragmented World, by Daniel Grauer
Park Street Press, 9781644110300,  256 pages, July 2020

Daniel Grauer’s book Psychedelic Consciousness: Plant Intelligence for Healing Ourselves and Our Fragmented World goes as wide as it does deep. This book is an inspired inter-mixed odyssey of both the historical and personal in relation to psychedelics, the culture of usage and practice, and the implications and opportunities present to us today. The best thing about this book is that it lacks the usual pretense, which is part of its charm. At it’s heart, this book is a testament to the author’s desire to relay the message that a meaningful, modern personal journey with psychedelics as a spiritual path is both possible and presently available to us all.

In an era where first hand experience trumps all and the very nature of psychedelic experimentalism is often a solo pilgrimage to begin, this book is wonderfully timely. The jump between subjects occasionally feels like leaps, but the author’s aim is evident and reflective here in the book’s construction, providing a landscape that doesn’t sink us into theory but rather invites us into understanding. Psychedelic Consciousness is an optimistic book — one that looks towards the reader with an open-ended invitation.

This book lends itself to thought-work relating both to becoming-aware-of and dismantling our current biases on psychedelic culture and plant medicine. There is an intimate communion with Grauer as he shares his unique path into his own understandings. He offers practical tips for journeying along with a myriad of personal findings through his explorations.

I think many a psychedelic journeyer has reached the moment of desiring to leap into authentic journey into the jungle or connect with indigenous practices, casting aside the nihilistic and/or purely hedonistic usage and entering a deeper mystery, meaning, and mythology of these sacred medicines. It is natural to start longing for something transpersonal, restorative, and spirited. Grauer, in sharing his experience, offers a lens into what this longing can offer and how it influenced him in his own work, his own dream, and his own hope for bridging the indigenous world with the modern practitioner. 

Psychedelic Consciousness calls the reader to the question what it actually means to be on an integrative, integral journey with our plant teachers. Grauer poses the question to us that he asked of himself: If I were to die, what song would I be playing? If the world were to end tomorrow, would I be happy with who I am?

Beyond the individual in relationship to journeying and practice, Grauer calls readers to lean into our relationship with the unseen, which takes both courage and maturity. Trauma and oppressive ideologies bring fragmentation to the psyche, and Grauer posits that it’s our plant allies that can aid us in restoration. Grauer’s pathways of explorations and guidance offer an opportunity to explore how we ourselves relate to our plant teachers and what our journeying is all about.

The ending of the book is an invitation to connect with Grauer personally through his website — a testament to the book’s weaving qualities and the author’s desire to instigate and inspire an ongoing, evolving, experiential conversation. 

Overall, Psychedelic Consciousness is a wonderful resource for the tidal wave of people who are new to psychedelics and contemplating consciousness. It’s especially geared for Western minds who have had mystical experiences, or perhaps simply *an experience* with psychedelics and wondered what it was all about. I think it’s best for people experimenting or new to their journeys, though people who have been on a medicine path can also benefit from the questions it poses throughout to further refine their own practice and dream of what the possibilities and potentials are.