Pharmako/Poeia
Plant Powers, Poisons, and Herbcraft
by Dale Pendell
(Volume I of the Pharmako trilogy)
The bestselling magical fusion of science, poetry, history, and philosophy.
In this first volume of Dale Pendell's renowned Pharmako trilogy, readers are welcomed on an absorbing journey through the history and applications of psychoactive plants and their synthetic equivalents. Including a new introduction from the author, the book brilliantly merges factual information, historical context, cultural observations, and spiritual insights, all in a voice that is both authoritative and whimsical.
Pendell offers in-depth examination of substances including:
Absinthe
Aqua Vitae
Beer
Calea zacatechichi
Heroin
Kava kava
Marijuana
Nitrous Oxide
Opium
Ska Pastora (diviner's sage)
Tobacco
Wine
And more
The examination covers their history, pharmacology, preparation methods, cultural and esoteric connections, and impacts on human consciousness. Pendell presents this study with the sensitivity of a poet, emphasising not only the concrete facts but also the nuanced implications of each substance's interaction with the human psyche.
Enriched with quotations from celebrated writers, the book serves as a captivating literary concoction that blends science, art, and spirituality, transforming a complex subject into a mesmerising narrative. The blend of poetic and erudite writing in Pendell's style engages the reader's imagination while being firmly anchored in rigorous research and factual data.
More than an instructive guide on psychoactive plants and synthetics, Pharmako/Poeia: Plant Powers, Poisons, and Herbcraft is a revealing exploration of the ties between human consciousness and nature's own chemical elixirs. It stands as an indispensable read for those with interest in ethnobotany, herbal medicine, or simply the intriguing interplay between humans and the plant kingdom.
About the Pharmako trilogy, Revised and Updated edition
Anyone with an interest in the psychoactive and healing properties of plants and related substances will find Dale Pendell's Pharmako trilogy an entertaining yet profound overview of this emerging field. The series has rapidly assumed cult status as an unparalleled exposition of its subject, and this North Atlantic updated paperback edition will bring this underground classic to a wider readership than ever.
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Table of Contents
Foreword by Gary Snyder
POWER PLANTS
green allies
Bring Them On, the Power Plants
On the Nature of Poison I
Plant People
Plants as Teachers
On the Nature of the Ally
The Mad River Plant: Prunus emarginata
The Great Work
Sun Medicine/Moon Medicine
Bulrush: Scirpus atrovirens
Methodology I
Ground State Calibration
Methodology II
THANATOPATHIA
tasting of death
Thanatopathia
Tobacco: Nicotiana tabacum
Phenomenological Taxonomy
of Psychotropes
Pituri: Duboisia hopwoodii
Killing Time
INEBRIANTIA
relating to drunkenness
Inebriantia
Yeast: Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Wine: Vitis vinifera
Beer: Hordeum vulgare
Aqua Vitae
The Alcoholic Muse
The Poison Path I
Æther
Fossil Fuel
Mead and the Divine Madness
RHAPSODICA
where seeds of song are sown
On the Seduction of Angels
Absinthe: Artemisia absinthium
Calea zacatechichi
EUPHORICA
plants bearing pleasure
Euphorica
Opium: Papaver somniferum
Heroin and the Nature of Addiction
PACIFICA
the peacemakers
The Perfume of Poison
Kava kava: Piper methysticum
EXISTENTIA
the stance of the pre-essential
On Poisoning Wells
Ska Pastora: Salvia divinorum
EVAESTHETICA
sensually pleasing
On Wildness in Plants
On Camp Followers
Marijuana: Cannabis sativa
Die Giftküche
METAPHYSICA
intimations on the nature of things
Reveries on the Green Man
Nitrous Oxide
The Poison Path II
Glossary
References
Credits
Supplemental Notes, 2010
Index
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Paperback Edition
336 pages. Printed card cover.
ISBN: 9781556438059
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Press, reviews, endorsements
"Dale Pendell reactivates the ancient connection between the bardic poet and the shaman. His Pharmako/Poeia is a litany to the secret plant allies that have always accompanied us along the alchemical trajectory that leads to a new and yet authentically archaic future."
Terence McKenna, renowned ethnobotanist, lecturer, and writer
"Much of our life-force calls upon the plant world for support, in medicines and in foods, as both allies and teachers. Pendell provides a beautifully crafted bridge between these two worlds. The magic he shares is that the voices are spoken and heard both ways; we communicate with plants and they with us. This book is a moving and poetic presentation of this dialogue."
Dr. Alexander T. Shulgin, University of California at Berkeley, Department of Public Health
"Pharmako/Poeia is an epic poem on plant humours, an abstruse alchemic treatise, an experiential narrative jigsaw puzzle, a hip and learned wild-nature reference text, a comic paean to cosmic consciousness, an ecological handbook, a dried-herb pastiche, a counterculture encyclopaedia of ancient fact and lore that cuts through the present 'conservative' war-on-drugs psychobabble."
Allen Ginsberg, poet
"The great joy of Pharmako/Poeia lies in the simultaneous drawing out of simplicity and complexity. Simple, so far as it draws together the vast territory of the human-poison relationship into a single, poetic alchemy; yet complex, in that it blows apart the narrow simplistic understandings that stratify each bubble of understanding. This is a truly excellent book and should be on the shelves and minds of all poisoners, all students of life, literature and ethnobotany. Whether your poison is Salvia divinorum, tobacco, alcohol, Nitrous oxide, or bitter berry, or even just the unquenchable thirst of a psychoactive knowledge, this text should be a given."
Psychedelic Press UK
"Pendell demonstrates that the art of a cross-disciplined approach is not only still alive, but has the power to augment understandings above and beyond its parts. He reveals the depth to which scientific/poetic dichotomies are often no more than categorical fallacies."
Dose Nation
"Dale Pendell's remarkable book will make it impossible to ever again underestimate the most unprepossessing plant. This compendium of how-to-get-high-by-eating-your-lawn ethnological data is mind-boggling, useful, and serves as a fine end run around the guardians of 'official' consciousness."
Peter Coyote, actor
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About the Author
Plant student Dale Pendell established himself as one of the foremost popular exponents of shamanic ethnobotany with his unprecedented Pharmako trilogy. A noted poet, he was the founding editor of the avant-garde magazine Kuksu and a cofounder of the Primitive Arts Institute and has led workshops on ethnobotany and ethnopoetics for the Naropa Institute and the Omega Institute. Also an experienced computer scientist, he lives with his wife Laura in California’s Sierra foothills.
