Product Details
Pharmako/Poeia: Plant Powers, Poisons, and Herbcraft

Pharmako/Poeia: Plant Powers, Poisons, and Herbcraft
By Dale Pendell

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Product Description

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 paen to cosmic consciousness, an ecological handbook, a dried-herb pastiche, a counterculture encyclopedia of ancient fact and lore.—Allen Ginsberg

"Dale Pendell reactivates the ancient connection between the bardic poet and the shaman."—Terence McKenna

Also available by Dale Pendell: Pharmako/Gnosis: Plant Teachers and the Poison Path (Mercury House), 1-56279-104-4

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #129136 in Books
  • Published on: 1994-02-01
  • Original language: English
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 304 pages

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Pharmacopoeia, according to Webster, is an authoritative book containing a list and description of drugs and medicinal products together with the standards established under law for their production, dispensation, and use. Pendell's two-part title, Pharmako/Poeia, reflects what he calls the "twin poles" of his explorations in pharmacology and poetics. It's a book about the interplay of plants, insects, animals, and humans, and it suggests how toxins shaped ecological systems. It's also about the people who for thousands of years investigated the properties of plants and learned to use them for healing, for their effects on the mind, and for poisons. Pendell writes about such topics as tobacco, opium, beer, wine, alcohol, and kava, exploring their history, taxonomy, pharmacology, and effects. The book contains a prodigious amount of scholarly and technical detail, yet Pendell writes with wit and inventiveness. Engaging black-and-white illustrations and provocative quotes complement the text. George Cohen

About the Author

Dale Pendell is a poet, software engineer, and longtime student of ethnobotany. His poetry has appeared in many journals, and he was the founding editor of Kuksu: Journal of Backcountry Writing. His work appeared in Entheogens and the Future of Religion. He has led workshops on ethnobotany and ethnopoetics for the Naropa Institute and the Botanical Preservation Corps.