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Pharmako / Poeia – Plant powers, poisons and herbcraft | By Dale Pendell |
| A masterful blend of poetry, science, and magic. Dale Pendell discusses the properties and personalities of a wide variety of psychoactive plants. Their effects are uniquely and magnificently conveyed. An ethnobotanical work of art!
The Salvia divinorum chapter can be read here. |
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Plants of the Gods | By Richard Evans Schultes, Albert Hofmann, and Christian Rätsch |
| “A visual, spiritual, and intellectual feast, Plants of the Gods is the best book ever written on hallucinogenic plants.” –Dr. Mark Plotkin, Conservation International, author of Medicine Quest: In Search of Nature’s Healing Secrets
“This is a greatly enlarged and expanded edition. The photographs are spectacular. A chapter on Salvia divinorum is included. This book is well-worth purchasing, even if you already own previous editions.” –Daniel J. Siebert Of the ninety-one hallucinogenic plants beautifully illustrated and characterized in their lexicon, the authors elaborate in vivid detail on fourteen that have had profound significance for human beings. Drawing on fourteen years of field work, Dr. Richard Evans Schultes describes pilgrimages made to gather the sacred plants as well as the rites, prayers, songs, and dances associated with their use. His accounts are augmented by Dr. Albert Hofmann’s lucid explanations of the biochemistry of these psychotropic substances. The text is accompanied by numerous illustrations, more than one hundred of which are in full color. Included are rare photographs – many published here for the first time – of plants and the people who have used them as well as ceremonies, sculptures, paintings, pottery, and weavings related to the ritual use of these sacred hallucinogens. |
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The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants | By Christian Rätsch |
| In the traditions of every culture, plants have been highly valued for their nourishing, healing, and transformative properties. The most powerful plants – those known to transport the human mind into other dimensions of consciousness – have traditionally been regarded as sacred. In The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants Christian Rätsch details the botany, history, distribution, cultivation, and preparation and dosage of more than 400 psychoactive plants. He discusses their ritual and medicinal usage, cultural artifacts made from these plants, and works of art that either represent or have been inspired by them. |
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Psychedelic Shamanism | By Jim DeKorne |
| The boldest exploration of psychedelic plants since Terence McKenna’s ‘Food of the Gods’. For the first time, theory and practice are linked in one consciousness-expanding book.
DeKorne is a “psychonaut”, exploring the “imaginal realms” through personal experimentation and scholarly research. He guides the reader through the history and lore of psychotropic plants, with advice on how to handle the eerie “entities” one encounters in “hyperspace”. A master gardener, DeKorne explains in loving detail how to cultivate many of these plants and how to extract their powerful psychoactive alkaloids. He provides down-to-earth information on dosages, typical reactions, length and intensity of experience, dangerous combinations, traditional and ritual uses, and much more. |
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Salvia Divinorum – Die Wahrsagesalbei | By Jochen Gartz – Only available in German |
| Dieses Buch beschreibt erstmals alle Aspekte einer uralten Zauber- und Heilpflanze aus Mexiko: Salvia divinorum, auch “Wahrsagesalbei” genannt.
Bekannt wurde diese Pflanze insbesondere durch “Maria Sabina – die Botin der heiligen Pilze”, die Salvia divinorum als Ersatz bei Heilritualen einsetzte, in Zeiten wo die Pilz nicht vorhanden waren. Durch Maria Sabinas Kontakt mit Gordon Wasson und Albert Hofmann in den 50er Jahren wurde Salvia divinorum weiter erforscht und der westlichen Fachwelt zugänglich gemacht. Jeweils ausgehend von historischen Quellen werden ausführlich botanische Zusammenhänge, Kulturverhalten, Inhaltsstoffe, pharmakologische Eigenschaften als auch die frühe und rezente Anwendung der noch immer sagenumwobenen Pflanze dargestellt. |