The Poison Path Herbal

The Poison Path Herbal is a guide to safely working with the poisonous plants of the witches’ pharmacopoeia for magic, healing, and visions.

This book explains how to work with baneful herbs through rituals and spells, as plant spirit familiars, as potent medicines, and as visionary substances. It details the spiritual, alchemical, astrological, and symbolic associations of each plant, its active alkaloids, how to safely cultivate and harvest it, and offers rituals and spells suited to its individual nature and powers.

The author, Coby Michael, shares plant alchemy methods, magical techniques, and recipes featuring these plants, including a modern witches’ flying ointment.

Part grimoire and part herbal formulary, this guide to the Poison Path of occult herbalism delves into the history, lore, and information regarding the use of poisonous, consciousness-altering, and magical plants. Despite their poisonous nature, baneful herbs can become powerful plant allies, offering potent medicine, magical wisdom, and access to the spirit realm.

Detailing the spiritual, alchemical, astrological, and symbolic associations of each plant, the author explores their magical uses in spells and rituals. The book primarily focuses on the nightshade family, or Solanaceae, such as mandrake, henbane, and thorn apple, but also covers plants from other families like wolfsbane, hemlock, and hellebore.

Additionally, the book examines plants in the witch’s pharmacopoeia that are safer to work with and just as chemically active, such as wormwood, mugwort, and yarrow.

The author shares rituals suited to the individual nature and powers of each plant and explains how to attract and work with plant spirit familiars. He provides plant alchemy methods for crafting spagyric tinctures and magical techniques to work with these plants as allies and teachers. The text offers magical recipes featuring the plants and explores how to safely cultivate baneful herbs in a poison garden.