PHARMAKO/GNOSIS: Plant Teachers and the Poison Path

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. He has led workshops on ethnobotany and ethnopoetics for the Naropa Institute and the Botanical Preservation Corps, and has presented at the Mind States conference. He is perhaps best known for his books of epic entheogenic poetry.

Pendell considers science a “proper subset” of poetry. Emily Green of the Los Angeles Times has hailed him as “the poet of plants”. With the long-awaited release of Pharmako/Gnosis the Pharmako trilogy, his poetic vision of the world of psychedelics, is complete. This final volume, a study of the visionary plants, weaves together cultural lore, shamanic ritual, and historical and contemporary myths and issues surrounding plant poisons.