{"id":33094,"date":"2026-06-08T11:07:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T15:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/?p=33094"},"modified":"2026-06-08T11:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T15:08:18","slug":"33094","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2026\/06\/08\/33094\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Poison Path Oracle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Title:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The Poison Path Oracle: Plant Allies for Divination, Spirit Communication,<br \/>\nand Trance States<br \/>\nAuthor: \u00a0Coby Michael<br \/>\nPublisher:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Destiny Books<br \/>\nDate:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>March 31, 2026<br \/>\nPages:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>224<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This is the third book in the poison path series by Coby Michael. First was \u201cThe Poison Path Herbal\u201d that introduced the medicine and magic of plants often found in a witch\u2019s garden. His second book, \u201cThe Poison Path Grimoire,\u201d explored dark herbalism, baneful allies and shadow work. \u201cThe Poison Path Oracle\u201d dives deeper into using poisonous plants as partners for spirit communication, divination, and trance work.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The first chapter covers the history of divination around the world, focusing on some of the most important spirits of plant-based psychedelics used by shaman, oracles, and seers. Plant spirits, Coby notes, are perhaps the easiest spirits to connect with because they can merge with the user\u2019s body through eating, drinking, smoking, or inhaling. Humans have ingested these plants to access entheogenic states of consciousness for centuries. Communicating directly with the plant spirit can lead to connecting with spirits or deities, enhancing psychic perception, astral travel, journeying, and more. Belladonna, thorn apple, and six other potent plants in the nightshade family are introduced with information including their history, folklore, chemical constituents, effects, and applications.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Their magic and medicine are powerful, and Chapter 2 explains ways to incorporate these plants into divinatory practice be it by inducing a trance state, using a divining rod, or interpreting apple peels. Also in this chapter are the symbolic and spiritual associations with the images on thirteen of the major arcana cards from the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck, and botanical associations for seven ruins, offering a deeper understanding when using them.<\/p>\n<p>Chapter 3 presents techniques and methods for using plants of the poison path to engage with the spirit world. Chapter 4 touches on the importance of spiritual hygiene and protection, and using poison to fight poison \u2013 all to recognize and address poisonous energies and other invisible things encountered during psychic work.<\/p>\n<p>Trance work with nightshade plants is the topic of Chapter 5. Divination methods such as scrying and sciomancy (interpreting shadows) are also discussed. The book concludes with a chapter of recipes, charms, meditations, exercises, and rituals for safely and effectively using baneful plants and fungi as partners in magical practice.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This handbook gives a beginner information needed to come to know and begin to use poisonous botanicals safely for connecting to the divine and enhancing psychic abilities. Throughout it, Coby shares his personal experiences and opinions in the hopes of inspiring readers to discover new perspectives and potentials for incorporating poison plants into their spiritual practices \u2026 with much understanding and care.<\/p>\n<p><i>About the Author:<br \/>\nCoby Michael is an occult herbalist and magical practitioner living in St. Petersburg, Florida, who teaches the ritual use of poisonous and psychoactive plants. He owns and operates The Poisoner\u2019s Apothecary, an online shop and educational resource<\/i>. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>About the Reviewer:<br \/>\nAs an eclectic solitary practitioner, I travel the country in a converted school bus and share magick with those I meet. Find me at https:\/\/thewitchonwheels.com\/ and on Facebook.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Title:\u00a0 The Poison Path Oracle: Plant Allies for Divination, Spirit Communication, and Trance States Author: \u00a0Coby Michael Publisher:\u00a0 Destiny Books Date:\u00a0 March 31, 2026 Pages:\u00a0 224\u00a0 This is the third book in the poison path series by Coby Michael. First was \u201cThe Poison Path Herbal\u201d that introduced the medicine and magic of plants often found in a witch\u2019s garden. His second book, \u201cThe Poison Path Grimoire,\u201d explored dark herbalism, baneful allies and shadow work. \u201cThe Poison Path Oracle\u201d dives deeper into using poisonous plants as partners for spirit communication, divination, and trance work.\u00a0 The first chapter covers the history of divination around the world, focusing on some of the most important spirits of plant-based psychedelics used by shaman, oracles, and seers. Plant spirits, Coby notes, are perhaps the easiest spirits to connect with because they can merge with the user\u2019s body through eating, drinking, smoking, or inhaling. Humans have ingested these plants to access entheogenic states of consciousness for centuries. Communicating directly with the plant spirit can lead to connecting with spirits or deities, enhancing psychic perception, astral travel, journeying, and more. Belladonna, thorn apple, and six other potent plants in the nightshade family are introduced with information including their history, folklore, chemical constituents, effects, and applications.\u00a0 Their magic and medicine are powerful, and Chapter 2 explains ways to incorporate these plants into divinatory practice be it by inducing a trance state, using a divining rod, or interpreting apple peels. Also in this chapter are the symbolic and spiritual associations with the images on thirteen of the major arcana cards from the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck, and botanical associations for seven ruins, offering a deeper understanding when using them. Chapter 3 presents techniques and methods for using plants of the poison path to engage with the spirit world. Chapter 4 touches on the importance of spiritual hygiene and protection, and using poison to fight poison \u2013 all to recognize and address poisonous energies and other invisible things encountered during psychic work. Trance work with nightshade plants is the topic of Chapter 5. Divination methods such as scrying and sciomancy (interpreting shadows) are also discussed. The book concludes with a chapter of recipes, charms, meditations, exercises, and rituals for safely and effectively using baneful plants and fungi as partners in magical practice.\u00a0 This handbook gives a beginner information needed to come to know and begin to use poisonous botanicals safely for connecting to the divine and enhancing psychic abilities. Throughout it, Coby shares his personal experiences and opinions in the hopes of inspiring readers to discover new perspectives and potentials for incorporating poison plants into their spiritual practices \u2026 with much understanding and care. About the Author: Coby Michael is an occult herbalist and magical practitioner living in St. Petersburg, Florida, who teaches the ritual use of poisonous and psychoactive plants. He owns and operates The Poisoner\u2019s Apothecary, an online shop and educational resource. \u00a0 About the Reviewer: As an eclectic solitary practitioner, I travel the country in a converted school bus and share magick with those I meet. Find me at https:\/\/thewitchonwheels.com\/ and on Facebook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":33095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10005],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33094"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33097,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33094\/revisions\/33097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}