Pharmako/Gnosis - Softcover

Pendell, Dale

4.61

408 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1562791303 ISBN 13: 9781562791308

Publisher: Mercury House, 2006

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Cultural Studies. Literature and Essays. Contemporary alchemist Dale Pendell completes his three-volume poetic study of botany, chemistry, spirituality, psychology and history with a book covering the composition and uses of visionary plants. Pharmacognosis is the branch of pharmacology that deals with herbs and unprepared medicines in their natural state, those whose cure is held in a deeper wisdom. PHARMAKO/GNOSIS weaves together writing on ancient shamanic rites, historical cultural lore and the contemporary use of plant poisons. In chapters "Phantastica," "Hypnotica," and "Telephorica," Pendell explores hallucinogenic plants, the bringers of sleep, and the bearers of distance. See also PHARMAKO/POEIA and PHARMAKO/DYNAMIS, both available from SPD.

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About the Author:

Cynthia Hogue is the Maxine and Jonathan Marshall Chair in Modern and Contemporary Poetry in the Department of English at Arizona State University. Her other collections are Flux, The Never Wife, The Woman in Red, and Where the Parallels Cross.

Review:

“Essential reading, a modern classic.”
—Stephen Silberman, Wired magazine

“The poet of plants . . . Pendell may be America’s answer to Blake, Coleridge,
and Wordsworth. . . .”
—Emily Green, Los Angeles Times

“Whereas all other drug encyclopaediaists are accompanied by excessive slyness, the seemingly free verse of Dale Pendell is constrained by compulsive accuracy, to paraphrase Zarathustra’s Hom Yost, by the (scruples) that drive forth truth.”
—David Flattery, author of Haoma and Harmaline

“A beat alchemist working textual DJ decks.”
—Erik Davis, Bookforum

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