Have you ever read
Pharmako/Poeia by Dale Pendell? He talks a lot about certain substances in this book, which in his words, the book is "an exploration of the 'Poison Path.' All of the plant substances described in it act on the human body as drugs and thereby as poisons."
This book is a wonderful mix of poetry and science. And I recommend it to everyone.
Just a short excerpt from the book to give you an idea. It is also very relevant to this thread.
The matter of the stumbling brother is the cross of the Poison Path:
on this trope turn the intersecting greater and lesser vehicles, the right-hand path and the left.
Skilled poisoners avoid ruin, but in the struggle for "justice, peace, and joy" in the Kali Yuga,
ruin may come on her own wings. And the Ten of Swords most readily approaches those who are unlucky.
How can you tell if you are lucky or unlucky? This is most important.
If you are not lucky, you will surely stumble. Then the lucky ones must share the guilt.
The question of the stumbling brother is relevant to the debate about legalization of crack cocaine
and the possible "devastation of the Black community" that might result
(as if the Black community were not already devastated by the current illegality of crack).
Relevant, that's all. But we stray.
How can you tell if you are lucky? In his letter to the Romans,
Paul is clear that he has two teachings, that there is an exoteric path and that there is an esoteric path.
He states unambiguously that he knows that all substances are by nature pure, that Jesus told him so.
The issue then is stumbling. Another's stumbling. Another who does not understand that all substances are pure.
And since our way is the eclectic path of the magicians, we will step over the scores of stumbled bodies that
accomplished poisoners such as Aleister Crowley leave in their wake,
and toss off a couple of obstacles of our own.
You can tell if someone is lucky by their marks.
Scars are particularly revealing. Even the lucky have close calls.
But how did the wound heal over?
Is the person in question marked for calamity? Or for ruin?
The same way that some people bear the marks of survival,
others are marked for ruin and failure — it is written on them.
And I don't mean in any fatalistic sense, but writ by pattern.
Never share poisons with the unlucky.
And, as Nelson Algren said, don't sleep with them, either.
Best for all that they never hear a word about poisons.
Or about power. Or about Paul. If they do, later, well, you know the rest . . .
The danger, of course, is that you who are reading this consider yourself,
ipso facto, one of the lucky.
I will upload the first book in the series of three, but I highly recommend buying all three.
The part about alcohol begins on page 68.
