Psychedelic Natural Magic - Potions from the 1558 Magiae Naturalis of Giambattista della Porta

While psychoactive substances are a core component in many religious traditions, with the exception of alcohol, they are conspicuously missing from much of the western European context. Did and how did such substances play a role in religious, philosophy, mysticism, and magic? This episode explores what appears to be an early selection of mind-altering compounds found in the enormously popular 1558 Magiae Naturalis (On Natural Magic). of Giambattista della Porta. Here della Porta describes four such 'potions,' to use his language, which allegedly cause "pleasant madness for a day" and provide for a range of phenomenological effects from 'being silly' to 'thinking one an animal or fish." What role did "potions" like these play beyond recreation - such as the ubiquitous flying ointments of the middle ages? What does it mean for such "potions" to appear in a book on "natural magic"?
Disclaimer and Plea: I've blurred out sections which contain specific ingredients, amounts, and processes for creating the 'potions' described by della Porta for reasons of safety. It is highly unadvised to attempt to recreate or ingest anything described in this text. I also know that early modern translations of this text exist and they are very easy to find. Please respect my wishes to not reproduce the description (in Latin, English, etc.) for how to make these 'potions' in the comments. I want encourage safety, responsible consumption of psychoactive substances, and harm reduction and without specialist vetting I can't reproduce these instructions in good conscious. Comments which violate this request will be deleted.
Recommended Readings:
Giambattista della Porta - 1558 - Magiae Naturalis (On Natural Magic) - books.google.com/books?id=R6v...
#magic #psychedelics #occultism

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

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[@evilpandakillabzonattkoccu4879]

As a self proclaimed psychonaut: I'd love to try these potions and test the results (in a scientific manner, of course). I would, obviously, take the risk on myself and would research the substances mentioned prior to even making the potion.... but, if it were something I were familiar with or comfortable with taking, I'd be willing to sign some kind of safety disclaimer (so you wouldn't have to worry about anything) and would try potions as a scientific study 👍🤷‍♂️

[@ancientdweller309]

This channel is insanely good

[@Kamkean]

Right? I've been looking for something like this for a while. Really filled a gap.

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

Thanks for saying so - hope the content is interesting!

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

Thanks - let me know what topics you are interested in!

[@Kamkean]

@@TheEsotericaChannel the content is always interesting. It's nice to be introduced to knowledge that you didn't know you wanted. I'd love to see more videos on symbolism - perhaps explaining why certain elements of a symbol were used (for example, if referencing other symbols). The visual aspect of esoteric knowledge is super interesting and I'd love to be introduced to some (most) that I haven't come across yet.

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

@@Kamkean Thanks for the recommendation. I've done a few things on symbols. At some point late this summer or early fall I want to do an episode on early alchemical symbolism. But I agree, visual culture and eostericism are really a great combo.

[@nelle8348]

One of the things that would make taking these potions so dangerous is that even with precise measurements, there is no way to tell the potency of each potion without testing every dose with modern laboratory equipment. The potency of the chemicals found in these plants can vary in orders of magnitude, not only between plants, but within the plant itself. So even if you prepare a potions and it is fine, the next potion you make from the same plant could contain 10 times the dose.

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

Exactly that's why I blurred it out. It's truly risky even fataly so.

[@14KittieKat]

What if you take that plant, chop it up into tiny pieces, weigh out those pieces and place the same amount into the same amount of liquid ? Wouldn’t that be controllable????

[@Spiggo97]

@@14KittieKat not really. It might make the doses a bit more even, but they'll still vary massively

[@duantorruellas716]

Love these videos , this one was hilarious , he says it all with such a straight face too. The guy dosed his roommates without their knowledge , and then he took notes on the effects.

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

Thanks, yeah when I re-read it I was thinking "this is really, really not ok" then, later on, he did it again. Wow, some serious ethics violations here.

[@jeanettewaverly2590]

A precursor to the “acid in the drinking water” fantasy(?) of the 60s.

[@duantorruellas716]

@@TheEsotericaChannel that's right 👍

[@waltonsmith7210]

Sounds like what the CIA did for MK Ultra. I never wouldve guessed such a thing happening in the Renassaince. Youd think even back then that would seem ethically questionable. Its the Golden Rule.

[@stevenv6463]

It's a really interesting topic. Recently I have heard of theories about early Mormonism being into the use of psychedelics. It's hard to conceptualize looking at these things in a way not influenced by the war on drugs.

[@prognosis8768]

This is a couple of sections from a work entitled "The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage" that describes his experience with a woman that gave him an "unguent" to allow him to fly. It seems quite likely that this was describing the use of a psychedelic in the belief that it was able to make one fly. She then gave unto me an unguent, with which I rubbed the principal pulses of my feet and hands; the which she did also; and at first it appeared to me that I was flying in the air in the place which I wished... She rubbed herself with the same unguent, and I was very expectant to see her fly away; but she fell to the ground and remained there about three hours as if she were dead, so that I began to think that she really was dead. At last she began to stir like a person who is waking, then she rose to an upright position, and with much pleasure began to give me the account of her expedition

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

Correct, we have many such stories and they are probably true. Though, note such narratives are also disconnected from the flight narrative in the witchcraft lore, which is conspicuous. Also, was she the one that flew in a bowl? I always miss these narratives up.

[@changer1285]

"SWIM can really handle his shit." Lol. So many of these texts describing forbidden practices sound like old drug forum posts.

[@NikeaTiber]

They claim that it means "someone who *isn't* me" but I would contest that it means "someone who *IS* me"

[@joevonwolfenstein21]

I've been doing psychotropes for years and start to see scrys. I've mentioned one in a previous comment on your channel. Another scry experience was after doing psilocybin I crossed mine eyes and thoughtlessly drifted my gaze into a plastic shopping bag illuminated by house lights on the exterior of a public building. I saw first wall paper that was mauve with golden fleur de lis pattern over the whole wall. Then as my gaze grew more and more non linear, a four post bed about a full size with a canopy coagulated facing a window to the left if one were laying in the bed with head at the head board. Then through the open door of the bedroom on the right side of the bed from laying subjectively on it. Through this door, I could see a female walking down the hall. At this point, I knew this was a palatial place and as this woman walked up and I saw her and knew immediately this palace was set in the mid 18th century. As this woman was walking down the hall, the occupent got out from the bed and he was wery frail and wore Papal regalia, namely the zuketo and the white cassock. The woman helped steady him to get to his feet with the help of a cane. He had short hair and wore glasses, round with medium thick frames. He was lead to the kneeler and then kneeling beside hom (it was four or five feet wide) and that's where the scry took me elsewhere. What do you think? Let me know. Peace Joe Von Wolfenstein 🫶😀

[@Rwitsell10]

My new favorite channel. The DND references speak to my soul.

[@penitentialarts]

Yet another fascinating video. Thank you!

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

Thanks! Feel free to share the channel around!

[@jackpayne4658]

In this connection, I highly recommend Franz Rosenthal's 'The Herb: Hashish versus Medieval Muslim Society'. The arguments he quotes , both pro- and anti-, are still very familiar. 'Turn on, tune in, drop out' - or 'Just say no'.

[@michal_placzek]

So having checked aforementioned chapter of book VIII of della Porta's treatise I fully support our Good Doctor's cautionary disclaimer: under no circumstances should these potions be recreated. These plants and herbs are very toxic and side effects are likely to lead to one's death or serious poisoning.

[@marksmadhousemetaphysicalm2938]

Knowing what psychoactive plants are found in Europe...yeah, they're all incredibly dangerous and definitely more likely to kill than cause a good trip...😳 I've taken lots of pharmacology in both nursing and nurse practitioner school...I wouldn't touch any of these...

[@beauwhitlock5034]

I have no intrest in trying any of these, but can you give hints? Belladonna? Blue Lotus? etc

[@1998anirudh]

Mandrake, jimsonweed (datura), deadly nightshade. You dose too much you die, you dose appropriately and the best you can hope for is a bad trip.

[@jy3n2]

Yet another reason to not be friends with him.

[@mattwright2954]

Fascinating!

[@mattr2209]

I would like to add mystical states of mind can be produced naturally by prayer meditation,ritual fasting etc. They are the most common way in Western (European mysticism). I almost died ingesting belladona atropa in my twenties. Working with a shamman (Wiccan)

[@eternalism8274]

the word "can" is so weak as to be meaningless

[@richardlevy1459]

This is interesting as I find that an issue in modern magical practice often focussed on ritual and academia over a more ontological, musical and empirical approach. It’s not something I can get behind.

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

I'm glad you found the material interesting!

[@anousseeker]

Great video!

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@CBennett420]

In Dee’s own accounts of his invocations, or “Actions” as he referred to them, there are numbers of references to smoke, indicating the possibility of some sort of fumigation, as well as references to the use of potions and ointments. “These Actions are the records of visions and angels and other spirits and the message delivered by them as seen and heard by the scryers [often Edward Kelly]with the aid of a crystal ball, and then immediately related to Dee, who though present saw and heard nothing” (Whitby, 2012). In Dee’s record of these Actions, we read how “smoke filled the place” and a invoked entity states , “I smell the smoke: procede Syr, in your purpose”* and these could indicate sufumigation . Other references indication some sort of elixir in use that clearly put a person into a drowsy state: “taste of this potion yay the savour onely of the vessel worketh most extremely agaynst the maymed drowsines of ignorance. Yf the hand be heavy, how weight and ponderous shall the whole world be? What will Ye?” (Dee/Peterson, 2003). *(Dee/Peterson, 2003) In one account from John Dee’s Actions With Spirits*, (1581-1583) there is a lament about the lack of drugs for an operation, and the use of ointments in their place: “I haue forgotten all my drvggs [drugs]behind me. But since I know that some of you are well stored with sufficient oyntments, I do entend to viset you onely with theyr help. you see, all my boxes are empty?-EK [Edward Kelly] he sheweth a great bundell of empty poticharie [apothecary]boxes”. This brings a response from the figure invoked “How cometh it, that you pretend to come for a favorable diuine powre and all your boxes ar empty” (Whitby, 2012). As Kelly had a reputation as a bit of a con man and swindler, one wonders wether the concern about lack of drugs, was the spirits or Kelly’s! In this regard, it should also be noted that the angel’s scryed by Kelly, also commanded that he and Dee share not only possessions in common, but also their wives! And these orders were apparently followed for at least one tryst.

[@christinapomponio6452]

Oh wow, Yea dude was definitely getting played.

[@sebastiaosalgado1979]

Very interesting!

[@christinaphillips5933]

Love it

[@chuckhainsworth4801]

I was enjoying the lecture immensely and then you threw me a curve ball. Another calligrapher! I found it was a good way of finding my way though difficult passages.

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

Yep, been doing calligraphy for years. It's a form of meditation for me!

[@chuckhainsworth4801]

@@TheEsotericaChannel No better way, that I found, to approach passages that I am going to meditate on. Well, maybe after copy it a number of times.

[@Guillaume-Kleijn93]

Hey Justin, love your videos. Very informative. During the courses on pharmacology and nutrition I started to research the phenomena of flying ointment and their constituents. I highly doubt that that the ingredients found in these potions are psychoactive, some of them have no pharmacological active ingredients that can explain the effect at all and if thee due include active ingredients, the are most of the time muscarinic sedatives if overdosed become deliriants not psychoactive in the way magic mushrooms, cannabis or ayahuasca is. If so more people would still use them I think 😉. Cant wait to find out what your research is saying about the flying ointments, in the past and present.

[@Anumacm]

You should do more videos on him

[@Alizudo]

As someone hesitant to entirely discredit the efficacy of magic, recipes like this are fascinating. - How is a "trip" from these substances related to the manipulation of other forces? - Is it purely for opening the imagination (for inspiration), or is the trance-like state necessary for a more complex ritual? - If the latter, how is it incorporated? - How does one determine the *_results_* of the (to use the vernacular of the necromancers) "experimenta"? Despite these questions, I'm also apprehensive towards using a purely scientific approach, as I'm certain using a standard model of experimentation would lead to the answers of all these questions as: "Placebo", and that doesn't feel right.

[@abdielrainbowhellsangel2256]

Sounds like your about to become a wizard Harry! ;) What your looking for is not magic but Magick. One can employ magical rites and rituals with the aid of documentation, and the Scientific Method. Be wary. Question everything. Crowley has some good stuff on those topics. But he himself has done some questionable things. Maybe check out Damien Echols channel and his videos on the subject of drugs and Magick along with maybe the LBRP video. Trust your Heart dude!! Theres a Sun in there 😎 Seek and you shall find 🖖🤙 Edit: Better to be a Magus than a sorceror or a scientist. Choosze da middle paff!

[@abdielrainbowhellsangel2256]

Cause Youre asking all the 'right' questions. Only way to find out for sure after tons of studying and theorizing. Test. It. Out. Though, like Justin said, id probably not try this odd/interedting probably very toxic medieval stuff, Ha! Theres tons of paths and tons of methods that wont kill you or give you Jaundice or drive you insane, and they dont all require drugs. Unless, y'know, thats your thing. Different strokes.

[@demonsty]

im glad you did this the way you did cuz i would have tried them! lol

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

Yeah that stuff is seems like be bad news

[@CBennett420]

There are numbers of clear references to drugs - Agrippa referred to an ecstatic prophetic state “phrensie”, and describes various means of achieving this, including, “certain secret confections, by which the spirits of their God did infuse vertue, make the soul rise above the mind, by joyning it with dieties [deities], and Demons”. Agrippa referred specifically to “suffumigations” that included “hemlock… henbane… and black poppy,” to “makes spirits and strange shapes appear”. Paracelsus was widely known for his use of opium. In his famous work, The Magus, Francis Barrett wrote that Paracelsus was “well acquainted with the use and virtue of opium… Oporinus [(1507- 1568)] relates that he made up certain little pills of the colour, figure, and size of mouse-turds, which were nothing but opium. These he called by a barbarous sort of name, his laudanum; q.d. laudable medicine; he always carried them with him…” (Barrett, 1801). There were accusations early on, that Paracelsus also used opium for magical purposes, particularly the sort of invocations described in The Picatrix. These accusations first appeared in the 1625 century work, Apolgie pour les grands personages faussement soupçonnés de magie. As we read in Davies’ 1657 Old English translation of Naude’s work, ‘The History of Magick By Way of Apology For all the Wise Men who have have unjustly been reputed Magicians from the Creation to the Present Age: "…Johanes Oporinus, who was his fervant a long time, and having made firft difcovery of what is now objected to him… who having ftayd twenty feven months with him, fayes… that, when he was drunk, he would threaten to bring millions of Devils, to fhew what power he had over them, not to take any notice of what many fay of the familiar Daemon which lock’d up within the pommel of his fword. For, not to bring upon the ftage the opinion of the Alchymifts who maintaine, it was the fecret of the Philofophers ftone, it were more rationall to believe, that, if there were anything within it, it was certainly two or three dofes of his Laudanum, which he never went without, because he did ftrange things with it and uf’d it as a univerfall medicine to cure all manner of difeafes”" (Davies/Naude, 1657) This last comment indicates that opium was used for “strange things” as well as a medicine by Paracelsus. Naude also gives us the likely origins for the often quoted claim that opium was the basis for Paracelsus’ version of the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’. Paracelsus’ servant, Johanes Oporinus, claimed that when Paracelsus “was drunk, he would threaten to bring millions of Devils, to fhew [show] what power he had over them, not to take any notice of what many fay of the familiar Daemon which lock’d up within the pommel of his fword [sword]” (Naude, 1625/1657). this shows that Paracelsus did make reference to his knowledge and practice of magic. It has been a longstanding view that besides his interest in alchemy and medicine that Paracelsus was also a practicing magician. “He not only told fortunes and interpreted dreams, but even ventured upon summoning spirits from the cast deep” (Maxwell, 1865). The two arts really went hand in hand at this time. In reference to the “familiar demon”, it should be noted that the “wizard of the Middle Ages was also a doctor, and it is claimed that the familiar that inhabited the sword of Paracelsus-which sword he always had by him and could never be parted from-was none other than a certain amount of opium concealed in the hollow pommel” (Bland, 1920). Images of Paracelsus have him holding his hand over the Sword, with the name “Azoth” written on it, said to be a title of the Philosopher’s Stone, and the suggestion has been that this was a reference to a solid form of his laudanum tincture. As Maxwell noted in Dwellers on the Threshold: Or, Magic and Magicians of the Azoth and opium: "This preparation of opium constitutes the first arcanum, or the first magistery,… it was perhaps, his Azoth-the spirit which he carried in the pommel of his sword-the demon which arouses a myriad other demons, some bright and beautiful, some horrent and diabolical, for the dreams of the opium-eater are not all lighted sunshine, but frequently plunge into the depths of darkness and despair!…." "….Paraclesus pretended that its pommel was the hiding-place of Azoth his familiar, who lay there imprisoned in a jewel. He often embraced it, and held mad converse with it, and gave out that it had in its charge the famous elixir vitae by which he could prolong the lives of men to the protracted date of the antediluvian fathers. He boasted that his word controlled an entire legion of spirits. Another of his attendants, named Wetterus, relates that he frequently threatened to summon a vast host of demons, and show him how his lightest breath directed their movements." (Maxwell, 1867) Azoth, is similar to one of the Arabic names of a cannabis preparation, az-zrzh, and it should be noted that various esoteric names for hashish and opium, such as theriac, were used interchangeably. Seeing substances such as hashish and opium as “spirits” has long been part of magical technique, and also fits with what will be seen in regards to the extraction of the “spirits” of plants into alchemical “quintessences. . “By inhaling or digesting that physical matter, one is also performing an invocation of the spirit that resides within it… there is no eucharist more profoundly striking than the consumption of a consecrated phsycotropic substance, especially if one understands it to be a living being, rather than a mere dead mix of chemicals” (Leitch, 2005). Thus it seems clear that Paracelsus would have been well versed in the use of psychoactive substances in magic, as much as he was familiar with their use in medicine, and the Picatrix seems the most likely source and inspiration for this knowledge. In relation to Agrippas’ reference to poppies in a fumigation recipe, and Paracelsus’ alleged use of opium for this purpose, it is also worth noting that their contemporary, the alchemist monk Rabelais stated “On burning coals we will put the seeds of Poppy”, for the practice of capnomancy, divination by skrying in smoke, which he referred to as “the gallantest and most excellent of all Secrets!”. Francois Rabelais (1483?-1553), who will be discussing at length for his esoteric references to cannabis in Chapter 13, showed his familiarity with the Arabic grimoire, in a reference to a character who had studied in Toledo, Spain, and and learned magical techniques for protecting himself from demons, from the works of “the reverend father in hell Picatrix”. The Picatrix is full of drugs, hashish, opium, mandrake etc, At least two 16th century Grimoires that were in use in England at the time of Dr John Dee, prescribe cannabis for mirror scrying and to see spirits, ‘Sepher Raziel: Liber Salomonis’, and ‘The Book of Magic’, recently rereleased as ‘The Book of Oberon’, and we can be near certain that Dee would have been familiar with these manuscripts….. The third herbe is Canabus [cannabis]& it is long in shafte & clothes be made of it. The vertue of the Juse [juice]of it is to anoynt thee with it & with the juse of arthemesy & ordyne thee before a mirrour of stele [steel]& clepe thou spiritts & thou shallt see them & thou shalt haue might of binding & of loosing deuills [devils]& other things.” (Sepher Raziel, 1564). “Anoint thee with the Joice of Canabus & the Joice of Archangell & before a mirrour of steele call spirits, & thoue shalt see them & have power to binde & to loose them” (Book of Oberon, 1577-1583)

[@bromisovalum8417]

Interestingly, although opium was well known in medieval Europe too, its use was limited to medicinal purposes. The reports of opium addiction and the terrible consequences of it seem to have surfaced only much later. The real abuse of opium seemed also mostly an Asian and Middle-Eastern thing.

[@stephenkramer7157]

4:48 Well, you know, unless you're Max Miller.

[@TheMurray1922]

"....sure. a friend....rrriiigghhht." haha- you got my subscription!

[@Obsidian.rOse.dragOn]

I've read several references to use of yew venom as a shamanic medicine but of course it has to be prepared properly in order to not be actual venom and even then was presumably not very pleasant. Granted I'd try it but probably best to avoid that particular brew...

[@pentegarn1]

I think the "Sacred magic of Abramelin" has some substances it mentions? The only reason I remember this was because when I read the book while getting ready for the Abramelin ritual, I remember thinking..."Well, maybe I can at least smoke some hash during this fast?" (you're not allowed to do much during the 6 month purification) only to be let down when Abramelin says that using substances isn't any good for the work. Talk about being disappointed. lol

[@biruboto]

6:07 First known use of "SWIM"

[@bromisovalum8417]

lol nice one

[@changer1285]

Religion for breakfast did a cool video on coffee in Sufism too

[@duantorruellas716]

Hahahaha Justin said, "don't be friends with Della Porta ". Hahahaha . The spell on invisibility makes me think of a song by Kate Bush. She says in the song she found a book on how to be invisible. Very interesting 🤔

[@visionplant]

These don't sound like psychedelics but deliriants

[@beauwhitlock5034]

Probably things like belladonna

[@visionplant]

@@beauwhitlock5034 It was yeah but he didn't want us mentioning the plant lmao

[@beauwhitlock5034]

@@visionplant I seriously doubt there's people on this channel that would learn about belladonna for the first time from this particular comment section. We're a bunch of old squares 😁

[@visionplant]

@@beauwhitlock5034 That's what Justin Sledge is worried about but yeah one could easily find what these passages are talking about and this audience probably knows about night shade already. If a viewer didn't the actual text is free online.

[@1ntrcnnctr608]

Hamilton Morris likes this

[@corticallarvae]

Doc can you approach trepanning

[@honeyvitagliano3227]

❤

[@georgem7502]

Reminds me of the Genuine Falmer Blood Elixir 🩸

[@groovyMysterioso]

The "anamorphs" potion sounds exactly like what the secret tenured professors cult took in the show China, IL.

[@ninurtaacha8641]

Damn, and here I was hoping to consume some obscure ancient madness drugs.

[@andrewkettle]

Doesn’t the Liber Raziel have recipes like these too?

[@tracywalker9291]

Have you info on the Deutsche Reinheitsgebot from 1516? One of the conjectures was that it was a law to stop the Monks of what is now Bavaria, from brewing the psychedelic mushroom, Amanita muscaria, and stopping the consumption of it by the Monks during 40 day fast of Lent, where they were only allowed bier : There are also a few accepted Christmas rituals that point to this possibility. I think there are many religious paintings with this mushroom depicted. Also, it is associated with Norse Witchcraft and Shamanism.The modern term for Amanita muscaria is called "Magic Mushrooms". In translations of Latin, German and English, It is "The Fly atrracting mushroom". I assume the Genus/Species is of the the flying insect "Musca autumnalis".. Autumn is when this mushrooms grow. It was used around cattle as a distraction to get the flies away by attracting them some where else. That conjecture, as I see, is the most likely. But I am not an expert. So I guess my real question ; What effect has the Amanita muscaria psychedelic mushroom had in the last 700 years. in esoteric and religious influences. Thank you for your time. Tracy

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

I'm fairly certain that's not true, they were just making fruit etc

[@tracywalker9291]

@@TheEsotericaChannel Thank you. What about other aspects of the mushroom in magic and religion?

[@tracywalker9291]

@@TheEsotericaChannel Thank you. What about other aspects on its affect on religion and magic in Europe, Scandanavia and Russia?

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

@@tracywalker9291 could be, I'm sure such substances played some role.

[@tracywalker9291]

@@TheEsotericaChannel Yes, that is why I posted on this thread, due to the title. I have no confirmation bias, I just want to understand. In all of my mushroom identification books, it is categorized as deadly. Yet there has been no deaths attributable to this. How about if I do more research to save time for your busy schedule, and you check it out when you have time? If so you wish I would wish we do it on more private messaging. I hope to raise you rinterest in this. I will learn more about the histories. Or I can drop it if you wish. I am a newbie to ESOTERICA but have watched many episodes in the Christmas and New Years lockdowns. I enjoy your work. Thank you. Tracy

[@brianlefevre7699]

He's talking about people like me....who would in fact reproduce and ingest ancient psychodelic.

[@brianlefevre7699]

Also bad are the best , they are the ones you learn and grow the most from, as long as you are able to let ego go and see the lessons in the terror.

[@0mn1vore]

Yeah, that's him. "Don't be friends with a guy like Giambattista della Porta." Thanks again.

[@harpsichordkid]

Sounds like college roomies. His friends probably got back at him.

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

One would hope so!

[@biff-6603]

Thank you for approaching the topic with an open mind! What do you make of Sula Benet's hypothesis that the "kaneh bosm" ingredient in anointing oil is mistranslated as calamus but instead could have been cannabis? And wow! That's the coolest patreon gift ever! 🤤

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

Thanks! It's an interesting topic especially given the finds at Tel Arad. Though, I think this is largely an etymological question and not being an expert there I should probably hold my tongue.

[@nhelm823]

Some of these guys were giving me some real MK Ultra vibes. Just giving god knows what, to anyone unfortunate enough to know them

[@paulmusyk4lyfe51]

Be VERY careful with all and any psychedelics. The rule of thumb: extremely small doses and no more than a few times a year. A small dose is smaller than a proper dose (1/4 of a tab of LSD) for example. Why? Because if you’re an emotional person and/or impressionable in general or have mental illness in your family, a smaller dose will be way safer. There certainly are benefits to these substances that produce a lot of clarity but ‘you can always take more, not less.’

[@MrDanamiel]

I wanted to try it because you say not to try it

[@MossyMozart]

D Caspar - Now, that's just stupid and reckless.

[@lastofthebest5102]

"Medieval measurements are anything but precise." Laughs in Pyramid

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

Like the Ḫˁ Snfrw pyramid, right?

[@christinaphillips5933]

All plants are !

[@ManofLetters]

300 gp?! ULTIMA ONLINE?!

[@thoth_amon]

wow, that dude sounded like them cia guys that did similar things during mk ultra, reminds me of the cia guy that jumped out of the window after another one slipped some lsd in his drink

[@whatabouttheearth]

😂 MK Ultra? Dosing was a bigger thing back in the 60s in general. The LSD part of MK Ultra isn't the major part of it, it's the mainstream part.

[@gmaximosis]

the priesthoods have never wanted to reveal the entheogenic origins of their mystical experiences, as presenter states, just because the entheogenic use has been well hidden, doesn't mean it isn't true. Psilocybin has turned me into a gnostic christian, a truly wonderful portal to the heavenly realms within during closed eye meditation.

[@matthewrousseau1821]

Judeo Christianity generally aren't shamanistic religions. When ever I read the Bible (both new and old testiment). It seems transcendent experiences happen to people who are isolated in prayer for some time. I suppose fasting ,repetitive prayer and the general sensory deprivation of the prophets and Saint could induce such things.

[@ashleybrister5033]

.. wonder which one is manna😂... or which ones are for AMENita muscaria, which are painted in at least 12 churches around Europe all circa the dark ages. They are used to represent the Eden trees of life and death.

[@Potacintvervs]

The mushroom trees are theorized to be a stylistic interpretation of trees. The evidence that they were actually based on mushrooms is scant

[@helenbostock2350]

This is silly ok. So just think what I about to say. My normal day. Get up washed and dressed and walk then eat. Shopping see friends. Normally. I don't know when the day changes but its does. Its like a day dream but its a silly day. I see thing that aren't thier. A word come to my mind. I follow that word. I might be stand in a shop. Oh no silly day. When I think about it afterwards I feel so for me. It's could be a song. It's might be a person. It's might be a dream I remember later on in the day. I get very excited. I talk in a launage I don't understand but then I talk in English. I sure I talk to angle. Devi or angle or other spirt. Now I think it find a balance in your self. So it takes me there no way I can control this silly day. I write to you to explain because I think you're understand me better than a doctors.

[@k57x3]

i guess most people practising "natural magic" (could possibly be synonym with "shamanism"?) were located in rural areas and haven't been able to write down their habits due to illiteracy. for example the 🍄 still is used as a symbol for luck frequently, here in germany. does that sound acceptable? 😅

[@k57x3]

also thank you for the high quality content! grateful to have stumbled on your channel

[@supadankchef4]

Does anyone hear listen to dababy or am I the only one?

[@scottmiller2591]

Placeth thou 2 grains of the el SD into the flagon of orange juice, return this unto the refrigerator, and await thy roommates to quaff this. Much hilarity will ensue.

[@changer1285]

YESSSSSSSSS cannabinoids in ancient Israel! Could this corroborate Sula Benet's linguistic work around the word "Kaneh-bosm" which is most often translated as Calamus, but by her assessment Cannabis? Lord only knows I sure burn the incense and partake of the oil, though I am no priest... yet.

[@randyallen2966]

Damnit I want those recipes

[@TritiumCupcakes]

WTF why would you blur out the recipes?!? I cant read latin but would love to know since I studied medicinal and natural products chemistry

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

I bet if you think for a moment, you'll figure it out.

[@visionplant]

Yeah, these are all deliriants, not psychedelics

[@theitalianwarrior9169]

Allegro wrote a book called "The sacred mushroom and the cross" imho a must read.

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

It's been mostly discredited

[@dalecarpenter8828]

it was amanita muscaria , psilocybin ,peyote and such ! and cannabinoids !you eat some amanita muscaria you'll believe in miracles !

[@NannyMAU]

Cannabis residue has gone hand in hand with the human journey 🌱

[@DonPeyote420]

della Porta discovered dosing people!

[@jred3806]

Omg i demand you release de laportes drug of choice lmao

[@multiinuteis]

🤣🤣🤣

[@NickBatinaComposer]

The Thrice Great Terrence McKenna?

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

Mayhaps!

[@NickBatinaComposer]

@@TheEsotericaChannel omg, wait, funny thing regarding Captain McKenna that I just suddenly remembered, I think he has mentioned a substance that would cause that pass out - spring up - pass out type thing in the context of the hermetic corpus. He brings up ergotism as well, and took a stab at discussing a potential preparation that could be done to make it a viable reason for the witch craze, though, I might be mistaken since I haven’t checked that video out in like a year!!

[@davidfryer9359]

Ahhh the pesky shackles of ethics panels! They never display a sense of humor.

[@patrickday4206]

There's is evidence for psychoactive substances but most of the time they are vague references like the Pythagoras followers not eating meat which back then you wouldn't want if on an maoi inhibitors! There wouldn't be much left after the witch trials people were scared of being called witches!

[@ns-oi9jx]

30000 year cave paintings of magic mushrooms are not evidence 🙄

[@eternalism8274]

the word "evidence" is problematic. there are various types of "evidence". but we have to want to find it , not suppress and ignore and overlook the kinds of evidence

[@timothygeaughan4127]

Ok, so, do not recreate these recipes, winky face 😉👌 (just kidding), I am 4 months sober, no worries.

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

Just trying to do my part of making info available but trying to keep folks safe

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

Also, congrats on your 4 months sober, well done!

[@MossyMozart]

@Timothy Geaugham - I hope you are now up to 12 months of sobriety! But if not, just keep starting over until it STICKS! All the very best.

[@gunkwretch3697]

see Rosarium Philosophorum, for detailed instructions