Reflections on Metzineria (II): How to get Poisoned ‘Safely’

In this occa­sion we want to share with you anoth­er series reflec­tion on Met­zine­r­ia or the Path of Poi­sons, focus­ing on a recur­ring ques­tion: how should one get intoxicated/poisoned? We have received some doubts on what are the best sub­stances to start exper­i­ment­ing with poi­sons, how to approach them, appro­pri­ate dosages, etc. Allow us to be a bit exten­sive here, for this is a tricky ques­tion that should not be approached light­ly (are there any ques­tions that should be?).

First­ly, we should ana­lyze what we regard as poi­sons or intox­i­cat­ing sub­stances. Some could argue that our cur­rent con­cep­tion of poi­sons cor­re­sponds to what were con­sid­ered ‘dan­ger­ous’ sub­stances in the past, those which could eas­i­ly pose a threat to our phys­i­cal or men­tal integri­ty. The thing is that, in the past, as we have talked about in pre­vi­ous arti­cles, the notion of poi­son was quite blur­ry, as it depend­ed high­ly on the dosage, and so snake ven­om or wolfs­bane could be ben­e­fi­cial to health when wise­ly used.

Oth­ers may claim that Poi­son could be equiv­a­lent to psy­choac­tive sub­stances, i.e. a chem­i­cal that cre­ates a per­ceiv­able shift in our con­scious­ness. But, again, if you have ever tried herbs or sub­stances regard­ed as med­i­cine in an ‘unwise’ way (too much, inap­pro­pri­ate tim­ing, etc.) you will have suf­fered a pow­er­ful yet sub­tle change in your mind or spir­it. More­over, as it has been claimed in oth­er occa­sions, in the Path of Poi­sons every­thing is poten­tial­ly psy­cho(spir­it)active.

Nev­er­the­less, we all know some indi­vid­u­als who regard them­selves as “high­ly reac­tive”, and so, they like to show off that any sub­stance they inter­act with always changes them cru­cial­ly. In most cas­es, this is a result of self decep­tion. Let us be clear here, peo­ple tread­ing the Path of Poi­sons should be aware of the two great­est ene­mies one must destroy in order to move for­ward: Fear and Self Deceit. We have already dis­cussed the dan­ger of fear in this arti­cle, but let us now devote a few words to delve into Self Deceit. We have all been enslaved by our own pro­ject­ed image, by our vices and virtues, we have been blind­ed by what peo­ple say about us, all those false images we have assumed, all those roles we have imposed on our­selves. Poi­sons, when effec­tive, anni­hi­late the false­hood, the lies, and the pre­vi­ous con­cep­tions on the Self, which can at times result in a major down­fall. But those who like to cat­e­go­rize them­selves, or like to take things for grant­ed have a lot at stake. This is why, when tread­ing the Path of Poi­sons, one must be able to over­come self lim­i­ta­tions and the lies we pose onto ourselves.

But, for now, let’s move for­ward to the main point of this arti­cle: how can I get intox­i­cat­ed / poi­soned safe­ly? How can I start tak­ing poi­sons with­out los­ing my mind / dying / etc.?

As you may have pic­tured by now, we are not going to give you here a list of the ‘safest’ herbs or sub­stances and there will be giv­en no dosages, for there are no safe poi­sons, as you may have read a thou­sand times by now, and this means just exact­ly that: we can all be intox­i­cat­ed by the ‘sim­plest’ Poi­son. Dosages entire­ly depend on the sit­u­a­tion and the prac­ti­tion­er (our weight, our emo­tion­al / phys­i­cal state, our lev­els of tol­er­ance, etc.). And so, the only way to find it out is try­ing (and gath­er­ing some infor­ma­tion on them beforehand).

But, evi­dent­ly, one does not sim­ply try. Every time we decide to inter­act with a sub­stance ‑be it rose­mary, laven­der, fun­gi, wolfs­bane or bel­ladon­na ‑we have to make sure we count with the accep­tance of the Poi­son itself, we must be absolute­ly con­scious of our men­tal, phys­i­cal, and spir­i­tu­al con­di­tion, and we must keep atten­tive on the envi­ron­men­tal signs we receive, and dis­cern them from the traps of Self Deceit.

Per­haps the best advice we could give you is: start with the things you have in your home­land, the native flo­ra (and fau­na) that grows in the soil you step on. Start gen­tly, gath­er­ing spir­its in an appro­pri­ate and wor­ship­ping way, and write down the time, day, per­son­al con­di­tion, dosages, meth­ods, and effects the Poi­son has had on you. Whether it is per­ceiv­ably “effec­tive” or it has appar­ent­ly “done noth­ing”, mind that a small amount of the sub­stance will always remain in the alem­bic of your body and spir­it, and it may man­i­fest in oth­er sub­tle ways.

Still, if you are real­ly intrigued about the effects, the safe­ty, or how to ingest a sub­stance, per­haps it would be wise to eval­u­ate what is that you think you lack or you need to expe­ri­ence, instead of look­ing at what the plants can offer to you. Some­times we are in search of a ‘legal/illegal high’, some­times we are in search of a ‘purge’, some­times we are in search of a ‘life chang­ing expe­ri­ence’ in order to beat the numb­ness of our dai­ly life. And no Poi­son can cure you of the mun­dane dis­ease of bore­dom or waste of time. Make sure that all these mal­adies of the mind and soul have already been healed or cast­ed aside when you inter­act with the Lords and Ladies of the Oth­er­world, and that you are not turn­ing to a Poi­son in order to mend your problems.

Reflec­tions on Met­zine­r­ia II: How to get Poi­soned ‘Safe­ly’ de Sem­pro­ni­ana Tort — Júlia Car­reras està sub­jec­ta a una llicèn­cia de Reconeix­e­ment-NoCom­er­cial-SenseO­braDeriva­da 4.0 Inter­na­cional de Cre­ative Commons
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