The ultimate psychedelic encyclopedia, Schultes’ Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers is a collection of fresh information on naturally-occurring plants. I had heard of this book many times, and recently ordered a copy for myself from an online source. I was blown away by the unique set of full-color photographs, none of which I had ever seen before!

Plants of the Gods begins with some background information on hallucinogenic usage, phytochemical research on sacred plants, a geographical depiction of usage and botanical range, a plant lexicon and an overview of plant use. After this introduction (which lasts roughly eighty pages), Schultes describes the history, chemical structure and effects of seventeen most commonly used sacred plants. These include:

Fly Agaric, Nightshade/Henbane, Cannabis, Ergot, Datura, Iboga, Yopo, Cebil, Ayahuasca, Angel’s Trumpet, Peyote, Mushrooms, Salvia Divinorum, San Pedro, Morning Glory, Epena and Pituri Bush.

While I had heard of most of these, I knew little about their history of usage and was very happy to see many pictures of these plants. The book closes with a description of molecular makeup of the plants and an epilogue about the work of ethnobotanists during the past two centuries. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject of sacred plants. And while the writing can be a bit bland at times, the pictures and information on each page more than make up for it.

5/5 Stars. 208 pages. Published 1992.