Coby Michael is an expert on the Poison Path and specializes in topics like occult herbalism, flying ointment, and entheogenic herbs. In this episode, he returns to M3 to discuss his latest book, The Poison Path Grimoire.
Last year, Coby and I talked about poisonous plants and baneful herbs, but the conversation was mostly centered around their medicinal value and entheogenic properties. This time, we’re focusing more on the “dark side” of things and taking a look at the nature of poison itself.
Coby also runs a shop, The Poisoner’s Apothecary, where he creates awesome plant-themed products, including jewelry, talismans, ointments, oils, and more.
For the full conversation, you’ll definitely want to watch the YouTube video, but for those of you that just like to read… well, here are your written highlights.
From There to Here
I first met Coby Michael after one of his workshops at Summer Magick Festival in 2023 — that was before I started this whole endeavor of YouTubeing, podcasting, and interviewing. When I eventually embarked on my hunt for guests, he was at the top of my list.
Some time has obviously passed between Coby’s first appearance on M3 and now… about a year and a half to be exact. And certainly, much has happened. In addition to writing a new book, Coby has been all over the country attending markets, giving workshops, and teaching classes. He also runs his own online conference, Botanica Obscura, which takes place every year and features a unique set of plant-based workshops from a variety of talented practitioners.
The Poison Path Grimoire
In The Poison Path Grimoire, Coby Michael invites the reader deep into the topic of “dark herablism” — a branch of study that he says “appreciates and respects the sinister and trepidatious qualities of plants and their ability to heal in different ways.”
The term dark, itself, is a rather interesting one. In this case, it doesn’t connote themes like “good and evil” or “right and wrong” … instead, it’s just taking a look at things that might lurk in the shadows, aren’t frequently explored, or that just might prefer to remain hidden most of the time.
If The Poison Path Herbal was a road map to new territory, then The Poison Path Grimoire is a traveler’s guide to the area. Both books are filled with history, ritual, recipes, and magick, but the Grimoire takes on a slightly more personal tone as Coby included some of his own journal entries.
This darker side of herbs presented by the book includes concepts like necromancy, vampirism, and death. As a “grimoire,” it introduces a litany of botanical allies and how to connect with them. And of course, at the heart of the book, there is also valuable analysis provided on the nature of poisons themselves.
Approaching a Poison
Poison can be a metaphoric term as much as it is a literal one. You can poison someone physically… and you can poison them energetically.
In the interview, Coby explains how it wasn’t medicines or enthoeogens that first attracted him to herbs. It was poisons. They’re dramatic! They’re dangerous. They’re interesting.
He defines a poison as something that is potent and has the ability to transform or cause dramatic change (regardless of whether than change is positive or negative). What’s really interesting is how easily that transformation can shift from one extreme to the other. As an example, Coby discusses Foxglove.
Foxglove Flowers
In addition to having beautiful flowers, Foxglove contains a chemical called digoxin that has some rather fascinating properties. If someone is suffering from cardiac arrest, digoxin might just jumpstart their heart back to a normal rhythm. If there are no symptoms present, however, digoxin will probably give you a heart attack. Exactly why this happens is rather scientific, so we won’t get into it, but it’s also worth pointing out that Foxglove is poisonous and no one here is recommending that anyone ingest it. Guys, don’t eat Foxglove.
As for approaching poisonous plants on a spiritual level, there’s no one right way to do it, but Coby recommends that you start out with an understanding that they may connect you with experiences that reflect their baneful nature.
Poison and Witchcraft
If you simplify witchcraft and look at it as something with the ability to cause dramatic shifts, it’s easy to see how it’s inherently connected to poison. Both witchcraft and poison are topics that have long been misunderstood throughout history. These types of connections popped up quite a few times over the course of the interview. Coby even pointed out that at one point in time, the terms “Veneficium” (poisoning, sorcery) and “Maleficium” (harmful magick) basically took on the same meaning.
The Death of the Ego
One of the things I found most interesting about our conversation was the talk on symbolic self-poisoning. Disclaimer: Nobody is recommending you go and poison yourself. The keyword there was “symbolic.”
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Coby had mentioned floating a belladonna flower in a chalice — not necessarily to consume it, but to just let the spirits know that you’re willing to tempt fate. He says that self-poisoning is a transgressive act. It goes against nature! And in doing so, it might function as a doorway to some of those “dark” places that we don’t frequently explore.
Symbolic death is a theme in many initiatory traditions. Experiencing this type of mystery goes back to ancient times. Sometimes it can represent death of the ego, and other times it can represent death of the old life. This was a theme that popped up quite a few times over the course of the episode and I would definitely recommend at least listening to those parts.
A Series Trend
In The Poison Path Herbal, Coby introduced a trio of archetypes: Saturn, Venus, and Mercury. Through research and experience, he found that all of the baneful, toxic, and poisonous plants he was working with could be grouped into one of those three categories. You can read his book for a more in-depth explanation of what that means, but a basic knowledge of planetary correspondences should give you the general vibe.
Although he didn’t plan it beforehand, he feels like his writing is falling into those groupings as well. He attributes more Saturnian qualities to his first book, for instance. And with its exploration of poisons and aphrodisiacs, his second book has a distinctly Venusian energy.
So that leaves one more, right?
Teasing the Next Book
Coby’s third book, which has been written and recently announced, fits into the category of Mercury — The Poison Path Oracle. He says it will be focused on divination, spirit communication, and trance work… all incorporating poisonous plants! He’ll even be drawing connections between plants and divinatory methods like tarot and runes.
I’m definitely excited to take a look at that in the future! Especially for the rune correspondences.
Finding Coby Michael
It’s pretty easy to find Coby online.
- Instagram: instagram.com/poisonersapothecary
- Facebook: facebook.com/poisonersapothecary
- Website: thepoisonersapothecary.com
If you’d like to catch him in person, check out one of these upcoming events:
And of course, you can also catch his first appearance on M3 (during Season 1) here on my website or on YouTube.
Books by Coby Michael
Here’s the Poison Path series so far… and you can also check out Leo Witch, which is part of The Witch’s Sun Sign Series.
At the time of writing this article, The Poison Path Oracle is currently on pre-order and scheduled for release March 31, 2026.
Botanica Obscura
If you’re looking to get more involved with the plant-based community, attending Botanica Obscura can be a great way to learn more about it.
It’s an online conference, so you can attend from anywhere. The 2026 classes haven’t been announced yet, but you can get a general feel by looking at the previous year’s topics. We should have more information in October!
Don’t miss out. Here’s what’s coming up…
Musical Memories
Back in Season 1, Coby had already answered my usual closing question regarding music in his personal practice. This time around, I had to hit him with something new, so I asked him about his favorite musical memory.
He recounted a tale of being in his school band and playing percussion. I won’t mince his words — you can go listen to him talk about it, but it was a lovely memory.
By the way, y’all, this is only the second time I’ve had a recurring guest. How is this question working out? If I do it a third time, it’ll become a standard.
Conclusions
I don’t know about you, but I had pretty high expectations for this second interview with Coby. And he definitely lived up to them! Plants might not be the core focus of my personal practice, but I do enjoy having a good conversation about them.
I’ve got lots more interviews scheduled for all of you! If you haven’t already, please take a moment to subscribe to my YouTube channel so that you can see them as soon as they’re released. Oh, and if you’d like to watch them before they’re public, you can take a look at my Patreon page.
Hello my wonderful readers. It’s so amazing that you got all the way down here to the end. If you can take a short break from poisons for just a moment, I’d like to tell you about some of the links on this page. There’s a lot of links, actually, to books. Those are Amazon referral links. If you use one of those links to make a purchase, Amazon will pay me a small commission. That’s all. Now you can get back to poison.
Aerik Arkadian 
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