REVIEW: The Poison Path Oracle Deck by Coby Michael

BY: DAVEY

I’ve had a thing for poison plants my whole life, and these days that shows up in my own backyard here in Maryland where I keep a poison garden with datura, henbane, monkshood, belladonna, wormwood, and a good stand of rue and yarrow. So when I heard Coby Michael had a new oracle deck built around baneful plants, I knew I needed to slap that pre-order button…hard.

Coby Michael is a well known voice in the poison path space. He runs The Poisoner’s Apothecary, an online shop and teaching space built around the ritual use of poisonous and psychoactive plants, and he founded the Botanica Obscura Conference, which brings plant magic practitioners together every year. His earlier books, The Poison Path Herbal and The Poison Path Grimoire, are staples for people doing serious work with baneful herbs.

The Poison Path Oracle Deck is a 36 card set with a guidebook. Twenty three of the cards cover poisonous plants like nightshade, henbane, datura, foxglove, mistletoe, and hemlock, each with plant lore, a rundown of its poisonous and medicinal properties, and a plant spirit glyph for meditation or spellwork. The other thirteen cards are the venefica, women from history and myth who wielded poison as a source of power, including Circe, Hekate, and Lucrezia Borgia. They work similarly to a Major Arcana, offering broader messages alongside the plant readings.

The plant cards use botanical illustrations from the 18th through early 20th century, and the venefica cards use folk art styling instead. The two sets look different from each other on purpose, and it works.

If you’re into plant magic, shadow work, or just want a deck that treats poison plants seriously, this one is absolutely worth picking up.

If this one interests you, Coby has other books worth checking out too. The Poison Path Herbal covers the foundational herbal work, The Poison Path Grimoire goes deeper into spellwork and formulary, and The Poison Path Oracle is his companion handbook on using poison plants for divination and spirit communication.