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Title: Strange fruit : alchemy, religion and magical foods : a speculative history by Clark Heinrich ISBN: 0-7475-1548-4 Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub. Date: 1995 Format: Hardcover

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Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (4 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Procrustean entheogenists
Comment: I now have a pretty good library of entheogenic literature, and I credit the authors with making a very good case for the existence and persistence of the entheogenic initiatory tradition. But I have also read a great many alchemical books, and I marvel at how entheogenic authors pick and choose the very few texts they quote; meanwhile they gloss over the mainstream alchemical works which only too clearly show that there is a literal laboratory work, wherein one applies the understanding of nature gained through gnosis, whether delivered by entheos or not.

Like Jung, they have a particular axe to grind; and, let's face it, it helps make their living. At least Jung would admit in his later years that he was wrong to contort alchemical texts so that they fit only his psychological theory.

But in talking with some of these authors, I find that they are still objectivists, and not mystics (to use the word in its best sense). On their trips they may well see that the order of the world is a projection of Mind, but then when writing, they hope to be looked upon favorably by the scholarly community, and so they prove not to have the conviction of their visions.

The essense of life can be perceived as a fire, or fiery moving water, a flow of consciousness, of Mind, ever coming into beingness and winking out again. This fire is the fountain of the alchemists. It is not to be reified as stomach acid, or muscimol, or any 5-HT-2A agonist. Those are agents that open our minds to SEE this fundamental fire.

This reductionist attitude that the secret coding means amanita or psilocybin, or iboga, etc, misses the point: the substance is the doorway, not the end.

And so, having had the vision themselves, what keeps these authors from understanding that classical alchemy as found in the works of Ripley, Philalethes, d'Espanget, Fulcanelli, etc, has very clearly a practical laboratory aspect?

When someone says that these authors have answered their questions as to what the alchemical tradition was all about, they reveal that they have not read very extensively in that tradition.

Rating: 5
Summary: The master key to many doors...
Comment: This book came to me at a time when I had been trying desperately to crack the alchemical code. Having read Artephius, I eventually concluded that the secret fire of the alchemists' was no fire at all, but rather an acid. But like most things in regards to alchemy, stripping away one veil only revealed another. It wasn't until I read Heinrich's work that I learned the acid was actually "stomach acid". This book will give you the key to most of the great religious mysteries of the ages. It's hard to believe so many mystery traditions (Gnosticism, Alchemy, Hermeticism, The Grail mythology... and yes, even Christianity if you strip away the silly superstitious nonsense) can all stem from a common stream, but Heinrich's case is air tight. I can't thank him enough for writing this book. It is priceless to any true seeker.

Rating: 5
Summary: Innovative evidence for Christian entheogen tradition
Comment: When I read about eating bittersweet scrolls followed by seeing visions, in Ezekiel and Revelation, it was clear that Christianity included an essential entheogen tradition. However, it was unclear which entheogens might be allegorized in those scriptures. Heinrich presents a fine and sufficient candidate.

He also presents a brilliant hypothesis that the story of the Exodus is based around ergot poisoning of the yeast supply. Chris Bennett in Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible makes a case for cannabis especially in the Old Testament, and Dan Merkur in Mystery of Manna, and in Psychedelic Sacrament, makes a case for ergot in the Old Testament.

This is a model of a fine book. The prose is clear, artistic, and masterful. The photos are stunning and perfectly support his case, showing the shape-shifting Amanita in its various lifecycle stages, explaining how each stage is allegorized in Hindu, Christian, and alchemical traditions. Definitely worth the price. A must-have for entheogen scholars.