{"id":13059,"date":"2022-09-23T09:52:35","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T15:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13059"},"modified":"2022-09-23T10:06:02","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T16:06:02","slug":"the-passing-of-christian-ratsch-magical-ethnobotanist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13059","title":{"rendered":"The Passing of Christian R\u00e4tsch, Magical Ethnobotanist"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

I heard Christian R\u00e4tsch (1957\u20132022)<\/a> speak in person only once, at a conference in England in the 2000s, shortly after I had bought a book he co-wrote,<\/em> Witchcraft<\/a> Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plant<\/a>s<\/a>. I also treasure a recorded lecture of his on henbane beer and such topics, in which he scoffs at the famous Reinheitsgebot (beer purity law of 1516) that limited ingredients to water, barley, hops, hissing, “Hops isss a depresssant!” \u2014 CSC<\/em><\/p>\n

The Undying Contributions of the Late Christian R\u00e4tsch<\/span><\/h2>\n

From Coby Michael’s The Poisoner’s Apothecary<\/em> Patreon page<\/a>.
\nReprinted with permission.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"\"

Christian R\u00e4tsch, 1999.<\/p><\/div>\n

On the 17th of September, 2022 author, lecturer and ethnobotanist Christian R\u00e4tsch (Hamburg, Germany) died of a stomach ulcer that he had been dealing with himself for years. R\u00e4tsch leaves behind wife and fellow author Claudia M\u00fcller-Ebeling.<\/p>\n

Christian R\u00e4tsch, Ph.D., is a world-renowned anthropologist and ethnopharmacologist who specializes in the shamanic uses of plants. He is the author of Marijuana Medicine<\/em> and coauthor of Plants of the Gods, Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas,<\/em> Witchcraft Medicine<\/em>, and The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants<\/em>. He lives in Hamburg, Germany, and lectures around the world. He has served as president of the German Society of Ethnomedicine. (Inner Traditions\/Bear & Company)<\/p>\n

Ethnobotanical Contributions<\/strong><\/p>\n

R\u00e4tsch was one of the single most important authors of ethnobotanical research, the Poison Path, the Psychedelic Renaissance and poisonous\/psychoactive plant lore. He earned a doctorate studying Native American cultures living and studying with indigenous cultures. As a child he became interested in shamanic practices and the study of plants. He worked closely with indigenous plant spirit medicine, preserving an extensive body of traditional lore. He also experimented with various psychedelic substances since a young age, and eventually became friends with LSD researcher Timothy Leary. He is the founder and co-editor of The Yearbook of Ethnomedicine and the Study of Consciousness.<\/em><\/p>\n

His work was something that I discovered early on in my Poison Path studies, because he was one of the only authors at the time to not only take an interest in poisonous and psychoactive plants but also provide the reader with extensive history, folklore and chemical information from a practical and academic standpoint. His book Witchcraft Medicine<\/em>: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices and Healing Plants<\/em>, was the first work of his that I read, a complete ethnobotanical history of European psychedelic practices in the context of witchcraft.<\/p>\n

Plants of The Gods<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Originally published in 1979, this book was a precursor to the megalithic Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants<\/em>. Originally written by Richard Evans Schultes and Albert Hoffman, all three titans in their own right. World-renowned anthropologist and ethnopharmacologist Christian Ratsch provides the latest scientific updates to this classic work on psychoactive flora by two eminent researchers.<\/p>\n

The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

In my opinion , the single most important modern day compendium of ethnobotanical information in the Western Hemisphere. The book is over 900 pages long with 797 color photographs and 645 black and white drawing. It is a comprehensive tome on sacred plant knowledge from around the world. Accessible and all in one place, this is one of the few books that provides ALL of the available information!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Other titles by Christian R\u00e4tsch<\/strong><\/p>\n

Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Plants of Love: The History of Aphrodisiacs and A Guide to their Identification and Use<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Encyclopedia of Aphrodisiacs<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Gateway to Inner Space: Sacred Plants, Mysticism, and Psychotherapy<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Marijuana Medicine: A World Tour of the Healing and Visionary Powers of Cannabis<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

He has written extensively, books and articles, in German.<\/p>\n

A Permanent Impact<\/strong><\/p>\n

The work of Christian R\u00e4tsch has been invaluable in my own studies of psychoactive and poisonous plants. The tireless work and attention to detail that was required to bring such a tome of knowledge into manifestation is no-doubt divinely driven. While the world has lost an amazingly curious mind, he has left behind a body of work that will continue to grow, evolve and influence those of us continuing this work. I would have loved to have meet you Christian, and thank you for your contribution but I have a feeling we will meet one day.<\/p>\n

You can visit his website but it is all in German www.christian-raetsch.de\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I heard Christian R\u00e4tsch (1957\u20132022) speak in person only once, at a conference in England in the 2000s, shortly after I had bought a book he co-wrote, Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants. I also treasure a recorded lecture of his on henbane beer and such topics, in which he scoffs at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[318,100,206,11,29],"class_list":["post-13059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ethnobotany","tag-history","tag-plants","tag-shamanism","tag-witchcraft"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-3oD","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":55,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=55","url_meta":{"origin":13059,"position":0},"title":"Witchcraft Medicine","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 29, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants is a collaboration between three German anthropologists: Claudia M\u00fcller-Ebeling, Christian R\u00e4tsch, and Wolf-Dieter Storl. I ordered it because I'll read anything that R\u00e4tsch has written, and, unfortunately, not enough of his work has been translated from German to English. (The translator\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"entheogens\"","block_context":{"text":"entheogens","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=entheogens"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1050,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1050","url_meta":{"origin":13059,"position":1},"title":"Gallimaufry with Atoms","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Just some links while I am busy on two editing projects and a proposal...\u00b6 Aleister Crowley's legacy still poses problems for occultists -- especially when they take Internet \"life\" as equivalent to a \"scene.\"\u00b6 Lonnie muses about animism and consciousness.\u00b6 A British celebrity chef recommends henbane in salads. Much concern\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"animism\"","block_context":{"text":"animism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=animism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12750,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12750","url_meta":{"origin":13059,"position":2},"title":"The Making of an Ethnobotanist in a 1960s University Scene","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the books on my ethnobotany shelves is Witchcraft Medicine:Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants, a colloboration between Wolf Dieter Storl, Claudia M\u00fcller-Ebeling, and Christian R\u00e4tsch, all three anthropologists and ethnobotanists. M\u00fcller-Ebeling and R\u00e4tsch are married and live in Hamburg, but Storl was born in Germany in 1942\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/storl.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":305,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=305","url_meta":{"origin":13059,"position":3},"title":"Hiding out in the valleyBlogging\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 12, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Hiding out in the valleyBlogging has been a minimum lately. On Friday the 5th, I set off for three days in the San Luis Valley, winding up here, where the sandhill cranes far outnumbered people, and where Jack the Chessie got to make a couple of \"hero dog\" retrieves.Duck-blind reading\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1330,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1330","url_meta":{"origin":13059,"position":4},"title":"Witchcraft Medicine","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 29, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants is a collaboration between three German anthropologists: Claudia M =\u00fcller-Ebeling, Christian R\u00e4tch, and Wolf-Dieter Storl. I ordered it because I'll read anything that R?tsch has written, and, unfortunately, not enough of his work has been translated from German to English. (The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"entheogens\"","block_context":{"text":"entheogens","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=entheogens"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1345,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1345","url_meta":{"origin":13059,"position":5},"title":"Witchcraft Medicine","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 29, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants is a collaboration between three German anthropologists: Claudia M =\u00fcller-Ebeling, Christian R\u00e4tch, and Wolf-Dieter Storl. I ordered it because I'll read anything that R?tsch has written, and, unfortunately, not enough of his work has been translated from German to English. (The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"entheogens\"","block_context":{"text":"entheogens","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=entheogens"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13059"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13072,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13059\/revisions\/13072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}