Santiago Eslava-Bejerano and Carolina Sánchez Sacred Plants: Mirrors and Messages  Stigmatization and prohibitionism hinder access to first-hand knowledge of the sacred plants of the Americas and the Caribbean. In addition, many virtual sources of information increase the distance between people and plants through the collection of data or the creation poor-quality information that criminalizes the…

Lewis Daly Microcosms | Commentary I grew up in the English countryside, learning about folk knowledge of plants and birds from my grandparents on a Lincolnshire farm. Trees and hedgerows were endowed with a particular kind of magic and intrigue. These childhood experiences clearly had a formative influence on my brother and me. While I…

Joela Jacobs The mesmerizing images of plant minutiae reproduced on the Microcosms website invite us to see the world at a different scale. A microscopic image of pollen grains, for instance, renders what we would usually perceive as a layer of fine dust into an artwork that seems to be teeming with strange, beautiful objects. Focusing in…

Laura Barbas Rhoden Microcosms is a digital space of mesmerizingly beautiful images of plants — plants that beckoned the researchers and invite us, too, to consider the worlds these plants hold, the histories they shaped, and what our entangled futures may be. Laura Barbas Rhoden, Professor of Spanish, Wofford College and Immediate Past President (2022), Association…

Liam Engel People and plants have grown apart. Science, art and psychoactivity can help grow us back together. Microcosms creates beauty through laboratory instruments and reenchants audiences with the magic of nature. Dr Liam Engel, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University  Engel, L. (2022). The Entheogen Combination Matrix. Entheogenesis Australis. Engel, L….

Sharday Mosurinjohn What Do Psychedelic Plants and Fungi Want?: On the Microcosms Approach to Phytorelation The vital problem for which the Microcosms project has offered a salve is that for those who do not have a psychedelic practice or a practice of deep relationship with plants or fungi, there is no experiential framework to motivate heart-centred, phytorelational…