"Only in the book of Revelation does the reference to magic arts or sorcery take on an entirely new meaning! The word used throughout the book of Revelation is an altogether different Greek word than is used anywhere else in scripture. In Revelation 21:8 it is pharmakeus and in Revelation 22:15 it becomes pharmakos. Then in Revelation 9:21 and here in our text the word is pharmakeia. Obviously the prefix “pharma” reveals that the meaning of the word has something to do with drugs, as in the words “pharmaceutical,” “pharmacy,” and “pharmacist.” No other place in scripture, but in the book of Revelation, is the idea of “sorcery” associated with drugs! The three Greek words listed above are simply different forms of the same word denoting drugs and druggists. It identifies deadly poisons and those who either make or sell those deadly poisons. That is just what the words mean, nothing else. In the Greek language a Pharmacist is, therefore, a Sorcerer, a maker or a dealer, a vendor or a user of deadly poisons sometimes administered as medicines. Legal or illegal, in many cases they destroy the brain and other vital organs and systems, madden the user, and weaken and ruin the spirits, souls, and bodies of the countless millions who use them. If you doubt that practically all drugs are dangerous, deadly poisons that are, even at best, destructive to human life, just listen to the plethora of warnings and side effects at the end of most pharmaceutical ads on television! Oftentimes more seconds are spent on the warnings and side effects of the drug than on the actual promotional and beneficent content of the ad! That is the actual meaning of the words “Sorcerers” and “sorceries” in the book of Revelation. As a matter of scholarship it cannot be contested.
"The purpose of this message is not to attack drugs, medicines, or pharmacists. Let us keep our minds in the Spirit! Again I remind every reader of these lines that the Revelation is a spiritual book, and its realities are spiritual realities! No one knew better than the beloved John what, in its spiritual meaning, “drugs” signifies! The message is clear — it signifies the doctrines and teachings of religious Babylon which dull the spiritual senses of the Lord’s people and are destructive to true spiritual life, giving them a false hope, a mis-directed goal, and causing them to live by religious superstitions, myths, traditions, legends, and folklore. Doctrines about the power of the devil, financial prosperity, the rapture, so-called end-time events, the antichrist, the great tribulation, a mansion over the hilltop, along with holidays, rituals, ceremonies, sacraments, and a hundred more delusions drug God’s people into a spiritually hallucinogenic state. They live in a false, starry-eyed fairy-world of soulical imaginations which they suppose to be spiritual realities! Pleasure! Fun! Thrills! Excitement! are the result of a cunning spirit that saturates the church systems as they run after the “high” of soulical programs, concerts, fleshly manifestations, emotionally stirring singing, entertaining preaching — the same as any drug user in the world. God says that all nations are deceived by the “sorceries” or the “spiritual drugging” of Mystery Babylon!"
Much more in the link:
The late A.T. Robertson, speaking of the nuances and shaded meanings of the original Greek autographs, wrote in his book, The Minister and His Greek New Testament, said --
Such a concept would indeed include the multifaceted word -- 'pharmakeia'. It has been translated in the past as witchcraft or sorcery, and could literally be translated as drug-pusher. Yet, none of these single concepts are by themselves suitable to convey the full meaning of 'pharmakeia' in modern society.
The concept would include persons of superior knowledge who misuse knowledge to victimize the ignorant or to lead away from the rational and empirical truth, as in the case of our FDA, CDC, NHS, Big Pharma, the Biden Administration, our religious leaders, and international actors. It would no doubt include the heads of corporations and financial system and their coercive use of financial leverage to force the innocent into mass formation psychosis to which their beliefs and rational thinking was completely abandoned.
Thus, any misuse of superior, natural knowledge, including the willful manipulation of mathematics, algorithms, computers, genetics, or even mechanical sciences, are all used as tools of the practice of 'pharmakeia'. To the Greeks, it was as much indicative of a thought and belief system shrouded in the popular superstitions as it was the actual practice of pagan priests and priestesses using drugs to gain superiority over their devotees. From the christian point of view, 'pharmakeia' included the practice of fortune telling and astrology. It connoted a deceived person or group (Cabal) caught-up in and espousing a philosophy, religious or political that was opposed to the truth of the Laws of God and Nature. In this broad sense, it included both the abortionist and the local pimp, and the false knowledge would, of necessity, fall under the category of 'pharmakeia'. It carries the idea of a person being drugged or drunken on false ideas or concepts as in the case of the whore of Babylon who made all the nations to drink of her heady wine of false religious philosophy.
When the innocent of God are wittingly caused to stumble, be inflicted, and harmed by those of influence and authority, this is indeed 'pharmakeia'. It is written these who do 'pharmakeia' will not only face death, but will experience a second death.
These people who are in positions of authority (false teachers, heretics, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, doctors, bachelors & masters, politicians which forsake Christ to maintain false doctrine) and are purposely leading the innocent astray, especially the children, and causing all to stumble, be inflicted and harmed, it is only fitting death is not their only punishment, but the Second Death, the Lake of Fire to which we just discussed.
What is the "second death"? It is God's condemnation of being thrown into the 'Lake of fire' to those who committing 'pharmakeia' will be condemned to. The 'Lake of fire' is made of two things. Jesus reveals the fire. He teaches us it is made of unquenchable fire: Mark 9:43-44 “And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” Unquenchable means the fire is impossible to satisfy, suppress or destroy. The fire is inextinguishable. Nothing or no one will be able to put it out.
The second element in the lake of fire is brimstone, as revealed by John (Revelation 21:8). Brimstone is none other than burning sulfur. Sulfur is an explosive element that’s difficult to extinguish. It is a lemon-yellow colored stone that, when ignited, turns into liquid fire. It has a rich, fluorescent-type deep cobalt bluish color as it burns. Sulfur does not glow red. It burns blue. A blue-colored flame is much more intense. Also, the flame is only visible in the darkness. God caused fire and brimstone (sulfur) to rain down on Sodom and Gomorrah from heaven because of his intense displeasure (Genesis 19:24). Brimstone symbolizes God’s intense anger or wrath (Deuteronomy 29:23; Psalm 11:6).
https://biblehub.com/lexicon/revelation/19-6.htm
Awesome, I always get alot of insight by checking the lexicon and how a particular word is used throughout scripture.