Category: Teacher Plants

By Ross Heaven

The quest for love unites us all. What if you could find it – and a simple perfume could help? That would be magic, wouldn’t it? Read on!

In the spiritual traditions of the Amazon in Peru, this magical perfume is called pusanga. It is a made from flowers and plants which have the power to attract to the people who wear it the things they really want. For that reason, pusanga has developed an impressive reputation as “the love medicine of the Amazon”’ because love, of course, is the thing most people do want!

HOW PERFUME ATTRACTS AND HEALS

Beautiful smells derived from flowers and herbs have always been used for healing and attracting love. Even the word ‘perfume’ comes from per fumer (Latin, ‘through smoke’), and is a reference to its ritual use in ceremonies for the gods who offer love’s blessings.

The ancient Greeks, for example, believed that sweet aromas were how the deities made their presence known. The oracle priestesses of Delphi would sit in the smoke of bay leaf incense to allow these gods to speak through them during divinations to help people in their search for love. In India, too, seers called dainyals would surround themselves with smoke – this time of cedarwood – which would send them into trance and give them prophetic visions. Fragrance has also long been associated with the arts of love. In Japan, Geisha girls priced their services according to the number of incense sticks consumed during love-making, while in Indian tantric rituals, men were anointed with sandalwood, and women with jasmine, patchouli, amber, and musk. Saffron was crushed and smeared beneath their feet.

The reason for these rituals is that smell is the most powerful of our senses and is able to stimulate desire, longing, and lust, stir our memories, and carry associations of love and happiness. Scientists have found that even a year after we meet a new person, their aroma stays in our minds, whereas visual memory drops to 50% after just three months, so we may not even remember their faces. The sense of smell is handled by the limbic system, which controls our emotions, so perfumes evoke feelings as well as memories, and we experience not just an odour but a mood.

This is the secret of pusanga. By mixing plants and flowers to create particular aromas which affect the moods of those who smell them, the shamans of the Amazon say that pusanga can cause anyone to fall hopelessly in love with the wearer. One of these shamans, Javier Aravelo, puts it this way: “When you pour pusanga onto your skin it penetrates your spirit and gives you the power to draw in love”.

How you find the right plants to do this is another secret, known as the Doctrine of Signatures. This is the idea that the Creator has left a mark or “signature” on every plant in the world to show what it is used for. The discoverer of this phenomenon was Paracelsus, a 6th century alchemist who noticed how the appearance of plants so often reflects their qualities – that the seeds of skullcap, for example, resemble small skulls and, it turns out, are effective at curing headache, or that willow, which grows in damp places, heals rheumatic conditions, which are caused by damp and the build-up of fluid on the joints.

In fact, as Thomas Bartram, a modern herbalist, remarks in his Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine, “Examples are numerous. It is a curiosity that many liver remedies have yellow flowers, those for the nerves (blue), for the spleen (orange), for the bones (white). Serpentaria (Rauwolfia) resembles a snake and is an old traditional remedy for snake-bite. Herbalism confirms the Doctrine of Signatures”.

AMAZON PUSANGA Following this Doctrine, the basis for pusanga in the Amazon is agua de colpa. This is water collected from clay pools deep in the rainforest, where there are no people, only thousands of brightly-coloured animals who gather to drink from the water. Some of these animals are natural enemies, but at the clay pools they stand peacefully together to drink from water which is rich in mineral content and needed for their well-being. This water, in other words, has the power to attract some of the most beautiful creatures on the planet to a place where they exist harmoniously together.

Added to this magical water are special herbs, plants, barks, roots or leaves, which also have the quality of attraction due to their colours, names, or where and how they grow. In the rainforest, for example, there are vines called sogas, which are recognised as pusanga plants because they wrap themselves around trees and draw close to them so they grow together.

Special scented liquids, such as agua florida (which means “water for flourishing”), are also added to the mixture, which is then blessed by the shaman to empower it. This is done by blowing or singing into the pusanga, sometimes with the breath, sometimes with sacred tobacco smoke. The traditional blessing whispered to the pusanga is “salud, dinero y amor” (“health, money and love”).

Once it is made, pusanga is used like a perfume, with a few drops rubbed on the pulse points of the wrists and neck, or a capful or two can be added to bath water.

Related link for further reading: Making Your Own Pusanga

Further recommended reading of Ross Heaven:
Ross Heaven is the director of The Four Gates Foundation and the author of books on shamanism and healing. His latest is Plant Spirit Shamanism: Traditional Techniques for Healing the Soul. Ross also teaches Plant Spirit Shamanism workshops and trips to the Amazon to work with indigenous healers and plant shamans.
Details of these are available at The Four Gates

Plant Spirit Shamanism and the Medicinal Plants of the Amazon Rainforest

Submitted by Howard G. Charing

Working with teacher plants is known as the ‘shaman’s diet’. The purpose of the diet is to prepare the body and nervous system for the powerful knowledge and expansion of consciousness given by teacher plants.

In everyday life, the mind creates the illusion that we are separate from reality, and thus protects us, like a veil, from experiencing the vastness of the universe. Access to the truth without preparation could be a radical shock to the system.

It offers a significant challenge for the rational Western mind to come to terms with the teacher plants, and a leap of imagination is required to incorporate the ‘other’ consciousness of the plant. The magical world to which we are transported by plants is not accessible through the verbal rational mind but through dream language or an expansion of the imagination. Thus dreams & our imaginative powers act like doorways during a plant diet and connect us with the plant spirit.

Some of the Medicinal Plants of the Amazon Rainforest

Mocura; taken orally or used in floral baths to raise energy, or take you out of a saladera (a run of bad luck, inertia, sense of not living to the full). This plant gives mental strength and you can feel its effects as also with ajosacha, both are varieties of garlic and have a penetrating aroma. Mental strength means it could be good to counter shyness, find one’s personal value or authority. Medicinal properties include asthma, bronchitis, reduction of fat and cholesterol. Another of its properties is that it burns of excess fat.

Piñon Colorado; this plant has short lived effect after drinking but helps dreaming later on when you go to sleep. Piñon Colorado can also be worked with as a planta maestra (teacher plant). Medicinal properties include dealing with Insect bites and stings, vaginal infections, and bronchitis. It is possible to take the resin, which is much stronger, but toxic if too much ingested. The resin can be applied directly to the skin.

Chirisanango; this plant is good for colds and arthritis and has the effect of heating up the body, so much so that the maestro advises a cold shower after each dose! This plant can be used in baths for good luck, and bring success to fishing, hunting etc. This planta maestra also makes possible for people to open up their heart to feel love for people and animals, and identify with other people as though brothers and sisters.

It grows mainly in the Upper Amazon and only a few restingas (high ground which never floods) in the Lower Amazon. The shamans say that plants connect us with nature because they take their nourishment directly from the earth, as well as the sun’s rays, the air. They allow us to know and recognize ourselves. A shaman must know this and must love his people to heal them. The gift of Chirisanango is self esteem i.e the ability to recognise ourselves.

The shamans say that this plant opens up the shamanic path, assuming that we are prepared to live under the rules of shamanism, to do this we need courage and no fear of extremes or negative & challenging circumstances. We need to understand what role we will play in society and have the heart of a warrior.

Guayusa; It is good for excessive acidity and other problems in the stomach and bile. Also it is both energizing and relaxing at the same time and develops mental strength. This also has the most interesting effect of giving lucid dreams i.e when you are dreaming you are aware that you are dreaming. The plant is also known as the “watchman’s plant”, as even when sleeping you are aware of the outer physical surroundings.

On another personal note, I found the experience with this plant also to be quite incredible. I found that the usual boundary between sleeping and being awake to be more fluid than I had anticipated. Even now, sometime after taking the plant my dreams are more colourful, richer, and lucid than before. For those interested in ‘dreaming’ this is certainly the plant to explore.

Ajo Sacha; An important planta maestra in the initiation of Amazonian shamans. Mental strength, acuity of mind, saladera (explained above), for ridding spells, self-healing. Originally used to enhance hunting skills by covering up human smell with the garlic smell of Ajosacha.

On another personal note, I found my senses being altered and enhanced with this plant. I could zoom in and focus on sounds emanating from the rainforest, my sense of smell became sharper, and in some ineffable way I could tune into the breathing or rhythm of the rainforest. The sound of insects and birds was no longer a random phenomenon, these sounds became a rhythmic breath, rising and falling. No wonder that it is used for hunting as one’s sense are heightened in an incredible way.

Icoja; A bark used for malaria, fever, an astringent, disinfectant for healing septic wounds. Used against Uta – a kind of leprosy found in the Amazon. Wounds are washed directly with this plant, and it is also used for an infectious disease (Pilagra) in children.

Chanca piedra; Used for Kidney problems especially kidney stones (hence the name ‘stone crusher’), gall bladder, disinfectant. This is recognised as a gall bladder and liver tonic. It is also used for cleansing the urinary system and for dealing with intestinal parasites. This plant is only used for its many pharmaceutical properties, not a planta maestra per se.

Sachamangua; This is a large single seeded fruit, which when you crush the fruit and squeeze the juice into the nose, it warms the area locally (it can sting a bit), and it is effective for curing sinusitis. It also helps the eyesight and restores visual acuity by relieving the pressure from the sinuses. You eliminate a lot of mucus and this gives relief. The fruit when ripe is normally eaten peeled or roasted, and is a little like the aguaje fruit, but for medicinal uses it must be green. It is also good for tired feet in a poultice. Taken orally it is useful for the liver when struggling with the digestion of fat, it is also a treatment for gases. Fungal spores in the nose can cause itching, rhinitis or allergy and Sachamangua is effective for this too. Athlete’s foot can also be treated with the dry powder, like talcum powder, prepared from this fruit.

Cat’s Claw (una de gato); Cat’s Claw is a tropical vine that grows in rainforest. This vine gets its name from the small thorns at the base of the leaves, which looks like a cat’s claw. These claws enable the vine to attach itself around trees climbing to a height up to 150 feet. The inner bark of this vine has been used for generations to treat inflammations, colds, viral infections, arthritis, and tumours.

Cat’s Claw can be used as tonic to boost the body’s immune system. And is considered by many as a ‘balancer’ returning the body’s functions to a healthy equilibrium. Its has anti-inflammatory and blood cleansing properties as well as being able to clean out the entire intestinal tract and therefore helps treat a wide array of digestive problems such as gastric ulcers, parasites, and dysentery.

From a psycho-spiritual, plant spirit, or shamanic perspective in which disease and illness can be initiated by a spiritual imbalance within a person causing the person to become de-spirited, or losing heart (in the West we would call this depression), it can restore this inner sacred union of spirit and physical body.

The medicinal properties of this plant are officially recognized by the Peruvian government and it is a protected (for export) plant. It is available widely in the west in capsule form. In the markets in Iquitos it is available in bark form, and many indigenous communities are increasingly cultivating this plant.

Boahuasca; Used to heal Cancer of the stomach and intestines and prolapses. Also used against Uta, and cancerous, malignant wounds. The shaman’s make an ointment from the ash and apply directly.

The underlying truth that is revealed in working with the plant spirit or consciousness is that we are not separate from the natural world. We perceive ourselves to be separate beings with our minds firmly embedded within our being (typically our head). The plants can show you that this way of being is an illusion and that we are all connected, all of us and everything else is a discrete element in the great universal field of consciousness. This is an area where the ancient knowledge of the peoples of the rainforest and modern quantum physics point in the very same direction, “Reality is an illusion, albeit a persistent one’ Albert Einstein.

Another way of seeing the shaman’s diet is that like the platitude ‘all roads lead to Rome’, all plants lead through different paths of experiences to the same place, i.e a deep and expanded understanding of one’s place in the world around us and a recognition of self as an intrinsic element of this.

The indigenous people of the Amazon see life as having enough purpose just as it is. Fulfilment comes from being in tune with the spirits so there is an abundance of fish, bananas, yucca for making masato (alcoholic beverage), and plenty of healthy children, in short, life is for being happy!

Howard has also authored the book Plant Spirit Shamanism published by Destiny Books (USA) with a Forword of Pablo Amaringo.

Howard G. Charing is a partner in Eagle’s Wing Centre for Contemporary Shamanism. His initiation into the world of Shamanism was sudden, which was caused by a serious accident, which resulted in severe injuries and a near-death experience. After many months of physical pain and disability, he had a transformational experience, which started him on a path to healing. If you like to know more about his work, Howard conducts “Plant Spirit Medicine” journeys to the Amazon Rainforest.

By Ina Woolcott

Peyote is a spineless cactus that is dome shaped and soft with button-like nodules. It is blue green in colour and grows to about 5cm tall and 8cm wide. There are 2 species, Mescal (Lophophora williamsii) which has flowers white or pink in colour, and Lophophora Diffusa which is more primitive with yellow to white flowers and a yellowy green body. These plants are native throughout the Chihuahuan Desert from central Mexico to southern Texas and are also known as Mescal. Peyote is an entheogen containing mescaline as its primary active chemical, well known for its hallucinogenic effect after chewing the dried out or fresh nodules found on the cactus. They can also be boiled and drunk as a bitter tea. A ‘trip’ last around 6-12 hours depending on the individual. Unfortunately, Peyote takes 30 years to mature and flower and due to over-cultivation is in danger of being extinct in the wild.

The usage of Peyote

The Peyote Cactus has a history of traditional use amongst Native American tribes as a shamanic teacher plant that can give visions of an alternate reality or the spirit world. It has been used by indigenous tribes, shamans and medicine men such as the Navajos of South West USA and the Huichol of northern Mexico for the psychedelic effects when ingested, to communicate with the spirit world and as a medicine. Huichol Indians rub the juices of fresh peyote into wounds to prevent infection and to promote healing. Peyote’s known history dates back to pre-Columbian times; possibly as early as 300 B.C. This is a part of traditional rituals and ceremony. Peyote has many uses in folkloric medicine, e.g. influenza, intestinal disorders, diabetes, the treatment of arthritis, consumption, snake and scorpion bites and datura poisoning.

The sad thing is that ever since the first Europeans arrived in the New World, Peyote has provoked controversy, suppression, and persecution. The Spanish conquerors condemned its usage for its “satanic trickery”, and it more recently came under attack by local governments and religious groups. Nevertheless, this amazing plant continued to play a major sacramental role among the Indians of Mexico, whilst its use has spread northward into the United States and Canada among many of the Plains Indian Tribes such as the Navajo, Comanche, Sioux, and Kiowa in the last two centuries.

The Native American Church movement was started in the late 1800’s when Native spirituality was revived. The church was officially ‘opened’ in 1918. This is one of the official organisations that use Peyote in their spiritual practises. The ‘Peyotero’ leads the ceremony and is similar to a shaman or medicine man. The use of Peyote has faced many legal challenges for non-Native Americans. In the USA, federal law currently restricts peyote use in religious ceremonies to members of Federally Recognized Tribal groups.

Interest in this plant was renewed after Carlos Castaneda documented his uses of it under the tutelage of Don Juan Matus, who gave the plant the name Mescalito, the name given to the spirit of the plant which is supposed to be sensed by those using peyote to gain insight and wisdom in to their lives. Once ingested, an initial feeling of nausea can be experienced, then a shift in consciousness with visions and changes in perception, sense of time and mood. There are no uncomfortable after effects and it is not addictive. Peyote is said to initiate states of deep contemplation of one’s own thoughts, feelings, and sensations and profound insights that are of a metaphysical or spiritual nature. Feelings of inner tranquillity, oneness with life, heightened awareness, and rapid thought flow may be experienced. Everyone has their own unique experience. This can be accompanied with abounding visual or auditory effects. A mental state is also produced that allows users to feel closer to their ancestors and the Universe/All That Is/God. Peyote is also still used as a medicine to battle things such as alcoholism, drug abuse or other social ills.

Peyote is a controlled substance and illegal in all states of America, apart from use by Native Americans in their ceremonies. A federal law was passed in 1995 to confirm this protection of rights.

In Canada the compound Mescaline is illegal but peyote is specifically exempt. So it is legal to possess the cactus, but not to use it.

Internationally Article 32 of the Convention on Psychotropic Substances allows nations to exempt certain traditional uses of peyote from prohibition:

A State on whose territory there are plants growing wild which contain psychotropic substances from among those in Schedule I and which are traditionally used by certain small, clearly determined groups in magical or religious rites, may, at the time of signature, ratification or accession, make reservations concerning these plants, in respect of the provisions of article 7, except for the provisions relating to international trade.

By Ross Heaven

If you want more love in your life (and who doesn’t!) and would like to make pusanga of your own, just follow these instructions and romance will come your way!

The Doctrine of Signatures is your guide to collecting the plants you need. Pusanga plants for love all have certain characteristics. Their names are often significant, such as passionflower or honeysuckle (“honey” for sweetness and “suckle” for nurturing). Their colours are bright and attractive. The way they grow may also be important (ivy, for example, winds itself around other plants so the two intertwine and are drawn closer together). Their archetypal qualities may also call you (rose, for example, is nowadays practically synonymous with love). Where the plants grow can also have meaning (two plants standing together in sunlight within an otherwise dark forest signify a bright future, for example) – and so on. Look for plants that mean something to you and the desires you have.

When you locate each plant spend a little time with it, explaining your need and asking it to offer itself to you before you pick it (you don’t need to take the whole plant; a single leaf, a flower, or a piece of bark will do as this contains the energy of the whole. Try to avoid taking roots if you can). Then, when you take a piece, offer your thanks and perhaps a gift of your own, such as corn or tobacco, as they do in the Amazon. All of this is important in helping you connect with nature and develop the right attitude of respect.

When you have the plants you want, take them home and put them in a clear bottle. If you intend to use the pusanga over a few days, you can fill the bottle with water taken from ‘power places’, such as Holy water from a church or a place of spiritual power like the Chalice Well at Glastonbury, or you can use spring or mineral water. If you want to keep the pusanga a while, though, it is better to use alcohol instead of water as this will preserve the plants.

You can also add aromatherapy oils to your blend, which, in traditional magic, also have helpful qualities. To attract a new lover, for example, add a few drops of rose, jasmine, and bergamot. For a ‘deepening love’ add rose, vanilla, and a sprinkling of gold glitter. For passion during love-making once you have found your mate, add ginger, patchouli, and sandalwood.

Finally, add your prayers to the mixture, too, as the shamans do, by blowing three times into the pusanga bottle while you tell the perfume what you want it to do for you. Then wear it as a scent and expect more love in your life!

Related link: Pusanga, The Perfume of Love

Further recommended reading of Ross Heaven:

Ross Heaven is the director of The Four Gates Foundation and the author of books on shamanism and healing. His latest is Plant Spirit Shamanism: Traditional Techniques for Healing the Soul. Ross also teaches Plant Spirit Shamanism workshops and trips to the Amazon to work with indigenous healers and plant shamans.
Details of these are available at The Four Gates

PLANT SPIRIT SHAMANISM – Making Healing Allies In Nature

By Ross Heaven

Since the beginning of human experience, plants have played a role in the evolution of our species, not only in the provision of food and medicine but in our deepest spiritual experience and the development of consciousness. Their form, beauty, enchanting scents, their healing and emotional qualities, have all provided a gateway to the Great Mystery of Nature, which our Celtic forebears called “The visible face of Spirit”. Though our lands are no longer forested as they were, we try to recreate a sense of their beauty and tranquillity in our gardens, parks, and the green spaces in our cities, giving us at least a taste of Nature with which we can sustain ourselves against the soulless backdrop of the steel and concrete jungles that are our homes today. For many people, plants are still the messengers of divinity, harmony, and beauty. They are also the source of our health and wellbeing, not just as medicines but in their ability to relax, refresh, or excite us. Some deep part of us knows that the healing power of plants is inherent in what they are as much as what they do. Flowers have a role to play, for example, in all of our most primal celebrations of life and death – birth and birthdays, comings-of-age, marriages, illnesses, funerals and deaths. They are there at the first ‘I love you’, and they are there for our endings too. Even after death our connection to the natural world continues and our spiritual destination in many religious myths is some form of paradise which is often symbolised as the “Heavenly Garden”, or the Garden of Eden.

Archaeology shows that plant spirit shamanism has been part of our healing experience for thousands of years, predating other practices by millennia and going back to a time when healers worked in harmony with Nature.

Plant shamanism is – and always has been – a person-centred approach and incorporates, in a holistic way, practices such as herbalism, energy work, aromatherapy, and counselling to provide a unique blend of therapies that is most needed by each individual client, based on the healer’s attunement to the state of balance or otherwise of that client’s soul. But it is also fundamentally spirit-centred, and all traditional healers – from the Curanderos of the Amazon to the ‘folk magicians’ of Ireland – regard plants as sentient, aware, intelligent, alive, and as ‘doctors’ in their own right.

Plant shamanism involves practices for meeting these spirits, such as shamanic journeying, soul retrieval, rituals using flowers and fragrances, offerings to Nature, floral baths for protection, and the use of visionary plants to find purpose, clarity, and new directions in life. All of these, to the shaman, are implied by the term ‘healing’.

WAYS OF HEALING

As a young boy, I was apprenticed to a Welsh sin eater – a ‘cunning man’, as they were called in Wales – who used plants and flowers in his healing work. One of his methods was to bury the name of a patient, etched on a piece of bone, in a corner of his garden, next to a patch of ‘sun flowers’. Each day he would say his prayers to the flowers, consulting with them on the condition of his patient, then squeeze a few petals so their aroma was released. As the scent drifted upwards, he said, a little more of his patient’s illness was carried away until he or she was healed.

This may seem like a strange approach in our culture today, but when I grew up and went travelling I found the same essential methods used in Haiti, Peru, Africa, Greece, America, Turkey… so it is not an eccentricity or even unique to Wales.

The world over, in fact, wherever shamans work with plant spirits rather than extracts and compounds as Western doctors do, it is understood that plants are alive, aware, and willing to teach their healing secrets. Plant spirit shamanism is therefore learned practically – by getting out into the fields and making contact with natural forces, not by reading about plants in some dusty library.

The sin eater communicated with plants in this way and knew several magical uses for them that they had told him of. For example, the ‘sun flowers’ he used were actually marigolds, but he called them sun flowers because they are “Bright like the sun” and warmed the soul with protection. It is interesting, then, that we find the same belief in Andean Peru, where rosa sisa (African marigolds) are also used for protection. Here, they are often planted by the door of a house, so if someone should pass by and give the ‘evil eye’, the flowers will catch these negative energies and protect the soul of the house from disease. The petals turn black when this happens, but revert to their bright colour when the energy is discharged through their roots to the soil. The sin eater I knew had never visited Peru and yet the message from the plant was the same: marigolds – “sun flowers” – protect.

WORKING WITH PLANTS

The key thing with plant spirit shamanism is to establish a connection with the plant. Once that is done, the plant spirits themselves teach you everything you need to know and reveal the many ways of using them in healing, most of which are very unlike the Western medical notion of ingesting them in a tablet or even a herbal form.

In Haiti, Peru, Brazil, Indonesia, and in our own Celtic past, there is a practice, for example, of taking floral baths, where flowers and herbs are added to blessed water. The sick person then bathes to wash away his ailments. These baths are not restricted to physical healing, but can be used to draw good fortune and change your luck (which is regarded as a real and tangible force), by making you more ‘open’ to the receipt of money, love, or spiritual power.

Other ways of working with plants include the making of pakets, ‘power pouches’ containing herbs that remove negative energies, while returning life force to the patient as the pouch is brushed over his body. The paket has similarities to the Amazonian chacapa, a bundle of dried leaves which has medicine powers to rebalance the patient’s energy field, and is rubbed over the body in the same way.

The seguro of the Andes, a bottle which contains a mixture of plants and herbs in Holy water and perfume, uses the same principles of spiritual connection with the plants. Here the shapes, colours, or qualities of the plants invoke various powers that the client wishes to draw in to his life. Round, golden, seeds attract money, for example, while cactus spines embody protection. The seguro, according to Andean shamans, becomes a “Friend”, you can consult with. Every time you speak out your problems to this friend, they are removed, while the powers of the plants draw good energies in.

One rule that comes up consistently in this work is that we must treat our plant allies with respect. In Haiti, healers literally pay the plants for their work by dropping coins at the base of the tree they’re collecting leaves from. They are then ‘fed’ and there is a fair exchange: we charge the plants with energy so they have the power to help us.

We must also treat plants kindly. Research shows that they have feelings, intelligence, language – even the ability to count and make music! – and they can sense our intentions and respond to our actions. If we treat them with love, they flourish and grow; if not, then their spirits die and we don’t have the healers we need.

GETTING OUT OF OUR MINDS

One of the biggest challenges for the Western mind in learning how to work with plant spirits is our cultural fascination with science and measurement. This socialisation into ‘scientific thinking’ is hard to overcome because, as part of it, we have been taught to stifle our dreaming and imaginative selves. Luckily, however, there are also plants which have a spiritual intention to re-establish our connection with the spirit-universe and open us up to the true nature of reality.

One of these is guayusa. In the Amazon it is known as “The night watchman’s plant” because of its ability to bring lucid dreams and dissolve the boundaries between wakefulness and sleep. Thus, the night watchman can take guayusa and nap, while remaining alert to the sounds and sights around him as he watches over the tribe.

The shamans say that in every country we have plants to cater for our own needs; thus, in Europe, it may be difficult to find guayusa, but a tea made of vervain, valerian, and chamomile will achieve similar affects.

Another way of getting ‘out of our minds’ is through a special state of trance consciousness known as shamanic journeying.

To take any shamanic journey, find a time and a place where you can be alone and undisturbed for 20 minutes or so, then dim the lights or cover your eyes, lie down and make yourself comfortable.

Most journeys are taken to the sound of drumming, which encourages ‘dreaming’ patterns to emerge in the brain, taking the shaman deeper into a more holistic experience of the world in its fullness. You can drum for yourself, have a friend drum for you, or use a drumming tape to guide your journey.

Expressing your intention and keeping this in focus is again important. Intention is the energy that guides the journey and enables you to engage with the mind of the universe so it can work with you.

You can try this yourself by setting your intention to meet with a plant ally – the consciousness of a plant that will guide you into the world of the collective plant mind. You do not need to have a specific plant in mind. Stay open instead to whatever comes.

As soon as the drumming begins, imagine yourself entering a place which connects you to the Earth in a way that is meaningful to you, then allow your imagination to take you where it will. All you need do is receive.

When your plant ally appears to you, spend some time in conversation with him or her (in the imaginative world, most plants take human form). Enquire about its healing gifts and the way these properties manifest in the plants themselves. Ask how you can work with this ally and the plants that embody him or her.

Visit your ally often in this way and you will learn more about the world of the plants, the nature of reality and, indeed, about yourself, as part of this vast and beautiful universe.

Further recommended reading of Ross Heaven:

Ross Heaven is the director of The Four Gates Foundation and the author of books on shamanism and healing. His latest is Plant Spirit Shamanism: Traditional Techniques for Healing the Soul. Ross also teaches Plant Spirit Shamanism workshops and trips to the Amazon to work with indigenous healers and plant shamans. Details of these are available at The Four Gates

By Ina Woolcott

What is Datura Stramonium?

Datura Stramonium is the botanical name of the plant more commonly known as Jimsonweed. It is a widespread, poisonous plant of the nightshade family and is able to flourish in nearly all environments, but prospers in high nutrient soil. The name Datura is early Sanskrit and means “divine inebriation.” The Origins of Datura are unclear, due to the plants wide distribution, although Mexico and Central America have the highest concentration. It is found in most areas of the USA, apart from the West, Northwest and the northern Great Plains and most frequently in the South and throughout various other areas of the world, growing 2 to 4 feet high. The stems are purple and fork out with leaves 7-20cm long with ‘teeth’ of uneven occurrence similar to those of an oak trees leaves. What stands out the most are the flowers that are trumpet-shaped, white to purple in colour, and 5-12.5 cm long and because these open and close at atypical times, the plant has been given the nickname moonflower. There are also fruits on the plant which are egg shaped and roughly the size of a walnut and covered in spikes. Each fruit breaks into four compartments containing a small number of kidney shaped seeds. When crushed all parts of the plant give off an unpleasant smell.

Datura Stramonium is also known as simply Datura, Jimson Weed, Gypsum Weed, Loco Weed, Jamestown Weed, Thorn Apple, Angel’s Trumpet, Devil’s Trumpet, Mad Hatter, Crazy Tea and Zombie’s Cucumber.

The plant contains tropane alkaloids that cause life like hallucinations which cant be differentiated from ‘normal’ reality. Sometimes Jimson Weed is used instead of illegal drugs as it is generally not illegal, although there are regulations on its usage. Generally it is drunk as a ‘herbal’ tea, although it can be smoked or eaten. As it is reputed to be an unpleasant and poor high, it is not in big demand as a recreational drug. Now and again a grazing goat will come across Jimson weed and upon eating it, die a prolonged and painful death.

Who uses Datura and for What Purpose?

Navajo cautionary advice on Datura “Eat a little, and go to sleep. Eat some more, and have a dream. Eat some more, and don’t wake up.”

No matter where Datura originated from, it appears to have played an important role as a “culture plant,” particularly in Asia and the New World, for many years. It has been used as part of spiritual ceremonies and acts in many parts of the world. The Sadhus (Yogis) of Hinduism used datura as a spiritual tool, smoking it with cannabis in traditional pipes called chillums. Native Americans have used this plant in sacred ceremonies, such as the ceremonies of manhood, and also to receive visions. A young Native American coming of age would go to an isolated location, sometimes alone, fasting and praying to purify himself. Then a shaman would come and give the initiate a Datura tea to induce visions. A shaman would always prepare the brew as he knows how much to administer and also where to gather the plants. In Haiti’s Voodoo religion, Datura is known as Zombie Cucumber and is used on the trial by ordeal which at times makes zombies. The ‘Zombie cucumber’ is mixed with other ingredients to make a balm which is used to find out if someone is telling the truth or not. If they are being honest they stay alive, if not they die by turning into a zombie.

Carlos Castaneda used Datura under the tutelage of Don Juan Matus and write about his experience with the plant ally in great detail in THE TEACHINGS OF DON JUAN: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge

Datura has been used for its mind altering properties, to induce visions, to ‘fly’, (this is what ‘witches’ used, the word flying was used metaphorically) to help foretell the future, to reveal the causes of disease and misfortune, to treat colds and nervous conditions and to hex and un-hex. Other datura species have been used to hold counsel with the gods. In addition, it has been used to find stolen objects and even to make predictions of the likelihood of recovery of black magic associated illness. Datura ceratocaula was used in an ointment to treat cracked soles, sores, bruises, as plasters for ulcers, pustules, and as a poultice for rheumatic pains. It has also been highly revered as a powerful aphrodisiac and is by some regarded as one of the most ancient healing herbs. Datura has been used for empowerment to manipulate the “supernatural forces” that control nature and influence human activity.

The effects of Jimson Weed are extreme dilating of the pupils, flushed, warm and dry skin, dry mouth, urinary retention, slowing or stopping of intestinal movement, rapid heart beat, high blood pressure and jerky movements as well as of course being a strong hallucinogen. People who have experienced Datura describe the effects as if living in a dream, where one falls in and out of consciousness. When at the peak of the experience, one often loses touch with reality and is unable to communicate. It is a “real” trance when someone under Daturas influence is awake but completely disassociated from his immediate surroundings. He would ignore most stimuli and respond to unreal ones. People known miles away are visited and engaged with. Effects can last for 24-48 hours, sometimes longer due to the alkaloids in Jimson weed slowing the digestive process! Some users have described their experiences as disagreeable and extremely frightening.

Datura has a long history of use as a herbal medicine, it is very poisonous though and should be used with extreme caution, the line between the amount taken for hallucinogenic effects and death are very thin. Overdosing is easy to do, and can result in hyperthermia, coma, respiratory arrest, seizures and fevers in the 40-43°C range. This can be accompanied by delirium with visual and auditory hallucinations and can be fatal. Advise for an overdose: Vomit and go straight to hospital! There is no antidote for this and treatment normally includes pumping the stomach and administering activated charcoal to absorb the contaminants. The drug physostigmine, a mild nerve agent and a reversible cholinesterase inhibitor obtained from the Calabar bean is used in severe cases. People overdose mainly because effects take a while to kick in, they take some more and before they know it have OD’d.

Once upon a time Datura was used as a medicine – the alkaloid was known as daturine – to help asthma sufferers, by extracting Stramonium from the seeds and leaves and then using it to relax the smooth muscles of the bronchial tubes. This was done by smoking Stramonium or by taking the solution internally. Often the Datura leaves were ground in to a powder with the same amount of cannabis and lobelia then blended together with potassium nitrate. This was then burned in an open dish giving off dense smoke giving tremendous relief from asthma attacks. At the start of the 20th century asthma was treated with medicines that had these ingredients in extensive amounts. When the dangers of tropane poisoning were uncovered datura stopped being used medically. The FDA has rendered it unfit for human consumption.

Submitted by Howard G. Charing

We are pleased to present a dedicated programme in the Amazon rainforest, which is focussed on an inner and deep self-exploration and encounter with the power of the rainforest. This is an adventure into the magical world of the rainforest, and a transformative experience of the ancient mystical rituals of the plant spirit medicines.

This programme will take place in the Mishana Private Retreat Centre. We have 57 Hectares (140 acres) of land with a lodge in the Allpahuayo Mishana Nature reserve. Our lodge is located directly on the river, which is part of a 58,070 hectare nature reserve.

The uses of powerful hallucinogenic plants such as Ayahuasca and San Pedro have been developed by indigenous peoples and early civilizations over thousands of years, and their effects are highly dependent upon the context of the ceremony, the chants and the essential personality of the shaman, all of which can vary with surprising results.

Diverse urban uses have emerged recently and a few of these are spreading, while some traditional shamans travel the world, thus Ayahuasca is gaining recognition in Western civilization. But what really is the potential of these ancestral plants, and how can we get the most out of them?

In this special workshop – shamanism retreat, the Peruvian maestro ayahuasquero Alonso del Rio will be with us for 10 days and hold ceremonies with both Ayahuasca and San Pedro. Alonso will open us to a different dimension from working with a traditional shaman. He has both an Amazonian and Western background and is therefore well placed to understand the problems of modern people and help them to greater self-knowledge.

He will share his wealth of insight into Amazonian and Andean cosmology in a series of meetings with time for discussion and questions. Apart from the ceremonies, he will be offering a choice of two plants to diet: tobacco and guayusa. Both of these work with your dreams, making them more conscious and ‘real’, in order to rest the rational mind and explore more deeply inwards.

About the maestro

Alonso is a powerful maestro who interweaves Shipibo and other icaros with sacred music of his own to lead you on your journey; he is both a talented musician and an inspiring communicator of the Amazonian shamanic world. He first came into contact with ayahuasca in 1979 after spending three years working with huachuma (San Pedro). This was when he met Don Benito Arevalo, a grand Shipibo shaman with whom he developed a long relationship, and who gave him his first teachings in ayahuasca and other medicinal plants.

Later, taking ayahuasca alone as part of his traditional teaching, he says: “I didn’t feel comfortable reproducing the chants that I’d learned with my maestro, so one night I picked up my guitar and began to play what came to me and the result was surprising. From then on I was never without my guitar at ceremonies and over the years many songs came to me, set to different rhythms for ceremonies and incorporating teachings and revelations from the medicine itself.” He has published three CDs to date. Alonso lives in the sacred valley of Cusco where he runs a healing centre and a primary school for local children.

Our accommodation is in comfortable traditional cabins or tambos (dieting huts), a leaf roof supported by poles and with open sides (the most intimate way to sleep in the jungle). The beds benefit from a comfortable mattress and fly nets when necessary. The tambos are spread out to assure privacy and minimum disturbance from others. Participants have a choice of using either the cabins in the ‘Casa Grande’ annex or tambos for their retreat.

During the day when there are no activities, there will be hammocks to relax in, and you can read, or wander into the forest, or swim in the river (there is a small sandy beach). Our ceremonies and meeting will be held in either the Casa Grande with an open platform on stilts directly on the river with a magnificent view of the rainforest and star filled sky. Or our maloca (ceremonial temple), a large circular tambo made of natural materials and shaped like a womb. We will eat our meals in the lodge, the traditional meeting place, where food is cooked on a wood fire.

Single Accommodation

One of the unique characteristics of this programme is that we offer single accommodation throughout both in the hotels in Lima, Iquitos, and at our Centre in Mishana. This ensures that participants can obtain the maximum benefit from their encounter with the plants. The Diet really needs to be taken in solitude and personal retreat without distractions. This is a defining characteristic of this programme. Typically other programmes do not offer this and dormitory / shared accommodation is usually the rule. Our Tambos (individual accommodation huts) are all different and are spread out, some with more isolation than others and we also have individual accommodation rooms in the wing of our Casa Grande for those who would prefer being close to the main facilities. There are photos on the web or I can send pictures on request.

Excursions

There will be opportunities to make night time dugout canoe fishing trips with Pedro our hunting guide and power boat trips along the river. There will also be a resident craftswoman to demonstrate and teach us to make the unique Amazonian crafts and textiles.

Howard G. Charing is a partner in Eagle’s Wing Centre for Contemporary Shamanism. His initiation into the world of Shamanism was sudden, which was caused by a serious accident, which resulted in severe injuries and a near-death experience. After many months of physical pain and disability, he had a transformational experience, which started him on a path to healing. If you like to know more about his work, Howard conducts “Plant Spirit Medicine” journeys to the Amazon Rainforest.

By Ina Woolcott

History of Psilocybe Mushrooms

From pre-Columbian times up to this present day, the hallucinogenic Psilocybe mushrooms have been used among the native peoples of Mesoamerica for spiritual communion, healing and divination.

To the Mexicans, psilocybin was known as teonanácatl, which literally translated means ‘god mushroom’. Apparently these were dished up at the coronation of Moctezuma II in 1502. Sadly, after the Spanish conquest, the use of hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms, like other pre-Christian traditions, was forcibly, sometimes in the most horrible of ways, suppressed and driven underground.

The non-natives, by the 20th century, believed that the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms was gone for good. BUT THEN…Valentina and R. Gordon Wasson became the first Westerners to take part in an indigenous psilocybin mushroom ceremony. They did a lot to publicise their discovery, even publishing an article based on their experiences in Life in 1957. Please see the related link below. The article is from the Life magazine.

In 1958, Albert Hofmann identified psilocin and thereafter psilocybin as the active compound in these mushrooms.

Today hallucinogenic mushroom use has been reported amongst various groups, from central Mexico to Oaxaca, including groups of Mixtecs, Nahua, Mixe, Mazatecs, Zapotecs, as well as others.

Entheogens were made widely popular by the Wasson’s and Timothy Leary, leading into an explosion in the use of hallucinogenic Psilocybe globally. Books telling of methods on how to cultivate Psilocybe cubensis in large quantities were also published. The pretty much easily available hallucinogenic Psilocybe from wild and cultivated sources has made it among the most widely used amongst hallucinogenic drugs.

Effects of Psilocybe

Psilocybin contained in the psilocybe mushrooms is absorbed through the lining of the mouth and stomach, with effects beginning 10-40 minutes after ingestion. The mushroom is held in mouth for 20 minutes to an hour, or swallowed on an empty stomach.

A minute number of people are unusually sensitive to psilocybin’s effects, and smaller than normal does can induce in effects usually associated with medium to high doses. There are also people who need pretty high doses of psilocybin to gain low-dose effects.

Some find themselves hooked on the substance, and may need treatment and recovery from mushroom addiction later on.

An individual’s brain chemistry and metabolism determine a person’s response to psilocybin. The effects are generally pleasant and ecstatic feelings that last 2-6 hours depending on species, dosage and individual metabolism. Also, a deep sense of connection to others, the universe and nature can be felt as well as confusion, hilarity (the most mundane things or most serious situations can suddenly appear laughable, and people will think why do I worry so much, about things that aren‘t actually even that important)

One may experience a bad/difficult trip when in a poor setting – such as no support, being an inexperienced person without guidance of an experienced guide. Also if one were to take an unexpectedly high dose, or if the difficult areas of ones psyche were activated one could have a bad time.

Low doses usually bring on hallucinogenic effects, such as breathing walls, a vivid enhancement of colour and sound, and the animation of organic shapes. Higher doses will bring on experiences that are generally less social and more entheogenic, often giving spiritual experiences.

Psilocybin is mainly metabolised in the liver where it becomes psilocin and is broken down by the enzyme monoamine oxidase.

Harmful Effects

Consuming psilocybin MAY cause HPPD Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder. Those with schizophrenia should not ingest psilocybin or any hallucinogenic drug at all due to the risk of triggering a psychosis.

Medical and Psychiatric Uses

In some Mesoamerican native tribes, healers for centuries have used the hallucinogenic Psilocybe for divining the causes of illness and as part of psychological counselling. In medical and psychiatric studies, contemporary researchers usually prefer using the purified form of psilocybin. However in practice, whole Psilocybe cubensis is frequently used.

In 1961, Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert ran the Harvard Psilocybin Project, conducting a series of experiments using psilocybin in the treatment of personality disorders and other uses in psychological counselling.

In the USA, an FDA approved study supported by Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) took off in 2001 to look into psilocybin’s effects on patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. In 2006, this study found psilocybin effective in relieving OCD symptoms, in some cases for more than a few days.

MAPS has also proposed researching psilocybin’s potential in treating cluster headaches based on anecdotal evidence given them by a group suffering with cluster headaches.

There is a study taking place momentarily, led by Charles Grob, where12 subjects are being given psilocybin or a placebo in 2 separate sessions, in the hope of reducing the psychological distress linked with losing a loved one.

Is it legal?

The United Nations 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances psilocybin and psilocin are listed as Schedule I drugs.

Schedule I drugs are those with the potential for abuse and that have no recognised medical use (or ignored beneficial medical uses). This is reflected in the drug laws of the majority of the world’s nations. Therefore, using and possessing psilocybin mushrooms, including the bluing species of Psilocybe, is prohibited by extension. But in many national, state and provincial drug laws, there is a lot of vagueness about the legal status of psilocybin mushrooms, as well as selective enforcement in some places.

The legal status regarding Psilocybe spores is even more unclear, as they contain neither psilocybin nor psilocin – hence they are not considered illegal to sell or possess in many jurisdictions, though there are many jurisdictions that can prosecute under broader laws prohibiting items that are used in drug manufacture.

Related link: The Wasson’s Experiences with Psilocybe

By Ina Woolcott

What is Fly Agaric?

Also known as Amanita Muscaria, this is a large, distinctive, commonly found ‘magic’ mushroom across the British Isles, Northern America, Europe, Siberia and Asia with strong psychedelic effects. The mushroom has been widely transported into the southern hemisphere, including New Zealand, Australia, South America and South Africa, generally to be found under introduced pine trees. Although un-related to other psychoactive fungi such as the Psilocybe species it has also been used in shamanic cultures to communicate with the spirit world. It’s cap is orange/red to scarlet in colour and between 8 to 20cm (3-8 in) in diameter. It is to be found naturally in birch, pine, spruce and fir woodlands. The volva is scattered across the cap in white or yellow flecks (or warts) and it has white gills. The stem is white and 5 to 20 cm high (approx 2-8 inches) It is worth noting that the red colour may fade in older mushrooms and after it has rained.

The mushroom is poisonous, but fatal reactions rarely occur, unless dozens are eaten raw. Most fatalities (90% or more) are from ingesting the greenish-yellowish-brownish mottled death cap (Amanita phalloides), or one of the destroying angels (Amanita virosa).

Fly Agaric contains a number of psychoactive compounds: ibotenic acid, muscimol, muscazone and muscarine. Muscimol (3hydroxy-5-aminomethy-1 isoxazole, an unsaturated cyclic hydroxamic acid) is the most significant. Muscarine was discovered in 1869 and for a long time believed to be THE active hallucinogenic agent, until the late 1960s, when the renowned scientists Dr. Albert Hofmann and Dr. Richard Schultes discovered, almost at the same time as Dr. Eugster in Switzerland and Dr. Takemoto in Japan that the active compounds were in fact ibotenic acid and muscimol. Muscarine binds with Muscarinic acetylcholine receptor exciting the neurons bearing these receptors.

Who uses Fly Agaric and for what purpose?

Ancient tribes and civilisations used hallucinogenic fungi to enter the spirit world. The fly agaricmay have been the earliest hallucinogenic substance used for religious or shamanic purposes, dating back possibly over 10,000 years. The shamanic preparation and use of the mushroom are meant to induce higher levels of consciousness, vivid visions, spiritual growth, elation and hyperactivity. They also alter the perception of sight, sounds etc (the senses) and change/enhance the feelings and thoughts of the user. The shamans were intermediaries between the common folk and the unseen worlds of spirit. The shamans, or medicine men, of East Asia and Siberia used the mushroom mentally ‘flying’ to other levels of reality.

Siberians have a story about the fly agaric, (wapaq), that it enabled Big Raven to carry a whale to its home. In the story, the deity Vahiyinin, meaning Existence, spat on to the earth, his spittle becoming the wapaq and his saliva the flecks, or warts. Once he had experienced the power of thewapaq, Raven was extremely exhilarated and told it to grow forever on earth so his children, the people, could learn from it.

Reindeer in northern Europe are drawn to the fly agaric’s euphoric effects. The Siberian people would note the intoxicated behaviour of such animals and slaughter them to get the same effects from eating the meat.

The active hallucinogenic ingredient is passed out in the urine of those ingesting the mushrooms. Sometimes the shaman/medicine man, takes the mushrooms, and then the rest of the tribe drink his urine. Though sounding highly unpleasant to modern ears, if the shaman had been fasting, the urine would have mainly been water containing the hallucinogenic compounds.

To minimise the toxic side effects the mushroom would be processed in some way e.g. dried out, made into a tea/broth/soup, smoked or made into ointments. When dried out the hallucinogenic chemicals are more concentrated (the ibotenic acid is changed into the more stable and less poisonous muscimol). Smaller doses may invoke nausea and a variety of other effects. These effects range from twitching to drowsiness, lowered blood pressure, increased sweat and saliva, visual distortions, mood changes, euphoria, relaxation, and hallucinations. In near-fatal doses it has been known to cause swollen features and delirium, together with periods of obvious agitation followed by intervals of quiet hallucination. Effects show after circa 60 minutes, generally peaking within three hours. Although some effects may continue for up to ten hours. Effect are extremely variable with individuals reacting quite differently to the same dose.

Care in its preparation and ritual were of utmost importance and part of the ritual. For instance Celtic Druids would often times purify themselves by fasting and meditating for three days, drinking only water.

The Taoists of ancient China seem to have made use of the fly-agaric mushroom, and often make reference to the ‘Divine Mushroom of Immortality’. It has also possibly been used in ancient India and Scandinavia.

Fly Agaric is widely thought to be the mysterious Soma talked about in around 150 hymns of the Hindu Rig Veda of India. These Hymns were written between 1500-500 BC by Aryans residing in the Indus Valley. Soma was a moon god, as well as a holy brew and a connected plant, also worshipped. In spite of the many suggestions as to the identity of the plant, fly agaric fits many of the Vedic references as an aid to contact the gods. It is also, but less often, thought to be the amrita talked about in Buddhist scriptures.

The red Fly agaric with its white dots, has been a much used image for the Midwinter and Christmas festivities in central Europe for a long time and is to be found on Christmas cards and as replica decorations for trees and wreaths. The modern image of Santa can be traced back as a fusion of several characters of popular European lore. For instance a more pagan Scandinavian house goblin who offered protection from malicious spirits in return for a banquet at midwinter, then there is the 4th century Byzantine archbishop who became St Nicolas and was famous for his kindness to children. More recently suggestions have been made implying that the Siberian use offly agaric may have played a part in the development of the legend of Santa Claus too. At midwinter festivals the shaman would come into the yurt through the smoke hole and down the central supporting birch pole, bringing with him a bag of fly agaric to be placed in stockings over the fireplace where they could be dried for celebratory use. Once his ceremonies had been fulfilled he would exit the same way he entered. Ordinary people would have believed the shaman himself was able to fly, or with the aid of ‘flying’ reindeer whom they knew had a taste for the fly agaric due to the euphoric results, and therefore prance around in a hallucinogenic after effect. Modern Santa is now dressed in the same colours as the fly agaric toting a sack overflowing with presents, entering and exiting the home through the chimney, can fly with reindeer and resides in the ‘Far North’.

Suggestions have been made that there is a symbiotic relationship between flies, toads and fly agaric (TOADSTOOLS). Flies become intoxicated and frenzied when licking these toadstools and become easy prey for toads with appetite who may have become privy to this, thus spending time near toadstools. This may give valuable insights into the ancient mystery of toads, flies and mushrooms appearing together in fairy lore and popular mythology.

The red-and-white spotted toadstool is a common image to be found world wide today. Picture any fairy tale illustration of elves, fairies, leprechauns, dwarves or goblins sitting on or under a toadstool, and most likely the cap will be bright red with white spots. There are countless garden ornaments available that feature these toadstools and gnomes. Even computer games such as the Mario series involve Mario ingesting a mushroom, then growing. Most young girls, and even adults are naturally drawn to the ‘little people’ and love fairies. How the artistic use of toadstools arose is unknown.

Fly agaric , years ago was used as an insecticide in some parts of Europe such as England and Germany. It used to be sprinkled in milk to kill flies, thereby earning the name Fly Agaric. The use as an insecticide was first recorded by Albertus Magnus in his work De vegetabilibus sometime before 1256. This fly killer is now known as Ibotenic Acid.

Fly agaric is still used for this purpose in some parts of eastern Europe such as Romania and Poland. In Sweden England and Sweden it was used for getting rid of bugs too and was sometimes known as ‘Bug Agaric’

Is Amanita Muscaria legal?

It is un-scheduled in the United States. The sale of Amanita muscaria for human ingestion is regulated by the FDA.

On July 18 2005 in the UK a law came into force meaning mushrooms or any fungus containing psilocin or an ester of psilocin are under the Misuse of Drugs Act and are now class A.

By Ina Woolcott

Deadly Nightshade or Belladonna, Atropa Belladonna, and aka dwale, devil’s herb, love apple, sorcerer’s cherry, murderer’s berry, dwaleberry, witch’s berry, devil’s cherry, black cherry, divale, great morel, dwayberry, naughty man’s cherries. It is a well known perennial shrub of the nightshade family Solanaceae). This family of plants contains about 1500 species, sorted under 70 genera to include Jimsonweed, tobacco, tomatoes, potatoes, chilli peppers and egg plants. Atropa mandatory mandrake is Belladonnas related species. Deadly Nightshade has leaves and berries that are highly toxic and is native to Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. Having been introduced to North America, it has now spread into the wild by natural regeneration. It is not actually that common in the wild though, as flea beetles assault it, as well as not having a high tolerance for direct sunlight. In locations where it has become naturalised it is most commonly found in moist, shady areas with a limestone rich soil. Its use as a garden plant is not widespread, some consider it a weed.

Germination is not always easy as germination inhibitors are to be found in the seeds. A number of weeks are necessary for germination in completely sterile soil that is warm and moist, not in the usual normal garden conditions. It is not the sturdiest of perennials and is sensitive to being re-planted.

Belladonna is a heavily branching herb having a purplish coloured stem, capable of growing up to 2 metres high. It has dim green leaves and flowers. The leaves are ovoid shaped, up to 20 cm in length and have an oily feel to them and can cause vesicular pustular eruptions if handled without caution. The flowers are trumpet shaped, up to 15cm long, in an unexceptional shade of purple. These flowers bear black, shiny berries that are circa 1cm in diameter, which are sweet, but the majority of their alkaloids are to be found in the seed.

Belladonna is one of the most toxic plants to be found in the Western hemisphere. There are children that have been poisoned by ingesting as little as 3 berries. The berries are a great danger to kids as they look enticing and have a somewhat sweet taste. It is possible for an adult to die from eating 1 leaf of this plant! Generally, the root of the plant is the most toxic part, though there are variations form one plant to the next. There are a lot of animals, such as deer, rabbits, pigs, sheep, goat and birds that appear to be able to eat the plant without any ill effects, though dogs and cats are affected. Belladonna poisoning can lead to weakness, lack of coordination, colic and depression in horses, with deaths reported even for small amounts from 0.5 to 5 kg. A lot of reports imply that people have been poisoned by eating animals that have previously consumed Belladonna, though this has not been confirmed officially.

Active constituents of Belladonna are Atropine, d,l-hyoscyamine, scopolamine, and the dangerous apoatropine, which is contained only in the roots. The active alkaloids are deemed anticholinergic substances, producing effects by binding to, and blocking the action of acetylcholine receptors of the peripheral nervous system. This effect is termed muscarinic, and is named after muscarine, which is one of the active constituents of Amanita Muscaria fungi. Different to muscarine, atropine binds to the acetylcholine receptor without activating it, therefore making it an effective antidote to muscarine poisoning.

Tropane alkaloids are found in all parts of the plant. Symptoms of poisoning in humans, include:

* Rapid heartbeat – greater than 100 beats a minute in an adult
* Dilated pupils
* Hallucinations
* Loss of balance
* Blurred vision
* A feeling of flight
* Feeling like one is suffocating
* Staggering
* Extremely dry throat
* Husky voice
* Flushing
* Paleness followed by a red rash
* Urinary retention
* Constipation
* Confusion
* Delirium
* Seething Pain
* Possible Convulsions or uncontrollable body movements
* A potential memory loss up to several days after the poisoning

It is possible for the skin to completely dry out and shed. In fatal cases the pulse is rapid and them becomes weaker. There is an antidote though – physostigmine or pilocarpine. Most of these sypmtoms are because of the atropines effect on the parasympathetic nervous system. Atropine inhibits the action of acetylcholine (ACh) at the acetylcholine receptor in the nerve synapse, thereby preventing the parasympathetic nervous system from sending out electrical nerve impulses. As the parasympathetic nervous system controls non-volitional/subconscious activities e.g. heart rate, sweating and breathing, when prevented from sending signals, the heartbeat and breathing become extremely irregular.

One will generally be totally unaware that they are under the influence of this plant and lose all touch with conceptual reality, including the ability to distinguish between what is real or not. Deep sleep full of vivid dreams then takes place. Once awake, the subject often come out of the psychosis entirely convinced they had experienced what they had imagined in this ‘normal’, everyday reality.

If taken in small doses, atropine, scopolamine and hyoscyamine act as sedatives and generally produce pleasing hallucinations and very vivid, erotic dreams. High doses can result in extremely traumatic and terrifying psychotic episodes, as can continual usage. The words tropane and atropine are named after this plant. 10 mg of atropine is regarded a fatal dose, though there has been a reported case of over 1 gram being ingested and the victim surviving. Tolerance is very variable.

Related link:
Deadly Nightshade, Belladonna, Atropa Belladonna, Ancient, Powerful Witching Herb
Deadly Nightshade, Belladonna, Atropa Belladonna, Aphrodisiac, Relieves Urinary Tract Irritation