| Cohoba / Yopo & Mescal Beans Anadenanthera peregrina or Piptadenia peregrina are also known as yopo, jopo, cohoba, parica or calcium tree. This plant produces seeds that can be ground up and of which contain DMT. Snuff pipes made from puma bone with this plant residue have been found dating back to 2130 BC approximately. (94) The first reports of this being used as snuff by westerners, dates from 1496 when Europeans first saw the Taino Indians of Hispaniola using it for religious purposes. Friar Ramon Pane was commissioned by Columbus to “collect all ceremonies and antiquities” and wrote extensively on the use of this drug by Indian society. The use of it was first reported in 1511 when an account was published in Martyr’s compilations on the New World. “This kohobba powder,” which Martyr describes as “an intoxicating herb,” “is so strong that those who take it lose consciousness; when the stupefying actions begins to wane, the arms and legs become loose and the head droops.” Taking it with a cane about a foot long, they “put one end in the nose and the other in the powder and … draw it into themselves through the nose.” Its action was rapid, for “almost immediately, they believe they see the room turn upside down and men walking with their heads downwards.” The “sorcerer” took the drug with his patients, and “it intoxicates them so that they do not know what to do and … speak of many things incoherently,” believing all the time that they are in communication with spirits.” (95) The Chavin culture are thought to have used the seeds of this plant for this purpose. Remains were found showing ritual 5-MeO DMT use. Whalebone snuffing tablets and bird-bone snuffing tubes dating back to 1800 BC, were discovered by Junius Bird in a Peruvian coastal site of Huaca Pieta, indicating early use of DMT-compounds. (96) 5-MEO-DMT Toad Venom Gordon Wasson and Professor Heim have shown that the pre-Columbian toadstool-god Tlaloc, a toad with a serpent headdress has presided at mushroom feasts for thousands of years. (97) Artifacts and figurines of Tlaloc have turned up from the Veracruz area of Mexico, dating from 700-900 AD, of which I have a few collected images of, depicting the vegetation and earth deity and in most of these, he is depicted as a toad deity (84g, h, i). In a taped discourse in Nahuatl, on the mushrooms in Veracruz, by Filipe Reyes, then 60 years old, it is revealed that “the ‘young people’ are called Xocoyome and they dwell in Tlalocan with Tlaloc and his wife. They are children who die unbaptized and for that reason go to Tlalocan and there become blue in color. They hold in their hands snakes that serve as whips to drive the clouds. By another name these children are known as Lightning Bolts.” (98) |
The most interesting part of this last quote is that we just read about how the Catholic priests during the inquisition used a confession that went as follows: “And when Peter asked one of the captive witches in what manner they ate children, she replied: “This is the manner of it. We set our snares chiefly for unbaptized children, and even for those that have been baptized, especially when they have not been protected by the sign of the Cross and prayers.” Not only do we learn these children turn blue, but they are called “lightning bolts.” Let’s keep this in mind for the last couple of chapters. There is some evidence that the Olmec society, which predate the Aztecs and Mayans, in the Veracruz area, were using the Bufo Alverius (Sonoran Desert) toad in religious rituals dating back to at least 1200-900 BC, where remains of the toad were found. (99) It may be well to take into consideration, that the toad, serpent, and the mushroom, all have poisonous and non-poisonous varieties. This alone, lends it to analogy and metaphor. The mushroom was called “toadstool” throughout Europe. The Sonora desert covers an area extending from California and Arizona in the US to Sonora, Mexico and is home to a very special toad, some people enjoy for its intoxicating venom. Of 463 total toad species, Bufo Alverius is the only one whose glands contain the neurotransmitter 5-MeO-DMT (or 5-methoxy N-N-dimethyltryptamine) and the enzyme capable of methylating it, making this toad very special indeed. This particular toad is not found anywhere else in the world, despite the fact that the Bufonidae family exists in many parts of the world. To add even more to the mystery and rarity of this “magical” creature, its nocturnal life and limited duration of exposure to the top ground atmosphere makes it in many ways, very much like a psilocybin mushroom. The Bufo Averius is a very special and sacred animal. People who want to raise these should keep in mind that they burrow and hibernate most of the year, so bringing them into any unnatural environment would be hostile to their safety and lifespan and I could not recommend it. The neurotransmitter 5-MeO-DMT was first synthesized in 1936, but it wasn’t until 1959 that it was discovered that it had mind altering properties when scientists were discovering and investigating the same active components in the family tree of Rue evergreen shrubs. (94) Pochettino, M. L.; Cortella, A. R.; Ruiz, M. (1999). "Hallucinogenic Snuff from Northwestern Argentina: Microscopical Identification of Anadenanthera colubrina var. cebil (Fabaceae) in Powdered Archaeological Material". Economic Botany. 53 (2): 127–132 (95) Flesh of the Gods, p. 24 (96) ibid, p. Page IX (97) White Goddess, p. 44-45 (98) Wondrous Mushroom, p. 134 (99) ibid, p. 28 |