Teonandcatl

In addition to these verbal accounts, drawings from Catholicized artists entitled "Teonandcatl —meaning "wondrous, "awesome or "divine mushroom—also survive from the sixteenth century. One portrays a birdlike devil (a Spanish interpretation) dancing on top of a mushroom. Another depicts "the devil encouraging an Indian to eat mushrooms. 

A Ndhuatl Indian dictionary prepared in 1571 distinguished a "mushroom of divine inebriation from other "nandcatls, and another published in 1885 included the names for several inebriating mushrooms. In a translation of the latter, Teonandcatl is described as a "species of little mushrooms of bad taste, intoxicating, hallucinogenic. ... 

Teonandcatl, a sixteenth century drawing by a European from Sahagun s Florentine Codex. 

Aside from these and other Spanish references, no effort seems to have been expended trying to identify teonandcatl until the twentieth century. A revival of interest, strangely enough, began as a scholar s squabble shortly after an authoritative misidentification in 1915. 

After a search for teonandcatl in specimens of Mexican mushrooms, a prestigious American botanist, Dr. William E. Safford, concluded that there simply were none. He felt that the Spanish chroniclers must have confused them with dried peyote. In a talk entitled "Identification of teonanacatl of the Aztecs with the narcotic cactus Lophophora williamsii and an account of its ceremonial use in ancient and modern times, Safford—who was known for lengthy titles—declared that the dried mescal button resembled "a dried mushroom so remarkably that, at first glance, it will even deceive a mycologist He hypothesized that the Indians may have deliberately misled the Spanish in order to protect their use of peyote. 

The few scholars who heard Safford or later read his handsomely-published report were mainly hearing about psychoactive mushrooms for the first time, only to be told that the mushrooms never existed. But there was one important dissenter—Dr. Plasius Paul (Bias Pablo) Reko, an Austrian physician who had engaged in extensive botanical collecting as a hobby while living in Mexico. Reko had become convinced that teonandcatl referred to mushrooms, not Safford s hypothesized peyote. 

Victor Reko gave the names "Amanita mexicana and "A. muscaria variant mexicana for the mushrooms described in his book. This embellishment of his cousin s views was significant in again attracting attention to a mushroom as teonandcatl. 

By the time of Valentina Pavlovna s death from cancer at the end of 1958, most of the teonandcatl story had been uncovered. Commenting later on their search, Wasson said that even if they had been on the wrong track, theirs "must have been a singular false hypothesis to have produced the results that it has. ... 

Hofmann gave his synthesized teonandcatl to the curandera who divulged the Indians secret. "Of course, Wasson recalls of the encounter, "Albert Hofmann is so conservative he always gives too little a dose, and it didn t have any effect. Hofmann had a different interpretation activation of "the pills, which must dissolve in the stomach before they can be absorbed, takes place only after 30 to 45 minutes, in contrast to the mushrooms which, when chewed, work faster because part of the drug is absorbed immediately by the mucosa in the mouth. ... 

Two books on magic mushrooms are Teonandcatl Hallucinogenic Mushrooms of North America, edited by Jonathan Ott and Jeremy Bigwood (Seattle Madrona, 1978) and Psilocybe Mushrooms and Their Allies by Paul Stamets (Seattle Homestead Book Co., 1978). Terrence McKenna s Food of the Gods (New York Bantam, 1992) is an entertaining and articulate speculation on the influence of psilocybin on human evolution and the value of the psychedelic experience. 

The medicine—the gift—was a variety of psychoactive mushrooms that the Indians in ancient times called teonandcatl. The man from New York, a Wall Street banker by the name of R. Gordon Wasson, had come to Mexico to confirm his belief that the legend of teonanacatl was... 

I drew from my pocket a picture of the mushroom, which the Mazatecs call teonandcatl, meaning God s flesh. Santa Maria s eyes brightened when she spoke of the mushroom. After watching me closely for a few minutes, she indicated she would have a mushroom ritual that night for my benefit. Since nothing more could be said, I went outside and lay under a tree to rest and wait for the night, as white fog rolled up from below and surrounded me. 

So it was with some trepidation and much respect that I returned for another encounter with that which the Aztecs called teonandcatl, divine flesh. I was in a traditional circle with a very experienced, masterful guide who maintained a sacred context, a kind of spirit canoe in which I and others could safely journey. 

Originally published in 2004 by Four Trees Press, a division of Green Earth Foundation, under the title Teonandcatl Sacred Mushroom of Visions... 

Robert Gordon Wasson (1898-1986), scholar, world traveler and ethnomycologist who rediscovered the teonandcatl cult of the indigenous people of Mexico and brought the gifts of this ancient religion to the modern world. 

Following the 1956 field trip, Heim returned to Paris with specimens and cultures of various species of teonandcatl (Heim 1957c). He and his colleague Roger CaiUeux were able to cultivate and ftuit many of these species in Paris (Heim Cailleux 19 57 Heim Wasson 1958). They were especially successful with Psilocybe mexicana and... 

TITLE PAGE Mexican deity holding pair of teonandcatl mushrooms, finm Mixtec Codex Vindobonensis, circa 1500 A.D. Drawing Martin Vinaver, Modco, April 1993. 

The Teonandcatl Complex PART THREE Isoxazole Derivatives... 

As pointed our in Chapter 2, Note 13, animal experiments are of little value in phy-tocbemical studies of entheogens, having proven useless in attempts to isolate the active fractions of the p otl cactus and the teonandcatl mushrooms. Only through the use of... 

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