HARMEL AND YAGE

(Notes taken from a thesis on soma, moly, yage and other psychotropic drugs)

Harmel: the authors' argument is that the Vedic soma plant (soma in the RgVeda; haoma in the Avesta) is "wild rue" ie Peganum harmala L. (Zygophyllaceae) a common weed of the central Asian steppes; it is not a true rue, but resembles a rue plant. In Akkadian, harmel is sibburratu; in Aramaic, sabbara.

It has a woody taproot, from which spring one to two-foot many-branched stalks which curve upward toward their ends. The leaves alternate and are multi-lobed; the flowers are at the end of the stalks, and are white, five-petaled, half-inch blooms. These develop pea-sized, 3-lobed seed pods, which change from green to reddish brown to dull white as they mature. Each pod holds 11-15 angular dark red-brown seeds.

Harmel is a common roadside and wasteland weed, well-known for its habit of growing in abandoned, overgrazed fields, around wells, and on the edges of caravan tracks. Caravan animals shun eating it; often it is the only green weed left untouched on the side of the road, and even camels will not touch it. (Asians thought that plants which the beasts would not eat must be drug plants.) People cut it for winter fuel, because it would be lush at the end of the summer; when burned, its seeds exploded with a loud pop.

Harmel contains the same psychoactive compounds (harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine) as Banisteriopsis caapi - the yage vine of South America. In Arabic, it is called mogannana 'that which makes mad' and in Turkish mahmur cic<egi> 'dreamy flower.' In present-day Iranian folk medicine, swallowing an infusion of harmel seeds is believed to produce madness. An extract of harmel boiled in vinegar is used for toothache in central Iran; one woman who swallowed some of this medicine by accident (despite being warned this would lead to madness) said she was struck dumb for a whole day, most of which she spent asleep; and she saw everything moving in front of her, and beheld wells in the earth. Harmel probably spread through eastern Europe and along the Mediterranean coast after the advent of Islam; all its local names seem to derive from the Arabic harmel: garmarza, harmaga, alharhame, alfarma, armage, alharma, amargaza . . . It grows as a weed in the southern USSR, and is known to flourish where men have settled - its Russian name, mogil'nik 'tomb' reflects its habit of growing in cemetaries.

Older Arabic herbals described harmel as a plant which intoxicates like wine. From the Arabic trans. of Dioscurides: harmel is called muly (because it has a black root and white flowers) or wild rue. It is a shrub with many stalks springing from one base, with leaves a little longer and softer and stronger-scented than garden rue; the flower is white; the seed head is triangular, a little larger than that of garden rue. It is the seeds that are used. They ripen in autumn. Mixed with honey, wine, chicken gall, saffron and fennel juice, it is useful for weak vision.

From The Book of Plants by Abu Hanifa al-Dinawari (circa about 895 AD): harmel is in two kinds. One has leaves like the Egyptian willow and white fragrant flowers like those of jasmine; sesame oil and moringa seed oil become fragrant with this blossom; its seed is a long capsule like that of Cassia. The other is called in Persian, isfand, and its capsule is round.

From Ibn Samajun (d. about 1001 AD): there are two harmels, one white and one red. The white is the Arabic harmel, called in Greek muly, and the red is common harmel and is called isfand in Persian.

Galen called harmel warm and dry in the third degree. Other herbalists remark that the seed expels tapeworms; it is used against colic, sciatica and coxalgia in a pubic compress; it purifies the chest and lungs of thick mucus. It is used in treating epilepsy, and expels black bile. It obstructs pain, and induces the flow of menstruation and urine. It induces intoxication and sleep. It clarifies the complexion, and inclines to coitus; it is useful for colds of the brain or the body.

To treat sciatica: one and a half mithqal of pulverized seed, taken over twelve nights, is effective.

To use as a vomitive: wash five drachmas of seeds in gentle water several times and dry them; pound in a mortar with a wooden pestle and sift through coarse linen; pour four ounces boiling water over the result - then pound and sift again, discarding the residue; to this infusion add three ounces of honey and two ounces of sesame oil; it induces strong vomiting.

To treat epilepsy: add two parts harmel seed to a vessel of 30 parts wine, heat until one quarter of this evaporates. Administer ten drachmas daily to the patient.

To promote conception in a woman who has conceived at least once before but is now having difficulty, give the above medicine three days running. The proof of the medicine's effect is that it induces vomiting.

To use harmel as an intoxicant rather than an emetic, it would be prepared in the same way. Harmel materials must be crushed to release the alkaloids.

Agricultural use: hamel has a strong, distinctive odor, which comes from the leaves when they are disturbed. Herdsmen would notice that no grazing animal (save camels, goats and some donkeys) will eat its fresh leaves even in the face of starvation; though when it is cut and let sit for several days, it may then be used as fodder. It is not toxic. However, green stands of harmel grow where all other plants are consumed; the plant is a major source of fire-fuel in winter in Persia. When harmel is used in winter for firewood, its whitened seedpods snap with a dramatic noise and then emit quantities of richly scented smoke (a fat black smoke) with "a heavy, narcotic odor" - it is an incense plant. The smoke contains harmine and harmaline, and is an analgesic for toothache, possibly an antiseptic for wounds, and an insecticide - but probably would not have a psychoactive effect except on young children. In Morocco, exorcisms are carried out in a tent filled with harmel smoke, where the sufferer is shut up until the demons within him cry out and depart. In Bukhara, village fools inhale the smoke of harmel seeds.

Avestan name for harmel: spenta (proto-Iranian svanta) ie 'possessing numinous power' or 'sacred'.

Our Prophet selected it,

Ali planted it, Fatima collected it

For Husayn and Hasan.

All who are born on Saturday,

On Sunday, or on Monday,

On Tuesday, or on Wednesday,

On Thursday, or on Friday;

Underground, on the ground;

Black-eyed, blue-eyed, crow-eyed, ewe-eyed;

All who have looked, all who have not;

Neighbor on left, neighbor on right;

Before the face, behind the back;

May the eye of the envious and of envy crack!

--Iranian folk-song about isfand.

Esfand, seed by seed,

One seed, a hundred seeds,

May the eye of envy be burst!

--Ditto; there are many versions

Soma, haoma: must be crushed and mixed with milk. It intoxicates like wine, but joyously. It instilled battle rage in Indra (in the RgVeda).

Ephedra: called haoma and soma in Old Iranian and Old Indic languages. A genus of leafless, many-branched, joint-twigged small shrubs growing in the mountains (as soma was supposed to grow). Certainly used as a soma plant. About 1-2 feet tall, yellow-green; female plants bear round fruit on the ends of their stems. In winter, ephedras look much like harmel. Ephedra plants contain ephedrine in their woody stems; the amount varies according to species, time of harvest, amount of rainfall in the season; Chinese medical texts say it is not intoxicating. It is prepared by pounding the stem bark in a mortar. Note: the twigs of ephedra found by Aurel Stein in the pockets of Gobi corpses (in 1931) is not actually ephedra, but Equisetum; one Alison Bailey Kennedy examined the specimens at Kew gardens (in 1984) and identified their species.

Hawm al majus: lit. 'haoma of the magi' a plant mentioned in Islamic materia medica. By its name, it would be a soma plant, ie one of several plants used by magi to brew soma. From Biruni's entry in the Kitab al-Saydana: "In Sogdian <it is called> xwm and in Syriac 'rz'd mywsy and in Persian aftab parast and hwythwr. The magi claim that it is a tree without branches that grows where no one can reach it, in Azarbaijan. <There> snakes would eat the young of two birds, and an angel came with a twig of hawm and threw it in their nest and the snakes stopped their attack and their mouths were closed and the twig hung in that tree and it remains there yet."

Banisteriopsis caapi: yage, caapi, ayahuasca, natema, xuma, jauma, etc . . . a drug consumed by fifty-some tribes in South America. Yage is not consumed alone, but usually in combination with other plants; these plants usually contain another alkaloid, N,N,dimenthyltryptamine, which is said to intensify the effects of the plant.

Accounts of yage use:

"The 'visions' are frequently called 'dreams,' and rightly so, for these do not constitute true hallucinations, but vivid imagery contemplated with closed eyes. Usually, the 'dreaming' individual lies still--so much that among the Jivaro, for instance, the special individual huts where the person who has taken yage goes are called 'sonaderos' 'dreaming places.; There are exceptions to the immobility of the 'dreamer,' however. The effect of yage is that of making oneiric activity possible while awake, so that the person may choose to move or engage in specific actions and still contemplate his visions. The typical instance is that of the shaman, who may sing of his visions while still in contact with a reality other than that of wakeful consciousness.

"Yage is used chiefly by shamans, even in the case of tribes where it is also used by nonshamans, the individual's initiation to the drug is under a shaman's direction. Shamans are persons generally distinguished by exceptional capacity for experiencing the supernatural, which they do through yage. The experiences for which the drug is valued are not, however, immediately available even to those who eventually become shamans. Shamans assert they must learn to use yage and that initially their visions may be incoherent or of threatening monsters. During initiation as a shaman the novice may drink yage for many consecutive days until he is able to learn from nature and the spirits and see the visions his guide considers necessary and meet and ally himself with at least one spirit guide. The power of shamans is dependent on such guides.

"While the common man experiences terror, the shaman is at home with the beings yage reveals to him. It may have taken him months or years to reach the depths of hell or the heights of heaven, but once he has done so, these doors are open to him, he will need only a short time now, with the help of yage to travel from one world to another there to meet the spirits he must contact and summon to his aid. ....

"A second use, in small quantities, seems to be that of a stimulant. Hunter and warrior alike may chew stems of Banisteriopsis on their way to the site of action in order to see better.

"It has sometimes been reported that the drinking of yage is immediately followed by a frenzy of aggressive behavior. Since, however, about half an hour is required for the absorption of the drug <this may be the drinker behaving as he thinks he ought to behave. He will see threatening visions: of death, of spirits of disease, of fierce animals that mean to devour him. If he can remain courageous, he will be transformed by his experience.>

"Among non-Indians to whom I have administered the Banisteriopsis alkaloids, the ... reaction is that of lying flat with eyes closed. Only a few subjects have felt enough energy to sit up or move, or have had enough interest in contacting their environment. Yet there appears to be a relationship between the individual's physical well being, the amount of movement displayed, and the quality of his visionary experience. The same individuals who felt at ease in this reality--being able to walk, write or talk with comfort--were those who felt at ease in their visions, these not being nightmares but beautiful scenes. <Those who greeted the creatures they saw as guides and allies, felt comfort; those who saw threats in the vision animals, felt nauseated and sick.>" (Dr Claudio Naranjo)

"When I first undertook research among the Jivaro in 1856-1957, I did not fully appreciate the psychological impact of the Banisteriopsis drink upon the native view of reality, but in 1961 I had occasion to drink the hallucinogen in the course of field work with another Upper Amazon Basin tribe. For several hours after drinking the brew, I found myself, although awake, in a world literally beyond my wildest dreams. I met bird-headed people, as well as dragon-like creatures who explained that they were the true gods of this world. I enlisted the services of other spirit helpers in attempting to fly through the far reaches of the Galaxy. Transported into a trance where the supernatural seemed natural, I realized that anthropologists, including myself, had profoundly underestimated the importance of the drug in affecting native ideology. Therefore, in 1964 I returned to the Jivaro to give particular attention to the drug's use by the Jivaro shaman . . ." (Harner, 1968)

"The amount and quality of light are said to influence the sensitiveness of the participants who occasionally should stare for a while into the red glow of the torch or of a hearth fire ... Finally <sounds are> said to be of importance. The sudden sounds ... are said to release or modify the luminous images that appear in the field of vision after a few drinks of the narcotic potion ...

"According to the Indians the drug experience can be divided into three stages. In the first stage, after some violent bodily reactions such as vomiting, diarrhea, and profuse perspiration, the person will feel like flying upward through the air toward the Milky Way, and will perceive, with half-closed or completely closed eyes, an increasing number of luminous sensations. After a series of brilliant yellow flashes dancing dots will appear, soon to be replaced by a multitude of small luminous images that seem to float in space and now begin to change their shapes and colors in kaleidoscopic fashion.

"The onset of the second stage is marked by the gradual disappearance of the symmetric light patterns and by the slow formation of larger images of irregular shapes. ... Three-dimensional forms, like rolling clouds, begin to fill the visual field and slowly turn into multicolored, recognizable shapes of people, animals, and monsters. ... But there also appear monstrous animals and menacing shadows in weird shapes. The game animals crowd the scene and--speaking a language that can be understood by humans--clamor for justice and accuse the hunters of killing too many of them. ... sometimes the images are blurred and the person perceives only huge shapeless masses of color moving vaguely in space." G. Reichel-Dolmatoff, 1978.

Amanita mushrooms: the urine of a person intoxicated with amanita can itself be drunk as an intoxicant; such urine drinking is actually practiced in Siberia.

Various plants used by the Magi:

Thalassaegle: 'sea radiance': to drink it causes men to rave, while weird visions beset their minds.

Achaemenis, called hippophobas because horses flee from it (see above, re harmel which the stock will not graze upon; plants animals avoided were thought to be powerful drugs): if criminals drink it in wine, they confess all their misdeeds after becoming haunted by phantoms of guilt. Mares hold it in aversion.

Nyctegreton 'that which keeps one up all night': the Magi and the kings of Parthia use it to make their vows.

Ophiusa 'snake-like': taking this in drink causes such terrible visions of threatening serpents that the fear of them causes suicide; hence those guilty of sacrilege are made to drink it.

Source: Haoma and Harmaline, by Flattery and Schwartz, 1989.

Background courtesy of Graphics by Kelly

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