Notes from Diane's Garden
Or The Curious Lore and Magical Property of Plants
By Diane Fenster
Lammas 1988: Datura
In our travels round the wheel of the year, we have slipped past the high point of Litha and are winding our way down to Samhain and the dark times. It seems appropriate to begin a series of notes on some of the plants from the shadow side, those little pretties that have a mysterious or deadly aura to their nature. Don't be afraid, my friends, you're safe as long as you don't eat them.
As I have told you in the past, my inspiration for the topics of these notes comes from the flotsam and jetsam that the universe sends my way. This time the thanks goes to Point Reyes for a plant I found growing there recently, Datura stramonium, also known as Jimson Weed or Thornapple. The plant attracted my attention because I noticed some lavender flowers out of the corner of my eye while we were driving. I suspected they were Datura but I was only familiar with the white flowered variety. On closer inspection I was pleased to find a beautiful group of these plants with their seedpods looking like thorny apples, which is why it's also known as Thornapple. I cut one off and now have it in front of me for inspiration while writing the article. (Renfield the cat has also placed himself between the keyboard and Pandora, my Macintosh computer. He wants everyone to know that he is also a great source of inspiration). When I am finished, I'll place the thornapple on my altar as an offering to Hecate. Renfield I believe, is already a manifestation of Hecate.
The first time I ever saw Datura growing in the wild was around the Puye Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico. I'll never forget the picture of the startling whiteness of the flowers against the red sandstone earth, with a backdrop of the bright blue New Mexico sky. I later found out that this was also where Georgia O'Keeffe saw her Datura that became one of her paintings.
DATURA
The generic name Datura means angel's trumpet, taken from an oriental vemacular name. Another source states that the spelling is more correctly 'Dhatura', from the Sanskrit dhat, a poison made from Datura metel, an Indian species of Thornapple. The garden shrub named angel trumpet, with the intoxicating fragrance, is a Datura also, but a different species. Stramonium is the powerful narcotic and poison that is derived from this plant. Hyoscyamine, scopolamine and atropine are the other alkaloids found in all parts of this plant. Actually, the scent of the flowers alone can have a stupefying effect and also cause mild poisoning to those that are sensitive. (Once again the plant world offers us another plot for a murder mystery). The plant is under the sign of Venus.
Datura has a sinister history. D. metel was used by the Thuggis or Thugs, the worshippers of Kali, to stupefy the human sacrifices that Kali demanded and to whip the Thuggis into a maniacal state from which they could attack and kill wayfarers. Some scholars identify Kali with Io, whom the Maenads believed to be the mother of Dionysus. It is believed that the Maenads also used the juice of the Thornapple to produce states of ecstasy, during which they ripped their victims to shreds. It is also thought that the oracle of Delphi drank a concoction of Datura to induce a prophetic state. In the 17th century, a French diplomat reported that when the bees sucked the nectar of the Persian Datura, the resultant honey was so poisonous that a spoonful was fatal (yet another mystery plot here).
In the Southwest, Datura is known as Locoweed, due to its ability to drive mad the humans or cattle that eat it. Remember, it was the strongest and most dangerous of Don Juan's allies.
It seems as though the Thornapple was an early stowaway on board the first ships to the American colonies. It soon planted itself in Virginian soil and became a prevalent weed, earning itself the nickname "Jamestown Weed" (hence Jimson Weed, another nickname). A diary from 1676 notes that a group of soldiers camped at Jamestown mistakenly used the leaves in a soup, with comical results, since the plants were young enough, it is supposed, to not have had a more disastrous effect. Seems as if these men turned into the town fools for eleven days, blowing feathers in the air, sitting naked and gesturing like monkeys and generally acting as if mad. When they regained their sanity, it was reported that they didn't remember a thing that happened to them.
The notorious effects of the Thornapple didn't stop it from being used in love potions since it has the ability to sexually arouse the victim against his/her will and even perhaps cause loss of consciousness (that may or may not be a desired trait, depending on what kind of sex you're into. I always say that a partner that responds is a lot more fun, but to each his/her own, I guess ). This ability gave the plant the name "love-will' and it was used by "brothel-keepers, wicked seducers of girls, depraved courtesans and shameless lechers" states one German writer. "The whores administer to those who have the misfortune to fall into their hands half of flve grammes of these seeds in order to proflt from their madness."
--Von Aphelen, General Natural History, 1767
Another name was "sorcerer's herb" because it was one of the ingredients in the famous flying ointment used by the Medieval Witches. This ointment and its possible ingredients has always been a fascinating topic to me and I plan to make it the subject of my notes for Samhain this year. The plant is a member of the order Solanaceae, where we also find tomatoes, potatoes and the nightshades. Datura is considered the easiest to grow of all the magical plants. The flowers open at night and are pollinated by the night-flying moths. The fragrance is extremely powerful. Once started, it will re-seed itself year after year. Just give it a sunny place, since its original home is thought to be from the areas surrounding the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Protect it from the wind and it will be happy.
The medicinal actions of the plant are as an antispasmodic, anodyne and narcotic. In many ways, the action is similar to Belladonna, which is derived from the nightshade. It was fashionable at one time to treat asthma by the inhalation of smoke from the burning leaves of Datura. Stramonium, when applied locally as an ointment, relieves the pain of muscular rheumatism, neuralgia, hemorrhoids and abcesses.
Gerard states that "the juice of the thornapple, boiled with hog's grease, cureth all inflammations whatsoever, all manner of burnings and scaldings, as well of fire, water, boiling lead, gunpowder, as that which comes by lightning and that in very short time, as myself have found in daily practice, to my great credit and profit."
The Prime Mover of the Universe