Plants of the Gods

Datura: Stepping Stone To The Infinite
Oak Trees: Oracles of the Thunder Gods
Ancient Corns

It has many names in many cultures from Asia to the Americas, but the trumpet shaped flowers and spiny fruit are easily picked out from wayside weeds. To many Native American tribes, and the readers of Carlos Castaneda's book, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, this wild plant known botanically as Datura suavolens, or the newer genus Brugmansia, was the substance of dream time in the coming of age ceremony known as Toloache. It was used only by young men in an extended rite which could last many days, when the spiritual truths of the clan were shared in an atmosphere of mystical visions. Other tree-like species of datura native to South America have long been used in religious rites of peoples deep in the Amazon rain forests and further north in precolumbian Mexico and California.

In the west, authorities suggest its use in religious ritual originated in Latin America and gradually spread northward. Most religions of the California tribes were classified as either "shamanism" which was more prevalent in the north while further south the cult of "toloache" became more widespread. As with many spiritual experiences, hallucinogenic drugs induce a dream-like state during which visions were experienced and interpreted, thus defining the initiate's own personal spirituality. A period of fasting preceded the drinking of datura tea to increase its psychoactive qualities.

It is thought the toloache cults gained momentum after the establishment of the missions because Catholic teaching caused more subtle aspects of traditional Native American spirituality and beliefs to disappear. As a result there was increased use of datura in the same tribes which also accepted Christianity, and in some cases toloache use moved northward into many new tribal units during the late 1700s and early 1800s.

The many stories of datura are not limited to native peoples. One common name, jimson weed, was derived from colonial times. Robert Beverly recounted an incident in l676 in the Jamestown Colony when a group of English soldiers believed the leaves of the datura to be suitable pot greens. They boiled up a potent stew and consumed the lot. In Beverly's words the soldiers turned to "natural Fools" and "in this Frantic Condition they were confined, less they should in their Folly destroy themselves; though it was observed that all their Actions were full of Innocence and good Nature." The effects lasted for eleven days before the soldiers returned to their senses, hence the weed of Jamestown obtained its Anglo name.

Datura is a member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae), an infamous group which also includes belladonna, foxglove, mandrake and henbane. All of these contain various alkaloids which make very potent pharmaceuticals, though a very fine line divides a medicinal from a deadly dose. Among the many effects of these plants in larger doses are hallucinations, stupor and sometimes death. So potent are the plants that oils absorbed into the skin have caused so many poisonings that Mexicans rarely touch the leaves.

Datura was listed as stramonium in turn of the century Materia Medica and widely used by physicians who considered it an effective treatment for asthma. Since ingestion of the plant was so dangerous, asthma powders of dried leaves mixed with saltpeter were ignited and the resulting smoke inhaled. In some cases the datura leaves were rolled with other herbs into a medicinal cigarette. However, the active ingredients contained in the plant are primarily hyoscine, hyoscyamine and atropine still widely used today. An overdose is characterized by a talkative delirium termed by nineteenth century physicians the "belladonna jag".

Today this annual weed still dots the California countryside while more ornamental South American varieties are stunning in coastal southern gardens. This, like all plants which have played spiritual rolls in various cultures do not change, only our understanding of them is altered. Adding any species of datura to a garden transcends time and space to bring the symbolism, history and mystical rites of the past into our own cultivated landscape. Whether called jimson weed, angel's trumpet, the thorn Apple, toloache, tolguacha, loco weed, or main-oph-weep, datura and its sisters the nightshades will forever be a unique spiritual stepping stone to the infinite.

Since the beginning in the garden in Eden, the religions and lore of humanity has been tied to trees of every kind, but few were as widely worshipped as the oak. Long before the Greek and Roman civilizations, most of Europe was cloaked in ancient climax forests of oaks. In primitive times before the rise of tall buildings, these immense old oaks were more grand than all but the mountains. The Celts, Teutons and their neighbors to the north and south all believed that gods resided in these monumental trees and worshipped them accordingly. It was taboo in some groves to break a twig or even cut a bough, for the punishment by the gods was sure death or injury to a limb. But more importantly, the punishment by tree worshiping priests was a lingering painful death thought to heal the trees with human flesh.

The greatest of these oaks were deemed oracles of the gods. They were queried for advice on important matters of life and religion, and this same questioning is the Latin root word of the oak tree genus, Quercus.

Druid priests protected the most famous oracle oak which grew upon a sacred spring. It was so holy even the dead leaves, wood and acorns dropped from the canopy above carried great power. There is considerable evidence to prove the word Druid translated means "oak men". When consulted, the priests interpreted answers given in the rustling of branches and the murmuring of the spring waters. Most of the religious rituals surrounding the veneration or oracle oaks included sacrifice of cattle and sometimes humans as well.

Entire groves of oaks were considered sacred in a time when all believed the spirits lived in every tree. Gods such as Zeus and Thor, both associated with thunder were thought to reside in an oak because this tree was more frequently struck by lightning than other species. Since the bark of the oak is so rough and irregular with the wood dense, when struck by lightning it is likely to explode in a grand spectacle which was no doubt a source of both amazement and fear to these primitive people.

Strangely enough, even in the new world, our local Maidu Indians recognized this propensity and believed that a Great Man created the world and all its inhabitants, and that lightning is nothing but the Great Man himself descending swiftly out of heaven striking trees with his flaming arm. To worship this relationship of lightning to the oak, European tribes kept bonfires continuously burning day and night to honor a single tree or an entire grove. Should the fire tenders neglect their duties and allow the flames to go out, the penalty was death.

In ancient Greece, any tree struck by lightning was immediately designated as a sanctuary to Zeus and the charred trunk fenced in and protected. Because rain often followed thunder storms, rain making rituals dictated priests dip oak boughs in water. In later Roman myths the oak was dedicated to Jupiter for much the same reason. Even the Germanic tribes associated their god of thunder, Thor, with the oak. So deep was such devotion that when Christianity first swept through Europe, the most venerated trees and entire groves were cut down to stamp out the lingering pagan beliefs.

Perhaps the most well known ritual was the cutting of the mistletoe, then known as the Golden Bough. It was believed to be the heart of the tree spirit because while the oak lost its leaves in winter, this familiar plant parasite remained evergreen. Therefore cuttings of mistletoe were taken for use as charms against the forces of darkness, witchcraft and sorcery. Priests cut the mistletoe on Midsummer Eve (summer solstice) or at the winter solstice with a golden sickle as it was taboo for iron to touch the plant. White cloth was laid out beneath the tree where the cuttings were taken so that none of the sprigs fell to touch the bare ground. It was believed that once in contact with the earth the spirit of the tree immediately left the mistletoe.

Legend has it that the Scandinavian god of peace, Balder the Beautiful was accidently killed by an arrow made of mistletoe, the only wood to which he was vulnerable. But at the request of other gods he was restored to life, and mistletoe was to be forever guarded by the goddess of love. Thus, anyone who passes beneath the mistletoe should receive a kiss to show that mistletoe had become an emblem of love rather than hate.

Today the reverence for oaks as the trees of thunder and oracles has passed and few old specimens remain in the old world. Even here in California the ancient ones are passing out of existence, their symbolic protection lost to the ravages of time. Yet the mistletoe still afflicts its branches and an abundance of acorns continue to fall each year as they did many centuries ago when trees contained spirits and were worshiped as gods.

The sun, who is the Father of all.
The earth, who is the Mother of men.
The water, who is the Grandfather.
The fire, who is the Grandmother.
Our brothers and sisters the Corn, and seeds of growing things.
-Zuni priest, 1884

Fifty times a year, the Mass interrupts work in the fields, the daily ceremony of communion with the earth. For the Indians, accompanying step by step the corn's cycle of death and resurrection is a way of praying; and the earth, that immense temple, is their day-to-day testimony to the miracle of life being reborn. For them all earth is a church, all woods a sacrament.

Guatemala City, 1775

It was Welchkorn to the Germans, kukuruz in the Ottoman Empire, milho in Portuguese, mealies in southern Africa, and maize in the Americas. That grain, that god of the Maya, the rival of Christian saints, is the gauge of the passing seasons as its kernels are planted, and nurtured, and harvested. But it is not the perfect yellow cobs we know, but the corn of the people who have cultivated and worshipped this plant from Peru to Canada since ancient times.

Few cultures best exhibit the close relationship of corn to the deities than ancient Maya. They worshiped a host of gods that watched over the cultivation of corn used in ritual and as food. It is believed that the Maya fertilized their corn fields with the blood of their vanquished enemies. And their Kings, considered maize gods of the flesh willingly drew blood from their ear lobes and penis to be sprinkled upon the fields. For to these people the symbols of corn were the equivalent of our Christian cross, an image that represents in both faiths the triumph of life over death.

This can be seen in carvings among the ruins of Palenque in the Yucatan, where the Maya Tree of Life is depicted in the shape of a cross, the cross pieces are stems and leaves of corn bearing ears as human heads from which sprout the silk. And at the top rises the head of the Maize god himself perched upon the underworld, showing how the entire Maya universe was inextricably linked to corn. Since the Conquest, these images of the crucifix and the Maya Tree of Life have blended. The peoples of Chiapas, Yucatan and Guatemala today observe dual images, saints as maize gods, Catholic priests become shamans. For they still grow corn and inspect each ear for red kernels because it is believed that these are colored by the blood of Christ, but perhaps earlier by the phallic blood of their kings.

What the seventeenth century explorers found in the desert northwest was the corn of the Anasazi once irrigated by an ingenious system of ditches and waffle shaped fields. Today these same strains are grown by their descendants the Zuni. These cultures too gauged their year by the schedule of planting and harvest with their gods and kivas and calendars all linked to corn. For this is the only plant listed among the five elements of Pueblo life and legend: air, earth, water, fire and corn.

Upon the fertile river bottoms of the northern plains was corn of the Hidatsa, Mandan, and Arickara, all of whom selectively bred the plant for centuries. Seed was carefully chosen to carry on the coming year's crop from block plantings which were separated to avoid cross pollination between varieties. From these only the strongest plants were saved. Only kernels without a black heart at the center of the cob carried on the lineage while discarding those of the ends, either too small or overly large with starch. It was just these flint corn strains of the plains tribes that gave modern corn breeders the short season genes that allowed cultivation in the northern states.

Hidden beneath the shriveled seed kernels is the result of selective breeding long before Mendel and modern genetics. Buffalo Bird Woman, born in 1839 in the Hidatsa tribe of North Dakota recorded her people's old ways of growing corn which was planted in unplowed ground and grew to maturity without irrigation. And it was these women who knew of the miracle of cross pollination and marveled at their own ability to keep the strains pure. "We Indians knew that corn could travel." she explained. "We did not know what power it was that causes this. We only knew that it was so."

Clearing the fields was the men's work, but Buffalo Bird Woman and her sisters were responsible for the corn from planting to harvest. There was someone watching over the corn patches night and day to drive off the wildlife that would destroy this important crop. And perhaps most charming are the songs of the Hidatsa, melodies sung at all stages of the corn growing process that were thought to encourage the plants and ensure a plentiful harvest. "We cared for our corn in those days as we would care for a child," she explained. "for we Indian people loved our gardens, just as a mother loves her children; and we thought that our growing corn liked to hear us sing, just as children like to hear their mother sing to them."

It is believed that corn was first cultivated along Rio Balsas of Mexico as early as 2000 BC, but this is continually debated. Even today kernels found in an Egyptian tomb sprouted after two millennium into an unknown relative of corn, perhaps the missing link that will finally establish the lineage of this American staple to the myriad grasses.

To grow the old strains called dent and flint and popcorn is to rediscover what was long forgotten in the American corn belt. Consider a patch of Yaqui Blue, Hopi Speckled, Apache Red or Tarahumara Maize Caliente, because each one promises a surprise of color and the opportunity to share in plants of Native American spirituality. So simple to grow that even a novice gardener can join in the ritual and perhaps find peace in this age old act. For like the Hidatsa and Anasazi, you too are likely to discover real beauty, the vibrant color and geometric forms hidden inside dried out husks of the autumn fields.