Jimson (Datura stramonium) is among the herbs and plants of magic and healing. It's known as a flying ointment for witches, a folk medicine and lethal toxin. A branching aggressive herb with trumpet-shaped flowers, jimson belongs to the nightshade family.
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Also known as thorn apple, jimsonweed, devil's snare, or devil's trumpet, Jimson has long use as a hallucinogenic, to bring on visions, a trance state or occult experience. Native to North America, jimson weed comes to Europe during the Renaissance (15th-17th century).
Jimson is named for Jamestown, Virginia. The mind-altering effects are discovered by soldiers at the Battle of Bacon, an armed 1676-1677 rebellion led by Nathaniel Bacon. It starts when Colonial Governor Berkeley refuses to drive Native Americans out of Virginia.
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All parts of the plant are toxic. The seeds are especially poisonous.
Robert Beverley Jr, 1705 author of The History and Present State of Virginia, Book II: Of the Natural Product and Conveniencies in Its Unimprov'd State, Before the English Went Thither, writes:
"The James-Town Weed (which resembles the Thorny Apple of Peru, and I take to be the plant so call'd) is supposed to be one of the greatest coolers in the world.
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This being an early plant, was gather'd very young for a boil'd salad, by some of the soldiers sent thither to quell the rebellion of Bacon (1676); and some of them ate plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very pleasant comedy ...
... for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart straws at it with much fury. Another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mows [grimaces] at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll.
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In this frantic condition they were confined, lest they should, in their folly, destroy themselves—though it was observed that all their actions were full of innocence and good nature.
Indeed, they were not very cleanly; for they would have wallowed in their own excrements if they had not been prevented. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after eleven days returned themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed."
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Local names for Datura stramonium include thornapple, moon flower, hell's bells, devil's trumpet, devil's weed, tolguacha and Jamestown weed. It's also called stinkweed, locoweed, pricklyburr, false castor oil plant and devil's cucumber.
Today, it grows wild in all the world's warm and temperate regions, where it is found along roadsides and at dung-rich livestock enclosures. In Europe, it's a weed in garbage dumps and wastelands and is toxic to animals who ingest it.
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In South Africa, it's colloquially known by the Afrikaans name malpitte or mad seeds.
The seed is thought carried by birds and deposited in droppings. Seeds might lie dormant in the earth for years. They germinate when soil is disturbed, as in gardens or ditches.
Datura stramonium intoxication (poisoning) can cause
dry mouth
delirium
hallucinations
hyperthermia (overheating)
tachycardia (increased heart rate)
bizarre behavior
urinary retention
severe mydriasis (pupil dilation) causing painful photophobia (light aversion) for several days
serious amnesia
Symptoms begin 30 - 60 minutes after consuming the plant. Symptoms last on average 24-48 hours, but may linger up to two weeks. Intravenous physostigmine can be administered in severe cases as an antidote.
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A principle component of Datura is atropine, used in traditional medicine and recreation for centuries. It's used today to treat a slow heart rate and over-salivation or drooling, which is why is has symptoms such as dry mouth and fast heartbeat.
In folk medicine the leaves are generally smoked in cigarette or pipe form. During the late 18th century, the English Physician General of the East India Company, James Anderson, popularizes it in Europe. In China it's sometimes used as anesthesia during surgery.
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From John Gerard's Herball (1597):
"[T]he juice of 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."
Henry Hyde Salter recommends D. stramonium as treatment for asthma in his 19th-century work On Asthma: its Pathology and Treatment. Smoking of herbs, including D. stramonium, is thought to provide relief for asthmatics since antiquity and into the early 20th century.
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Throughout the Americas, indigenous peoples such as Aztecs, Cherokee, Algonquian, Navajo, Luiseño or Payómkawichum of California and indigenous people of Marie-Galante (Guadeloupe) use this plant in sacred ceremonies for its hallucinogenic properties.
In Ethiopia, some students and debtrawoch (lay priests), use D. stramonium to open the mind to be more receptive to learning, and creative and imaginative thinking. These are also properties of the crown chakra in Hinduism.
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The common name Datura originates in India. There, a sister species Datura metel is considered particularly sacred. It's believed to be a favorite of Shiva in Shaivism.
Both Datura stramonium and D. metel are used by some sadhus and charnel ground ascetics, such as the Aghori, as both an entheogen and ritual poison. It's sometimes mixed with cannabis, and poisonous plants like Aconitum ferox, to create dysphoric experiences.
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The ascetics use unpleasant or toxic plants such as these in order to achieve spiritual liberation (moksha), in settings of extreme horror and discomfort. Due to its visionary ascriptions, jimsonweed has a reputation for magical uses in cultures throughout history.
Anthropologist Wade Davis identifies D. stramonium, called "zombi cucumber" in Haiti, as a central ingredient of the concoction used in vodou to create zombies. The initial drug, tetrodotoxin, comes from the puffer fish. The victim appears dead, but is buried alive.
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The bokor eventually comes to dig the person up. By this time the person is having serious mental trauma. In these conditions the not-dead bonds psychologically to the 'savior' making the process of zombi-ism more effective. D. stramonium puts the victim in a trance-like state.
In European witchcraft, D. stramonium is considered a common ingredient, with other plants of the nightshade family, of witches' flying ointment. Jimson also creates the hallucinogenic effects of magical or lycanthropic (shapeshifting to a wolf) salves and potions.
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During the witch hunt obsession in Europe, peaking in Germany in the 1620s and England in 1640 - 50, it's unlucky or inappropriate to grow the plant in one's garden. It's considered an aid to spells and incantations.
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