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Rivea corymbosa

Ololiuqui · Christmas Vine

Neotropical

Unknown (presumably Rafinesque himself) · Public domain

Climbing vine whose seeds contain LSA (ergine). One of the most important entheogens in ancient Mesoamerican cultures.

ECOLOGY & HABITAT

Grows in tropical and subtropical regions of Mexico and Central America.

Distribution

MexicoCentral America

INDIGENOUS NAMES

The names this organism has been given by the cultures that have lived alongside it. Each carries an entire relationship — what is sacred is never simply translated.

Ololiuhqui

Nahuatl · Aztec
"Round thing (referring to the seed)"
Coaxihuitl

Nahuatl
"Snake plant"
Badoh

Zapotec · Zapotec

TRADITIONAL USE

Used by the Aztecs and other Mesoamerican peoples for divination and healing

CULTURAL CONTEXT

Known as 'ololiuqui' in Nahuatl. The seeds were used in important religious ceremonies.

REFERENCES

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Hofmann 1963
Schultes 1979

Kin & neighbors

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Andean

Anadenanthera colubrina

Cebil

South American tree whose seeds have been prepared into psychoactive snuff (vilca) and brews for at least three thousand years. Closely related to yopo but distributed further south, across the central Andes and the Gran Chaco.

Anadenanthera peregrina

Yopo

Tree native to the Caribbean and northern South America whose seeds contain a powerful mix of bufotenine, DMT, and 5-MeO-DMT. The seeds are roasted and ground into the snuff known as yopo, used in shamanic ceremonies of the Orinoco basin.

BufotenineN,N-DMT5-MeO-DMT

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Neotropical

Brugmansia suaveolens

Angel's Trumpet

Tree with enormous fragrant pendulous flowers, containing the tropane alkaloids scopolamine, atropine, and hyoscyamine. Produces a deeply deliriant, dissociative state that many traditional practitioners describe as fundamentally different from — and more dangerous than — the tryptamine entheogens.

Bitter-tasting Mexican shrub used by Chontal and other indigenous peoples of Oaxaca to clarify and intensify dreams — one of the few well-documented natural oneirogens.

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