MorningGlory
Morning Glory (Ololiuqui). Four centuries ago, a Spanish missionary in Mexico wrote: "Ololiuqui deprives all who use it of their reason. The natives communicate in this way with the devil, for they usually talk when they become intoxicated with Ololiuqui and they are deceived by various hallucinations which they attribute to the deity which they say resides in the seeds. " The Morning Glory has not lost its association with the deity in Oaxaca: "Throughout these references we see two cultures in a duel to the death (the Spanish and the Indians) (with) the tenacity and wiles of the Indians defending their cherished Ololiuqui.The Indians seem to have won out. Today in almost all the villagesof Oaxaca one finds the seeds still serving the natives as an ever present help in time of trouble." As with the sacred mushrooms, the use of the hallucinogenic Morning Glories is so significant in the life of pre-Hispanic Mexico. It was used in the hinterlands until the present century. An early Spanish investigator writes: "It is remarkable how much faith the natives have in the seed, for they consultit as an oracle to learn many things - especially those beyond the power of the human mind to penetrate. They consult it through one of their deceiving doctors, some of whom practice Oloiuqui drinking as a profession. If a doctor who does not drink Oloiuqui wishes to free a patient of some trouble he advises the patient himself to partake. The doctor appoints the day and hour when the drink must be taken and establishes the reason for the patient drinking it. When the delirium is passed,the doctor comes out of seclusion reciting a thousand fabrications - thus keeping the patient deceived." The confession of an Aztec penitent illustrates the Morning Glory association with witchcraft:"I have believed in dreams, in magic herbs in Peyote in Ololiuquiin the owl." The Aztecs prepared a salve which they employed in making sacrifices: "They took poisonous insects - burned them and beat the ashes together with the foot of the ocotl, Tobacco, Oloiuqui and some live insects.They presented this diabolical mixture to their gods and rubbed their bodies with it. When thus anointed they became fearless to every danger." Another reference asserted that "they place the mixture before their gods saying that it is food for their gods and with it they become witch doctors and commune with the devil."
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