“If a man, after anointing his ligham with the mixture of the powders of the white thorn apple (Datura stramonium), the long pepper, the black pepper and honey, engages in sexual union with a woman, he makes her subject to his will”
– The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana – 400 BCE and 200 CE
The Burning of Jamestown by Howard Pyle, c. 1905
Jamestown Weed
The Rebellion of Bacon started in 1676 when early Virginia colony settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon ran Governor William Berkeley out of town and burned Jamestown to the ground.
While across the river awaiting reinforcements, the British troops lead by Governor Berkeley had one of the first documented “trips” in American history with datura stramonium aka Jamestown Weed…
“The James-Town Weed (which resembles the Thorny Apple of Peru, and I take to be the Plant so called) is supposed to be one of the greatest Coolers in the World. This being an early Plant, was gathered very young for a boiled Salad, by some of the Soldiers sent thither, to pacify the Troubles of Bacon; and some of them eat 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; and another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mows 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.
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 11 days returned themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed.”
– Robert Beverly in The History and Present State of Virginia (1705)
Venus and Mars by Sandro Botticelli c.1483
An earlier account of the drug can be seen in one of histories masterpieces, Sandro Botticelli’s Venus and Mars painted in 1483.
Thought to be a tribute to the “conquering and civilizing power of love”, a little plant at the bottom right held by a satyr might hold a ‘higher’ meaning…
The Satyr at the bottom right of the painting holds a plant that the horticulturalists at Kew Gardens have confirmed is datura stramonium aka Jamestown Weed…
Acorrding to David Bellingham who made the discovery of the plant in the masterpiece,
“The fruit is being offered to the viewer, so it is meant to be significant. Botticelli does use plants symbolically.
Datura is known in America as poor man’s acid, and the symptoms of it seem to be there in the male figure. It makes you feel disinhibited and hot, so it makes you want to take your clothes off. It also makes you swoon.”
Datura stramonium aka Jamestown Weed
Jimsonweed Juice
Sip the tea lightly,
turn your head away,
watch the shadows brightly
slip around the day.
The cheek you kissed this morrow,
though warm and soft and bright,
will have gone tomorrow,
as your mem’ry clears tonight.
The face your fingers chanced to find,
though it once set your mind to reel,
now holds no spot within your mind,
as no longer the madness you feel.
As right as before you’ll soon be,
no thought of what’s gone before,
you’ll have no beautiful mem’ry of me,
lest you sip of my tea once more.
-e.a.s. demers
So what have we learned? Drugs have shaped our culture in more ways then we could ever imagine…
Then again the same 2000 plus year old book recommending to rub infused honey on your dick to “make her subject to his will”, The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana, also recommends this time old classic…
“…or if he throws some of the powder of these same sprouts mixed with the excrement of a monkey upon a maiden, she will not be given in marriage to anybody else.”
– The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana – 400 BCE and 200 CE
You think…