Henequen

This is the part that I left out of the last post.  The word, henequen - it means string, twine made from the henequen agave in Mexico.  In the process of making leaves of this plant into fiber for twine, you can collect the juice to make alcohol.  Henequen is nearly the same as sisal, once an important crop because the twine was used for harvesting grain.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henequen_industry_in_Yucatán   about the twine, with lots of history

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave_fourcroydes   about the henequen plant

But nobody said that henequen is Harlequin.  I made that up - it's an extrapolation.  Maybe I will find proof later.  This is only a blog.  I'm researching something interesting, and sharing my notes.  Maybe I'm wrong.  Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions without any proof.

Here is a quote from the Wikipedia page about sotol, an alcohol similar to tequila.

"A humanoid figure with a spray of spiky leaves for a head and a black stripe down the middle of its body may represent the magical spirit of sotol. Sometimes it appears in connection with hunting scenes, at others it appears surrounded by orange ochre flames and black smoke."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sotol   So, you can see why I think that Henequen is Harlequin.

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Tell me about Heineken and Harlequin

I'm collecting words that relate to Harlequin for my blog.  I'm trying to write a page about how Native American cave paintings match up well with Spanish folk beliefs.  It's like this: when the Conquistadors met the Mexicans, they both carried really ancient beliefs in Harlequin as the wild man, giver of fire and leader of the hunt.

Can you tell me anything about it?  I know about Harlequin in the Comedie dell Arte, but I'm looking for much older versions.  Can you tell me if the beer named Heineken goes back to Harlequin?  Or whether the French city, Arles is named for Harlequin?

I'm also looking for anything relating to dandelion, wild lettuce, and chicory.  They contain 2 sedative drugs.  Any linguistic clues would be great.  I'm trying to show links with 1) the Taraskon dragon, 2) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, 3) the German romantic Blue Flower, and 4) poppies and chicory on Turkish Isnik tiles.

Overall, I'm trying to understand pagan Europe.  I think that I can link Slavic Goddess Embroideries to medieval dragons.  I working on a new explanation for dragons. 

--->>> Dragons are drugs used to enter the spirit world.

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Harlequin

I don't know if I can tell you how I felt when I found this.  I was awestruck.  It gave me shivers.

I found a plant named for Harlequin.  It's an agave that grows in Mexico, and it was used for making rope like sisal.  But this plant also gives juice that can be used to make an alcohol similar to tequila.

So, the name of this plant is Agave fourcroydes.  It's name is Henequen in Spanish.  I found it when I was looking for information about the book, The Teachings of Don Juan, A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castenada.  My guess is that if I want to discover something about medieval shamanism,  then I need to read this book.

I don't know why I am doing this.  Is it because my mother wanted to be a priest?  Is it because I grew up in the feminist 1970's?  Maybe it's pure curiosity.  But I think it's something more personal than just curiosity, because I did not quit when I found parts of this pagan research turning away from ideals that are very important to me.  My religion is environmentalism.  And the pagans, with their love of fertility, make no sense to me in an age of 7 billions humans on the planet.  I am looking for a religion that tells us that we are not the pinnacle of evolution.  I want a story that tells us how to live in balance with nature.

The exciting stuff is on the Wikipedia page about Sotol, an agave alcohol that Native Americans may have been making for about 9000 years.  I think that the Spanish named an agave plant Henequin because they recognized how similar it was to their folklore of Harlequin.  Agave plants provide tools for hunting and fire making, and many other useful things.  I read with goosebumps about the murals found on the rock walls of the Fate Bell Shelter.

What dragons symbolized in medieval Europe?

I'm building a new explanation for medieval dragons.  No idea if this is correct - I think dragons are really the drugs used in shamanism.

Poppy, dandelion, chicory, and wild lettuce: they all yield drugs like opium from the alkaloids in their latex.  I suspect that there were ancient peoples in Europe who knew plants as well as some rainforest shamen do now.

The difficult part will be figuring out what other plants might have combined with the latex bearing plants.

In another post, I'll make a list of clues to support my crazy assertion that dragons = drugs...

[This page is a stub.  More evidence is needed.]


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Dandelion Opium 2

I'm still trying to find evidence to tie the dandelion to the Taraskon - dragon of Provence and northern Spain.  I could be wrong, but I don't think so at this moment.

The scientific name of dandelion is Taraxacum officinale.  I gather that Latin name translates to Bitter Herb of the apothecary (officinales = of the pharmacy/apothecary.)  Also, the most ancient herbals, for example Avincenna's herbal, say that the dandelion is similar to chicory, used for insomnia.  That suggests a sedative to me...  Maybe, but I can't find any books that list dandelion used like opium.

But I did find a chemical analysis of the dandelion which listed the two chemicals found in wild lettuce.  We have trip reports from people who experimented with wild lettuce, ok so,  dandelion has 2 chemicals that might make a person stoned.  It seems that doctors used wild lettuce (in the 1800's?) when they could not get opium.

Some guy wrote that the Tarascon dragon is linked to a city named Taragon in Spain.  It was in French Wikipedia.  I'm keeping careful notes, which I can upload later if I find something worthwhile.  I searched a whole lot but found nothing directly connecting the dragon to the dandelion.  So, then I looked up the kitchen herb, tarragon, just in case I had the wrong plant or something. Trying to keep an open mind even if I'm wrong.

Looking at the list of chemicals found in tarragon, I'm impressed.  What if we gathered some dandelion latex and put it together with some essential oil of tarragon?  This combination reminds me of absinthe.  I remember reading that some crazy guys managed to make an ayahuasca (drug mixture) from 3 local plants in Italy.  Wondering what herbalism was known in ancient times?  They would have had access to plants that have gone extinct.  How did they ever learn which plants were safe to eat and which are poison?

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