Teonanacatl

The following descriptions are supposedly from the Florentine codex:

In book two, page 130, Sahagún wrote that:

"Teonanácatl grows on the plains, in the grass. The head is small and round. The stem is long and slender. It is so bitter and burns; it burns the throat, it makes one besotted; it deranges one, troubles one. It is a remedy for fever or gout. Only 2 or 3 can be eaten. It saddens, or depresses one; it is known to make one flee, frightens one, makes one hide. He who eats many of them sees many things which make him afraid, or makes him laugh [incessant laughing is one of the more pleasurable effects of a psilocybian intoxication]. He flees, hangs himself, hurls himself from a cliff. Cries out, takes fright. He eats it with honey. Of him it is said, he `bemushroomed' himself."

In book 9, Chapter 8 of the Florentine Codex we find two epithets referring to the sacred mushrooms: nanacatl (mushroom) and honguillos negros (little black mushrooms).

In book nine we find a the mushrooms being served at a State dinner for visiting dignitaries, traders and merchants. At this feast we find that the merchants have been served teonanácatl:

"At the very first, mushrooms were served. They [the merchants] only drank chocolate during the night. They also ate mushrooms in honey. When the inebriation started they danced and wept. Many though of and saw horrible monsters and things."

In book 10, Chapter 29, we are presented with a description describing nanacatl as "hongos malos que emborrachan"(evil mushrooms that inebriate).

And finally in book ten, page 49, Sahagún provides us with an incident of abuse by a noblewoman who used mushrooms for pleasure rather then healing or curing:

"The bad noblewoman [is] infamous, very audacious, stern, and proud. Very stupid, brazen. besotted, and drunk. She goes about besotted; she goes about demented; she goes about eating mushrooms."

Other reports from Sahagún tells us of "the Harlot; the Carnal Woman is who is described at length. Put briefly, she is the whore of the itching buttocks. She lives like a bathed slave, acts like a sacrificial victim, goes about with her head high--rude, drunk, shameless, eating mushrooms" [Ibid P 55].

"The Lewd Youth is a drunkard, foolish, dejected; a drunk, a sot. He goes about eating mushrooms" [Ibid P 37].

"The One of Noble Lineage when he is a bad nobleman is a flatterer--a drinker, besotted, drunk. He goes about eating Daturas and mushrooms. He becomes vain, brazen" [Ibid P 20].

"The Bad Youth goes about becoming crazed on both kinds of daturas and mush-rooms; he is dissolute, mad; he goes about mocking, telling tales, being rude, repeating insults" [Ibid P 12].

And in book 11 Chapter 7 we are told that "hay unos honguillos en esta tierra que se llaman teonanácatl." (there are some little mushrooms in this land that they call teonanácatl).

  book 10, part 11 shows: 

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Book 11, Part 12

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And pg. 281

In 1481, Diego Duran wrote the History of the Indians of New Spain. His documents were based on an historical text refer-red to as Cronica X. An early reference in this lexicon occurred during the coronation of Tizok.

"Comieron todos de unos hongos monteses, que dicen hacen perder el sentido, y asi todos muy aderezados al baile."
"They all ate some woodland mushrooms, which they say makes you lose all your senses, and thus they sallied forth for the dance."

According to the text of Cronica X (11 cap LIV 24), at the coronation of Moctezuma, Duran wrote that:

"de alli iban todos a comer hongos crudos; con la cual comida salian todos de juicio y queaban peores que si hubieran bebido mucho vino. Con la fuerza de agellos hongos, veian visiones y tenian revelaciones de lo venir."

"They all went to eat raw mushrooms; on which food they all went out of their minds, worse then if they had drunk much wine. With the force of those mushrooms, they would see visions and have revelations of the future."

It was known that Moctezuma provided great feasts for his enemies and their Kings and Lords. Here then is an account of one such feast recorded as the "Feast of the Revelations."

Cronica X (11 LXV 26):

"(Moctezuma) hacia comer alos viegos y sacerso tes antiguos, hongos verdes y otros brebajes super-sticiosos, qui les hacia bebar, para que supiensen en aguellas embriagueces que aguellas comidas y brebajes les causab-an, de tener victoria o no."

"(Moctezuma) made the old men drink and the former priests eat green mushrooms and other superstitious potions that he made them drink, so that they would learn in those drunken states that were caused by those foods and potions whether he would win victory or not." The green mushrooms noted above by Duran probably belonged to the genus Psilocybe and that the color green as well as blue are indications of the oxidation of psilocin.

Another reference from Cronica X follows:

"Sino solo los hongos monteses, que los comian crudos, con los cuales, que se alegraban y regocijaban y salian algo de su sentido. Solo hace memoria, de la abundan-cia de cacao que se bebia en estas solemnidades."

"But only the woodland mushrooms which they ate raw, with which, they would rejoice and grow merry and become somewhat tipsy. Mention is made only of the abundance of chocolate that would be drunk on these exalted occasions."

In 1581 Fray Juan de Cordoba wrote about the Zapotec indians who had words for "mushrooms that they say give one visions."

One ancient manuscript "Papeles of Nueva España" dated April 15, 1580, reported that: "they would worship the devil and sacrifice dogs and slaves to their idols and after their sacrifice they would dance and get drunk on some mushrooms and then see many visions and fearful figures."

Francisco Hernandez, personal physician to the King of Spain, viewed the Aztec's use of inebriating mushrooms as causing madness, but not death'. Hernandez believed that the all night vigils which he observed were awesome and terrifying'. In his Historia Plantarum Novae Hispaniae Volume II, published in 1790, he described several mushrooms. One mushroom was referred to as Chimalnanacame meaning "yellow orbicular mushroom." This could be a reference to a species of Panaeolus or possibly Psilocybe caerulescens Murr. Another term in use at that time by the Aztecs for teonanácatl was the epithet teyhuiti nanácatl meaning intoxicating mushroom.

In 1615, a guide for missionaries on how to deal with the Indians who used inebriating mushrooms shows that "when they are eaten or drunk, they intoxicate, depriving of those who partake of them, of their senses and come to make them believe of any one of a thousand absurdities." Just how powerful were the mighty empirical Aztec wizards in their knowledge of medicinal plant lore?

Numerous documentation by the clergy on the ritual use of nanacates (mushrooms) among the Aztec native peoples during the fifteenth and sixteenth century represented a most negative view. This was especially true of the church and those who wrote for their King in Spain. They distorted the truth in order to appease their leaders and the Holy Catholic Church. It would appear that the clergy probably dictated to the historians and botanists what they could or could not put to paper. The clergy and historians apparently only wrote exactly what the Holy Office of the Church and Inquisition needed to read and wanted to hear. Wasson (1980) claimed that this kind of totalitarianism by the church was a dominant factor in controlling every person under the churches jurisdiction; including the doctrines of the mighty conquistadors as they conquered the new world. Wasson claimed "here then is Odium Theologicum."

Pg. 130

Nanacatl

It is called teonanacatl. It grows on the plains, in the grass. The head is small and round, the stem long and slender. It is bitter and burns; it burns the throat. It makes one besotted; it deranges one, troubles one. It is a remedy for fever, for gout. Only two [or] three can be eaten. It saddens, depresses, troubles one; it makes one flee, frightens one, makes one hide.

He who eats many of them sees many things which make him afraid, or make him laugh. He flees, hangs himself, hurls himself from a cliff, cries out, takes fright. One eats it in honey.

I eat mushrooms; I take mushrooms.

Of one who is haughty, presumptuous, vain, of him it is said: “He mushrooms himself.”

~ Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, The Florentine Codex, Book 11 (Part XII), Earthly Things, pg. 130

Teonanacatl

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