The Salvia divinorum Research and Information Center - Shroomery

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Hofman, A - LSD, My Problem Child, Chapter 6:
In Search of the Magic Plant "Ska Maria Pastora"
in the Mazatec Country
R. Gordon Wasson, with whom I had maintained friendly relations since the
investigations of the Mexican magic mushrooms, invited my wife and me to take
part in an expedition to Mexico in the fall of 1962. The purpose of the
journey was to search for another Mexican magic plant. Wasson had learned on
his travels in the mountains of southern Mexico that the expressed juice of
the leaves of a plant, which were called hojas de la Pastora or hojas de Maria
Pastora, in Mazatec ska Pastora or ska Maria Pastora (leaves of the
shepherdess or leaves of Mary the shepherdess), were used among the Mazatec in
medico-religious practices, like the teonanacatl mushrooms and the ololiuhqui
seeds.
The question now was to ascertain from what sort of plant the "leaves of Mary
the shepherdess" derived, and then to identify this plant botanically. We also
hoped, if at all possible, to gather sufficient plant material to conduct a
chemical investigation on the hallucinogenic principles it contained.
Ride through the Sierra Mazateca
On 26 September 1962, my wife and I accordingly flew to Mexico City, where
we
met Gordon Wasson. He had made all the necessary preparations for the
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