The Salvia divinorum Research and Information Center - Shroomery

The Identities of pipiltzintzintli
The Early History of Salvia divinorum
Leander J. Valdés III
[HTML with permission and changes from The Entheogen Review (2001) X: 73-75]
Unless you believe that Salvia divinorum is the old Mexica (Aztec) narcotic
plant pipiltzintzintli (I don’t), the story of this fascinating mint began in the late
1930s. When R. Gordon Wasson and Albert Hoffman brought back material for
Carl Epling to identify (Wasson 1962, 1963; Epling and Játiva-M 1962), they
ended a search that had lasted nearly a quarter of a century. Their party traveled
through Oaxaca under the auspices of a famous Mexican anthropologist, Roberto
Weitlaner (an Austrian by birth), who had been guiding expeditions to Oaxaca
for decades (Pompa y Pompa 1966). I’ve quoted everything relative to S.
divinorum from each of the following rather rare references, translating to
English where necessary.
In the summer of 1938 Jean B. Johnson, Weitlaner’s son-in-law, visited the
Mazatec town of Huautla de Jiminéz, Oaxaca, with a group of young
anthropologists. He wrote a couple of articles based on their findings. The first
one covered various aspects of Mazatec culture and language. In the section on
curing and witchcraft he discussed the magic mushrooms:
Shamans, as well as other persons, use certain narcotic plants in order to
find lost objects. In some cases teonanacatl is used, while in others a
seed called “semilla de la Virgen” is used. “Hierba María” is similarly
used. The Zapotecs use a plant called “bador”, the little children, and the
Aztecs used narcotic plants in a similar manner(Johnson 1939a).
“Semilla de la Virgen” is “the Virgin’s seed,” and “Hierba (or Yerba) María” is
Mary’s herb, both refer to Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. In the second article
Johnson covered the activities of Mazatec shamans in greater detail. It is an
excellent and interesting source of information, being based on interviews with a
shaman. Concerning the Mazatec trio of magic plants he wrote:
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