ldquo;A comprehensive and scholarly work exploring humanity’s extensive use of ‘Agents of the Love Goddess.’ A superb job of presenting the often taboo subject of aphrodisiacs in the light of pharmacology, herbalism, and human sexuality.”

Autorentext

CHRISTIAN RÄTSCH, Ph.D. (1957 – 2022), was a world-renowned anthropologist and ethnopharmacologist who specialized in the shamanic uses of plants for spiritual as well as medicinal purposes. He studied Mesoamerican languages and cultures and anthropology at the University of Hamburg, receiving his doctorate with a thesis on healing spells and incantations of the Lacandon-Maya people after three years of fieldwork among the Lacandon in Chiapas, Mexico. In addition to his work in Mexico, his numerous fieldworks have included research in Thailand, Bali, the Seychelles, and, with coauthor Claudia Müller-Ebeling, a long-term 18-year study on shamanism in Nepal combined with expeditions to Korea and the Peruvian and Colombian Amazon. Before becoming a full-time author and internationally renowned lecturer, Rätsch worked as professor of anthropology at the University of Bremen and served as consultant advisor for many German museums. Because of his extensive collection of shells, fossils, artifacts and entheopharmacological items, he had numerous museum expositions on these topics. A former president of the Association of Ethnomedicine, he is the author of numerous articles and more than 40 books, including The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants and Marijuana Medicine, and is a coauthor of Plants of the Gods. CLAUDIA MÜLLER-EBELING, Ph.D., is an art historian and anthropologist and coauthor, with Christian Rätsch, of Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas, Witchcraft Medicine, and Pagan Christmas as well as a number of articles and books in German. In addition to her long-term anthropological fieldwork in Nepal, Korea, and the Peruvian and Colombian Amazon, she has worked as an art historian at the Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts and taught at the Hamburg Institute of Ethnology. She is one of the founders of Psycho Activity, an organization based in Amsterdam that seeks to preserve ancestral shamanic traditions by working with elders from around the world and distributing their wisdom globally. Both authors are former members of the board of advisors of the European College for the Study of Consciousness and regularly gave lectures throughout the world on shamanism, ethnobotany, and indigenous spiritual and healing traditions. Claudia lives in Hamburg, Germany.

Klappentext

The culmination of more than 30 years of cultural, anthropological, and scientific research, this encyclopedia examines the botany, pharmacology, history, preparation, dosage, and practical use of more than 400 erotically stimulating substances from antiquity to the present day. From plants and animals that enhance fertility and virility, like celery, snails, or oysters, to substances that induce arousal, like ephedra, opium, or cannabis, the encyclopedia is richly illustrated with more than 800 color photographs--many of which are from the authors’ extensive fieldwork around the world. Exploring individual, medicinal, and ritual use through historic and contemporary artwork, personal accounts, and literature as well as ayurvedic, tantric, shamanic, and European folklore practices and recent pharmacological research, the authors look at the revolving cycle of acceptance and condemnation of aphrodisiacs, the qualities that incur the label of “aphrodisiac,” the role of mind and setting, and the different ways aphrodisiacs stimulate desire--either physically, through the senses and vital organs, or mentally, through heightened awareness and altered consciousness. This comprehensive guide reveals these “remedies of the love goddess” as holy remedies whose proper use can help reestablish harmony with oneself, one’s partner, and the universe.

Zusammenfassung
The most comprehensive guide to the botany, pharmacology, cultural, ritual, and personal use of erotically stimulating substances from antiquity to the present day.

Leseprobe
Chili Pepper

Capsicum spp., Solanaceae (nightshades)

In the West there are the following types and their cultivated forms:

Capsicum annuum L., wild chili shrub
Capsicum annuum L. var. abreviatum Fingh., Chilaile
Capsicum annuum L. var. grossum Sendt., Chile amash
Capsicum annuum L. var. longum Sentd.
Capsicum frutescens L., Chile de árbol
Capsicum frutescens L. var. grossum, paprikaCapsicum pendulum* Willd.

Other Names
Aji, Axi Bolol (Maya Yucateco), Cahuas (Taraskisch), Cahuasa, Calcuttischer apfeffer, Cancol (Tepehuano), Calcuttischer Pfeffer, Cancol (Tepehuano), Cayennepfeffer, Chil, Chilli, Chilipfeffer, Có’ocori (Mayo), Cucúrite (Huichol), Dya-ah, (mixtek), Guiná (Zapotek), Guiñá, Gu’ucuri (Cora), Hachik (Lakandon), Hungarian pepper, Ich (Tzeltal), Iich (Chol), Ik (Maya), Indianisher Pfeffer, Itz (huaxtek), Marichiphalam (Sanskrit), Mexican pepper, Mibi (Popoloca), Nigui, Nill (Mixe), Niy (Mixe), Ñi (Otomi), Pau (Chinantek), Peruvian pepper (Eng.), Pica, Pica-Pica, Pi’n (Totonak), Shimapite (Tarask), Spanischer Pfefer, Spanishpfeffer, Tabasco, Uchu (Quechua), Wayc’a (Aymara), Xubala (Yucatán)

The chili pepper is the hottest of all spices--no surprise, then, that it should be used to spice things up! The name chili comes from the Aztec chilli and means “spicy, spiciness.” Many Amerindian peoples place the chili in its own separate food category: “Heat for food.” But they also use it to heat up sexual activity, as a warming or red-hot aphrodisiac.

Uses
In the American tropics there are many (about 40) species and cultivars of chili or chili pepper, which are mostly used as spices (Andrews 1992 ). Besides their culinary application, chilis also have ethnomedicinal and ritual significance (Long-Solís 1986). The fruits are used to treat various illnesses and have antibacterial properties (Cichewicz and Thorpe 1996). At high doses (30-125 mg) chili is an aphrodisiac (Gottlieb 1974: 19). It is possible that chili peppers may have psychoactive effects in certain circumstances, for example at very high doses or when applied nasally. In any case, chilis are used as additives in various psychoactive products, such as ayahuasca, balche’, beer cacao, kava-kava, incense, and snuff powders (Weil 1976). The Kakusi Indians of Guyana use Capsicum sp. as stimulants and aphrodisiacs (Schultes 1967: 41). The women give chilis to men who are too strongly intoxicated by ayahuasca in order to “bring them down” (Schultes and Raffauf 1991: 35).

When chilis were first brought to Europe their qualities were compared to those of pepper. They were considered to be significantly hotter but to have similar lasting, stimulating, aphrodisiac effects (e.g., according to Fuchs 1543). In India the same conclusion was reached: “Cayenne has similar qualities to those of black pepper, but has a stronger short-term effect and a weaker longterm effect. This plant has rajah-like qualities and can, when taken excessively, lead to mental disturbances” (Lao and Frawley 1987: 161).

Chili pepper (Capsicum annuum) is added as a spice to various beverages. Even today Indians use it to flavor maize beers and add it to an aphrodisiac tequila. It is also an ingredient in the Mexican national recipe pollo con mole (chicken in chocolate sauce; cf. cacao). This hot and spicy sauce is entirely unlike our idea of chocolate as a sweet.

Chili pepper is also mixed into incense, for example along with cacao pods. The heating power …