1.- Name.

Salvia divinorum, Apipiltzin (Nahuatl), Ska pastora (Mazatec)

The Mazatecs who speak Spanish refer to Salvia divinorum as hojas de la Pastora, or hojas de Maria Pastora ("leaves of the Shepherdess" or "leaves of Mary the Shepherdess"), and this is also the translation of the name in Mazatec: ska. Pastora.The Mazatec name is curious. In Christian tradition the Virgin Mary is not thought of as a shepherdess. Is the "Pastora" concept a survival of the pre-Christian dueño de los animales, "the Lord of the animals," that figures large in the folk tradition of the Middle American Indians? A pagan association would thus be sanctified by the addition of the Virgin

2.-Geographical distribution (map)

So far as our information goes, the area of diffusion of the hqjas de la Pastora is confined to the Mazatec country and possibly the immediately contiguous Cuicatec and Chinantec areas. But it may well be known and used elsewhere.

Salvia divinorum, which is also known as Aztec sage, is native to the Mazatec areas of the Sierra Madre Oriental in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It grows naturally in tropical rain forests in an altitude of three hundred to eighteen hundred meters. Salvia divinorum, because of its limited geographic habitat, belongs to the rarest of psychoactive plants, but is cultivated by plant lovers all over the world. This reproduction is achieved with cuttings.

3.-Primary Sources

The ancient Aztecs knew and used a plant called Pipiltzintzintli (the purest little prince) very similarly to the use of Psilocybe mexicana in entheogenic rituals. There are masculine and feminine forms of this plant, macho and hembra. in the National Archives in Mexico City, there are Inquisition files from the years 1696, 1698, and 1706 that mention Pipiltzintzin and hint at its intoxicating effects. Various authors have taken this to be Salvia divinorum.  Regarding its cultural uses it is important to highlight divination uses. When it is a question of a theft, or a thing lost, the curandero listens to what is said by the man who has taken the plant, and thus the facts are disclosed.(Schultes y Hofmann, 1992:165).

According to Aguirre Beltrán, the Inquisitorial Archives mention it as a cultivable plant that is dried and drunk diluted in water and causes ‘hallucinations’: ‘They said bad things and talked nonsense with it.’ It was also used for diagnosis, and its flowers were called ‘rosas de pepetichinique’ (the Nahuatl word is misspelled). The Holy Office forbade its use and the followers who carried the plant as an amulet were persecuted. Aguirre Beltrán, “La familia de los solanos en el México antiguo”, p 26.

4.-Introduction

The history and ethnology of the plant in contemporary Mexico began in 1938 with the Swedish anthropologist Jean Bassett Johnson, who recorded its use among the indigenous Cuicatecos, and later, other researchers throughout the 20th century up to the present day observed it among Zapotecs, Nahuas, and Mazatecs. It is with the latter that important research has been carried out due to their close and extensive relationship with the plant and the continuity of various therapeutic and divinatory uses. (Cortina, 2021)

5.-Interpretation

"When I am in the time that there are no mushrooms and want to heal someone who is sick, then I must fall back on the leaves of pastora. When you grind them up and eat them, they work just like the niños. But, of course, pastora has nowhere near as much power as the mushrooms.“ (Estrada, 2005:78).

6.-Implication

One particular feature of this plant, which distinguish it from other sacred plants with psychedelic properties is that, Salvinorin A, the active substance works mainly through the kappa opioid receptors and not with the serotonin 5HT2A, which is significant, especially regarding about its therapeutic properties. The main cultura use was associated with divination, i.e., the goal of the entheogenic experience was to achieve some specific knowledge mainly regarding the causes of an illness or to know where is a missed person or stolen item.

References:

Maqueda, Ana Elda. (2018). “The Use of Salvia divinorum from a Mazatec Perspective”. In: Labate, Beatriz; Cavnar, Clancy. (Eds.), Plant Medicines, Healing and Psychedelic Science. Cultural Perspectives. Switzerland: Springer, pp. 55-70. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-76720-8

 Wasson, R. G. (1962). A New Mexican Psychotropic Drug from the Mint Family. Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University, 20(3), 77–84. https://doi.org/10.5962/p.168538

 Zawilska, Jolanta B, and Jakub Wojcieszak. (2013). “Salvia Divinorum: From Mazatec Medicinal and Hallucinogenic Plant to Emerging Recreational Drug.” Human Psychopharmacology 28 (5): 403–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/hup.2304