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A reference to a magnetized needle as a

The book also notes that the people of the state of Zheng always knew their position by means of a south-pointer; some authors suggest that this refers to early use of the compass.

Alexander Neckamreported the use of a magnetic compass for the region of the English Channel in the textsDe utensilibusandDe naturis rerum,[46]written between 1187 and 1202, after he returned to England from France[47]and prior to entering the Augustinian abbey at Cirencester.[48]In his 1863 edition ofNeckamsDe naturis rerum, Thomas Wright provides a translation of the passage in which Neckam mentions sailors being guided by a compass needle:

In 1933Tuomas Vohlonen, a surveyor by profession, applied for a patent for a unique method of filling and sealing a lightweightcelluloidcompass housing or capsule with a petroleum distillate to dampen the needle and protect it from shock and wear caused by excessive motion.[96]Introduced in a wrist-mount model in 1936 as theSuuntoOyModel M-311, the new capsule design led directly to the lightweight liquid-filled field compasses of today.[96]

Model of aHan Dynasty(206 BC220 AD) south-indicating ladle or

Based on Krotser and Coes discovery of anartifact inMesoamericaradiocarbon datedto 14001000 BC, astronomer John Carlson has hypothesized that the Olmec might have used the geomagneticlodestoneearlier than 1000 BC forgeomancy, a method ofdivination, which if proven true, predates the Chinese use of magnetism forfeng shuiby a millennium.[10]Carlson speculates that the Olmecs used similar artifacts as a directional device for astronomical orgeomanticpurposes but does not suggest navigational usage. The artifact is part of a polishedhematitebar with a groove at one end, possibly used for sighting. Carlsons claims have been disputed by other scientific researchers, who have suggested that the artifact is actually a constituent piece of a decorative ornament and not a purposely built compass.[11]Several other hematite or magnetite artifacts have been found at pre-Columbian archaeological sites in Mexico and Guatemala.[12][13]

The Genius That Was China: East and West in the making of the modern world

(1565): 772782.doi10.1098/rstb.2010.0194PMC

Despite these advances, the liquid compass was not introduced generally into the Royal Navy until 1908. An early version developed by RN Captain Creak proved to be operational under heavy gunfire and seas, but was felt to lack navigational precision compared with the design by Lord Kelvin.[5][90]However, with ship and gun sizes continuously increasing, the advantages of the liquid compass over the Kelvin compass became unavoidably apparent to the Admiralty, and after widespread adoption by other navies, the liquid compass was generally adopted by the Royal Navy.[5]

Thecompasswas invented almost 2,000 years ago. The firstcompasseswere made oflodestone, a naturally magnetized ore of iron, inHan dynastyChina between 300 and 200 BC.The compass was later used for navigation by theSong Dynasty.Later compasses were made of iron needles, magnetized by striking them with a lodestone. Dry compasses begin appearing around 1300 inMedieval Europeand the MedievalIslamic world.This was replaced in the early 20th century by the liquid-filled magnetic compass.

Further information:Four Great InventionsList of Chinese inventions, andHistory of science and technology in China

in Chinese literature appears in 1088.

(Blue Bag Sea Angle Manual) from around the same period, also has an implicit description of magnetic declination. It has been argued that this knowledge of declination requires the use of the compass.

In the 15th century, the description given byIbn Majidwhile aligning the compass with the pole star indicates that he was aware ofmagnetic declination. An explicit value for the declination is given by ʿIzz al-Dn al-Wafʾ (fl. 1450s in Cairo).[4]

The Earths magnetic field: Its history, origin and planetary perspective

The earliest explicit recorded use of a magnetic compass for

The ships pilots are acquainted with the configuration of the coasts; at night they steer by the stars , and in the daytime by the sun. In dark weather they look at the south pointing needle

Prior to the introduction of the compass, geographical position and direction at sea were primarily determined by the sighting of landmarks, supplemented with the observation of the position of celestial bodies.[6]On cloudy days, the Vikings may have usedcordieriteor some otherbirefringent crystalto determine the suns direction andelevationfrom thepolarizationof daylight; their astronomical knowledge was sufficient to let them use this information to determine their proper heading.[7]The invention of the compass made it possible to determine a heading when the sky was overcast or foggy, and when landmarks were not in sight. This enabled mariners to navigate safely far from land, increasing sea trade, and contributing to theAge of Discovery.[8][9]

Late in the 13th century, theYemeniSultan anddescribed the use of the compass as aQiblaindicator to find the direction toMecca.[63]In a treatise aboutastrolabesandsundials, al-Ashraf includes several paragraphs on the construction of a compass bowl (ṭsa). He then uses the compass to determine the north point, themeridian(khaṭṭ niṣf al-nahr), and the Qibla. This is the first mention of a compass in a medieval Islamic scientific text and its earliest known use as a Qibla indicator, although al-Ashraf did not claim to be the first to use it for this purpose.[46][64]

Schmidl, Petra G. (2014-05-08). Compass. In Ibrahim Kalin.

(2): 6063.doi10.1109/MIE.2014.2316044.

Although the passage does not explicitly mention magnetism,

An iron needle, after having been in contact with the loadstone, turns itself always toward the northern star, which, like the axis of the firmament, remains immoveable, while the others follow their course, so that it is very necessary to those who navigate the sea.[52]

. Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press. p.61.ISBN0-87951-397-7.

IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine

The first recorded use of a 48 position mariners compass on sea navigation was noted inThe Customs of Cambodiaby Yuan Dynasty diplomatZhou Daguan, he described his 1296 voyage fromWenzhoutoAngkor Thomin detail; when his ship set sail from Wenzhou, the mariner took a needle direction of ding wei position, which is equivalent to 22.5 degree SW. After they arrived atBaria, the mariner took Kun Shen needle, or 52.5 degree SW.[43]Zheng Hes Navigation Map, also known as theMao Kun Map, contains a large amount of detail needle records ofZheng Hes expeditions.[44]

The first mention of a spoon, speculated to be a lodestone, observed

Pre modern Arabic sources refer to the compass using the termṭsa(lit. bowl) for the floating compass, orlat al-qiblah(qibla instrument) for a device used for orienting towards Mecca.[4]

Neckams clear understanding of the mariners compass in the late twelfth-century, and his description of its use in marine navigation, has cast doubt on whether the compass was, asProfessor Derk Boddehas argued, one of Chinas gifts to the West.[50]From Neckams description, some scholars have suggested it is not unlikely that the compass was also invented in Europe, independently of Eastern technologies.[51]This is further supported byJacques de Vitrys mention of the compass being used at sea in 1218, which indicates a broader knowledge of the compass and its uses in Medieval Northern Europe:

The earliest reference to a specific magnetic

Merrill, Ronald T.; McElhinny, Michael W. (1983).

according to Chen-Cheng Yih, the device described by Wang Chong has been widely considered to be the earliest form of the magnetic compass.

At the same time, traffic between the Mediterranean and northern Europe also increased, with first evidence of direct commercial voyages from the Mediterranean into the English Channel coming in the closing decades of the 13th century, and one factor may be that the compass made traversal of theBay of Biscaysafer and easier.[58]However, critics like Kreutz have suggested that it was later in 1410 that anyone really started steering by compass.[59]

(; Pingzhou Ketan) and dates from 1111 to 1117:

Chiu Thien Hsuan Nu Chhing Nang Hai Chio Ching

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

The earliestChinese literaturereference to

The sailors, moreover, as they sail over the sea, when in cloudy whether they can no longer profit by the light of the sun, or when the world is wrapped up in the darkness of the shades of night, and they are ignorant to what point of the compass their ships course is directed, they touch the magnet with a needle, which (the needle) is whirled round in a circle until, when its motion ceases, its point looks direct to the north.[49]

In 1269Petrus Peregrinusof Maricourt described a floating compass for astronomical purposes as well as a dry compass for seafaring, in his well-knownEpistola de magnete.[46]

(, Collection of the Most Important Military Techniques) stated: When troops encountered gloomy weather or dark nights, and the directions of space could not be distinguished…they made use of the [mechanical]south-pointing carriage, or the south-pointing fish.

(2nd printing ed.). San Francisco: Academic press. p.1.ISBN0-12-491242-7.

. Oxford University Press. pp.1446.ISBN978-0-19-981257-8.

In December 1932, the newly founded Silva Company of Sweden introduced its first baseplate or bearing compass that used a liquid-filled capsule to damp the swing of the magnetized needle.[81]The liquid-damped Silva took only four seconds for its needle to settle in comparison to thirty seconds for the original version.[81]

The earliest reference to a compass in theMuslim worldoccurs in aPersiantalebook from 1232,[17][60]where a compass is used for navigation during a trip in theRed Seaor thePersian Gulf.[4]The fish-shaped iron leaf described indicates that this early Chinese design has spread outside of China.[61]The earliestArabicreference to a compass, in the form of magnetic needle in a bowl of water, comes from a work by Baylak al-Qibjq, written in 1282 while in Cairo.[17][62]Al-Qibjq described a needle-and-bowl compass used for navigation on a voyage he took from Syria to Alexandria in 1242.[17]Since the author describes having witnessed the use of a compass on a ship trip some forty years earlier, some scholars are inclined to antedate its first appearance in theArab worldaccordingly.[17]Al-Qibjq also reports that sailors in the Indian Ocean used iron fish instead of needles.[25]

In 1300, an Arabic treatise written by theEgyptianastronomer andmuezzinIbn Simʿn describes a dry compass used for determining qibla. Like Peregrinus compass, however, Ibn Simʿns compass did not feature a compass card.[46]In the 14th century, theSyrianastronomer and timekeeperIbn al-Shatir(13041375) invented atimekeepingdevice incorporating both a universalsundialand a magnetic compass. He invented it for the purpose of finding the times ofprayers.[65]Arab navigatorsalso introduced the 32-pointcompass roseduring this time.[66]In 1399, an Egyptian reports two different kinds of magnetic compass. One instrument is a fish made of willow wood or pumpkin, into which a magnetic needle is inserted and sealed with tar or wax to prevent the penetration of water. The other instrument is a dry compass.[25]

This was achieved by heating of metal (especially if steel), known today asthermoremanence, and would have been capable of producing a weak state of magnetization.

(Mr. Kuans Geomantic Instructor), dating to 880.

Within the text, the authorWang Chongdescribes the spoon as a phenomenon that he has personally observed.

W. H. Creak: The History of the Liquid Compass,

Robert Southeysuggested that theSiete Partidascontained a reference from the 1250s to the needle being used for navigation.[53]

device for land navigation is recorded in aSong Dynastybook dated to 104044. There is a description of an iron south-pointing fish floating in a bowl of water, aligning itself to the south. The device is recommended as a means of orientation in the obscurity of the night. The

Three compasses meant for establishing themeridianwere described byPeter Peregrinusin 1269 (referring to experiments made before 1248)[97]Late in the 13th century,al-Malik al-Ashrafof Yemen wrote a treatise on astrolabes, which included instructions and diagrams on using the compass to determine themeridian(khaṭṭ niṣf al-nahr) andQibla.[46]In 1300, a treatise written by theEgyptianastronomer andmuezzinIbn Simʿn describes a dry compass for use as a Qibla indicator to find the direction toMecca. Ibn Simʿns compass, however, did not feature a compass card nor the familiar glass box.[46]In the 14th century, theSyrianastronomer and timekeeperIbn al-Shatir(13041375) invented atimekeepingdevice incorporating both a universalsundialand a magnetic compass. He invented it for the purpose of finding the times ofsalatprayers.[65]

A number of early cultures usedlodestones, suspended so they could turn, as magnetic compasses for navigation. Early mechanical compasses are referenced in written records of theChinese, who began using it for navigation sometime between the 9th and 11th century, some time before 1050, possibly as early as 850.[14][6]At present, according to Kreutz, scholarly consensus is that the Chinese invention used in navigation pre-dates the first European mention of a compass by 150 years.[15]The first recorded appearance of the use of the compass in Europe (1190)[16]is earlier than in the Muslim world (1232),[17][18]as a description of a magnetized needle and its use among sailors occurs inAlexander NeckamsDe naturis rerum(On the Natures of Things), written in 1190.[16][19]

The compass was used inSong DynastyChina by the military fornavigational orienteeringby 104044,

The development of the magnetic compass is highly uncertain. The compass is mentioned in fourth-century ADbooks; moreover, its early name ofmacchayantra(fish machine) suggest a chinese origin. In its Indian form, the wet compass often consisted of a fish-shaped magnet, float in a bowl filled with oil.[69][70]This fish shape is due to its name, which is composed of the wordsmacchameaningfishandyantrameaningdevice.[61]

The typical Chinese navigational compass was in the form of a magnetic needle floating in a bowl of water.[39]According toNeedham, the Chinese in theSong Dynastyand continuingYuan Dynastydid make use of a dry compass, although this type never became as widely used in China as the wet compass.[40]Evidence of this is found in theShilin guangji(Guide Through the Forest of Affairs), published in 1325 by Chen Yuanjing, although its compilation had taken place between 1100 and 1250.[40]The dry compass in China was a dry suspension compass, a wooden frame crafted in the shape of a turtle hung upside down by a board, with the lodestone sealed in by wax, and if rotated, the needle at the tail would always point in the northern cardinal direction.[40]Although the European compass-card in box frame and dry pivot needle was adopted in China after its use was taken byJapanese piratesin the 16th century (who had in turn learned of it from Europeans),[41]the Chinese design of the suspended dry compass persisted in use well into the 18th century.[42]However, according to Kreutz there is only a single Chinese reference to a dry-mounted needle (built into a pivoted wooden tortoise) which is dated to between 1150 and 1250, and claims that there is no clear indication that Chinese mariners ever used anything but the floating needle in a bowl until the 16th century.[39]

It is well to observe the force and virtue of consequences of discoveries, and there are to be seen nowhere more conspicuously than in those three which were unknown to the ancients, and of which the origins, although recent, are obscure and inglorious; namely printing, gunpowder, and the magnet. For these three have changed the whole state of things throughout the world; the first in literature, the second in warfare, the third in navigation; whence have followed innumerable changes, insomuch that no empire, no secret, no star seems to have exerted greater power in human affairs than these mechanical discoveries… had done more to transform the modern

There is evidence that the distribution of the compass from China likely also reached eastern Africa by way of trade through the end of the Silk Road that ended inEast Africancentre of trade inSomaliaand theSwahilicity-state kingdoms.[71]There is evidence that Swahili maritime merchants and sailors acquired the compass at some point and used it for navigation.[72]

In the Mediterranean, the introduction of the compass, at first only known as a magnetized pointer floating in a bowl of water,[54]went hand in hand with improvements indead reckoningmethods, and the development ofPortolan charts, leading to more navigation during winter months in the second half of the 13th century.[55][6]While the practice from ancient times had been to curtail sea travel between October and April, due in part to the lack of dependable clear skies during the Mediterranean winter, the prolongation of the sailing season resulted in a gradual, but sustained increase in shipping movement; by around 1290 the sailing season could start in late January or February, and end in December.[56]The additional few months were of considerable economic importance. For instance, it enabledVenetianconvoys to make two round trips a year to theLevant, instead of one.[57]

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam

Thus, the use of a magnetic compass by the military forland navigationoccurred sometime before 1044, but incontestable evidence for the use of the compass as a maritime navigational device did not appear until 1117.

While pivoting needles in glass boxes had already been described by the French scholarPeter Peregrinusin 1269,[73]and by the Egyptian scholar Ibn Simʿn in 1300,[46]traditionallyFlavio Gioja(fl. 1302), an ItalianpilotfromAmalfi, has been credited with perfecting the sailors compass by suspending its needle over a compass card, thus giving the compass its familiar appearance.[74][6]Such a compass with the needle attached to a rotating card is also described in a commentary onDantesDivine Comedyfrom 1380, while an earlier source refers to a portable compass in a box (1318),[75]supporting the notion that the dry compass was known in Europe by then.[39]

The first gyroscope for scientific use was made by the French physicist Jean Bernard Lon Foucault (18191868) in 1852, who also named the device, while researching in the same line that led him to use the eponymous pendulum, for which he was awarded a Copley Medal by the Royal Society. The gyrocompass was patented in 1885 by Marinus Gerardus van den Bos in The Netherlands after continuous spinning was made possible by small electric motors, which were in turn a technological outcome of the discovery of magnetic induction.[6]Yet only in 1906 was the German inventor Hermann Anschtz-Kaempfe (18721931) able to build the first practical gyrocompass. It had two major advantages over magnetic compasses: it indicated true north and was unaffected by ferromagnetic materials, such as the steel hull of ships. Thus, it was widely used in the warships of World War I and modern aircraft.

Diagram of aMing Dynastymariners compass

A sun compass uses the position of the Sun in the sky to determine the directions of the cardinal points, making allowance for the local latitude and longitude, time of day,equation of time, and so on. At fairly high latitudes, an analog-displaywatchcan be used as a very approximate sun compass. A simple sundial can be used as a much better one. An automatic sun compass developed by Lt. Col.James Allason, a mechanised cavalry officer, was adopted by the British Army in India in 1938 for use in tanks and other armoured vehicles where the magnetic field was subject to distortion, affecting the standard issue prismatic compass. Cloudy skies prohibited its use in European theatres. A copy of the manual is preserved in theImperial War Museumin London.[102]

Liquid compasses were next adapted for aircraft. In 1909, CaptainF.O. Creagh-Osborne, Superintendent of Compasses at the Admiralty, introduced hisCreagh-Osborneaircraft compass, which used a mixture of alcohol and distilled water to damp the compass card.[91][92]After the success of this invention, Capt. Creagh-Osborne adapted his design to a much smaller pocket model[93]for individual use[94]by officers of artillery or infantry, receiving a patent in 1915.[95]

However, there are questions over diffusion. Some historians suggest that the Arabs introduced the compass from China to Europe.[20][21]Some suggested the compass was transmitted from China to Europe and the Muslim world via the Indian Ocean,[22]or was brought by the crusaders to Europe from China.[23]However, some scholars proposed an independent European invention of the compass:[24][25]

Early in the Han Dynasty, between 300-200 BC, the Chinese fashioned a rudimentary compass out of lodestone… the compass may have been used in the search for gems and the selection of sites for houses… their directive power led to the use of compasses for navigation

The first incontestable reference to a

lies in the 4th century BC writings ofWang Xu(): The lodestone attracts iron.

text written by Ma Kao. The same passage is also attributed to the 4th-century AD writer Tshui Pao, although it is postulated that the former text is more authentic. The shape of the needle is compared to that of a tadpole, and may indicate the transition between lodestone spoons and iron needles.

The magnetic compass was first invented as a device fordivinationas early as the(since about 206 BC).

While the Chinese achieved magneticremanenceand induction by this time, in both Europe and Asia the phenomenon was attributed to the supernatural and occult, until about 1600 whenWilliam Gilbertpublished his

, Vol. 56, No. 3 (1920), pp. 238-239

Friedrich Hirthsuggested that Arab and Persian traders, who learned about the polarity of the magnetic needle from the Chinese, applied the compass for navigation before the Chinese did.[67]However, Needham described this theory as erroneous and it originates because of a mistraslation of the termchia-lingfound inZhu Yus bookPingchow Table Talks.[68]

Gbor Horvth; et al. (2011).On the trail of Vikings with polarized skylight.

), which records that But when the south pointing spoon is thrown upon the ground, it comes to rest pointing at the south.

Evidence for the orientation of buildings by the means of a magnetic compass can be found in 12th-centuryDenmark: one fourth of its 570Romanesque churchesare rotated by 515 degrees clockwise from true east-west, thus corresponding to the predominant magnetic declination of the time of their construction.[98]Most of these churches were built in the 12th century, indicating a fairly common usage of magnetic compasses inEuropeby then.[99]

. London: Cambridge University Press. p.281.ISBN978-0-521-67596-3.

The liquid compass is a design in which the magnetized needle or card is damped by fluid to protect against excessive swing or wobble, improving readability while reducing wear. A rudimentary working model of a liquid compass was introduced by SirEdmund Halleyat a meeting of theRoyal Societyin 1690.[85]However, as early liquid compasses were fairly cumbersome and heavy, and subject to damage, their main advantage was aboard ship. Protected in abinnacleand normallygimbal-mounted, the liquid inside the compass housing effectively damped shock and vibration, while eliminating excessive swing and grounding of the card caused by the pitch and roll of the vessel. The first liquid mariners compass believed practicable for limited use was patented by the Englishman Francis Crow in 1813.[86][87]Liquid-damped marine compasses for ships and small boats were occasionally used by theRoyal Navyfrom the 1830s through 1860, but the standard Admiralty compass remained a dry-mount type.[88]In the latter year, the American physicist and inventorEdward Samuel Ritchiepatented a greatly improved liquid marine compass that was adopted in revised form for general use by theUnited States Navy, and later purchased by the Royal Navy as well.[89]

The dry mariners compass consists of three elements: A freely pivoting needle on a pin enclosed in a little box with a glass cover and awind rose, whereby the wind rose or compass card is attached to a magnetized needle in such a manner that when placed on a pivot in a box fastened in line with the keel of the ship the card would turn as the ship changed direction, indicating always what course the ship was on.[3]Later, compasses were often fitted into agimbalmounting to reduce grounding of the needle or card when used on the pitching and rolling deck of a ship.

and was used for maritime navigation by 1111 to 1117.

is a Chinese work composed between 70 and 80 AD (

Guarnieri, M. (2014). Once Upon a Time, the Compass.

, written by thescientistShen Kuo, contained a detailed description of howgeomancersmagnetized aneedleby rubbing its tip with lodestone, and hung the magnetic needle with one single strain ofsilkwith a bit of wax attached to the center of the needle. Shen Kuo pointed out that a needle prepared this way sometimes pointed south, sometimes north.

There is disagreement as to exactly when the compass was invented. These are noteworthyChineseliterary references in evidence for its antiquity:

that the south-pointing spoons of the Han dynasty were magnetized lodestones.

In 1928, Gunnar Tillander, a Swedish unemployed instrument maker and avid participant in the sport oforienteering, invented a new style of bearing compass. Dissatisfied with existing field compasses, which required a separate protractor in order to take bearings from a map, Tillander decided to incorporate both instruments into a single instrument. It combined a compass with a protractor built into the base. His design featured a metal compass capsule containing a magnetic needle with orienting marks mounted into a transparent protractor baseplate with a lubber line (later called adirection of travel indicator). By rotating the capsule to align the needle with the orienting marks, the course bearing could be read at the lubber line. Moreover, by aligning the baseplate with a course drawn on a map ignoring the needle the compass could also function as a protractor. Tillander took his design to fellow orienteersBjörn, Alvid, and Alvar Kjellström, who were selling basic compasses, and the four men modified Tillanders design.[81]In December 1932, the Silva Company was formed with Tillander and the three Kjellström brothers, and the company began manufacturing and selling itsSilva orienteering compassto Swedish orienteers, outdoorsmen, and army officers.[81][82][83][84]

Abearing compassis a magnetic compass mounted in such a way that it allows the taking ofbearingsof objects by aligning them with thelubber lineof the bearing compass.[76]Asurveyors compassis a specialized compass made to accurately measure heading of landmarks and measure horizontal angles to help withmap making. These were already in common use by the early 18th century and are described in the 1728Cyclopaedia. The bearing compass was steadily reduced in size and weight to increase portability, resulting in a model that could be carried and operated in one hand. In 1885, a patent was granted for ahand compassfitted with a viewing prism and lens that enabled the user to accurately sight the heading of geographical landmarks, thus creating theprismatic compass.[77]Another sighting method was by means of a reflective mirror. First patented in 1902, theBzard compassconsisted of a field compass with a mirror mounted above it.[78][79]This arrangement enabled the user to align the compass with an objective while simultaneously viewing its bearing in the mirror.[78][80]

The compass was invented in China during theHan Dynastybetween the 2nd century BC and 1st century AD, where it was called the south-governor (snn).[2]The magnetic compass was not, at first, used for navigation, but forgeomancyandfortune-tellingby theChinese. The earliestcompasses were possibly used to order and harmonize buildings in accordance with the geomantic principles offeng shui. These early compasses were made withlodestone, a form of the mineralmagnetitethat is a naturally occurringmagnetand aligns itself with the Earths magnetic field.[6]People in ancient China discovered that if a lodestone was suspended so it could turn freely, it would always point toward the magnetic poles. Early compasses were used to choose areas suitable for building houses, growing crops, and to search for rare gems. Compasses were later adapted for navigation during theSong Dynastyin the 11th century.[1]

The use of a compass as a direction finder underground was pioneered in theTuscanmining townMassawhere floating magnetic needles were employed for tunnelling, and for defining the claims of the various mining companies, as early as the 13th century.[100]In the second half of the 15th century, the compass became standard equipment forTyrolianminers. Shortly afterwards the first detailed treatise dealing with the underground use of compasses was published by aGermanminerRlein von Calw(14631525).[101]

This card has not yet been assigned or the creator wishes to remain anonymous.

+4% to all maximumElemental Resistancesduring Flask effectKnowledge is fermented in pain and loss

25% increased Light Radius during Flask effect

The drop locations forThe Celestial Justicarand The Drunken Aristocrat have been changed.

Content is available underCC BY-NC-SA 3.0unless otherwise noted.

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Large Hybrid FlaskRecovers140Mana over5.00seconds

Consumes20of40Charges on useRequires Level30(40-60)% increased Rarity of Items found during Flask effect

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Wasson also mentioned the curiousdatumthat the Mazatecs regardedSalvia divinorumto be the most important member of a family (all, botanically speaking, indeed members of the same family, Labiatae), beingla hembra,the female, whereasel machoor the male wasColeus pumilusBlanco, andel nene,the child, orel ajihado,the godson, wasColeus blumeiBentham.This is more than strange, given the fact that both species ofColeusare post-conquest introductions to Mexico (Schultes 1967), and their juxtaposition withSalvia divinorumin the minds of the Mazatecs might be seen as reinforcing the suspicion that their use of the leaves of Mary Shepherdess too is a post-conquest innovation. Unfortunately, we have no firm evidence for the psychoactivity of either species ofColeus.Wasson tentatively suggested thatSalvia divinorummight represent the unidentified pre-conquest Nahua entheogenpipiltzintzintli,(orpepetichinque)mentioned by 17th century friar Agustin de Vetancurt and in the annals of the Inquisition, as an herb taken in water for divination or applied in water as a poultice (recall Weitlaners report that apart from drinking the infusion ofYerba de Mara,the patient wasbathed in it) (Aguirre Beltran 1963; Garza 1990; Vetancurt 1698; Wasson 1963). It hasalso been suggested thatSalvia divinorumis represented in the head dress of a deity depicted in the MayanDresden Codex(Emboden 1983). In her 1977 biography, Mazatec shaman Mara Sabina (one of Wassons primary informants) noted that:

extensive work in our laboratory has shown that the pharmacologically active extracts fromS.divinorumdo not contain alkaloids, nor were we able to isolate any alkaloids from the plant itself. (Valds et al. 1984)

As for the dose of five pairs of leaves prepared in San Jos Tenango the following year for Wasson and the three pairs forAnita Hofmann, these were:

In Oaxaca,Salvia divinorumseems to be utilized only when supplies of the mushrooms and morning-glory seeds are short

Si tengo a un enfermo en el tiempo en que no se consiguen hongos, recurro alas hojas de la Pastora. Molido y tornado, trabajan como losninos.Desde luego, la Pastora no tiene la fuerza suficiente. (If I have a patient during the season in which it is impossible to procure mushrooms, I have recourse to the leaves of the Shepherdess. Crushed and ingested. they work like thechildren(the mushrooms). Of course, the Shepherdessdoes not possess enough strength. (Estrada 1977)

Augustina squeezed the leaves with herhands and collected the juice in a glass. This was certainly an inefficient method. Some water was added. I drank the dark fluid, about half a glassfull, the result of squeezing 34 pairs…

We both felt the effects, which were as I described them in the ceremony in Ayautla the year before.

Another more recent source echoed this theme of surrogate or second-rat

Keywords:Mazatec Indians, Aztecs, Mesoamerica, entheogens, Pipiltzintzinli, Heffter Technique

The pioneering Swedish anthropologist Jean Bassett Johnson, first scientist to observe divinatory use of Mexican entheogenic mushrooms in the summer of1938,inthe Mazatec village of Huautla de Jimnez, also mentioned in passing that:

Wasson first ingested the divinatory leaves in Ayautla on 12 July 1961, when he was given a potion of the diluted, handsqueezed juice of 34 pairs of leaves, and compared the resulting effect to that of the psilocybian mushrooms:

into a small enameled bowl partially filled with water. As more foliage was squeezed andadded, the liquid turned dark green … (and) was poured through a sieve into a glass which was topped off with water.

Daz chronicled six personal experiences with the potion, of a total of 12 by members of his group, mentioning that my perception of the effects has in general increased with experience. Nevertheless, Daz described quite mild visual effects (in some cases none at all) far from being hallucinations, with the peak effects lasting only ten minutes and disappearing within a half-hour of ingestion. Daz also described inconclusive chemical studies, stating there were: various alkaloids inSalvia divinorum,two of which are apparently psychoactive. Daz reported crude pharmacological experiments with alkaline extracts of the plant in cats (using the fractions which would correspond to defatted, acidic-water-soluble, basic-water-insoluble, alkaloidal constituents in a standard solvent extraction of alkaloids) commenting that effects werenotably similar to those produced by hallucinogens of the LSD type, which were, however, of much shorter duration, lasting at most a half-hour. Daz also mentioned the inconsistent nature of the observed effects, which he ascribed to varying potency of the starting material or instability of the active agents (Daz 1975,1977).

standing in a bizarre, colored landscape talking to a man who was either shaking or holding on to his hand. Next to them was something that resembled the skeleton of a giant (sic) stick-model airplane made from rainbow colored inner tubing. The reality of what he was seeing amazed him. (Valds et al. 1983)

This effectively summarizes our primary ethnographic data onSalvia divinorum,and Epling and Jtivas terse one-and-a-half-page paper, and Wassons concise seven-page paper certainly provided little detail. It is thus surprising to note the relatively strong impact the leaves of the Shepherdess began to have on the literature. No fewer than five different color paintings ofSalvia divinorumhave been published (Emboden 1972; Foster1984; Schultes 1976; Schultes & Hofmann1979; Schultes & Smith 1980), along with two different botanical illustrations (Mayer1977; Schultes 1967; Schultes & Hofmann1973), two black-and-white photographs of the whole plant (Daz 1975; Wasson 1963), and color and black-and-white photographs showing the use of ametateto prepare infusions ofSalvialeaves (Riedlinger 1990; Wasson 1963)! Three of these paintings(Emboden 1972; Schultes 1976; Schultes &Smith 1980), one by Frances Runyan, two by Harvard botanical artist Elmer W. Smith, unfortunately misrepresented the corollas ofSalvia divinorumas being purple, not white (in the botanical description Epling and Jtivahad misdescribed the calyx color as cyaneorum; in the 1979 revised edition of Emboden 1972; the erroneous painting was replaced with a color photograph of the flowering plant, and Emboden amended the botanical description of the flowers). Fortunately this evident scientific interest led to renewed and more detailed studies of the mysterious entheogen. The Mexican psychiatrist Jos Luis Daz began to studySalvia divinorumin the Sierra Mazateca in summer 1973, and in his preliminary paper he described the use of doses of 25 to 50 pairs of leaves, prepared by a manual technique similar to that previously describedby Weitlaner (Daz 1975):

Wasson described two methods of ingestion ofSalvia divinorumleaves: either by making a stack of leaves in pairs face-to-face, which are then simply eaten (It is customary for the Indians to consume the leaves by nibbling at the dose with their incisor teeth.); or in the form of their juice, or rather a sort of aqueous suspension of the leaves in cold water. This latter was precisely the method documented by Weitlaner. Thus was prepared Wassons first dose of the leaves in Ayautla:

Supposedly the leaves could be kept fresh for up to a week by wrapping them in leaves ofXanthosoma robustumSchoff, but the infusion would only last for a day. Whereas the leaf residue was usually left in a remote place, it was sometimes applied as a poultice to the head of a patient, again harking back to Vetancurts 17th centurydescription ofpipiltzintzintli(Garza 1990). Daz described the commencement of subtle visions 15 minutes after ingesting the infusion of 50 pairs of leaves on 18 August (his seventh experience), which became more intense over the next 15 minutes. Valds also described visions, and a sensation of flying, 45 minutes after ingesting his infusion of 20 pairs of leaves. Both Daz and Valds described visions during the first hour of the session of 6 March, which was cut short at the 50-minute point, owing to distracting noises. Even 2.5 hours after ingestion, having returned to his hotel and extinguished the light, Valds experienced more visions, and the sensation of the perceived reality of:

Three years earlier, in a monumental transcription, transliteration and translation of an entire mushroomic curing ceremony with Sabina, Wasson had puzzled over Maras repeated mentions of so-called aquatic leaves which cured when rubbed on the patients body (Wassonet al. 1974). Given Weitlaners report of bathing patients in theSalvia divinoruminfusion, most decidedly a cutaneous application of aquatic leaves (as we will see, a decade later use of the leaf residue ofS.divinoruminfusions as a poultice was also reported), and Vetancurts report of similar use ofpipiltzintzintli,it seems probable that here Mara was speaking figuratively of external use ofSalvia divinorum,a plant which is also aquatic in it ravine habitat (Epling & Jtiva-M. 1962).

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otra yerba que en su pueblo se llama Yerba de Mara…se utilizan las hojas, poniendolas en agua. Primero se fro tan entre las manos… EI enfermobebeel agua en que se han frotado lashojas … Esperan un cuarto de hora el efecto de la droga y el mismo e_fermo empieza a decir la cIase de enfermedad que padece…Cuando amanece el curandero bafia al enfermo con agua de la misma que torno, y con esto queda curado el enfermo. (another herb known in his village as Herb of Mary… the leaves are used, putting them in water. First one rubs them between the hands … The patient drinks the water in which the leaves have been rubbed … They await the effect of the drug for a quarter of an hour and the patient himself begins to state what type ofsickness he suffers…At dawn thecuranderobathes the patient with the same water he drank, and thus the patient is cured.

and noting the activity of salvinorin A was qualitatively and quantitatively similar to that of mescaline (Valds 1994b)! The fact that pharmacologically-disparate compounds like the potent sedative secobarbital and the powerful stimulant mescaline gave similar results in the bioassay, should have alerted the Valds group to its lack of specificity, but they inexplicably neglected to employ psychonautic bioassays which would have left no doubts about the activity of the salvinorins. Valds group also mentioned the existence of at least two more terpenoids in their extracts, and noted that the terpene-enriched crude fraction of the leaves was substantially stronger than its equivalent of pure salvinorin A, and Valds later reported his isolation from the leaves of the ant-repellent loliolide, of unknown pharmacology and previously found in various plants, includingLolium perenneL. (Valds 1986). In seeming refutation of the Mazatec belief that thedriedleaves are inactive, both the Ortega and Valds groups isolated salvinorin A from dried leaves, and the latter group reported a yield of 0.18 % salvinorin A in dried leaves; corresponding to 0.022 % on a fresh weight basis. Neither group published a synthesis of salvinorin A (or B), but both derived the same structure from X-ray crystallography (it is unusual for this procedure to be carried out twice for the same compound), and the group of M. Koreeda subsequently worked out the absolute stereochemistry of salvinorins A and B (Koreeda et al. 1990). Valds group was unable to confirm the report of alkaloids inSalvia divinorumby Daz, noting:

The effect of the leaves came sooner than would have been the case with the mushrooms, was less sweeping, and lasted a shorter time. There was not the slightest doubt about the effect, but it did not go beyond the initial effect of the mushroomsdancing colors in elaborate, three-dimensional designs.

As mentioned above, Valds went on to isolate two noveltrans-neoc1erodane terpenoid compounds from the leaves, which he named divinorins A and B (Valds et al. 1984), only to discover that he had been scooped by the group of Alfredo Ortega in Mexico, which had already isolated themore important of these compounds, giving it the name salvinorin (making salvinorin A and B the appropriate designations for the compounds) (Ortega et al. 1982). The Ortega group was not studying ethnopharmacognosyper se,but rather studying terpenoid chemistry inSalviaspecies, and they conducted no pharmacological tests of the novel compound. Valds group, on the other hand, was actively seeking the visionary principle of the plant, using as bioassay not the indicated Heffter Technique, but a modification of Halls open field in mice. This involved administering fractions of the plant to mice, then observing their behavior in a 90 cm circle divided into squares, that is, counting the number of squares entered, time spent immobile, and rearings onto hind legs. They concluded that salvinorin A was the visionary principle of the plant, as it reduced all three measures of activity in the mice, much asSalvia divinorumdid in human beings (though Valds had not documented his nor Dazs behavior in the open field, nor described either rearing up on his hind legs!). Furthermore, salvinorin A was said to have a sedative effect on the mice (while salvinorin B, its desacetyl congener, was inactive in this assay), and Valds later published the details that all the following compounds provoked the same effect in the mouse bioassay as salvinorin A: mescaline, secobarbital, an ether extract ofCannabis sativaL. and another labiate terpenoid compound, the hypotensive forskolin or colforsin (Valds et al. 1987a). Later, in a subsequent paper, Valds qualified this, stating:

Ethnopharmacognosy and Human Pharmacology of

further testing … has allowed a different interpretation … amphetamine stimulated the mice; secobarbital, forskolin and the cannabis extract had strong sedating effects…Mescaline, salvinorin A, and isosalvinorin Athe 8-epimer of salvinorin Ainterrupted (decreased) animal activity without an accompanying true sedation …

leaving me with an upset stomach, a dry, acid mouth, and a great respect for Mazatecs who can work their way through a hundred! For me the leaves produced hardly noticeable effects. Craig Dremmond (sic) suggests that plants cultivated outside of Oaxaca may not develop the active constituents, and I predict thatSalvia divinorumwill never become a popular subculture euphoric.

Valds later noted It was an amazing hallucination, as I truly believed I was in the meadow. Itwas not like a dream. (Valds 1994b), and such vivid visions of alien space or geometry are a hallmark of the effects ofSalvia divinorum(Blosser 1991-1993). Both Daz and Valds experienced physical effects as well as visions, consisting of incoordination, dizziness and slurred speech. Incontrast to Wassons report that the leaf infusion did not go beyond the initial effect of the (psilocybian) mushrooms, Valds stressed theSalviainfusion will induce powerful visions under the appropriate conditions of silence and darkness.

Albert Hofmann, who together with Gordon Wasson collected the first botanical voucher specimens ofSalvia divinorumin October 1962, also made reference to this presumed instability of the active principles ofSalvia divinorum,inasmuch as he had returned to Switzerland with juice ofSalvia divinorumpreserved with alcohol which proved in self-experiments to be no longer active, thus depriving Hofmann and his coworkers of the Heffter Technique bioassay needed to guide the experimental isolation of the active principles (Hofmann 1979, 1990; Ott 1994, 1995a). It has been incorrectly stated in the literature that Hofmann made unsuccessful chemical attempts to isolate the active principle ofSalvia divinorum(Valds 1994b; Valds et al. 1987a), when in reality he abandoned plans to study juice of the plant chemically, when it proved in self-experiments to be inactive. It is worth noting that Hofmann had simply expressed the juice of the leaves and diluted this with alcohol, rather than preparing the aqueous infusion of the rubbed leaves described byWeitlaner, Daz and Wasson.

Zusammenfassung:Der Autor gibt einen historischenberblick zu Gebrauch und Forschungsgeschichte der Wahrsagesalbei(Salvia divinorum).Es werden der traditionelle Gebrauch bei Schamanen der Mazateken in Oaxaca/Mexiko sowie der nichttraditionelle,moderne Gebrauch verschiedener Zubereitungsformen von nordamerikanischen Keller-Schamanen vorgestellt und ausftihrlich diskutiert. Der Frage nach der botanische Identitiit des verlorenen aztekischen Entheogenspipiltzintzintliwird nachgegangen. Schlielich stellt der Autor seine Selbstversuche mit der sogenannten Heffter-Technik vor.

ground…on hermetate,after passing them through the smoke ofcopal,and she did a thorough job of it. Water is added to the mass that comes off the metate, the whole is put through a strainer, and then we drank the liquor.

Wasson also mentioned his ingestion of the juice of merely five pairs of leaves in San Jos Tenango on 9 October 1962, on which occasion Anita Hofmann, wife of Albert Hofmann, ingested the juice of only three pairs:

In addition to the mushrooms, some people use a seed calledSemilla de la Virgen,others useHierba Mara…. the Zapotec use a plant calledbador,the little children, which is administered in the same way asyerba Maraby the Mazatec. The leaf is beaten well, and a tea is made thereof …

In his pioneering paper onSalvia divinorum(Wasson 1962), and an important sequel the following year, summarizing ethnobotanical data on the major Mexican entheogenic plants (Wasson 1963), Wasson detailed what he had been able to learn about the divinatory leaves. They seemed to be used only by the Mazatecs, who called themska Pastoraor the equivalent in Spanish,hojas de la Pastoraorhojas de Mara Pastora(leaves of the Shepherdess or leaves of Mary Shepherdess). This oddname has not received the comment it is due. The interpolation ofMarainto the name suggests the Catholic influence which has corrupted Mexican shamanism, but the Biblical Mary was no shepherdess, nor does any such woman figure in Catholic iconography. More importantly, however, the Mazatecs would not have seen sheep until after the arrival of Europeans to Mexico in the sixteenth century. This name is clearly a modernism, and it is more than surprising that an important shamanic inebriant would lack an indigenous name, for leaves of Mary Shepherdess can in no way be considered an indigenous name, for a people whose pre-Columbian ancestors never set eyes on a sheep! It is even conceivable thatSalvia divinorumuse is a post-Conquest introduction to the Sierra Mazateca. We will return to this point below.

Thus matters stood until 1979 and 1980, when Leander J. Valds III began to collaborate with Daz, making the isolation of novel compounds fromSalvia divinorumhis thesis project at the University of Michigan. Valds described in great detail two shamanic healing sessions with MazateccuranderoDon Alejandro on 18 August 1979 and 6 March 1980. On both occasions Daz and Valds ingested infusions ofSalvia divinorum–only in the first session did Don Alejandro likewise ingest the drug. Valds described the divinatory dose of the leaves as being from 20 (about 50 g) to 80 (about 200 g) or more pairs of fresh leaves to induce visions (noting also A. Gomez Pompas notations on herbarium sheets, to the effect that 8-12 pairs of leaves went into a dose); while in the 18 August session he received a beginners dose made from 20 pairs and Daz and Don Alejandro from 50 pairs; in the second session Daz received a dose made from 60 pairs, Valds from 50. Valds mentioned that only fresh foliage will serve for divination, that being a primary use for the leaves, which were also employed in shamanic training, and in lower doses as specific medicines for various diseases (Valds et al. 1983). Valds stressed the necessity of using only fresh leaves, noting in a second paper it purportedly loses psychotropic activity on drying (Valds et al. 1987a). He also mentioned the existence of a prescribeddietaor ritual diet of 16 days, then reduced to only 4 days after the initial dose. Such a diet is also associated with the shamanic use of psilocybian mushrooms among the Mazatecs (Wasson & Wasson 1957), and is commonly prescribed with shamanic use ofayahuascain Amazonia (Ott 1994) and with other shamanic inebriants. As in the reports of Weitlaner, Daz and Wasson, Don Alejandro apportioned pairs of the leaves which were crushed manually (Valds et al. 1983):

Salvia divinorum(Photograph: Jonathan Ott)

This comment, and Mara Sabinas dismissal of the leaves as feeble compared to her preferred entheogenic allyteonanacatl(Maras biography was translated into English in 1981, noting Of course the Shepherdess doesnt have as much strength.) (Estrada 1977), have seemingly informed modern consciousness of this little-known entheogen, which acquired a reputation as being weak and second-rate (tacitly assumed of any plant our governments have not deigned to prohibit). Reviewing entheogens in a widely-read anthology, botanical expert Richard Evans Schultes commented (Schultes 1972):

However, it was the diligent work of the pioneering ethnomycologist and entheogenic ethnopharmacognosist R. Gordon Wasson which finally led to the collection of botanical voucher specimens of this plant in October 1962. Wasson was also the first scientist on record to have ingested the divinatory leaves, which his botanical collaborators Carl Epling and Carlos D. Jtiva-M. subsequently identified as a new species,Salvia divinorum(Epling & Jtiva-M. 1962; Wasson 1962). Just as important as the identification of the plant and documentation of its effects was Wassons collection of live material, which then began to be cultivated in the United Statesit was from this so-called Wasson clone that salvinorin A was isolated in Los Angeles in1993, at last allowing testing of this compound in human beings (Siebert 1994).

The next chapter in the scientific biography was to be written by basement shamans of the United States counterculture. As early as 1984,Salvia divinorum,baptized as diviners sage (Heffern 1974) or sage of the seers, was profiled in a latter-day herbal (Foster 1984) which was recently reprinted. This book gave a concise summary of ethnographic data on the plant, described its cultivation, and mentioned the importantdatumthat live specimens could be purchased from a California seed company identified in an appendix. Foster described his ingestion of 20 leaves:

referring presciently both to the entheogenic morning glory seeds (known asbadohin Zapotec orsemillas de la virgenin Spanish) (Ott1993)andSalvia divinorum(Johnson 1939). Six years later the Austrian physician Bias Pablo Reko, great pioneer in the field of Mexican ethnopharmacognosy (not to be confused with his cousin Victor Reko, afarceurwho gained prominence in the German-speaking world by appropriating the fruits of his cousins work in an unscientific popular book,Magische Gifte), mentioned the use, by the Mazatec and neighboring Cuicatec Indians of Oaxaca, of anhoja de la adivinacin(divinatory leaf), in all probabilityS.divinorum(Reko 1945). Yet another clue was provided in 1952 by the great Mexican anthropologist Roberto J. Weitlaner, also an Austrian, when he described the therapeutic and divinatory use of an aqueous potion made by rubbing the leaves (50-100) in water of aYerba deMara(Weitlaner 1952):

Two days later in Huautla de Jimnez, while Mara Sabina was celebrating a mushroomveladawith pills ofIndocybinor synthetic psilocybine, Albert Hofmann likewise ingested the infused juice of five pairs ofS.divinorumleaves (Hofmann 1979, 1990), but unlike his wife and Gordon Wasson, he experienced only:

Dazs conclusions are generally regarded to have been premature, and it is an open question how (presumably) alkaloid-enriched extracts of the leaves were pharmacologically active in catsit is my opinion that Dazs bioassay itself was at fault.

a state of mental sensitivity and intense experience, which, however, was not accompanied byhallucinations.

The Mexican divinatory mint,Salvia divinorumEpling et Jtiva, is one of the most obscure and mysterious of all shamanic inebriants. Unlike its more famous Mexican relatives, thepyotlcactusLophophora williamsii(Lemaire) Coulter,teonancatl,the psilocybian mushrooms andololiuhqui,seeds of the morning gloryTurbina corymbosa(L.) Rafinesque, this plant largely or completely escaped the notice of the 16th and 17th century Spanish friars and the opprobrium of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Indeed, it was not even mentioned in the scientific literature until 1939 (Johnson 1939), was not described botanically until 1962 (Epling & Jtiva-M. 1962) and it wasnt until 1993 that its active principle was finally identified (Siebert 1994). Actually, this active principle, salvinorin A, was first isolated in 1982, in the course of a systematic chemical search for novel terpenoid compounds in the genusSalvia(Ortega et al. 1982). Although the Valds group, searching for the psychoactive principle ofthis drug, independently isolated the same compound two years later (giving it the synonym divinorin A), an imprecise animal assay was employed (the so-called Halls open-field bioassay in mice) (Valds et al. 1984). Even though members of the Valds group had ingestedSalvia divinorumleaves in a traditional shamanic context in Mexico (Daz 1975,1979; Valds et al. 1983), they did not follow their research through to the definitive test of salvinorin A in psychonautic bioassays, the only valid proof this compound represented the visionary active principle of the leaves. Only when non-professional, countercultural basement shamans commenced experimentation with the crude drug a decade later, was the conclusive Heffter Technique employed, and human self-experiments showed beyond doubt that salvinorin A is the main visionary principle ofSalvia divinorum.

Having written his thesis on the isolation of salvinorins fromSalvia divinorumto get his PhD., Valds concluded his research on the plant with some cultivation experiments in Ann Arbor, Michigan; outdoors in summer and in greenhouses the rest of the year. Manual cross-pollination of the Wasson clone and a strain collected by Valds resulted in 4 of 14 setting seed (28%), but the seed was accidentally killed by overheating the growth chamber before viability could be assessed (Valds et al. 1987a). At this point Valds scientific research withSalvia divinorumwas temporarily suspended, leaving the question of the active principle unresolved. Although Valds group suggested salvinorin A was the visionary principle (in their 1987 paper, Valds et al. expressed reservations: if salvinorin A and the new compounds we isolated … prove to display hallucinogenic activity in humans), the gross lack of discrimination of their bioassay left room for doubt, and the simple expedient of testing the novel compound in a human researcher was inexplicably foregone.

Abstract:After a thorough review of the limited ethnographic data on shamanic use of the entheogenic mintSalvia divinorumby the Mazatec Indians of the Sierra Madre Oriental of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, with special emphasis on pharmacognostical aspects, the author details the phytochemical studies which led to the isolation of the novel diterpene salvinorin A in 1982-1984.Lingeringdoubts as to the visionary properties of this compound were laid to rest a decade later, when basement shamans in the United States isolated and tested the compound in psychonautic bioassays. A tabular summary of 15 reports involving at least 60 trials of the novel drug by human volunteers is presented; documenting activity of infusions ofSalvia divinorumleaves in water [the traditional method of ingestion], of the fresh leaves chewed, whether subsequently swallowed or retained in the mouth as a quid; and of the dried leaves smoked. Pharmacological activity of salvinorin A in human volunteers is likewise discussed, both for inhalation of the vaporized compound and sublingual application of 1 % solutions in acetone or dmso; including original research here reported for the first time. Extremely low thresholds for psychoactivity of salvinorin A [100-250 mcg sublingual; 200-500 mcg vaporized and inhaled] show this compound to be the most potent natural product entheogen known; some 10 times the potency of psilocybine from mushrooms likewise used as shamanic inebriants by the Mazatec and other Mexican Indians, and more than 1000 times the potency of the prototypical entheogen mescaline, from the peyotl cactus [Lophophora williamsii] used as a visionary drug by the Huichol, Tarahumara and other indigenous peoples of northern Mexico. Speculations regarding the status ofSalvia divinorumas a cultigen are discussed, as is R. Gordon Wassons conjecture that this plant represents the lost Aztec entheogen pipiltzintzintli. An exhaustive bibliography of more than 70 references reviews the ethnographic, chemical and pharmacological literature on this intriguing shamanic inebriant.

toma una jicara con agua y sabre ella machaca vigorosamente el manojo de hojas con sus manes hasta que se extrae toda la sangre de la hojita. El bagazo se desecha y el bebedizo resulta un liquido verde espumoso y en extrema amargo. (she takes a jar of water and using her hands vigorously mashes the bunch of leaves above it until all of the blood of the little leaf is extracted. The bagasse is set aside and the resulting potion is an extremely bitter and frothy green liquid.

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