ABSTRACT
Members of an Indian tribal group living in small communities, near the Gulf of Mexico, use marihuana, which they call la santa rosa, in their religious ceremonies. La sank!, rosa is considered a sacred plant, as revealed in a myth of divine origin. Chewed in small quantities, the major observed psychomotor effect is extensive verbalization. The devotees say that the herb makes them speak. By contrast, several cases are presented of secular use of marihuana among urban mestizos.

The plant always rests on the altar of the divine. Only a knowing eye can perceive the contents of the bundles of paper placed on the altar table. La Santa rosa, the sacred rose, rests there alongside small bells, whistles, incense pots, and a tray of artifacts and fragments of crystal and obsidian which are called antiquas, "ancient things." These antiquities are the gods who live in the mythical Hill of Gold. On that table set on the earthen floor, there are usually also paper figures and images of the Catholic saints cult resting against the wall. On the table there is also always cannabis, which the villagers and the diviners call la santa rosa. Branches with dry leaves suggest a recently celebrated ritual.

La santa rosa is an object of daily care and attention: it is given offerings of water and refreshments, and is perfumed with incense. If a priest, male or female, has to leave the village, the sacred rose is entrusted to a colleague who is provided with money for the daily offerings, served every morning and every afternoon. The offering is necessary the curandera explains, because the sacred rose is a companion of the ancient things, before which the deputy intercedes if a question arises during the absence of the priest. The sacred rose is consumed by the men and women connected with the altar. Male and female priests have the same status in the relationship with the supernatural. In cases where the wife of the male priest has her own ritual activities, she is not his collaborator, but a companion at the same level of activity. It is also consumed by guests who are invited by the priests to care for the plant and participate in the ceremonies in which it is consumed. The caretakers are called the padrinos and madrinas, the godparents, of la santa rosa. During the ceremonies, cult music is played and the players also consume the holy plant. Everyone connected with the cult eats the plant. It is not considered prudent for anyone to take it alone, since one may become intoxicated, dizzy, or experience temporary anxiety.

On special occasions one consumes the sacred rose: the festival of the favored harvest celebrated by a diviner and his followers, or when an aspirant to the profession of priest fulfills his vows. There are other motives for celebrating the ceremonies. The vow is signalled by a gatanit, "cat-like," shout which specifies a fiesta. In the case of the consecration of a priest, the cry signifies acceptance of the vows because the ritual has a religious character for the individual; and community values confer great prestige to the priestly occupation. To achieve this status one is required to have had revelatory dreams or have manifested exceptional interests. During the fulfillment of the vows, it is indispensable for the aspirant to eat the sacred rose.

One priest, Pedro Agustin, told me of the effects of his first experience with the sacred herb. He ate it late one afternoon, and remained sleeping. At dawn he was awakened by the noise of rockets which he believed to be the effect of the sacred rose. He sat in a chair before the altar and remained there with a fixed gaze. In a moment, he felt that someone ordered him to speak; someone urged him to speak of the requirements of the cult, and he began to enumerate the things needed for the celebration of the ritual in which he participated. He began to list the persons that had to serve, the branches that had to be arranged and the fowls for the sacrificial offering. He noted the necessity of undertaking a pilgrimage to the Lagoon. Antonio, the priest who was his godfather, asked him to fulfill his promesa and Pedro Agustin observed the rituals. He bought four candles for the altar and they started off on the road to the Lagoon. On the road, the party of priests, godparents, and musicians ate the sacred rose. They reached the site, a small pool, and in unison, the priests and godparents asked for rain. Then all experienced the same sensation and perceived the same phenomenon: they heard a rumble of thunder and the approach of a great torrent; the site was darkened and they saw the water in the pool rising. They made an offering of aguardiente because they heard la santa rosa ordering them thus. On the following day, they gave another offering: they threw birds into the pool. It was an offering for the water. And they returned to the community to eat la santa rosa and continue their conversing and their ceremonies.

The effects described by Pedro Agustin are relatively simple in comparison to those related to me, in 1953, about a ceremony officiated by the priest, Antonio, in a small chapel which carried on the religious tradition of the group.

In this pre-Hispanic chapel, the altar had two parts, an upper platform with images of Catholic cult saints, and a lower one, with wooden locked boxes, whose contents were called los antiquas de la semilla, "the ancient things of the seed." Two platters containing crystals and archeological fragments were placed on the boxes.

In front of the altar decorated with lemon branches, a greeting to the ancestors and purification of those participating in the rites was taking place. There were certain ritual steps to be carried out before taking la santa rosa. The priest distributed flowers among the participants and crouched down to pray. Then he joined the people and proceeded to cleanse them with lemon branches. The musicians played. The priest stood before the altar in a meditative attitude with his hands over his head; he passed the incense burner over the branches with which he brushed the chairs. He set aside six chairs; he and a female priest occupied the two central chairs. From his seat he handed branches and candles to those in the other chairs and prayed holding a candle with his branch. Then he took a whistle and a bell from the altar, making them sound a signal that spirits were arriving from the ancient things, from the ancestors, from the deities. The priestess sang, humming a musical tune. The priest touched the shoulders of the seated ones with his bundle of branches, then cast away the branch, as if it was a further proof of purification. The priestess then brushed the shoulders of the others and the priest placed his wax taper on the altar. Others sat down to receive the same treatment; and the priest ended the act of purification by touching the small bell, recording the presence of the ancestors to whom they presented an offering of bread and coffee. The priest sprinkled aguardiente on the earth and lit candles, taking the candles from those who had been purified and from those who came to take communion with the sacred rose.

The act of purification allowed the godfathers and godmothers to take la santa rosa. They left the temple to go to a nearby small hut, the habitation of the priest, Antonio, on whose altar was a platter with a bundle of red handkerchiefs. The priest's assistant handed the platter to the madrina to carry to the altar of the little chapel, followed by the same group.

From his chair, the priest stretched out his hand to receive the platter, leaving the bundle of red handkerchiefs and revealing a package covered by leaves of papatla. He untied this to reveal the sacred plant, and put a small amount in the hand of the priestess. She presented this to the madrinas who took portions of the sacred plant between their index finger and thumb. They began to chew it. The priest handed some to the padrinos. The music began to sound and the herb eaters gathered in a circle around the two chairs occupied by the priestess and her assistant. They began to dance. Some of the godfathers were kneeling, others remained crouching around their chairs. The priestess sang at intervals and the dancers exchanged branches with her.

The priestess saluted the deities which had come to the altar, and then she moved toward her seat, turning from one side to the other. She joined the others and danced, then returned to her chair and started to speak in an unusual voice, in a very high tone. The women, on one side of the priestess, continued dancing in front of the altar, turning to each side as they danced.

The assistant of the priestess spoke with admirable fluency in a high voice, perspiring as she spoke. She seemed to be an animated orator. The priestess continued turning in her chair, singing and humming to the rhythm of the music; she seemed animated by an inner fire which made her breathe loudly and clench her hands; she revolved in her seat, speaking incessantly.

The priest blew a whistle and rang a little bell because the ancestors were present, as were the spirits of the priest and priestess. The music echoed this sound and the priest sat close to the altar and prayed to the spirits that had come to the ceremony.

The priestess continued moving back and forth; her assistant was possessed, sweating and swinging a branch with her right hand; while her right arm was trembling, the left hand was kept closed, rigid. It was not possible to record her words since I had to be content with the brief commentaries of the translators at the time. The priestess chastised those who did not return to the tradition of consuming the sacred plant and she urged them to return to their traditions. The assistant described the elements they lacked for celebrating the ritual, while the priest remained sitting with a staring gaze.

The priestess stamped both feet on the floor and everyone began to move in the same swaying motion. A midwife fluttered her candle and performed her wheeling turns. She and the priest prayed. Immediately afterwards the priest handed las madrinas the two platters with small idols, crystals and glasses, los antiquas; and a girl received the package of the sacred plant. They took these things to the patio briefly to sing and dance an areito while the speaking pair continued speaking. They returned to the chapel. The priest's assistant who had been speaking to la santa rosa had succeeded in communicating with the sacred plant. The music stopped and an hour elapsed while the possessed ones passed from the state of euphoria to tranquil normality. New sounds were heard, and at dawn some participants were still dancing in front of the altar.

SPEAKING EFFECTS

It was apparent that the effect of the sacred plant on the central nervous system provoked both body tremors and the urge to speak. Although various themes were mentioned, the oratory seemed to center on religious matters, as if these were the only vital preoccupation. I would have needed to keep extensive records in their language and to translate them in order to know about what they were speaking.

The course which should follow the celebration of the rites was explained. Pedro Agustin, habitual consumer of the herb, with over ten years experience, indicated that he felt nothing upon eating the sacred plant. He also said, however, that once the effects had passed, the person relaxes, which implicitly means he accepts the fact that changes are induced. He considers that the sacred plant serves only to give ideas: it is a stimulant to thought.

According to the earlier descriptions, one would conclude that the principal effect of the herb is that of stimulating speech. But that is only the most apparent principal effect as one finds another, in the account of the visions experienced at the site of the Lagoon. There may be a predisposition to the phenomenon of hearing the sound of thunder and seeing the rise of water in the pool, since this is a theme of public knowledge. One may speculate that the narration of that experience by a priest was diffused to the community. Having become public knowledge, the priests that come to the site are then predisposed to experience the phenomena. It cannot be considered a spontaneous, unconditional vision, equal to the religious themes which are revealed during the previously mentioned discourses during trance.

Another priest, a disciple of Pedro Agustin, also mentioned that he felt nothing when he ate the sacred rose, except the desire to dance while hearing the music played on ceremonial occasions. His reaction should be considered a response to musical conditioning. He commented that the sacred rose speaks through the music: the music is its language. One of the songs tells us that it is a long time since the plant was created and we do not know when it will end.

If the people who eat it feel the desire to dance, what is the feeling of the musicians? They are simply transmitters of the feelings of the sacred rose, its interpreters. The musical notes are the words of the sacred rose, which touch whoever is moved by the sacred rose which possesses him. This is expressed by the music:

Many thanks,
I am very grateful to whoever touches me,
to whoever touched me,
if they are in harmony with me
I wish that forever we are one
we have one thought, we have one heart we have one road.

Every priest knows the music; it is one of the requisites of his profession. He must know the sounds that must be played and the order in which they are played, since the music indicates the sequence of activities. Pedro Agustin gave a demonstration. First he made the sound that gladdens the moment when the sacred plant is taken. The followers ate the plant while listening to the music and hummed the melody without words, while aware that the sounds meant the following:

Today we who have taken it shout with joy
today we have seen
and we who are taking it we are rejoicing.

The next sound is the calling or resurrection of the spirits, played so that the spirits gain life, so that they present themselves. Another sound speaks to the sacred plant because it has reached the place where there is an offering, the altar that is the house of its father and mother. "It has come," says the music. Then, the music speaks of the souls, invokes the companions of la santa rosa, to ask something of the sacred plant. Another sound is played requesting that it remain, not leave, not depart. Once they have said enough to the gods to whom they have played, in this case the sacred rose, the deity then thanks those who are making the offering, and those who have made offerings.

VISIONS

One priestess takes a position opposed to the verbal effects caused by ingestion of la santa rosa. She has been a priestess in the community for over twenty years and is a regular consumer of the herb. She considers that the effects vividly manifested by other diviners are simply theatrical acts of charlatanry. She thinks that some who become "speakers" are fools and some are deceivers, because they come together to speak about the very act they are doing. With the sacred plant one is put to thinking and the one who has eaten the sacred plant should not speak because that would interrupt his thinking, his thread of thought. When this priestess has eaten the sacred plant, she only sees things; and, the same happens to her husband who is a priest and to their followers who accompany them to the rituals celebrated in their house.

The first time she took the sacred plant was in San Pedro, the scene of my observations in 1953. She started out early in the morning, with two boxes of small idols or ancient things. When she arrived in the afternoon a crowd was gathered in the hut of Vicente, the priest, their teacher. So many people were there, it seemed that they were awaiting a bishop. The ritual had already started; the musicians were playing and six women were dancing and repeatedly asking themselves why they were there where they were suffering, awaiting their sisters (the ancient ones? the ancestors?). Then the sounds rang out to awaken the ancient one who approached and the music sounded again. Then the priest asked her and her husband if they desired to remain and invited them to try something, that she immediately recognized as the sacred plant. "This is the San Antonio" he told her as he put a small amount in her hand, recommending that she perfume it with the burning incense. He told her to eat it. She ate it. "It did nothing to me," she said. A woman approached her and said, "no, my daughter, do not be ashamed if all the people command you; now that you are on the road, you are not going the other way. Now, don't be ashamed, and forget your embarrassment." She replied that she felt no embarassment. But she did not speak further, she was only thinking about what would be happening.

On the second occasion when she took the sacred plant, she saw some of the participants scattering flowers of all colors. Everyone gathered flowers in their hands or in their hats, not letting them fall, glancing upwards. These flowers were all going to bear good results.

On the third occasion and at subsequent times her field of vision expanded. She saw scenes of Cerro de Oro, the Hill of Gold, possibly derived from descriptions by the priests. According to their tales, the Hill of Gold is situated in the East, where all those who have dealings with the supernatural reside. The priestess described it with feeling, as a place where it is always brilliant, "the largest of the hills, where our master god always goes, who always illuminates our world." It is the place of the reunion of all the souls of the priests, priestesses, musicians and midwives; musicians are always playing, while offerings are being brought to the altars of the earth, offerings that are placed on the table presided over by the gods, among which is the santa rosa.

When a follower of the santa rosa dies, he undergoes purification and is traditionally attended by a musician who has eaten the santa rosa. At the purification rite of a follower, women waving small branches danced beside the body. A priest kept swinging the incense burner to the four cardinal points. He gathered in his hands the right hand of the old man to make it tremble, simulating the tremors experienced by the eaters of la santa rosa. He passed a branch of the herb along the length of the body, sweeping it from head to foot, so that the deceased would be clean, purified, for his presence in the beyond, in the Hill of Gold where the sacred plant lives.

DIVINE ORIGIN

The herb represents that which is living, "as if it were a small piece of the heart of god," according to the folk saying. The simile is apt because the sacred plant is the mother of the supreme deity.The myth says the following:

A child in gestation informs his mother that he will be born dead a n d instructs her to bury him in a place close to the site where she usually bathes. The mother buried him in that place and there grew forth a maize plant from which she prepared tamales; but they were bitter and she proceeded to throw them away. The rejected tamales were transformed into a boy who then presented himself to the mother as her son. She tested him and then asked him to accompany her in the direction of the east. On the road they met a lizard lying flat with its face up; the child cut its tongue and gave it to his mother. They arrived at a large house guarded by St. Peter which they entered without alerting the gatekeeper. The boy told his mother to stay near the entrance and prophesied that she would always be worshipped and would find herself clean and fresh, sprouting and giving seed, because she would be the sacred rose. The boy continued along his route; he moved the tongue of the lizard provoking storms. The elders, or thunders, asked St. Peter who had granted him entry; St. Peter, confused, did not know what to reply. The thunders located the boy and promised not to harm him in exchange for his giving each one of them, a piece of the lizard's tongue. That boy was the sun, the supreme deity, who had manifested himself as maize. His mother, the sacred rose, lives at the entrance of the heavenly mansion.

CULTIVATION

The myth seems to dictate the concerns which should be lavished on the plant. Whoever has a herb garden attends it daily and clears the earth, gathering the small leaves and clearing the refuse. His neighbors and priests count on him. The cultivated plants grow to over a meter and a smaller species grows on the banks of the brooks. Access to the garden itself, however, is not possible; it is reserved.

The priests say that every plant has two varieties, masculine and feminine, differentiated by the size of their seeds, the masculine being the one with the larger seeds. When it is eaten, no sex distinction is made; as we observed in 1953 when the priest divided the bundle equally among the men and women, the entire plant was used. Ordinary people speak of the use of the plant with female seeds as malevolent, and they use the male plants to offset such effects.

THE EFFECTS AMONG MESTIZOS

In order to know its effects while knowing that it would not affect me I ate it with a companion, in an informal way, in the hut of the priest, Pedro Agustin. I should mention that I had been invited to eat it at a special ceremony during the maize fiestas in September which the priestess of the visions celebrated.

Pedro Agustin acceded to our request and had beer and bottled refreshments brought to us to purchase. His altar was covered with many dry branches from recent ceremonies, and on a table set before the altar, there was a package covered with a crown of paper flowers to correspond to the sacred rose. The priest took a candle, asked that copal be thrown into the incense and proceeded to pray in a standing position. It should be noted that he had recently begun to lose his sight and had become inactive; perhaps that is why his body trembled, since he had begun trembling a few months before. They said that his father went blind. Another person who went blind is the priestess, Juana, whom I knew for twenty years in San Pedro.

When he finished praying, he sat down, and I opened the refreshments, my companion took the beer and I the soft drink. Then, the priest ordered his niece to bring us the sacred rose; she opened the bundle that contained the crown of flowers. After my companion received it, I extended my right hand and she corrected me, saying that I should extend the other hand. In the hollow of my left hand I received a dose consisting of what she gathered with her tightened fingers. We chewed it.

It was clear that the entire plant was used, since there were some small pieces of the stalk. It was somewhat dry. Later the priest took his violin to demonstrate the music played during the ceremonies, the first sound being that of jubilation on having consumed the sacred rose. After half an hour of hearing the music, I felt nothing. The most I perceived was a slight noise in my ears, and this only briefly. My companion confided to me that it had no effect on him, but thought that a larger dose would succeed, supporting his opinion by the fact that he had taken it in a distilled form a week before.

My friend, then 36 years old, had taken it in the form of tea. After a meal and some drinks, at five in the afternoon, tea was offered to him, to which some green drops had been added. The dose covered the bottom of the cup. Another night, at a supper with friends, in an atmosphere of drinking, drops were put in their drinks. His principal sensation was that of "stopping time." The sounds seemed more prolonged, somewhat like the acoustical sensation on hearing Ravel's Bolero. The same friend had had experience smoking it, noting that his pupils dilated a little and he could see images.

I can offer no ritual testimony regarding smoking. Additional information is needed to arrive at definite conclusions. Several accounts by individuals are presented below to indicate the range of reactions to smoking marihuana in secular settings.

A female student from the provinces reported that she did not feel Anything the first time she smoked it. The second time she felt great excitement: her senses were more acute — she heard more, saw more, and her sense of taste was keener. She did not smoke it a third time.

Another woman, 23 years old, was initiated in an unfortunate way. At a reunion of teachers and students in Mexico City, where she was born and now lives, she smoked her usual cigarette and was then offered one which made her feel strange. Nevertheless, she smoked it and passed it on to another. When she gave an account of the effects, her companion, who was her quasi-official chaperon, persuaded her to leave and took her home in a bus. She felt a desire to establish contact, to chat — to communicate with the people! — to express herself with someone regardless of sex or economic condition: "I had a desire to chat with them. I knew that they were going to say beautiful things to me. That was my first response." The young woman, who seems shy, is very talkative when she feels confident. "On board the bus I felt the effect of my desire to chat with people but not with the woman who sat near me. I felt a slight headache. Then again the sensation of wanting to talk returned. When I reached my house I said to my sister — 'listen, I believe I smoked marihuana.' My sister was astonished. She ran to make a tea which is an antidote. I said to my father, 'listen I wanted to chat with the people whatever happened. But let's talk I... gua...gua...gua !' Happy! and thus ended my reaction, perfectly content with the world and there was no discomfort."

Her second experience took place in an atmosphere of gaiety, laughter and jokes, an atmosphere conditioned for smoking marihuana. "I took it in a mood of playfulness, without any hesitancy, or concern." But the third time she took it, in the same group, she felt normal and thought possibly, she was more restrained by her conscience. She was disturbed because people were laughing at silly repetitious jokes. It disturbed her to see those people incapable of saying anything more pleasant or, better still, to be quiet and peaceful. Her friends explained that "what happened is that you overcame the marihuana and it has no effect on you; you can overcome on the level at which you open yourself up to the world; you have a dialogue with people; you have no problem, since marihuana does nothing to you." "It does nothing to me!" she said contentedly. She had smoked four or five times, and considers it like any cigarette except for the taste which is richer, like the taste of herbs. She began to substitute for tobacco cigarettes, cigarettes that she made herself by grinding eucalyptus leaves because the smell was like marihuana and she liked the flavor. She believed that people of a "very pliant psyche," those who can act out the role they desire by auto-suggestion, are vulnerable to marihuana. She cited the case of a professional who acted like a young man when using it because that was his concern. In his daily life he tried to act like a young man, not accepting his level of maturity.

My position that reactions correspond to cultural backgrounds was bolstered by another case. A young man of 21, a capable student, in the provinces, told me that marihuana helped him to free himself and that he had been smoking it for a year. He observed that while people feel nothing the first time, everyone is affected by it the second time, and the effects relate to the capacity for imagination. He mentioned an incident when he was walking by a woods one night. The ground was wet since it had just rained and reflected the light from the street lamp. "The lights were like white spheres that seemed to me to be cloaks of "manifestantes." Then that image was blurred and on reflection, he recalled that he had seen a photograph of student-like "manifestaciones" who wore cloaks. The imagination he added, could frequently surge. My question was, "Can one keep the source of imagination within discretion or does it carry one away?" He told me, "It is not necessary that it play with you, it is necessary that you play with it. And those who cannot restrain themselves, who are of a mind that has problems, they have trouble. This type collapses.

If one controls oneself, one learns new things about psychological processes."

The student wore a white short sleeved shirt, printed with large red mushrooms, and smaller cursive lettering: Huantla City, that motivated our discussion about hallucinogens, mushrooms and marihuana. The latter, he deduced, provokes illusions based on something that exists, but he had another reaction with the mushrooms. He ate six that were brought from Huantla. The only effect produced was an identification with nature. I commented that he could have achieved those results through concentration and meditation. He replied that he could achieve that sensation only through the mushrooms. He had no color hallucinations. He thought that the mushrooms did not have sufficient strength; and I agreed with him attributing this to the climate of Huantla, where the mushrooms originated.

My companion also told me of his experiments with hallucinogenic mushrooms. His sensations were of levitation, flying over a flowering woods. He told me about a young man outstanding in knowledge and intelligence who "destroyed" himself with marihuana; "he burned himself out." There is of course no way to determine that marihuana "destroyed" this brilliant youth. He may have been taking various drugs, although marihuana is often called "the monster with green eyes."

Before concluding, I should describe my own experiments, or rather, experiences with the two hallucinogens. Actually, I was not aware of having used marihuana because the name under which it was concealed diluted the aversion to cannabis. I have eaten the sacred rose twice. Once in 1953 during a ritual ceremony where I asked for it; eager to know it botanically, I ate a small quantity. Another time was during the current year also in a ritual context. It did not affect me, surely because of the small doses. With respect to the mushrooms, I ate them in 1966 and they produced no dependency in me, no desire to eat them again in spite of the beauty of my visions. According to the data obtained, there is also a diversity of responses to the mushrooms, affected by the individual temperament and preoccupations. In general terms one can say that with the mushrooms, one invents reality, new situations are created; while with marihuana only images concerning concrete situations are produced, such as those described by the twenty-one year old youth.

Reference to my own visions will further illustrate my point. The mushrooms produced for me some beautiful luminous situations of color in motion. And the most lasting impression is of an intellectual order, surely because it was my preoccupation at the time. I saw a part of a sphere revolving around an intensely brilliant blue base. Around the sphere there revolved a small one, like a satellite, which I identified as the myth. The large sphere was human thought. And my reflection on that world of my hallucinations was to accept it with approbation.