It features prominently in Egyptian mythology and art, symbolizing the sun and rebirth and has been found in pharaohs' tombs. It may have been used for aphrodisiac and religious purposes, including in rituals like Hathor's Festival of Drunkenness. Modern recreational use, primarily through drinking infusions or vaping, has been associated with toxicity, causing symptoms like sedation and perceptual disturbances.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymphaea_nouchali_var._caerulea

#biology #drugs #aegypt #blueLotus #Nuciferine

The Drugs Used by the #AncientGreeks and #Romans

November 26th, 2021

"Many of us living in the parts of the world where marijuana has recently been legalized may regard ourselves as partaking of a highly modern pleasure. And given the ever-increasing sophistication of the growing and processing techniques that underlie what has become a formidable #cannabis industry, perhaps, on some level, we are. But as intellectually avid enthusiasts of #psychoactive substances won’t hesitate to tell you, their use stretches farther back in time than history itself. 'For as long as there has been civilization, there have been #MindAlteringDrugs,' writes Science’s Andrew Lawler. But was anyone using them in the predecessors to western civilization as we know it today?

"For quite some time, scholars believed that unlike, say, Mesoamerica or north Africa, 'the ancient Near East had seemed curiously drug-free.' But now, 'new techniques for analyzing residues in excavated jars and identifying tiny amounts of plant material suggest that ancient Near Easterners indulged in a range of #psychoactive substances.'

"The latest evidence suggests that, already three millennia ago, 'drugs like cannabis had arrived in #Mesopotamia, while people from #Turkey to #Egypt experimented with local substances such as blue water lily.' That these habits seem to have continued in ancient Greece and Rome is suggested by archaeological evidence summarized in the video above.

"In 2019, archaeologists unearthed a few precious artifacts from a fourth-century Scythian burial mound near Stavropol in Russia. There were 'golden armbands, golden cups, a heavy gold ring, and the greatest treasure of all, two spectacular golden vessels,' says narrator Garrett Ryan, who earned a PhD in Greek and Roman History from the University of Michigan. The interiors of those last
'were coated with a sticky black residue,' confirmed in the lab to be #opium with traces of #marijuana. 'The #Scythians, in other words, got high' — as did 'their Greek and Roman neighbors.' Ryan, author of Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants: Frequently Asked Questions about the Ancient Greeks and Romans, goes on to make intriguing connections between scattered but relevant pieces of archaeological and textual evidence. We know that some of our civilizational forebears got high; how many, and how high, are questions for future scholastic inquiry."

Source:
https://www.openculture.com/2021/11/the-drugs-used-by-the-ancient-greeks-and-romans.html

#MysteryCults #Rituals #RomanHistory #GreekHistory #AncientHistory #BlueLotus

Discoquette Halloween: The Dark Lotus @ Le 211 - 31 Oct feat. Blue Lotus, La Dame, Mademoiselle + more

#SESH #BlueLotus #LaDame #Mademoiselle

https://sesh.sx/e/1402944

Jason Pohl: Investigating the #psychedelic blue lotus of #Egypt, where ancient magic meets modern science: Online, products branded as the blue lotus promise calm moments and psychedelic trips. But they're far different from what ancient Egyptians consumed, a UC Berkeley student researcher says.

#ucberkeley #bluelotus #LiamMcEvoy #pseudoscience #Egyptology
https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/03/11/investigating-the-psychedelic-blue-lotus-of-egypt-where-ancient-magic-meets-modern-science/

#BlueLotus #psychedelics

"Scholars have long hypothesized that the lilies, when soaked in wine, release psychedelic properties used in hallucination-and-sex-fueled rituals dating back some 3,000 years.

Perhaps, then, it's not surprising that a plant resembling the blue lotus is now marketed online as a soothing flower, one that can be smoked in a vape or infused in tea.

There's just one problem, according to Liam McEvoy: The blue lotus used in ancient Egypt and the water lily advertised online are completely different plants."

https://phys.org/news/2025-03-psychedelic-blue-lotus-egypt-ancient.html