I did a bit of Googling, and was delighted by what I found.

The tree, Acacia Confusa, is Taiwanese, a Mandarin Chinese speaking country. They call the tree 台灣相思樹 (Taiwan Xiangsi Shu) which translates literally as "Taiwanese Thinking Each Other Tree". However, the term 相思 "Xiang Si", two symbols which by themselves mean "thinking" and "each other", if you type it into online translation, gets you results like "missing", or "yearning", or (Google Translate's translation), "lovesickness". It basically means missing someone, thinking about them.

Okay, neat - but wait. Then, I look up Syrian Rue's traditional name's etymology. When I Google the Arabic حرمل, which in the Latin alphabet is Harmel (Peganum Harmala, Syrian Rue) - this is the wiktionary page:

"Etymology
From Classical Syriac ܐܪܡܠܐ‎ (ˀarmalā, “harmal; Syrian rue”), from Ancient Greek ἁρμαλά (harmalá ) , a loanword of uncertain etymology linked to Akkadian 𒌑𒀀𒈾𒈨𒊒 (anamiru, “medical and ritual herb”); cognate with Hebrew אַלְמָן‎ (ʾalmān)."
https://en.wiktionary.or...%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%85%D9%84

So I think, "Alright, doesn't tell me much... so what does this Hebrew term it's cognate with mean?"

Wiktionary again for this Hebrew term "אלמן" (in the Latin alphabet "almán" ) :
"אַלְמָן • (almán) m (feminine counterpart אַלְמָנָה‎)

widower (man whose wife has died)"
https://en.wiktionary.or...D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%9F#Hebrew

Isn't that crazy!?!? Syrian Rue= WIDOWER and Acacia=LOVESICK/YEARNING/MISSING

Opposite sides of the globe, totally unrelated cultures, both completely unaware of the hallucinogenic properties which would arise from harmala+DMT combinations, and yet the traditional names for these two plants which only recently came together in human history are basically meant for each other.

Also kind of cool that with "widower" death is sort of involved in the name the same way traditional "ayahuasca" ("death/spirit-vine" ) has "death" in its name... and nice that "love" in some form is thrown in with it. I like thinking of them as long-separated lovers who become united together in the magical world of spirits.

Personally I'm tweaking the "lovesick widower" a little bit for the sake of English euphony (euphony=sounding good), and am just calling it "widow's love". The name implies the nature of the love simply by being placed in conjunction with a widow, and the feminine form "widow" has better euphony in my ears than "widower". And of course, since we brew these plants into a magical potion, I cannot resist calling it a "love potion"...

---edit: Also worth noting is that the way we say "harmel" as "harmala" is closer to the feminine form of "alman", which is "almana". So the way we say "harmala" is indeed actually closer to "widow" "almana" rather than "widower" "alman". end edit---

So there you have it. "Widow's Love Potion". Shorthand, from now on I'll be referring to it as either "Widow's Love", or simply as "Love Potion". I think the most literal "Widow's Love" is the most euphonic. You saw it here first! ; ) <3

I like your efforts. I hate calling it pharmahuasca, because I feel it connects to the spirit of Ayahuasca, although there are reasons to respect the naming conventions. Maybe something will come out of this 🙂

That's some lovely etymological work you've done, OneIsEros. That concept of feminine love from beyond the gates of death is evocative to quite an uncanny degree - although, of course, you already had the target somewhere in mind so there are other possibilities, especially when using languages with a consonantal orthography like Arabic and Hebrew.

Name play is important IMO, and the late Dale Pendell explored this line of thinking in his Pharmako* trilogy, particularly in the chapter on Syrian rue.

You've set me thinking, what would we get from "esphand" + "jurema"? What etymological resources did you find most useful?

Beautiful.


That works. It really describes the experience of Ayahuasca for me too. I feel like so much of the problems that Ayahuasca deals with (all of them) have to do with love, heartbreak, lovesickness, etc. And Ayahuasca is like a lover (who even gets jealous, according to some Amazonian thought) who heals you for a night, like a lover. She'll go, but she'll leave with you lessons that will carry you to the next relationship. Or she'll bring you right to the person who is meant for you! (at that given moment) Or, she'll affirm the relationship you're already in, or point out its flaws.

Either way, Ayahuasca is something that makes you feel loved (by yourself, by God, whatev) for a time, but not in a numbing way like an opiate, but in a teaching, awakening kind of way. It can be like the canteen you carry through the desert of heartbreak.

On a side track, I've only read 'Pharmako/Poeia' how do you like the other two? It's really one of a kind.

If you liked Pharmako/poeia, you'll love Pharmako/gnosis. That's where he covered Peganum harmala and Jurema (Acacia confusa wasn't really on the radar at the time of publication). Pharmako/dynamis lends a sense of completion to the trilogy (not just by being the third book and anyhow it was the second ) by covering not only tea, cofffee, cocaine and amphetamine but also nutmeg and MDMA.

Best get the whole set

I've been calling them 'ruebrews' haha. I'll start with rue for the base and add in anything else I feel like.
I have to agree, even the *huasca terms without any caapi just seem wrong.

Also the Pharmako/ series is awesome. It feels good to know plant people are out there haha

I just see it all as different flavors of the same underlying medicine, so whether Acacia, Mimosa, Chacruna or Chaliponga or even pure DMT, whether Rue or Caapi or Rue AND Caapi, or even extracted Harmalas, even Psilohuasca using mushrooms or 4-ACO-DMT, etc, it's all "Huasca's" to me. I know people may frown upon that but it's just the way i see it. I don't really feel the need to differentiate between Ayahuasca, Anahuasca, Pharmahuasca, Psilohuasca, i don't get caught up on the labels and names, i do get more specific depending on what i have in mix and what i'm using but i don't make a big deal out of what i call it, it's all Huasca to me, just different variations/flavors.

Brue

Intriguing. I tend to agree, for me whether I am using pharmahuasca or a plant concoction, the basic harmala+DMT combo is distinctively shared across the experiences, rather as THC is shared across cannabis strains. While there is variance, I always recognize THC as such and as distinct from other experiences regardless of the minor intra-variances across strains of cannabis (no matter how dramatic these "minor" variances truly can be!), and for me the same goes for harmala+DMT. The experiences aren't identical, but there's definitely a recognizable underlying universal factor.

However, I personally would draw a sharp line at psilohuasca. While mushrooms are indeed closer to the ayahuasca experience than say, LSD or mescaline, it is a pretty radical difference for me personally, even if the harmalas bring the psilocybin experience closer to DMT+harmalas.

I mostly just posted this because

a) there is dispute among psychedelic community members about the specific names of these concoctions (which I think is fair, even when the differences are only qualitatively rather than substantively different), and

b) because the etymology of the traditional terms for these plants was just so dang perfect, as though they were fated for one another.

Widow's Love y'all ; ) <3

It all depends on perspective. With different plant admixtures, rue based brews become very different entheogens for me. Of course the difference with other psychedelics are greater. I guess I am taking rue for granted and this affects my perspective.

Also worth noting (editing this into the first post) that the way we say "harmel" as "harmala" is closer to the feminine form of "alman", which is "almana". So the way we say "harmala" is indeed actually closer to "widow" "almana" rather than "widower" "alman".

Interesting cross-cultural analysis.


Reminds me of a myth of Ayahuasca creation as relayed by Pablo Amaringo:

Wow, thanks for that Jozeh!

Great! Now I really want to read the rest too. Even if I like getting info on pharmacology I really like the magic and poetry of his work.