“The flowers that cause vertigo, the beautiful narcotic flowers.”
Motifs throughout Egyptian & Mayan cultures reveal a similarly sacred, divinatory and erotic use of the plant, suggesting the Nymph to be an entheogenic empathogen inducing purifying and ecstatic states.
The red water lily is closely connected to the lotus’s and lilies in all of its actions.
This is an Old World narcotic, depicted in The Scroll of Ani (Egyptian Book of the Dead) alongside Papaver somniferum and mandragora, an hallucinogenic mandrake with anticholinergic properties. Likewise in Mayan frescoes, the Nymph is depicted with magick, involved with rites of passage, priestliness, and passages between life and death. Misunderstood throughout history, the Nymph has become misrepresented as a global token of feminine fertility, when more accurately it’s gender-fluid nature shows the adaptability tonifying power of the plant.
In some Northern American traditions, the waterlilies were associated with the underwater serpent, and therefore with the ability to see in different realms. Some theories now consider that it is possible the water lily may have even been the Soma written about in ancient Vedic records. The purplish blue colouring of the blue water lily, suggests it is supportive to the Ajna, or third eye chakra, the Vishuddha or throat chakra, and the Sahasrara, or crown chakra. The Yellow colouring of the center suggests an association with the Manipura or solar plexus chakra, and the inner sun. Nymphaeaee has now naturalisted in parts of South America, the Pacific Islands, and Eastern Australia, where it is considered a weed in freshwater ponds.
Drunk traditionally in alcohol or as a fresh or dried leaf tea, it can also be smoked as a dry herb. The plant may increase sexual playfulness, energise, sedate, tonify the digestive and reproductive tracts, and mildly increase dream activity. The bulbs and roots of some Nymphaeae species have been documented to contain nuciferine, apomorphine and aporphine (which hydrolises into apomorphine in the body). These show selective dopamine agonistic properties specifically in the hypothalamus, which can aid in smooth muscle relaxation and vasodilation in regards to erectile dysfunction, further accentuating its role as a gender-neutral tonic.
The waterlily is both mucilaginous and astringent, meaning it is balancing to the fluids of the body, whether they are in deficiency or excess; it is also relaxing to the parasympathetic nervous system. It also has a culture of therapeutic use in Ayurvedic medicine for namely its astringent properties on the gut, including aiding in treating diarrhoea, dyspepsia, urinary tract problems, and even calming feverish states or heart palpitations.
This product is prepared from wyld harvested local Water Lily flora and dried on low heat to preserve the volatile oils.
Suggested dosage: 1-2g in tea or smoked
Please store in a cool dark place, out of sunlight, heat & air exposure.
As an empowered and sovereign being, please conduct your own research, or consult your health practitioner, before deciding whether a herb is the right plant for you right now, and ensure there will be no interactions with any medications you may be using. If you are self-medicating, and have any worsening of symptoms, please stop use of the herb and seek the advice of a qualified professional.
