:: 2011 :: 30cm x 82cm :: Acrylics, Inks & Markers on Canvas ::
The final step in the search for the entheogenic sacrament of the labyrinth. I have long beena ware that the myth of Glaukos was key to understanding this aspect of the labyrinth mandala, and to analeptically answer the question: what was the identity of the serpent herb that revived the drowned Glaukos from his honey pot?
The Linear B text concerning honey for the mistress of the labyrinth is key here: what exactly did she use the honey to preserve?
McKenna's solution was a mushroom, but in all versions of the myth the word 'herb' (φαρμακον - which is by the way a pre-Greek word) is used, not 'mushroom' (μυκης - also a pre-Greek word), and so his solution does not seem appropriate.
Then in September 2010, I made a stunning discovery, thanks to the comprehensive wordlist of pre-Greek words compiled from RSP Beekes' Classical Greek dictionary. I decided to look up the entry for Glaukos, here abbreviated...
γλαυκος, 'of the sea', `bluish green or grey' (Mycenaean ka-ra-u-ko)
Derivatives: γλαυκος name of a fish; also `juice of the horned poppy'...
Here, then, encoded in the very word of the immortal honey boy is the clue: glaukos refers to the blue grey of a sea deity in fish form but also the extract of the yellow horned poppy, which as I have seen for myself is blue-grey. This extract has opioid psychactive properties - the active ingredient glaucine causes "a hallucinogenic effect characterised by colourful visual images" but without impairing motor function (Rovinski et al). This is powerful evidence for the labyrinthine entheogenic sacrament... and yellow horned poppies grow commonly in autumn on the coasts of many Mediterranean islands.
There is soon to be some 'personal' research into this area to be done. I should not like to comment further at this stage ;)
"No one knows better than I the power of herbs, for I was changed by herbs." - Glaucus in Ovid's Metamorphoses
The Yellow Horned Poppy
