THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
	a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects.

Path: shell.portal.com!svc.portal.com!sdd.hp.com!swrinde!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.msfc.nasa.gov!pendragon!bcm.tmc.edu!news.tamu.edu!news.io.com!io.com!not-for-mail
From: ix@io.com (Lupo LeBoucher)
Newsgroups: alt.abuse.transcendence,alt.alcohol,alt.bacchus,alt.consciousness.mysticism,alt.drugs.culture,alt.drunken.bastards,alt.folklore.herbs,alt.life.sucks,alt.magick,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.psychoactives,alt.rave,alt.satanism,alt.vampyres,alt.wired,rec
Subject: Re: Absinthe makes the heart grow ...
Date: 10 Jan 1996 01:38:32 -0600
Organization: IX Corp.
Lines: 232
Message-ID: <4cvqdo$bkj@pentagon.io.com>
References: <30e18979.6725291@news.lglobal.com>  <4csq7p$eqe@bolivia.it.earthlink.net> <4cva0f$gf@nkosi.well.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: pentagon.io.com
Xref: shell.portal.com alt.abuse.transcendence:2805 alt.alcohol:4177 alt.bacchus:896 alt.consciousness.mysticism:5043 alt.drugs.culture:10087 alt.drunken.bastards:20507 alt.folklore.herbs:24718 alt.life.sucks:10169 alt.magick:63822 alt.magick.tyagi:6155 alt.psychoactives:13305 alt.rave:63297 alt.satanism:32311 alt.vampyres:55526 alt.wired:31770 rec:334

In article <4cva0f$gf@nkosi.well.com>,
Bill Heidrick  wrote:
>   Making Absinthe is extremely easy, as long as you don't require the
>full alcoholic content.  Just take Pernot, pour off about an ounce and
>cram wormwood herb in the top.  Let it set for a week or two.  That's it.
>Pernot is Absinthe without the wormwood and about half the alcohol.

This is unlikely to absorb much thujone; for a really horrible and 
rediculously potent absinthe, buy a fifth of 100proof vodka, pour it over 
an ounce of wormwood, and a quarter ounce of anise seeds, and let it steep 
for a month or two. After straining the liquid, the  resulting decoction 
will be a horrible looking liquid with approximately the color and 
psychoactivity of 1970s gasoline, though gasoline tastes better (long story).

To ingest (one cannot drink it), pour over a lump of sugar into a strong 
mixture of water & lemon juice, hold nose, and swallow before you taste 
the bitter horror. Be sure to do this in the vicinity of a sink with 
running water; one may need to wash the awful stuff down or provide your 
absinthe with a convenient place to rest should it decide to come up for 
a breather.

Effects reportedly include, audio-visual hallucinations similar to the 
opiates, with a bit o nitrous; numb mucus membranes; dizziness, nausea, 
picking up the ugliest member of the opposite sex one has ever 
encountered and vomiting green bile over oneself while asleep (experts 
disagree whether or not the latter was an effect of the previous, rather 
than an effect of the thujone -ask Heysoos, I didn't do it).

The above recipe was taken from a book called "The Magical and Ritual 
Uses of Herbs" (by Richard Allen Miller) which described Absinthe as "an 
excellent after-dinner liqueur" which makes one wonder what types of 
dinners Mr Miller has at his place.

The following is a small file from the ftp://ftp.hyperreal.com/drugs/misc
URL; there is an extensive FAQ on the subject in that directory.

-Lupo

#include

	Artemesia absinthium (wormwood) is availiable from Horus.
I believe this plant was allowed to ferment, like grape-juice or
grain (hops) to form the liquer. Used by renowned writers ie Poe.

=============================================================================

Try the following reference (online databases are great!):

Arnold, Wilfred Niels.
     Absinthe. (liqueur's history and analysis; includes related articles)
     Scientific American v260, n6 (June, 1989):112 (6 pages).

=============================================================================

	I've been meaning to repost these recipes for absinthe for some
time but just haven't gotten to it. A couple of people asked for
pointers to further information, and I have included a little.
Unfortunately most of the older books from which I got info on absinthe
were from various libraries and I can't give a good bibliography.

	There are a few pages devoted to the culture of absinthe
drinking in an essay on Rimbaud by William Ober in his book _Bottoms
Up!_ (a rather unusual book, check it out). Alexis Lichine mentions it
in his books on spirits. Wormwood and its chemical constituents are well
documented in Mrs. Grieve's _Herbal_ (a very good source book on herbs;
I have found that British sources tend to be much more thorough and
grounded in research than American ones, which tend to rely on hand me
down tales and hearsay).

	True absinthe was marked by its intense green color (which
usually came from herbs other than wormwood, which is a gray-green at
best). This lead to cases in which the drink was adulterated with copper
salts, doubtless to the consumers detriment. The best absinthe contained
70-80% alcohol, which in itself makes a case for why it might be a
dangerous drink. Of beverages still legal for sale in most places, both
Campari and Fernet Branca contain wormwood, but are not nearly so
alcoholic.

	The 1911 edition of the Britannica remarks, "There is some
reason to believe that excessive absinthe-drinking leads to effects
which are specifically worse than those associated with over-indulgence
in other forms of alcohol.

	The manufacture and sale of true absinthe is still legal in
Spain.


Absinthe #1

1 pint vodka			2 tsp crumbled wormwood (dried)
2tsp anise seed			1/2 tsp fennel seed
4 cardomom pods			1 tsp majoram
1/2 tsp ground coriander	2 tsp chopped angelica root
1 2/3 cups sugar syrup

Place vodka in large jar with tight fitting lid.  Add wormwood and shake
well; steep 48 hrs and strain out.  Crush seeds and pods in mortar. Add them
and all remaining spices to vodka and steep in a warm place 1 week.
Filter and sweeten. (The sugar syrup mentioned above is your standard
simple syrup.)


Absinthe #2

1 tsp crumbled wormwood		1 cup vodka
2 Tbsp chopped peppermint leaves
1 piece of lemon peel, 3/4"x2"
1/3-1/2 cup sugar syrup

Steep wormwood in vodka for 48 hours.  Strain out and add peppermint
leaves and lemon peel. Steep for 8 days, strain nd sweeten. Smells good
but is more bitter than #1.


Absinthe Wine

All herbs are dried.

2 tsp peppermint		2tsp dried wormwood
2 tsp thyme			2 tsp lavender
2 tsp hyssop			2 tsp majoram
2 tsp sage			2 pints port

Steep herbs one week, filter and bottle. My notes describe this as
"bitter, aromatic and potent".

===========================================================================

I at last have had the opportunity to try the drug Absinthe, and
though of reporting my experience on the net.

	I was offered to try absinthe when visiting a cousin last week
end. Interestingly, while absinthe is illegal about everywhere in the
world, it is still legal in the small country of Andorre situated in
the mountains between France and Spain. When bringing it back to
Canada my cousin got searched, but absinthe is so little known in
Canada that the custom officers thought it was an ordinary bottle of
liquor, although it was clearly labelled Absinthe. I am told that it
is another story if you get caught with it in Europe...

	For anyone familiar with late nineteeth century French
litterature Absinthe posseses a very special mystique, since it looks
like just every French writer of the time was hooked on it. I had
always been wondering if the effects of Absinthe were due mainly to
the high alcool content, of if there was anything specific. The fact
that the main active ingredient, Thujone, is listed a toxic convulsant
made me somewhat apprehensive.

I drank a total of 3 ounces of absinthe that night. The taste is
strongly aromatic and the mouth gets completely numb when drinking it.
The procedure for drinking is to mix the absinthe with water. It then
turns milky white.

	After a few minutes of the first glass I could feel a
undistinct feeling of warmth and a rather pleasant buzz. The two more
glasses that I drank afterwards completely convinced me that the
effect of absinthe has little to do with alcool. After 3 ounces I was
experiencing a strong buzz, somewhat similar to a long lasting nitrous
oxide experience, minus the auditory disturbances. Duration was about
an hour, with a 30 minutes peak. The effect was extremely pleasant,
although I would not list absinthe as a psychedelic. It definitely
belongs in terms of subjective effects to the solvent/nitrous oxide
category, although pharmacologically very different. The following day
I felt very lethargic, but it is hard to say if it was due to the
absinthe since we stayed up pretty late that night.

	My conclusion: I give it two thumbs up, but would not drink it
more than occasionally since it is reported as neurotoxic. Try it out
if ever you go to Andorre.

					Pierre St Hilaire
					MIT Media Lab

=============================================================================

~Newsgroups: alt.folklore.herbs,alt.psychoactives
~From: Galatia.9@debug.cuc.ab.ca (Robin and Ennien Ashbrook)
~Subject: Re: Anyone Ever TRIED Abisinthe?
~Date: Sun, 15 May 1994 02:34:46 GMT
Message-ID: <1994May15.023446.24820@debug.cuc.ab.ca>

alex@spiral.org (Dave Alexander) writes:
> I'm planning to make some Abisinthe -- well, not *real* Abisinthe with
> Pernod, etc., but Wormwood flowers soaked in Seagram's Crown Royal for
> several months.
> 
> Has anyone ever actually tried this? I'm looking for something that's
> mildly opiate-like. I think this should be the ticket, but it would be nice
> to hear from a first-hand user.

Looks like this is the day for wormwood. 
I have tried absinthe, real absinthe, not wormwood tinctured in alcohol, 
but fermented with honey and anise-seed. 
It gave me some interesting visions, if you like hallucinating.  It 
produced an interesting buzz, if you like a sound like drones in your 
head.  It also gave me an interesting headache, interesting stomache 
cramps, interesting vomiting and a generally interesting hangover.  This 
was from one glass, that is, one ounce of absinthe, on the rocks, with 
ice water as is tradtional. 
Admittedly, my system is very sensitive to chemicals of any sort (cuppa 
tea in the morning keeps me wired 'til supper), but it was enough to 
convince me that I definately didnt want to get addicted to this stuff. 
Absinthe is dangerous.  It causes irreparable deterioration of the brain 
stem and liver, due to the powerful hepatics in the wormwood being 
altered by alcohol.  Symptoms begin to show within 3 - 6 months of 
continued use (remember, its addictive) and begin with depression, 
emotional instability, and jaundice, then progress to tremors, difficulty 
breathing, erratic heartbeat, neural failure, then finally heart/lung 
failure.  For these reasons, absinthe has been banned globally.  Absinthe 
was a traditional drink of poets in the 18th and 19th centuries and its 
no coincidence that a) poets were considered to be mad b) poets died 
terribly young (late 20's - early 30's)
Two years ago, a coven of wiccans in the city had a May Day ritual in 
which they consumed a punch created by their high priest.  This punch, 
which he called "Jack in the Green" contained several varieties of 
alcohol with several varieties of herbal narcotics, including wormwood 
and valerian.  All those who consumed the punch became very ill.  Two 
were taken to hospital when they fell unconscious and could not be 
wakened.  All suffered severe stomach cramps and vomited bile for several 
days after.  Several suffered hallucinations. 
There are my experiences of this drug.  Read them, and do as thou wilt. 
-==- Ennien

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Ennein & Robin Ashbrook               |                             |
| Internet: Galatia.9@Debug.cuc.ab.ca   |   " To each, their own. "   |
| UUCP: calgary!debug!galatia.9         |                             |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------