The Encyclopedia of Aphrodisiacs

CHRISTIAN RÄTSCH, Ph.D. (1957 – 2022), was a world-renowned anthropologist and ethnopharmacologist who specialized in the shamanic uses of plants for spiritual as well as medicinal purposes. He studied Mesoamerican languages and cultures and anthropology at the University of Hamburg, receiving his doctorate with a thesis on healing spells and incantations of the Lacandon-Maya people after three years of fieldwork among the Lacandon in Chiapas, Mexico. In addition to his work in Mexico, his numerous fieldworks have included research in Thailand, Bali, the Seychelles, and, with coauthor Claudia Müller-Ebeling, a long-term 18-year study on shamanism in Nepal combined with expeditions to Korea and the Peruvian and Colombian Amazon. Before becoming a full-time author and internationally renowned lecturer, Rätsch worked as professor of anthropology at the University of Bremen and served as consultant advisor for many German museums. Because of his extensive collection of shells, fossils, artifacts and entheopharmacological items, he had numerous museum expositions on these topics. A former president of the Association of Ethnomedicine, he is the author of numerous articles and more than 40 books, including The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants and Marijuana Medicine, and is a coauthor of Plants of the Gods. CLAUDIA MÜLLER-EBELING, Ph.D., is an art historian and anthropologist and coauthor, with Christian Rätsch, of Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas, Witchcraft Medicine, and Pagan Christmas as well as a number of articles and books in German. In addition to her long-term anthropological fieldwork in Nepal, Korea, and the Peruvian and Colombian Amazon, she has worked as an art historian at the Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts and taught at the Hamburg Institute of Ethnology. She is one of the founders of Psycho Activity, an organization based in Amsterdam that seeks to preserve ancestral shamanic traditions by working with elders from around the world and distributing their wisdom globally. Both authors are former members of the board of advisors of the European College for the Study of Consciousness and regularly gave lectures throughout the world on shamanism, ethnobotany, and indigenous spiritual and healing traditions. Claudia lives in Hamburg, Germany.

Preface

Introduction

What Are Aphrodisiacs?
Aphrodite and Venus
What Are “Agents of Pleasure”?
What Is an “Intoxicant” or “Addictive Drug”?

How Does One Use Aphrodisiacs?
On Expectations, Disappointments, and Desires

How Do Aphrodisiacs Work?
Dosage, Set, and Setting

Who’s Afraid of Aphrodisiacs?
On Desire and Its Demonization
How Did It Come to This?

The Five Senses--Our Sources of Erotic Experience
Vision
Hearing
Touch
Smell
Taste
Fire, Water, Air, and Earth
To Experience with All of Our Senses?
Which Senses Are Still with Us?
The Forgotten Sixth or Seventh Sense
The Power of the Senses over the Course of Time

Aphrodisiacs in Art
Grape, Vine, and Wine
Poppies and Opium
Hemp, Cannabis, and Hashish
Coca Leaves and Cocaine
The True Character of Aphrodisiacs in Art
A Look at Aphrodisiacs Today
Aphrodisiacs and Morality in Art
Eroticism in the Art of Polytheistic Cultures
Eroticism in the Art of Monotheistic Cultures
The Perception of Eroticism, Sexuality, and Aphrodisiacs--Beyond Art

The Encyclopedia from A to Z
The Structure of the Monographs
Pharmacratica Aphrodisiae: Legal Issues
About the Images

Appendix. A Short History of Books on the Topic of Aphrodisiacs and Love Agents

Bibliography

Resources

Acknowledgments

Index