- Kikayon
Kikayon (קיקיון) is the
Hebrew name of a plant mentioned in the Biblical Book ofJonah .Origins
The first use of the term "kikayon" is in the biblical book of "Jonah", Chapter 4:
:"And
God created a kikayon, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to save him from hisevil . And Jonah was exceeding glad because of the kikayon. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it ate the kikayon, that it withered.":"And it came to pass, when the sun arose, that God prepared a strong east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of
Jonah , he became faint, and requested that he might die, and said: 'It is better for me to die than to live.' ":"And God said to Jonah: You are angry for the kikayon?' And he said: 'I am greatly angry, even unto death.' "
:"And God said: 'You had pity on the kikayon, which you did not labor over, did not make it grow, which came up in a night, and perished in a night; and should not I have pity on
Nineveh , that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also muchcattle ?' "Classification
The word "kikayon" is only referenced in the book of "Jonah" and there is some question as to what kind of plant it is. Some hypotheses include a
gourd and acastor oil plant .The concurrent Hebrew usage of the word refers to thecastor oil plant .Entheogenic interpretation
The description may indicate an
entheogen ic mushroom such as fly agaric ("Amanita muscaria "). Mushrooms grow and wither very rapidly ("in a night"), were uncultivated in ancient times ("not labored over") due to the invisibility of mushroomspore s to the naked eye, and in some cultures the Amanita muscaria mushroom is associated with–and named after– an umbrella or parasol because of its shape [cite book
last = Müller-Ebeling
first = Claudia
coauthors = Christan Rätsch & Surendra Bahadur Shahi
title = Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas
publisher = Thames & Hudson
date = 2000
pages = pp 58, 169-170 & 175
isbn = 0-500-51108-X] ("a shadow over his head"). Paradoxically, the red cap of Amanita muscaria was also associated with the sun due to its round shape and color. When the mushroom cap is dried its color changes from red to gold, like the sun rising in the sky. [cite book
last = Heinrich
first = Clark
title = Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy
publisher = Park Street Press
date = 2002
isbn = 0-89281-997-9] The "rising sun" mushroom cap beating on Jonah's head and causing him to become faint describes the effects of fly agaric intoxication. In ancient timesworm s,maggots , serpents anddragon s all fitted into one category [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=worm] (theOld English "wyrm " could mean any of these creatures), symbolizingchthonic forces, to which the Amanita muscaria mushroom also belonged. TheSanskrit mushroom names "ahichattra(ka)" and "sarpacchattra(ka)" mean "snake parasol". [http://webapps.uni-koeln.de/tamil/]External links
* [http://www.vet.purdue.edu/depts/addl/toxic/plant11.htm A biological data from Purdue University]
References
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