Etymological Absinthe
Absinthe, a spirit of legend, has in recent years been revived under the banner of being neither a psychedelic nor a deliriant. True as those statements may be on the surface, I was pleased to discover an errata that may tie the fabled drink with more righteous roots. With all due respect to the reasons for concealment and the initiatory threshold, I offer in context this paragraph from Wikipedia
Absinthe is derived from the Latin absinthium, which in turn is a stylization of the Greek αψίνθιον (apsínthion), for wormwood. ….. Some claim that the word means “undrinkable” in Greek, but it may instead be linked to the Persian root spand or aspand, or the variant esfand, which meant Peganum harmala, also called Syrian Rue-although it is not actually a variety of rue, another famously bitter herb. That Artemisia absinthium was commonly burned as a protective offering may suggest that its origins lie in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root *spend, meaning “to perform a ritual” or “make an offering.”
Mention of the aspand is made by N. Wahid Azal, in the Glitch in the Bottle #008. The scholar believes that he was given a substance that involved the use of an aspand compond, along with other plants in the region. Mimosa is known to grow there. This happened at a ritual that sufis in Iran had invited him to attend. During this ritual, a zikr plays a role. Zikr is the “animating fluid”, the power of the initiation… so it is said. Azal asserts that one is inducted to draw the name with their “imaginal finger” in their heart.
“Around Mecca, in the area of Mt. Hera, native camel/goats roam during some of the year, and may result in endogenous psychoactive mushrooms. Hadif of the Imams, says ‘the devil stays 40 paces away from…’ the aspand, and sing its virtues. Advises to burn it, consume it, etc.”
Red species of syrian rue in Jordan area. Much stronger than other species.
Whether the word was a borrowing from Persian into Greek, or from a common ancestor of both, is unclear. Variant spellings of absinthe are absinth, absynthe, and absenta. In English it is pronounced /ˈæbsɪnθ/ ; in French, [absɛ̃t]. Absinth (without the final e) is a spelling variant used by central European distillers. It is the usual name for absinthe produced in the Czech Republic and in Germany, and has become associated with Bohemian style absinthes.
Contemporary entheogenic studies have created a great fondness for Asphand - if not a secluded one. The MAOI has become the foundation for ‘shroom-huasca’, another melange that has produced so notable effects as to be compared with the jungle-beverage, Ayahuasca. The Greek affection of the name, even erroneously should we assume a Persian root, is interesting because of the mysterious ‘XueXion’ beverage also present at the in Eleusinian Mysteries. It is no scholarly assertion that the Mystery beverage was MAOI-based, even by prevalent sources. The etymological root between Absinthe and Asphand, however, does bear some consideration in this matter, with classical reinforcement by the Mediterranean prevalence of Rue. Plainly, and personally, I am not convinced that Greek and Egyptian mysteries, even to the degree in which they may have had a psycho-chemical component, were composed upon DMT.
