The

Way of the Gourd: The Alchemical Iconography of Cucurbits by Frederick R. Dannaway

The history of gourds (and all cucurbits) is the history of humanity. All over the ancient world the very origins of life are connected with the mysterious gourd. The mysteries of its cultivation, of the selective pressures of picking ones that dried well, predated the domestication of any other plant or animal. Its usefulness, above its edible or medicinal properties, was in holding water. The simple but essential hollow interior held water, the worlds most precious elixir, allowing travel and pilgrimage in wanderings that brought the calabash from Africa and Asia into the Americas. Theories of the bottle gourds (Lagenaria siceraria) prehistoric arrival in the Americas range from the suggestion that gourds naturally drifted across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa, as the thick walls can protect its seeds that remain viable for long periods in saltwater. More recent studies suggest that the gourds found in the Americas are related more to the Asian variety than the African. But now evidence may be proving theories that the first Paleoindians to migrate from Siberia to North America carried bottle gourds, propagating them along the way. From the Underground Railroads passage to freedom to follow the drinking gourd to the Christian wayfarers of Medieval Europe the gourd is a sign of hope, of magic and divine providence. Bottle gourds would hold the travelers essential water in otherwise dry and forbidding regions, allowing greater and greater distances to be traveled. Gourds were the prototype for baskets and pottery, and the first examples of pottery involved smearing gourds with clay and placing them into a fire. The shapes of the earliest vessels and containers for water, food and brewing took on the shape of gourds and its no wonder that the earliest stills for distillation resembled gourds as well. Gourds are everywhere associated with magic, with mystery and with powerful forces. These associations were strengthened by the gourds early use to boil water with hot rocks, and perhaps ancient distillation by catching the condensing vapor in wool. Gourds were also used to pan for gold. Everywhere that gourds grow they are potently expressed in myth and folklore from the Ayahausca cups in Peru to their deep associations with magic in Africa to the Caribbean, and to all native peoples.

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 Indias myths of creation, as well as of surviving the great flood, often center on gourds. From the Puranas to the Vedas, gourd mythology is abundant in India and comes to also be associated with soma and amrita, or the elixir of immortality. The Mahabharata tells of the conflagration that was quenched by Indras flood, with the many herbs and trees resins (rasa) flowing into the water of the ocean, mixing with molten gold and milk churned from the raging waters. In classical alchemical terminology, the sun and moons energies combine and birth a series of gods, goddesses and divine animals, climaxing with the beautiful God Dhanvantari who carried a white gourd that held the Elixir. Elsewhere the beautiful gold water gourd of the sacred nag is Drona the Teacher himself and the Drona cup is the name of both the soma cup as well as a mountain containing sacred ores that were likely used in making the sacred alloy of soma.1 This association is why sadhus, yogis, gods and siddhas all carry the elixir pot, sometimes containing soma/amrita or Amanita laced urine such as with the money god Hanuman. It is also the bhumpa of Tantric traditions and held by many Mahayana Buddhist gods. Shamanic and Tantric traditions of the Himalayas often use a gourd as the ritual vessel, and like for the Daoists, it symbolizes the world. The kalasha bottle gourd represents the three worlds: the smaller, upper belly is the akash, heaven, which also is divided into three sections; the neck is the human world of plants, animals, the five elements and the four directions; and the larger lower portion represents the underworld. Ratsch describes its central role in Kirati shaman altars saying it holds the primordial amrita.

1 See Needham for discussion of Drona and Soma, as well as my own Forays into Alchemical Pottery Part 1 on India that advances the metallurgical/alchemical theory of soma advanced partially by various Indian scholars. These Indian epics also connect the gourd with alcohol and lyres as gourds always made the best amplification chambers for instruments.

The origins of gourds in China are truly archaic, as Girardot has written extensively in his masterpiece on early Taoist myths. The twining, vining, chaotic growth of this hermaphroditic and auto-incestuous (male flowers fertilize the female flowers of same plant) tangle ejaculates explosive growth of, as Girardot writes, swelling, shaping, and coloring dumbbell-shaped gourds. This cucurbitic ontology finds expression in the Dao of uselessness as found in Zhuangzi and the alchemical labs of Daoists. Man and the universe itself are gourd-shaped as are microcosmic furnaces inside the adept. The gourd is always associated with healing magic, with alchemy, sacred pilgrimages for herbs or, above all, medicine. Williams, from Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs, writes: "The gourd-shell, or a painting of the gourd on wood or paper, or a small wooden gourd, or a paper cut in shape like a perpendicular section of the gourd, or a paper lantern made in the shape of a gourd, is in frequent use as a charm to dissipate or ward off pernicious influences." The drawings of the earliest Chinese alchemical apparatus usually were gourd shaped, and the distillation vessels that are shaped like gourds can be found all over India and China and into Arabian and European designs. Scholars like Rolf Stein and Victor Mair and Norman Girardot have eloquently demonstrated the vast and ancient associations in Far Eastern culture from creation myths, floods, microcosmic gardens, and elixirs to hulu gourd charms and magic. Adepts disappear into expansive worlds, like Fei Changfang, the mysterious herb vendor who concealed himself in his magic gourd each night, tying into themes of the gourd/womb/cave of retreat and rebirth. The gourd adorned the staffs of immortals and adepts, like the famous Iron-Crutch Li, whose staff could transmute base metals with the gourd containing the drug of immortality. Other famous Taoist gourd immortals, among many, are the Gourd Master Huzi and the Gourd Immortal Hugong. Hulu gourd charms and talismans continue to be used in fengshui and as symbols of longevity all over Asia, with gourd folklore abounding throughout Japan and South East Asia. Below are pictured examples of alchemical gourd-shaped devices in Chinese and Indian laboratories. The uses and construction of these gourd-like devices can be found in the Forays into Alchemical Pottery series as found at www.ChymicalPhilosophers.org. Some examples of gourd-inspired Greek distillation vessels are also depicted below, followed by Arabian examples.

The gourd pot as the holy water, elixir vessel can be found in Arab alchemical texts as well, in the hands of various Islamic mystics, dervishes and holy men. Persian Sufi Iqbal, speaking of a visionary elixir, and my world-beholding glass, all its radiance surpassLet the bitter potion poured, By the heavens in my gourd.2 Patais The Jewish Alchemists documents the use of cucurbits, ququrbita and other gourd-shaped devices that are mentioned in many Arab and Jewish alchemical manuscripts. As Harran in Syria was well known in the ancient world for its glasswares, its likely in this context that the earthenware or iron gourd vessels of Chinese and Indian mystics transmuted into glass. Alchemists like Al-Razi describe their gourd shaped devices as having arms to allow vapors to cool and be collected and in manuscripts it is described as a cucurbit and still with evacuation tube (qar aw anbq dh-khatm). Below Sufi dervishes have gourd pots like Daoist, Buddhist, Saddhu and Christian spiritual pilgrims.

Islam and Judaism spring from the same well, and the Old Testament story of Jonah and the gourd contextualize cucurbits as a symbol of divine providence. "And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to 2 Gourds had many visionary uses such as for the mentioned uses for instruments but also for making pipes, and as the Fuqqaa, or a Gourd for Beer

live" (Jonah 4:6-8). The gourd is a reprieve from God in Jonahs trials, and It was sent to him when he was in a very wrong spirit. Jonah is being spiritually initiated as God is preparing thee to be a comforter to others and his worm-destroyed gourd was but a brief botanical theophany on Jonahs path and trials. The gourd remained a sign of Divine comfort in Christian art such as is depicted below with St. Jerome in his study. From the Koran, And We caused to grow over him a gourd vine. (Sura As- Saffat (Those who set the Ranks) verse 146)

The gourd in Christian art is a symbol of Resurrection, contrasted with the apple that fooled our first parents in the Garden of Eden. Resurrection of the spirit and the body partake of the truly ancient searches of immortality by all ancient cultures, as first recorded in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The spontaneous transmutation of the sinner, the Godly alchemy of eternal life and Grace are all found in the gourd. Gourd and related plants are found in such evocative paintings lke Madonna della Candeletta by Carlo Crivelli in 1490. Crivelli often juxtaposed the apple and the gourd, with the infant Christ apparently resting at times on a gourd-shaped pillow.

 Spains gourd imagery abounds, perhaps born of the mingling of alchemical cultures, and it was a threshold between Europe and the Moorish influences. Pilgrims on the way to fight in Crusades or for spiritual penance followed a specific route. One particularly famous route follows the Milky Way (Via Lactea) to the Atlantic Ocean and was the Way of St. James, or El Camino de Santiago, who was the patron saint of alchemists and physicians. The Legenda aurea, relates that St. James defeated the sorcerer Hermogenes or Hermes Trismegistus of the Pharisees, and thus the bearer of his secret knowledge. Hermogenes converted after witnessing the might of St. James spiritual powers from God and gave up his devil worships and rid himself of his conjuring books when he accepted the staff of St. James. The Way of St. Iago is the way of alchemists and the saint was often called upon, such as by Nicolas Flamel, to aid them in the Great Work. Roobs Alchemy and Mysticism quotes older texts that explain, In secret symbolism, the Compostela scallop (conquille St. Jacques) represents the principle of Mercury, which is still called the traveler or the pilgrim. In the mystical sense it is worn by all those who want to obtain the star (Lat. Compos, possessing, stella, star). Fulcanelli, the modern adept of France3, writes, That is the point at which all the alchemists must begin. With their pilgrims staff as a guide and the scallop as a sign, they must undertake this long dangerous journey, half on water, half on land. First as pilgrims, then as pilots. Of course Spain was the major source of mercury for much of the ancient and medieval world from the mines of Almaden, gifted to the Order of Calatrava in the early 12th century.4 3 Fulcanelli seems increasingly to appear to be a fabrication by a fraternal order with sinister agendas, as our contacts in France have sent us intriguing documentation. An alchemical Taxil hoax. 4 Pilgrims carried the jacinto de Compostela, a red quartz, as a talisman which may be the exoteric red mineral, while cinnabar was for the alchemist. Neither is found in the immediate region, but both are common elsewhere in Spain.

 The staff and gourd iconography can be found in much of the Christian art and representations of the saints. St. Ignatius Loyola, whose devotion and piety sprang from his pilgrimage to the alchemical Black Virgin of Montserrat, is often shown in pilgrimage with gourd and staff. Also significant is the tradition of Santo Nino De Atocha, the Christ child, popular in Spain and Hispanic countries, who magically appeared in times of Moorish conquest and rallied people to ever higher spiritual heights. Also of interest, the skullcap worn by Roman Catholic (and Anglicans and Orthodox) clerics is called the zucchetto, Italian for small gourd, and it resembles a section of gourd with a protruding stem.

 The gourds perfect shape and symbolism continued to exert its influence on alchemy and distillation. The cucurbit is familiar to all Islamic and European alchemical adepts from Jabir to Paracelsus to Solazaref. Copper stills of fine quality are still being produced, mostly in Portugal, for distilling fine spirits. Modern alchemists still use glass cucurbits like countless other alchemists from Ripley to Starkey. The modern master alchemist Fulcanellis Demeures Philosophales includes a woodcut of a majestic little pilgrim from the 15th century hermetic abode, one of the most endearing images ever conceived of by the adepts of the Great Work

 Prayer dear to St. Ignatius: St. Roch The Anima Christi Soul of Christ, sanctify me. Body of Christ, save me. Blood of Christ, inebriate me. Water from the side of Christ, wash me. Passion of Christ, strengthen me. 0 good Jesus, hear me. Within Your wounds hide me. Permit me not to be separated from You. From the wicked foe defend me. At the hour of my death call me And bid me come to You That with Your saints I may praise You Forever and ever. Amen

References and Further Reading:

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Dannaway, Frederick R. 2012. Forays into Alchemical Pottery Part 2A China. http://www.chymicalphilosophers.org/forays-into-alchemical-pottery-2a/ Ellis, F.S. (ed.) retrieved 2012. The Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints. http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/goldenLegend/jamesGreater.PDF Fulcanelli. 1964. Le Mystere des Cathedrales. Paris. Girardot, N.J. 1983. Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Mair, Victor. Retrieved 2012. Southern Bottle-Gourd Myths in China and Their Appropriation By Taoism. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=28&ved=0CE8Q FjAHOBQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fccsdb.ncl.edu.tw%2Fccs%2Fimage%2F001523314_0 185.pdf&ei=QbYgUPyLAYbG6wHDs4GQBw&usg=AFQjCNEAU0G8wf- g5HH_68j3aneHQ_j8Fw Needham, J. 1983. Science and Civilization in China, Vol. 5, pt. 5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Needham, J. 1980. Science and Civilization in China, Vol. 5, pt. 4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Needham, J. 1976. Science and Civilization in China, Vol. 5, pt. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Needham, J.1974. Science and Civilization in China, Vol. 5, pt. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ratsch, C. 2002. Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas. Thames and Hudson. Stein, Rolf. 1990. The World in Miniature: Container Gardens and Dwellings in Far Eastern Religious Thought. Stanford University Press. Williams, C. 2006. Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs. Tuttle.

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