Image © TourEgypt

Nymphaea caerulea ... contains an anti-spasmotic called Nuciferin, and likely contains aporphine... Dosage: Probably about 3-5 flowers, or about 5g. Method: Eat (put in capsules; takes longer) or make "tea (use about 20-25oz of water to get maximum content)." Effects: The history of this species says that is appears to be a hypnotic sedative ... Everything seems to refute the idea of this being MDMA-like... It is much like cannabis, codeine or propoxyphene; maybe a little hallucinatory (at higher doses) - but mainly hypnotic like cannabis/opiods.



-- Clear White Light 2000, Blue Lilly of the Nile: The Narcotic Lilly

The blue water lily was possibly also a symbol of sexuality - Dr Liz Williamson says that the flower "has a sort of Viagra effect". Women were wooed with the blue water lily. In certain erotic scenes from the Turin Papyrus, women are shown wearing very little apart from the white lily as a headdress.

Image © Walters Art Museum More recently, it has been discovered that this plant could have been used by the ancient Egyptians to help with erectile dysfunction. This would help explain why the plant was so intimately connected with sex and sexuality:

Nymphaea caerulea (blue lotus) and N. ampla, which has a white flower but a similar alkaloid content, grow along lakes and rivers, thrive in wet soil, and bloom in the spring. They belong to the water-lily family ... The isolation of the psychoactive apomorphine from Nymphaea species has offered chemical support to speculation that Nymphaea species may have been employed as hallucinogens in both the Old and the New World. The use of N. caerulea and of N. lotos in rites and rituals is depicted in the frescoes within the tombs, and in very early papyrus scrolls. The most important of these was the scroll of Ani (Book of the Dead). Nymphaea is mentioned and represented in several chapters of the book, always tied to magical-religious rites.



...



However, it has only recently become clear that apomorphine can be utilized, with excellent results, to treat erectile dysfunction. It is a centrally acting, selective D1/D2 dopamine agonist, and activation of dopaminergic receptors in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus initiates a cascade of events, ultimately resulting in smooth muscle relaxation and vasodilatation within the corpora cavernosa, leading to penile erection.



This discovery provides a likely explanation for the appearance of Nymphaea in the Luxor frescoes and in erotic cartoons ... The fact that temple drawings only depict use by the higher castes, such as priests and royalty, suggests that the masses did not benefit from this discovery. The Nymphaea story serves as a further illustration of how the effects of substances of plant origin were known even though the discoverers lacked the technology to explain them.



-- Bertol, E., et. al. 2004, 'Nymphaea cults in ancient Egypt and the New World: a lesson in empirical pharmacology', Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, vol. 97, no. 2, p. 84.

The water lily was also used for other medicinal purposes, according to Lise Manniche in An Ancient Egyptian Herbal, including liver disease, poultices for the head, constipation and as an enema (1989, p. 134). She also notes that it was used in a magical spell to cause a "hated woman"'s hair to fall out. In Greco-Roman times, it was thought of as a cooling herb, and was thus used to bring down a fever.

Image © Julianna Lees Qedeshet (Kadesh, Qadesh, Qetesh, Qudshu), the Syrian love goddess who the Egyptians married off to Min, was depicted as a naked woman who stood on the back of a lion, carrying snakes and water lily buds. The buds are likely linked with her role as a goddess of sexuality and fertility. Votive offerings to Hathor included bowls with water lily motifs, again alluding to fertility, the renewal of life and rebirth. (A water bowl was also the hieroglyph for a woman, which A.H. Gardiner in Egyptian Grammar believes to represent the vagina, linking the fertility sign of the water lily in the bowl to female fertility in this case.) The Egyptian idea of sexuality was identified with creation. Being a flower of creation, the flower became linked to human fertility and sexuality. The images of women holding the flower may be hinting at her ability to bear children or that she was sexually desirable, and images of men holding the flower may hint at their potency. It could also be a way to ensure that the person painted would be fertile - and sexy - in the afterlife.

I am going to Mennefer (Hikuptah, Memphis)

To tell Ptah, Lord of Truth:

"Give me my sister tonight!"

The river is as of wine.

Its rushes are Ptah,

Sekhmet is its foliage,

[The goddess] Yadyt its [water lily] bud,

Nefertem its water lily blossoms.

[The Golden] is in joy,

When earth brightens in her beauty.



-- Lichtheim, M. 1978, Ancient Egyptian Literature: Volume II: The New Kingdom, p. 189

Image © Jon Bodsworth The flower wasn't just used at parties, but it was used at funerals. As with many symbols of fertility, the blue water lily was also symbolic of rebirth after death. Tutankhamen's innermost gold coffin had blue water lily petals scattered over it along with a few other floral tributes. The Egyptians looked forward to their souls coming to life "like a water lily reopening", thinking that the deceased died as the water lily closed awaiting opening with the morning sun. The Book of the Dead has a spell to allow the deceased to transform into one of these flowers:

The chapter of making the transformation into a lotus. The overseer of the palace, the chancellor-in-chief, Nu, saith:



"I am the pure Lotus which springeth up from the divine splendor that belongeth to the nostrils of Ra. I have made--my way--, and I follow on seeking for him who is Horus. I am the pure one who cometh forth out of the Field."



-- Wallis Budge, E.A., The Book of the Dead

One of the items found in Tutankhamen's tomb is that of the boy's head emerging from the water lily. There are depictions of this in The Book of the Dead with the face of the deceased. It is probably a symbolic likening of the deceased to the creation myth as the water lily opened to reveal the sun god for the first time, giving the deceased new life as the flower opens each morning.

The four Sons of Horus who guard the canopic jars - Imsety, human headed protector of the liver, Hapy, baboon headed protector of the lungs, Duamutef, wolf or jackal headed protector of the stomach and Qebehsenuef, falcon headed protector of the intestines - are often shown standing on a blue water lily flower. They were thought to have, like Nefertem, come out of a water lily that rose from the waters of Nun. The four mummiform gods were rescued by the crocodile god Sobek, by the orders of Ra, and Anubis gave them funerary duties. They also attend the judgement of the deceased in the Halls of Ma'ati where they stand before Osiris on a half opened blue water lily.

When you look at its brilliance, your eyes become imbued with dynamic force. When you breath in, your nostrils dilate.



-- Tyldesley, J. 2001, The Private Lives of the Pharaohs, p. 194

The blue water lily was sacred to the ancient Egyptians, ornamental and sweet smelling. People who have had the pleasure described the smell as being similar to that of a hyacinth, a loquat and even of a banana. Whatever the fragrance is like, the Egyptians loved this plant that represented the sun and rebirth. It was presented at parties, and took on a sacred significance at death. There is little wonder that it became the floral symbol of Upper Egypt, and a flower enjoyed by all people throughout Egyptian history.