The Dracaena Draco is a plant known in the past with a unique name, which alludes at once to the ancient magic and wonders. It was the Tree of the Dragon, a mysterious and wonderful human being considered, which could be recorded and leave one of the most precious substance of antiquity: the "Blood of the Dragon."
The wise Romans and Greeks knew that in fact a chemical reagent used in medicine and dye, whose color and whose density, coupled with the miraculous features, made them think of something supernatural and magical, just as the blood of a dragon.
In reality, what merchants, caravans and spices sold in the big cities of the Mediterranean basin as dragon's blood were substances of different origin and nature. There was certainly cinnabar, a mineral from which mercury is extracted through the crystalline form of mercury sulfide. A mixture that was selling counterfeit then marketed to customers less noticed by those who wanted to save was made by ox blood, mountain ash and dust of dry clay.
Most of the loads of dragon's blood "original" (in these cases also called "true dragon's blood" or "cinnabar plant) were made by hand or semi-dried resins extracted from different species of four distinct botanical genera: Pterocarpus, Croton, Daemonorops and, indeed, the Dracaena. Of all these modes, the incision of the trunk of Dracaena Draco the Canary Islands and the Dracaena cinnabari of Socotra (island south of Yemen) was without doubt the most celebrated and widespread source of dragon's blood dell'antchità.
The blood of the dragon was named by some naturalistic texts, as the Periplus maris erythraea, probably written in greek by a merchant of the first century Egypt. AD, De Materia Medica of a physician, pharmacist and botanist Dioscorides Pedanius and the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder. The latter tells the origin, telling the deadly confrontation between an elephant and a dragon and the birth of the plant by mixing the blood of two animals.
Beyond the most colorful legends, the resin of Dracaena was certainly used as a dye and medicinal substances from the mysterious Guanches, the indigenous population (in historical times) in the Canary Islands.
For Orotava on the island of Tenerife, 700 grew in a specimen of Dracaena Draco, the German botanist Von Humboldt describes in his "Pictures of Nature."
studying the dynamics of growth of these plants in that sample, and measuring the size of highly distinguished, Humboldt estimated that it would have approximately 6000 years of life, describing it as being the oldest on the planet at that time . Although this hypothesis has never been confirmed, the dragons of the Canaries, although concrete plants and fantastic animals, are among the most interesting and mysterious beings in Western Europe. They were held in high respect and consideration by the Guanches, who administered some public and religious ceremonies around the base of these giant gray.
The people of Socotra had a preference for the Dracena, who said trees to be benefits that can drive the Djinn (genes, spirits) evil and that connected with many legends about dragons set up quell'esotica lost island. The name of the island, Suqatrah, seems to be a transliteration of the name is Arabic for "market (souq) of dracaenas (qatir)" or the island was known as a large port-market frequented mostly for Dracena and their resin.
Leggiamo da resoconti di leggende locali, che esso veniva chiamato anche l’“albero dei due fratelli”, perché si diceva nato sulla tomba di Abele, ucciso da Caino. Il sangue che ne trasuda ricorderebbe proprio quel mitico episodio biblico. La sua linfa avrebbe per questo il potere di togliere la vita oppure di ridarla.
In maniera più concreta, gli indigeni delle Canarie e di Socotra usavano la resina dell’Albero del Drago come un rimedio per ogni problema della pelle e del sangue, per ferite che tardavano a coagulare, piaghe e febbri, diarrea e dissenteria, ulcere a bocca, stomaco, gola e intestino, perfino per irregolarità menstrual and internal injuries and it was recommended to have an abortion but also for tonic after childbirth.
For the same purposes and for the countless experiments in classical physics, Arab scientists, magicians, Byzantine and Renaissance alchemists it was imported from the Far West European or scattered from the Yemeni island in the Indian Ocean.
The first and most common use of dragon's blood was still very prosaic. It was used as a colorant in the factories that produced textiles, fabrics and clothing. The Dragon's Blood red provided a stronger than that produced by the roots of madder (Rubia tinctorum: The oldest known source for red), but less brilliant vermilion extracted from insects della famiglia Kermesidae e meno cupo e vivido della porpora estratta dai murici.
Con questi ultimi due coloranti il sangue di drago riusciva a competere anche per preziosità, prestigio e difficoltà di reperimento. La resina della Dracena aveva una tonalità forte e stabile, resistente al lavaggio e all’esposizione della luce.
La tintura avveniva in grossi recipienti di argilla o in vasche di conglomerato, nei quali il tessuto veniva immerso in una soluzione di acqua e colorante e agitato diverse volte, mentre il liquido veniva riscaldato fino ad un potenziale punto di ebollizione. Il sangue del drago era una delle cosiddette “grandi tinte”, ovvero dei reagenti most valuable and hard to find, processed by the merchants and dyers most important. It was first soaked in the tanks and fired up to make a dense uniform color and then waited for the tissues or skeins of yarn. The nature of "bite" is not even needed to use other substances fixating during the "etch" and made it an all-round product.
The resin was also used for lacquer, wood dyes, pigments, cosmetics, dyes, eye shadows and lipsticks, dyes, glass, marble and semiprecious stones and other similar uses that the ingenuity of the ancient craftsmen managed to design.
The herbal medicine and were the second application. We have already mentioned the many uses and applications that carried the tradition of the healers, apothecaries and physicians ancient and medieval.
and benches in the cookbooks of the past, the "dragon's blood" was always present alongside all the other popular remedies: herbal extracts, mineral powders, parts unmentionable parts of animals and other more or less magical: oil Mummy, bezoar and venom of scorpions. The tradition of these miraculous features still remains, in recipes wicca, candle and incense in their sensitivity and even new age in American and Haitian voodoo.
Alchemy utilizzava il sangue del drago come uno dei tanti simboli esoterici che si incontrano nel percorso iniziatico che conduce alla realizzazione della Grande Opera. Il rosso della resina di Dracena alludeva alla Rubedo dei filosofi e degli occultisti, quell’itinerario chimico e spirituale che doveva portare l’uomo a superare i conflitti in una sintesi superiore ascendendo a nuovi fasti.
Nel tipico linguaggio ermetico che è proprio dell’alchimia occidentale, il francese Nicolas Flamel così descrive questi passaggi, nella sua Explication des figures hiéroglyphiques:
Il rosso lacca del leone volante, simile al puro e chiaro scarlatto che ha il seme della rossa melagrana, shows that all the stone is made, correct and genuine. Why is it that lion devouring every pure metallic nature, and turns it into real substance, real and pure gold, finer than that of the best mines. Just drag the man out of this vale of tears ..
The Great Work concludes with the bright red of the Philosopher's Stone, the same bright red of the fires that burn nell'Atanor living, the crucible of the alchemist, red and gold, which often allude occultists as symbolic of the substance alchemical processes.
With all this abundance of symbols involved, the dragon trees were even portrayed in the famous and important opere d’arte del passato.
Ne “Il Giardino delle Delizie” di Hyeronimus Bosch, e in particolare nell’immagine visionaria del paradiso, si distingue probabilmente una Dracena, pianta che trova posto, per il geniale pittore perfino nel giardino dell’Eden.
.jpg)
Anche nel “S. Giovanni a Patmos” di Hans Burgkmair, il santo è ritratto tra due palme e, probabilmente, il fusto di una Dracena.
Ultima nota di colore (rosso) è quella che pone una misteriosa e inquietante correlazione tra i draghi delle Canarie e i miti più antichi del mondo greco.
Nel Giardino of the Hesperides, imaginary place, but just identified with the Canary Islands, was a mysterious dragon to guard the golden apples of the wonderful garden of Atlas, a kind of Mediterranean paradise at the borders of the Western world.
_11.jpg)
If these clues alluding to our Dracaena Draco is not here given to know, but we point out one last mention of this mythologeme located in Rome's famous Piazza Vittorio Porta Alchemic.
on this incredible concentration of alchemical symbols and hieroglyphics, and philosophers', stands out to us a part of the architrave of the epigraph:
HORTI MAGIC INGRESSUM HESPERIUS CUSTODIT DRACO
"The Dragon of the Hesperides guarded the entrance to the magical garden."
The wise Romans and Greeks knew that in fact a chemical reagent used in medicine and dye, whose color and whose density, coupled with the miraculous features, made them think of something supernatural and magical, just as the blood of a dragon.
In reality, what merchants, caravans and spices sold in the big cities of the Mediterranean basin as dragon's blood were substances of different origin and nature. There was certainly cinnabar, a mineral from which mercury is extracted through the crystalline form of mercury sulfide. A mixture that was selling counterfeit then marketed to customers less noticed by those who wanted to save was made by ox blood, mountain ash and dust of dry clay.
Most of the loads of dragon's blood "original" (in these cases also called "true dragon's blood" or "cinnabar plant) were made by hand or semi-dried resins extracted from different species of four distinct botanical genera: Pterocarpus, Croton, Daemonorops and, indeed, the Dracaena. Of all these modes, the incision of the trunk of Dracaena Draco the Canary Islands and the Dracaena cinnabari of Socotra (island south of Yemen) was without doubt the most celebrated and widespread source of dragon's blood dell'antchità.
The blood of the dragon was named by some naturalistic texts, as the Periplus maris erythraea, probably written in greek by a merchant of the first century Egypt. AD, De Materia Medica of a physician, pharmacist and botanist Dioscorides Pedanius and the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder. The latter tells the origin, telling the deadly confrontation between an elephant and a dragon and the birth of the plant by mixing the blood of two animals.
Beyond the most colorful legends, the resin of Dracaena was certainly used as a dye and medicinal substances from the mysterious Guanches, the indigenous population (in historical times) in the Canary Islands.
For Orotava on the island of Tenerife, 700 grew in a specimen of Dracaena Draco, the German botanist Von Humboldt describes in his "Pictures of Nature."
studying the dynamics of growth of these plants in that sample, and measuring the size of highly distinguished, Humboldt estimated that it would have approximately 6000 years of life, describing it as being the oldest on the planet at that time . Although this hypothesis has never been confirmed, the dragons of the Canaries, although concrete plants and fantastic animals, are among the most interesting and mysterious beings in Western Europe. They were held in high respect and consideration by the Guanches, who administered some public and religious ceremonies around the base of these giant gray.
The people of Socotra had a preference for the Dracena, who said trees to be benefits that can drive the Djinn (genes, spirits) evil and that connected with many legends about dragons set up quell'esotica lost island. The name of the island, Suqatrah, seems to be a transliteration of the name is Arabic for "market (souq) of dracaenas (qatir)" or the island was known as a large port-market frequented mostly for Dracena and their resin.
Leggiamo da resoconti di leggende locali, che esso veniva chiamato anche l’“albero dei due fratelli”, perché si diceva nato sulla tomba di Abele, ucciso da Caino. Il sangue che ne trasuda ricorderebbe proprio quel mitico episodio biblico. La sua linfa avrebbe per questo il potere di togliere la vita oppure di ridarla.
In maniera più concreta, gli indigeni delle Canarie e di Socotra usavano la resina dell’Albero del Drago come un rimedio per ogni problema della pelle e del sangue, per ferite che tardavano a coagulare, piaghe e febbri, diarrea e dissenteria, ulcere a bocca, stomaco, gola e intestino, perfino per irregolarità menstrual and internal injuries and it was recommended to have an abortion but also for tonic after childbirth.
For the same purposes and for the countless experiments in classical physics, Arab scientists, magicians, Byzantine and Renaissance alchemists it was imported from the Far West European or scattered from the Yemeni island in the Indian Ocean.
The first and most common use of dragon's blood was still very prosaic. It was used as a colorant in the factories that produced textiles, fabrics and clothing. The Dragon's Blood red provided a stronger than that produced by the roots of madder (Rubia tinctorum: The oldest known source for red), but less brilliant vermilion extracted from insects della famiglia Kermesidae e meno cupo e vivido della porpora estratta dai murici.
Con questi ultimi due coloranti il sangue di drago riusciva a competere anche per preziosità, prestigio e difficoltà di reperimento. La resina della Dracena aveva una tonalità forte e stabile, resistente al lavaggio e all’esposizione della luce.
La tintura avveniva in grossi recipienti di argilla o in vasche di conglomerato, nei quali il tessuto veniva immerso in una soluzione di acqua e colorante e agitato diverse volte, mentre il liquido veniva riscaldato fino ad un potenziale punto di ebollizione. Il sangue del drago era una delle cosiddette “grandi tinte”, ovvero dei reagenti most valuable and hard to find, processed by the merchants and dyers most important. It was first soaked in the tanks and fired up to make a dense uniform color and then waited for the tissues or skeins of yarn. The nature of "bite" is not even needed to use other substances fixating during the "etch" and made it an all-round product.
The resin was also used for lacquer, wood dyes, pigments, cosmetics, dyes, eye shadows and lipsticks, dyes, glass, marble and semiprecious stones and other similar uses that the ingenuity of the ancient craftsmen managed to design.
The herbal medicine and were the second application. We have already mentioned the many uses and applications that carried the tradition of the healers, apothecaries and physicians ancient and medieval.
and benches in the cookbooks of the past, the "dragon's blood" was always present alongside all the other popular remedies: herbal extracts, mineral powders, parts unmentionable parts of animals and other more or less magical: oil Mummy, bezoar and venom of scorpions. The tradition of these miraculous features still remains, in recipes wicca, candle and incense in their sensitivity and even new age in American and Haitian voodoo.
Alchemy utilizzava il sangue del drago come uno dei tanti simboli esoterici che si incontrano nel percorso iniziatico che conduce alla realizzazione della Grande Opera. Il rosso della resina di Dracena alludeva alla Rubedo dei filosofi e degli occultisti, quell’itinerario chimico e spirituale che doveva portare l’uomo a superare i conflitti in una sintesi superiore ascendendo a nuovi fasti.
Nel tipico linguaggio ermetico che è proprio dell’alchimia occidentale, il francese Nicolas Flamel così descrive questi passaggi, nella sua Explication des figures hiéroglyphiques:
Il rosso lacca del leone volante, simile al puro e chiaro scarlatto che ha il seme della rossa melagrana, shows that all the stone is made, correct and genuine. Why is it that lion devouring every pure metallic nature, and turns it into real substance, real and pure gold, finer than that of the best mines. Just drag the man out of this vale of tears ..
The Great Work concludes with the bright red of the Philosopher's Stone, the same bright red of the fires that burn nell'Atanor living, the crucible of the alchemist, red and gold, which often allude occultists as symbolic of the substance alchemical processes.
With all this abundance of symbols involved, the dragon trees were even portrayed in the famous and important opere d’arte del passato.
Ne “Il Giardino delle Delizie” di Hyeronimus Bosch, e in particolare nell’immagine visionaria del paradiso, si distingue probabilmente una Dracena, pianta che trova posto, per il geniale pittore perfino nel giardino dell’Eden.
.jpg)
Anche nel “S. Giovanni a Patmos” di Hans Burgkmair, il santo è ritratto tra due palme e, probabilmente, il fusto di una Dracena.
Ultima nota di colore (rosso) è quella che pone una misteriosa e inquietante correlazione tra i draghi delle Canarie e i miti più antichi del mondo greco.
Nel Giardino of the Hesperides, imaginary place, but just identified with the Canary Islands, was a mysterious dragon to guard the golden apples of the wonderful garden of Atlas, a kind of Mediterranean paradise at the borders of the Western world.
_11.jpg)
If these clues alluding to our Dracaena Draco is not here given to know, but we point out one last mention of this mythologeme located in Rome's famous Piazza Vittorio Porta Alchemic.
on this incredible concentration of alchemical symbols and hieroglyphics, and philosophers', stands out to us a part of the architrave of the epigraph:
HORTI MAGIC INGRESSUM HESPERIUS CUSTODIT DRACO
"The Dragon of the Hesperides guarded the entrance to the magical garden."
