Socotran Aloe

The best variety of Aloe is Socotran. The people of this island are faithless and are strong magicians. Their origins are from Greece. Alexander sent them from Greece to this island in order to make aloe. Their women are even stronger magicians.

So wrote the Arab physician Zayn al-‘Aṭṭār in 1404. It’s unclear from his text why he connected the Socotran Aloe plant to magical ability, but it is an interesting juxtaposition.

The first century Greek physician Dioscorides wrote of this plant that it “exceeds in bitterness”, and that description is not as mysterious. It is intensely, tenaciously bitter, with all the cooling, centering, digestive stimulating properties that taste brings.

In our meditations with this Spagyric, we find it has a strong physicality, giving a sense of strength and the ability to work hard, invigorating the energy body’s connection to the physical level. It can also bring a heaviness and a dampening quality, somewhat like our Dragon Bone, but even more still and quieting.

Higher doses of it, or taking it in conjunction with relaxation work, brings on deep and restorative sleep, something noted in all of the classical writings on it, from Galen to Avicenna.