Moonflower Tattoo Meaning

The night, hidden beauty, and the bloom that opens when all else closes.

The Moonflower is the bloom that opens into the night — the great white night-blooming vine that unfurls its fragrant flowers in the dark when the day's flowers close, sacred in old ceremony, the keeper of the night's hidden beauty. To carry the Moonflower is to carry the night, hidden beauty, and the bloom that opens when all else closes — the sacred night-flower of the Americas, the vine that tends the other half of the clock, the beauty that comes alive in the dark.

The moonflower is a plant of deep significance in the Americas: Ipomoea alba — the moonflower — is native to tropical America and was used by Aztec priests in ceremony; its seeds (like morning glory seeds generally) contain ergine, a psychoactive compound chemically related to LSD, used in ritual contexts for visionary states. The moonflower is a large night-blooming vine, related to the morning glory, native to tropical America, bearing great fragrant white flowers that open in the evening — and it held a sacred place in the ceremonial traditions of Mesoamerica.

The seeds of the moonflower, like those of related morning glories, contain ergine, a naturally occurring psychoactive compound chemically related to LSD — and these seeds were used by Aztec priests and other Mesoamerican peoples in sacred ceremonial contexts, to induce visionary states for religious and divinatory purposes. The plant was thus not merely an ornamental beauty but a sacred ceremonial plant, bound to the inducing of visions and the practices of priests. The Mesoamerican moonflower is thus the sacred night-flower of the Americas — the night-blooming vine used by Aztec priests in ceremony for visionary states. Ipomoea alba (moonflower), native to tropical America, was used by Aztec priests in ceremony, its ergine-containing seeds employed in ritual for visionary states. The Mesoamerican moonflower is the sacred night-flower of the Americas — Ipomoea alba, the moonflower, is native to tropical America and was used by Aztec priests in ceremony, its seeds (like morning glory seeds generally) containing ergine, a psychoactive compound chemically related to LSD, used in ritual contexts for visionary states; a large night-blooming vine related to the morning glory, native to tropical America, bearing great fragrant white flowers that open in the evening, holding a sacred place in the ceremonial traditions of Mesoamerica — its seeds, like those of related morning glories, containing the naturally occurring psychoactive ergine, used by Aztec priests and other Mesoamerican peoples in sacred ceremonial contexts to induce visionary states for religious and divinatory purposes, not merely an ornamental beauty but a sacred ceremonial plant bound to the inducing of visions and the practices of priests.

Ipomoea alba (moonflower, moon vine) is in the same genus as the morning glory — it is, essentially, a morning glory that blooms at night. Its large white flowers open at dusk, sometimes visibly — the petals unfurl over the course of minutes, which is fast enough to watch. They are pollinated by hawk moths, which can hover at the flower while feeding in the same way that hummingbirds hover at day-blooming flowers. The flower closes by mid-morning. The seeds of Ipomoea species contain ergine (d-lysergic acid amide, LSA) — a compound that produces effects similar to LSD at sufficient doses. Aztec priests used morning glory seeds (ololiuqui) in divination ceremonies — the practice was documented and suppressed by Spanish missionaries. The moon association is not merely poetic: the moonflower's blooming is triggered by declining light levels, making it more sensitive to moonlight than day-blooming plants.

Moonflower across cultures

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