Psychedelia, page 5
4 Shanon's typology along with his overall discussion of the nature of the ayahuasca trip is examined in detail in Chapter XXI.
'Eleusis is a shrine common to the whole earth, and of all the divine things that exist among men, it is both the most awesome and the most luminous.' 1
II
ALL THINGS THAT EXIST ARE LIGHT
1
We are told in school that the council in Nicaea in the year 325 resulted in a commonly agreed Christian doctrine, upon which a Church for the masses could be built. What we are not told in school is that Christianity was just one of a myriad of faiths and sects propagated around the Mediterranean at the time. There was nothing inevitable about Christianity's rise, nor was there anything singular about the teachings of Christ, even if later theologians and church fathers naturally presented it as such. Ancient agricultural rites were still practiced, and the great mystery schools attracted many educated participants, while the new world capital Alexandria created a magnificent arena for esoteric speculation, as Hellenistic philosophy met Egyptian occultism. Charismatic prophets built followings in remote regions, among which Jesus of Nazareth was one. A modern scholar has suggested that one minor historical alteration would have turned Greco-Roman society, and ultimately the whole Western world, into a culture shaped by the popular cult of Mithra, rather than Christianity.
Apollonius of Tyana was born to a wealthy family in Anatolia around the Christian year zero. Gifted with a strong spiritual inclination, he gave away his inheritance and at age 20 entered a monastery, where he according to the legend observed complete silence for five years. In the lively religious landscape of the time, Apollonius emerged as a wandering teacher of Pythagorean ethics, but his inner quest transformed him into a prophet of a marked syncretic style. Travelling as far ea st as India to learn from Vedic Brahmins, Apollonius merged the nature philosophy of his Hellenistic education with an explicit pantheism-holism of possible Vedic origin. He advocated vegetarianism and respect for nature and engaged in solar worship, but also gave practical advice to the Roman emperor Vespasian on how to govern his state. As it happened, the decades following Apollonius' time were the most peaceful and charitable in all of Rome, under the rule of the pantheist philosopher Marcus Aurelius. In statements opposed to the mores of his time, Apollonius argued against animal sacrifice and the drinking of alcohol, and spoke of the universe as a single organism held together by love.
Apollonius of Tyana lived to reach an atypically high age for his time, and his teachings and acts entered popular legend. In the third century there were attempts by leading intellectuals to present him as an alternative, superior prophet to Jesus of Nazareth, in part to ward off the growing influence of Christianity in the Roman Empire. There were similarities between the two prophets' tales, including a presumed visit to India during the 'lost years' of Christ, and speculation that the two teachers had at some point met. But Jesus was mainly a regional curiosity during the first mid- century, and Apollonius would have no particular interest in disputing or agreeing with him. Nevertheless, the vastly different content of their teachings is noteworthy, not least since many of the ideas that Apollonius proposed would be echoed by other esoteric thinkers over the next 2.000 years, despite persecution from the followers of Jesus of Nazareth.
Apollonius is interesting not because he stands out, but rather because there were many like him; most were quickly forgotten. While the words of Jesus of Nazareth were carefully preserved and propagated by his disciples, what is known of Apollonius' ideas has been found within larger contexts, sometimes of an apocryphal nature. Political wrangling, migratory and mercantile trends, and pure chance, were as important as the actual teachings in deciding which prophet would go on to build a church. The respective fates of Apollonius and Jesus tell us something about the exceptionally complex era that followed the decline of the Greek city-states, before the rise of Christianity. At no other time has such a bewildering mass of spiritual and magic systems been competing for attention.
Some writers have found explicit links to the Eleusinian mysteries in the account of this quasi-legendary prophet, but the presence of Eleusis in Hellenistic culture was everywhere. A transplanted version of the Greater Mysteries had been initiated in Alexandria when it became the new cultural nexus after Athens, but even then the main celebration at Eleusis contin ued, just like it had continued through the downfall of Mycenae a 1.000 years earlier. The Great Temple at Eleusis survived the golden age of Athens, survived the Peloponnesian War since both parties respected its sacredness, and looked to survive the decline of Rome, not least after having been rejuvenated by the emperor Marcus Aurelius, who took a personal interest in the arrangements. To Aurelius, the Mysteries represented a unique inner space between dream visions and celestial healing; the kykeon experience at Eleusis demonstrated to him that higher powers cared about humans. At the time of the Nicaean council, the psychedelic mass celebrations in the Great Temple still went on, not ossified into doctrinal religion but as a living spiritual experience open to anyone who spoke Greek. As Albert Hofmann pointed out in one of his last published writings:
The Eleusinian Mysteries were closely connected with rites and festivities in honor of the god Dionysus. They led essentially to healing, to transcendence of this division between humankind and Nature… Here suffering humankind, split by its objective, rational spirit, found healing in a mystical totality-experience… Here this dualism was annulled… The capability for mystical experience lies in the province of any individual. In like manner, anybody could be initiated at Eleusis, men and women alike, free men and slaves. Eleusis can be our model.
(Hofmann's Elixir, Albert Hofmann 2008)
For the modern student, the 500-year period from classical Greece to the rise of Christianity is notoriously confusing. Applying a psychedelic perspective, some crucial elements seem to stand out. On the one hand there were the celebrations at Eleusis, ground zero for western Psychedelia. On the other hand there was organized Christianity, which would become the triumphant culture that shaped the West, while alternative beliefs such as plant-based vision cults were driven underground. Between these two poles lies a wildly heterogeneous field of thought which received energy from Eleusis and other pagan cults, while in turn charging the development of the three Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Obscure and often deliberately downplayed by the world religions, the independent Hellenist thinkers and philosophies offer intriguing ideas and 'what if' scenarios for psychedelicists. Meanwhile, the Roman Empire expanded their polytheistic pantheon with gods and myths absorbed from various conquered cultures. Except for the official deification of the emperor, this was not an empire built on religious orthodoxy. Rather, the situation may have been like that of the modern West, with a socio-cultural backdrop of a common faith, but little of piety and monastic worship. The Hellenized citizens grew disenchanted with the old Greco-Roman gods who failed to deliver the fortune and security asked for, while their wide-stretched empire saw a vast influx of foreign impulse. It was a great time for spiritual speculation, ranging from voodoo-like magic rites to abstract metaphysical theories.
2
The visionary initiation at Eleusis was just one of several mystery cults flourishing in this era. The historian Walter Burkert, in his standard work Ancient Mystery Cults, identifies five dominant mysteries in the Greco-Roman world. Each has its own origins and ritual format, yet they share several common traits, which include a certain amount of secrecy, a demand upon the participant to study and prepare himself, and an openness towards other creeds and other belief systems. The mysteries all rested upon underlying myths (for Eleusis, the story of Demeter's quest for her daughter Persephone), which in turn may have come out of seasonal fertility rites from pre-historical times. While the Greater Mystery of Eleusis was unique in the drinking of the psychedelic kykeon, other mystery rites strived for similar revelatory experiences. The arrangements sought to mystify the contents of the ritual, so that the initiation gained in attraction and power. Those allowed to partake in the dramatic climax would carry small symbols or talismans by which they could identify each other as secret members of the same cult. It is easy to detect an element of social status-seeking and lust for adventure in these details.
A more important attribute of the mystery cults, including the one at Eleusis, is that they were never intended to be formal religions or philosophical systems. They offered an attractive, spiritually rewarding lifestyle, but were not strongly founded in terms of theology and metaphysics. The emphasis was on personal revelation in the here and now, and while the general direction of this experience was indicated, each mystes found his own higher vision. Aristotle commented upon this by saying that 'at the final stage of mysteries there should be no more learning but experiencing, and a change in the state of mind'. For the modern psychedelicist, in the wake of Acid Tests and all- night dances on the beaches of Goa, this may sound pleasantly familiar. But for those wishing to maintain a link of understanding to the revealed state, the lack of a philosophical framework left the mystery cultists poorly supported. The light of Eleusis would continue to shine through various cracks in the theological armor of Christendom, but the mystery cults were not a challenge to organized mass religion.
A metaphysical system did however exist that could serve as an intellectual framework for the Eleusinian experience. The Greek city states may have been rendered politically insignificant, but Greek culture continued to spread in ever widening circles during the Roman centuries. Then as now, Plato was held in great reverence among students and philosophers, and several Platonic traditions emerged around the vast empire. Of these, the school of thought known as Neoplatonism holds a special interest for the psychedelicist. Carrying on complex relationships with both Christianity and Esotericism, Neoplatonism would resurface through Western history and become a vital force as late as the Renaissance. Interest in Neoplatonism seems to increase during periods of open-minded, non-dogmatic spirituality. While the original thinkers saw themselves simply as 'Platonists', there are self-confessed Neoplatonists still today.
Neoplatonism, as it emerged during the later part of Hellenism (circa 250 A.D.), has at its core the platonic cosmology of a world of phenomena, meaning our everyday reality, and a higher world of ideas. From this basic dualism leading Neoplatonists such as Plotinus developed a more complex and stratified metaphysical hierarchy, in which each plane produces or 'emanates' a lower, less homogenous plane below it, beginning from the top with a perfectly pure, non-dualist state known as 'the One', and ending at the bottom with the emanation of our mundane world. What is vital from a psychedelic perspective is that Neoplatonism, unlike the majority of Esoteric and Gnostic systems of the period, does not view the phenomenal world that we live in as defiled or evil, but rather recognizes the divine origins and fleeting beauty of the physical plane. The emanated beauty of our world is coupled with the possibility for each soul to ascend the ladder of planes to arrive at a higher state of existence. Evil is simply the absence of good, in the way that darkness is the absence of light, and is not an active principle within Neoplatonism. While man has metaphysical salvation within reach in this lifetime, his desires have bound him to the world of matter. After death, man's soul returns to the One, where its energy is absorbed and then redistributed via a new birth. As evident from this summary, there are several intriguing parallels to Mahayana Buddhism.
Plato had found the psychedelic initiation at Eleusis to be in accordance with his philosophy of worldly forms and elevated ideas.2 It is not difficult to see a bridge between the spiritual experience inside the Great Temple, and the world-view of the Neoplatonists. Plotinus confirmed this link in his First Ennead, finding in the preparations of the initiand at Eleusis examples of the right livelihood he promoted: '…to those that approach the Holy Celebrations of the Mysteries, there are appointed purifications and the laying aside of the garments worn before'. There is no contradiction, but rather an agreement, between the celebratory rites of the Greater Mystery, and the ethically conscious lifestyle of Plotinus. His disciple Porphyry referred to Eleusis in a similar way, taking the fasting that preceded the Greater Mysteries as a symbolic expression of a more general, divine admonition: 'In the Eleusinian mysteries, likewise, the initiated are ordered to abstain from domestic birds, from fishes and beans, pomegranates and apples […] whoever is acquainted with the nature of divinely-luminous appearances […] and especially for him who hastens to be liberated from terrestrial concerns, and to be established with the celestial Gods'.
The initiations at Eleusis were still held at the time of Porphyry, and his detailed references suggest that he partook in the Greater Mysteries at some point. Although he expressed theological doubts about the phallic aspects of some mystery cults, it is not surprising to find Porphyry openly siding with the older pantheist-mystic belief-systems in the religious debates of the time, as when he promoted Apollonius of Tyana a superior alternative to Christ. His extensive criticism of Christianity is largely lost, but in a surviving text Porphyry states that 'The gods have proclaimed Christ to have been most pious, but the Christians are a confused and vicious sect'. The 5th century Neoplatonist Proclus offered one of the most explicitly psychedelic accounts of the mystery celebrations (invoked in our prologue) at a time when the Eleusinian rites had already ceased. Either Proclus quoted a predecessor or, more intriguingly, he partook in a secret post-Eleusinian rite elsewhere, featuring a hallucinogenic agent. The vivid nature of his account, including the rare reference to closed-eye hallucinations, indicates the latter. It is therefore possible that hallucinogen-based mystery celebrations existed outside and after Eleusis, although such evidence has yet surface.
After Porphyry and Proclus, the explicit link to Eleusis among Neoplatonists appears to have been lost. The mystery cults were overshadowed by a proliferation of cults and beliefs, including Christianity and Gnosticism. With Porphyry's successor Iamblichus there is a shift towards Esotericism, most evidently with the attention he gives to intermediary 'gods' (whom held little interest to Plotinus), and the introduction of 'theurgy' into the Neoplatonic model. Theurgy is the ritual invocation of a godhead, an element alien to the experiential focus of Eleusis, and more aligned with magical practices of the Orient. Ironically, this 'occult' aspect of Neoplatonism would influence Christianity in the development of the sacraments. At the same time, Iamblichus' teachings were held in high regard by the last non-Christian Roman Emperor, Julian the Apostate. Julian strove to reinstate the former grandeur of Rome, and ousted Jesus Christ in favor of the older polytheistic pantheon, re-opened pre-Christian temples and declared freedom of religion, while seeking to undermine the rapidly growing Middle Eastern sect. After Julian's death in 363, and the destructio n of the great temple in Eleusis in 396, Christianity alone was poised for further expansion, as Rome and the Western world moved into the Middle Ages.
3
But maybe the followers of Jesus of Nazareth were not what they seemed to be. What if Christianity was a cult as deeply rooted in a hallucinogenic plant experience as the Mysteries of Eleusis? Theories along these lines exist, having received their most notable airing via the scandalous The Sacred Mushroom And The Cross (1970). Written by the British linguist John M Allegro, the book presents a radical re-interpretation of the Christian canon, the New Testament in particular. Allegro uses his knowledge of ancient languages like Sumerian and Aramaic to spin a rather fantastic tale of a Jewish group which did not follow the teachings of a prophet named Jesus, but rather maintained a secret mushroom cult worshipping the Amanita muscaria, or fly agaric.
The entire New Testament, according to Allegro's theory, is actually the veiled story of this mushroom cult, its liturgy cleverly disguised via multi-layered puns and foreign words. These mushroom eaters were the earliest 'Christians', and what you read in the evangelist gospels is the story of their plant cult, hidden inside an invented story about a Nazarene prophet who provoked the local authorities and was crucified. The fly agaric cult later disappeared but their codified writings survived, and in short order these were picked up by students who did not understand the mycophilic twilight language, but took the Gospel of Jesus at face value, and from this misguided start they founded the world religion known today.
It would be wrong to say that the Christian community greeted Allegro's scholarly suggestion – that Jesus Christ was in fact a toad-stool – with open arms. The book appeared during a period of freewheeling psychedelic speculation, but John Allegro could not be dismissed as some hippie space cadet. Ancient languages from the Middle East were his specialty, and his merit list included translation work on the Dead Sea Scrolls, one of the great philological discoveries of the 20th century. The Sacred Mushroom And The Cross is packed with lexical references, multi-language indexes and footnotes, looking much like any academic work. One reason why it's been rarely discussed among psychedelicists is because Allegro, despite the scholarly appearance, left his work open for many types of criticism. A curious foreword which waxes on a 'great penis in the sky' sets the book off on a problematic note. This huge, anthropological penis occurs frequently in the text, along with a notable attention given to vulvas, semen and coitus. Almost everything looks like a penis, including the mushroom, which is said to resemble a penis which grows out of a vulva. Whether this genital fixation was as central to Sumerian culture, and language, as Allegro claims, is for experts to comment upon. Its relevance in a book that deals with events thousands of years after the Mesopotamian high culture seems questionable, and a cynical reader may surmise that a tabloid 'drugs & sex' formula was applied in the writing. Despite Allegro's academic background his book was a commercial product, having first been serialized in the Sunday Mirror. A psychedelic rea der, of course, may find Allegro's fearless strangeness entertaining.
