Flesh Of The Gods - Religious Drug Use Throughout History

FEATURE | RONGOĀ / DRUGS

Written by Stu Paul (any pronoun)

Contributing Writer

Painting from Jaipur, India, showing the use and effects of bhang, anonymous, ca. 1800.

The spiritual and religious use of mind-altering drugs goes back to the very earliest records in human history. In this article, I will explore several different substances that have been used by various cultures to attain alternate states of consciousness for spiritual and religious purposes.

Soma was the name given to a psychoactive drink used in early Vedic religion (the precursor to Hinduism) that was derived from an as-yet-unknown plant and revered as a deity of night, vegetation and the moon. In early Iranian culture, there was an equivalent drink called haoma. The identity of this plant, and therefore the chemical that caused the psychoactive effects, is unknown to modern scholars and has been variously suggested to be some form of psilocybin mushroom, Syrian rue, or ephedra. Soma had various religious hymns dedicated to it and was said to be consumed by the gods, and Zoroastrians (an ancient Iranian religion) still use a species of the ephedra plant as ‘soma’ in their religious rituals in the modern day.

Kykeon is the name of a mysterious psychoactive drink used by the ancient Greeks for ritual purposes. The Eleusinian Mysteries were a significant religious institution that involved ingestion of the drink kykeon, the identity of which has been hotly debated by academics, and suggested by some to have been ergot-parasitised barley (ergot being a fungal parasite that contains the alkaloid ergotamine, a precursor to LSD). Some traditional classicists had long scoffed at the idea that the Eleusinian Mysteries involved any form of psychoactive drug use, until the 2005 discovery of ergot fragments in both a vase and the gums of a skeleton, found at a temple in Spain dedicated to the two Eleusinian goddesses. The Mysteries were such an important and long-lasting religious ritual in the ancient Mediterranean that two famous figures from classical history, the philosopher Plato and the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, whose lives separated by over 500 years, both participated in the rituals of the Mysteries. 

The Americas have had a long and ancient history of psychoactive substance use as part of spiritual and religious belief. Mescaline is a psychedelic compound found in both the peyote and San Pedro cactus - peyote being native to the southwestern U.S and northern Mexico, and San Pedro being found in the Andean highlands of Ecuador and Peru. Mescaline is a substance with similar effects to LSD and psilocybin mushrooms, and is used as a ritual tool and religious sacrament by indigenous groups such as the Native American Church (where its religious consumption is legally protected by the US federal government, under constitutional freedom of religion). As peyote, small ‘buttons’ of the cactus are consumed in a spiritual and medicinal setting to treat mental health and addiction issues; as San Pedro, the cactus is brewed into a tea by a shaman and then ingested ritualistically for similar reasons. 

Cannabis is one of the most popular and widespread drugs of the modern age. Present in the archaeological record of ancient China and Japan, cannabis cultivation and its use as a medicine and spiritual tool was widespread throughout ancient Central Asia. Chinese Daoist practitioners used cannabis for religious functions - as did Hindu holy men, early Israelite priests, and Mongolian and Russian folk shamans. Ancient Greek historians recorded Scythians using cannabis in their religious funeral rites, comparing it to the Greeks’ own use of intoxicating wine. In the present day, spiritual cannabis use is often associated with Rastafari, a modern Abrahamic religious movement originating in Jamaica. Some Rastafari consume cannabis (called ganja) in a ritualistic context, believing it to have healing properties and to be beneficial to one’s spiritual introspection and growth. In Mexico, the rapidly growing cult of Santa Muerte (a new religious movement that reveres a female personification of death) uses cannabis smoke as an incense for purification ceremonies. 

From soma to kykeon, mescaline to cannabis, mind-altering drugs have been used in human religious traditions since earliest antiquity. Whether used in worship or ritual, medicine or divination, healing or guidance, psychoactive substances are an integral part of the human spiritual experience. When one reflects on contemporary religion in the modern age compared to throughout history, one notices a distinct lack of meaningful ritualistic substance use in current traditions. These drugs have often been sidelined to the arenas of addiction and crime, decoupled from their spiritual origins and looked upon with suspicion and contempt by authorities both religious and secular. I pray for the day when the Pope might roll up a fat joint and get lifted with the Dalai Lama, chiefing that loud skrong hard. 

Ah well, dreams are free.