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Thomas Hatsis

Psychedelic Mystery Traditions: Spirit Plants, Magical Practices, and Ecstatic States Paperback – Illustrated, September 11, 2018

by Thomas Hatsis (Author), Stephen Gray (Foreword)

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A comprehensive look at the long tradition of psychedelic magic and religion in Western Civilization

• Explores the use of psychedelics and entheogens from Neolithic times through Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance to the Victorian era and beyond

• Reveals how psychedelics were integrated into pagan and Christian magical practices and demonstrates how one might employ a psychedelic agent for divination, sex magic, alchemy, communication with gods, and more

• Examines the role of entheogens in the Mysteries of Eleusis in Greece, the worship of Isis in Egypt, the Dionysian mysteries, and the magical practices of the Thessalian witches as well as Jewish, Roman, and Gnostic traditions

Unbeknownst--or unacknowledged--by many, there is a long tradition of psychedelic magic and religion in Western civilization. As Thomas Hatsis reveals, the discovery of the power of psychedelics and entheogens can be traced to the very first prehistoric expressions of human creativity, with a continuing lineage of psychedelic mystery traditions from antiquity through the Renaissance to the Victorian era and beyond.

Describing how, when, and why different peoples in the Western world utilized sacred psychedelic plants, Hatsis examines the full range of magical and spiritual practices that include the ingestion of substances to achieve altered states. He discusses how psychedelics facilitated divinatory dream states for our ancient Neolithic ancestors and helped them find shamanic portals to the spirit world. Exploring the mystery religions that adopted psychedelics into their occult rites, he examines the role of entheogens in the Mysteries of Eleusis in Greece, the worship of Isis in Egypt, and the psychedelic wines and spirits that accompanied the Dionysian mysteries. The author investigates the magical mystery traditions of the Thessalian witches as well as Jewish, Roman, and Gnostic traditions. He reveals how psychedelics were integrated into pagan and Christian magical practices and demonstrates how one might employ a psychedelic agent for divination, magic, alchemy, or god and goddess invocation. He explores the use of psychedelics by Middle Eastern and medieval magicians and looks at the magical use of cannabis and opium from the Crusaders to Aleister Crowley.

From ancient priestesses and Christian gnostics, to alchemists, wise-women, and Victorian magicians, Hatsis shows how psychedelic practices have been an integral part of the human experience since Neolithic times.

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Park Street Press
Publication date

September 11, 2018
Dimensions

6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1620558009
ISBN-13

978-1620558003
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Thomas Hatsis leads us on a fascinating journey into the spiritual magic of elixirs--into the realm of the gods, daemons, witches, and mystery schools. This rigorously researched book is for magicians, adepts, and devotees of psychedelic magic.” ― Margaret De Wys, author of Black Smoke and Ecstatic Healing

About the Author

Thomas Hatsis is a historian of psychedelia, witchcraft, magic, pagan religions, alternative Christianities, and the cultural intersection of those areas, who holds a master’s degree in history from Queens College. The author of The Witches’ Ointment, he runs psychedelicwitch.com, a site dedicated to promoting the latest and best information pertaining to the Psychedelic Renaissance. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 3
Cosmic Graell: Mystery of the Sacred Feminine
c. 5,000 - 500 BCE

Of Grain and Flesh

Her lashes slowly released; every memory of the Grain Mother--stories heard in childhood; prayers she now recited over her own crops in adulthood--emanated from her mind into the sanctuary’s air, smelting with the other congregants’ visionary reverberations into a collective, luminescent vision of the Goddess.

Blossoming beyond bicameral boundaries, every blink sent cool waves of inspiration through the souls of those gathered, the kind of cosmic honey we savor each time mystery gives way to epiphany; only then can we understand why the hierophants (a priest of mystery religions) sounded the gong; only then can we raise our glasses in honor of the dead.

Only then does the Cosmic Graell pour forth its mystery.

The divine howl of the ancestors echoed in the bones of the Eleusinian mystai (an initiate at the Rites of Eleusis). They had drunk the kykeon; they had removed the “sacred objects” (kistai) from a sacred chest; they placed the objects in a basket; they put them back into the original chest.

Birth; life; death; it all made sense now. Gaia’s harvest of wheat and flesh, cosmic sickles cycling the fields of stars and galaxy clusters; likewise, an organic reaping of bones and breath. Now you are alive, now you are dead; now this universe is here, now it is gone. She recognized her part in this dance, this endless pouring forth of the Cosmic Graell into the vast seas of infinity. She was no mere spectator; she was the chalice itself, keeper of all the mysteries and miracles of conception. She was the contents as well, the waterfall of creative majesty. And in a moment her old life, which promised only fear of the ego’s termination at death, dissipated in the radiance of this ecstatic baptism.

And so she danced with the other mystai.

Danced throughout the night.

Danced joyously in a waking dream …

The kykeon brought the mystai into relation with Demeter; and Demeter acted as a bridge giving mortals access to the Underworld.

It has been noted that the imbibing of this drink preceded the revealers’ visionary trances during the Rites of Eleusis. Therefore, academics of psychedelic history have posited that the beverage contained some kind of psychedelic pharmakon (in the ancient West, the tern pharmakon--or pharmaka, plural--included psychedelics, non-psychedelics, and even cosmetics). Indeed, the rites lasted for over two thousand years uninterrupted and bestowed more or less the same experience upon everyone.

However, breaking with those contemporary scholars who see the ingredient in the kykeon as stagnant throughout the ages, I side with Amanda Noconi: that the potion contained a psychedelic, the identity of which probably changed over time, depending on what pharmakon was available. We, today, care about the proper floral or fungal identification of the kykeon because we are psychonauts living at a time when concepts like “botanical classification” are encountered as early as primary school. So we just think in that way. The ancient Greeks, to say nothing of the Mycenaean culture that predated it, held no such models. At best, they classified medicinal and psychedelic flora in magical, not botanical, terms. As I hope to demonstrate in this chapter, while the psychedelic most likely changed over time, there exists enough evidence to take a “snapshot” of a particular pharmakon, added to the kykeon, frozen in Eleusinian history.

Now, it is totally possible to enter trance states without the use of a pharmakon; especially for a skilled shaman. For sure, such ancient techniques like fasting, isolation, and dancing have been used equally as long as any psychedelic to achieve higher states of awareness. However, ensuring that sometimes hundreds of celebrants at a time (who were ordinary people, not shamans) would see a vision of Persephone required some kind of prompt; something no one who drank the kykeon could have missed. Indeed, the telesterion was not outfitted for theater. Instead of the familiar series of elevating semicircles found in a Grecian theater that allows everyone in the audience to see, the telesterion featured long benches lined against the walls for the mystai to sit. In front of them, a “forest of pillars” blocked any possible view of a stage, should there have even been a stage at all. This venue is hardly conducive to a theatrical act. Furthermore, surviving receipts for the temple say nothing of actors, props, drapes, anything that would lead one to believe that the ceremony relied on a person enjoying nothing more than a staged performance.

There had to be a way for each mystai to generate a vision without fail.

Even without shamanic training.

Every time.

For over two thousand years ….

The theory of a psychedelic kykeon has gained acceptance by many modern ethnobotanists and scholars who no longer question if a pharmakon played a role at Eleusis, but rather ask what kind of pharmakon did the congregants imbibe? A recent debate between Ivan Valencic and Peter Webster outlines this deliberation. Valencic argues on the side of Terrance McKenna and Robert Graves that the “astonishment and ecstasy” of the kykeon, contained mushrooms; Webster, upholding the original view by Albert Hofmann, namely, that a form of ergot provided the necessary entheogenic additive.

While I agree with both fellows that the kykeon was psychedelic in some way, I do not think the active ingredient was either ergot or a shroom. Or rather, I don’t think the only possibilities are ergot or a mushroom. Or rather, I think that the entheogen pantheon was such that the kykeon, at one time or another could have included ergot or a mushrooms or a variety of other plants, depending on what was available.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Park Street Press; Illustrated edition (September 11, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1620558009
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1620558003
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.03 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #305,024 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #375 in Paganism
- #1,507 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences
- #2,841 in Historical Study (Books)

Customer Reviews:
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Thomas Hatsis

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Thomas Hatsis is an historian of witchcraft, magic, Western religions, contemporary psychedelia, entheogens, and medieval pharmacopeia. He has worked in historical research at Queens College and taught history at Pioneer Pacific College. A derbygypsy, juggler, musician, and potion-mixer, Hatsis also skates throughout the global derby underworld, dodging police, visiting rare archives, slinging elixirs, and coaching roller derby. He lives … somewhere … with a kitty cat.

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Top reviews from the United States

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S. Cranow

Western Spiritual Pharmakon

Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2020

Verified Purchase

Contrary to popular belief Psychadelics have played a major role in the development of Western spirituality. Spiritualists have been using Psychadelic since the days of the Bible. Such Psychadelic pharmacon would include opium, cannabis,henbane, mandrake root, mushroom etc. They have been used to access the divine, empower magic, cause deities to materialize you name it,

Going back to biblical times. We have Kane Bose or sweet cane being used in rituals and in healing aids. Sweet cane is Cannabis. It may well have been present in the incense they used in their rituals. Jesus used it to heal in his anointing oil. Many Christian sects especially Gnostic Christians used psychadelics in their rituals as a way to becoming closer to god. When Pagans converted to the new faith they often brought their use of psychadelics with them. Most Christians had a taste for mandrake root as it resembled a man.

The Greeks and Romans made use of many Psychadelic plants. Most noted are the mystery traditions associated with Dionysus and Demeter. Dionysus was associated with wine and his followers were known for their drunk revelries. The Eleusinian mysteries was about going down to the netherworld in a shamanistic experience. Other deities associated with magic also had knowledge of Psychadelic plants.

Indeed Circe and Madea both associated with Hekate had knowledge of plants and how to use them. Plant knowledge most likely goes back to the first women who learned how to use them . This was feminine based spirituality. They had the access.
Fairy women in Europe knew all about these plants and were often the village healers.

The Church when converting Pagans often used psychadelics themselves. The incense often contained psychoactive chemicals. This would make a believer out of anyone. Plus pagans brought their psychadelics with them.

Throughout Medieval times psychadelics were used in high magical rituals. Apothecaries gave magicians access to these p,us a whole lot more. The use of psychadelics only became demonized over time when it was associated with witchcraft.

This is one great book. Not only does it give the hisotry of psychadelics in western spirituality but it also teaches one different angles of the myths we know and loved. Look forward to reading more by this author.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Ms. Jackson

Nothing new or insightful...

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2018

Just another book trying to cash in on history rather than attempt to capture anything new or groundbreaking that hasn't been detailed before. Also, don't try to disprove origins of Siberian Shamanism until you've looked over Mycologist Lawrence Millman who has trek'd and studied siberian culture, as he details substantial evidences that further extend the thesis, including wild reindeer hunting for Amanita Muscaria as well as the Sami herding wild reindeer for thousands of years. Is it so hard for you to accept the fact that Indigenous People learned part of their practices from other members of the same kingdom? -> That later expanded into Norse Mythology by intermingling with Germanic Tribes, later intersecting with other mythologies in the Netherlands prior to the myth of St. Nicholas reaching America? -> A Myth based upon this intersection, containing characteristics that belong to previous Bishops, as well as Norse, Roman & Teutonic Deities?

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Sunshine1006

Use of medicinals thru the ages for use in religious ceremonies

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2018

Very impressed by this in-depth book of the use of psychedelics thru the earliest history for health, communicating with God's and magical workings. What kind of points and when to use them is discussed thoroughly. I recommend it it to all whom have an interest in expanding your know of this subject. I think it's a great book, probably the best I have read on the subject. .I received this book from Net Galley for an honest review and no compensation otherwise.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Chris Bennett

Excellent overview

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2019

A balanced and entertaining overview of the role of psychoactive substances in the spiritual and magical history of humanity.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

DAVID STAMPE

Hard to tell fact from speculative reconstruction.

Reviewed in Canada on October 22, 2018

Verified Purchase

Despite a foreword by Stephen Gray that admires the author’s dedicated research and clarity in marking speculation from fact, I was very unsure most of the time as to what was real and what was fact. Quoting authors if the time who are known to be inaccurate, biased, or speculating themselves, does not count as proving facts.
The majority of this writing seems to be reconstructive speculation or even narrating scenes that are pure fiction, and most “new” finding are speculation or the author’s opinions. So I had to refer to other sources to find out what was real or even academically justified. Eventually I just gave up and browsed it as a speculative work. Perhaps the writer was trying to sensationalize or popularize history that he was interested in, but if so it lost any claim as accurate or a reference work.

One person found this helpful

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