The following is excerpted from the new book Mushrooms, Myths & Mithras: The Drug Cult that Civilized Europe by Carl Ruck, Mark Alwin Hoffman, José Alfredo González Celdrán published by City Lights. Our greatest blessings come to us by way of madness, provided madness is given us by way of divine gift. –Socrates, Phaedrus Various traditions recall the events of a “First Supper.” […]
In light of recent specific liberalizations in drug laws in some countries, this article investigates the potential of entheogens (i.e. psychoactive plants used as spiritual sacraments) as tools to facilitate existential intelligence. “Plant teachers” from the Americas such as ayahuasca, psilocybin mushrooms, peyote, and the Indo-Aryan soma of Eurasia are examples of both past- […]
By Douglas Main The story of Santa and his flying reindeer can be traced to an unlikely source: hallucinogenic or “magic” mushrooms, according to one theory. “Santa is a modern counterpart of a shaman, who consumed mind-altering plants and fungi to commune with the spirit world,” said John Rush, an anthropologist and instructor […]
Reconnecting with Nature Effective education must have a large experiential component, I said. Given the current critical imbalance between humans and other species, nature should be a primary area of experiential education. We should balance the abstractions of our classrooms with experiences of the wholeness of living, growing wild things. Following the centuries-old practice of […]
Art by Amanda Sage Gilbert Ross, Guest Waking Times Shamanism is a topic that is still more prevalent in anthropologic studies than in mainstream discussions of culture and society. For the western psyche, shamanism is a thing of the past, some type of sorcery used in relatively ‘primitive’ societies and cultures. The lack of understanding inherent […]
art by Charles Frizzell Gary ‘Z’ McGee, Staff Writer Waking Times “It is easy to go down into Hell; night and day, the gates of dark Death stand wide; but to climb back again, to retrace one’s steps to the upper air — there’s the rub, the task.” –Virgil Ghost talker? Vision poet? Soothsayer? Oracle? Bridge between […]
Enheo art by Android Jones ‘The Shaman’s Last Apprentice’ is a narrative documentary focusing on the story of Rebekah Shaman, who in 1997 followed a vision she received from a Shaman calling her to the Amazon, where she found and studied intensively with a powerful Ayahuasquero Shaman in a little village […]
related: http://abzu2.wordpress.com/?s=entheogens
related: One of our most informed and informative shamanic practitioners, Alberto Villoldo is a psychologist and medical anthropologist by training. He directs The Four Winds Society, where he instructs people around the world in the practice of energy medicine. He has written numerous bestselling books, including Shaman, Healer, Sage; The Four Insights, Courageous Dreaming and […]
Keith Varnum, Guest Waking Times Shamanism is a very practical spirituality. A modern-day shaman could live next door to you and the only clues you might have are that they get along well with people and animals and have a green thumb with plants. Also, shamans have a knack for putting people at ease and […]
The following is an excerpt from Paul Devereux’s The Long Trip: A Prehistory of Psychedelia (available from Amazon US and Amazon UK), reprinted with permission. The Long Trip is… …probably the most comprehensive single volume to look at the use of mind-altering drugs, or entheogens, for ritual and shamanistic purposes throughout humanity’s long story, while […]