Alchemically Stoned P.D.Newman.pdf

This book is respectfully dedicated to all who have been persecuted in their quest for Enlightenment and Transcendence.

OPENING PRAYER As Freemasons, we are taught never to begin any large or important undertaking without first invoking the blessing of Deity. I will therefore begin this undertaking with a portion of a prayer drawn from the Holy Royal Arch degree as it appears in the American York Rite. "Give us the grace to diligently scrutinize your word in the book of nature, in which the duties of our high calling are instilled with divine authority."

DROED ALCHEMICALLY The Psychedelic Secret of Freemasonry

PD Newman, 32º The Laudable Pursuit Press Publicado por The Laudable Pursuit Press. 2017

The Laudable Pursuit www.thelaudablepursuit.com E-mail:[email protected]helaudablepursuit.com Printed by Lulu.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: ACACIA The Acacia branch and DMT.................................. . ..... .........................20 DMT and the Russian Rite of Melissino........... . ...... ....................28 DMT and the Egyptian Rite of Count Cagliostro .......... . ...........32 DMT and the Fratres Lucis ..... ............................ ................ .40 Endogenous DMT Production and the Pineal Gland ............................ 42 Conclusion of the DMT ..................................................................... ................................46 Union of Plants ................... .. ................................ ............... ... .................. 48 PART II: ERGOT Freemasonry and the Eleusinian Mysteries ................ ...................... 54 Ages and Cascades ............... ......... .......... ................ .................62 The Serpent's Vine .. ........................... ................................... .. ................... ........70 PART III : FLY AGARIC Masonic Templars, Guardians of the Grail ....... ................................ ... ............76 Baphoment and the Golden Fleece ............................. . ............... 80 The Holy Grail and Soma ............. . .................... .................................. ...............86 The Christian Connection ..................................... . ............................................................92 The Phoenix, the Rose-Cross and the Secret Royal .... .........................96 Mushrooms Among the Rosicrucians.............. . ... .....................................................100 Aleister and Amanitas .. .. ... ....................... ...................... . ...........108 The hecatomb of Pythagoras .... .................. ........... ........................................ 112 The Hoopoe and the Shamir Worm ........... ..................... ...116 Final Considerations .......... ............. ................... ................ ............... .120 PART IV: C OMPLEMENT DOCUMENTS ON PSILOCYBIN MUSHROOMS Psilocybe Cubensis: A Wor Candidate for Philosopher's Stone ..... ......................... ................ ..... ................................. ............... .... .....136 Sukaramaddava and psilocybin ...................... ............... ........ .... ...............140 APPENDIX Reports of experience with dimethyltryptamine ............................ .... ....... ...........144 Further Reading on Entheogens........................... .. ................. ........ 176 Further Reading on Freemasonry ............... . ................................................178 Works cited .. ..................................... ............. ............................ 180

Acknowledgments I would like to mention several important people, with

I am whose help and assistance this book may never have seen the light of day. First, I would like to thank my incredible wife, Rebecca Newman, for her constant support and patience throughout the writing process. You are my cornerstone and my muse. I am also grateful to Chris Bennett, Michael S. Downs, Dr. David Harrison, Steve Burkle and Arturo de Hoyos. Their friendships and guidance made a world of difference. I would also like to thank Ryan Whittenburg, Susan and Mike Dye, and an anonymous Master Mason from Rice University for their financial contributions to this project. Finally, I want to thank Jason Marshall, Matt Anthony, and The Laudable Pursuit for making this publication possible.

Foreword In this sensational new book, P.D. Newman argues that the use of DMT was an essential ingredient in certain Masonic rites, notably the Egyptian Rite of Cagliostro and the Rite of Melissino, something he added to the overall ritual experience. These lost 18th century rites are something that interests me deeply, and the idea that certain rites involved the digestion or smoking of the root extracts of a certain species of acacia that had hallucinogenic properties to produce an effect on a particular person. The hostel room is fascinating. Newman's work details the use of DMT in various initiation rituals throughout history and provides an argument for his theory that is at once compelling, amusing, and interesting. The acacia branch is a strong symbol within Freemasonry, and Newman presents us with a new twist on the meaning behind this symbol. Newman also presents us with the history of the symbol of the acacia within the masonry, since its mention in expositions of the 18th century, and how during the third grade, it became an essential ingredient in the ritual of the mason masters, perhaps in more than a sense. - Dr. David Harrison, author of The Genesis of Freemasonry

AUTHOR'S PREFACE It is true that I am a scholastic amateur. My only credential is that I am a member of the Masonic Fraternity. However, I am the only one qualified to write this book. Before becoming a Freemason, I spent the last decade and a half studying entheogens and their role in different cultures, religions, indigenous societies and ancient mystery traditions. Much of that time was also spent experimenting with many of these same entheogenic compounds, provided I could safely acquire and ingest them without fear of legal repercussions. During this period I was very fortunate to receive sacraments from plants as diverse as ayahuasca, Salvia divinorum, sacred cacti, 'magic mushrooms', the so-called Hawaiian vine seeds and much more, and all in more ways than one. a few hundred times. I can say without hesitation and without a doubt that these experiences are among the most precious and meaningful of my entire life. And that's not easy to say, not in my culture at least. Indeed, in most parts of the West, drugs deemed to have no medicinal value have been demonized and criminalized. No real effort has been made to distinguish the very substantial differences between plant entheogens on the one hand and harmful and addictive compounds such as crack, methamphetamine or heroin on the other. But there is a difference; a big. Where crack, meth and heroin etc. to make someone a slave, captive and abused by the drug, entheogens have the direct opposite effect. Entheogenic compounds are known to free the spirit and expand the mind and consciousness. They serve to open the mind, as it were, to different and previously unfathomable modes of thought and consciousness. The word entheogen literally means that which generates the divine within. Recent evidence has shown that, contrary to the fallacious claims promoted by the DEA and the FDA over the last half century, that entheogenic compounds kill brain cells, etc., some entheogens actually do have the ability to regenerate brain cells.1 I think that's about it. Quite remarkable. And that's not to mention its therapeutic value for those suffering from terminal illnesses, nervous disorders like PTSD, alcoholism and addiction, and a whole host of other illnesses and disorders that are difficult or even impossible to treat or cure. 1 Catlow, B. J. Effects of psilocybin on hippocampal neurogenesis and extinction of fear conditioning.

That said, I did not ask for the three degrees of Freemasonry expecting to find evidence of entheogenic symbolism. Instead, after a particularly profound and transformative entheogenic experience, I made the decision to put entheogens aside for an indefinite period of time and focus my efforts on achieving initiation along more traditional paths; ways that are socially accepted within my own culture. These efforts brought me to the door of Freemasonry, where I knocked and the Lodge was opened to me. Once inside, it was a shock and pleasant surprise to find evidence of symbolism pointing to those entheogenic compounds that set me on the path to Freemasonry. I felt I had come full circle, and this little book is my meager attempt to document these discoveries. It must also be said that while entheogenic symbols may well be present in Masonic ritual,

Freemasonry does not condone the use of illegal drugs in any way, shape or form. We, as Free and Accepted Masons, are explicitly charged with the task of being peaceful, cheerful, law-abiding citizens of the countries in which we reside. However, Freemasonry accepts good men of all religions, provided those men profess a belief in a supreme being and the immortality of the soul. There is no shortage of religious organizations in the West, including the Native American Church, the União do Vegetal and the Santo Daime, which adhere to these same beliefs and are also given the legal right to use certain entheogenic compounds sacramentally, provided these compounds are employed within the context ceremonial of their own religion. Furthermore, not all entheogens are illegal outside of religious use. There are no laws in force in the United States, for example, against the consumption of plant sacraments such as Amanita muscaria mushrooms, seeds of Argyreia nervosa, seeds of various Ipomoea seeds or Datura stramonium, etc., all of which have a long history. religious and initiatory use. Therefore, if you decide to experiment with any of the entheogenic compounds discussed in this book, whether you are a Freemason or not, I recommend that you do so safely and within the bounds of the laws of the state or country in which you reside. Lastly, do your research. We are instructed in Mutus Liber, "Ore, lege, lege, lege, relege, labora et inventies"; Pray, read, read, read, read again and then work and find out. Proper identification and preparation, and especially correct dosage, are critical. As the alchemist and physician Paracelsus once warned, poison is in everything, and what makes something a poison or a medicine is simply the dose. Travel light. December 27, 2014 Myrtle, Mississippi

Introduction Throughout history there have been seemingly spontaneous outbreaks of spirituality, sometimes leading to the subsequent formation of cults and religious institutions. We see this happening today too, across the world, at a pace unprecedented in history. New cults, new religions, new messiahs and guru figures are popping up everywhere we look, many or most of them falling to Earth some time later, leaving believers to pick up the pieces of their lives for themselves. Such developments can be both positive and negative: positive if leaders and organizations operate ethically and morally, negative if they do not. Many times we have seen charismatic leaders and movements entice people to give up their autonomy in the service of a guru or group, and often their money and possessions as well. The followers are practically mesmerized. Spouses and children are sometimes separated and indoctrinated separately, to their ultimate detriment. Sexual favors are often demanded; indeed, sometimes people's very lives are sacrificed. Some guru figures even secretly give their followers powerful drugs to keep them in line and "believers", as we saw with the followers of Jim Jones. History also records the many attempts to help humanity continue to operate from a place of cooperation and compassion rather than competition and greed. Such attempts are often viewed with suspicion or outright vilified by those who do not possess the same virtues that these groups espouse, and these attempts are labeled as evil conspiracies or the very type of cults they are trying to protect people from. However, the fact that "good" groups also have secret rituals that the uninitiated are unaware of raises the same deep suspicions as "bad" groups. Perhaps the most famous of organizations, and the most accused of fraud, is the Masonic Order. However, Freemasons claim a very high moral and ethical baseline for themselves. All right, but if everything the group does is ethical and beneficial, what's the need for secrecy? This is the big question, and it's one that Freemasons have traditionally had difficulty answering to the satisfaction of those who want to know more. But perhaps there is a very good reason for the secrecy. What if the acacia branch in the Master Mason degree is more than a symbol? What if the acacia branch was originally intended to help the candidate experience the profound and magnanimous spiritual nature of his initiatory vows and admonitions, in fact, his very being? What if the active compounds in that branch were deemed "illegal" or "irreligious" or "demonic" by one's society or religion? These might not sound like good reasons for secrecy? PD Newman, himself a 32nd degree Mason, has studied this problem inside out and back for many years. You like evidence, and you know that evidence isn't always in obvious places. You also know that proof, even as good as the ones presented here, is not necessarily proof, but don't let that deter you, dear reader, from seeing it that way. - Clark Heinrich, author of Strange Fruit

PART I: ACACIA

THE ACACIA BRANCH AND DMT “Q. What qualifies a man for the Seventh Order [of Freemasonry]? A. [The] composition of the Great Elixir.” 1

The acacia branch is an important symbol within Freemasonry. But, as he is about to learn, unknown even to the Brotherhood's own initiates, the acacia tree is rich in more than just symbolism. The theory expounded here is certainly the most controversial that Freemasonry has seen advocated by one of its own acolytes since 1912, when Theodor Reuss boldly declared that "[Sex Magic is] the KEY which unlocks all Masonic and Hermetic secrets". 2 And, at first glance, one might even suspect that our proposal is equally scandalous. Truly, what we are proposing is as taboo, if not more, than the notion of sex magic. Because our solution is a hallucinogenic drug; i.e. DMT or dimethyltryptamine. Therefore, the reader is asked to keep an open, albeit skeptical, mind. It is allegorically said that an acacia branch marked the head of the tomb of our beloved Grand Master Hiram Abiff, prompting those journey-weary Companions of the Art to discover the spot where the three despicable ruffians had deposited their precious remains. In addition to its presence in the Master Mason degree, the acacia branch also appears in the Perfect Master degree3, is mentioned in the degree of Elu of the Nine4 and is represented on the cord, in addition to being referenced in the Perfect degree. in the Southern Jurisdiction of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Symbolically, the acacia branch is considered emblematic of "our faith in the immortality of the soul", and this is due to the fact that acacia is said to be evergreen. something else to this humble yet powerful symbol. For, as we shall soon see, the acacia and related plants have been an important element in many of the ancient Mysteries lore. 1 Morris, S. Brent. The Postman's False Exposition of 1723. 2 Ford, Gary. The O.T.O. It is Clandestine Freemasonry. 3 5th year, AASR. 4 Grade 9, AASR. 5 Grade 14, AASR. 6 Depending on the species, acacia can be deciduous or evergreen. The acacia species native to Jerusalem that is the prime candidate for the acacia appearing in the Master Mason degree, Acacia senegal, is deciduous.

And, in the initiation rites and shamanic ceremonies of some surviving indigenous and semi-civilized societies, they still serve as far more than just powerful symbols. In the formidable lecture he wrote for the title of Master Mason, Albert Pike wrote in Morals and Dogma that the acacia is “the same tree that grew around the body of Osiris. It was sacred among the Arabs, who made it the idol AlUzza, which Muhammad destroyed. It is abundant like a bush in the desert of Thur: and from it was composed the 'crown of thorns', which was placed on the forehead of Jesus of Nazareth. He is a suitable type of immortality due to his tenacity of life; because it is well known that, when planted as a door lintel, it takes root again, and springs up on the threshold. 7 In a modest footnote to the Master Mason title in his recently published book Masonic Formulas and Rituals, Pike added that the “acacia branch [stands] in memory of the true cross, which is said to have been made of this wood. This acacia branch took the place of the myrtle branch carried by the Memphis initiates. ... [The] golden branch, which Virgil gives to Aeneas, that he may descend to the infernal regions, has the same origin.” 8 Finally, in the Perfect Elu degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, we learn from the Legend that "the acacia ... is the satah or satam wood of the Hebrew scriptures, ...used in the building of the Tabernacle and Temple, and therefore Symbol of Sanctity and Divine Truth.... Is it not... not only the Symbol of Immortality, but of that life of

innocence and purity that believers await when they are resurrected to a new, spiritual existence.” 9 In early versions of the Master Mason degree there is no mention of an acacia branch anywhere. Instead, the references are to a branch of cassia, an entirely different plant that has no real psychotropic value. Cassia, botanically labeled Cinnamonum cassia, is a cinnamon-like evergreen tree native to southern China10, while acacia, which can be evergreen or deciduous, is a genus of nearly a thousand species. , with all but about ten originating in Australia.11 Sometime between the 1730s and 1745, a change was made across the board, and cassia would forever become acacia in Masonic ritual. Masonic scholar Albert G. Mackey argued in his Encyclopedia that the original inclusion of cassia in the Master Mason degree was nothing more than an error likely arising "from the very common habit among illiterate people of burying the sound of the letter a in the pronunciation of any word of which the initial syllable constitutes.”12 Acacia, therefore, would have become cassia. However, we are not so convinced. There is absolutely no evidence to support the assumption that the switch from cassia to acacia was not deliberate. Furthermore, even William Preston, who is largely responsible for the titles as we know them, provided cassia in his draft of the Master Mason title. It would be difficult to explain how a man of Preston's caliber and literacy could not pronounce a word as simple and common as acacia. While we don't know who is responsible for implementing this change, we may have figured out why it was made. Our solution is alchemical and entheogenic. 7th hole, Arturo. Albert Pike's Morals and Dogma: Annotated Edition., p. 155. 8 De Hoyos, Arturo. Albert Pike's Masonic Formulas and Rituals, pg. 112. 9 Pike, Albert. Legend of the Perfection Shop, p. 12.

Freemasonry's convergence with alchemy dates back to at least the early 1720s, when John Theophilus Desaguliers (1683-1744) served as the third Grand Master of the first Grand Lodge of London. Desaguliers served as a research assistant to Sir Isaac Newton at the Royal Society, each of whom is known to have alchemical leanings, if not actual practicing alchemists. Indeed, in early 2016, a recipe for making the legendary philosopher's stone, taken from Starkey and written in Newton's own hand, was discovered in a private collection.13 If anyone really was behind the widespread shift from cassia to acacia in The Master Degree of Freemason, Desaguliers, powerful in Freemasonry and knowledgeable in the subjects of Alchemy, is perhaps the best candidate. After all, he is suspected to have been instrumental in the very development of the Master Mason degree.14 Furthermore, in her book John Theophilius Desaguliers: A Natural Philosopher, Engineer, and Freemason in Newtonian England, Audrey T. Carpenter discusses a letter in which the Duke of Chandos urged Desaguliers to persuade the alchemist Baron Silburghe, who claimed to have been the successful 10th Li, Xi-Wen. Cinnamon Cassia. 11 Pedley, Les. Another view of Racosperma. 12 Mackey, Albert G., Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and Allied Sciences “CASSIA”, p. 248. 13 Greshko, Michael. Isaac Newton's lost alchemy recipe rediscovered. 14 Harrison, David. The Masonic Enlightenment: John Theophilus Desaguliers and the Birth of Modern Freemasonry.

full in the transmutation of base metals into gold through mercury, in the surrender of some of its alchemical secrets.15 At the very least, these associations demonstrate that Desaguliers harbored more than a passing interest in royal art. The main objective of the alchemists was the production of the lapis philosophorum or philosopher's stone, the stone of the wise, from the secret prima materia or prima materia. As the alchemical axiom says, lapis lazuli is made "not of stone, bone, or metal."16 That is, it comes neither from the mineral nor the animal kingdom. Therefore, it must be deduced that this stone is found only in the vegetable kingdom; that is, inside the acacia, raw material of Freemasonry. Many current alchemists are content to produce stones from virtually any mineral, metal, plant or animal, attributing the value of these stones solely to their assigned planetary signatures. However, for a stone to meet the criteria of a true sage stone, imaginary planetary signatures will not suffice. It must first meet specific requirements, chief among which is to grant its possessor the gift of immortality. Let it be said here that the alchemical vocation is not a vain quest for physical immortality. Bodily longevity is not the variety of immortality described here. The famous mythologist Joseph Campbell correctly explains that

“The quest for physical immortality stems from a misinterpretation of traditional teaching. Rather, the basic problem is: to enlarge the pupil of the eye, so that the body with its accompanying personality no longer obstructs the vision. Immortality is then experienced as a present fact. 17 Indeed, alchemists claim that the sage's stone has the power to provide its possessor with knowledge of his immortal soul. That's why it is also called the stone of projection. Because the soul of its possessor is the same one that seems to be projected in the correct application of the stone. Freed from its corporeal frame, the stone-cast soul is free to roam the so-called astral plane, free from the limitations of its corporeal vessel, a concept known as an out-of-body experience, or OBE. Conveniently, there is a special class of truly magical plants that actually meet the criteria listed above. We are talking about entheogens here. As the word implies, entheogenic plants are those that generate an experience of one's inner divinity; that is, entheogens have the potential to facilitate what appears to be the direct experience of the immortal soul itself; of the continuity of consciousness independent of mortal structure. And certain species of 15 Carpenter, Audrey T. John Theophilus Desaguliers: A Natural Philosopher, Engineer, and Freemason in Newtonian England, p. 173. 16 Heinrich, Clark. Strange Fruit: Alchemy and Religion, The Hidden Truth, p. 165. 17 Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces, p. 161.

The acacia, a symbol which Masonic ritual clearly tells us is emblematic of "our faith in the immortality of the soul", naturally forms a part of these plant entheogens. As explained, Acacia is a genus of nearly a thousand species of trees, around a hundred of which are known to contain concentrated amounts of the powerful psychedelic compound DMT. DMT has been used in a ceremonial context among various indigenous groups, particularly ayahuasca-drinking tribes in the Amazon and yopo-smoking peoples in the Caribbean. Ayahuasca, also known as yagé, depending on the dialect, is a ceremonial drink prepared by combining DMT-containing plants, such as Psychotria viridis and/or Diplopterys cabrerana, with the liana Banisteriopsis cappi, a monoamine oxidase inhibitor. Because DMT is normally not active orally due to the presence of monoamine oxidase in the gut. But when combined with a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (or MAOI), it becomes like this.18 The effects are profoundly psychedelic, lasting up to six hours after ingestion. Yopo, on the other hand, also known as epena, is a ritual snuff that is prepared by combining the DMT-rich seeds of Anadenanthera colubrina or Anadenanthera peregrina with calcium carbonate that has been created from calcined shells of crustaceans, making the snuff absorbable by the mucous membranes of the nasal cavity.19 Unlike ayahuasca, the effects of yopo last only a few minutes after each puff. Although neither ayahuasca nor yopo are prepared from an acacia species, the latter is known to have been used in a myriad of intoxicating and entheogenic contexts. In Mexico, for example, the roots of Acacia angustifolia are added to pulque, a fermented drink made from agave. (Ratsch, p. 28) In West Africa, the leaves and bark of Acacia campylacantha are added to dolo, a mixture made of sorghum, penisetum and honey. The idol is said to give the drinker strength and lift his spirits.20 Acacia catechu can be found in India, Indonesia, and Malaysia, from where a substance is prepared that is used as an additive to betel seed. Betal quids are consumed by placing a small amount in the mouth between the gum and cheek, similar to the way chewing tobacco is consumed and, depending on the mixture, acts as a stimulant or sedative. Also in India there are two more species of acacia, the nilotica and the farnesiana, from which traditional aphrodisiacs and muscle relaxants are prepared. (Ratsch, p. 29) In South America, a concoction called balche is prepared from the bark of the Acacia cornigera.21 And in Australia a wide variety of acacia leaves are burned as medicinal smoke. Even here in the US, the root bark of a species of acacia tree, while not a psychoactive variety, is a key ingredient in some soft drinks, including Barq's Root Beer® from Biloxi, Mississippi. 18 Metzner, Ralph. Sacred Vine of Spirits: Ayahuasca, p. 1. 19 Torres, Constantino Manuel. Anadenanthera: Visionary Plant of Ancient South America, p. 53. 20 Ratsch, Christian. The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications, P. 28

An important tree within Hebrew tradition, the Ark of the Covenant is said to have been constructed from acacia wood. The acacia tree has even been proposed as the source of the various visions of Moses recounted in the Volume of the Holy Law. In his article Biblical Entheogens: A Speculative Hypothesis, Benny Shanon, professor of psychology at the Hebrew University of Israel, speculated that a local DMT-rich acacia species (such as Acacia senegal) may have combined with native Peganum containing MAOI. harmala bush, also known as

Rue Syrian, to produce a psychedelic drink chemically indistinguishable from Amazonian ayahuasca. ecstasy techniques. According to N. Wahid Azal, the founder of the Fatimid Sufi order, “[Peganum harmala] plays an ancient and central role in the Mazdean religion of ancient Iran and continues to do so to this day among Iranian Shias, be they Twelver, Isma 'ili or Sufi. Zoroastrians consider it the most sacred of their herbs, and in Persian it is known as Esfand... Esfand is a shortened version of the Pahlavi form of the name Esfandmorz, which is Avestan Spendarmat or Spenta Armaiti, (trans. 'Holy' or 'Diversion Beneficent') i.e. the Zoroastrian Archangel of Earth who is one of the six Amesha Spenta (trans. 'Generous Immortals') or archangelic hypostases of the Deity Ahura Mazda/Ohrmazd.” 23 The six "Amesha Spenta" obviously play a role in the Master of the Royal Secret degree, the thirty-second degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. Attempts to align Freemasonry's origins with Sufism have been made by various researchers, most notably Idris Shah and Gerard de Nerval. Hashish enthusiast and member of Nerval's Le Club de Haschischinns cannabis club, in his book Voyage to the Orient offered a prequel to the story of Masonic hero Hiram Abiff, claiming to have heard the "folk tale" while smoking hashish in a cafe in Constantinople . Sir Richard Frances Bacon, also a hashish enthusiast, also wrote that "Sufiism [is] the eastern father of Freemasonry." 24 21 Ibid at 29 22 Shanon, Benny. Biblical entheogens: a speculative hypothesis. 23 Anonymous Advertising. The Sufi Fatimiya Order and Ayahuasca.

We have seen that the psychoactive potential of acacia has not been lost in at least one Sufi order. So if Sufism was indeed one of the contributing influences to Freemasonry, it may be one more possible explanation for how acacia found its way into the Craft. In addition to the plant world, DMT is also produced endogenously; that is, it is manufactured in and by the human body as well as other living organisms. However, in which part of the human body it is produced and under what circumstances remains a medical mystery25. Some believe it is responsible for a range of spontaneous spiritual experiences, including mystical visions, out-of-body visions, and near-death experiences. This makes the compound quite different from other classic hallucinogens, all of which are found only in the plant kingdom. But while much, much more powerful, DMT's effects are very similar to those of mescaline, psilocybin and LSD. In the colorful words of the late psychedelic philosopher Terence McKenna: “The experience that envelops the whole being when one slips beneath the surface of DMT ecstasy feels like the penetration of a membrane. The mind and the self literally unfold before the eyes. There is a sense of one becoming new but unchanged, as if one were made of gold and had just been smelted in the furnace of one's birth. ... Under the influence of DMT, the world becomes an Arabian labyrinth, a palace, a Martian jewel more than possible, full of motifs that flood the open mind with complex and wordless wonders. Color and the feeling of a reality that reveals an intimate secret permeate the experience. There's a sense of other times, and someone's childhood, and wonder, wonder, and more wonder. ...Many tiny beings are present there... One has the impression of entering an ecology of souls that is beyond the portals of what we naively call death. ... Here is a tremendum hard to tell, an epiphany beyond our wildest dreams. Here is the realm of what is weirder than we might suppose. Here is the mystery, alive, unharmed, still as new to us as it was when our ancestors lived through it fifteen thousand summers ago. ...The sense of emotional connection is terrifying and intense. The Mysteries revealed are real and, if fully told, will leave no stone unturned in this little world we have become so sick in." 26 24 Bennett, Chris. Cannabis: The Philosopher's Stone. 25 May 23, 2013, Cottonwood Research Foundation Inc. announced that DMT had officially been discovered in the pineal glands of live mice (Cottonwood Research Foundation Inc.)

Truly, the DMT experience is the very substance of religious or spiritual ecstasy. Little wonder, then, that certain alchemically inclined Masons, aware of its psychedelic secret, chose to interpret and employ acacia in a similar way.

These claims should come as no surprise, considering that DMT is one of the most potent psychoactive compounds known to science. It is a substance that has been used by indigenous peoples for centuries to induce an experience that has been subjectively interpreted, time and again, as the immortal soul's own release from the dense physical body, thus allowing it to roam freely in the world. spiritual planes of existential reality; however, unfortunately, it is now relegated to the list of classified narcotics under the Controlled Substances Act.27 Still, not all cultures share the West's conservative sentiments toward naturally grown visionary compounds. According to Benny Shanon, professor of psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, “[t]he use of powerful plants and psychoactive preparations to establish contact with the higher realms of spirituality has been at the heart of shamanic practices. all over the world." 28 Whether we are talking about the soma of the Vedas, the haoma of the Zoroastrians, or the mysterious kykeon of the Eleusinian Mysteries, it is not disputed that entheogenic compounds played a vital role in the development of a number of doctrines and practices. religions around the world. Therefore, these holy places have played a prominent role in the lives of multitudes of the faithful. , in many cases, the symbols of these entheogens still persist, not unlike the acacia branch in Freemasonry. These somewhat occult symbols , but still powerful, communicate powerful truths to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.Gods, pp. 257-258 27 DMT is currently listed on Appendix I, which means that, according to the government, it currently has no use accepted physician, even under medical supervision, and which has at least some potential for abuse.28 Shanon

DMT E O RITO RUSSO DO MELISINO "Agora... we will see... because David said: God reigned from the tree1." - Melissino2 See More

As far as we know, the first author to offer an entheogenic solution to the problem of the acacia symbol in Freemasonry was Carl A.P. Ruck, professor of classics at Boston University in Massachusetts, who wrote in his book Mushrooms, Myth and Mithras: The Drug Cult That Civilized Europe: “

The murdered body of Hiram Abiff, a master mason and master builder of Solomon's Temple, was "raised" from its resting place under an acacia branch that marked the spot for those who would be sent by King Solomon to search. After Hiram's buried corpse was found, Solomon himself went to the site to retrieve the body. Groping under the earth at the place of the acacia, the king felt the 'hand' of Hiram. In the process of retrieving his corpse, he first used the Apprentice's grip, then the Companion's, but twice he felt the skin slip. by the hand of Hiram. Finally, Solomon used the grip of a Master Mason to lift the corpse. In the entheobotanical context, we feel that this myth is a description of a ritualized acacia harvest. We observed that the underground root bark of the acacia species … is known to contain high levels of dimethyltryptamine, an entheogen that is strongly psychoactive when extracted.” 3 small

Did the teacher know that there are real examples of

1 “God reigns from a tree”. 2 Of Holes, Arthur. The Melissino System of Freemasonry, p. 92. 3 Ruck, Carl A.P. Mushrooms, Myths and Mithras: The Drug Cult That Civilized Europe, p.

DMT produced by acacia and its use in 18th century Masonic ritual. The earliest known Freemason who alluded to the production of DMT from acacia was the Russian Empire alchemist and artillery general Pyotr Ivanovich Melissino, widely considered the greatest Russian artilleryman of the 18th century. In 1762, Melissino established a theurgic alchemical-Masonic rite that drew heavily on mystical Christian themes. We must credit Arturo de Hoyos, the Grand Archivist and Grand Historian of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, with the discovery of the following quotation. The Illustrious Brother De Hoyos was kind enough to contact us after the translation of the Melissino rite, suggesting that we include the following passage in our manuscript. In the seventh degree of his rite, Melissino specifically refers to acacia as the alchemists' raw material, from which a stone is produced – DMT salt crystals, a true vegetable stone –, the same one that is identified as the legendary stone. of philosophers. Melissino says that "The cubic stone is the universal alkaline salt... Mastery tells us of the acacia found in the tomb of Hiram. This is the true [primary] matter from which the philosophers create their treasures. It is the true light of the world , from which the glorious Hiram shall arise in the form of the Redeemer. It is the coal of which Isaiah (in ch. 6:6-7) [speaks], and which must be prepared according to the secret system of the ancient sages and philosophers [ ie, the alchemists]. One of our most mysterious materials is, therefore, burning coal, which the Egyptian Kabbalah clearly and unproblematically names.”4 What else could DMT have been the “treasures”? ? Of course, "cubic stone" is language that Melissino obviously borrowed from Masonic ritual, which refers to perfect stonework, but here he clearly identified this stonework with a "salt" that was alchemically produced by acacia bud. , DMT is just that. It's not a foundation. It's a salt. The biblical allusion in the above passage a refers to a biblical episode in which an ember of a 4 De Hoyos, Melissino, P. 88-89, substance is placed on Isaiah's lips by an angel, supposedly so that he will inhale its vapours. , that is, smoke it.

– smoking is one of the preferred ways in which DMT is commonly consumed. "Lo," said the angel. “This [burning coal] touched his lips; and his iniquity is taken away, and his sin is purged.”5 Note that acacia or akakia, as related by Mackey in his Lexicon, suggests freedom from iniquity or freedom from sin.6 “His iniquity is taken away and his sin is purged,” from fact. One wonders how far back this tradition really goes. In any case, it is quite evident that Melissino knew something very special about acacia. Furthermore, Melissino was not the only Russian mystic to be concerned with treasures extracted from a tree. According to G. I. Gurdjieff's biographer, James Webb, the founder of the Fourth Way once cryptically stated that "only three drugs in the entire Western pharmacopoeia were useful: opium, castor oil, and an unidentified substance extracted from a certain tree." . 7 Since Gurdjieff's teachings were derived in part from a form of Freemasonry, it is not impossible that Gurdjieff's "unidentified substance" and "right tree" are none other than DMT and a species of acacia, respectively, and that he learned the secret from a Russian colleague who was well informed not only about Melissino and its rite, but also about chemistry. We can only speculate. 5 The Holy Bible, KJV, Isa. 6 6 Mackey, Albert G. A Lexicon of Freemasonry, p. 4. 7 L.I.G.H.T. Drugs, Alcohol and Food.

DMT AND THE EGYPTIAN RITE OF COUNT CAGLIOSTRO Two decades after the establishment of the Melissino Rite in Russia, London saw the emergence of another theurgic, alchemical-Masonic rite, which also used acacia in an entheogenic context: the Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry of Count Alessandro from Cagliostro. A close friend and colleague of Melissino, Cagliostro was an Italian alchemist, healer and magician who died while unjustly imprisoned for the crime of heresy. The parallels between Cagliostro's and Melissino's use of acacia are evident. In the Apprentice and Companion lectures of your Egyptian Rite, acacia is again referred to as the raw material in a very specific alchemical operation. When performed correctly, this operation results in the production of a “cubic ashlar”; that is, the result is a purified crystalline stone or salt that has been produced from the acacia tree. This stone is then dissolved in a "red liquor", which is then drunk by the candidate for initiation. Cagliostro's ritual says: “Acacia is the raw material and [when] the raw ashlar or mercurial part has been purified, it becomes cubic… it will obtain… the perfect projection. Quantum sufficiency, and quantum appetite1.” 2 “The candidate...shall drink [the red liquor placed on the Master's altar, therefore] raising his spirit to understand the next discourse which the Venerable Master will address to him at the same time. 'My son, you are receiving the raw material... Learn that the Great God created this raw material before man and that 1 “Take as much as you need and as much as you like”. 2Faulks, Philippa. The Masonic Magician: The Life and Death of Count Cagliostro and His Egyptian Rite, P. 214.

so he created man to possess it and be immortal. Man abused it and lost it, but it still exists in the hands of God's Chosen Ones and a single grain of this precious material becomes a projection to infinity. The acacia that was given to him in the degree of Master of ordinary Masonry is nothing more than this precious material. And the murder [of Hiram] is the loss of the liquid you have just received...'” 3 Here, Cagliostro identified the acacia with the Tree of Eden, which Adam and Eve would have abused and later lost in the wild. . Again, as in the Melissinian rite, we see the DMT treatment as the perfect foundation of Freemasonry and the philosopher's stone of Alchemy. However, by treating Hiram Abiff as consubstantial with the acacia branch, Cagliostro took this symbolism one step further. It is notable that both Melissino and Cagliostro were initiated into the Rite of the Strict Observance, which contains its own potential allusions to the psychoactive properties of acacia. See, for example, the following excerpt from a Master Mason's Prayer of Reception: “While those who sought the [philosopher's stone?] found the earth, when they observed that it had no roots. It made them think this branch must mean something…” 5 Note that DMT is mostly found in acacia roots. This branch must have really meant something. Our detractors have argued that Cagliostro's acacia libation is purely symbolic. But, we wonder, why would a purely symbolic act be described in the precise terms one would expect if the same act had been performed literally? Cagliostro writes that his candidates for initiation “must drink” a liqueur prepared from acacia, the “raw material”, “thus raising their spirit to understand”. This is exactly the kind of language one would expect if Cagliostro were actually, not symbolically, starting his candidates with an entheogenic acacia libation. The compound definitely ticks the boxes of 'uplifting the spirit' and imparting some 'understanding' that only comes from the kind of intoxication induced by ingesting the drug. If it weren't for your DMT content, we couldn't

conceive of any practical reason why the earl would literally make his acolytes drink an ayahuasca-like acacia concoction. Furthermore, the Cagliostro ritual later adds that wine can be substituted for red liquor, a clear indication that the intended red elixir was something more than ordinary wine. This was clearly not a symbolic act. Granted, there is no mention in the Egyptian Rite of Cagliostro of a plant containing MAOIs, which would normally be needed to make DMT orally active, as in the case of ayahuasca from the Amazon jungle. However, there are still other possibilities. The first is that, if consumed enough, DMT can overwhelm monoamine oxidase in the gut, making it orally active without the addition of an MAOI. The second possibility is that, being Beta-carbolines, certain flavonoids present in some species of acacia (such as Acacia confused) may function as functional MAOIs. More research is needed, and a modern practicing alchemist, J. Erik LaPort, author of Cracking the Philosopher's Stone and Keys to the Kingdom of Alchemy, is currently doing significant research in this field. There is still a third possibility, considerably more complicated, as well as strange. The following solution was found in a fascinating and, indeed, the most curious place: on the luminous surface of a crystal ball. We must give credit to our brother and colleague Michael S. Downs of Georgia for helping us rebuild the following. In the middle of the second half of the 19th century, in the period known as the occult renaissance, the curious practice of spiritist communication was spreading like ectoplasm. From seances and psychic channeling to magic mirrors and boardrooms, seances and communications with the dead became fashionable on both sides of the pond, greatly influencing thought and occupying the minds of those who would go a long way in the esoteric literature of the day. . . One of the main forms of communication with spirits widely practiced at the time was the observation of crystals or mirrors, known as catoptromancy or clairvoyance. This was achieved through the use of prayers, invocations and the burning of psychotropic incense, as well as the consumption of a range of narcotic, hypnagogic and entheogenic plants and substances. These include, but are not limited to, cannabis, opium, nitrous oxide and even psychedelic mushrooms. (Britten, p. 136) Practitioners of the art believe that the spirits of all kinds of dead and disembodied figures can be summoned to the crystal or mirror and then solicit the knowledge, favors, etc., that the querent requires or desires. Some of the key players during this creative period include Rosicrucian visionary P.B. Randolph, psychic spiritualist Emma Hardinge Britten6, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky of the Theosophical Society, and especially Freemasons Frederick Hockley and his students Kenneth R.H. Mackenzie and F.G. and Herbert Irwin. With regard to the latter, John Yarker, in his article The Society of the Rose Cross, provides a description of what he considers to be the various stages of true occult progress, the third of which includes "the use of the 'Crystal Stone' or magic mirror.” walls, with each wall being a door opening onto a chest containing, among other things, "mirrors of various virtues" Rosicrucianism: Frederick Hockley, Kenneth R.H. Mackenzie, and Captain F.G. Irwin, all three are known to have been avid observers of crystals and mirrors. Frederick Hockley was a highly influential British occultist who divided his time between the transcription of magical manuscripts and the practice of "crystaloma". by crystals or magic mirrors". Hockley was a student of Francis Barrett, author of the famous grimoire The Wizard, and himself the author of at least one book on the subject of crystal magic or looking in the mirror. Hockley's Rosicrucian ties remained unchallenged to the point that he was admitted to the Grade of Adeptus Exemptus in the SRIA by Captain Irwin, without Hockley ever attending a single meeting. It is not clear to what extent he experimented with entheogens, but we do know that he had in his possession, at the time of his death, a recipe for mirror incense, taken from the Book of Oberon, which contained hashish as an ingredient. Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie was a hedonist student of Hockley and a correspondent for the French occultist Eliphas Levi. Mackenzie believed so strongly in the truth of 'crystalomancy' that the source he used for the entry of the mysterious Fratres Lucis into his Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia was none other than the disembodied spirit of Cagliostro who had been 'called' to the crystal. and later questioned by Captain F.G. Irwin's son, Herbert!9 Concerning Mackenzie, in 1873 Hockley wrote the following: 3 Ibid. at 225. 4 The original text gives Cassia. 5th hole, Arturo. The Rite of Strict Observance and Two High Grade Eighteenth-Century Rites, P. 37

“I have the greatest reluctance even to refer to Mr. Kenneth Mack 6 Emma Hardinge Britten is believed to have been Hockley's seer, Britten was also present at the spiritualist meeting that led to the formation of the Theosophical Society. 7YAKER, John. The Society of the Rose Cross. 8 Yates, Frances A. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, p. 307. 9 Deveney, John Patrick. Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth Century American Black Spiritualist, Rosicrucian and Sexual Magician, p. 135.

enzie I met him about 15 or 16 years ago. I then met him at a very young age who, having been educated in Germany, possessed a thorough knowledge of German and French and his translations were highly praised in the press, extremely eager to investigate Occultism and, when sober, one of the most sociable people I have ever known. 10 Very little is known about Captain F.G. Irwin, but what may be gathered from his correspondence with Hockley, Mackenzie, and others, is that he was apparently very active in his Mother Lodge, as well as in the SRIA College to which he belonged. But after the death of his son Herbert, who died of an overdose of laudanum during a "crystalomancy" session, F.G. Irwin spent a lot of time trying to get in touch with the spirit of his deceased son. Unfortunately, the efforts of F.G. Irwin to contact his deceased son were in vain. Hockley, Mackenzie and the Irwins, directly involved in the formation of the SRIA, are known to be concerned with all things Rosicrucian, mainly, they believed, based on a passage in the Rosicrucian manifestos about "mirrors of various virtues". . ”, was the use of the magic mirror and/or the crystal ball. Also, of particular interest to them was the elusive Fratres Lucis, an alleged splinter group from Der Ordens des Gold und Rosenkreuzer, the first Rosicrucian Order to emerge after the initial publication of the Rosicrucian Manifestos. Eager to obtain information about the mysterious Fratres Lucis, which they lacked on the physical plane, the Irwins put into practice the teachings of their teacher Hockley and turned to the crystal ball for help from the great mystic Count Cagliostro. Because they believed that Cagliostro was a legitimate member of the Brotherhood. As F. G. Irwin's magical diaries of the time clearly reflect that the operations were a great success and the extended results can be found in Herbert Irwin's Book of Magic, the supposed astral grimoire of the Fratres Lucis. Among Cagliostro's supposed scrying transmissions is one of particular interest for our present purposes; one that potentially provides a solution to the problem of the oral activity of the acacia mixture given to candidates by Cagliostro in his Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry. As we explained above, acacia would normally not be active orally. For this to happen, acacia would need to be combined with a plant containing MAOI like Peganum harmala, also known as Syrian rue. Surprisingly, "Herb Rue" is precisely what Herbert Irwin recorded in his Book of Magic as an important tool in the pharmacopoeia of Fratres Lucis, based on scrying transmissions from Cagliostro. The Irwins' own teacher, Hockley, was even fascinated by "Herb Rue", as can be seen in the following excerpt 10 Howe, Ellic. Fringe masonry in England 1870-85.

from a letter from Hockley to the Irwins in which the former pressed the latter for information relating to the mysterious "Herb Rue". "There's a recipe about the properties of the Rue plant that I know you'll let Herbert copy for me if I want to... try it." 11 “As I mentioned in my note, I read your MSS with great interest. ...When you're in town, bring the MSS [Book of Magic] and let's compare notes... By the way, I asked you for a copy of the recipe in Rua das Hervas. It's just a few lines." 12 It is very interesting that Hockley asked for a recipe, not a single herb. But was Syrian rue really the plant intended by Cagliostro's transmissions? According to the Roman historian Pliny the Elder, the only The difference between Syrian rue and traditional rue is that the latter is the cultivated form of the former.13 To complicate matters considerably, in Pliny's time no real distinction was made between the two other than the belief Syrian rue (or Peganum harmala) was the wild manifestation of the traditional cultivated rue (or Ruta graveolens). Traditional rue was no doubt well known to Cagliostro and the Irwins, the same as it has extensive and well-documented medicinal and religious applications. However, provided the other botanists listed by Herbert Irwin in the astral pharmacopoeia Fratres Lucis are psychoactive or are

commonly used as psychoactive plant substitutes, e.g. turmeric, poppy, verbena, etc., all of which have a long history of use as additives to magical incenses, love potions, flying ointments, etc., traditional rue would look completely out of place. Syrian rue, on the other hand, seems to us to be a perfectly natural and convenient addition, because it is a plant that contains MAOI, while traditional rue does not. Furthermore, the effects of "Herb Rue" given in Herbert's Book of Magic are consistent with those of Syrian rue, including sweating, mental clarity, and mood enhancement. According to the Book of Magic, “[Red Rue] is more fortifying and healthy, it gives life and strength to the body, opens the pores of the skin and inclines the body to sweat, it is good for diseases of the brain. because it gives strength to all the desirable parts.” 14 11 Hamil, John. The Rosicrucian Seer: Magical Writings of Frederick Hockley, page 64. 12 Ibid. at 66. 13 Taylor, Joan E. The Essenes, the Scrolls and the Dead Sea, p. 316. 14 Irwin, Herbert. Magic Book, page 93.

The part about "diseases of the brain" is especially interesting since MAOIs are commonly used in psychiatry to treat mental health disorders, including clinical depression and bipolar disorder. However, the same cannot be said of traditional rue. Regardless of one's attitude towards crystal balls, magic mirrors and gaining knowledge from deceased or disembodied sources, the remarkable consistencies surrounding these transmissions and their content cannot easily be ignored.

DMT AND THE FRATRES LUCIS The last example of a Masonic rite alluding to the DMT produced by acacia, which we will discuss here, comes from the own rituals of the Fratres Lucis. Remember that Cagliostro himself was considered by many to be a legitimate member of the Fratres Lucis, so much so that, writing his Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia, Kenneth R.H. Mackenzie, along with F.G. and Herbert Irwin, resorted to nothing less than conjuring the spirit of the then-deceased Cagliostro in a visible appearance within a crystal ball to question him about the nature and history of the Fratres Lucis.1 Compare the following excerpt from the first degree of the current Fratres Lucis with those of the Egyptian Rite of Cagliostro. “Before receiving you into the Order, they took you to a dark room, that teaches you that our Matter is in a dark state, our Earth. We also took away all the metals you had; This shows that our Matter is not found where Metals grow. They took off their clothes; it shows that our Matter is stripped of the Veil with which Nature has covered it... His eyes were blindfolded; which teaches that although our Matter is luminous and itself bright and clear, it is found only in the darkest abode. A [trailer] was around his neck, by which the body was driven; she... teaches to extract from our Matter. …The tip of a [Dagger] was applied to his chest to warn him to be careful. I must remind you that one does not [have to] use a double-edged sword to slay our Hiram and produce his precious blood, which is later shown with a weak brother and his bloodied handkerchief... By touching him with the compass (held on a plate with blood on top), the plate of blood raised, signifies that we have another [Dagger] besides that which was shown to you, and which we have placed in the bosom of our Matter until the blood runs out. ...Hiram, which means our Matter, was slain by Three Workers, that they might obtain the Word... 1 Deveney, P. 135

DMT AND THE FRATRES LUCIS 41 These traitors buried him and he already has his Caput Mortuum. They make a bunch and the dead head appears, as if the Spirits excited it with rage, this is shown by the Acacia Branch." 2 The Fratres Lucis lecture relates an alchemical application of Masonic ritual which again clearly points to the production of DMT from the acacia. Here, as in the Cagliostro ritual, Hiram is treated inseparably with the acacia. In both, the DMT-rich solution that is extracted from the acacia, our raw material, before the solution evaporates to a crystalline salt, is identified as “blood of Hiram”, called by Cagliostro the “mercurial part". According to the conference, the "Matter" is found in the earth; that is, with the roots. Because, as Ruck pointed out, the highest concentrations of DMT in acacia they are found in the root cortex. The stripping away of the clothing or "stripping of the veil with which nature has clothed" "Matter" is therefore probably the stripping away of superfluous material - anything but DMT. The 'other dagger' that it is "stuck in the bosom [of] Matter to the blood dripping" is perhaps an allusion to the (al)chemical solvent used to extract the compound. And the three workers could very well allude to the three-step extraction process by which DMT is made organically, etc., etc. The consistencies are undeniable. Perhaps the Irwins were on the right track and the earl really was a legitimate member of the true Fratres Lucis, not astral. 2 Great College of Rites. Fratres Lucis, p. 52

ENDOGENOUS DMT PRODUCTION AND THE PINEAL GLAND Surprisingly, DMT is not just limited to the plant kingdom. In his 1997 book TIHKAL: Tryptamines I've Known and Loved, "psychedelic alchemist" Alexander Shulgin claimed that "DMT is ... in this flower here, in that tree there and in that animal. [It is] so the most simple, almost anywhere you choose to look." 1 And yes, if the reader is wondering, DMT is also inside every human being. Because DMT is actually manufactured by the human body, large amounts of it have been found in the urine and bloodstream of meditating monks, praying nuns, and even schizophrenics.2 Therefore, many scientists believe that endogenous DMT production is the underlying physiological result for mystical experiences, near-natural experiences, death and out-of-body experiences, and a whole host of subjective experiences—phenomena that otherwise cannot be explained or even begin to be explored by modern science. In an attempt to discover the origin and function of endogenous DMT production within or within the human body, Rick Strassman, M.D., Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, became the first scientist to conduct research approved by the government in humans with a programmed psychedelic since the 1970's. DMT was largely unknown to the modern Western world, until the publication of Strassman's book DMT: The Spirit Molecule. Between 1990 and 1995, Strassman administered about 400 doses of DMT to nearly five dozen human volunteers, and the book documents the project and the doctor's findings. The research that led to the publication of Strassman's book was funded by none other than the Scottish Rite Schizophrenia Research Foundation, a subsidiary of the Masonic Northern Jurisdiction. As the story goes, LSD researcher Daniel 1 Strassman, Rick. DMT: The Spirit Molecule: Groundbreaking research by a physician into the biology of near-death and mystical experiences. P. 42. 2 Horgan, John. rational mystique.

Xander Freedman, who died in 1993, was a strong supporter of Strassman's work and served on the scientific advisory panel of the Scottish Rite Schizophrenia Research Foundation. Freedman advised Strassman to apply for a grant from the foundation, assuring him that he would do everything possible to fund the DMT project. For the contemplative Freemason, Strassman's book is enthusiastically recommended for further reading. Among Strassman's findings was that the most likely source of endogenous DMT production in humans is probably the pineal gland. According with the doctor. Rick Strassman, the pineal gland “has a lens, a cornea and a retina. It is sensitive to light and helps regulate body temperature and skin color, two basic survival functions closely related to ambient light." 3 This has led to it (the pineal gland) being aptly called the third eye. pineal senses daylight, it is believed to work for the production of serotonin, which regulates appetite, mood, body movement and other regulatory functions. When the pineal does not perceive daylight, instead it produces melatonin, which regulates sleep patterns and body coloration. The conditions under which the pineal gland is suspected of secreting DMT, on the other hand, are considerably more complex. "The most general hypothesis is that the pineal gland produces psychedelic amounts of DMT at extraordinary times in our lives. Pineal DMT production is the physical representation of non-material or energetic processes. It provides us with the vehicle to consciously experience the movement of our force vital [read soul] in its most extreme manifestations. Specific examples of this phenomenon are as follows: When our individual life force enters our fetal body, the moment we become truly human, it passes through the pineal and triggers the first primordial flow of DMT. Later, at birth, the pineal releases more DMT. In some of us, pineal DMT mediates the essential experiences of deep meditation, psychosis, and near-death experiences. When we die, the life force leaves the body through the pineal gland, releasing another stream of this psychedelic spirit molecule." 4 3 Ibid. 60. 4 Ibid. 68.

In other words, according to Dr. Strassman, the pineal gland may well be the seat of the soul, and DMT the catalyst that facilitates the soul's entry and exit from the body during birth, death, birth, and death. mystical experience. or visionary experiences: a wild speculation that could easily be dismissed without the testimonies of indigenous people who use the compound sacramentally, as well as those of Dr. Strassman, who also experienced the spirit molecule firsthand. Additionally, on May 23, 2013, the Cottonwood Research Foundation Inc. announced that DMT had officially been discovered in the pineal glands of living rats, making Strassman's hypothesis even more plausible.5 Strassman's views are not dissimilar to those of philosopher and mathematician René Descartes. , who postulated a similar function for our mysterious pineal. In his essay The Interrelationship of Soul and Body, Descartes wrote that “[a]though the soul is united with the whole body, there is one part of the body [the pineal] in which it exercises its function more than in any other part of the body. another place . ...[The pineal] is so suspended between the passages containing the animal spirits [which guide reason and carry sensation and movement] that it can be moved by them...; and carries that motion to the soul... Then, conversely, the bodily machinery is constituted in such a way that whenever the gland is moved in one way or another by the soul, or by any other cause, it pushes the animal spirits . that surround it to the pores of the brain”. 6 Descartes also noted that the pineal gland is the only organ within the human brain. Recognizing through personal introspection that thoughts arise only one at a time, Descartes also postulated that the pineal gland is the source of many thoughts that arise in the mind throughout a lifetime. It is worth noting that this line of investigation has shed light not only on the significance of the acacia branch within Freemasonry, but also potentially on the Master's fatal blow, the same one that strikes in the same general region, albeit superficially, where the so- called the seat of the soul; that is, the pineal gland resides. It was perhaps with a remarkable flash of insight into this same deep and esoteric knowledge that the British Freemason W.L. Wilmshurst so cryptically but eloquently claimed in his 1922 classic The Meaning of Freemasonry that 5 Cottonwood Research Foundation, Inc. NEW: DMT found in the pineal gland of live mice. 6 Strasmann, p. 60

"[the] 'head' of man's material organism is the spirit of man, and this spirit consciously united with the Universal Spirit is the supreme instrument and vehicle of Deity in the temporal world. The physical organism and brain of such a man were sublimated and adjusted to a condition and efficiency immensely superior to that of average mankind. Physiological processes are involved which cannot be discussed here, except to say that in such a man the whole nervous system contributes to charging certain ganglia and illuminating certain brain centers in a way unknown to the ordinary mind. ...But the Master Mason, by virtue of his mastery, knows how to control and apply these energies. They culminate and reach self-awareness in your head, in your intelligence. ... The same truth is ... attested, however ... under veils of symbolic phrases, in the reference to the acacia branch planted at the head of the grave of the Masonic Grand Master and prototype, Hiram Abiff. The grave is the candidate's soul; the acacia branch typifies the latent akasha (to use an oriental term) or divine germ planted in that soil and waiting to be activated into activity in its intelligence, the 'head' of that plane. When that acacia branch blossoms on the tomb of his soul, he will understand... the mystery of Hiram's death. …It is a mystery of spiritual consciousness, the flowering of mind into God, the opening of human intelligence into conscious association with Universal and Omniscient Mind.” 7 Quoting once again McKenna, who also intuited the meaning of DMT in Alchemy and certain “secret societies”, “So how can it be then that a compound that each one of us carries right here, right in the pineal gland, right in the ajna chakra, the philosopher's stone is not beyond that. How can this be a secret to us?... [There are] many mystery cults and secret societies in the world, I don't know if any of them are keeping DMT a secret, it could be."

DMT CONCLUSION The idea that a psychedelic drug may have played a role in early Masonic rituals is often met with disgust and disbelief by Fraternity members. After all, we, as Free and Accepted Masons, are tasked to submit peacefully to the laws of the land in which we reside; and, outside of affiliation with the Santo Daime, the União do Vegetal, or the Native American Church, the only three organizations legally sanctioned to use the compound in our country, the production, possession, and consumption of DMT is completely illegal in the United States. . . Bear in mind, however, that the time in question was the 18th century, when scientific research was still in its infancy, long before the "war on drugs" or the notion of psychedelics was even a concept. The harmful effects of addiction remain largely unseen, as are the hard drugs that plague society today, such as crack, heroin and methamphetamine. So the stigma surrounding using just about any drug at this time was completely alien to them. Therefore, the discovery of DMT and its magical effects would have been received with such novelty and enthusiasm that it is little wonder that entire Masonic conferences have been devoted to its mysteries. In our opinion, there is no doubt that several Masonic rites allude to the use of DMT produced from acacia in their lectures. What is questionable is how this curiosity of Art came about. Was the acacia branch added to Masonic ritual because of its DMT content, or did some alchemically inclined Masons privy to the entheogenic mysteries of the tree take it upon themselves to interpret and apply it in this way? We may never know, just as we will never know who, if anyone, was responsible for the switch from cassia to acacia in the first place. What we do know, however, is that DMT was not properly synthesized until the 1950's. The possibility that the compound was mined and used by selected Freemasons as early as the 18th century is therefore highly significant. Freemasons have repeatedly promoted the Order as a friend and protector of science. Thus, perhaps for the first time, it begins to look as if the Brotherhood may have made a lasting contribution to the field. DMT 47 CONCLUSION We now conclude this study on the entheogenic potential of the acacia symbol in Freemasonry with a quote from H.L. Haywood, extracted from vol. III of Albert Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and Allied Sciences, which curiously confirms our present conclusion. “It is admitted that the texts and nomenclature of medieval materials on [Hermeticism] were enigmatic and rare; but for this there are several explanations for the need for secrecy, [including] the need to prevent laypeople from taking chances with drugs they cannot understand." 1 Certainly, DMT would fall into this category. 1 Mackey, Albert G., “Alchimy , The Ordinary of” Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and Its Kindred Sciences.

UNION OF PLANTS In addition to the indigenous tribes of the Amazon, ayahuasca is also used in various religious organizations derived from a church known as Santo Daime. Santo Daime is a syncretic religion founded in the 1930s by the illiterate rubber tapper Raimundo Irineu, known in religion as Mestre Irineu. But we are especially interested in the splinter group Santo Daime União do Vegetal, which was founded by another rubber tapper and operative mason, José Gabriel de Costa, some three decades later. The União do Vegetal (UDV) is a syncretic religion that mixes its own form of Amazonian shamanism with Catholicism, Kardecian spiritism, Freemasonry, Greek mythology, Kabbalah and Umbanda. Like the Santo Daime before them, the UDV incorporates many symbols that would no doubt be familiar to Freemasons. These include the sun, moon and star. The beehive is also an important symbol. The UDV took the loose Masonic associations of the Santo Daime a step further, not only applying the concept of degrees to society, but Mestre Gabriel actually taught that "Hoasca" was a gift from Yahweh to King Solomon. How convenient then that we as Freemasons have indications within our own rituals that point to the ceremonial use of dimethyltryptamine. A splinter group led by Maistre Joaquim José de Andrade Neto, Centro Espirito Beneficente Ordem Maçônica Rosaluz, so emphasized its Masonic leanings that the church even included the qualifier 'Masonic' in its title. However, it should be noted that this group is currently considered irregular among Free and Accepted Masons and has no legitimate Masonic ties. However, they are a tax-exempt religious organization in North America. For about forty years, Santo Daime, the UDV, and splinter groups were limited to just South America, as DMT is listed as a regular narcotic in the US and elsewhere. But after a long battle with the courts, on February 21, 2006, the United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision affirming religious freedom in Gonzales v. The União do Vegetal Beneficent Spiritist Center, allowing affiliates of both the UNIÃO DAS PLANTAS 49 Santo Daime and the União do Vegetal to use ayahuasca in a religious ceremonial context.

Interlude Having convinced myself that DMT was indeed used in a number of ancient Masonic rites and therefore may explain the widespread shift from cassia to acacia in ritual by Masonic masters in the early to mid-17th century, I decided to focus, I turn my attention for other possible Masonic rites. examples of entheogenic symbolism that may be hidden in Masonic ritual. I would not be disappointed. Unknown to most at the time, the substances that alchemists worked with, like Cagliostro and Melissino after them, were psychoactive. The philosophers' stones were only vegetable stones; that is, they were crystalline drugs prepared from entheogenic plants such as acacia. The same is true of the Ancient Mysteries, e.g. those of Eleusis and Mithras, etc., many of whom scholars believe to have employed their own entheogenic sacraments. As the Ancient Craft and some of the higher degrees of Freemasonry clearly borrow symbols from alchemy and the Mystery Schools, symbolism explicitly pointing to psychedelic plants inevitably appears in these same degrees as well.

PART II: CORNEZUELO

FREEMASONRY AND THE MYSTERIES OF ELEUSIS “Because it seems to me that among the many divine and exceptional things that your Athens produced and contributed to human life, nothing is better than the mysteries [of Eleusis]. Because through them we passed from a harsh and savage way of life to the state of humanity, and we were civilized. Just as they are called initiations, in reality we learn from them the fundamentals of life and learn the bases not only for living with joy, but also for dying with a better hope. Marco, in Cicero, De legibus, 2.14.361

According to the theories of J.S.M. Ward, Freemasonry is a continuation of the various mystery cults that flourished in ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Persia and even India before being suppressed indiscriminately in favor of the growing new Christian religion, which brought with it its own untamed version of ' Sacred Mysteries'. Albert Pike even declared in his Morals and Dogma that "Freemasonry is identical with the ancient Mysteries", although he later added that this is only to a certain extent. For in Pike's estimation, Freemasonry is "but an imperfect image of the brilliance [of the Mysteries], the ruins only of its grandeur, and a system which has undergone progressive alterations, the fruit of social events, political circumstances, and the ambitious imbecility of its creators. .” 3 It is generally accepted that the focus of many of these Mysteries, whether of a solar or agrarian nature, was the indoctrination of their participants regarding the reality of divinity and the immortality of the soul.4 In most cases, these Doctrines seem to have been transmitted through complex ritualized dramatizations of the traditional myths and legends surrounding the cult's central deity. During these rituals, the candidate himself often became consubstantial with the deity, undergoing his ordeals, death and resurrection, and in some cases even fulfilling the promises of the deity as she journeyed through the Land of the Dead. Often it was precisely these ritualized performances which constituted the various initiation ceremonies into the ancient Mysteries, the performance of which made one a bona fide member of the Mysteries cult. secrecy obligations to all those present about everything that happened during the Initiation ceremony, whose life Iolation, duly informed to the participants, was punishable by death. 1 Meyer, Marvin W. The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook of Sacred Texts., p. viii 2 John Sebastian Marlow Ward (1885 – 1949) was an English author who published extensively on the subject of Freemasonry and esotericism. 3 Of Holes, Arturo. Albert Pike's Morals and Dogma: ed. annotated, p. 96

The most popular of the ancient Mystery cults was arguably that of the goddess Demeter and her daughter Kore (also known as Persephone), held in Eleusis, Greece, around 1450 BC. C. until 392 d. C. The myth of this cult tells the story of the grain goddess Demeter and the lengths she was willing to go to meet her beloved daughter Persephone. In myth, Persephone was kidnapped by the underground god Hades (or Pluto) while picking flowers with the other "Flower Maidens". In the end, after much tribulation, a compromise was reached whereby Persephone would be allowed to return to Earth. of the living and reunited with her mother, but only on the condition that she descends back to the underworld for one season each year, namely winter, to resume her role as Queen of Hades. It was within this narrative of a periodic descent into the Underworld and subsequent return to the realm of the living that the Hierophants at Eleusis communicated to the candidates their cherished doctrine of the immortality of the soul. It is known that the primary celebrations observed at Eleusis consisted of two separate Mysteries: a Lesser and a Greater. The Lesser Mystery appears to have been celebrated between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox, and involved the preliminary indoctrination of the candidates into the central myth of the cult. Participation in it constituted the new member as a Mystis or Initiate, and was the obligatory prerequisite that prepared him for admission to the Greater Mystery. The latter was celebrated between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice. Unlike the Lesser, it is believed that the Great Mystery did not involve a lengthy recapitulation of the sacred cult myth, but consisted of something directly seen, hence 4 Mackey, Albert G. The Symbolism of Freemasonry, P. 347.

title of Epopt or Seer applied to Initiates of this level. So we can be sure that what Mystae just

heard secondhand in the Lesser Mystery, the Epopt witnessed or experienced firsthand in the Greater. Participants in the Great Mystery were expected to observe certain specific dietary restrictions, such as total abstinence from food, including fish, vegetables, apples, and especially pomegranates and "fowls", all of which had special symbolic meaning about the Eleusinian Mysteries. . "The pomegranate," for example, says Greek scholar Jane Ellen Harrison, "was the food of the dead and, once tasted, lured Persephone back into the shadows." Likewise, the rooster was said to be sacred to the goddess Demeter: “In his treatise on abstinence from food of animal origin, Porphyry points out the reason and rigor of the Eleusinian taboos. Demeter, he says, is a goddess of the underworld and the rooster is sacred to her... We tend to associate the rooster with daylight and its morning crowing, but the Greeks, for some reason, considered the bird chthonic. 5 Perhaps it is because of these chthonic associations that the rooster also becomes an important symbol within the somber Chamber of Reflection, where the candidate for Masonic Initiation spends some time before obtaining the first degree. Like Persephone in the Underworld, the candidate held in the dark Chamber of Reflection is often surrounded by grim reminders of his own mortality, but, as with Persephone, it is the rooster who heralds the enlightenment that awaits the candidate when he is ready. from the camera. It should be noted that the rooster would also have been the favorite pet of the psychopomp Mercury, whose image, according to John Yarker's The Arcane Schools, was displayed in the temple at Eleusis along with those of Sol and Luna.6 Another important The celebration observed at Eleusis was the annual festival of Haloa held in honor of Demeter and Dionysus at and around the winter solstice. This celebration, which Harrison called “the very counterpart” of the Eleusinian Mysteries, took place in the era of Triptolemus7, where sacred barley grew on the Rarian plain, the same that would be used to make the 5 Sorabji, Richard. Animal minds and human morality: the origins of the western debate. P. 82. 6 Yarker, John. The Arcane Schools, p. 100 7 Triptolemus was a demigod of the Eleusinian mysteries who presided over the sowing of grain and the grinding of wheat.

The mysterious kykeon potion that was drunk during the Great Mystery was ceremonially brewed. According to Harrison, “The association of the worship of the Goddess of Corn with that of the God of Wine is of prime importance. The arrival of Dionysus brought a new spiritual impulse to the religion of Greece... and it was to this new impulse that the Eleusinian Mysteries owe... their final dominance. Of the [Eleusinian mysteries], the Haloa is, I believe, the primitive prototype. As for Haloa's primeval essence, there's no doubt about it: the name speaks for itself. Harpocration correctly explains the festival, 'the Haloa gets its name, according to Philochorus, from the fact that people have played sports throughout the ages, and he says that it is celebrated in the month of Poseidon'... [That] the Haloa was celebrated in the month of Poseidon [is] a fact as surprising as it is significant. What does a threshing party have to do with the middle of winter, when all the grain must be safe in the barns? Usually, as of old, threshing continues as soon as possible after the corn is harvested; it is threshed and winnowed on the open threshing floor, and in the dead of winter there is no time even in Greece for an operation in the open air. The answer is simple. The date change is due to Dionysus. Dionysus' rival festivals took place in the dead of winter. He took advantage of Demeter's festivals, seized her threshing floor, and forced the anomaly of a winter threshing festival. The last time a true threshing festival could take place is Pyanepsion, but by Poseidon it is possible to have a primitive Pithoigia and feast with Dionysus. There could be no clearer testimony to the approaching power of the god." 8 It may be surprising to some to learn that the era is also an important symbol within Freemasonry. In lectures on the so-called 'American Ritual', which Mackey lamented as "lost or obsolete" even in his day, the candidate for Masonic Initiation is described as traveling "to the era of Ornan the Jebusite, where the language of Freemasonry was found." The association of the Ornan era with Freemasonry arises from the fact that King Solomon's temple is said to have been erected on that very spot According to the story in 1 Chronicles, the land was 8 Harrison, Jane Ellen, Preface to the Study of Greek Religion, pp. 146-147.

Before it was purchased from Ornan by King David, Solomon's father, for the purpose of erecting an altar there,

where David was to make sacrificial offerings after witnessing a vision of "the angel of the Lord" seen standing by the threshing floor. Prior to this time, all sacrifices were usually made on the "altar of burnt offering" found in the tabernacle. However, after David's sacrifice, it was decreed that a permanent temple should be erected on the threshing floor of Ornan, a temple that was to replace the "tabernacle in the wilderness" as the abode of the Jewish deity. It is in this permanent temple that the various degrees of Ancient Freemasonry symbolically take place. That is why it was said of the candidate for Masonic Initiation that he traveled allegorically "to the era of Ornan", that is, to the temple of King Solomon. The age is therefore implicative of Initiation and the Masonic Lodge. Other important symbols connecting Freemasonry with the Mysteries celebrated at Eleusis can be found in the Companion grade lectures. Furthermore, on his symbolic passage to the middle chamber of the temple, the newly created Companion's attention is drawn to a curious image: a sheaf of wheat suspended near the bank of a river. The word associated with it, which can be translated as an ear of corn or a stream of water, is equally curious. As Pike noted in his book The Book of Words: “We do not know when this word was adopted and no one has been able to find any special meaning for it as a Masonic word. But I am fully convinced that originally there was a hidden meaning in every word used in a Masonic degree. Each of them covered up and concealed some secret meaning and application.” 9 The explanation given for the word in question is equally obscure. According to Mackey, "the Gileadites under Jephthah made use [of this word] as a test in crossing the Jordan River after a victory over the Ephramites", but Pike admittedly is not so convinced: "Now we don't see the application to anything in Freemasonry from the account given by the Hebrew chronicler of the use made of this word, to detect the men of a certain tribe, who pronounced it differently from others." Robert Hewitt Brown was also suspicious of the traditional explanation provided for the word in question and, in his 1882 book Stellar Theology and Masonic Astrology, offered an alternative interpretation: 9 Pike, Albert. The Book of Words, P. 47-48

“A reference to the Eleusinian Mysteries will do much to clarify [the probable true meaning of 'an ear of corn hanging over a ford of water', or 'a sheaf of wheat suspended near the bank of a river'] and give us the true meaning of that symbol. The mysteries of Eleusis were derived from those of Isis, known to the Greeks as Ceres, and also of Cybele. Ceres, or Cybele, was the goddess of the harvest and was represented, as the beautiful virgin of the zodiac, carrying ears of ripe corn. Likewise, Isis was for the Egyptians an emblem of the time of harvest. In the Egyptian zodiac, Isis occupied the place of Virgo and was represented with three ears of corn in her hand. The Syrian word for an ear of corn is 'sybola'... This word also means 'a stream of water', and the emblem of ears of corn or a sheaf of wheat near a stream or river, was one of the emblems of the Eleusinian and Tyrian (or Dionysian) mysteries. As the word had a double meaning, the image formed a hieroglyph. The river is the Nile, the overflow of which enriched the soil and produced bountiful crops of Egyptian maize, all symbolically represented by ears of maize hanging from a river.” 10 Other notable symbols found in the Companion grade that are easily related to the Mysteries celebrated at Eleusis include "those two famous bronze pillars" between which the candidate is led at one point in the ritual. It is said that King Solomon's temple was equipped with two impressive bronze pillars, one called Boaz and the other Jachin, which were placed in the outer porch of the temple as symbols of strength and establishment. In addition to the terrestrial and celestial globes that were placed on top of them, we are told that these two magnificent pillars were richly ornamented with "a representation of nets, lilies, and pomegranates." At the Fellowship degree, the candidate is told that these decorations “are said to denote Unity, Peace, and Abundance,” because “[t]he network, by its connection, denotes unity; the work of the lily, for its whiteness, and for the secluded place where it grows, purity and peace; pomegranates, by the exuberance of their seeds, denote abundance”. However, all three are also symbols associated with the Mysteries celebrated at Eleusis. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the lily is specifically named as one of the flowers collected by Persephone at the time of her fateful abduction. Likewise, was his naive acceptance of

10 Brown, Robert Hewitt. Star Theology and Masonic Astrology, p. 155.

the pomegranate seeds that ensured Hades Persephone's annual return to the Land of the Dead. The accompanying web could also be directly related to the story of Persephone's kidnapping. In Greek mythology, hammocks are associated with the goddess Britomartis, daughter of Eubulus and therefore granddaughter of Demeter, who were prominent figures in the Eleusinian Mysteries. In the third part of the Hymn of Callimachus to Artemis, we read of Britomartis' desperate flight into nearby fishermen's nets in a final attempt to escape the relentless advances of his pursuer, King Minos of Crete. After this episode, the goddess Britomartis was appropriately known as Diktyanna or the Lady of Nets. According to chronicler Edward Greswell, “[T]he Britomartis of Crete...was exactly the antitype of the Kore of Eleusis; and... she was originally conceived and proposed in the same relation to the Cretan Deo, as the Kore to the Eleusinian Demeter... We see also that just as the Kore in her fable proper was represented in danger by the violence of Aidoneus or Pluto , so was this Britomartis in Crete, equally threatened by the violence of Minos; and as the Kore succumbs to this violence in her own fable, and is really taken away, so this Britomartis in Crete falls victim to that of Minos, though not in the same way, being carried underground, but being forced. at sea [in fishing nets]. The same physical truth could be, and probably was, delineated by each of these representations, just from a different point of view. The authors of the Greek fable considered that the principle of vegetable life resided mainly in the earth; the Cretan authors looked a little deeper and found, as they thought, the true beginning and first beginnings of plant life, in the moisture of the earth soaked by the seed; in the watery principle, the true fuel of plant life in all its forms; in the rains and dew, whence the earth derives its moisture, and in the sea, as the ultimate spring and source of both. And therefore, with a stricter regard to the absolute order, connection, and dependencies of things, they chose to represent their Britomartis as lost at first at sea and recovered at sea's end." 11 11 Greswell, Edward. Origines Kalendariae Hellenicae, p. 376.

The symbolic representations of the hammock, the lily and the pomegranates that adorned the pillars that would have been placed inside the outer portico of King Solomon's temple allude, therefore, not only to the concepts of "Unity, Peace and Abundance" . they are referenced in the degree of Companion, but are also indicative of the Mysteries celebrated at Eleusis, in which one was principally indoctrinated concerning the immortality of the soul. The reality of divinity and the immortality of the soul were, in all probability, the main doctrines intended to be taught during most, if not all, of the Mysteries, including those performed in Egypt, Greece, Rome, Persia, India, and other parts of history. the world. . . In the case of those held in Eleusis, participants were instructed through a ritualized dramatization of the central myth associated with the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone, where the candidate became consubstantial with the latter in her symbolic descent to the Land of the Dead. and miraculous return to the realm of the living. In the author's opinion, it is no coincidence that Freemasonry demands from its Initiates the belief in that same ideology. The means adopted to convey these concepts also have their origin in the rites and ceremonies observed during the celebration of the ancient Mysteries.

GARBAGE AND WATERCASES In the previous chapter, we explained that Freemasonry was described as a continuation of the various mystery cults that flourished in ancient Rome, Egypt, Persia and especially Greece before being suppressed indiscriminately in favor of new and growing cults. , Christian religion. As Albert Mackey explained, the focus of these Mysteries, whether solar or agrarian in nature, was the indoctrination of their participants into the reality of divinity and the immortality of the soul. It was stated in the previous chapter that what Mystis learned through allegorical representation was only second-hand knowledge, but the knowledge that Epopt possessed was obtained through direct experience. Where Mystis once had faith, Epopt had gnosis. Since we can safely assume that the reality of divinity and the immortality of the soul were the central lessons allegorically conveyed to initiates of the Lesser Mystery, the question naturally begs an answer: in addition to physical death, how do you provide a first class experience? ?Hand of God and life after death? How to induce in another the experience that his soul is truly freed from the bonds of the material plane and can wander in the Underworld or in the Heavens where the Glory of God can be directly contemplated? Because this is the kind of experience that was supposedly induced in the participants of the Great Mystery. According to Sophocles, “Happy [t]rices are those of mortals, who having seen these rites depart to Hades; because to them alone it is granted to have true life there; for the rest, all that exists is evil. 1 1 Eyer, Shawn. Psychedelic Effects and the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Likewise Pindar exclaimed: “Happy is he who, having seen the rites, goes down beneath the hollow earth; for he knows the end of life, and he knows its God-sent beginning. 2 Plutarch went into much more detail. “[At death] the soul goes through an experience similar to that of those who celebrate great initiations... Mistakes at the beginning, tiring walking in circles, frightening paths in the darkness that lead nowhere; then, just before the end, all the terrible things, the panic, the chills, the sweat and the wonder. And then a wondrous light comes to meet you, the pure regions and the meadows are there to greet you, with sounds and dances and solemn and holy words and holy visions; and there the initiate, perfect for the time being, free and free from all bondage, walks around, crowned with a crown, celebrating the festival along with the other holy and pure people, and looks out over the uninitiated and unpurified multitude in this world. in the mud and mist underfoot." 3 Finally, Proclus described his experience in the Greater Mystery as follows: "They elicit the sympathy of souls with the ritual in a way that is incomprehensible to us, and divine, so that some Some of the initiates are filled with panic, filled with divine wonder; others assimilate the sacred symbols, give up their own identity, feel at ease with the gods, and experience divine possession.” 4 The problem of what could have so consistently induced an experience which convinced thousands upon thousands of participants, even the most intelligent of philosophers, of the reality of the vision shared by all the Epopts of the Great Mystery at Eleusis has plagued scholars, scholars and scientists for centuries. Wasson, Hofmann and Ruck, The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries, in 1978, that a viable explanation was finally established. offered the proposal that such an experience could only be induced consistently and 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid.

reliably with the use of an entheogenic compound; that is, with a psychedelic drug.

In fact, this is not very surprising. The idea that some kind of entheogenic compound had been used at Eleusis was held as far back as the 1920s by the Freemason and philosopher Edouard Schure, who, in addition to making an attempt to revive the ancient Mysteries, actually posited Eleusis as a source. an intoxicating and visionary incense. Religious studies scholar Houston Smith and poet Robert Graves also thought of a psychoactive drug as the source of the visions suffered at Eleusis. The use of entheogenic compounds in ritual settings is perhaps one of the most commonly used initiation motifs in indigenous and semi-civilized societies. In the Amazon basin it is ayahuasca, among the Mazatecs it is teonanacatl, with the ancient Vedantists it was soma, and with the Parsees it was haoma that achieves (or achieved) this experience. But, in all these cases and more, it was or is an entheogenic compound that facilitates (or facilitated) the experience. An important distinction needs to be made here. In the science and art of initiation there are actually two different types of initiation: formal and real. Formal initiation plants the seeds and provides the means by which, through time and application of the lessons instilled, those seeds can blossom into actual initiation or enlightenment. However, not all formal initiates achieve real initiation, nor are all real initiates formally initiated. The only way to ensure that formal initiation and actual initiation coincide at the same time is to have a failsafe means by which actual initiation can be induced by being formally initiated. It is this function that psychedelic drugs fulfilled in the ancient Mysteries and even today in certain indigenous and semi-civilized societies. Selected entheogenic compounds have the effect of expanding consciousness in such a way that previously abstract and ineffable notions of divinity and spirit become tangible and concrete, to the point where there is no doubt about the reality of the spiritual plane or planes. Experiences reported by those who have experimented with such compounds consistently involve astral travel motifs, near-death experiences, realization of the unity of all creation and the immanence of God, contact with angelic or divine beings, etc. In the metaphysical words of esteemed Freemason Swami Vivekananda, “[m]atter is represented by ether; when the action of Prana is more subtle, that same ether, in the subtlest state of vibration, will represent the mind, and there will remain an unbroken mass. If you can just step into that subtle vibration, you will see and feel that the entire universe is made up of subtle vibrations. Certain drugs sometimes have the power to bring us, while still in our senses, into that condition." 5 As at Eleusis, what was once asked to accept on faith is now given direct knowledge of the reality or unreality of those very details. In the Mysteries celebrated at Eleusis, the compound that performed this true initiation in its participants was called kykeon and, according to Wasson et al., was prepared from barley infested with Claviceps purpurea, or ergot. Ergot, a term derived from the slang French meaning spur, is a fungus that infects grasses and cereal grains, including but not limited to barley, wheat and corn. In the Middle Ages, it was responsible for the deaths of countless people who ate bread or other foods made from ergot-infested grains The symptoms of ergot poisoning, also known as St. Anthony's fire, are extremely frightening and include intense alternating sensations of heat and cold, the development of gangrene resulting in the loss of a limb, delusional hallucinations and gastric disturbances. severe, usually ending in death. . However, some other alkaloids that are known to induce ecstatic euphoria in countless users are also present in ergot seed. Because it was in an attempt to discover a cure for this dreaded ergot poisoning and other ailments (including migraines and respiratory ailments) that led Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann to the discovery of LSD-25 in the 1930s. under the influence of LSD experience panic, chills, sweat, wonder, visions of light, astonishment, death of the ego, dissolution of boundaries, celestial ascension, chthonic descent, contact with angels and divine beings, etc. Surprisingly, unlike the toxic compounds responsible for the severe and harmful symptoms associated with ergot poisoning, the psychoactive alkaloids that would later become known as LSD are water-soluble and, according to Merkur, Webster, and others, could have been deleted. of the poisonous alkaloids present in ergot by a simple and primitive extraction with water. Shawn Eyer, former teacher at Academy Lodge No. 847 in Oakland, CA, wrote in his article Psychedelic Effects and the Eleusinian Mysteries: “The secrecy of what really happened at Eleusis remains a major problem for historians of religion. what

The trance state played an important role in initiation and is being suggested by more and more scholars. While there are several possible means of entering a mind-altering state of consciousness similar to this 5 Vivekananda, Swami. Raja Yoga, pg. 35.

described in ancient sources, the use of a botanical stimulus is by far the most reliable. Therefore, the model expressed by R. Gordon Wasson, Albert Hofmann and Carl Ruck must be taken seriously. His theory is the first truly realistic explanation of the most documented aspect of the sacred mysteries; its profound, beneficent, and lasting effects upon the millions of initiates who, at one time or another, have stood spellbound on the torchlit steps of the Telesterion [at Eleusis].” 6 The Hymn to Demeter provides the constituents of kykeon specifically as barley grain, pennyroyal leaves, and water, none of which, other than the negligible thujone count in pennyroyal, is known to be noticeably psychoactive. 7 However, assuming the barley had been infested with Claviceps purpurea, a tea made from it would produce an entheogenic brew that would have induced heavenly visions in even the most stubborn participants. It is precisely this possibility that we intend to explore in the context of Freemasonry. In his book Secrets of Eleusis, Carl A.P. Ruck, Professor of Classics at Boston University, argued that the ergot used to brew the kykeon's sacred potion was harvested from the Rarian plain that grew near Eleusis and then ceremonially separated from the barley grains. in the so-called threshing floor of Triptolemos.8 The threshing floor is a circular space in the open air where the grains, after being harvested and dried, are crushed with mallets and released into the open air (a process known as sieving). The grains of wheat, being heavier, fall to the threshing floor to be collected, while the lighter chaff is carried away by the wind. In Triptolemos's time, however, it was ergot grains that were harvested, not necessarily wheat. Significantly, the era is also an important symbol within Freemasonry. As discussed above, the association of the Ornan era with Freemasonry stems from the fact that King Solomon's temple is said to have been erected on that very spot. Earlier, King David, Solomon's father, had purchased the land of Ornan for the purpose of erecting an altar there, upon which David was to make sacrificial offerings after witnessing a vision of the "angel of the Lord" that was seen nearby . . of the time. Prior to this time, all sacrifices were usually made on the "altar of burnt offering" found in the tabernacle. 6 Careful, Shawn. Psychedelic Effects and the Eleusinian Mysteries. 7 Hopkinson, N. Callimachus' Hymn to Demeter, p. 87. 8 Ruck, Carl A.P. Sacred Mushrooms of the Goddess and the Secrets of Eleusis, P. 121-45.

However, after David's sacrifice, it was decreed that a permanent temple should be erected over Ornan's threshing floor; a temple that would eventually replace the 'tabernacle in the wilderness' as the abode of the Jewish deity. It is in this permanent temple that the various degrees of Ancient Freemasonry symbolically take place. That is why it was said of the candidate for Masonic Initiation that he traveled allegorically "to the era of Ornan", that is, to the temple of King Solomon. The age therefore implies Initiation into a Masonic Lodge and the "ground floor" of King Solomon's temple. Surprisingly, King Solomon's Temple can be directly associated with the ergot and therefore the kykeon. In Dan Merkur's daring book, The Mystery of the Manna, he describes what he calls the proof of the Old Testament's draft of the Book of Numbers. In this Biblical episode, two women are brought to the tabernacle, one of whom is known to be an adulteress, while the other is only suspected of adultery. At the trial, the ex-wife is given a drink that, because she is guilty, is said to make her thigh “sag” and her stomach “bloat.” If the reader will recall, gangrenous loss of a limb and severe gastric disturbances were among the listed symptoms characterizing ergot poisoning. In particular, the drink given to the unfortunate woman was not prepared other than to collect dust from the ground which was then added to the water, the same dust which in the same episode is later offered by the priests as a "grain offering". . before Yahweh, thus identifying the floor of the tabernacle as a threshing floor, as well as the “ground floor” of King Solomon’s temple. This should come as no surprise to Freemasons, since at the Apprentice grade we are admitted unequivocally that the tabernacle "was an exact model of Solomon's temple". If the model were really accurate, then naturally it would have been placed, like Solomon's temple, on a threshing floor. In the words of Dr. Merkur,

“On the conventional assumption that the tabernacle floor was a projection in the era of Moses of the temple floor in Jerusalem, the concern for a grain offering suggests the type of dust that would have been found in the era of [Ornan], which was once the sanctuary of Jerusalem. Implicitly, the dust that had been left on the ground where the grain was threshed was added to the holy water. ...The toxic dust that was taken from the threshing floors and mixed with the water for the draft cereal offering can be safely identified as ergot (Claviceps purpurea), a fungus that infests the grains of barley, wheat, rye, and other grasses of cereals". 9 9 Merkur, Dan. The Mystery of Manna: The Psychedelic Sacrament of the Bible, P. 10.

The woman was poisoned by the current because she was forced to drink the powder, toxic alkaloids and all, along with the water. If a simple extraction of water had been carried out, sifting out the superfluous and poisonous materials and leaving behind the psychoactive components of the fungus, the adulterous woman would not have suffered such bad luck. Instead, she would have been seized with an intense, enthusiastic ecstasy, which was also characteristic of the kykeon ingestion at the Great Mystery performed at Eleusis. Significantly, as discussed above, at the Fellowship grade, the successful candidate is given an odd word and shown a very peculiar image with little or no meaningful explanation for its presence: a sheaf of wheat (or an ear of corn). waterfall. This representation is usually displayed on the south wall of the Lodge, located directly behind the Second Warden. The word associated with it, which can be variously translated as an ear of corn or a stream of water, is equally curious. As Pike noted: “We do not know when this word was adopted, and no one has been able to find any special meaning for it as a Masonic word. But I am fully convinced that originally there was a hidden meaning in every word used in a Masonic degree. Each of them covered up and concealed some secret meaning and application.” 10 To reiterate, Robert Hewitt Brown was also suspicious of the traditional explanation provided for the word in question, and in Stellar Theology and Masonic Astrology offered an alternative interpretation, saying that “[t]he reference to the Eleusinian Mysteries will go a long way towards clarifying [ the probable true meaning of 'an ear of corn hanging over a ford of water', or 'a sheaf of wheat suspended near the bank of a river'] and give us the true meaning of this symbol.” 11 And he was right. The composite meaning of a stalk of wheat or corn, both known hosts of the ergot fungus, suspended beside or perhaps below a waterfall can be explained by what in modern coffeehouse parlance is known as pouring, a technique used to prepare a cup of strong coffee. or tea by pouring hot water over ground coffee and through a filtering device. If the reader recalls, it is the psychoactive alkaloids of Claviceps purpurea that are soluble in water, whereas the poisonous alkaloids are not. Pro 10 Pike, Albert. The Book of Words, P. 47-48. 11Brown, Robert Hewitt. Star Theology and Masonic Astrology, p. 155.

If the wheat or corn in question were infested with ergot fungus, the act of pouring water over said wheat stalks or ears of corn would produce a beverage of comparable composition, potency, and effect to the kykeon of Eleusis. Surprisingly, this could also explain another Greek mystery: that of the Golden Fleece. In Judges 6:37 the fleece is directly associated with the threshing floor, where Gideon places it there as a curious proof of divinity. We have already seen that in some cases the era is the ergot code. Furthermore, according to scholars, miners near the Black Sea used the fleece to filter flakes of gold from rivers, turning them into true golden fleeces.12 If the fleece can filter gold from a liquid stream, then there is no reason either. could have been used to filter out the harmful components of the ergot fungus. An alternative interpretation of the Golden Fleece will be offered in a later chapter. We would like to remind the reader that pennyroyal leaves were also added to Eleusinian kykeon. In the opinion of Ruck et al., this was included as a means of combating the negative gastric reactions common to ingestion of ergot alkaloids. The Masonic ritual, of course, makes no mention of pennyroyal leaves, but in remarkable consistency there is direct mention of multiple gastric aids which would work to the same advantage as the pennyroyal leaves included in kykeon. We are talking here about the so-called symbolic minerals to which reference is made

in some versions, the Apprentice degree was included: chalk, charcoal and clay. The chalk is, of course, calcium carbonate, the active compound found in digestive aids like TUMS®. Likewise, charcoal has long been used as a means to treat extreme gastric disorders and even poisoning. And finally, clay is the natural source of the anti-diarrheal compound kaolinite, which is a key ingredient in anti-diarrheal medications like Kaopectate®. Does this mean that the Greater Mystery of Eleusis was preserved in the ritual work of Freemasonry? Perhaps this is what the mysterious alchemist Fulcanelli was referring to when he cryptically suggested in The Mystery of the Cathedrals that Freemasons expressed themselves in "slang". 13 However, even attempting to answer such a question would be purely speculative. But then again, so is non-operative Freemasonry. 12 FAIVRE, Antoine. The Golden Fleece and Alchemy. 13Weidner, Jay. The Mysteries of the Grand Cross of Hendaye, P. 433.

THE SERPENT'S VINEYARD Until the 1960s, when Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hoffman, the same visionary who discovered the awesome effects of LSD synthesized lysergic acid amides from the seeds of Ipomoea violacea and Turbina corymbosa, he believed that ergot alkaloids were unique to the ergot fungus alone. Hoffman's remarkable discovery led ethnobotanist Richard Evans Shultes to identify the mysterious oliloqui sacrament of the ancient Aztecs, whose identity had long eluded those who preceded him as part of this same family Convolvulaceae. The Eleusinian Mysteries would no doubt be familiar to certain ancient Mesoamericans. Oliloqui literally means that which revolves, alluding to the sinuous tendrils of the vine. When consumed, the seeds of the vine induce a powerful LSD-like experience which, according to ethnobotanist Christian Ratsch, is sought to this day by practitioners of Western sex magic, such as that advocated by British occultist Aleister Crowley.2 The seeds are traditionally used ceremonially for healing, visionary and initiation purposes, and are prepared by grinding them into powder before combining them with water to produce a powerfully intoxicating psychedelic potion. The seeds are also known to be added in small amounts to alcoholic beverages such as mezcal. Seeds of Argyreia nervosa or Hawaiian Baby Woodrose, also from the Convolvulaceae family, are known to have been used for similar, if not identical, purposes among the Huna shamans of ancient Hawaii. A species of the genus Ipomoea, jalapa or purga, also figures prominently in the African-American magical tradition of Hoodoo, where the plant's dried roots are carried as amulets by High John the Conqueror. The formidable effects of olioqui were pointed out in the 16th-century Colonial Florentine Codex: “It intoxicates; drive him crazy, move him, drive him crazy, 1 Rudgley, Richard. The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Substances, page 180. 2 Ratsch, Christian. The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications, P. 65.

THE SERPENT'S VINE 71 makes one possessed. Whoever eats from it, who drinks from it, sees many things that frighten him a lot. He is really terrified of the big snake he sees for that reason." 3 Francisco Hernández, the famous Spanish physician, also referred to oligolochy in his book Rerum Medicarum Novae Hispaniae Thesarus. "When the priests of the Indians want to commune with the spirits of the dead, they eat these seeds to induce delirium and then they see thousands of satanic figures and ghosts around them." 4 And after testing the effects of the seeds on humans during studies conducted in the early 1990s, research indicated that "Ingesting 60 to 100 seeds caused apathy, indifference and increased sensitivity to optical stimuli. After about four hours, a longer phase of relaxation and well-being followed." 5 Having ingested the seeds and experienced much of the above on several occasions, we can corroborate these reports. The effects come on slowly, and the first thing you notice is dizziness followed by nausea and vomiting. Each time, for an hour or more , one would fall into a deep, visionary, death-like, rather hellish trance; a true Persephone-style descent into the infernal regions of the underworld. However, after this nightmarish phase, one is reborn in a state of deep and lasting euphoria, along with visions of geometric patterns and colors. There is a deep sense of interconnectedness not only of all things; all of creation, but also of the mind and environment. The person has the experience of controlling the mind of his environment and, alternatively, losing control of your mind due to the overwhelming intensity of that same environment. Because sometimes the senses are sharpened to such an extent that the phenomena around us, which would normally go unnoticed them, appear suddenly and simultaneously in our consciousness. The mind is really overloaded and at that moment one can easily

give way to panic and confusion. As Aldous Huxley once reflected in The Doors of Perception regarding mescaline, under the oil's spell it is as if the reducing valve or funnel that would normally filter out superfluous sensory data from the "general mind" and allows the person to focus on one single edition was suddenly 3 TravelersGarden.com 4 American Ethnology Bureau. Annual reports, pg. 386. 5 Naturalpedia. Quotes on apathy from the world's leading natural health/natural living authors.

magnified or totally removed from the person's faculties.6 The final hours of the experience are, for the author, often characterized by what is classically described as the death of the ego. The psychedelic experience cannot be described; Really no. The entheogenic realm is precisely what the phrase ineffable mysteries refers to. The ineffable mysteries cannot be fully shared or even understood unless one gains gnosis by directly experiencing these mysteries. Such a person was called in the Eleusinian Mysteries an Epopt or Seer, and the corresponding secrecy command in the Mysteries probably alludes to the actual inability on the part of the Epopt to communicate the experience successfully. Where the Eleusinian Mysteries were not practiced as such for about two thousand years, there are even today certain Mesoamericans who employ ergot alkaloids for similar purposes. Although modern Freemasonry has no demonstrable ties to the ancient Aztecs, we can look to their culture to better understand the potential role of ergot in the mysteries celebrated at Eleusis, as well as perhaps in Freemasonry, where the secret of the ergot mushroom appears to have been symbolically preserved in ancient times. shape of a threshing floor, a mysterious password and an allegorical sheaf of wheat suspended by a waterfall. 6 Fietz, Lothar. Aldous Huxley: Pratexte und Kontexte, p. 77

PARTE III: Fly agaric

MASONIC TEMPLARY, GUARDIANS OF THE GRAIL Parzival Ever

From the early to mid-13th century, when the German knight Wolfram von Eschenbach identified them as such in his epic poem, the legendary Knights Templar were closely associated with the mythical Knights of the Holy Grail. In the following paragraphs, it will be shown that von Eschenbach's membership may have influenced the development of the Knights Templar naming ceremony in the York Rite and the rank of Knight Kadosh in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. It is for this reason that the author has come to see the Templar Masons as a kind of modern guardian of the authentic Grail tradition. Let's take a moment to briefly mention some of what the Grail lore actually involves. It will also be helpful to examine some of the major literary precursors that some scholars believe may have contributed to the rich lore surrounding Grail lore. The Holy Grail is most commonly described as the chalice that Jesus Christ drank during his "Last Supper" before being crucified. According to legend, this cup was later used by Joseph of Arimathea1, to collect the mixture of blood and water that flowed from the laceration in Jesus' side made by the spear or spear of the Roman soldier Longinus. Being thus sanctified, the chalice was then said to be imbued with miraculous virtues, such as healing powers and the ability to make barren lands fertile, and it was for the purpose of preserving this sacred vessel that the Order of the Knights of the Holy Grail was created. originally. As a literary forerunner of this story, several scholars have tried to identify the legend of the Holy Grail with the Welsh legend of King Bran, the mythical king of Great Britain, and his magic cauldron, the latter of which was said to be similar to the qualities that gave him are attributed to the Holy Grail in order to mysteriously bring the dead back to life. Magical resources like these were not limited to King Bran's cauldron, but were also attributed to Bran himself. 2 Sun, David. King Arthur and the Gods of the Round Table, P. 131.

The Mabinogi, an ancient book of Welsh folklore, after realizing its impending doom, the king ordered its head severed and returned to Britain where, like the severed head of the poet Orpheus, it continued to speak, and in some cases , even prophesy. However, after about eighty years, his head stopped talking, at which point it was taken to a place called "White Hill" and buried facing France to protect the British from French invasion. Legend goes on to claim that it was none other than King Arthur, the very same figure who figures prominently in Grail lore, who retrieved the skull from its resting place. In more recent times, scholars have attempted to align the Holy Grail with the golden platter from which the repentant King Herod served the severed head of St. John the Baptist to the dancer Salome.3 The reader is asked to note that in both cases, the The object identified as a precursor to the Holy Grail is directly associated with the severed head motif. The Knights Templar were formed in the 12th century with the noble purpose of accompanying Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land during the Crusades. After inventing a system that is widely recognized as the forerunner of modern banking, the Templars became extremely wealthy to the point that the powers that be instituted; that is, the crown and tiara sought to relieve them of their riches, and in 1307 the debt-ridden King Philip IV of France issued a declaration declaring the Templars heretics. Many of them were subsequently arrested, interrogated, tortured and executed; his wealth was then claimed by the greedy Philip. Although no 'Holy Grail' was discovered among the Templars' treasures, the most widespread confession made by the Knights during interrogation was the collective veneration of a mysterious severed head, supposedly called Baphomet, which was used by them during their initiation ceremonies. According to the 19th-century Viennese orientalist Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, who believed that Baphomet was not the name of a deity but rather the title of a secret Ophite Gnostic initiation ritual, the word Baphomet is a combination of the two words Greek Baphe and Metis. which, when combined, translate into the Baptism of Wisdom.4

Of course, this may have been less of a literal and more of a metaphorical baptism. Though it is perhaps notable that Von Eschenbach specifically refers to the Knights of the Holy Grail as "baptized men". As stated, the lore surrounding Grail lore is closely related to legends involving severed heads. These two seemingly separate subjects, a holy cup and a severed head, would seem somewhat irreconcilable if 3 Picknett, Lynn. The Templar Revelation: Secret Keepers of Christ's True Identity, page 137. 4 Twyman, Tracy R. Found Again: Hammer-Purgstall's “Templar Artifacts”.

it was not because of two Masonic degrees called Templars. In both the Knights Templar ceremony in the York Rite and the rank of Knight Kadosh in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, the candidate is obliged to seal his obligation by drinking wine from the cap of a human skull, thus clearly uniting the theme of sacred cup or libation with that of the severed skull or head. However, this practice is not exclusive to Freemasonry. We find historical precedent in the potentially shocking rituals once observed by the Goths of Scandinavia who, according to research by the Reverend English Freemason George Oliver, were prone to drinking alcoholic libations from the cap of a human skull. Paraphrasing Oliver's 1840 work The History of Initiation, Albert Pike says in Morals and Dogma that the initiation rites of this East Germanic tribe included "[a] long ordeal, of fasting and mortification, circular processions, [and] many ordeals ". judgments. … [The candidate] was bound with a drawn sword (as is still the custom in the Rit Moderne) and sealed his obligation by drinking mead from a human skull. 5 Turning our attention to the Far East, we find that the ritual motif of drinking from a human skull also plays a central role in the ceremonial observances of the reclusive Shiva-worshipping Aghora of India, as well as the remote Vajrayana Buddhists of Tibet, both of whom retain the curious rite of drinking libations from a sacred kapala or skull cup. These kapalas are often employed by practitioners of Vajrayana Buddhism for the additional purpose of making religious offerings to the divine Dharmapalas, who are often depicted carrying these strange but fascinating relics. The word Dharmapala translated literally means Defender of the Faith, which itself is a phrase that should be especially meaningful to every Masonic Templar. However, they are also used in tantric initiations, during which, according to Kagyu layman Mike Crowley, the kapala is regularly filled with one or more intoxicants. Frederick Shade, in his The Quest for the Holy Grail and the Modern Knights Templar, provides a summary of several other similarities between what he calls Templar relics and the lesser relics of the Grail tradition. Lesser relics of the Grail tradition are described as certain sacred relics that Grail Knights seek beyond the Holy Grail. Similarities between so-called Templar relics and lesser relics of Grail lore include, among other things, 5 De Hoyos, Arturo. Albert Pike's Morals and Dogma: Annotated Edition, pp. 509-510.

“[the] plate of bread, which is the food given to the pilgrim upon his arrival” and “[the] skull of mortality, with which the novice performs a year of penance, and with which he curses”. 6 Shade goes on to say that “[h]are several other saints and holy signs in the Templar tradition. Some of the lesser relics of the Grail cycle are hinted at here, such as the Templar crucifix, with the prominent nails on it. There is the knight's sword, which must be wielded in defense of the faith, and also his shield, all very well explained in St. Paul's quote. They may not necessarily come directly from the Grail legend, but they certainly evoke many aspects of that tradition and resonate as relics in their own right." 7 Von Eschenbach's association of the Knights Templar with the mythical Knights of the Holy Grail may well have had more than that a small influence on the development of the Knights Templar ceremony in the York Rite and the degree of Knight Kadosh in the AASR Due to the likelihood of such influence, it is the author's opinion that the Templar Masonic can rightly be called a modern guardian of authentic knowledge of the Grail, complete with all that it implies. This is true of the candidate who sits silently contemplating in the somber Chamber of Reflections at the beginning of the Templar ceremony, where the current human skull still has the potential to display that miraculous power of prophetic speech attributed to the severed head of the mythical Bran King.

often with oracular messages like I was what you are and, more importantly, I am what you will be, doesn't the skull in the Chamber of Reflections tell us something of our destiny for all of us? Is not the bitter cup of death one in which every man must partake sooner or later? 6 Shade, Frederick, A. The Quest for the Holy Grail and the Modern Knights Templar. 7 Ibid.

BAPHOMET AND THE GOLDEN FLEIL Baphomet, the alleged divine icon of the Knights Templar, has been an enigma to scholars for centuries. Some described the figure as a mysterious severed head that possessed magical qualities. However, the best-known depiction of Baphomet comes from the sketch by French occultist and Freemason Eliphas Levi in his influential work The Dogma and Ritual of High Magic.1 In this book, Baphomet is portrayed as a winged hermaphrodite hominid. with the head and legs of a goat, but with the torso of a man. In the previous chapter it was established that the name of Baphomet was, in all likelihood, a coded reference to an Ophite Gnostic-turned-Templar initiation ritual in which a holy libation grail was used, the same as had been formed from of the cap of a damaged head. ; i.e. a kapala or skull cup. The precedent for such a rite was set by ritual observances in both the West and the East. So why was Eliphas Levi, an occultist of great learning, able to portray the figure as related to a goat? Was Levi just confused? Or was he using a curtain for the purpose of deflecting unholy eyes? These are the questions that will be addressed in the following paragraphs. As we explained in the previous chapter, the name Baphomet is probably a combination of the two Greek words Baphe and Metis which, when translated into English, produce the phrase Baptism of Wisdom.2 The skull of Baphomet venerated by the Knights Templar has been variously identified as the head of Bran, the mythical king of Great Britain and, most significantly, the head of John the Baptist, the initiator of Christ. In this chapter, we will examine another possible candidate for historical and literary validation of our prized grail of the skull: the head of the Gorgon Medusa. But before we get to that, let's take a moment to look at another famous skull said to have been in the possession of the historic Knights Templar. In his 1921 work Freemasonry and the Old Gods, J.S.M. Ward, 1 Levi, Eliphas. Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual, p. 180. 2 Twyman, Tracy R. Found Again: The "Templar Artifacts" of Hammer-Purgstall.

the founder of the Anthropological School of Masonic research, told a disturbing but fascinating story that supposedly has come down to us from the historic Templar trials themselves. Although the story is a fiction invented in an attempt to slander the Knights of the Temple, it is nonetheless relevant to our task at hand. According to Ward, “[a] great lady of Maraclea was loved by a Templar, a Lord of Sidon; but she died in her youth, and on the night of her burial this wicked lover crept to her grave, dug up her body, and raped it. Then a voice from the void ordered him to come back in nine months, because he would find a son. He obeyed the order and, at the appointed time, reopened the grave and found a head on the leg bones of a skeleton (skull and crossbones). The same voice told him, "Take good care of him, for he would be the giver of all good things," and then he took him away. He became a protective genie and was able to defeat his enemies simply by showing them his magic head. 3 Based on this account, Carl A.P. Ruck and his co-authors Mark A. Hoffman and José Alfredo González Celdrán added that “the Knights Templar adopted the Crux decussata as their flag and emblem. They portrayed it as cross-legged bones, under a skull, supposedly as a reference to Golgotha, the Hill of Skulls, but perhaps not without knowledge of the [Gorgon's head]... This is especially likely because in Templar tradition the skull [was used] as a magical weapon, just as Perseus used the Gorgon's head." 4 It is this incredibly insightful injunction by Ruck, Hoffman, and Celdran that provides the key to understanding precisely what the name implies and the essential nature of Baphomet. According to myth, Perseus was the first of the Greek heroes and was the legendary founder of the city of Mycenae.To win over his sweetheart Andromeda, Perseus was given the impossible task of retrieving the head of the Gorgon Medusa which, like our own Baphomet, has been described as part part human and part animal, in this case half a snake.Scholars have correctly associated Perseus' search for the Gorgon's head with Hercules' search for the Gorgon's head.

The Golden Apples of the Hersperides and, more importantly, Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece. In each of these cases, the prize ended up being discovered in a serpent-protected tree in the middle of a sacred garden or grove. 3 Ward, JSM Freemasonry and the Old Gods, p. 307. 4 Ruck, Carl A.P. Mushrooms, Myths and Mithras: The Drug Cult That Civilized Europe, p. 212.

The version of Perseus's ordeal with which most are familiar describes his confrontation with Medusa as taking place in the cave of the Gorgon, located far beyond the lair of the Granae brotherhood. However, other accounts place the Gorgon Medusa in the same Garden of the Hesperides, the same place where Heracles discovered the Golden Apples. An example of this transmission chain has been preserved and can be seen depicted on a Greek vase housed in the Staatliche Museum in Berlin, Germany, dating from the third quarter of the 4th century BC. This incredible artifact shows the hero Perseus directly under the golden apple tree in the Garden of the Hesperides. Before him stands a decapitated Gorgon Medusa, while the victorious Perseus carries her severed head. In the painting, however, Perseus's eyes are not directed at the Gorgon or her head, but are directed only at the golden fruit hanging from the tree, subtly identifying for the viewer the Gorgon's head with the Golden Apples. Therefore, it can be safely assumed that the head of Medusa, the golden apples (mela) and the golden fleece (mela) are all three synonymous. In fact, mela translates to apple and wool. So, beyond the inherent notions of an epic quest, what do they have to do with the Holy Grail and therefore Baphomet? According to the 6th-century chronograph John Malalas, “Perseus cut off [Medusa's] head and then used it as a 'skull cup' (skyphos) to teach the Zoroastrian rite [i.e., the haoma rite] to the Persians. , who took the name Medes (Medoi) in honor of Medusa”. 5 As in the Knights Templar ceremony in the York Rite and in the degree of Knight Kadosh in the AASR, a libation is used which is drunk through a cup made from a skull. And, the similarities don't stop there. Both versions of the story relate that Perseus was aided in his task by Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom, who told him how to defeat Medusa. After Perseus' victory, the Gorgon's head was therefore entrusted to Athena as a gift. She later used the skyphos or “skull cup” as a decorative brooch to fasten her goatskin aegis, which is considered by many to be the defining characteristic of the wise goddess. In modern parlance, the word aegis has come to suggest the protective covering offered to a worshiper by a particular deity. The word itself, however, 5 Ibid, P. 88-89. simply means goatskin. The association between the Gorgon's skull cup and the skin of a goat points, of course, directly to Baphomet who, if the reader remembers, was portrayed by Levi as part of a goat. And here we approach the real mystery of the myth. According to The Apples of Apollo by Ruck and Heinrich, “the magical element which was the object of the hero's quest in Greek mythology is always the sacred entheogen. In Jason's case, the Golden Fleece was Amanita muscaria. …As should be clear by now…the fleece [and] the apples…represent the fly agaric mushroom. ... [Carefully] dried flyswatter hats turn a metallic golden-orange color. This is the reason why both the magic fleece and the magic apples are called "golden". What may be less obvious is why the fungus should be compared to a fleece or an apple, golden or otherwise. In its ovoid embryonic stage, the fly agaric is completely covered by a pure white membrane called the universal veil. The portion of the veil covering the nascent cap is made up of adjacent pointed segments, the purpose of which is to protect the cap and, by insinuating these 'horns' into small cracks in the overlying soil, help the fungus to force its way through the air. As the mushroom cap grows and expands, the segments separate and spread out, giving the open red cap its characteristic white-spotted appearance. Closely observed, these fragments of veil, sometimes up to a quarter of an inch in height and width, resemble white wool, especially those of a pastoral society. The cap's blood-red "fur" adds to the illusion. When harvested, the mushroom cap is usually cut from the stem to prevent infestation by fly larvae often found there. …The separated lid is then dried, both to prevent infestation and rot and to make the fungus a more potent entheogen, as drying converts ibotenic acid to muscimol much more effectively. Several other changes also occur. As the cap dries, it shrivels, shrinks in overall size, and wrinkles; What

mentioned, it also takes on a beautiful golden color with a metallic sheen, or a reddish-orange if handled carelessly. The caps always reabsorb some moisture from the air after drying, giving them a flexibility and feel similar to the cured animal skins they now resemble: they look like tiny animal skins. If you've ever seen these 'skins', the 'Golden Fleece'... suddenly [comes] into focus. The fly agaric is a mycorrhizal fungus; that is, its mycelium will only grow in association with the rootlets of certain trees. Because of this, the fruiting bodies of the Amanita muscaria mycelia, the same red and white mushrooms, always display their round, white-spotted heads under the host's canopy, giving the impression that they are ripe fruits that have fallen from the ground. tree. Because they are round, red and just the right size, anyone familiar with the fruit compares them to apples. And again, because they turn golden when dried, they turn into golden apples. Golden Fleece and Golden Apples: only, and always, found in certain special 'gardens', on certain special trees." 6 It doesn't take much speculation to imagine that the golden fleece that Jason sought, the same one that later was ' bound' with the Gorgon's skull cup, refers to this same covering of animal skin. It is therefore possible, I dare say probable, that the Holy Grail and the Golden Fleece are indeed implicative of the same mystery; that is, of the fungus. Furthermore, Athena's mother was none other than the goddess Metis. It almost goes without saying that this seems to be the source of the second half of Baphomet's name; i.e. Bafe Metis. Interestingly, Metis is also an important philosophical concept. According to Amy Wygant, "Metis as a quality refers to practical skill, craftsmanship, magic, herbs...and ingenuity of all kinds." 7 Metis's relationship to practical magic and the use of herbs is particularly remarkable. It is evident that Levi's curious association of Baphomet with the goat is not a mere confusion of symbols, but a veritable cloak, serving to obscure the Arcana with another blind. Furthermore, man did not ignore the use of entheogenic plants. For example, it says in The History of Magic, by Eliphas Levi: 6 Ruck, Carl A.P. The Apples of Apollo: Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the Eucharist, P. 118-119. 7 Wygant, Amy. Medea, Magic and Modernity in France: Stages and Stories, 1553 – 1797, p. 57

“The progress of magnetism will one day lead to the discovery of the absorbent properties of oak mistletoe. Then shall we know the secret of those spongy growths which take the unused surplus from trees, and are burdened with their tinctures and sap; the Mushrooms, the Truffles, the Galls on the trees… So let's not laugh at Paracelsus anymore…” 8 Of course, the oak is a common host for the mycorrhizal fungus Amanita muscaria. The reference to Paracelsus is also revealing, as the alchemist quack actually refers to an agaric in his writings.9 Again, in The Mysteries of Magic: A Digest of the Writings of Eliphas Levi (1886) by A.E. the Middle Ages, the necromancers…composed of filters and ointments…; they mixed monk grass, belladonna and poisonous mushrooms... Their howls were heard from great distances, and the homesick traveler imagined that legions of ghosts came out of the earth; the trees themselves assumed frightful shapes before their eyes, flaming orbs seemed to glow in the undergrowth, while the marsh frogs seemed to rasp the words of the Sabbath in a hoarse voice. It was the mesmerism of hallucination and the contagion of madness. [They] extracted the poisonous and narcotic humor from the mushrooms.” 10 Filled with auditory and visual hallucinations, shifting and menacing ghosts, disembodied spheres of light, and even frogs chanting the Orthodox Church's liturgy, Levi's account is clearly an example of entheogenic intoxication. Similar to the Holy Grail in Von Eschenbach's Parzival, the Templars' Baptism of Wisdom was heavily veiled from the eyes of the profane, so much so that it became a mystery even to the Initiates of Freemasonry themselves. It is the author's hope that he has had at least some success in his attempt to demonstrate these more-than-subtle connections between such seemingly disparate subjects as the Holy Grail, a severed head, and the Golden Fleece. While it is true that the quest for truth often takes many forms and themes, the underlying object has always been and will remain the same: the golden light of Wisdom. 8 Waite, Arthur Edward. The History of Magic by Eliphas Levi, page 185. 9 Weeks, Andrew. Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus Von Hohenheim, 1493-1541):

Essential Theoretical Writings, p. 32. 10 Waite, Arthur Edward. The Mysteries of Magic: A Compendium of the Writings of Eliphas Levi, pp.135-174.

THE HOLY GRAIL AND SOMA We have shown that the Holy Grail of Arthurian legend was in fact a veiled allusion to Baphomet, the mysterious severed head supposedly revered by the original Knights Templar. It has even been shown that the Masonic Templar, in turn, incorporated this image into his own ritual in the form of a skull cup of initiation, the same as meeting the requirements of being a severed head and a sacred cup. In this chapter we'll tackle the problem of this cup's contents and find out exactly what it was, beyond its composition and legendary history, that made this vessel so special. To do this, we first need to turn east and look back to 1500 BC. Because that is where we will find the Vedas and, more importantly, the soma. To this day, soma is shrouded in mystery. He is mentioned in the Vedas as being at once a plant, a libation, a drug, a bull and even a deity. Known more commonly as "Toro Rojo" and often described as having one sole leg and one sole pie, it is no different from the famous fruit of the tree of life in the Jewish-Christian tradition or the legendary amrita of the Hindus or the ambrosia of the Greek. Like them, it should give its drinker the gift of immortality. However, the identification of soma eluded scholars for centuries, and it was not until the arrival of the amateur mycologist R. Gordon Wasson that a reasonable proposal was put forward, satisfying most, if not all, of the detailed requirements. the Vedas. Wasson identified soma as the entheogenic and mycorrhizal mushroom Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric and still widely used today for ritual and religious purposes by numerous indigenous peoples, including the Siberian shaman. Without getting into the difficult question of whether or not Wasson was correct in his identification (which we believe he was), the reader is referred to his books Soma: The Divine Mushroom of Immortality and Persephone's Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion for a complete treatment.subject.1 As stated above, A. muscaria mushrooms are entheogenic or psychedelic and contain within them a powerful visionary and intoxicating compound called muscimol. When properly prepared and ingested by humans in safe doses, these mushrooms have the potential to induce visions of light and feelings of ascension and dissolution, as well as trigger deep introspection and revelations of a personal and cosmic nature. On the other hand, they can also induce terrifying hallucinations, disorientation, time and space distortions, hot flashes, extreme sweating and brutal nausea. 1 In his book Cannabis and the Soma Solution, Chris Bennett convincingly argued that soma was actually Cannabis sativa. We suspect that both he and Wasson are right, and it is very likely that soma reacted to different plants at different times.

Clark Heinrich explains in his remarkable book Strange Fruit that the A. muscaria mushroom starts life as a small egg-shaped mass before expanding from its stem into a saucer-shaped cap and finally into its mature goblet shape. Its 'red with white spots' appearance is familiar to all of us as the so-called fairy tale mushroom seen in popular children's tales such as Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. The white spots are the remnants of the universal veil, which serves two important purposes. First of all, it protects the fruiting body before the fungus has time to expand its bright red cap. Second, with its many small points, like many tiny horns, the universal veil helps the fruiting body reach sunlight, breaking up any ground that might cover it. So soma is compared to a "red bull" in the Vedas. So the epithet single foot refers, of course, to the lone stipe holding the reddish cap. This figurative bull had to be sacrificed by the worshipers who draw its rich and intoxicating blood. In fact, sum means even pressed. According to the Vedas, the juices of the red bull were squeezed between two stones and mixed with cow's milk before being ritually drunk by the congregation of worshipers. It is believed that soma eventually became exclusive to the Brahmin priesthood and its use by other castes was considered taboo. One of the first Hindu legislators, Manu, even declared that the consumption of mushrooms would be completely prohibited. However, Soma did not completely disappear from view. As many scholars have noted, it survived with the ancient Hindu neighbors of the Middle East, the Zoroastrians, under the name of haoma. Like the soma, the haoma is described as a plant and a libation, as well as a bull, and is even mentioned in the Zoroastrian holy book, the Zend-Avesta. In the previous chapter it was explained that, according to an ancient Greek legend, after beheading the Gorgon, Perseus used Medusa's head as a "skull cup" to "teach the rite of Zoroaster to the Persians, the same ones who led

the name of Medes in honor of Medusa.” Medea is, of course, where Zoroaster, the founder of the Zoroastrian religion, is said to have been born. According to scholars, a similar tradition was preserved by the 11th-century Byzantine historian, Greogorios Kedrenos, who claimed that Perseus, after bringing him to earth, deposited heavenly fire in a holy temple and instructed the priesthood in mystical rites of initiation. In this way, says Kedrenos, was instituted the priesthood of magicians who use haoma. As Carl A.P. Ruck, it's no coincidence that most academics agree; the sound the Gorgon sisterhood made was a lowing. That is, "the lowing of the cattle was their sound." Like the soma and haoma, the gorgon from which the skull cup came is implicitly associated with cattle. It is also remarkable that here we have our first instance of the cup's contents being consubstantial with its vessel; that is, both the skull cup and its contents allude to the fungus. By the way, 'skull cap' is even a name commonly applied by laymen to mushrooms of various species. It was during their travels in the Middle East that Roman soldiers are suspected of first encountering the haoma rite, which they later established in their own homeland in the form of the Mithraic Mysteries. Known as Mitra by Zoroastrians, Mitra also appears in the Vedas as Mitra, an epithet of soma meaning friend of man. Fittingly, Mithras is also known as the "lord of the cattle pastures", in keeping with our quirky but prevalent bovine theme. Mithra's role in the Zoroastrian religion was that of a divine mediator. However, the role he played in the Roman manifestation of his cult was considerably more complex. The Roman cult of Mithras was, for all practical purposes, a secret society composed almost entirely of Roman soldiers. Specifically, they were holy warriors. Similar to Freemasonry, the Mithraic Mysteries consisted of a hierarchical structure of degrees of initiation or levels of attainment in which the mysteries of the cult were progressively transmitted to the initiate as he progressed through the degrees. The last degree, that of Pater or Father, was symbolized by what appears to be a bowl and staff, suggesting the hat and foot of a mushroom, depicted alongside a reddish and mottled Phrygian cap, otherwise known as a skullcap, and equally indicative of the fungus, and beside it a pruning hook, not unlike the one used by Perseus to decapitate Medusa before using the cap of her skull to teach the Persians the haoma rite. Members of the Mithraic cult met in small underground chambers called Mithraea, which had the appearance of a cave. Resembling a Masonic lodge, Mithraea's floors were consistently designed as either a rectangle or an oblong square. Quite unlike a Masonic Lodge, on the other hand, is the fact that the eastern wall of each Mithraeum includes a representation of the Tauroctony, a fresco or relief depicting a Mithras dressed in red with white spots, standing on one leg like the ' soma standing on one foot and wearing a Phrygian cap (also known as the 'cap of liberty') and triumphing over a sacred bull. Here, as in the case of the Siberian shaman who consumed A. muscaria, Mithras became consubstantial with the fungus, assuming the appearance of the sacrificial object. Furthermore, the shape of the single leg on which Mithras stands, along with the suggestive folds of his clothing and armor in that region, closely resemble the cap and stipe of a fruiting body. The Phrygian cap worn by Mithras is no doubt familiar to members of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite where, in the grade of the Kadosh Knights (the Kadosh Knights are of course the Knights Templar), one finds the suggestive Pole of Liberty in the form of a Phrygian cap placed on a shepherd's crook. Note that, in addition to the fact that the pole of freedom and the cap of freedom are common euphemisms for various mushrooms, the Kadosh degree of the Knights, like the Templar ceremony in the York Rite, is the degree to which the candidate drinks from a skull cup. Rosicrucian scholar Hargrave Jennings tells us in his book The Rosicrucians: Their Rites and Mysteries that "the true meaning of the... 'cap of liberty' has been shrouded in profound obscurity since time immemorial, although it has always been considered the most important hieroglyph. .. It means simultaneous supernatural 'sacrifice' and 'triumph'... The whole is a sign of 'initiation' and of a peculiar kind of baptism.” 2 It is here that we come full circle in that other secret society of holy warriors with which we begin: the Knights Templar. As explained in our previous treatments, in his epic poem Perzival, the knight Wolfram von Eschenbach identified the Grail Knights of Arthurian legend as the Knights Templar. During their fateful trial, we know that many of the Templars confessed to veneration of a mysterious severed head, called by some Baphomet It is very possible that the Templars, like their Roman predecessors in the M Mysteries Itraics, used the fungus A. muscaria in an initiation context, and that this mysterious severed head was nothing more than

the symbolic vase; a kapala or skull cup, inherent to its contents, with which the soma or haoma was ritually drunk. After all, as von Hammer demonstrated, Baphomet is not the name of an elusive deity. Rather, it is a description of a sacred and secret ritual act used by the Templars in an initiation context: Baphe Metis, the "Baptism of Wisdom". he would have been physically baptized with the soma sacrament of the Vedic religion by the Brahmins themselves. A "baptism of a peculiar kind" indeed. Unlike our previous themes, however, neither the Knights Templar nor the Knights of the Grail are associated with any kind of bovine symbolism. Still, as Heinrich ably demonstrates, there's no better candidate for the Holy Grail than the Amanita muscaria mushroom. In fact, the grail is precisely at 2 Jennings, Hargrave. The Rosicrucians: Their Rites and Mysteries, p. 274.

where you would expect to find A. muscaria mushrooms in the forest. Since, as stated above, A. muscaria is a mycorrhizal fungus, meaning that it can only be found growing in and on the root systems of the host trees. It is literally the fruit of the roots of the trees on which it is found. And, like A. muscaria, depending on the version of the story, the grail is described as a stone, a plate and a cup. Remember that the life cycle of A. muscaria progresses from being an egg or "stone" to being a flat plate on the foot and then becoming a calyx. In Arthurian legends, the grail is identified with the cup used by Jesus at the so-called Last Supper; a cup that was later used by Joseph of Arimathea to collect the blood that oozed from the wound in Jesus' side during his crucifixion. The Knights Templar ceremony, on the other hand, names the grail cup or skull as the bitter cup of death, directly aligning it with the cup Jesus drank from in Getesmani. “We know from the canonical book of Mark that a fifth person was with Jesus, Peter, James and John in Getesmani after the [Last Supper]… Here is one possible scenario. Everyone at dinner ate two forms of the mushroom, the 'bread' [the dried cap of the mushroom] and the 'wine' [the 'soma']. Jesus had arranged for the initiation of a young man later in Getesmani. Upon meeting the young people in the garden, Jesus placed his three most trusted disciples as guards so that the secret rite was not interrupted. Jesus went with the young man, who was naked except for a sheet around his body, to initiate him into the mysteries of the kingdom of God. 3 When Jesus said, “Take this cup from me,”4 was he initiating his followers with a Baptism of Wisdom? More will be offered on the Christian connection in the next chapter. It should be noted that A. muscaria has been used by at least one Masonic order. According to Rene Le Forestier, the incense mixture used by Martínez de Pasqually and his order Elus Cohens5 included “agaric spores”.6 Although the spores of A. muscaria are not psychoactive, the fact that the fungus is referred to is noteworthy. . Even Reverend William Alexander Ayton, the famous alchemist of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, claimed 3 Heinrich, Clark. Strange Fruit: Alchemy and Religion, The Hidden Truth, page 108. 4 The Holy Bible, KJV, Mark 14:365 The Elus Cohen was the first real high-grade system of Freemasonry. Essentially theurgic in nature, Elus Cohen was the definitive source both for the Martinist system of Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, officially organized by Papus as the Martinist Order, and for the CBCS system of Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, the apex of the Rectified Scottish Rite. . 6 McIntosh, Christopher. Eliphas Levi and the French Occult Renaissance, pp. 21-25.

having received and drunk the "true Soma juice" at his initiation into the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor.7 Indeed, the infamous H.P. Blavatsky in her book The Secret Doctrine: "But the true property of true Soma was (and is) to make the Initiate a new man, after he has been reborn, that is, once he has begun to live in his astral body... The Soma participant is both attached to his outer body and yet distant from it in his spiritual form, the latter, freed from the former, momentarily rises to the higher ethereal regions, virtually becoming "one of the gods," but preserving in his physical brain the memory of what he sees and learns.. Plainly speaking, Soma is the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge forbidden by the envious Elohim to Adam and Eve or Yah-ve, 'lest Man become like one of us'. 8 We close this section with a quote from Freemason and Sufi René Guenón: “[Concerning lost words and substitute words, an] example... can be found notably in the Mazdean tradition,

and in this connection we must add that what has been lost is represented not only by the holy cup, that is, by the Grail or several of its equivalents, but also by what it contains. This is easily understood, for the content, whatever its designation, is nothing but the 'well of immortality', the possession of which is essentially one of the privileges of the primordial state. Thus it is said that after the Vedic soma became unknown at a certain time, it was necessary to replace it with another drink that only represented it; and though nowhere positively indicated, even this replacement seems to have been lost in his later turn. ...And although in this matter it is worth remembering that in other traditions wine also replaces the 'fermentation of immortality', in fact, that is why it is generally taken as a symbol of occult or guarded doctrine, that is, esoteric and initiation knowledge...” 9 7 Godwin, Joscelyn. The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor: Initiatory and Historical Documents of an Order of Practical Occultism, P. 75. 8 Blavatsky, H.P. The Secret Doctrine: A Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy, vol. II, pg. 499. 9 Guénon, René. Studies in Freemasonry and Compagnonnage, p. 20-21.

THE CHRISTIAN CONNECTION If the Holy Grail was indeed an allusion to the Amanita muscaria mushroom, then why the Grail's traditional association with Jesus and the early Christian religion? Enter archaeologist John M. Allegro. Allegro was one of the scholars responsible for translating the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, but his claim to infamy was a curious little book entitled The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross. In it, Allegro argued from etymological clues that the early Christian religion was nothing less than the fertility and worship of fungi, and that Jesus, who probably did not exist, was a symbolic representative of the fungus itself or its resulting effects. This line of argument has been ably continued by more recent scholars such as Clark Heinrich and Carl A.P. Ruck. The first hint of mushrooms in Jesus' story appears when he does; with your birth. We are told in the New Testament that this event was accompanied by the visit of three wise men, or to be more specific, three wise men. Mages were the priests of the ancient Mazdean religion. As we saw above, the Mazdean religion continued the Vedic sacrament of soma in the form of the haoma before influencing the Roman cult of Mithras and ultimately Christianity. So this part of the Jesus story has direct connotations with the fly agaric mushroom. Another fungal indicator is the miracle performed at the wedding feast where, after the wine supply ran out, Jesus began to turn ordinary water into powerful wine. Soma, of course, means pressed, indicating its method of preparation; that is, it is pressed and its essence is infused with water. This creates a powerful, fragrant potion that, like wine, is a deep red color and completely intoxicating. Recall that, perhaps significantly, both on David's threshing floor and in the Garden of Gethsemane there was a winepress. The wine that Jesus supposedly made was specifically named "good" wine; that is, it was stronger and better than the wine they had already consumed. Before the discovery of alcohol distillation in the 16th century, all wines would have more or less the same potency. Fermentation alone will only produce an ABV of around 13-18%. But even the Old Testament makes a distinction between wine and "strong drink". It is known that entheogenic herbs were often added to wines in the past to increase their potency. Indeed, according to Xenophon and Aristophanes, the power of a wine was known as its flower. A 'flower-deficient' wine was literally a wine to which insufficient amounts of flowers, leaves and other psychoactive plants1 had been added, minus eight parts of water for safe drinking. …We can also document the fact that different wines were capable of inducing different physical symptoms, ranging from drowsiness and insomnia to hallucinations.”2 Thus, for the wine of Jesus to be truly superior to the wine the guests had already enjoyed, it needed to be . Of course, theirs was more than just wine, and the prepared mushroom Amanita muscaria is perhaps the best candidate.3 Having already discussed the Last Supper and the Getesmani episodes in the previous chapter, the indications for the A. muscaria mushroom we are going to discuss here are the crucifixion and the sponge. From Heinrich: “Each specimen of fly agaric experiences death in a tree, figuratively speaking. It must go through its entire life cycle together with its host tree, and it always ends up meeting its "death" in some form in the same tree. There must be a tree involved if it is a fly agaric. The motif of the cross...: the fungus becomes cruciform at the end of its life. ... Jesus was given a scarlet robe to wear over his naked body, just like the red 'cloak' of the mushroom. A "crown of thorns" was placed on her head, causing her head to become bloodied. A look at a young fly agaric with its veil of "thorns" intact will reveal the intended meaning here. ...Being nailed to the cross...calls attention to the necessity of nailing the two feet vertically together, effectively giving Jesus one leg: the mushroom foot.”4 Here, Heinrich took Allegro's tail and played Christ as consubstantial with the fungus; that is, he made them one and the same being. The mention of the "sponge" that was used to quench Jesus' thirst during his crucifixion may also be implicating.

'Sponge' turns out to be an acquaintance 1 Ott, Jonathan. Pharmacotheon, pp. 156-157. 2 Wasson, R. Gordon. The Road to Eleusis: Revealing the Secret of the Mysteries, P. 51-52. 3 HEINRICH, Clark. Strange Fruit: Alchemy and Religion, the Hidden Truth, P 107. 4 Ibid. pg. 119-120.

euphemism for fungi of various species. For example, in the words of alchemist and Freemason Elias Ashmole, "[the alchemists] said that the fruit of their tree reaches to heaven [i.e., does not hang like normal fruit], because from the philosophical earth there is a certain substance, like the branches of a loathsome sponge [or fungus]... The point at which all art revolves is found in the living beings of nature... From a not entirely remote resemblance, they called this material virgin milk and blood the color of a rose blessed... Because in the blood of this stone your soul is hidden." 5 In addition to the fly agaric mushroom, what red and white sponge grows, like a fruit, from the roots of a host tree? Again, from Eliphas Levi: “The progress of magnetism will one day lead to the discovery of . the mushrooms, the truffles, the branches of the trees... So let's not laugh at Paracelsus anymore...” 6 Perhaps there is something to Allegro and Heinrich's line of argument, and indeed there is more behind the veil of the Jesus myth . 5 Ibid. P. 175. 6 Waite, Arthur Edward. The Mysteries of Magic: A Compendium of the Writings of Eliphas Levi, page 185.

THE PHOENIX, THE ROSE CROSS AND THE ROYAL SECRET There is another Masonic degree with undeniable Christian overtones, which also has possible fungal overtones: the Rose+Cross degree in the Southern Jurisdiction of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Important symbols of this degree include, among others, the cross, the rose, the punishments and terrors of hell, and the pelican. The cross of which we speak. Regarding the rose itself, many Rosicrucian apologists such as Fludd and Maier tell us unequivocally that the Rosicrucian rose features the colors red and white. As Rose+Cross is essentially a Rosicrucian degree, the same would naturally be true there. Of course, these are the same shades found staining our fly agaric mushroom. Also, like a rose, the fly agaric has many tiny 'thorns'; the 'horns' of the 'bull' soma which serve to break through the ground above it. In addition to the rose, the punishments and terrors of Hell also apply, another characteristic of the degree. In a letter to Aldous Huxley, Canadian psychiatrist Humphry Osmond once wrote, "To plumb hell or fly angelically, just take a dash of psychedelic." 1 For, in addition to the often experienced heavenly visions of light and bliss, psychedelics also have the potential to propel one into the excruciating and terrifying depths of hell; enough to make Dante's Inferno look like a delightful walk in the park. Psychedelics can have the effect of confronting the person with their archetypal shadow, and within that face are seen all the fears, guilt and resentment that the person refuses to face during normal waking consciousness. But, as the psychoanalyst C.G. According to Jung's theory, the confrontation with the shadow archetype is the "apprentice piece" on the way to 1 The Telegraph. doctor Humphry Osmond. individual development.2 And,

The psychedelic experience can sometimes be a true form of shadow work.

The last symbol of the Rose+Cross degree that interests us is that of the pelican, perhaps the most important symbol in the set. The pelican has long been a symbol of Christ due to the early belief that pelicans fed their young blood by pecking at their breasts. This is cleverly used in Christianity as a metaphor for Jesus' shedding his blood for the salvation of all mankind. However, there is no basis for this comparison. Pelicans not only do not feed their young with blood, but their beaks are designed in such a way as to make it impossible for them to peck, especially in their own chest. This is a mythical act and therefore needs a mythical bird. Consider the mythical phoenix. Like our Christ-like pelican, the phoenix is said to feed its young on the blood it draws from its own breast. It has also been used by Christians to represent Jesus due to his ability to regenerate or "resurrect". Phoenix. It is the red firebird, hatched from an egg, which spends its entire life in its nest. It feeds its young with drops of blood, which means that the young mushrooms will be round and the color of blood. It lifts its wings of fire and "consumes" itself in flames, leaving nothing but "ash" in the nest. ...Some versions of the myth say that the bird becomes a worm after being burned, an allusion to the worm infestation that probably occurs when the "wings" of the fungus are fully erected; when they have finished their work on an unharvested specimen, only grubs and 'ashes' remain in the nest. From the very ashes the bird of fire will be reborn, be it phoenix or manita muscaria”. 3 It should be noted that the phoenix also figures in the Master of the Royal Secret degree in the AASR, SJ. In the center of the so-called Great Masonic Field in the degree of Master of the Royal Secret, the phoenix, the crow and the dove are represented. The thirty-second degree, Master of the Royal Secret, is the ritual in which Amesha Spenta, and therefore Esfandmorz or Aspand; that is, reference is made to Peganum harmala, an analogue of ayahuasca. Therefore, special attention should be paid here. Those educated in alchemy will easily recognize in these birds the colors of the stages of production of the legendary philosopher's stone; black, white and red. Surprisingly, these same birds can also

they are found in the celebrated manuscript of the sixteenth-century alchemist Salomon Trismosin, Splendor Solis, where they are clearly intended to represent the three main stages in the making of the philosopher's stone. Heinrich identified them with the fly agaric. That's right. Is it mere coincidence that these are also the colors commonly associated with the stages of development of the fly agaric mushroom? The fly agaric begins its life cycle in the dark, black earth before emerging as a white, prickly "egg", covered with its universal veil. As it matures, the veil is torn away to reveal a solar redness that apparently burns and is reborn, not unlike the mythical phoenix. It is possible that the mushroom Amanita muscaria is the mythical phoenix to which these rituals allude. As we shall see, the mushroom was no stranger to Rosicrucians and Masonic alchemists. 2 Fike, Matthew A. The One Mind: C.G. Jung and the Future of Literary Criticism, pp. 22-23. 3 HEINRICH, Clark. Strange Fruit: Alchemy and Religion, The Hidden Truth, P. 169-170.

MUSHROOMS BETWEEN ROSICRUCES "Anyone who tries to enter the Rose Garden of the Philosophers without the key is like a man who wants to walk without feet." 1 S ocietas Rosicruciana In Anglia, the Mother Society of Societas Rosicruciana In Civitatibus Foederatis, is believed to have been formed out of the ritual documents of Germany's defunct Gold und Rosenkreuzer Orders, the first Rosicrucian Order to emerge after the initial publication of Rosicrucian manifestos at the beginning of the 17th century. Limited to Master Masons, the Ordens des Gold und Rosenkreuzer was created by Hermann Fichtuld, a Freemason and alchemist, and instructed its members in the practice of alchemy. The idea for Fichtuld's Ordens des Gold und Rosenkreuzer is suspected to have arisen from Sigmund Richter's enigmatic 1710 alchemical manuscript, The True and Perfect Preparation of the Philosopher's Stone, by the Brotherhood of the Order of the Golden Cross and Rose-Cross, a book which purports to name the mysterious raw material or raw material of alchemy by name, the raw material being the source from which the lapis philosophorum will finally be prepared.2 Although Richter does not name the raw material, he does offer a description of the first matter this is unmistakable to those who have eyes to see it.3 1 Maier, Michael. Atalanta fugiens, Emblems, p. 31. 2 U.D., Frater. High Magic II: Theory and Extended Practice, P. 272-273. 3 The only herb that Richter mentions by name is Helenam Vesperam, a plant that is completely unknown to us and is mentioned without any connection with prima materia or lapis philosophorum. Richter recommends Helenam Vesperam medicinally for the treatment of a variety of symptoms, including but not limited to pain, insomnia, nausea, and bronchitis. For practical purposes, Helenam Vesperam could very well be an allusion to Cannabis sativa, the same used to treat all these symptoms. Chris Bennett, for example, in his forthcoming book Liber 420 identified several alchemists who used cannabis in their operations. Examples include Rebelais, Gerolamo Cardano, Robert Hooke, Avicenna, Geber, Zosimos, etc. Regarding the herb's perhaps fictitious name, Helen, daughter of Zeus, is credited in Homer's Odyssey with having added to wine a mysterious drug called nepenthe, which "calms all pain and strife and brings oblivion to all evil". Vesper, of course, means evening star and is an allusion to the planet Venus (Hesperus). What plant has the characteristics of Helen's nepenthe and the planet Venus or the evening?

As we have explained elsewhere, the main aim of Alchemy is the production of lapis philosophorum from the mysterious raw material. The axiom states that matter is made “neither of stone, nor of bone, nor of metal.”4 That is, it does not come from the mineral or animal kingdom. It must be deduced, therefore, that the true raw material for the production of the philosopher's stone is found only in the vegetable kingdom. For a stone to meet the criteria for a true sage stone, it must first meet specific requirements, chief among them granting its possessor the gift of immortality. The alchemical vocation is not a vain quest for physical immortality. Bodily longevity is not the variety of immortality described here. The mythologist rightly explains that “the quest for physical immortality stems from a misunderstanding of traditional teaching. Rather, the basic problem is: to enlarge the pupil of the eye, so that the body with its accompanying personality no longer obstructs the vision. Immortality is then experienced as a present fact. 5 Indeed, alchemists claim that the sage's stone has the power to give its possessor the knowledge of his

very immortal soul. That's why it is also called the stone of projection. Because the soul of its possessor is the same one that seems to be projected in the correct application of the stone. Freed from its corporeal structure, the stone-cast soul is free to roam and explore the so-called astral plane, freed from the limitations of its corporeal vessel, a concept known as an out-of-body experience. There is a special class of truly magical and mystical plants that actually meet the criteria listed above. We are talking about entheogens here. As the word implies, entheogen plants are those that generate an experience of one's own inner divinity, that is, entheogens have the potential to facilitate what appears to be the direct experience of the reality of one's own immortal soul; of the continuity of consciousness independent of mortal structure. It is very likely that the prima materia and the lapis philosophorum prepared therefrom constitute one of these plant entheogens. In John Hamill's translation of Richter's enigmatic manuscript, we read that “[Prima] Matter . Our dear Brother must pluck this Spirit when it is fruitful... the stems sprout from a Root and a Tree.” 6 4 HEINRICH, Clark. Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy, page 165. 5 Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces, p. 161.

Again, there is only one thing in nature that satisfies all these requirements at once: an entheogenic mycorrhizal fungus; ostensibly, the infamous red and white fly agaric. Like all mycorrhizal fungi, Amanita muscaria fungi can grow and subsist only on selected tree root systems (stems arise from both a root and a tree). Richter correctly informed his readers that the fruiting bodies of Amanita muscaria appear only annually, during the rainy season (matter is found yearly that Jupiter [the Bringer of Rain] attacks... Our dear brother must gather this Spirit when it is fruitful.. .). And lightning was believed to increase their numbers (...attacks with thunder and lightning), a bit of mycological folklore that in 2010 was shown to be scientific fact.7 Yes, indeed, the mushroom Amanita muscaria seems to solve the problem. .. Richter's curious prima materia problem. As far as we know, the first author to propose that the alchemists' secret matter and lapis lazuli could be the mushroom Amanita muscaria was researcher Clark Heinrich in his 1995 book, Strange Fruit. And, as Heinrich ably demonstrates, Richter was probably not the first alchemist to allude to the fungus Amanita muscaria as the matter, the source of lapis lazuli in alchemy.8 Here follow some descriptions of several alchemical (and one Kabbalistic) manuscripts, all of which seem to point to the fungus Amanita muscaria. “In the same way [the alchemists] said that the fruit of their tree strives towards heaven [instead of descending towards the earth], because from the philosophical earth there arises a certain substance, like the branches of a loathsome sponge… The point at which that all the [alchemical] art revolves is found in the living beings of nature... For a not entirely remote similarity, they called this material virgin milk and blessed blood pink in color... Because in the blood of this stone is hidden the soul his. – Theatricum Chemicum Brittanicum9 “His soul of him rises from the [secret substance] and is exalted to the heavens, that is, to the spirit, and becomes the red rising sun, growing into the Moon in the nature of the sun. And then the lamp with two lights [red and white], which is the water of life, will return to its origin, that is, to the earth. And he lowers himself, humbles himself and decays, and joins himself to his beloved, the earthly brimstone.” – Consilium Coniugii10 6 Gilbert, R.A. The True and Perfect Crafting of the Philosopher's Stone, by the Brotherhood of the Order of Gold and Rose Cross, p. 5, 14. 7 Ryall, Julian. Lightning makes mushrooms multiply. 8 The prima materia here alludes to the fungus itself, and the lapis philosophorum to the compound, in the form of a stone or elixir, prepared from the fungus. 9 HEINRICH, Clark. Strange Fruit: Alchemy and Religion, the Hidden Truth. pg. 175.

“The secret of secrets: Out of Isaac's scorching midday, out of the dregs of the wine, rose a mushroom, a cluster, male and female together, red as a rose, spreading out in many directions and paths. The [red] male is called Sama'el, his [white] female is always included within him. As he is on the side of holiness, he is also on the other side: man and woman embracing. – Zohar Sitrei Torah 1:47b - 148b11 “The white-skinned lady, lovingly united with her red-limbed husband, wrapped in each other's arms in the bliss of marital union, merge and dissolve when they reach the goal of the [perfected stone]..." – Rosarium Philosophorum12

“The father [of the stone] is the [red] sun, its mother the [white] moon; the wind carried it in its belly; your nurse is the earth. Her power is complete when she turns to the earth. He ascends from earth to heaven, and descends again to earth, and receives power from things above and below. Then you will have the glory of the whole world.” – Tabula Smaragdina13 On this last quotation, Heinrich elaborates: “Read as a metaphor [of Amanita muscaria], the quotation from Tabula reveals a hidden meaning: the father of the secret substance is the sun-like mature fungus, whose 'seed' falls from his body to produce the birth of his offspring. Its mother is the white, rough-textured "moon" of the [egg-shaped] fungus embryo, which appears to give birth to the sun's cap. The wind carries the spores of the fungus 10 Ibid. P. 169. 11 Matt, Daniel Chanan. Zohar, The Book of Enlightenment, p. 77. 12 Heinrich, Clark. Strange Fruit: Alchemy and Religion, the Hidden Truth, P. 167 13 Ibid. pg. 165.

just like the storms that cause birth. The soil 'nurses' the fungus from the egg to the cup while the fungus extracts water from it. 'When it turns towards the ground' corresponds to the end of sporulation, when the cap turned upwards begins to dry and turns towards the ground; this is the ideal time to harvest because fully ripe mushrooms have the highest concentrations of muscimol, the main active ingredient. Drying also converts [toxic] ibotenic acid to [entheogenic] muscimol; once completely dried, 'its power is complete,' but not before." 14 Heinrich shows that Amanita muscaria mushrooms contain a potent poison called ibotenic acid. As the fruiting body matures, much of this acid is converted into the desired muscimol , the entheogenic agent of the fungus, and even more is converted on drying. Therefore, fully mature specimens are more valued than “green” ones.15 Even in rituals we find possible allusions to the fungus Amanita muscaria. Consider, for example, the following excerpt from the Practicus lecture, Practicus being the degree to which we, as Rosicrucians, are invited to investigate the alchemical art."Indeed, many processes were devised, but there was a general consensus of opinion that the last three stages of the chemical process [al ] were marked by a series of color changes, from black to red, passing through white; this red matter was the Philosopher's Stone, or Red Elixir, which could transmute Silver into O uro." 16 In all likelihood, the “[first?] red matter” refers to the bright red cap or lid of the fungus, from which the Red Elixir or Philosopher's Stone is prepared. It comes from the black earth as a small egg-shaped white mass. From this mass emerges the bright red fruiting body or the fungus itself. The color scheme may also be related to the mature mushroom specimen itself. Indeed, a Rosicrucian alchemist and apologist praised Hermetic Matter as follows: “His face is red [and] his breast is whiter than the purest snow. His feet are shod in black sandals…” 17 14 Ibid. 15 "Alchemists wrote that the Green Lion denotes maturity, not color." – Clark Heinrich, private statement 16 S.R.I.C.F. Ritual of the First Order, p. 58. 17 Maier, Michael. A Subtle Allegory: On the Secrets of Alchemy.

This is an apt description of a harvested specimen, with its bright red crown facing the sun, its pure white blades and stipe below, and its bulbous volva at the base covered with the damp black remnants of damp soil. The transmutation of base metals into gold is another common alchemical metaphor referring to the enlightenment or enlightenment (hence the gold) of uninitiated man (i.e. the base metal) that results from the proper application of the lapis philosophorum. The Practicus lecture continues: "The alchemists... strove to produce from certain herbs an Elixir Vitae, which was supposed to have the power to prolong life and restore health to the sick." 18

This last assumption follows naturally from the fallacious notion that the alchemists' lapis lazuli literally conferred upon its possessor the gift of physical immortality. But, as explained in the third paragraph above, the mistaken pursuit of bodily longevity stems from a flagrant misunderstanding of traditional teaching. Even so, it should be noted that it is specifically intended in the Practicus lecture that the Elixir Vitae be prepared not with minerals, stones, or metals, but with "certain herbs." Other alchemical systems describe the color process as a movement from black to red to white, as reflected in the lecture for the Rose+Croix degree in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction. However, the Societas Rosicruciana In Civitatibus Foederatis chose to instruct Seu Fratres on an alternative scheme. There is only one naturalistic explanation from which we can conceive why this would be the case. We close this investigation into the mycological nature of Richter's prima materia with a poem by Clark Heinrich entitled Our Water. An aching heart A king begins to wake Back to the old days An alchemist calls again What's old is new, he says And everything shudders Repercussion, vial and veins burst Till the earth shakes A trembling hand becomes the potion: this is not the moment fades – Brings the chalice to his lips 18 S.R.I.C.F. Ritual of the First Order, page 58.

And pour the liquor Shout 'Elixir! Pink blood of God! Real living waters! Sacred tincture of my Art Take me to heaven's gate - Clear my mind and heal my heart!" So having drunk, drink again19 19 Heinrich, Clark. Strange Fruit: Alchemy and Religion, The Hidden Truth, P. 160.

ALEISTER AND AMANITAS Beginning his fraternal career in the SRIA-inspired Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, English occultist Aleister Crowley was elevated to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason in Anglo-Saxon Lodge No. 343 under the Grand Lodge of France on December 17, 1904. Four years earlier, he had been appointed 33rd in an irregular form of Scottish Rite Freemasonry in Mexico by a man named Don Jesús Medina, whose system may have been a form of Cerneauism.1 Crowley would later become the O.H.O. of the fringe Masonic order Ordo Templi Orientis, which he eventually reformulated to reflect his magico-religious system of Thelema. He also founded a magical Order called the Fraternitatis A.˙.A.˙. which was heavily based on the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, but differs mainly in this, as the O.T.O. after Crowley, the A.˙.A.˙. it is inherently thelemic. Crowley was known for his practical jokes writing, from discussing sex magick in terms of diabolical child sacrifice to potentially discussing the use of psychedelic drugs under the guise of sex magick. Crowley was a master of the art of obscurum per obscurius; of 'explaining the obscure by means of the darker'. While we know from his diaries that he certainly used to dabble in magic of the sexual variety, we suspect that, at least in some cases, when Crowley was externally explaining Sexual Magic in his books, he may actually be discussing the occult use of Amanita muscaria mushrooms. , which would be in perfect harmony with its modus operandi. Sex magick is a type of Western tantra whereby practitioners are believed to enter heightened states of consciousness or gain powers through various sexual acts, including but not limited to the ritual consumption of semen and menstrual blood. This latter method occupies a central place in Liber XV, better known as the Gnostic Mass, the "only truly Official Rite" of the Ecclesiae Gnosticae Catholicae, the ecclesiastical branch of Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis. (Sabazius) Crowley was not the first self-proclaimed Gnostic to engage in such behavior. Saint Augustine even accused Mani and the Manichaeans of consuming hosts covered with menstruation and spattered with semen. 1 Starr, Martin P. Aleister Crowley: Freemason!

However, this image is not exclusive to the various Gnostic sects. In fact, according to a private communication from lay Kagyu lama Mike Crowley, the tantric system known as Vajrayana Buddhism has employed this symbolism for centuries to secretly point initiates to the A. muscaria mushroom, also known as fly agaric. Menstruation supposedly alludes to the bright red crown, the semen speckled with the white remnants of the universal veil that dots the top. And, as Ruck, Hoffman and Celdran point out in their book Mushrooms, Myth, and Mithras, Mani and the Manichaeans were also accused of venerating a certain "red fungus". methods in their magic, chief among them the use of drugs. For example, Liber CMXXXIV vel The Cactus records a series of magical experiments performed by Crowley using the mescaline-rich cactus Anhalonium lewenii (reclassified as Lophophora williamsii), also known as peyote. However, in addition to depicting a specimen in his painting May Morn, which was published in Equinox Vol. III No. 1, we were unable to find any reference that he made directly to the fungus A. muscaria. That in itself is a rarity. Because, like Lewis Carroll before him, Crowley would no doubt be familiar with Mordecai Cooke's 1860 book The Seven Sleeping Sisters. Cooke's book details the seven most popular narcotic plants of the Victorian era. As might be expected from a perfectionist like Crowley, all of Cooke's named drugs were carefully assigned to the Plant Drugs column of Crowley's Liber 777, all but one: the mushroom Amanita muscaria.3 Another oddity is the curious assignment of Elixir Vitae to route one in the Herbal Drugs column. 4Most of Crowley's acolytes tend to interpret the Elixir Vitae as a veiled allusion to sexual fluids. But sexual fluids are anything but vegetable in nature. Despite the cleanliness, the careless attribution of sexual fluids to a column entitled Plant Drugs would strike this author as wholly inconsistent for a text as symmetrical and rounded as Liber 777. It is also likely that Crowley found a reference to A. muscaria mushrooms in the writings of Sir Richard Frances Burton, who was appointed by Crowley as an official saint of the Ecclesiae Gnosticae Catholicae. In a footnote to

In his 1862 work, The Look of the West 1860: Across the Plains to California, Burton states that “there actually exists [a] type of cactus called by the whites a 'whisky-root' and by the Indians a 'peioke' [is say, peyote] used like the 2 Ruck, Carl A.P. Mushrooms, Myth and Mithras: The Drug Cult That Civilized Europe., p. 24, 173. 3 Granted, the name of the betel nut is not mentioned in Liber 777. However, the betel nut may well have been grouped. Entrance of Cerebral Exciters" attributed to route twelve. Compared to the more potent cocaine he was used to, betel nut may have seemed more or less an afterthought to Crowley. 4 Regardie, Israel. 777 and other Kabbalistic writings by Aleister Crowley, p. 212.

Siberian intoxicating mushroom [i.e. A. muscaria].”5 Furthermore, Paracelsus, another saint of the Ecclesiae Gnosticae Catholicae named by Crowley, also makes reference to an “agaric” mushroom which, in response to a line in Rebelias, contrasts with a certain “manna”. 6 Because, at least twice, Rebelias potentially alludes to the fly agaric mushroom as "the good agaric". 7 Note that Rabelais is considered the ultimate source of Aleister Crowley's Law of Thelema: "Do what you will." 8 Therefore, it is extremely unlikely that the fungus escaped Crowley's attention. Also interesting is the account by Anthony Stansfeld Jones, adopted son of Charles Stansfeld Jones, also known as Frater Achad, the "magical son" of Aleister Crowley, of Frater Achad's obsessive preoccupation with a "poisonous" mushroom, which he spent countless hours searching. because in the wooded area behind his house.9 Achad was looking for A. muscaria? In 1995, in his book Strange Fruit, Clark Heinrich speculated that the famous Elixir Vitae of the alchemists was the psychoactive soma-like juice extracted from ripe, dried, reconstituted A. muscaria mushroom caps. this is why knowledge of the entheogenic properties of A. muscaria mushrooms may have survived into Crowley's time. Could he be aware of them? Is the Elixir Vitae entry in Liber 777 an allusion to A. muscaria? Do any of Crowley's other references to sexual fluids suggest mushrooms? Currently it is almost impossible to say. But until we read in Mike Crowley's work that references to semen and menstrual blood are commonly used in Tantric Buddhist initiations as allusions to the A. muscaria mushroom, we never question Aleister Crowley's use of these same images within the context of his own Western. . culture. tantra. The next question is why Crowley should keep such a powerful and well-known psychoactive drug a secret, especially after he talks so openly and clearly about so many others, e.g., hashish, peyote, belladonna, cocaine, opium, etc., etc. Perhaps it was due to an oath of secrecy. The only certainty we can say at this point is that confidentiality obligations never before prevented Aleister Crowley from writing. 5 Burton, Sir Richard Francis. The City of Saints: And Through the Rocky Mountains to California, p. 64. 6 Weeks, Andrew. Paracelsus, p. 32. 7Plattard, Jean. The Life of François Rabelais, page 204. 8 Liber AL vel Legis, 3:60 9 Stanfeld-Jones, Tony. Thelema from coast to coast, episode #4. 10 Heinrich, Clark. Strange Fruit: Alchemy and Religion, The Hidden Truth, P. 8-12.

THE HYCATOMBA OF PYTHAGORAS So, the symbolism that points to the Amanita muscaria mushrooms was preserved in the three degrees of Craft Masonry? It is certainly possible. To begin with, there is a potential indicator in the title of Master Mason. Albert Pike, in his Morals and Dogma, translated a Master Mason's substitute word as "Son of Rot". of putrefaction Another possible indication of the symbolism of the fungus in the degrees of the Crafts is found in the spurious account of the curious episode of the hecatomb of Pythagoras, in which he is said to have sacrificed a hundred oxen. Considering the fact that Pythagoras not only avoided and condemned animal sacrifice of any kind, for ritual purposes or otherwise, and that he was a devout vegetarian, interpreted in any other than enigmatic and symbolic light, his actions seem barbaric and Weird. . Whatever kind of bull Pythagoras is supposed to have sacrificed, they were not flesh and blood. Of course, not Soma Bull. Masonic ritual informs us that, upon discovering his famous theorem, Pythagoras exclaimed "Eureka!" and later sacrificed a hecatomb. Inasmuch as it was Archimedes and not Pythagoras who shouted "Eureka!" Upon making his important discovery, and as Pythagoras was a vegetarian who condemned animal sacrifice, the contemplative Freemason is immediately struck with the idea that something is not quite right with this part of the ritual. In our experience, glaring inconsistencies within Masonic ritual are literally invitations to the contemplative Mason to investigate the matter further, and in reflecting on this particular issue, we have raised two interesting points. First, Pythagoras supposedly made his exclamation point after discovering a way to prove a right angle or a square. Archimedes, on the other hand, shouted "Eureka!" after figuring out a way to test gold; displacement. Second, the vegetarian Pythagoras supposedly followed up his discovery with the absurd act of sacrificing a hecatomb. Likewise, the reasonable and scientific Archimedes, after his discovery, absurdly jumped out of his bathtub and ran naked through the city streets. In both cases, there is a remarkable scientific discovery followed by an equally remarkable absurdity. 1 Of Holes, Arturo. Albert Pike's Morals and Dogma: Annotated Edition, p. 746.

Consider the Old Testament analogue of Moses' destruction of the golden calf. Like Pythagoras, Moses destroyed a bovine symbol. And, like Archimedes, Moses put the gold in the water. Furthermore, the acts of Moses were committed as a result of his discovery of a means to test the Jewish people: the Ten Commandments. After that, the prophet also did something quite absurd. From Heinrich, “After his first forty days on the mountain, Moses returned with the Tablets of Pretext and was astonished to see people dancing and fornicating in front of a golden bull. The worship of God as a bull took place at the time in several places, including Canaan, Syria and, of course, India, where the "bull" was the red mushroom that turns to gold when dried. It is not known what form of bull worship the Israelites were performing, but again there are curious similarities with the ritual use of the fly agaric in other areas. We are told that Moses 'burned' the bull and ground it to dust, which, unless the bull was made of wood and simply overlaid with gold, would not have been possible. He then put the powder in water and made all the participants drink it. This sounds more like a ritual than a form of punishment, but punishment comes quickly and surely after the drinking episode. 'Put the torus plant near the fire until it turns golden brown and dry enough to turn into powder easily. Mix the powder with water and drink. These imaginary instructions provide a sophisticated recipe not only for bringing about the vital chemical changes that drying produces, but also for introducing the fungus into the stomach without chewing it [chewing A. muscaria can cause nausea or vomiting]. It is not known what the Israelites were actually doing in Moses' absence, but the inclusion of the bull-burning episode in the story seems to be another misguided holdover from the practice of mushroom worship. 2 Likewise, it is not known what Pythagoras was actually doing, but the inclusion of the hecatomb episode in Masonic ritual, along with Pythagoras' apparently intentional confusion with Archimedes, also appears to be another "remnant of the practice of the mushroom cult". . Combining the stories of Pythagoras and Archimedes in this way, we suspect that, similar to the biblical episode of Moses' golden calf, the fly agaric mushroom is probably directly

implicit. Furthermore, we have already seen that in its various phases, 2 Heinrich, Clark. Strange Fruit: Alchemy and Religion, The Hidden Truth, p. 82.

fly agaric mushrooms have been compared to bulls and animal hides. Eureka!

THE WORM AND THE SHAMIR WORM Next, consider the shamir worm of Jewish tradition. At the Apprentice grade, the candidate learns that "in the building of King Solomon's Temple, the sound of an axe, hammer, or any iron tool was not heard." The explanation given for this rarity is that “the stones were cut, squared and numbered in the quarries where they were raised; the trees cut and prepared in the forests of Lebanon, transported by sea on floats to Joppa, and thence by land to Jerusalem, where they were placed with wooden mallets, prepared for that purpose. It is our opinion that the explanation provided by the Brotherhood is far less interesting than that offered by the Jewish religion from which the legend is derived. As in Masonic tradition, no iron tools are mentioned in Jewish legend, but not because the ashlars were prepared in the quarry. Rather, it is said that no tools, iron or otherwise, were used. According to legend, the stones of the Temple were cut with the help of a magical living object called a shamir. Using a single "grain" of shamir no bigger than a "grain of barley", Solomon was able to shape all the stones for the Temple's construction. Likewise, Moses before him had used the shamir to carve the mysterious Urim and Thummim, the 'visionary' breastplate and its ornate stones used by the high priest. Variously described as both a green stone and a living worm, the shamir would cut through even the hardest of substances simply by showing it to him. Therefore, the shamir had to be kept in a box made of wool, the only material that could resist his gaze. As we have already seen, fleece has its own agaric connotations. Legend has it that after creating the shamir on the sixth day of creation, “God gave the shamir to the hoopoe… to keep. The hoopoe promised to take care of him with her life; for ages he kept it with him at all times, safe in the Garden of Eden. Sometimes, when the hoopoe flew across the land, it would hold the little animal tightly in its beak, leaving alone with it to open cracks in the rocks of the desolate mountains, to sow and make the vegetation flourish and feed it. ...Where did the hoopoe keep such a powerful creature? What common ship could contain it? As only lead resisted the hoopoe's sting, the bird locked its precious cargo inside a lead box, wrapped in a woolen cloth nestled among a handful of barley grains. And there he could have kept it forever if Solomon had not needed it to build the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. 1 Another version relates that the "Prince of the Sea" gave the shamir worm to a "woodcock" from a remote mountain to keep. Solomon sent his men to search the bird's nest and retrieve the mysterious shamir. When they found the nest empty, the men placed a glass plate over it. Returning to find its nest so covered, the mountain bird used the shamir to break the glass and reveal its nest. When the bird landed, the men intentionally startled it into dropping the shamir worm and leaving it behind. At that time, the shamir was taken out of the nest and given to Solomon. The hoopoe and the shamir worm are clearly linked, as are the phoenix and the worm found in its nest after the former spontaneously combust. We suspect that we have here a possible reference to the phoenix and, therefore, another possible allusion to the mushroom Amanita muscaria. Furthermore, Jewish legends say that this bird was somehow responsible for perfecting the ashlars used in the construction of Solomon's Temple. As every member of the Craft knows, the rough ashlar represents the imperfect Freemason. The perfect ashlar, on the other hand, represents the perfected Mason. It is therefore not difficult to see how this particular bird (and worm) could be said to have perfected the ashlars for use in Solomon's temple; that is, how the Amanita muscaria mushroom can be a true tool of initiation and transcendence. Remember what Heinrich said about the feathered fungal phoenix: 1 J.H.O.M. A magical worm named Shamir.

“There are many birds analogous to arcane substance…but none are as perfectly adapted to the fungus life cycle as the phoenix. ...Some versions of the myth say that the bird becomes a worm after being burned, an allusion to the worm infestation that probably occurs when the "wings" of the fungus are fully erected; when they finish their work on an unharvested specimen, only grubs and 'ashes' remain in the nest…” 2 2 Heinrich, Clark. Strange Fruit: Alchemy and Religion, The Hidden Truth, P. 169-170.

CONCLUDING REMARKS “The seat of divine inspiration is beyond the veil. He who wishes to receive the gift of Wisdom must be prepared to surrender to it completely, for it can come suddenly, without warning, and out of the dark. Once received, it cannot be undone. Woe to him who unworthily participates in the mysteries, because he can get lost where the true initiate finds the revealed reality! 1 These words are taken from the synopsis of the grade of Sun Knight or Prince Adept as given in the Scottish Rite Guide and Ritual Monitor. But they are also perfectly applicable to the entheogenic explorer. Like so many fruiting bodies, mushroom revelations come suddenly, without warning and in the dark. And once the veil of reality has been ripped away, he must surrender fully to ecstasy lest he be lost amidst a boundless sea of shifting visions, more than a little scared and confused. When the veil is torn, with one's awareness, your own consciousness expands. Gradually it lights up. Quoting William Blake, "If the doors of perception were opened, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite." 2 As visionary comedian Bill Hicks once said, "Entheogens are like Windex® for those discerning doors." little more than apparitions or hallucinations. However, as the Johns Hopkins researchers have noted, the entheogen-induced visions meet all of the psychiatric criteria for a "complete mystical experience." Entheogen-induced visions and spontaneous spiritual experiences are so similar that there is currently no established standard for distinguishing between 1 De Hoyos, Arturo. Scottish Rite Monitor and Ritual Guide, p. 645. 2Blake, William. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, p. xii. 3 TV tropes. Bill Hicks

from the other. They appear to be two types of the same phenomenon.4 Furthermore, entheogenic transcendence may well be directly involved within the same Masonic ritual where, in the degree of Fellowship, long before suffering the death experienced by the Master Mason, the candidate for the Fraternity is taken on a dizzying ascent to the symbolic middle chamber, where, in addition to reaping his karma-like wages, he is granted a glimpse of the deity's own emblematic representative, along with a primordial "Geometry". This part of Masonic ritual is the very stuff of the entheogenic experience. Correspondingly, in the Emulation ritual of Freemasonry, the Companion is entitled to deepen his "investigations into the hidden mysteries of nature". The psychoactive properties of entheogenic plants, as well as the visions resulting from their ingestion, would certainly constitute the hidden mysteries of nature. As stated in the opening prayer: "Give us the grace to diligently search your word in the book of nature, where the duties of our high calling are instilled with divine authority." All religions and spiritual disciplines are man-made. All holy books, despite claims of divine inspiration, were written by men. As one Mahatma put it, "God has no religion." Arguably, nature is the only thing that was really created by divinity. Since plant entheogens occur naturally, they are a divinely designed means by which man can glimpse the divine. This is not to say that religious dedication or adherence to spiritual disciplines is fruitless. There are several endogenous psychoactive compounds, including DMT and endocannabinoids, as well as the more familiar serotonin and dopamine, which can be activated through prayer, music, meditation, fasting, yoga, exercise, sleep or sensory deprivation, etc. However, we suspect that many of these mechanisms were likely accidentally activated or were later technical developments through concerted effort, and long before the invention of conventional religion and spiritual disciplines, man transcended mundane reality and communicated with the 'Other' through the ingestion of natural energy. plant sacraments found in your environment. Entheogens, we venture, may be the lost word, and religion the substitute. However, this is not to say that entheogens are the only valid path to fulfillment. Nor does it mean that its use should

continue on that path at all times. In part, Mastery is about acquiring balance. If we develop to any degree in one direction, we must necessarily extend our efforts in the opposite direction. If someone achieves a state through the use of entheogenic plants, it is important that he also seek to obtain this same experience through his own efforts. This 4 Hughes, Michael M. Sacred Intentions: Inside the Johns Hopkins Psilocybin Studies.

This is not to say that the purpose of the work is to eventually stumble or perpetually hallucinate without the use of drugs. That would be pointless, both for us and for society. The objective here can be formulated as follows: if someone can ingest, say, 125 mg of pure MDMA and suddenly and completely, wholeheartedly, forgive his enemies, then at least it should show him that his self is not so fixed how much your ego wants you. to notice. On the contrary, we are fluid; mercurial; considered. So we can change for the better. Through personal effort and over time, like the Alchemist's art in his first matter, we can improve. If a drug can do it, we can do it. Furthermore, what good is the revelation that, in a sense, we are all one if we don't allow that vision to inform our daily behavior after we reintegrate into waking consciousness? We couldn't see. We end this study on the presence of entheogenic symbolism within the Masonic ritual.

PART IV: FURTHER DOCUMENTS ABOUT THE PSILOCYBIN MUSHROOMS PSILOCYBE CUBENSIS: A WORTHY CANDIDATE FOR THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE "Who is wise and understands this, as Alfidio says, that men and children pass by her daily in the streets and public places, and she is trampled underfoot in the mud for beasts of burden and cattle? – Pseudo-Aquino1 While the diaphanous veil that once obscured the inquisitive gaze of laymen from Alchemy's innermost secrets certainly remains intact, it has begun to fray and crumble, exposing parts of its many mysteries enough for those students to see her as the desirable damsel that the entire civilized world knew her to be. The main object of the alchemists was (and is) the production of lapis philosophorum; we know that there is not one but many stones, because in true Alchemy the term stone simply refers to the crystalline salts (a true stone) that can be extracted or produced, to use alchemical terminology, from certain plant sources. And, in some cases (as in the case of the present study), the stone refers to the plant itself. As the alchemical axiom says, the lapis philosophorum “is not made of stone, nor of bone, nor of metal.”2 That is, it does not come from the mineral or animal kingdom. Therefore, it must be deduced that the true philosopher's stone is only found in the vegetable kingdom. Unfortunately, many alchemists are content to produce stones from virtually any mineral, metal, plant or animal, attributing the value of these stones solely to the planetary signatures they possess. However, for a stone to meet the criteria for a true sage stone, an imaginary planetary signature will not suffice. It must first meet specific requirements, chief among which is to grant its possessor the gift of immortality. 1 Jung, C.G. The Collected Works, p. 5903. 2 Heinrich, Clark. Strange Fruit: Alchemy and Religion, The Hidden Truth, P. 165.

Let it be said that the alchemical vocation is not a vain search for physical immortality. Bodily longevity is not the variety of immortality described here. The mythologist rightly explains that “[t]he quest for physical immortality stems from a misinterpretation of traditional teaching. Rather, the basic problem is: to enlarge the pupil of the eye, so that the body with its accompanying personality no longer obstructs the vision. Immortality is then experienced as a present fact...” 3 Certainly! Alchemists claim that the sage's stone has the power to give its possessor knowledge of his immortal soul. That's why it is also called the stone of projection. Because the soul of its possessor is the same that is projected in the correct application of the stone. Freed from its bodily structure, the stone-cast soul is free to roam and explore the so-called astral plane. Similar to the Vedic soma, the possessor of the lapis philosophorum “finds himself attached to his external body and yet removed from it in his spiritual form. The latter, freed from the former, momentarily rises to the higher ethereal regions, virtually becoming "one of the gods", but preserving in his physical brain the memory of what he sees and learns. 4 As for the initiates of the Great Mystery celebrated at Eleusis, the alchemists claim that the possessor of the true stone has the ability to step "out of [his] own identity [and] feel at ease with the gods." 5 Appropriately, there is a special class of truly magical and mystical plants in nature that actually meet the criteria listed above. We are talking about entheogens here. As the word implies, entheogenic plants are those that generate an experience of one's inner divinity; that is, entheogens have the potential to facilitate the immortal soul's own direct experience of reality; of the continuity of individual consciousness independent of mortal structure. This being the case, there is an entheogenic plant which is of particular interest for our present purpose. Well, this plant really is the coveted key that helps unlock a series of dark and esoteric mysteries.

Alchemical references and riddles. A note discovered on the back cover of a copy of E.A. Hitchcock's classic study Remarks Upon Alchemy (1857) and communicated to us privately by Clark Heinrich says: 3 Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces, p. 161. 4 Blavatsky, H.P. The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy, page 499. 5 Eyer, Shawn. Psychedelic Effects and the Eleusinian Mysteries.

“the Secret of our Stone... will show itself as if it blooms sweetly on the dunghill. And if you ask me what it is like, I will say that it lives and is found in the likeness and form of many things in Nature. Because it can be like the Moon as has been said – If they say that the Moon is blue, we must believe it is true. – But that is only if it is disturbed, because the color of the Moon is white in its naturalistic state.” What if not the mushroom Psilocybe cubensis fulfills the criteria of being a living being in nature which, in addition to 'blooming' in dung, also appears like a moon, that is, round and pale, unless it has been 'molested'? in which case it turns blue? Psilocybe cubensis is a coprophilous fungus, which means that it can only subsist on the dung of certain species. Its psychoactive components are a pair of powerful compounds called psilocin and psilocybin, first synthesized by Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman and brought to the attention of the western world by amateur mycologist R. Gordon Wasson. Though pale in its unflappable state, the Psilocybe cubensis mushroom has the unique trait of turning blue when bruised or broken. This reaction is due to the oxidation of psilocin and psilocybin contained in the mushroom and serves as an easy identifier for inclined mushroom pickers. Rosicrucian alchemist and apologist Count Michael Maier gives us another allusion to the stone as P. cubensis. “But every man must take care to know very well those Dragons who will join Triptolemus's Chariot before he undertakes anything, for they are Winged and Volatile, and if you wish to know them you will find them in the philosophical dung. Because they are dung, and are bred from dung, and they are that vessel which Mary claims is not Necromantic, but that regiment of her fire without which you will do nothing. I have revealed to you the Truth which I have collected from the monuments of the Ancients through incredible work and at the cost of many years.” 6 Here Maier emphatically informs us that these "Dragons", without which the Alchemist is woefully powerless, are found only in the dung, whence they are spawned. They are "winged and volatile" in that, when released from their dung heap, they have the potential to project 6 Maier's soul, Michael. "The Alchemy Website". Atalanta fugiens, emblems

Alchemist in astral flight. Again, without these "Dragons", the Alchemist achieves nothing. It is as Morienus warned: the alchemist must “[take] what is trodden down from the dunghill; if he doesn’t [do that], when [he wants] to go upstairs, [he] will fall on his head.” 7 The reference to Triptolemus is also significant. Triptolemus symbolically presided over the era of the Great Mystery held at Eleusis, where the entheogenic fungus ergot was ceremonially separated from its host (rye) so that it could be used in the sacred initiation drink kykeon.8 Furthermore, the "Chariot" of Triptolemus it can be loosely compared to the merkabah or throne chariot in Ezekiel's vision, which Kabbalists believe is the mechanism that propels practitioners to the lofty celestial realms in mystical ascension. Most notably, the visionary prophet Ezekiel says in verse fifteen of chapter four of his book that he curiously made his bread with cow dung. Returning to other references to dung in alchemy, in A. E. Waite, The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus, we find: water either through its metals, salts, etc., or otherwise

through the earth element, as by its herbs and boletus, or in terenyabine or nostoch. Because these are all mansions of super heavenly things.” 9 In response to this enigmatic jargon, Waite adds: “Boleti. Boletus is a fungus. Bolitus is the same as Bolbiton, that is, the excrement of oxen. These explanations, perhaps, do not shed much light on Paracelsus' use of the term. 10 Why would Waite want to make connections between a fungus and ox dung in relation to Paracelsus? Are you implying that, like Britten and Levi, Paracelsus might have known something about entheogenic steroid fungi? 7 Jung, C.G. The Collected Works, p. 5955. 8 Ruck, Carl A.P. Sacred Mushrooms of the Goddess and the Secrets of Eleusis, P. 121-145. 9 DeLaurence, L. W. The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Aureolus Phillippus Theo phrastus Bombast of Hohenheim, Called Paracelsus, the Great by AE Waite, p. 342. 10 Ibid., p. 357.

The final alchemical allusion to the Psilocybe cubensis mushroom as the lapis philosophorum to be discussed here comes from Andreas Libavius's Alchymia manuscript of 1606, reputedly the most widely read of alchemical books at the time.11 Preserved in this text are several fascinating drawings of alchemical apparatus. These include a rarity labeled "manure bath" (with the corresponding "manure bath muffle") which is certainly an ancient terrarium of some sort, possibly designed from the production of P. cubensis fungi in the comfort of the laboratory of the alchemist. . Furthermore, when placed on its base and rotated just ninety degrees, this "Muffle" and "Dung Bath" resemble nothing more than the cap and stem of a fruiting body. The implication seems to be a fungus of the coprophylic variety like our stone Psilocybe cubensis. Let's add that the possibility that early alchemists grew P. cubensis mushrooms indoors is fascinating and raises the question of whether they (the mushrooms) could also have been grown outdoors. Continuing this line of investigation, the mysterious homunculus, that tiny, humanoid, golem-like being that was supposedly created by alchemists from horse dung, immediately comes to mind. Although we may have here revealed a part of the many mysteries of Our Lady's Alchemy, it is regrettable that such mysteries must necessarily be revealed only gradually. Because, the mysteries can be fully exposed only with the correct application of this stone of the sages by the Alchemist. The wonders which attend the lapis philosophorum in its right application are truly beyond the mind's capacity to conceive; beyond the ability of the tongue to speak. Truly, they are ineffable in the fullest sense of the word. Quoting once again E.A. Hitchcock's anonymous commentator: "And such are the Wonders of Heaven exhibited, that when they manifest their Glory, their Virtue is not within the reach of man's power to speak, for so spake Paul, who was caught up into the Third Heaven, where he saw that it was not able to speak, nor imagine. Its Vitality is like a Tincture that raises the Mind to the sublimity of Thought, greater than can be imagined." 12 11 Libavius, Andreas. Images of the Alchemical Apparatus. 12 Private Statement by Clark Heinrich

BEFORE THE WASSONS PART I: MAGIC MUSHROOMS IN NORTH AMERICA cubensis Living

In the Deep South, where they grow wild in virtually every grain-fed cattle field, my brother and I started hunting Psilocybe mushrooms in our teens. Once, while looking for mushrooms in a field near our paternal grandmother's home in Senatobia, Mississippi, we were mortified to discover that our rather square and straightforward uncle was watching us from home as we picked. My brother and I quickly discarded the collected specimens and reluctantly made our way over to where our uncle was waiting. To our surprise, he wasn't scolding in the slightest. Instead, he was smiling broadly as he scolded us, “Guys, you two are just like your great-great grandfather Daugherty; your grandmother's grandfather. You would catch him tomorrow at dawn, walking with them through the fields of cows, looking for mushrooms and herbs. He was a healer, you know? “A healer!?” I exclaimed curiously. "That's right," he replied. “He trained with a Native American; Chickasaw or Choctaw. I don't remember which one. You'll have to ask your grandmother." Of course, I have no way of knowing whether the mushrooms my great-great-grandfather Daugherty was supposedly collecting were actually P. cubensis. I also don't know whether the Choctaw or Chickasaw tribes were (had) knowledge of the visionary properties of psilocybin coprophilic mushrooms. I relate this anecdote only as a means of raising the question of whether or not certain esoteric circles in North America might or might not have known about psilocybin mushrooms prior to the publication of the Wassons' Life magazine article in May 1957. Ethan Allen Hitchcock, who died in Georgia in August 1870, was a career officer in the United States Army who served as a major general during the American Civil War. He was also an avid student and commentator on alchemy. A note discovered on the back cover of a copy of Hitchcock's classic Commentaries on Alchemy (1857) and communicated to us privately by Clark Heinrich says: "the secret of our the rock... . And if you ask me what it is like, I will say that it lives and is found in the likeness and form of many things in Nature. Because it can be like the Moon as has been said – If they say that the Moon is blue, we must believe it is true. – But that is only if it is disturbed, because the color of the Moon is white in its naturalistic state.” What if not the mushroom Psilocybe cubensis fulfills the criteria of being a living being in nature which, in addition to 'blooming' in dung, also appears like a moon, that is, round and pale, unless it has been 'molested'? in which case it turns blue? Psilocybe cubensis is a coprophilous fungus, which means that it can only subsist on the dung of certain species. Its psychoactive components are a pair of powerful compounds called psilocin and psilocybin, first synthesized by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann and brought to the attention of the western world by amateur mycologist R. Gordon Wasson. Though pale in its unflappable state, the Psilocybe cubensis mushroom has the unique trait of turning blue when bruised or broken. This reaction is due to the oxidation of psilocin and psilocybin contained in the mushroom and serves as an easy identifier for inclined mushroom pickers. Psilocin and psilocybin are also present in the mushroom Psilocybe semilanceata; the famous so-called "cap of freedom". In 1783, Sir William "Oriental" Jones Jr., who inspired the character of Indiana Jones, received a letter from Benjamin Franklin telling him about the Libertas Americana medal. As Franklin's letter suggests, he and Jones probably discussed the medal proposal while in Paris. Franklin wrote: “The engraving on my medal, which you know was designed before the peace, has just been completed... You will find that I have benefited from some of your ideas and adopted the mottos you have been kind enough to supply. The following excerpt is from Mike Crowley's fascinating article, Oriental Jones and the Medal of Freedom: “The obverse of this medal shows the head of 'Miss Liberty' against the backdrop of a liberty cap on a pole. The red wool cap ("cap of liberty"), a cap worn by freed slaves in ancient Rome, was a popular symbol of "liberty" and in the colonies a cap on a pole signified defiance of the British. Another meaning of pileus was introduced in the mid-18th century: it is the scientific term for the cap of a mushroom. As members of the Royal Society, the

The leading scientific body of their time, Franklin and Jones would have been exposed to the very latest in technical terminology. Another term introduced around the same time as pileus was stipe, the botanical term for the stalk or stalk of a fungus. The original meaning of the Latin stipe was 'pole' or 'stake', so we can assume that Jones, who is fluent in Latin, would make the connection between the American symbol for cap-on-pole and pileus-on-stipe. Also, as an active member of the Royal Society, it would be surprising if you didn't relate this to the newly coined terminology of fungal anatomy. The proportions of the Franklin Medal and its beautifully executed Liberty Bust have made it one of the most sought after coins in the world. In contrast to her naturalistic depiction of Liberty, however, the cap on a pole leaning diagonally behind her is extremely stylized. The cap, in particular, is unlike any other depiction of this symbolic headdress and is different from later medal-based coinage. Rather than falling into saggy folds, as fabric should, it's soft, stiff, and symmetrical to the pole. To put it bluntly, it bears an uncanny resemblance to the 'freedom cap' mushroom (Psilocybe semilanceata), not only in its shape and the proportions of the cap and stem, but also because it seems to mimic the 'acute umbo' and the 'striate'. ' of the fungus. margin', which are distinctive features of this species. All mushrooms in the genus Psilocybe have an umbo, a small bulge in the center of the cap, but P. semilanceata stands out for its particularly pointed bulge (acute umbo). The cap of a P. semilanceata mushroom also has a translucent band around its outer edge that allows its gills to be visible as a band of vertical stripes. This is called a 'translucent striated margin'. Although small, this 'highly to extremely potent' entheogen forms extensive colonies in ryegrass meadows and grows in great profusion in the green hills of Jones' homeland of Wales." 1 Notably, while Franklin is known to have little or no interest in laboratory alchemy, in 1773 Samuel Danforth, who served as a judge and chief justice in Massachusetts for over three decades, wrote to his old friend Benjamin Franklin offering to send him a piece of the legendary Philosopher's Stone. "Stone" from Hitchcock and Jones' "Liberty Cap", is it possible that Danforth's substance could have been a type of psilocybin mushroom? In 1779, artist John Folwell crafted a chair, now known as "Rising Sun 1 Crowley, Mike Landmarks The History of Alchemy in America.

Armchair”, for the newly elected president of a fledgling nation. From May 25 to September 17, 1787, Folwell's chair was occupied by George Washington for the entire duration of the Grand Convention in Philadelphia. The armchair represents a golden rising sun crowned by what appears to be a parasol, also in gold. However, there is something truly enigmatic about this particular parasol. Parasol is a French word derived from the Italian parasol; para - 'protect against', and sole - 'from the sun'. How strange, then, that the parasol depicted on Washington's Armchair of the Rising Sun is shown elevated above the sun, not below it. This is not where one would normally expect to see a parasol represented. In fact, the size of Folwell appears to be quite a puzzle. In addition, Folwell's carved parasol over Washington's armchair is highly stylized. Because it features the same 'translucent striated margin', the band of vertical stripes found on the crown of a P. semilanceata mushroom, that we find in Franklin and Jones' Libertas Americana medallion. Could it also be an example of psilocybin mushroom? If so, it would go a long way toward explaining the nature of the angelic vision that Washington allegedly suffered at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-1778, the same one recounted by Continental soldier Anthony Sherman in an article entitled Vision of Washington, published by The National Tribune in 1880.4 A similar arrangement of a parasol curiously placed over a sun can be seen in the remarkable mural painted by Allyn Cox that adorns the north wall of Memorial Hall at the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia. What are the implications? 3 Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. Proceedings of the Worshipful Freemasons of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, p. 339. 4 Bradshaw, Wesley. George Washington's vision.

BEFORE THE WASSONS PART II: MAGIC MUSHROOMS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM Turning our attention abroad, we discover that the United States is not the only country that was home to early mushroom enthusiasts. The English spiritualist psychic Emma Hardinge Britten (1823-1899) is a perfect example. Considered by some to be a young seer of the Masonic Rosicrucian Frederick Hockley, Britten was present at the Spiritualist meeting in America that eventually led to the creation of the Theosophical Society under Blavatsky and Olcott.1 Among her writings are the following revealing excerpts: “The Necessary Arts for the study of the practical occultist are...a knowledge of the qualities of drugs, vapours, minerals, electricity, perfumes, fumigations, and all kinds of anesthetics..." 2 "Drugs... (especially hashish, opium, and nitrous oxide) are useful [for reaching power and communicating with hierarchies]. , constitute a large part of the preparatory exercises…” 3 “Soma juice, hashish, opium, napellus, and the distillations obtained from two or three species of acrid mushrooms, are considered the most common narcotics. effective and appropriate for inducing the trance condition”. 4 1 Mathiesen, Robert. The Invisible Worlds of Emma Hardinge Britten: Some Chapters in the History of Western Occultism. 2 Godwin, Joscelyn. The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor: Initiatory and Historical Documents of an Order of Practical Occultism, P. 287. 3 Deveney, John Patrick. Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth Century African-American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian and Sexual Magician, p. 43. 4 Britten, William. Magical Art, or Mundane, Undermundane, and Supermundane Spiritualism, P. 136.

What "two or three species of pretend acre", Britten does not specify. However, the fact that she mentions more than one is significant. Because, in the 19th century, the only entheogenic mushroom known in the West was Amanita muscaria, the famous fly agaric. Most likely, at least one of the other mushrooms you are referring to is a psilocybin mushroom, most likely Semilanceata cyanescens, also known as the liberty cap, a mushroom native to the region. Britten was a member of a London secret society known as the Orphic Circle, a group that focused exclusively on practical occultism.5 Furthermore, René Guenon was believed to have been a member of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, another secret society whose focus was entirely on the practical side. of the occult.6 Considering the fact that she and Peter Davidson, the Provincial Grand Master of the North and East Sections of the HBL, shared a keen interest in the magical and mystical virtues of plants, this may indeed have been the case. Around the same time, we discover British accounts relating to Alphonse Louis Constant, better known as Eliphas Levi. He says in A History of Magic: “The progress of Magnetism will one day lead to the discovery of the absorbent properties of Oak Mistletoe. Then shall we know the secret of those spongy growths which extract from the trees their unused surplus, and are recharged with their tinctures and saps; the Mushrooms, the Truffles, the Galls of the trees... So let's not laugh at Paracelsus anymore...” 7 Of course, the oak is a common host of the mycorrhizal fungus Amanita muscaria. While not a psilocybin mushroom, the fact that Levi alludes to an entheogenic mushroom is noteworthy. The reference to Paracelsus is also revealing, as the alchemist quack actually refers to an agaric in his writings.8 Again, in The Mysteries of Magic: A Digest of the Writings of Eliphas Levi (1886) by A.E. the Middle Ages, the necromancers…composed of filters and ointments…; they mixed monks, belladonna and poisonous mushrooms... Their howls were heard from great distances, and the homesick traveler imagined that legions of

ghosts came out of the ground; the trees themselves assumed frightful shapes before their eyes, flaming orbs seemed to glow in the undergrowth, while the marsh frogs seemed to rasp the words of the Sabbath in a hoarse voice. It was the mesmerism of hallucination and the contagion of madness. [They] extracted the poisonous and narcotic humor from the mushrooms.” 95 Deveney, John Patrick. Pascal Beverly Randolph, p. 35. 6 Ibid., p. 259. 7Waite, Arthur Edward. The History of Magic by Eliphas Levi, page 185. 8 Weeks, Andrew. Paracelsus, p. 32.

Replete with auditory and visual hallucinations, shifting and menacing ghosts, disembodied spheres of light, and even frogs singing the Church liturgy, this last account appears to be far more telling of psilocybin intoxication than muscimol. Also, one wonders if Levi isn't here speaking from experience. Returning to Paracelsus, we read in A. E. Waite's The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus: "The natural mummy must be composed of three principal antimonies for the alien microcosm to govern the physical body, either through the element of water or through its metals, salts, etc., or otherwise through the element of earth, as by its herbs and boletus, or in terenyabine or nostoch. For all these are mansions of supercelestial things.” 10 In response to this, Waite adds: "Boleti. Boletus is a fungus. Bolitus is the same as Bolbiton, that is, the excrement of oxen. These explanations, perhaps, do not shed much light on Paracelsus' use of the term." 11 Why would Waite want to make connections between a fungus and ox dung in relation to Paracelsus? Are you implying that, like Britten and Levi, Paracelsus might know something about entheogenic steroid fungi? Clearly, both Britten and Levi, and perhaps even Paracelsus and Waite, were not unaware of the psychedelic potential of certain plants and mushrooms. Furthermore, their stories show us that the use of special narcotics and entheogens was not foreign to the practices of magic and mysticism. While psilocybin-containing mushrooms did not attract the attention of 9 Waite, Arthur Edward The Mysteries of Magic: A Summary of the Writings of Eliphas Levi, pp. 135174 10 DeLaurence, L.W. The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Aureolus Phillippus Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim, Ch beloved Paracelsus the Great by AE Waite, p. 342. 11 Ibid. pg. 357.

from the western world to the publication of the Wassons' groundbreaking article in LIFE magazine in 1957, we strongly suspect that these phenomenal fungi may well have been known to secret circles much earlier. These two short articles are by no means the final proof of that. They are off to a bad start. The case is still open and we encourage future generations to investigate the matter further.

SUKARAMADDAVA AND PSILOCYBIN According to legend, the Buddha's last meal, the very one that actually killed him, was something called sukaramaddava, meaning boar's delight, and was given to him by the village goldsmith.1 As Wasson speculated in his book Persephone's Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion, sukaramaddva is a likely allusion to a sclerotia or truffle of some variety. Because truffles are a favorite food among wild boars, and even today specially trained pigs are used to locate these culinary delights. Psilocybe Mexicana, for example, is a kind of psychedelic mushroom prone to producing sclerotia. In Amsterdam, where psilocybin-containing sclerotia are not controlled, they are known as philosopher's stone truffles and have become fashionable since psilocybin-containing fruiting bodies were banned several years ago. in the culinary world, the so-called black truffle contains a certain "molecule of happiness" called anandamide which, according to

For enthusiasts, it offers a THC-like effect.3 Sclerotia are formed by disrupting the life cycle of sclerotia-prone fungal species before they can produce fruiting bodies. This makes cultivating sclerotia significantly easier than delicately cultivating fruiting bodies, as until the sclerotia are harvested, the production process never goes beyond the inoculation step. Mike Crowley, author of the yet-to-be-published manuscript Secret Drugs of Buddhism, privately told us that further evidence for the identification of sukaramaddava as a psilocybin-containing mushroom lies in the fact that it was offered to the Buddha in an attempt to save his life. life. Because the Buddha suffered from dysentery. As per Vedic scriptures, Soma is said to bestow the drinker with the gift of immortality. As McKenna notes in his classic Psilocybin Mushroom Grower's Guide, in 1984 heterodox Bengali Hindus announced the identification of the Vedic intoxicant Soma as 1 Wasson, R. Gordon. Persephone's Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion Persephone's Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion 127. 2 Morris, Hamilton. Hamilton and the Philosopher's Stone. 3 Fleming, Nick. Truffles contain a "happiness" molecule.

SUKARAMADDAVA AND PSILOCYBIN 141 being Psilocybe cubensis, one of many species of mushrooms that contain psilocybin.4 What better way to reverse the Buddha's evil fate than a supposed elixir of immortality? Considered allegorically, on the other hand, the story of the Buddha's disappearance may not refer to an actual death, but to the so-called death of the ego (comparable to the Buddhist concept of Anata or Not-Self). which is commonly reported by psilocybin users. This effect is believed to be caused by the silencing of the brain's 'central core', resulting in a diminished sense of self, as well as the 'hyperlinking' of certain parts of the brain that do not normally communicate.5 Whatever the case, Sukaramaddava and the Buddha's death may be, nearly twenty-five hundred years after his death, one cannot help but be repeatedly amazed at the enduring relevance of the Buddha's life and teachings. 4 Oss, T.O. Psilocybin Mushroom Grower's Guide, page 66. 5 Ghose, Tia. Magic mushrooms create a hyper-connected brain.

APPENDIX EXPERIENCE REPORT WITH DIMETHYLTRIPTAMINE

DMT EXPERIENCE REPORT NUMBER. 1 Subject: American male, 33 years old Substance: N,N-DMT, smoked Setting: Ritualistic It was midnight on a stormy Bicycle Day in 2015. I loaded my pipe with some DMT crystals that a close colleague had prepared. Immediately after the first small drag, paranoia set in and I noticed what appeared to be a large glass centipede that, although invisible, seemed to be somewhere in the room with me. Putting it out of my mind for a moment, I took a second hit and, for reasons I can't explain, before I could exhale, I found myself walking to the second-floor balcony. The next thing I remember is seeing a huge flash before my eyes, accompanied by the feeling of being electrocuted. Did I get hit by lightning? My body was rigid with paralysis as I watched my porch railing move away from me like it was floating. At that moment, the sky seemed to open up, revealing an exquisite honeycomb palace or temple, like a mosque, in the heavens. His appearance was like molten liquid gold. I noticed that all over the surface were undulating Sri yantras that undulated,

interpenetrating, as if a handful of pebbles had been dropped into still water. Suddenly, as I was absorbed in these geometries, I became aware of an insect-like buzz that quickly enveloped my entire being. As the sound increased in volume and intensity, it became apparent that this terrifying, inhuman snarl of a buzz was being projected from my own open mouth; how, I can't say. It was a sound I had never produced before and have never been able to reproduce since. The shock of that noise disappeared when I realized that from the palace in the sky was emanating what I can only describe as a collective mind. I felt trapped in this collective intelligence as if my mind were a conscious appendage. At that moment, I looked down and, to my surprise, there was what appeared to be an Aztec or Mayan deity of death. It stood about twenty-five feet tall. His head was like a skull, framed by what the Mayan calendar suggested to me. A different weapon was held in each arm of this menacing figure, each threatening me with the warning that any further progress would mean the death of my physical body. Before I could decide which would be preferable: a return to waking consciousness or the prospect of exploring the unknown, I found myself standing on my porch, arms outstretched in the shape of a cross; my mouth open and my eyes directed to the place in the sky where once shone a bright temple-palace. Apparently, the decision to reintegrate into waking consciousness was made for me, and for the next hour I was overcome with a disturbing but exhilarating feeling that I had successfully invaded territory that man should not and should not expect to enter. at least. not while I live. DMT EXPERIENCE REPORT NUMBER. 2 Subject: American female, 31 years old Substance: N,N-DMT, smoked Setting: Casual I am an experimental user, use unusual substances maybe only once or very rarely. I wanted to try DMT after reading and hearing about it and after watching a documentary about it. My roommate at the time only offered me "half a shot" to try. I thought it would be enough to have an experience, but not enough for an "out of body" experience. He offered a dark brown resin tar to smoke. It didn't smell like anything he'd encountered, rather acrid. I heated the resin, inhaled the vapors in long breaths, holding them as long as I could before exhaling. I recorded myself, although the video was lost and physically nothing unusual or noteworthy happened. I immediately lay down on my bed in my small bohemian style room. The room was big enough to fit my bed with enough room for my computer desk and five feet of walking space. Of course, there were only sockets for the light on the desk side of the room, which always made my side of the bed very dark. As soon as I got into bed, I immediately felt a rush of energy and butterflies in my stomach, so to speak. I noticed that the lighted side of the room became very dark, and the side of the bed where I was lying was brightly lit, as if all the lights were shining on this side of the room. I felt energized and surprisingly comfortable with my surroundings. Stress free. I spent most of my "trip" staring at the ceiling which had a smooth plastered texture under the opaque white paint. But during my experience, my environment was anything but boring. The white ceiling glowed with bright colors and I began to see images and patterns above me occupying my entire line of vision. I was mesmerized by visions of swimming dolphins, vivid Egyptian motifs and scenes (as if the walls of ancient Egyptian art had come to life), and visions of a couple embracing and loving each other. The couple I focused on were a transparent shell, seeing their veins, muscles, tissues, organs and blood in motion as they kissed each other on the cheek. It reminded me of the work of famous artist Alex Grey. Butterflies fluttered around. Outside of the visuals, I will never forget the feeling I had of absolute peace, tranquility and union between my being and my surroundings. The feeling was so intense, so beautiful, it made me cry. My 'journey' was losing steam and I returned to the worldly mind. I wiped the tears from my eyes as I turned off the video, noting that only 15 minutes had passed. In my estimation, it is not a "party drug" but rather a tool for a calm and meditative shamanic journey. It is something that must be respected and used for a purpose. To this day, I wish I had a full "fix" and would love to try again. DMT EXPERIENCE REPORT NUMBER. 3 Subject: British male, 44 years old Substance: N,N-DMT, intravenous Setting: Clinical I recently (2016) participated in a DMT study at my university. It was a two-arm single-blind study design, so there were two visits, one week apart. One would be a placebo dose and the other an active dose. The researchers knew which was which, but the participants did not. (Although it was quite obvious once the active dose was produced!) Study Visit: Week One: No effect. Presumed placebo.

Study Tour: Week Two: Status: Definitely active dose today. Experience: Within 30 seconds of the DMT injection, I immediately became aware of a sudden high pitched hiss coming from behind me in the distance under the bed. It became a muffled sound; phaser-like filtered damping. Then, suddenly, I was enveloped from tiptoe to top of (my) head in an intense blanket of paralyzing body heat; a syrupy but "dry" sticky substance. And I was inside a latticework of purple-green-blue hexagonal/octagonal geometric shapes; undulating, shifting But I wasn't 'in' this scene in the bodily physical sense. Rather, I 'was' this environment, part of this matrix. It was an intense feeling of limitless "sameness" within a changing landscape. This experience lasted about five minutes, although the time itself was fluid and encapsulated, so it was hard to be sure. The matrix landscape slowly faded to a mottled orange field of vision with my eyes closed (I was blindfolded the entire time and my eyes closed) and my sense of being centered in the physical body returned. But he was still paralyzed; flaccid and dissociated like a puppet. I was aware of shapes moving in my peripheral vision, there was the presence of other people. This lasted for about twenty minutes, gradually fading out. Meanwhile, the study team continued to take regular blood samples from the needle in my other arm. About thirty minutes after the injection I removed my visors and they stopped recording the EEG. I was on a mild, opiate-like sedation for another twenty minutes or so, and within an hour I was fully back in my basic frame of mind. It wasn't ecstatic or terrifying, but curious and intriguing and quirky in a benign way. There was no shine. And no clear mystical-spiritual element in the experience. But definitely supernatural about it. No contact with entities. DMT EXPERIENCE REPORT NUMBER. 4 Subject: American male, 28 years old Substance: 5-MeO-DMT, smoked Setting: Informal About 7 years ago, when I was 21 years old, I had my first experience with 5-MeO-DMT. It was around 8pm. m. when my wife and I were sitting at the table in our music room. We have recently noticed some supposedly high quality items that are dusty and yellowish brown. We had been smoking wet all night and decided it was time for our first ride. He asked if I wouldn't mind tripping it up first as I was skeptical and of course I agreed. I put a small sprout in the bottom of my bowl to block the hole. Put about 0.05g, which the seller told me was about half a dose. I took a deep breath as I barely touched the flame with the dust. I remember the first thing I noticed was the horrible taste, like the smell of rotten eggs. I held it as long as I felt comfortable and blew out the smoke. I didn't feel anything right away, so seconds later I decided I was really going to break it. So I put the lighter in it, and as I inhaled a second time, the room began to breathe. When I remembered that I still had a couple of lungs full of DMT fumes, I closed my eyes and the most extravagant and exuberant images filled the back of my eyelids. I decided to enjoy them for a few seconds. What he would see when he opened them, he would never forget. On the clear glass table in my music room was a gigantic blueprint of a magnificent city with a beautiful skyline as if everything had been drawn by some God like a contractor on blue paper. Each building designed as a hologram of white lines on a glassy light blue background. I immediately closed my eyes again and rubbed them vigorously. When I opened them, the same beatific city was still there. Only this time I managed to get up and walk around my desk taking in every intimate detail of what I would call the most beautiful place in the universe. I kept walking for the next two minutes, at least, until I rested on the couch. Then I saw him, in the most majestic mansion, slowly disappear as my consciousness slowly returned to reality. All I could mutter to my wife was please don't be afraid of this. Please, you have to see what I saw. Not understanding that everyone's journey will always be different, I encouraged her to smoke, which actually scared her a little. After about 6-8 minutes I finally realized that what had happened to me would remain clear in my mind forever and that nothing on this earth could take that experience away from me and certainly nothing could take its place not only in my mind but in everything. . my being experience of it was quite different. She dragged with ease, afraid of where she might go. She had good visual effects and her experience was pleasant. But for me, I had an experience that changed my life in a matter of minutes. DMT EXPERIENCE REPORT NUMBER. 5 Subject: American female, 34 years old Substance: N,N-DMT, smoked Setting: Casual About four years ago I lived in downtown Tupelo and had the opportunity to try changa. I hadn't done DMT for several years and the last time I tried it was nothing memorable. I was alone with my husband and one of his Masonic brothers. My husband stuffed me with a bowl of passion flower with DMT and cannabis infusion. it was not

It wasn't until I took my third hit that I knew I was on the right track. My 'I' popped out of the top of my head and immediately my entire vision was filled with vibrant colors and intense patterns. The "machine elves" I always heard McKenna talk about were there, distracting me with their benign and menacing dance. Everyone was riding their bikes in circles, creating these spinning squares, all spinning in repeating patterns. His action seemed to be the driving energy behind the movement of the world; of all human experience, almost as if they were running a generator on the astral plane. They were mesmerizing and seemed to be saying to me, “See all these beautiful colors? Look what we can do! All our tricks! I felt trapped in its incessant modeling. I became part of it. It was almost like being in a moving 3D painting by Alex Gray. Our movements generated this otherworldly music that I could literally feel in my head and it seemed to perpetuate the patterns vibrating in color. There was an overriding feeling that I had been to this place before. He also knew that there was much beyond this veil of color and pattern. Hoping and wanting to go further, I asked "Is that it?" At that moment, the veil of reality completely dissolved and I was suddenly in what I can only describe as the "white room", a kind of waiting room where I find myself only with high doses of psychedelics. There is no 'thing' and no sense of 'I' in that room. It's quite intriguing! I should mention that before I started smoking, I asked my husband to select some music that he felt was appropriate for a DMT trip. Being the production-oriented musician that he is, his first choice was "Smile" by the Beach Boys, a record he played frequently at this time. This was, for me, a terrible choice. In any other scenario it might have been preferable. But the music ended up negatively influencing my experience. Apparently, the point in the song "Heroes and Villains" when a voice announces "You're under arrest!" coincided with the point in my journey where I entered the “white room”. It was at this point in the experience, I later learned, that my face became noticeably loose and disassociated. As the "white room" dissolved and reality slowly began to return, I had an overwhelming physical sensation of being enveloped in a warm, thick liquid, like honey. I thought I might have peed myself and kept checking to see but I didn't. As I looked around the room, I saw my husband in full pattern and color, sitting and smiling and breathing the room in and out. He appeared to me as the new Big Belly Laughing Buddha. I was sitting opposite him and started to imitate his rhythmic breathing. I looked down at the hardwood floor and saw rows of kaleidoscopic rainbow-colored munching crocodiles, all going in alternating directions. As I ran my hands over them, their images swirled and rippled as if I were moving my hands over water. This went on until I was completely back to reality. DMT EXPERIENCE REPORT NUMBER. 6 Subject: American male, 31 years old Substance: N,N-DMT, smoked Setting: Casual This experience is from when I smoked DMT over dried Egyptian blue lotus flowers with my wife. Sitting in a meditative position, I smoked and closed my eyes. I remember seeing triangles; one facing up at the top and one facing down at the bottom. They were illuminated with many rapidly changing colors, like a twinkling star. With my eyes closed, the patterns covered the "walls" of my vision. I directed my awareness upward and saw a tribal sun face that appeared to be of South American origin. The face was almost like a face in the middle of a totem pole at the end of a temple. It was at that moment that I realized that I was actually in some kind of temple. To my left and right were huge columns in the Greek style. I started listening to some kind of music, although I'm not sure when it started or where it came from. I can't remember the sound now, but it was definitely music. I so wanted to turn around and see the rest of the temple, but some force kept my awareness facing the face of the sun between the pillars. I barely remember two guards standing near the columns. Both appeared as toads or toads. Looking up at the sun, I also saw several arches flanked by grand triangular architecture that I can only describe as Greek or Roman. When I started to come to my senses, I felt pressure in my ears, as if I were underwater or going down a mountain. Then the music stopped. Keeping her eyes closed, the scene faded into darkness. The last thing missing was the colors. I felt a peace and 'oneness' with everyone I encountered over the next twenty-four hours. DMT EXPERIENCE REPORT NUMBER. 7 Subject: American male, age 40 Substance: N,N-DMT, IV Setting: Informal After several successful N,N-DMT smoking trips, I decided to take it to the next level and do an IV. After approximately the third stroke after pushing the plunger, BOOM! it was like

the Great Architect of the Universe invaded me with transdimensional information. When I felt the heat envelop my body, there was a noise, as if reality were being torn apart. I've heard that sound before from smoking DMT, but nowhere this intense. Like a siren, she could not only hear the sound, but also see and feel it. Suddenly, I found myself surrounded by fractals that seemed to pulsate and blink with every heartbeat. When the noise subsided, I felt like I was floating. I found myself floating past what can only be explained as a mercury waterfall. I pushed my 'hand' through the mercury to see if it was real. As soon as I took my 'hand' away, I felt pressure on the back of my neck, as if someone were pushing me from behind. The invisible force began to push me through the waterfall and into a labyrinthine chasm of underground caverns. As I flew through this endless black abyss, I began to recall repressed childhood memories. As soon as I recognized the memories, their flow stopped, as did my flight. I found myself in a space that was pitch black, talking to myself. By then I seemed to have forgotten everything, including the fact that I had injected myself with DMT. Out of nowhere, the fractals returned, pulsing, and enveloped me; made me part of them. At one point it became so overwhelming that I wanted them to stop. The moment that thought dawned on me, I found myself in a completely different place. I was looking at myself on a completely different plane. I noticed several beings around me who seemed to be aware of my presence. They were saying “Hey you! You shouldn't be here! I was petrified. It felt like I was in that place for an eternity. Then, suddenly, the voice of what I thought of as a goddess began to speak to me, assuring me that everything would be okay. He was playing with my long hair, telling me sweetly that I was a good person. Oddly, there were no actual words exchanged. I remember admiring her exquisite beauty, thinking to myself that she looked like the very essence of Mother Nature. It was a comforting hug and I didn't want to leave. What felt like a lifetime suddenly came back to reality exactly as he remembered. The ride disappeared and I found myself being held from behind by my best friend. The experience suddenly overcame me and I started to cry. He let go of me and asked if I was okay, saying he had to hold me because, while taking the medicine, I started walking, babbling nonsense. It took me months to tear myself away from the experience. To this day, I find myself thinking about it often. DMT EXPERIENCE REPORT NUMBER. 8 Subject: American male, 32 years old Substance: N,N-DMT, smoked Setting: Informal I sat with my pipe in as little darkness as possible, trying to ease the anxiety that always accompanies the unknown. This would be my first real DMT experience. I remember the finely tuned veil and then I saw it. It was like an extreme close-up of a creature in constant transformation and constant cycle with textures, hieroglyphs, colors and shapes from ancient pictograms and native iconography. There were hieroglyphs and cuneiform embossed as well as totem poles facing Mayan symbols and Native American color schemes. It was so fast that I couldn't understand everything. There was a recurring symbol that kept manifesting itself. It looked like the top of a totem pole and was the outline of a bird's head. The entire scene seemed to pull away from me at that point and allowed me to get a good look at it in all its splendor. By the end of the trip, I realized that everything that influenced these native cultures; whatever the common thread ran through their societies, like a muse whispering in the ears of their artists and thinkers, this was that muse; some ancient fairy-like entity in an alternate dimension; a living and pulsating representation of all these native cultures and languages. It was such a profound insight into our history as a people that I wept openly as the vision began to fade and the veil returned once more, like an iron curtain separating me from "the other." before me at that moment, I would have smoked it all up at that moment, only to return to that place where all linguistic ambitions and living hopes and dead culture dreams still exist; still roaming the astral in search of a candidate worthy of initiation! DMT EXPERIENCE REPORT NUMBER. 9 Subject: American male, 33 years old Substance: Psilocybin, ingested + N,N-DMT, smoked Setting: Ritualistic It was Easter Sunday 2013. Having participated in Lent, the celebration of Holy Week had begun, including a participation in the Old and Accepted Scottish Rite, Commemoration of Southern Jurisdiction and Ceremony of Renewal. After the Mystical Banquet, I returned with my wife to our residence, where we participated in a

Mystical feast of another kind: Ten dry grams of highly potent Psilocybe cubensis mushroom powder. They were mushrooms we picked ourselves from a local cow field, so I knew they had formidable potency. I prepared the mushroom the day before, infusing the powder into a bottle of port wine, to which I added a little orange juice, creating a kind of psychedelic sangria. Citric acid also helps with the fermentation process. After straining the plant matter through fine cheesecloth, I transferred the elixir into a pitcher and placed the Coil's Musick to Play in the Dark Vols in it. 1 and 2, and poured a glass for each of us. The first effects I noticed were from the alcohol, but not long after my second or third glass, I started to feel the first waves of psilocybin intoxication invading my being. My wife drank about a third of the bottle. I finished the rest. As we relaxed in our bed, the effects kicked in and they were much stronger than any of us had anticipated. Lying in the silent darkness, I saw with my peripheral vision a colorful bird that looked like Native Americans, each of which was a painted arrow. As it flew through my vision, it brought the entire universe behind it, as if its flight was decompressing reality out of nothing. An enlarged image of this starry galaxy; a giant skull, blue and crystalline. Its appearance was like a faceted sapphire, as if it had been carved from a precious stone. Floating above me, the skull opened its huge mouth and spewed a cascade of oceans and jewels into my soul. At that moment, my wife and I began to make love. It was an intense roller coaster ride of sensual bliss for both of them. And we wouldn't know until six weeks later, but it was during that happy union that we conceived our youngest child, B. We would find out that the due date would be Christmas Day. It is as Aleister Crowley wrote in Agape vel Liber C vel Azoth: "Thus at Easter is the Crucifixion or Copulation, and nine months after is the Birth of the Child." My emotions and my mind came into play to an incredible degree at this point. I decided to retire to my office, where I began loading the oil burner tube with a generous amount of N,N-DMT that a colleague had prepared for me. Smoking alone, I remember puff after puff, up to nine puffs. Previously, it had completely taken off in this very batch after just three hits. But for some reason, perhaps because many of my receptors were already occupied with the psilocybin, I managed to keep smoking and smoking, the visions becoming more and more vivid with each puff. After the ninth ring, I found myself on a lonely planet in the far reaches of space. Stationed on this planet was a giant reptilian brain covered in a glass dome. This brain, he knew, was the thinking mind of the entire universe. From it began to project a series of tentacle-like extensions, like the appendages of an octopus, all of which were sentient and had minds of their own. One by one, each tentacle devoured another, and each one that was consumed produced two more. As I watched one Will branch into several smaller Wills, all of which ate and mated with each other to multiply their numbers, I realized that what I was seeing was a symbolic representation of Arthur Schopenhauer's philosophy. It was deeply inspiring. At that moment, the whole scene exploded into another. I found myself looking at a huge hermaphrodite hominid goat, not unlike Eliphas Levi's depiction of Baphomet or the Devil card design in the Tarot de Marseille deck. It was composed entirely of colorful kaleidoscopic geometry, continually morphing and changing, yet at the same time maintaining its bestial form. From its teeth hung a giant, scaly snake which, though the goat perpetually munched, was not destroyed. This act of the goat-always-chewing-the-snake, he knew, somehow sustained creation. It was disconcerting to see. Beneath this gigantic scene was a row of turtles, all circling and circling in unison. I watched this curious dance until the vision disappeared and I found myself sitting on the floor of my office. Not more than twenty minutes passed. DMT EXPERIENCE REPORT NUMBER. 10 Subject: American male, age 30 Substance: N,N-DMT, smoked Setting: Ritual There were four of us under the stairs in a closet where I used to record music and perform magical rites. The space was big enough for all of us to sit cross-legged on the concrete floor. I think three of the four of us had never taken DMT before, but that's exactly why we got together. We should have decided to meet at my place.

to this same room. Windowless and quite large for what it was, it was the perfect man-made place to undertake such an adventure. Furthermore, we were all Masons. So the four of us were of the same mind and intention, no doubt. After sharing the upstairs, calming our nerves with a shot of whiskey, we went down to the dark room. We sit on the floor in the form of an oblong square. The senior Frater pointed out that we were all Masons and therefore proposed that we should "open Lodge". After a few minutes our Online Store was open and the oldest of the four moved to the center of the room as we formed a triangle around him. The experienced Frater held the pipe for him and instructed him to hit it as hard as he could. He went from sitting to reclining slowly. He dropped his hand and our experienced Frater grabbed the pipe. We had a pillow waiting at the head of our transported Frater. He laughed. We sat in the dark for about thirty minutes. Then he sat down and spoke. "Wow!" When it was my turn, they also told me to hit the pipe until I dropped. I just didn't back down. I resisted. The face before me was the experienced Frater. It became hollow. With the exception of his pupils, his eyes were gone. I could literally see the walls of his eye sockets. Then, suddenly, the room disappeared. I was then elsewhere. This realm was geometric, colorful, organic and tinged with a predominant orange that may have been the influence of candlelight among us. I heard a voice say "So this is what you wanted huh?" The voice originated inside my head. Was I the one asking that? Was it my Holy Guardian Angel? Whatever it was, he was amused by my recent venture. He was in the Spirit World, seeing things he was never supposed to see. I felt guilty, like I was trespassing; As if I was never coming home I could hear and feel the others trying to get me to relax and lie down. But I never did. I was sitting up, but my neck and shoulders were saggy. I bowed. I moved through this world, like a soul rushing to the center of the earth. It seemed like it lasted thirty seconds, but I was assured it was about half an hour. When my eyes focused, I saw my hands curled in my lap. I raised my right hand and it was the pure, chubby hand of a child. I looked at him in disbelief. I thought I was just born, but I could still remember my previous life before I "died" under the stairs, as if I were a previous incarnation. Fear dissolved into awe and my hand returned to normal. Afterward, all my Fratres laughed and said, "Yeah man, you were stuck in your hand like it was the most amazing thing you've ever seen!" We close our Webshop and head upstairs, probably having another stiff drink or two. It was an amazing experience and one I might do again under the right circumstances. However, like all things worth doing, it was an absolutely terrifying experience. And I didn't have the courage to repeat the experience. A few years later, I was close, but I chickened out halfway through. I mean, a man can only suffer so many deaths in a lifetime. DMT EXPERIENCE REPORT NUMBER. 11 Subject: North American male, 66 years old Substance: Ayahuasca Scenario: Ritualist The event started at 11 pm. m. on April 14, 2016. The experience returned to objective consciousness around 4:00 am. m. the next day. Right off the bat, I'll have to express that the experience I had was a totally controlled experience. The MAO inhibitor nauseating effect is a test to pass. However, the spiritual experience far outweighs the physical discomfort. An experience as such is certainly not something for the faint of heart, faint of heart and faint of soul. The views are out of this world. Each new phase of the experience begins with viewing the most beautiful geometric shapes and scenes with colors experienced beyond the ordinary spectrum. As the heightening of perceptions began to take effect, I knew immediately that I was in for a very special experience. Looking at the walls, I saw dimensions open up with extraordinary color tones that blended in many layers and depths. I knew it was better for me to lie down because I wanted to be safe no matter what. However, I soon realized that I was in full control. This was not a runaway psychedelic event. I was able at all times, within the real experience, to analyze everything that happened at each moment. In other words, I was able to experience fully with fully awakened consciousness. I was able to retain the memory of the experience more easily and without difficulty. It's still clear as day.

The first shift in consciousness was felt with very positive emotions. Everything started to look brighter in color and the shadows blended more harmoniously. As I gazed before me in wonder at the extraordinary scene of colors and geometric shapes, I saw beings, people gathered around me. It was bothering me because they were squeezing me, blocking my view. I felt like I was in a crowded elevator. I naturally interacted with them. I asked them who they were and what they wanted. They just looked straight ahead and ignored me. I saw no faces I recognized. In my experience, a realization came over me. I realized that each of them was a certain aspect of me, like my worries, responsibilities, commitments, problems, worries and everything that restricts me in life. It is as if they had personified themselves. Realizing this, I told them that I knew who they were and now they can go. They dispersed giving me my space. I got out of bed and decided to take a walk around the house. I saw my home like never before. I saw my windows all glazed. The guards who watched over me were at their posts in every room, reminding me that I'm never alone. They were like angels. If he looked directly at them, they disappeared. When I looked away, they were there when I saw them out of the corner of my eye. Huge, beautiful tigers looked into the house through some of the windows. The tigers were a realization of my strengths and powers that wanted to enter my home, my consciousness. As I looked down at my kitchen tiles, characters towered above them and scenarios unfolded. I was being entertained with much beauty and wonder. This was the end of my first phase as a realization in a deeper consciousness opening up to me. So I entered the dark stage of the alchemical process. I started to really feel the intense nauseating effect of the MAO effect and decided to lie down in bed again. I know I fell asleep for a while. Then suddenly I woke up feeling the presence of a very dark figure. I sat on the edge of the bed and immediately turned on the night light. I saw a shadow figure behind me looking at me. I grabbed him and threw him to the ground. With my foot I immobilized him. Take full control of the experience. I was not afraid at all, but I was kind of disgusted with why such a figure was presented to me. Then again there was a realization. I pointed directly at him and said I knew who he was. That he was all my vices, my dark side, my weaknesses and all my fears. When he realized that I had recognized him, he just dissolved under my feet. I had conquered! I went back to bed and turned off the light so he could rest. I expected to fall asleep as it was such an intense experience. My heart was pounding and I felt like a battle had been won. I may have fallen asleep again, but I'm not sure. Suddenly, I again became fully aware of the presence of many beings around me. This time they were all dressed in white robes. Men and women of noble countenance sat in chairs along the walls on either side of my room. They looked at me like they knew me and seemed to understand what I was going through. Some smiled at me reassuringly and others looked at me sympathetically. Once again in full control with the power of analysis within the experience itself, I had the feeling that I had found all that belongs to the divine light within me. Having previously fulfilled my worldly responsibilities and cares, after that with my shadow, these events ended with the 'Black Stage'. Having found the purity of beings in white, I have now entered the purification of the 'White Stage' of the alchemical process, as I have found my virtues and all the positive aspects of my being. Now I was ready for my next step in the alchemical process. My experience ended when I had a vision of the 'Peacock's Tail' stage of the alchemical process. The most beautiful sight of colored streamers hanging in the infinite space above through an infinite area that extends infinitely into the depths in front of me and around me. I saw space like never before. A beautiful Christmas tree appeared with all its beautiful decorations and colors. Seeing him filled me with ecstasy and an immense emotion of love and beauty. It was absolutely wonderful that he could almost instantly recognize this heightened emotion. The sight of this Christmas tree transported me back to my childhood emotions where I had the same feeling of ecstasy as when I was two or three years old after seeing my first Christmas tree. It was a recall of memory with all its intense childlike emotional feeling. I experienced a kind of rebirth as I felt and became aware of the child I once was, with all the wonders the child I once was had. It was a new awakening to a new state of spirituality, embracing all the positive vibrations of healing energy that such an exhilarating youthful experience brings with it. This whole spiritual journey lasted about 7 hours. Sometimes I just got up and walked around my house, as everything about it was extraordinarily beautiful. The visions lasted a good 4 hours before subsiding, after which the experience was followed by 2 hours of peaceful, silent contemplation, enjoying my new found energies. i just sat

silently, feeling my ebb and flow of internal energies. It was truly spiritually very solemn. I had entered a metaphysical and mystical silence of such intensity that I was totally immersed in an absolute peace of myself. It was truly a healing experience. Even today the colors are more vivid, the feelings are intensified and my dreams are more intense. Meditations are enhanced and metaphysical energies are generated much more easily. I recently read that a doctor is curing severe alcoholics and drug addicts with these DMT trips. It doesn't surprise me. There is a very beautiful light in all of us, it just needs to be awakened from our dormant awareness of it.

FURTHER READING FURTHER READING ON ENTHEOGENS Ancient Revival by Terence McKenna Be Here Now by Ram Dass Cannabis and the Soma Solution by Chris Bennett Center of the Cyclone by John C. Lilly DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman DMT and Soul of Profhesy by Rick Strassman Food of the Gods by Terence McKenna Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley Info-Psychology by Timothy Leary Liber 420 by Chris Bennett LSD by Otto Snow LSD: My Problem Child by Albert Hofmann Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy by Clark Heinrich Mushrooms, Myths, and Mithras by Carl A. P. Ruck Mystery School in Hyperspace by Graham St. John Persephone's Quest by R. Gordon Wasson Pharmacotheon by Jonathan Ott PIHKAL by Alexander Shulgin Plants of the Gods by Richard Evans Schultes Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer by John C. Lilly Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World by Paul Stamets Sacred Vine of Spirits by Ralph Metzner Secret Drugs of Buddhism by Mike Crowley Sex, Drugs and Magic by Robert Anton Wilson Soma: The Divine Mushroom of Immortality by R. Gordon Wasson Some Simple Tryptamines by K. Trout The Apples of Apollo by Carl A.P. Ruck The Antipodes of Mind by Benny Shanon The Cosmic Serpent by Jeremy Narby The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley The Effluents of Divinity by Carl A.P. Ruck FURTHER READING ON ENTHEOGENS 177 Christian Ratsch's Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants Timothy Leary's Game of Life Dan Merkur's Manna Mystery Simon G. Powell's Psilocybin Solution Timothy Leary's Psychedelic Experience R. Gordon Wasson The Holy Mushroom and the Cross by John M. Allegro The Frog of Dawn by Octavio Rettig Hinojosa The Witches' Disintegration by Thomas Hatsis TIHKAL by Alexander Shulgan True Hallucinations by Terence McKenna

FURTHER READING ON FREEMASONRY A Bridge to the Light by Rex Hutchens Esoterika by Albert Pike by Arturo de Hoyos

Masonic Formulas and Rituals by Albert Pike of Arthur of Holes Morality and Dogma by Albert Pike of Arthur of Holes Allegorical Conversations by Arthur of Holes Ancient Freemasonry by C.C. Zain Cracking the Code of Freemasonry by Robert L.D. Cooper EA Handbook of J.S.M. Ward FC Manual by J.S.M. Ward Freemasonry by Mark Stavish Freemasonry and Its Ancient Mystical Rites by C.W. Leadbeater Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods by J.S.M. Ward's Royal Secret of Freemasonry by Arthur de Holes Light on Freemasonry by Arthur de Holes Lodge and the Craft by Rollin C. Blackmer Lost Rites by David Harrison Mackey Revised Encyclopedia of Freemasonry by H.L. Haywood Masonic Orthodoxy by Jean-Marie Ragon M.M. Handbook by J.S.M. Ward Watching the Trade by Andrew Hammer Scottish Ritual Monitor and Guide by Arthur of Holes Signs and Symbols by George Oliver Masonic Stellar Theology and Astrology by Robert Hewitt Brown Symbolism in Craft Maonry by Colin Dyer Freemasonry Symbolism by Albert G. Mackey Las Alchemy Keys to Ritual Masonic by Timothy Hogan The Arcane Schools by John Yarker The Book of Words by Albert Pike The Encyclopedia of Freemasonry by Albert G. Mackey The Genesis of Freemasonry by David Harrison The Key to the Key of Solomon by Lon Milo DuQuette FURTHER READING ON FREEMASONRY 179 The Lost Keys of Freemasonry by Manly P. Hall The Masonic Initiation by W.L. Wilmshurst The Masonic Magician by Philippa Faulks The Words of the Freemason by Robert G. Davis The Meaning of Freemasonry by W.L. Wilmshurst The Most Secret Mysteries of Arthur of Holes The Way of the Craftsman by W. Kirk McNulty Understanding Mankind in America by Robert G. Davis William Preston and His Work by Colin Dyer

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