Sarah Nuber-Roots of entheogens-outside source

I have blogged about some contemporary cultures that use entheogens for religious purposes but their roots can be traced way back in time and here I will briefly discuss what I have found out about these psychoactive substances. Entheogens have been discovered in various places and identified through art as being used in ancient times. Evidence has been found which indicates that sacred mushrooms (psilocybin is the psychedelic derivative) were used between 1100-700 BC in Scandinavia (Ripinsky-Naxon 1993). Pictures of mushrooms have been found on two rock carvings in Bohuslen, Sweden and various arts have been found which depict sacred mushrooms. A rock painting was found which dates back to before the sixth century, in the city if Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria where a mushroom is depicted on a figure which could mean that this fungus was used for spiritual purposes. The earliest known eyewitness account of the consumption of mushrooms goes back to 1658 and comes from a Polish prisoner of war. This man talks about the customs of the Ostyak tribes in the Irtysh-Ob river valleys in western Siberia, he said, “they eat certain fungi in the shape of fly-agarics, and this get drank worse than on vodka, and for them that’s the very best banquet” (Ripinsky-Naxon 1993). The Aztecs were also known to use entheogens for religious purposes, more specifically the sacred mushroom. The name for this sacred mushroom was teonanacatl; this translates to “flesh of the gods,” which in itself indicates that it has religious significance (Schultes 1940). The substance was eaten at various religious ceremonies as well as by witchdoctors and shamans. Soma was another plant that can be traced back many years and is described in the Rig-Veda as being use for religious purposes. The Rig-Veda is an Indian collection of sacred hymns that are dedicated to the Hindu Deities. One of the most famous lines from the Rig Veda says,

“We have drank the Soma, we are become Immortals, We are arrived at the Light, we have found the Gods. What now means hostility to use, what the malice of mortal, O Immortal Soma (Wasson 1971).

There are many opinions as to what exactly soma was because it had been lost in translation but it is obvious that it was some type of plant that was ingested and had religious significance.