PEYOTE ENTHEOGENS

From ecodelic triplit, the peyoteros’ sense of place, interspecies communication and animistic healing to ecocentric entheogenic rituals, psychedelic bioregionalism, biogenetic structuralist ecopsychology and transpersonal ecosophy – this special issue of the EJE explores the verdant intersection between neurobiology and botany, shamanism and animism, and psychology and ecology, fusing mind with Nature in a boiling cauldron full of entheogenic insight.

Abstract

There are many similarities amongst Mesoamerican religious practices that cannot be overlooked. This paper seeks to establish the commonalities between the origin stories and religious practices of three Mesoamerican cultures. In this manner, one can begin to better understand the extent to which these similarities were within the pre-Columbian Maya, Inca, and the Aztec.

Ceremonial practices and the use of entheogenic plants to achieve a desired altered state has been well established through archaeological finds throughout what is now known as Central/South America. Many of the same entheogens have been recorded in use amongst pre-Columbian cultures. Practices that would seem unimaginable to most people living in the current day were carried out with zeal with the desired result well documented through several available sources. The use of said plants in ritual (and medical) occasions is shrouded with mystery and intrigue, however great strides have been made in our current understanding of pre-Columbian ethnobotanical rituals. Historians, ethnobotanist, biologists, anthropologists, mystics and even a few “kooks” have contributed greatly to our understanding of their use, yet little is known regarding how widely spread these acts (uses) were.

Mara’akame Paritema (Don Santos) (17th July, 2013) - Huichol cosmology: A mara'akame shares Wirraritari cosmovision and mythology. The Ecology, Cosmos and Consciousness Salon, The Institute of Ecotechnics, October Gallery, Bloomsbury, London. (Host and compère)

The origins of the Wirraritari or Huichol people are uncertain: are they an Aztec tribe or were they independent of the pre-Hispanic Aztec empire? In any case it is know that they resisted the Spanish throughout the conquest of Mexico and still remain independent. The Wirraritari cosmovision is full of myths, gods, and legends, and this cosmovision is embodied and experienced directly during the practice of their many ceremonies, which take place throughout the year. In Wirraritari society the Mara’akames are medicine-men and leaders. There are different types of Mara’akame; those who simply sing and communicate with the spirits, those who do treatments with energy, extracting disease and materialising it as it is sucked out by the mouth, and those who sing and heal as Mara’akame Santos does. Mara’akame Santos is going to share some of the Wirraritari myths of Creation, the origins of the people and their cosmovision. He will also share a sacred ceremonial song.

This paper examines the use of psychoactive substances such as Psilocybin, Mescaline, and LSD as adjuncts to mystical, religious or spiritual experiences. There is an analysis of the psychological changes and the changes in perception that these substances cause and how these can be interpreted as contributing to religious or spiritual enlightenment. There is also a discussion on the nature of what could be considered a religious experience.
An overview of the use of such ‘entheogenic’ drugs from an historical perspective follows, looking specifically at the use of Soma and its importance in the establishment of Hinduism; the Kykeon of the Eleusinian Mysteries in Ancient Greece; and the use
of the sacred mushroom ‘teonanacatl’ and its place in Central and South American Cultural History.
Current use of entheogens will be discussed, focusing on the use of Peyote by the Native American Church and the use of Ayahuasca by the Santo Daime and União de Vegetal (UDV) in Brazil.
Walter Pahkne’s ‘Experimental Examination of the Claim that Psychedelic Drug Experience May Resemble Mystical Experience’ (also known as the ‘Good Friday Experiment’) into the use of psilocybin in facilitating religious experiences is described and evaluated. The results of Pahnke’s experiment are compared to Griffiths et al’s 2006 study that sought to evaluate whether psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual
significance.
The paper ends with a critical evaluation of the validity of drug-induced mysticoreligious experiences and discusses and evaluates the objections to the use of entheogenic drugs particularly within the traditional religious framework of ‘Western
Society’.

Over the last decades, the Wixaritari of Western Mexico have been protagonists of several high-profile ecological conflicts. Here I focus on the relationships between Wixaritari and non-indigenous activists. As an "expert" involved in many of these ecological conflicts, I observed that the Multinaturalist Wixaritari understood the activists much better than the activists understood them. On the other hand, I insist that ecologists could benefit from a better understanding of how Wixárika ecology and cosmopolitics work. For the Wixaritari, any political practice begins with the defense of autonomy and indigenous rights. They do not try to "save" the planet, but to build and rebuild it. Doing so, they strive to improve their community organization, and to defend the conditions necessary for continually inventing and creating the world. Frequently, political conflicts arise over "sacred places" who are ancestors and part of the communities even when they do not look like humans, and are located in areas far away from the Wixárika villages. On the other hand, Wixárika sacred geography is not a given, but is envisioned by initiates. In this way, Wixaritari defend the right to permanently reinvent their own ritual system, even when they know that they may be accused of "making up sacred places".

‘A 1920s Harvard Psychedelic Circle with Mormon Connections’, concerns the use of Peyote by students and tutors at Harvard in the 1920s, amongst who were individuals who went on to be important composers, poets and writers, including a William Blake scholar who reported on the similarity of Blake’s art to Peyote visions and Virgil Thomson who scored music for a Gertrude Stein opera. The original source of their Peyote was Frederick Madison Smith (1874 –1946), the third Prophet-President of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and grandson of Joseph Smith founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, otherwise known as the Mormons. Frederick M Smith had participated in the Peyote rite several times with Native Americans and did not believe that Peyote was, technically, a drug, but a natural substance, an ancient means to tap into one’s inner powers and was ‘neither injurious nor habit-forming’.

En México la legislación actual, al reconocer la composición pluricultural del país, permite el uso de especies “psicotrópicas” a la población indígena, pero prohibe el peyote, de uso ancestral para estas comunidades. Por ello un amparo ya se encuentra en revisión ante la Suprema Corte.

Ritual use of peyote among Huichols and Tarahumara peoples has been documented from the late XXI Century onwards. However, the resulting image of these ethnographies seem to lead to irreducible differences. In this article we analyse in a comparative form the relationship between this entheogen, the above mentioned peoples’ worldview, and specifically with the concept of “regeneration of life”. It is upon the later that the system of transformations we are presenting in this text roots and articulates itself.

Abstract
The following paper is organized into four parts. In the first section, I begin with a short discussion of botanical and geographical information of Peyote in Anahuac (North America). I also provide an overview of the Native American Church (NAC) to contextualize native peoples’ therapeutic and culturally intrinsic relationships with the plant-cactus Peyote must be understood—later developed in this paper. The second section is a narrowed attention toward scholarly research on NAC Peyote rituals (a.k.a., Tipi ceremonies; Peyote ceremonies) and their relatedness to Peyote botanical knowledge, entheogenic human-Peyote relations, and visionary experiences. This third section develops the argumentative corpus of my paper positioning Peyote ceremonies as collaborative liminal spaces that create an experience of euphoric, but critical sense of self-awareness for participants. Drawing from broad disciplines such as ethnobotany, psychotherapeutics, and cultural anthropology, I triangulate my rhetorical framework in psychodynamic, cultural and ethnobotanical notions to maintain that NAC tipi ceremonies are psychotherapeutic visionary experiences for participants. This paper should serve as referential value to investigations on relationships between “self” and “culture”, “humans” and “entheogens” as well as deepen our understanding of NAC visionary experiences and healing. The fourth section concludes with a synchronization of my argumentative themes in my third section that demonstrate Peyote ceremonies as collaborative liminal spaces, namely, the potent amalgamation of sounds, symbols, and the help of human and other-than-human relatives. In short, I aim to demonstrate that NAC Peyote ceremonies induce what is commonly seen as ‘a renewal of life’, which is part and parcel to a recontextualization of the self in relation to itself and others on the Peyote Road of life.

Antonin Artaud was one of the first internationally recognized writers to introduce the indigenous Tarahumara (Rarámuri) of Northwest Mexico to the world. In a series of publications based on his experiences with the tribe in 1936, Artaud left a vast visual legacy that positioned the Tarahumara within a powerful regime of representation, one that framed them within a mixed landscape of exoticism, primitivism, and peyote-inspired mysticism. This paper focuses on these literary works and interrogates the veracity of Artaud’s experiences and observations among the “pure race.” Drawing on the ethnographic record of the twentieth century and anthropological field research, it is my intention to reveal Artaud’s ability to fabricate, exaggerate, and embellish “the truth” which he so desperately desired to understand.

David Lindsay’s science fiction novel A Voyage to Arcturus of 1920 was almost forgotten until republished by Ballantine in 1968 as a rediscovered classic, during a boom in the fantasy and science fiction genres linked to the countercultural interest in altered states. A Voyage to Arcturus has several scenes in which the protagonist experiences altered states of consciousness after eating or drinking substances on the planet Tormance. However, the significance of references to the effects of psychoactive substances in A Voyage to Arcturus has gone almost unremarked by the critical literature on Lindsay even though his later novel The Violet Apple, composed in 1922 but unpublished until 1976, deals explicitly with the effects of a psychoactive drug, the eponymous Violet Apple. This paper considers the importance of the theme of altered states and the use of psychoactive substances in four of Lindsay’s novels; A Voyage to Arcturus (1920), The Haunted Woman (1922), Sphinx (1923), and The Violet Apple (1924/1976) and the likelihood that David Lindsay had personal experience of such drugs in the context of their experimental use in the literary and artistic milieu of his day.

The Word of Wisdom, a health code introduced by Joseph Smith in 1833, has a history of varied interpretations within the larger body of Mormon faiths. Among the lesser known of these interpretations is that held by the Peyote Way of Church of God, founded in 1977 by Reverend Immanuel P. Trujillo, Rabbi Matthew S. Kent and Right Sister Anne L. Zapf in Arizona. Leaders of the Peyote Way Church of God hold a special place in their faith for the Word of Wisdom and interpret it to endorse the use of peyote, a cactus with hallucinogenic properties, as an herb. This interpretation may be surprising to members of the larger Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) but a review of the history of the health code in the LDS faith also demonstrates a remarkable fluidity of interpretation and innovation. This is  a two part series. Both are available for download and viewing here.

Consciousness-expanding psychoactive substances have been used for thousands of years in ritualistic applications by many cultures to enhance and assist healing, such as known in Siberian, South-American, and African Shamanism. After three decades of worldwide prohibition, in the last few years, clinical treatments with entheogenic substances have again become possible within strictly controlled scientiific studies, including the application of LSD and psilocybin with terminal-ill cancer patients, and of MDMA with individuals with posttraumatic-stress-disorder , and ibogaine and ayahuasca for individuals with drug addiction.
In this lecture, a transpersonal psychotherapeutic approach, integrating interventions with different psychotropic substances will be presented. Non-ordinary spiritual/mystical and/or overwhelming experiences cannot be reached with ordinary states of consciousness. Methods such as breathwork, drumming/shamanic journeying, or journeying with psychoactive inducing altered states of consciousness might support the healing work and integration of such experiences. Examples of  authentic cases will be provided along with evidence from research findings. The possibilities and limits of a transpersonal psychotherapy with psychotropic substances will be discussed, and the importance of a safe setting will be outlined. Further space will be given for the sharing of personal experiences.

OKLAHOMA-NARARACHI, PEYOTE ROAD LANDSCAPES PART ONE (OKLAHOMA-NARARACHI: PAISAJES DEL CAMINO DEL PEYOTE, PARTE UNO). Firts of three parts of PhD thesis creation-research process, presents the creative part of an art-based research made by Lance Henson (cheyenne poet) and Francisco Cabanzo (images), Arts and thought PhD Program, Fine Arts Program, Universidad de Barcelona - UEB, 2010.

Rurawe, R., & Luke, D. (2021, August). Wixarika, peyote and shamanism in the 21st century. Invited talk for Breaking Convention: The Intermission, Genesis Cinema, London, 14th August.

Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3hzxHtBleI

This book focuses on peyote (Lophophora williamsii), a hallucinogenic cactus containing mescaline, which grows naturally in Mexico and southern Texas. Mescaline is an internationally controlled substance, though exemptions have been made for the religious use of peyote by indigenous groups in Mexico, and by the pan-indigenous Native American Church with chapters in both the United States and Canada. Currently, natural populations of peyote are in decline, due both to improper harvesting techniques (by licensed and non-licensed harvesters) and environmentally damaging economic activities (mining, agriculture, growing cattle, oil developments). In Mexico, peyote is considered a species requiring “special protection” due to environmental concerns; peyote is also protected under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) as a species liable to become endangered. This collection addresses the delicate relationship between “the needs of the plant” as a species and “the needs of man” to consume the species for spiritual purposes. The chapters also discuss the history of peyote regulation in the United States and the special “trust responsibility” relationship between the American Indians and the government. Under the argument of “equal protection,” different groups have attempted to obtain an exemption for peyote use. As is the case with conservation, multiple stakeholders’ interests are in conflict. The discussion and comparison of diverse legal cases touch upon concepts such as place, ethnicity, identity, and tradition. The expansion of the peyote traditions is used here as a foundation for examining issues of international human rights law and protections for religious freedom within the current prohibitionist system and global milieu of cultural transnationalism. Collectively, this book offers a unique contribution by presenting a dense anthropological description of peyote use in different contexts, and addressing contemporary conservation and legal issues surrounding peyote and its religious use.

Este libro está pensado desde una necesidad etnográfica de compilar etnografías individuales (textos fotográficos y notas etnográficas), que en suma nos permitieran leer en un mismo texto una etnografía colaborativa y a la vez multisituada de tres rituales que han sido refugio de culturas étnicas, 1 y que en su mayoría, durante el siglo XX, fueron considerados como emblemas nacionales del folclore; pero que hoy se practican de manera multisituada e incluso transnacional. Los tres rituales religiosos provienen de tradiciones étnicas: la veneración de una deidad común (Yemayá) en las religiosidades afro-americanas; la danza ritual conchera-azteca, y los rituales de la tradición de la etnia wixárica (conocido coloquialmente como grupo étnico huichol). En el presente, las tradiciones étnicas, lejos de estar aisladas, se encuentran atravesadas por los vaivenes de la globalización y la mercantilización (por ejemplo reconvertidas en turismo espiritual o en mercancías esotéricas) y/o desterritorializadas por el dinamismo de sus propios tránsitos culturales y por sus movilidades ligadas a la migración. Estos desplazamientos no sólo son geográficos, sino que contribuyen a reformular lo étnico y a reinventar las tradiciones acorde a otros regímenes regionales y nacionales de la alteridad. 2 Para captar estas situaciones-que rebasan las miradas enfocadas de manera intensiva en el terreno de campo-la antropología ha tenido también que transitar, dándole seguimiento a los tránsitos de creencias, actores, ritualidades y tradiciones. 3 Como ya lo habíamos mencionado Argyriadis y la que suscribe, 4 la antropología del presente está siendo desafiada por la necesidad de mantener una doble competencia epistemológica mediante la mirada glocal (bifocal), que alude a ver lo local en los 1 Hasta hace algunos años estas tradiciones religiosas se mantuvieron ancladas con las etnicidades, y éstas a su vez estaban inevitablemente inmersas en el territorio (sea éste un lugar de vida o un lugar mítico de origen), y fueron capaces de establecer fronteras nítidas entre lo propio y lo ajeno, y lo cercano y lo lejano. Stuart Hall, "Lo local y lo global: globalización y etnicidad" (traducción de Pablo Sendón), tomado de www.colonautas.edu.pe/Biblioteca Virtual de Ciencias Sociales, 1991. 2 Rita Laura Segato, La nación y sus Otros. Raza, etnicidad y diversidad religiosa en tiempos de Políticas de la Identidad (Buenos Aires: Prometeo libros, 2007).

Crónica sobre la experiencia del consumo de peyote como parte de un ritual sagrado.

Herrera, Jorge Luis, “‘La inspiración viene de las estrellas. La expiración del fuego’. Crónica de una ceremonia huichola con peyote”, en la revista La colmena, año 24, no. 102, abril-junio de 2019, México, UAEM.

In the 1960s, Americans combined psychedelics with Buddhist meditation to achieve direct experience through altered states of consciousness. As some practitioners became more committed to Buddhism, they abandoned the use of psychedelics in favor of stricter mental discipline, but others carried on with the experiment, advancing a fascinating alchemy called psychedelic Buddhism.

Many think exploration with psychedelics in Buddhism faded with the revolutionary spirit of the sixties, but the underground practice has evolved into a brand of religiosity as eclectic and challenging as the era that created it. Altered States combines interviews with well-known figures in American Buddhism and psychedelic spirituality—including Lama Surya Das, Erik Davis, Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Sensei, Rick Strassman, and Charles Tart—and personal stories of everyday practitioners to define a distinctly American religious phenomenon. The nuanced perspective that emerges, grounded in a detailed history of psychedelic religious experience, adds critical depth to debates over the controlled use of psychedelics and drug-induced mysticism. The book also opens new paths of inquiry into such issues as re-enchantment, the limits of rationality, the biochemical and psychosocial basis of altered states of consciousness, and the nature of subjectivity.

“[Altered States] mixes statistics and surveys, historical overview, personal experience, and ethnographic texture to uncover the intertwining history of two fast-growing movements in American spirituality. . . . This overview will appeal to anyone interested in Buddhism, psychedelic possibilities, and understanding how both are forging a controversial new American religious experience.”—Publishers Weekly

“Altered States genuinely moves forward in laying a path for new, insightful, and valuable information on the American Buddhism that is developing in our global society. Douglas Osto’s groundbreaking research will be appreciated by scholars, and his accessible style will be enjoyed by nonacademic readers.”—Charles Prebish, author of Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America

“Altered States deftly guides us through the neglected territory of psychedelic Buddhism. This is a fascinating story, full of vivid characters and supported by solid research. Still, I believe it makes a greater contribution by situating these practices and persons within the larger contexts of tantra, of American religion, and of cutting edge neuropsychology and consciousness studies. The result is—to use le mot juste—mind blowing.”—Franz Metcalf, author of What Would Buddha Do?: 101 Answers to Life's Daily Dilemmas

Luke, D. (2012, June).  Peyote hunters of the holy mountain; and how to get cactus lodged in your reducing valve. Presentation to be given at the Portal for the Immortal Psychedelic Lectures, Sunrise Celebration Festival, Somerset, 23rd June.

Luke, D. (2016, April). Peyote guardians of the holy mountain. Invited lecture for Kings College Psychedelic Society, Guy’s Hospital, London, 6th April.

In almost 500 years since the Spanish conquest of Mexico, the Huichol (actually self-named the Wixáritari) were never infiltrated by outsiders, but instead left their ancestral lands in the desert of San Luis Potosí and headed west for the mountains of Nayarit. Hiding out in the inaccessible highlands they held strong against foreign incursions of all kinds, and for half a millennium they have remained true to their shamanic pagan origins, embarking on a month-long journey each year, walking back to their original habitat, the desert of Wirikuta, to harvest their holiest sacrament, the psychedelic peyote cactus.

On their annual pilgrimage the Huichol also pay homage to their ancient holy mountain in the eastern desert, El Quemado, which is both spiritually endowed and minerally rich, loaded as it is with over a billion dollars worth of silver, and is the target of various opencast mining projects... This talk explores the Huichol traditions and current problems, and also discusses recent scientific research into the apparent psi-inducing properties of mescaline, the most psychoactive chemical constituent of peyote.

Luke, D. (2015, January). Blue deer prayer: Quests and challenges of the world’s oldest psychedelic tribe. Invited talk for Club Imaginal, Marwoods Café, Brighton, 28th January.

The Wixaritari (Huichol) are a prehispanic shamanic tribe from Mexico who resisted conquest and outside incursion for 500 years and have continued their magical pagan traditions, connection to the land and consumption of the psychedelic peyote cactus for millennia. They are one of the world’s oldest unbroken psychedelic tribes and yet their way of life is currently under threat from foreign mining interests that seek to destroy their sacred lands and their culture with it.

Dr David Luke will talk about the Desert of Wirikuta, the Renovation of the World and Shift of the Times. There will also be an exclusive screening of a new documentary film about the Huichol nation.

Dr David Luke - psychologist, is a lecturer, researcher and writer focusing on anomalous experience and altered states, especially transpersonal psychedelic experiences. He has published over 100 academic texts in his field, including co/editing and co-authoring four recent books. He also co/organises various events such as the Ecology, Cosmos and Consciousness Salon, Breaking Convention and Psychic Lysurgery.

Luke, D. (2015, January). Wixaritari: The world’s oldest psychedelic tribe and their fight to save their spiritual ecology. Invited talk and film screening for Cinematters film series, Passing Clouds, Hackney, London, 18th January.

The Wixaritari (Huichol) are a prehispanic shamanic tribe from Mexico who resisted conquest and outside incursion for 500 years and have continued their magical pagan traditions, connection to the land and consumption of the psychedelic peyote cactus for millennia. They are one of the world’s oldest unbroken psychedelic tribes and yet their way of life is currently under threat from foreign mining interests that seek to destroy their sacred lands and their culture with it.

Wixaritari mara’akame (shaman) Paritemai and psychedelic researcher Dr David Luke discuss the Desert of Wirikuta, the Renovation of the World and Shift of the Times. There will also be an exclusive screening of a new documentary film about the Huichol nation.

"The Dieties have talked, and they said that is the time for the human kind to renew the World. Takutzi Nakawe the Goddess that gives life in Earth has told the Ceremonial group to begin with the task, as our ancestors did. First in the 5 cardinal point of the Wixaritari Cosmology, then in the "Fire Belt" of Central Mexico (Volcanoes) and the Pyramids and Ancient Temples which are aligned to the belt, and the Ancient Temples of other Countries of the World. The Deities, our Father Sun, Mother Earth, Grandpa Fire, Ancestors, The Deer... they are going to shift too, and they are looking forward to "talk a new language"; New ways of existence, They are asking us humans too first do a unification of the entire humanity, then and finally do the Ceremonies of Renovation of the World; The old (candles) offerings that our ancestors did are about to end...”

Mara’akame Paritemai (Don Santos Lopez) is the previous Governor of the Tateikie Huichol community (San Andres Cohamiata) North of Jalisco, Mexico. He spent 5 years as the leader of the Ceremonial Centre in San Jose Tesorero. Marakame Paritemai has over thirty years of experience as a medicine man and healer.

Dr David Luke, psychologist, is a lecturer, researcher and writer focusing on anomalous experience and altered states, especially transpersonal psychedelic experiences. He has published over 100 academic texts in this area, including co/editing and co-authoring four recent books. He also co/organises various events such as the Ecology, Cosmos and Consciousness Salon, Breaking Convention and Psychic Lysurgery.