Peyote

This is an article in two parts. The first part discusses current research in psychoactive preparations of ergot in various religious systems with a particular emphasis on Persian, Greek, Jewish and Islamic sources. Certain poems, hadith, and scriptural writings suggest an entheogenic heritage to various ancient sects that exerted and received philosophical and ritual influences over large distances and over time. Particularly, some esoteric Shia and Sufi writings are highly suggestive of a "celestial botany" that employed psychoactive plants for initiatory and ritual purposes. The second part will address current research methods that render ergot alkaloids nontoxic and entheogenic, a most crucial part of the discussion in the absence of a modern bioassay. This is essential, as without a chemical reality to support that such a preparation of entheogenic ergot is possible, all ergot theories concerning mystery traditions would remain largely speculative.

Access to the peyote cactus, a religious sacrament of the Native American Church (NAC), has been regulated by the federal government and the state of Texas since the 1960s. Over the last forty years, the number of licensed distributors has declined, a trend accompanied by rising prices and a diminishing market supply of the psychoactive cactus. Distributors are recognized as the primary NAC peyote source; consequently, their disappearance would be devastating for the 250,000-plus adherents of this distinctive indigenous tradition. Based on interviews with current and former peyote distributors, peyote pickers, landowners, and NAC members, a map of the various commodity chains that make up the peyote supply network is constructed. This research applies Access Mapping and Access Analysis of the supply network to identify the primary factors driving the decline of the regulated peyote trade. Focusing on the distributors’ and NAC members’ rights-based, structural, and relational access mechanisms, avenues for increasing access are identified, including amendment of distributor licensing fees.

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.

The Huichol Indians of Mexico are famous for their consumption of a psychotropic cactus, the peyote, and for their yarn paintings. The symbolic content of these pieces is often considered as an expression of the hallucinatory vision that its author would have had. Yet, by comparing historical evidence of the use of peyote with a contemporary yarn painting, one realizes that these practices reflect two opposite concerns : prophetic and « archaic ». The collective rites of absorption of peyote occured formerly in hunting or warlike contexts ; nowadays, the making of yarn paintings is an individual and commercial activity detached from the traditional social organization. Thus, to understand the Huichol hallucinogenic experience, I will rather question the indigenous concept of « vision », or nierika, in the light of some artifacts designated by this name : the ancient hunting net and its miniature reproduction (also called kaunari, « cord »), as well as the skin of the deer’s face fixed on a ceremonial stick. The examination of the material supports of the visions will continue through the example of a story about the metamorphosis of the stick into a « person ». The analysis of the exchange sequence of this object, during a ritual interaction called kaunari, should reinforce the idea of a connection between « vision » and « capture », and revive the original purpose of the use of peyote, since the donor has access to a faculty of clairvoyance.

Keywords
Mexico – peyote – ritual – yarn paintings – « vision » – person-object

Resumen: El ensayo analiza el uso del tabaco entre los indígenas del noreste precolombino de México estableciendo ubicación, rutas de intercambio y prácticas rituales asociadas a su consumo. Revisa el estado de la cuestión vista por arqueólogos, antropólogos e historiadores. Busca identificar la territorialidad donde existieron grupos vinculados a su consumo. Enumera las etnias cuyo nombre étnico está asociado con el tabaco y la representación totémica que esto implica. Convoca a que existan nuevos trabajos que puedan ampliar la visión sobre este producto en el noreste, para dimensionar si tenía una función ritual como otros productos psicoactivos o en cambio se trata de una función meramente secundaria.

For thousands of years indigenous communities throughout the globe have recognized the therapeutic value of particular hallucinogenic plants. Peyote, a psychoactive cactus, is considered a medicine by many Native Americans, and has been hailed as a cure for alcoholism despite having no “scientifically” accepted medical use. The notion that hallucinogenic compounds may have therapeutic applications, however, is increasingly supported by scientific research. Despite the heavy focus of allopathic medicine on pharmacology, the therapeutic value of peyote must be understood in holistic terms. By uniting Gordon CLARIDGE’s work on the Total Drug Effect with the work of MOERMAN and JONAS on the Meaning Response, and with Toksoz KARASU’s Agents of Therapeutic Change, a therapeutic model emerges that can explain how the symbolic, ritual, and community components of the peyote ceremony combine with peyote’s distinctive pharmacological properties to produce a unique and efficacious healing experience.