The Psychedelic Eleusinian Mysteries of Ancient Greece

18 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by Alyson Dunlop Shanes in Uncategorized

Tags

afterlife, Asklepios, Athens, Bacchus, Classical Greece, Demeter, Dionysus, Eleusinian Mysteries, Eleusis, ergot, Gorgon, Hades, Hellenic, Homeric Hymns, Hygieia, Kerameikos, Kore, kykeon, Medusa, mushrooms, Persephone, Perseus, psychedelic, Religion, Sacred Way, Styx, Telesterion

Persephone and Demeter holding mushrooms and food wallet, an implement of the Mysteries used to hide secret edible objects. From the Pharsalos bas-relief (5th c BCE), now in the Louvre.

Eleusis was a religious cult of ancient Greece, situated about twenty kilometres north west of Athens near the Isthmus of Corinth. In the Classical period, from as early as 1700 BCE, right up until the Roman Empire, Eleusis was the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries. These were sacred rituals revolving around Demeter (mother goddess of the grain) and her daughter Kore/Persephone. The ritual seems to have given the hope for life after death for those initiated. The traditional outlook at that time was that after death one would cross The Styx, the river of the Underworld. The Eleusinian Mysteries gave Greeks hope of a better life in Hades. These Mysteries were considered to be one of the most important in ancient times and were a major festival during the Hellenic period. The rites, ceremonies, and beliefs were secret, but appear to have involved sacred visions of the Afterlife. It is generally accepted by scholars that the initiates used a potion to induce a psychedelic experience.
One line of thought by modern scholars has been that these Mysteries were intended “to elevate man above the human sphere into the divine and to assure his redemption by making him a god and so conferring immortality upon him.” (1).
The only requirements for initiation were a lack of “blood guilt”, in other words having never committed murder, and not being a “barbarian” (unable to speak Greek). Men, women and even slaves were allowed initiation (2).
There were four categories of people who participated in the Eleusinian Mysteries:
1. Priests, priestesses and hierophants
2. Initiates, undergoing the ceremony for the first time.
3. Others who had already participated at least once. They were eligible for the fourth category.
4. Those who had attained epopteia, who had learned the secrets of the greatest mysteries of Demeter.
Much of the information about The Eleusinian Mysteries was never written down. For example, only initiates knew what the kiste, a sacred chest, and the kalathos, a lidded basket, contained. The contents, like so much about the Mysteries, are unknown. However, one researcher writes that this Cista (“kiste”) contained a golden mystical serpent, egg, a phallus and possibly also seeds sacred to Demeter (3).
There were two Eleusinian Mysteries, the Greater and the Lesser. According to Thomas Taylor:

…the dramatic shows of the Lesser Mysteries occultly signified the miseries of the soul while in subjection to the body, so those of the Greater obscurely intimated, by mystic and splendid visions, the felicity of the soul both here and hereafter, when purified from the defilements of a material nature and constantly elevated to the realities of intellectual [spiritual] vision.

According to Plato, “the ultimate design of the Mysteries … was to lead us back to the principles from which we descended, … a perfect enjoyment of intellectual [spiritual] good”

   The ancient calendar was different from the Gregorian. On the 14th Boedromion, the Greater Mysteries began by bringing the sacred objects from Eleusis to the Eleusinion at the base of the Acropolis. On the 15th, the priest carried out sacrifices and on the 16th celebrants began cleansing rituals, washing themselves in the sea at Phaleron. On the 17th, participants celebrated the Epidauria. It was a “festival within a festival” in honour of Asklepios, god of healing, and his daughter Hygieia.
The procession to Eleusis began on the 19th, and started at the Kerameikos. This is the ancient cemetery in Athens (well worth a visit – lovely museum – take a picnic and sit amongst the ruins!). The celebrants would walk along the Sacred Way, which is still visible. At one point they would shout obscenities in commemoration of an old woman who had made Demeter laugh as she mourned the loss of her daughter Persephone.
On reaching Eleusis there was a day of fasting, again commemorating Demeter’s fasting as she searched for Persephone. The fast was broken when the celebrants drank a potion called the kykeon, and on 20th and 21st they would enter the Telesterion. This was the most secretive part of the Mysteries and those who had been initiated were forbidden ever to speak of the events that took place in the Telesterion. The penalty was death.
Some believe the priest revealed the visions which were of life after death, but others believe the experiences must have been internal and caused by ingesting a hallucinogen as part of the kykeon mixture.   We can certainly find evidence that Greek wine sometimes was hallucinogenic. At the Anthesteria, a Dionysian festival that was not part of the Mysteries but was similar to it, specific mention was made of a drug in the wine that was responsible for opening the graves and allowing the departed spirits to return to Athens for a banquet. Its hallucinatory nature can be seen on many of the choes vases depicting scenes from the festival. In fact, someone in Aristophanes’ Acharnians wishes his enemy a bad trip at the Anthesteria by hoping that he encounters a mad hallucination. Wasps also begins with two slaves attempting to escape their misery by drinking a potion called Sabazios, a Thracian analogue of Dionysus (god of wine, R. Bacchus): it causes them to experience a so-called “nodding Persian sleep”, during which they see strange things. Furthermore, such well known hallucinogens as mandragora and henbane were often compared to wine with respect to the drunkenness they induced.
Whatever else happened at the Eleusinian Mysteries, the use of psychotropic hallucinogens seems to have been a definite part of it, with visions inducing an ecstatic spiritual experience for the initiate. There are several theories about what the kykeon might have consisted of. Some have suggested that, as the ritual was in honour of Demeter, it might have been partly made of Lolium (or ‘aira’).    Improperly grown in the wrong conditions, it seems this cultivated grain reverted to a more primitive form which was also susceptible to the growth of the ergot fungus. Ergot poisoning can cause very serious effects, including seizures, spasms, mania, psychosis and hallucinations. In severe cases, even death.
The Lesser Mysteries seem to have been linked to the ingestion of mushrooms. Mushrooms, or mykes (from where we get the word mycology),are also linked to the myth about Perseus who founded Mycenae in the spot where he picked a mushroom. A Greek amphora from southern Italy depicts a variant of the same foundation myth in which Perseus’ decapitation of the Gorgon, Medusa, is equated with his harvesting of a mushroom. Traditional folklore has associated the decapitation of Medusa with giving birth to a son, Chrysaor, and a flying horse, Pegasus – symbolic of perhaps inspiration and transportation. Chrysaor’s name means “he who has a golden armament”. He was depicted as a golden sword-wielding giant.
The political and military leader, Alcibiades, caused a huge scandal one year by stealing the kykeon and having a party with his friends! The conclusion being that the experience was both pleasant and very much sought after. Many wrote about the joyful and revealing holy experience the potion induced. Both Gordon Wasson and Robert Graves believe the kykeon contained psychedelic mushrooms, whilst Albert Hofmann believes ergot to be the psychoactive ingredient in the mixture, suggesting that the ancient Greeks could have made a safe psychedelic beverage with an aqueous infusion of ergot thereby separating the water soluble alkaloids from more dangerous peptide ones. After more research, he concluded that paspalum (a wild grass in the Mediterranean) and ergot were the most likely combination, rather than barley (Hofmann 1994). He goes on to say that barley may have been a nutrient ingredient and mint used to settle the stomach, as ergot preparations induce nausea. Both barley and mint are mentioned in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. However, after much self-testing of various different concoctions, all those that included any derivative of ergot, produced unpleasant side effects. This was not at all in keeping with the description of the kykeon! The Homeric Hymn describes the initiation experience at Eleusis thus: “Blissful is he among men on Earth who has beheld that!”. This description is verified by Pindar and Cicero.
Terence McKenna has pointed out that both Demeter and Persephone were associated with the poppy and that perhaps opium was an ingredient in the kykeon, reducing rather than enhancing its effect. Many agree with both McKenna and Graves that psilocybin mushrooms were also most likely an ingredient in the potion. We will probably never know, unless further archeological or textual evidence is found to tell us more.
As an aside, do please be extremely careful with experimentation of psychedelics. The Eleusinian kykeon recipe seems to have been a tried, tested and very safe concoction which was used for centuries without any deaths being recorded. That’s not to say that there wasn’t any. Whatever it was made of, the ingredients were obviously very carefully measured. It was also most likely deemed as safe. Many people took part year after year, enjoying the religious experience it brought them. Nevertheless, it was a respected potion, as all living things on this planet should be. It was not recreational but spiritual in nature.

Until next week. Your friend, A.D.

References and Further Reading

Bigwood, J., Ott, J., Thompson, C. & Neely, P. 1979 Entheogenic effects of ergonovine. Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, Vol. 11 (1-2) Jan-Jun 1979(1 47-1 49)
Casti, J.L. 1990 Paradigms Lost: Tackling the unanswered mysteries of modern science. Avon Books, New York
Cole, J.R. & al. 1977 Paspalum staggers: Isolation and identification of tremorgenic metabolites from sclerotia of Claviceps paspali. J. Agric Food Chem., Vol.25, No. 5, (1197-1201)
Craig, J.R. & Metze, L.P. 1979 Methods of Psychological Research. W.B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia
Foley, H.P. (Ed.) 1994 The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Translation, commentary, and interpretive essays. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ
Gallagher, R.T., Leutwiler, A. & al. 1980 Paspalinine, a tremorgenic metabolite from Claviceps paspali, Stevens et Hall. Tetrahedron Letters, Vol. 21, Pergamon Press Ltd. (235-238)
Goldhill, S.: Greece; in: Willis, R. (Ed.) 1993 World Mythology. Simon & Schuster, London
Graves, R. 1992 The Greek Myths (Combined edition). Penguin Books, London
Hofmann, A. 1983 LSD-My Problem Child: Reflections on sacred drugs, mysticism, and science. Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., Los Angeles
Hofmann, A. 1994 personal communication
Kerenyi, K. 1962 De Mysterien von Eleusis. Rhein-Verlag, Zurich
McKenna, T.1992 Food of the Gods: The search for the original tree of knowledge. Rider, London (available online here)
Ott, J. 1993 Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic drugs, their plant sources and history. Natural Products Co Kennewick, WA
Ott, J. 1994 personal communication
Ott, J. & Neely, P. 1980 Entheogenic (hallucinogenic) effects of methylergonovine. Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, Vol. 12(2) Apr-Jun 1980 (165-166)
Rätsch, Ch. 1992 The Dictionary of Sacred and Magical Plants. Prism-Unity, Bridport, Dorset
Ripinsky-Naxon, M. 1993 The Nature of Shamanism: Substance and function of a religious metaphor. State University of New York Press, Albany
Ruck, C.A.P.1981 Mushrooms and philosophers. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 4, (179-205); 1983 The offerings from the Hyperboreans. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 8, (177-207)
Sankar, D.V.S. 1975 LSD-A Total Study. PJD Publications, Westbury, NY
Sheridan, Ch.L. 1976 Fundamentals of Experimental Psychology (2nd ed.). Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York
Shulgin, A. 1994 personal communication
Shulgin, A.T. & Shulgin, A. 1991 Pihkal: A chemical love story. Transform Press, Berkeley 1993 Barriers to Research; in: Rätsch, Ch. & Baker, J.R. (Eds.): Jahrbuch für Ethnomedizin und Bewusstseinsforschung 2. Verlag fur Wissenschaft und Bildung, Berlin
Springer, J.P. & Clardy, J. 1980 Paspaline and paspalicine, two indole-mevalonate metabolites from Claviceps paspali. Tetrahedron Letters, Vol. 21, Pergamon Press Ltd. (231-234)
Valendid, Ivan 1993 Mistery elevzinskih misterijev. Razgledi 18(1001), 30f
Wasson, R.G., Hofmann, A. & Ruck, C.A.P. 1978 The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the secret of the mysteries. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York

(1) Nilsson, Martin P. Greek Popular Religion “The Religion of Eleusis” New York: Columbia University Press, 1947. pages 42–64
(2) Smith, William. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London, 1875.
(3) Taylor, Thomas. Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries. Lighting Source Publishers, 1997. p. 117
(4) ibid p.49.

Star-Crossed Vampire Lovers: Dracula as a Damned Eros

14 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by Alyson Dunlop Shanes in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Anthony Hopkins, Aphrodite, Atropos, Baal, Beelzebub, Blood, Bram Stoker, Carfax Abbey, classics, Clotho, Cupid, Demeter, Dr Seward, Dracula, Eros, Francis Ford Coppola, Gary Oldman, Greece, Horror, Jonathan Harker, Keanu Reeves, Lachesis, Lucy, Mina Harker, Mina Murray, Renfield, Richard E Grant, Sadie Frost, Sex, symbolism, The Fates, The Wyrd Sisters, Tom Waits, Transylvania, Van Helsing, Venus, Vlad Tepes, Vlad the Impaler, Winona Ryder, wolf

This contains spoilers! Watch the movie first!

Click to view.

The 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, is a completely different take on the story of the monstrous Transylvanian count. It is more than just a love story, and as I began to study classics almost ten years later I realised there was a deeper meaning to the tale. The vampire had actually been portrayed as a fallen Eros, damned by God and His “mad men”.

The movie starts as no other film about Dracula starts, with the Count in human form. Here he is the real historical character we know Dracula to be based on, Vlad Tepes, Prince of Wallachia. He goes into battle, leaving his beloved wife Elisabeta. Whilst in battle, Elisabeta receives false word that her husband has been killed. Devastated, she commits suicide. On his return, Dracula is told by the priest (played by Anthony Hopkins who will later be his adversary, Van Helsing) that his wife is damned because she took her own life. Dracula, enraged that the God he is fighting for should turn against him by condemning the woman he loves, renounces Him. He then damns himself by drinking the blood from the cross he has stabbed with his sword. Straight away, we know that the reason Dracula has willingly condemned himself to be damned is for the love of a woman, also damned.

Four centuries later, in 1897, we find ourselves in London at the Carfax Lunatic Asylum and are introduced to Renfield, one of the patients. He is talking to his “Master”, saying he has made preparations for his arrival, before eating a fly and thanking his invisible Master for his generosity. In Nods to the Old Gods, I mention Beelzebub, a Semitic deity. His name in Arabic was thought to mean Lord of the Flies, although this is probably a derogatory corruption of his true name Lord of the High Place (Heaven) or “High Lord”. He is also called Ba’al, meaning “Lord” or “Master”. He is primarily a sun god, and god of fertility. If damned, as He was – like many other pagan gods were – surely Ba’al would be condemned never to walk in sunlight and all acts of fertility, such as sex and sexual love, would also be condemned as impure lust by opposing forces (i.e. early Christians).

In the next scene, Renfield’s boss explains to Jonathon that Renfield has “lost his greedy mind”. Beelzebub was condemned to be a Prince of Hell, his sin being that of gluttony, which ties in with Dracula’s insatiable appetite for feeding on human blood, and also perhaps with Renfield’s gluttony for flies.

Dracula first appears as a supernatural being shortly after we are first introduced to our two protagonists, Mina and Jonathan, a couple very much in love who want to marry. They are prevented from doing so until Jonathan has first visited Dracula. Vampires and couples in love are often a motif of many Dracula stories. The two things seem to be inextricably linked. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the count finds a picture of Mina and immediately recognises her as the reincarnation of his beloved Elisabeta.

Unlike any other Dracula story, Oldman catches us off-guard and talks of something no other Dracula has ever talked about. He says: “The luckiest man who walks on this earth is the one who finds true love.” He then induces our sympathy by beginning to cry whilst telling Jonathan that he was married once, but his wife died.

As the story continues, other characters are introduced: the flirtatious, sexually knowledgeable and free-speaking Lucy is balanced with the virginal and sexually naïve Mina. Lucy’s suitors, each one more in love with her than the other, are Quincy P Morris, Dr Jack Seward and Arthur Holmwood. It is whilst watching Lucy flirting with all three men that Mina becomes aware of Dracula, an allegory of her sexual stirrings.

Back at the asylum, Renfield accuses Dr Seward of being “love sick” (thought to be a real disease in ancient Greece!), whilst in Dracula’s castle, Jonathan is seduced by three female vampires. They are described in Bram Stoker’s novel as Dracula’s three brides. Collectively they are referred to as “sisters” and at one point “weird sisters”. This is an interesting point. The weird sisters appear also in Shakespeare’s Macbeth as witches, but originally these were the Wyrd Sisters, or Fates. Here, The Fates therefore exist in order to determine Jonathan’s destiny. Clotho, the spinner, who spins the thread of life; Lachesis, who chooses our lot in life, and how long that life will be; and Atropos, who cuts the thread of life with her shears. In the film they are enjoying a sexual orgy with Jonathan, deciding his fate as they seduce him with their beauty and charm.

Meanwhile, the Dracula-as-sexual-urges allegory appears again, as Dracula watches the girls playing and kissing in the maze during a storm. Shortly afterwards Dracula lands in England and immediately entices a somnambulistic Lucy into the garden in order to seduce her. Lucy is wearing a flowing red dress, the same colour as the old count’s coat at the castle. The colour red seems to be a recurring motif of the film, perhaps symbolising its most usually associate emotion, passion and, of course, blood. In this scene, where Mina finds Dracula in the form of a beast, feeding on Lucy whilst enjoying her almost sexually as well, Dracula causes Mina to forget seeing him in such a state.

Soon after, fresh from feasting on the crew of the Demeter (incidentally, the ancient Greek mother goddess of the grain and fertility) and Lucy, Dracula appears as a young man walking through the streets of London. He is now dashing enough to let Mina see him in princely form. They go to the cinematograph, where Dracula seduces Mina. Here, a wild wolf is used as a symbol of his wild passion, which he tames as he tames the wolf, in order that Mina is safe from his carnal desires.

The next scene introduces us to Professor Abraham Van Helsing, as he gives a lecture on the problem of syphilis in Victorian society. He points out that venereal diseases literally means the diseases of Venus, Roman goddess of love, which is a reference to their “divine origins”. Venus is the mother of Cupid, the Roman god of love. Eros is the Greek equivalent of Cupid, whilst Aphrodite is the Greek equivalent of Venus.

As Lucy lies gravely ill and dying, Mina is swept off her feet by her prince, and we see that the vampire does indeed have more than one side to him. He gives Mina absinth to drink, which he describes as the “aphrodisiac of the soul”. An important line, as I’ll point out soon. Dracula, in this guise of Eros, and Mina, in the guise of Psyche (“the soul”), fall in love with each other all over again, whilst reminiscing about their sad parting. However, when Jonathan, having escaped the castle, sends word that he is safe and wishes for Mina to join him to be married, Mina puts a stop to her clandestine trysts with Dracula. She sails for Romania, still feeling he is with her, speaking to her in her thoughts. She broods over the fact that, being single and enjoying the company of her sensual prince, she felt more alive than she ever had before. Now, without him, about to marry Jonathan, she feels confused and lost.

At this point, Van Helsing realises he is dealing with Dracula, one of the undead, and warns Morris to guard Lucy lest she become a “bitch of the Devil” and “a whore of darkness”. He tells Morris that Lucy is not just a random victim, but a wanton follower. She is “the Devil’s concubine”. Lucy is the whore to Mina’s virgin.

As Mina marries Jonathan, the enraged Dracula condemns her best friend Lucy to become a vampire, and an eternity of craving human blood. He is the power or force of nature that no “foolish spells” can stop. The men watch as Lucy, now an undead nocturnal creature who has evolved into a maternal killer of children (see my blog article Margaret Thatcher meets Medea for more on the image of the monstrous mother in film), carries a toddler into her lair presumably for devouring. She is repelled by the cross, and defeated.

The men know they must kill Dracula, and make their way to his resting place in Carfax Abbey, whilst Mina takes refuge in Dr Seward’s quarters in the asylum next door. Whilst the men destroy and sterilise the boxes with his home soil in it, where the vampire must sleep, Dracula takes refuge with Mina. He escapes unseen. As a shape-shifter, Dracula can take on the form of several animals or mist. He is clearly an ethereal being.

Dracula visits Mina as she sleeps. This scene conveys two things. Initially it is the iconic incubus night demon who visits a sleeping woman in order to have sex with her (the succubus being the female equivalent who visits sleeping men). This is thought by some to be a manifestation of the disturbed mind, and is linked to suppressed sexuality. Dracula by Bram Stoker is itself linked to the suppression of women’s sexuality, especially in Victorian society when the story takes place. This bedroom scene is also evocative of the Eros and Psyche story, which concerns the overcoming of obstacles to love that stand between the psyche (“soul” or “breath of life”) and Eros/Cupid (love and desire). Initially Eros marries Psyche but, though a good and gentle lover, he does not allow her to see him. He flees when she goes against this rule and looks upon his true nature. The jealous goddess of love, Aphrodite, sets Psyche some tasks. After she accomplishes the tasks, Psyche is thus purified through suffering and is now prepared to enjoy eternal happiness. With the help of Zeus, she is reunited with her husband, Eros.

When, at last, Mina sees Dracula as he really is – a non-living being – she asks what he is. His reply: “I am nothing. Lifeless, soul-less, hated and feared. I am dead to all the world… I am the monster the breathing men would kill. I am Dracula.” Of these two lovers, Mina is the only one with a soul, and now she has seen her true love as he is. She is devastated, realising he is the murderer of her friend Lucy, and therefore of flirtation and freedom. Nevertheless, in spite of his true nature and in spite of herself, Mina finds she still loves this particular monster. Her only desire is to become his partner in eternal life. Even at this point, Dracula attempts to stop Mina from becoming “cursed for all eternity” because he loves her too much to condemn her. The choice to be cursed is entirely Mina’s as she insists on drinking his blood: what would normally be perceived as an unholy communion, were it not for the fact that we understand these two to be true soul mates completely in love with one another. The question should be, why is this love deemed evil by God (or His followers)?

Christianity has always played a role in this story. The men attempt to ward Dracula off by wielding crosses, one of the things that supposedly repel him. He has been damned because he renounced the Christian God at the start of the story. Nevertheless, he seems more empowered now, with the love of Mina, and manages to set fire to the cross Van Helsing is holding, saying “Look what your God has done to me.” Again, following one of the most important scenes of this movie, this is one of the most important lines. It is God, and His followers, that Dracula blames for turning him from a prince into a monster. As any scholar of Christianity knows, as the new religion took over, everything of an erotic nature was condemned. As Van Helsing himself says towards the end: “We’ve all become God’s mad men.”

Finally, it is then up to Mina to give Dracula peace, piercing his heart and reuniting him once more with his soul in heaven. Through her trials and suffering, Mina is at last blessed by God. She is both the Virgin and the Magdalene, as well as Psyche. Eros, in this 20^th century story, has at last found His way into Paradise. So too, possibly has The Magdalene, if that is who Mina is supposed to represent towards the end of the story. Certainly Dracula takes on an almost Christ-like appearance as he ascends to Heaven and is reunited with God, and Mina must always be his counterpart. This might seem a slightly complicated point, but it seems that Eros (erotic love) has been purified and is now innocent and pure enough to enter into Paradise. Mina, in her vampiric state, is wanton and lustful. At one point, she seduces and kisses Van Helsing. In recent years, it has been widely agreed by religious scholars that Mary Magdalene was misidentified (possibly deliberately) as a prostitute. However, there is no evidence of this. If Dracula as Eros has now become the epitomy of pure love (Christ), his lover Mina/Psyche/Magdalene has the mark of shame removed from her forehead and is also purified once more i.e. after many years of being falsely represented by the Church, we know now that The Magdalene was not a promiscuous “sinner” (not, I hasten to add, that I believe prostitution is a sin). I *think* that might be the point of the ending…..