Mushrooms, myth, and Mithras
Subtitle: the drug cult that civilized Europe
By: Carl A.P. Ruck, Mark Alwin Hoffman, José Alfredo González Celdrán.
Contributors: Hoffman, Mark Alwin.; González Celdrán, José Alfredo, 1963-
Publisher: City Lights
Published: 2009
Place of publication: San Francisco
Language: eng
Number of pages: 290
ISBN-13: 9780872864702
Subjects: Mithraism; Hallucinogenic drugs and religious experience; Amanita muscaria -- Religious aspects -- Mithraism
Description: Anthropological evidence has long suggested that psychedelic plants have played important roles in indigenous communities for thousands of years, but most scholarship does not address their formative impact on Western culture.

Through careful studies of art and archeology, Mushrooms, Myth Mithras reveals compelling evidence that ritual use of psychedelic mushrooms was a powerful and closely guarded inspirational force in the development of early European culture. We discover that Nero was the first in a long line of Roman emperors to be initiated by secret "magical dinners" in which mind-altering mushrooms were used as a source of spiritual awakening. Although this sect was officially banned after Roman conversion to Christianity, aspects of its practices and teachings went on to influence many subsequent secret societies, including the Freemasons. --Book Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p.         ) and index.
Table of contents: title: Preamble : the first supper: the shamanic origin of religion; title: Preface : Also sprach Zarathustra; title: The entheogenic eucharist of Mithras; title: Becoming one with God; title: The water miracle; title: Death by bull's blood; title: Ass's ears; title: Fire, mushrooms, and sexual procreation / R. Gordon Wasson; title: Mushrooms, gorgons, and the spring of Perseus; title: Menhirs; title: Attis under the same cap; title: The Persian, keeper of the fruits; title: Pater, magister sacrorum; title: A God for the end of time; title: The drama in the sky; title: Freemasonry and the survival of the eucharistic brotherhoods.