Ritual Ingestion: Perception-Altering Sacraments

Some selections from Mantra, Tantra and Ayahuasca: Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'Roll in Search of the Sacred.

We have drunk the Soma; we have become immortal;
We have attained the light; we have found the gods.
What can hostility now do to us,
And what, O Immortal, can the malice of a mortal do?"- Rig Veda 8.48¹

Ingestible sacraments have been a consistent presence in religious and spiritual ceremonies worldwide since the beginning of recorded history. Various plant sacraments are used 1) to honor deities symbolically, 2) to aid intermediaries such as medicine women, priests, or shamans in entering a state of communion, or 3) to summon direct transcendent experiences in congregants themselves.

One example, from Bronze Age India and Iran, is the sacrament of Soma, or Haoma in Persian. Donald Teeter writes in The Sacred Secret,"Haoma acquired a place of sacramental significance in the worship of Mithra (an Indo-Iranian god of light). The sacred wine gave vigor to the body, prosperity, wisdom, and the power to combat malignant spirits and to obtain immortality.” In ancient India, Soma was an unidentified plant whose juice played a crucial role in Vedic rituals. The plant's stalks were crushed, and the extracted juice was filtered through sheep’s wool, then combined with water and milk. After being offered as a libation to the gods, the leftover Soma was consumed by the priests and the sacrificer. It was greatly prized for its exhilarating and hallucinogenic, effects. Soma was also personified as a deity, revered as the “master of plants,” a healer of disease, and a bestower of wealth.

New scholarship suggests that Soma isn’t just one plant but a class of plants with shared properties that create an altered state of deep well-being and upliftment. Theories on what the drink’s composition might be include opium poppies, ephedra, and fly-agaric (amanita) mushrooms.

We see the echo of these ancient rituals in the Christian sacrament of communion today, with wine replacing Soma. In fact, the Eucharist may have originally been psychedelic. One of my favorite deep reads on this subject is Brian Muraresku’s The Immortality Key, which painstakingly documents the role of mind-altering sacraments in early Christianity, aiding in the rapid spread of the church. He theorizes in part that laypeople were invited into psychedelic sacraments formerly reserved for the elite at the Temple of Eleusis, giving all takers a taste of unity consciousness.

Here are a few examples of other entheogenic plant collaboration in world religions:

• Psilocybe (magic mushrooms) in Sami culture
• Amanita Muscaria in Egyptian culture
• Ergot derivatives (similar to LSD) in the temples of Eleusis
• Huachama (San Pedro Cactus) in Quechua Andean tribes
• Ayahuasca in the Huni Kuin and Shipibo tribes of South America
• Cacao among the Mayans
• Tobacco and Peyote in North America
• Cannabis (Bhang) in the worship of Shiva in India

Modern Use in Churches

Churches today also use sacraments to access a direct experience of communication with the spirit realms and the ineffable radiant light. In the Santo Daime church, a syncretic tribal-Christian sect originating in Brazil and spreading globally, the main sacrament is Ayahuasca. In the United States, the Native American Church legally conducts Peyote ceremonies. There are now approved churches in Texas that conducts rituals with psilocybin and other entheogenics, specifically for healing those living with life-blunting trauma.

The Neo-Gaians

Globally, in the reawakening of celebratory earth-based spirituality, we see a reengagement with ritual sacraments. Many communities, from Ubud to Goa to Tulum to Crestone to Puna, engage with sacred plant as pillars of their practices, in the service of transpersonal awakening—a transcendence of the self and a reconnection to earth and cosmos- in community, but without the formal structure of a church.

Sacred plant ceremonies aren’t limited to strong psychedelics; people often enter deep meditations and “dietas” with milder, more subtle planys and herbs like lavender, mint, or kanna, or even Cacao ( which is a heart opener, not a psychedelic).

Deeper Invitation from Plant Medicines

The invitation from these medicines goes beyond healing personal trauma or gaining personal insight. Plant teachers, especially mushrooms, ayahuasca, kambo, and DMT, are thought to be conduits for the plant kingdom to speak to humans on behalf of the earth. The rapid spread of these healing plants through underground communities is seen as one of Earth or Gaia’s defense mechanisms against ecocide: the plants give people a direct experience of their connectedness to the web of life and other realms, often inviting them to change eco-harming ways. Many report, after using plant medicine, seeing the planet anewm as a living entity they are indivisibly intertwined with.

Many who engage with these ceremonies begin to shift their values and experiences away from consumption of material goods toward creation and connection—to the earth, themselves, and each other. Experiences with plant medicine often have a profound impact: changing awareness of reality, self-location in the cosmos, and even understanding of concepts like math. It can also alter relationships to authority, shift life values, and inspire new purpose in the world. Often, there are experiences of profound love and deep relaxation, feelings many report encountering for the first time.

“Borrowing the Light”

One of my teachers, Thomas Hübl, refers to taking psychedelics as "borrowing the light," which means accessing states of expanded consciousness or insights temporarily through external means rather than through the slow development of one's intrinsic capacity. He suggests that while psychedelics can provide profound experiences and glimpses into higher states of awareness, the goal should be to develop the ability to reach these states naturally through practices like meditation, mindfulness, and inner healing work. His approach emphasizes sustainable personal growth and integration rather than dependence on external substances.

I land in more of a BOTH-AND camp. Deep practices, AND leaning into the medicine’s ability to guide you into holding more of your experiences and opening to more insights.

For the most part, those who engage in these practices experience positive shifts. An easefulness comes over them, things are taken less seriously, there is more laughter, looseness in their limbs, and the unquantifiable impact of abandoning the experience of being an anthropocentric, anxiety-ridden, modern person. Post journey, many instead begin to see themselves as part of something universal, great, and magnificent.

Guidance

Like anything, plant medicines can become an addiction, a hedonic treadmill that doesn’t lead to awakening. Some individuals struggle with self-modulation. Instead of integrating ceremonial experience into a sober and present life, it becomes their main focus. These individuals may develop a recognizable distant stare, indicative of spending too much time in liminal spaces without grounding. Mentors must then intervene to guide them back. Sometimes the medicine itself (or the person’s unconscious mind) does this. Out of love, respect and reverence, we always work with deep medicine carriers, and accept their support and guidance.

1

The Rigveda is one of the oldest texts in the world and is a foundational scripture of Hinduism. It is composed of hymns (Sanskrit: ṛc), which are dedicated to various deities. The Rigveda is divided into ten books, known as Mandalas. These Mandalas are collections of hymns and are arranged in a complex structure that mixes chronological and thematic elements. The Rigveda is structured into Mandalas (Books). There are ten Mandalas, numbered 1 through 10. The Mandalas vary in size, with the second to the seventh Mandalas being the oldest and considered the core part of the Rigveda. The first and tenth Mandalas are slightly later additions and contain a variety of hymns and philosophical discussions.Each Mandala is composed of hymns called Suktas (hymns) A Sukta consists of a number of verses (Riks). The eighth Mandala is one of the oldest parts of the Rigveda. It contains 103 Suktas (hymns), which are primarily dedicated to deities like Agni, Indra, Soma, and others. The hymns of this Mandala are attributed to various sages from the Angiras clan. Within Mandala 8, the 48th Sukta is dedicated to the deity Soma, a sacred drink and also a deity associated with the moon and immortality, and points to its strengthening and invigorating properties.