The Immortality Key is a bestselling book, which suggests an entheogenic role in the ancient Christian Eucharist, that originated with and was passed down from the cult of Dionysus and the Eleusinian mysteries of ancient Greece. In this article Chris Bennett, who has written about some of these same themes and areas of history offers his views on where the book wins and fails.

Warning, biases ahead….

To be clear, this is as much of a ‘response’ and ‘discussion’ about The Immortality Key as a ‘review.’ With that said, this article is in no way intended to dissuade the interested reader away from The Immortality Key, but rather an expansion, discussion and at times, dispute, of many of the ideas expressed in it. This article would be best understood, after enjoying a thorough reading of the pages of The Immortality Key. I am another researcher, who has been down some of these same rabbit holes, and I come with my own views and biases.

For those who choose to continue with this article, without having read The Immortality Key, watch this animated video synopsis of some of the main points in The Immortality Key so you at least get the basic drift of the conversation.

About The Immortality Key

Brian Muraresku’s The Immortality Key has taken the topic of entheogens and religion, particularly entheogens and Christianity, into Mainstream Culture, which is an incredible achievement in and unto itself. The author, a seeming new wunderkind for entheogenic research, and has stated that he has been working on this magnum opus for over a decade. As a Lawyer and Classicist, with a degree in Latin, Greek and Sanskrit, Muraresku does bring to the table a level of academic credibility. Reviews for the book have been extremely positive, and his personal adventure tale combined with a quest for the entheogenic grail—proof of an entheogenic sacrament–is as entertaining as any of Dan Brown’s best selling work.

There is much I agree on in The Immortality Key, such as the use of entheogens at the formative period of human culture; their influence on religions; their eventual disappearance; their later use by witches and secret societies in Europe which was faced with further suppression; and the relevance of the return of these substances in our own era. There is also much I disagree with.

When the book first came out, along with the interview on Joe Rogan, with Muraresku and Graham Hancock, which has received over 11millions views, numerous people on Social Media posted it on my wall or tagged me in stories about it, due to what they saw as similarities to my own work into entheogenic history. This has continued for some months now as the book becomes increasingly popular, and for this reason, I have felt the need to prepare a response to it.

In fact, many of the topics touched on in The Immortality Key are ones I myself have written about, so I do have some background in this area. Muraresku is familiar with this, having read through 3 of my four books, which he stated to me he enjoyed and was impressed by the scholarship. As well, Carl Ruck, a mentor of sorts to Muraresku, championed for his pioneering worth in entheogenic scholarship throughout The Immortality Key, reviewed my own book dealing with the use of entheogens in the Bible, in 2003, in the London England Sunday Times. Graham Hancock, who wrote the foreword for Muraresku’s book, is also familiar with my research in this area, recently publishing an article I wrote about the biblical era archeology out of Arad, Jerusalem, concerning the ritual use of cannabis and substantiating my long time theory about the role of cannabis as an entheogen amongst the ancient Hebrews. Not surprisingly with this in mind, there are some overlaps in The Immortality Key, although our conclusions in many of these areas are divergent, more than enough so as to dissuade any suggestion of plagiarism.

Brian has made clear to me, The Immortality Key is not an encyclopedia. It is intended as a general, journalistic intro to a very niche topic for a very broad readership. My own work is much more encyclopedic and for a very niche readership. So I also want to be clear, I do appreciate the creation of interest in this area and I do not wish to dissuade his readership. But at the same time, being correct is not a popularity contest, it rests on evidence and facts, and I do want to point out where I think this book goes astray and, as noted in the title, gets Lost on The Road to Eleusis, the title of a book paid homage to throughout The Immortality Key. The Road to Eleusis was authored by Muraresku’s mentor Ruck, along with fellow entheogen pioneers R Gordon Wasson, and Albert Hofmann, it purports an ergot preparation of some sort at the centre of the ancient Greek Eleusinian Mysteries.

Muraresku seems to trace this rite all the way back to Neanderthals and suggests a combined origin between the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries with the Vedic Soma through their common Indo-European ancestry. He further postulates the continuation of the Eleusinian rites and sacraments through the cult of Dionysus and then into Christianity, painting Jesus as a sort of Semitic form of the Dionysian God, who was in fact worshipped in the region where Jesus was from.

Muraresku builds a case on textual and archeological evidence. Textually, he brings in historical references from the likes of Dioscorides, Homer, ancient Greek and Gnostic texts and the Church Fathers. Archeologically, The Immortality Key brings three bits of hard evidence to the table to make this case: Evidence of a Beer infused with nightshades from Calvari d’Amposta in Tarragona, Spain, from 2340 BCE that was interpreted by the earlier researchers as “a hallucinogenic beer that was consumed during mortuary ceremonies”; evidence for the manufacturing of an ergot infused beer from 2nd century BCE at Mas Castellar des Pontos in Catalonia; and indications of a wine infused with cannabis, opium, henbane along with a wealth of other plant and animal ingredients from a seeming factory of preparation in 1st century CE Pompei, which is suggested as evidence for some sort of ritual wine. In this regard I applaud Muraresku’s efforts, as many books and articles on entheogenic history rely on things like deciphering the shape of mushrooms in ancient iconography, or novel new symbolic interpretations of ancient texts.

In this article, I will discuss evidence that was missed that actually helps to build Muraresku’s hypothesis about a lost sacrament of the ancient world; where our views overlap; where they differ; as well as pointing out some clear and obvious mistakes, which I feel took Muraresku down the wrong path and caused him to get lost on The Road to Eleusis.

Drug Infused Elixirs

I find the archeological finds presented in The Immortality Key particularly enriching as the subject of infused wines and beers is something I have been looking at for some time. As the Classics Professor Carl Ruck, has noted in his review of my 2001 book, Sex Drugs, Violence and the Bible, which also suggested infused wines in early Christian rituals:

Ancient people were fascinated by herbs and their healing powers and knew much more about them than we do; at least about mixing herbs to release their potency.

Ancient wines were always fortified, like the ‘strong wine’ of the Old Testament, with herbal additives: opium, datura, belladonna, mandrake and henbane. Common incenses, such as myrrh, ambergris and frankincense are psychotropic; the easy availability and long tradition of cannabis use would have seen it included in the mixtures. Modern medicine has looked into using cannabis as a pain reliever and in treating multiple sclerosis. It may well be that ancient people knew, or believed, that cannabis had healing power.

Much of their knowledge, passed down through an oral tradition, has been lost and to some extent it is the modern prejudice against drugs that has stopped us looking for it…”

“Was There a Whiff of Cannabis About Jesus?” The Sunday Times, Jan. 12, 2003

Varieties of psychoactive plants were used in such infusions. According to Dioscorides, and his commentator Matthiolus, one could “boil the root of mandrake in wine down to a third part, and preserve the decoction, of which they administer a cyathus (about a fluid ounce and a half), to produce sleep, and to allay severe pains of any part; and also before operations with the knife, or the application of the actual cautery, that the operation should not be felt.” Theophrastus and Dioscorides are thought to have been the first to directly mention the aphrodisiac and soporific properties of mandrake (Atropa mandragora). Dioscorides also informs us that one dram of the root of “manic” nightshade (Atropa belladonna), taken in wine, elicits “empty forms” and “images of not unpleasant kind”, but he adds that a double dosage can bring mental disorientation for three whole days. Muraresku of course notes Dioscorides in this respect, as well as Pliny’s “recipes for frankincense and myrrh wine, the perfumed resins used in the Catholic Mass to this day” (Muraresku, 2020), as well as Homer and other ancient authors. he also compares these recipes to the nightshade infused beer found long before Dioscorides own time found in Calvari d’Amposta in Tarragona, Spain.

However, having covered a lot of this same ground, as I was reading The Immortality Key, I was more blown away by what was not in there, than what was. A ball was dropped in relation to the references of Democritus to infused wines, in Muraresku’s discussion of other ancient sources such as Pliny and Descarte in this regard. Both are cited at length by Muraresku in regards to their references to aphrodisiacal and medicinal wine infusions, but Democritus’ well known references are much more direct in regards to psychoactive preparations.

The entheogen infusions of Democritus

Democritus identified a variety of infused wines that are generally believed to contain cannabis, under the names “thalassaegle,” “potammaugis” and “gelotophyllis” were recorded by Democritus (c.a. 460 b.c.). “Democritus’s famous recipe for a hemp wine is suitable for internal use: Macerate 1 teaspoon of myrrh… and a handful of hemp flowers in 1 litre of retsina or dry Greek white wine… strain before drinking.”(Ratsch, 2005) “The gelotophllis of Pliny… a plant drunk in wine among the Bactrians, which produced immoderate laughter, may very well be identical with hemp, which still grows wild in the country around the Caspian and Aral Seas” (Houtsma, et al., 1936/1993). Pliny (23-79 a.d.) quotes the following description from Democritus:

“The Thalassaegall he speaks of as being found on the banks of the river Indus, from which circumstance it is also known as potamaugis. Taken in drink it produces delirium, which presents to the fancy visions of a most extraordinary nature. The theangelis, he says, grows upon Mount Libanus in Syria, upon the chain of mountains called Dicte in Crete, and at Babylon and Susa in Persia. An infusion of it imparts powers of divination to the Magi. The geolotophyllis, is a plant found in Bactriana [i.e. BMAC], and on the banks of the Borysthenes. Taken internally with myrhh and wine all sorts of visionary forms present themselves, excite the most immoderate laughter.”

Interestingly, Bactria is a region that will be returned to for debatable archeological evidence for an infusion that contained cannabis when we discuss Soma. Muraresku does refer to Pliny, briefly in regards to infused wines as noted above, and stating “that the Pythia priestesses at Delphi inhaled the smoke of smouldering henbane seeds to produce their oracular visions”. I have my doubts about this reference to the Pythia burning henbane at delphi and Muraresku does not cite a source here. I have never seen this claim directly in the words of Pliny and I have looked around since seeing it in The Immortality Key, I have also asked Tom Hatsis another researcher in this area of history, and he has not seen this either. Under the heading HYOSCYAMOS, KNOWN ALSO AS THE APOLLINARIS OR ALTERCUM, there is no mention of this, and it seems that the suggestive name herba apollinaris, may have caused some to speculate here about use by the Pythia. However, Pliny does mention “the ancients were of opinion that the leaves act as a febrifuge, taken in wine.” Curiously, I do not recall seeing this reference to henbane infused wine in The Immortality Key, and one would think it would have been a reference of interest. One wonders if Pliny’s original reference here was actually even consulted?

Zosimos, and the Egyptian Darnel and Cannabis infused Beers and wines

Muraresku suggests the potential use of the psychoactive plant darnel in the kykeon, and this is the view of Ruck as well. In growing and harvesting the sacred barley, the “job of the priestess, Ruck contends, would have been to monitor closely the growth of the darnel and ergot so that neither got out of control” (Muraresku, 2020).

Here again, interesting evidence was missed as darnel has been identified in Egyptian beer recipes, alongside with cannabis and other plants, but here from the later time period of the 4th century CE, in an account attributed to the alchemist Zosimos. “…wines can be made in a multitude of ways, [as shown]through many accounts that authors have left to us, and nature, and art such things, that is, grown wines from the vineyard and medicinal, or by adding various spices like palm, cannabis seed, etc …”; “Certainly brewers of Egyptian beer [‘zythi’], which is more powerful [then our beers]are not lacking in the false and wicked arts, and might be better used for intoxication. This [concoction]includes: borage, cannabis seeds and leaves, helenium, ivy leaves, strychnine, and darnel.”* As Tom Hatsis has noted of this :

“Interestingly, he uses “lolium temulentum” for “darnel” (a known psychoactive), which specifically draws attention to the intoxicating powers of the plant (temelentum means “intoxication”)! He is also comparing the addition of things like cannabis, darnel, and strychnine to the magical arts!!! I mean, he calls them “false and wicked arts,” but that is Eexactlyhow writers commented on magical works. He is openly recognizing the use of cannabis and darnel in potions by magicians!” (Hatsis, 2016)

No Nepenthe?

Even more curious is the omission of the well known accounts of the Greek nepenthe in Homer. In regards to key Greek textual evidence for such preparations, Muraresku points to a famous passage from Homer, where the witch Circe turns Oddysseus’ men into pigs with a magic wand. Later Oddysseus, with the aid of Hermes, comes up with an antidote.

“She will mix thee a potion, and cast drugs into the food; but even so she shall not be able to bewitch thee, for the potent herb that I shall give thee will not suffer it. (H.10.290)

Muraresku makes much of this passage, referring to the writings of Calvert Watkins, he even ties it with Soma.

And while the Circe passage above seems like a silly, little children’s story about witches and pigs, Homer is in fact “describing a religious ritual”–“a liturgical act of Indo-European date, identical with the soma ritual of Vedic India”. (Muraresku, 2020)

Hmm, I missed where Soma turned men into pigs in what I read in the Vedas, so you will excuse me if I am doubtful of this stated connection. In the Greek rendering of the story, the term Pharmakos is used. This reference is a key point discussed at length in The Immortality Key, and one that was also referred to in The Road to Eleusis. It’s interesting, but clearly, there are no assortments of drugs that will turn men into pigs, so purely mythological, and not that great of evidence for the use of infused wines for entheogenic purposes in the ancient world. However, there is a much better reference in Homer to an infused wines, particularly ones for treating grief, which is a point Muraresku makes in regards to the potential Christian use of such preparations, as well as among other cultures, particularly around funerary rituals.

In this regard, I found it very odd, that The Immortality Key did not mention another preparation found in Homer, and this being likely the most analyzed, discussed and hypothesized example of an infused wine in the ancient world, the ‘nepenthe’, which is certainly a better example of an infusion than the magic hog potion – The Odyssey of Homer (9th-8th century BC) describes the Nepenthes which came to the Greeks from Egyptian Thebes:

Then Helen, daughter of Zeus… cast a drug into the wine whereof they drank, a drug to lull all pain and anger, and bring forgetfullness of every sorrow. Whoso should drink a draught thereof, when it is mingled in the bowl, on that day he would let no tear fall down his cheeks, not though his mother and his father died, not though men slew his brother or dear son with the sword before his face, and his own eyes beheld it. Medicines of such virtue and so helpful had the daughter of Zeus, which Polydamna, the wife of Thon, had given her, a woman of Egypt, where earth the grain-giver yields herbs in greatest plenty, many that are healing in the cup, and many baneful. There each man is a leech skilled beyond all human kind…

The historian Diodorus Siculus, who lived in the 1st century B.C., noted that still in his time, more than 7 centuries after the composition of Homer’s Iliad, “people say that the Egyptian women make use of the powder (of this plant, scil. the nepenthes) and they say from ancient times only those women who lived in the ‘Town-of-Zeus’ [i.e. Thebes, which was also known as Diospolis] had found medicines which cure wrath and grief” (1, 97, 1-9; Eus. PE 10, 8, 9-12; cf. also Ps.Iustinus, Cohort. ad gent. 26e). This clearly identifies this preparation as existing as a real commodity, outside the realm of myth, as is the case with Circe’s hog potion.

As I have noted with details in ‘Nepenthe, A Cannabis Infused Wine for Grief?’, as the Greeks of those times were already well familiar with the use of Opium, the wider consensus is that Nepenthe was a cannabis preparation. A point of concurrence with Muraresku’s mentor Ruck.

“It is generally assumed that the drug, which Helen is supposed to have learned in Egypt, was opium, but the effects as described in the poem are much more like Cannabis, which was also widely employed in Egypt and throughout the Near East” (Ruck, et al., 2007).

Now as Muraresku tries to tie in the pig potion from Homer, with soma, it is worth noting here that Professor Patrick McGovern, who is cited throughout The Immortality Key, for his expertise, has suggested that soma, was a cannabis and ephedra infused wine, an interesting point that never made it into Muraresku’s book, likely, as it did not fit with the ergot based Road to Eleusis connection that he was hoping to establish.

As The Immortality Key tries to build a case for a psychoactive infused wine for grief, used in Christian funerary rites, in a number of chapters, its curious that he missed this clearer and more direct reference to Nepenthe, an infused wine, used for grief at a funeral, in Homer, and went with the more mythical swine potion. However, it should be noted, this other material does not weaken the case that Muraresku is trying to build, it is key evidence that further makes the case in his favour of psychoactive wine infusions.

As Muraresku notes of such infusions specifically “Wines reputation as a complex elixir travelled all the way from the Greek Dark Ages to the fall of the Roman Empire because that’s what it was —a versatile substance ranging from what Scodel calls a ‘drug against grief,’ to a perilous, sometimes fatal ‘medicine,’ to a tool for invoking wine gods both old and new ”. “Fatal”, in this regard, is a reference to the potential results of improperly mixing ingredients, like henbane, mandrake and some of the other ingredients referred to in ancient recipes.

“Wine gods old and new” brings us to the subject of Dionysus, a Greek god that Muraresku sees as the basis for Jesus’ own relationship with wine, as well as part of a lineage that goes back through Eleusis to the origins of Soma as well. Hypothesized connections between Dionysus and the Soma Cult were also discussed in my 2010 book Cannabis and the Soma Solution, along with claimed connections of a Dionysian influence on Christianity, based on the works of earlier researchers, not cited by Muraresku.

Dionysus

The connection between Soma, Dionysus and the Christian mysteries are by no means new or novel. 19th century ancient world scholar François Lenormant, in The Beginnings of History According to the Bible and the Traditions of Oriental Peoples: From the Creation of Man to the Deluge referred to “the god Soma or Haoma, prototype of the Greek Dionysus” (Lenormant, et al., 1881). A connection that has been noted by other researchers, such as J. Wohlberg in the article Haoma-Soma in the world of ancient Greece and Rendel Harris’ Eucharistic Origins (1927) :

….The great Aryan sacrament is older than the discovery of the vine. The first Bacchae in Greek lands were ivy-chewers or ivy-drinkers, in association with a fermented honey-drink, which we also find employed in the consecration of the Soma. For Graeco-Roman peoples, the Soma-plant is replaced by the vine… We do not, however, doubt that for the Indo-Germanic peoples, the original medicine which makes man immortal is the juice of the Soma-plant.

…. Since we find the ivy divinised in Greece as Bacchos-Dionysos (for Dionysos was an ivy-god before he was a vine-god), we may infer that the Soma of the Vedas, which is also the Haoma of the Zend-Avesta, is the same thing as the Nectar of the Greek gods. Nectar, also, is a drink which confers and sustains immortal life. We shall probably be safe in our philology, if we explain the first syllable of nec-tar as meaning death (cf. the Greek… nekus) and the second syllable as connected with the Greek… teiro, to wear away, to destroy; the Nectar or Soma is the death-destroyer; its religious use is, then, inevitable….The main point to be remembered is that, for all our race, the drink means immortality; it makes us like the blessed gods. The discovery of this intoxicant is, therefore, an epoch. (Harris, 1927)

Seeing a diffusion of the Aryan Soma cult coming into Christianity slightly altered through the Greek Dionysus, Harris explained:

The restoration of the original form shows us clearly… that the doctrine of immortality was involved in the Eucharist from the start, for immortality is the characteristic accompaniment of the draught of the Soma… We can see now why, in the closing eucharistic prayer in the Teaching of the Apostles we have the expressions of thanksgiving for ‘the knowledge and faith and immortality which thou hast made known to us through Jesus thy Servant . . . to us thou hast given spiritual food and drink and eternal life through thy Servant.”

…. It will, perhaps, be said that there is no need to send Jesus to India in search of the Soma draught… in the Syrian Church the Eucharist was known as the ‘Sama’ or medicine… of life; and… Ignatius of Antioch… described [the Eucharist]in Greek language as medicine of immortality. The coincidence in the terms is so striking, that it is natural to suggest that there is something primitive about it. …. The word Sama is not genuine Semitic ; it has been borrowed from some other language…It is very common in Syriac and Aramaic and might easily have been used by our Lord. It would not, however, call up the Greek word for ‘body’ [soma]quite as readily as the Indian word would do.

…. Jesus was speaking of the Indian, Avestan, Indo-Germanic Soma, when His disciples thought He was speaking of His body. That single conjecture explains the mystery and shows us how the parallel with the pagan Mysteries was invited from the start. It is not necessary to assume, though it seems probable, that Jesus had travelled Eastward at some time in His early life. The conjecture may find support without the added speculation. Let us leave that for further enquiry. (Harris, 1927)

It should be noted that in regards to the Ignatius reference, the identification of “the medicine of immortality “is here with the bread, not the wine of the sacrament. “At these meetings, you should heed the bishop and presbytery attentively, and break one loaf, which is the medicine of immortality and the antidote which wards off death but yields continuous life in union with Jesus Christ….” Ignatius also states “Thus no devil’s weed will be found among you” in the same text. Conceivably, if we are talking about entheogenic sacraments in the early Christian period, this could be interpreted as a transition point to the modern placebos, as it’s in a time period where what became the Catholic Church seem to be splitting from the more experiential Gnostic sects that would later be suppressed.

Now to be clear, Muraresku’s take on this does differ in some accounts from that of Harris and Wohlberg. Muraresku sees a diffusion with the Greek Eleusian Mysteries, before making its way into the Dionysiac version of the rite, and he makes much of a potential common origin for the Eleusian and Vedic rites, on the scantest of evidence in a few scant paragraphs.

However, as Muraresku has told me in 2017 he has read and enjoyed Cannabis and the Soma Solution, I found his account about first hearing of Ignatius of Antioch reference to the sacrament as a ‘medicine of immortality’ an interesting coincidence, as this is distinctly referred to in the earlier work of Harris, which was cited in my book, and Harris work in this area was not cited. I would have assumed he would look at the portions of my book detailing such connections while researching his.

If ever you find yourself in a game to connect the ancient dots, you want Father Francis on your team. Sensing where I’m headed… he gets another mischievous twinkle in his eye. “You know . . . . we call the Eucharist the pharmakon athanasias,” he beams, using the Ancient Greek phrase for the “Drug of Immortality.” The priest had first mentioned it during my visit to Italy last May. But before that, I had honestly never heard the expression. Until I found the original Greek source, I thought the brainy Catholic was just pulling my leg. (Muraresku, 2020)

If I was looking at entheogenic use in something like Dionysus or tying it into Christian use, I would be checking the indexes of the books on my shelf, and in his case, my books were there, with these particular citations. When I asked Brian if he read it in a conversation in 2017, he stated “I love Cannabis and the Soma Solution“. Brian also told me he was reading Liber 420, and he ordered my book, Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible from me directly, I also sent him a considerable amount of other articles of interest and documentaries. Unfortunately, none of this was seen as worthy of use to him, despite the very similar ground covered, as, like Harris, Wohlberg and others who have covered this same territory, I was never cited. Generally in my own work, as with many reputable researchers, I tend to see who has covered the territory prior to myself and properly accredit them. There is a clear lack of that accreditation and citation in The Immortality Key, in my opinion, and I have heard other authors that I know, express that a little too much liberty was taken from their own work in this regard as well.

As well, I think Muraresku missed much regarding the sorts of infusions that may have been used by the Dionysian cults, foremost amongst these, cannabis, a combination that was in this regard, even suggested by Muraresku’s mentor Prof. Carl Ruck, “Since the wine of Dionysus is a mediation between the god’s wild herbal ancestors and the civilized phenomenon of his cultivated and manufactured manifestation in the product fermented from the juice of the grape, it is most probable that this was the way in which the Greeks incorporated hemp into their pharmacopoeia” (Ruck, 2007). Indeed, Ruck, a classicist is in good company here, as both the history of regions Professor Mircea Eliade and the classicist Erwin Rohde have suggested cannabis use in the background of the Dionysian religion. I have detailed my own research into the evidence for drug infused wine in the cult of the Bacchae in another article ‘The Cannabis infused Wine of Dionysus?’

Dionysus in the Holy Land

Muraresku makes much of an ancient Israelite site known for the worship of Dionysus, even said to be the God’s birthplace, and named after his Scythian followers, Scythopolis, now the site of the modern city, Beit She’an. “the ancient city of Scythopolis was the legendary birthplace of Dionysus himself. For that reason it was also called Nysa…”. However, the mythology has the Greek god born on Mount Pramnos on Ikaria, and later raised in a region named Nysa. Scythopolis in Israel, was later renamed Nysa after the mythical area Dionysus was raised as a child, the god was not born there. This designation of Scythopolis as Nysa was was a later tribute after the area had been conquered by the Seleucids. It was not until the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (r. 175-164) that Scythopolis was renamed Nysa.

In Greek mythology, the mountainous district of Nysa (Greek: Νῦσα) was variously identified as Ethiopia, Libya, Tribalia, Arabia, and notably for our use India, by Greek mythographers. Nysa was the traditional place where the rain nymphs, the Hyades, raised the infant god Dionysus, the “Zeus of Nysa”. Nysa was said to have been named originally after Dionysus childhood nanny. Significantly, as we shall see, centuries before Scythopolis was renamed, Alexander the Great thought he had rediscovered Nysa in India, where it was believed Dionysus was worshipped under the name Shiva.

In this regard, The Immortality Key misses so much in regards to Scythians, Jews and Dionysus’ connection to Shiva. As I discuss in my article on Dionysus, some Scythian groups did worship Dionysus and relics for the God have been identified in Scythian tombs and sites.

As well from archeological evidence we know that Scythians both burned cannabis in funerary rites as well as drank infusions of it. The use of cannabis incense in funerary rites was not limited to the Scythians and has been identified with other Indo-European groups, such as a site in Romania dating more than 5,000 years, and at Indo European Gushi sites in China dating back to 700 BCE. As much of the hypothesis by Muraresku is connected with funerary rites and entheogens, as well as extended discussions on the rites of Indo-European culture, one would have thought this particular, well documented association would have been examined. I can not understand how it was missed.

Besides evidence identifying burnt cannabis, a bone cup, gold goblets and a leather flask containing residues of cannabis that have been recovered from various Scythian sites. Prof. Patrick McGovern, who, as noted, is referred to frequently in The Immortality Key has stated: “At Pazyryk, [A Scythian site] the preferred beverage thus appears to have combined a marijuana high with an alcoholic buzz” (McGovern, 2009).

As well, as I have noted in my article on Dionysus, there were branches of the Scythians who worshipped Dionysus. Relics dedicated to the god have been found at Scythian sites, such as a gold rhyton with the head of Dionysus on its tip. Combined with the evidence for cannabis in ancient Israel, which is thought to have been likely derived from Scythian influences, one would have thought such points would have been raised in regards to Scythopolis, as the ancient Israeli site garners considerable attention in The Immortality Key.

In relation to the recent find of cannabis resins burnt in an 8th century BCE temple in Arad, Jerusalem, it is interesting to note that Prof Carl Ruck has suggested this came from a Scythian influence into Israel. There may have been other ways the ancient Jews utilized psychoactive substances.

The potential role of cannabis and other psychoactive substances in ancient Jewish and Christian culture is something I had been suggesting for over a quarter century before the emergence of the archeology out of Arad. As myself and others have noted, there are indications of infused wines, and stronger preparations such as the Biblical “strong drink” (Shekar) throughout the Bible: “An inebriating Potion described in the Old Testament, but distinct from Wine; probably a Soporific or visionary vinous infusion, analogous to ancient Greek Wines, of one or many Psychoactive plants”(Ott 1995).

Jewish wine infusions

In The A to Z of Prophets in Islam and Judaism, Scott B. Noegel, Brannon M. Wheeler “The use of drugs, especially alcohol… as a means of inducing or enhancing the prophetic experience is attested periodically throughout the ancient Near East, and is probably related to the mantic’s role as a herbalist and medical practitioner” (Noegel & Wheeler, 2010)

Evidence for opium use has been found throughout the ancient Near East, especially on Cyprus, thought its connection to Cypriot cults has been questioned. The practice of inhaling intoxicating substances like cannabis and incense also appear… Texts from Mari demonstrate that at least some prophets partook in excessive wine drinking as a means of accessing the divine. Ugartic tablets also detail the events of the marzeah feast, a repast in which… dead kings were summoned to wine and dine with the living… (Noegel & Wheeler, 2010)

Muraresku does mention the marzeah, but I don’t think he adequately addressed how much these practices had infiltrated Jewish culture. Like Amos’ condemnation of those who quaffed such mixtures in the House of the gods, Isaiah condemned those who seek oracles through the dead through inebriation (Isaiah 28:7-22). These references show, even though in a negative light, that such cultic practices were both known and taking place in the region. And again, as there is a focus on funerary rituals and infused wines in The Immortality Key, it is unfortunate that this compelling evidence was not included. In regards to the Biblical tradition, it has even been suggested by scholars, that the Biblical Prophet Ezra, used Persian infused wine, or haoma as a means of entheogenic induction (Brown, 1890; Dobroruka, 2002). As Entheobotanist Jonathan Ott has noted:

… Like the ancient Greeks, the ancient Israelites did not know distillation technology, but possessed an inebriant other than wine, which apparently was more potent. Was the Biblical shekar, ‘strong drink,’ not an inebriating potion analogous to the ancient Greek wines, some of which were entheogenic potions? Down through history there are innumerable instances of the addition of psychoactive plants to wines and other alcoholic beverages. (Ott, 1993)

In A Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature. Kitto noted: “The palm wine of the East… is made intoxicating… by an admixture of stupefying ingredients, of which there was an abundance… Such a practice seems to have existed amongst the ancient Jews…” (Kitto, 1846). Talmudic references indicate this use as well: “The one on his way to execution was given a piece of incense in a cup of wine, to help him fall asleep” (Sanh. 43a). Such preparations were used by the ancient Jews, for ritual intoxication, and for easing pain. A Reverend E. A Lawrence, in an essay on ‘The wine of the Bible’ in a 19th century edition of The Princeton Review,noted that:

It appears to have been an ancient custom to give medicated or drugged wine to criminals condemned to death, to blunt their senses, and so lessen the pains of execution. To this custom there is supposed to be an allusion, Prov. xxxi. 6, ‘Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish,’ …To the same custom some suppose there is a reference in Amos 2:8, where the ‘ wine of the condemned’ is spoken of… The wicked here described, in addition to other evil practices, imposed unjust fines upon the innocent, and spent the money thus unjustly obtained upon wine, which they “quaffed in the house of their gods”…Mixed wine is often spoken of in Scripture. This was of different kinds… sometimes, by lovers of strong drink, with spices of various kinds, to give it a richer flavour and greater potency (ls. v. 22; Ps. lxxv. 8). The ‘ royal wine,’ literally wine of the kingdom… Esther i. 7), denotes most probably the best wine, such as the king of Persia himself was accustomed to drink. (Lawrence, 1871)

This connection was not limited to 19th century fancy either, as Kenneth Walker noted in The Story of Medicine the “drug, hashish… is of venerable age, and when Amos wrote (around 700 B.C.) on the subject of the ‘wine of the condemned’, he was probably referring to it” (Walker, 1955).

Thus, this infused wine, not only had pain numbing qualities but was also “quaffed in the house of their gods” giving clear indication it was sought after for entheogenic effects as well.

That it is compared to the wines of the King of Persia, also brings us to the cannabis infused wines of the Zoroastrian period, such as that taken by Arda Viraf, and Vistaspa. These are known references to cannabis infused wines, used for travelling the “path of the dead”. Considering the close proximity and relationship between the Persians and the Jews, this should have again been examined in relation to the suggestions put forth in The Immortality Key. Instead, this indigenous Israelite history and connection to such infusions are ignored in order to push weaker ties with the Greek mysteries of Eleusis.

As Arthur George noted in his article ‘The Mythology of Wine VII: The Wine Miracles of Dionysus and Jesus Compared‘: “But surely Dionysus does not provide the only backdrop to the miracle at Cana. Far from it. The story has a multivalent background, and the Jewish and emerging Christian traditions involving wine need to be recognized as well” (George, 2020).

Dionysus and Yahweh

Likewise in combination with this, more attention should have been drawn to the fact that a number of ancient sources recorded the widespread belief of their time, that the god worshipped by the Jewish people, Yahweh, was identifiable as Dionysus. Notably, Tacitus, Lydus, Cornelius Labeo, and Plutarch all either made this association or discussed it as an extant belief. The Jewish Encyclopedia makes it clear, that at times, and likely under force for many of the Jews did in fact worship Dionysus, particularly during the time of the Maccabees, as well as explaining the connection between Nysa and Scythopolis.

The general statement in I Maccabees (i. 51, 54, 55) that Antiochus Epiphanes forced the Jews to sacrifice in the Greek fashion, is amplified in II Maccabees (vi. 7; compare III Macc. ii. 29) into the statement that the Jews were forced to take part in the festivals of Dionysus and to deck themselves with ivy (κίσσος); hence Hippolytus (“De Antichristo,” pp. 33-35, § 49), a Church father of the second century, regards Antiochus Epiphanes as the prototype of Antichrist… the Dionysia were celebrated in every country that had come under the influence of Greek culture. Antiochus XI. even bore the by-name “Dionysus” (Josephus, “Ant.” xiii. 15, § 1; “B. J.” i. 4, § 7); and Nicanor, the general of Demetrius, threatened to consecrate a Temple at Jerusalem to Dionysus unless Judas Maccabeus was delivered to him (II Macc. xiv. 33).

According to Plutarch.

A myth of Dionysus is connected with the Palestinian city of Scythopolis. Pliny (“Historia Naturalis,” v. 18, § 74) and Solinus (ed. Mommsen, ch. 36) derive the name of this city from the Scythians, who were settled on that spot by Dionysus in order to protect the tomb of his nurse who was buried there. The Greeks and the Romans were firmly convinced that the Jews had a cult of Dionysus, basing this opinion on some external point of similarity. Plutarch thinks that the name of the Jewish Sabbath is derived from σάβος, the cry of the ecstatic Bacchantes. More important still is his further statement that the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, as celebrated in the Temple at Jerusalem, was really a form of Dionysus worship.

In ‘The Jews and their God of Wine‘, Jonathan Kirkpatrick explains:

In the period between the two revolts of the Jews of Palestine against Roman rule some non-Jews sought to identify the God of the Jews with their own god of wine, Dionysus or Liber. The actual evidence suggests three things. The cult of the Temple at Jerusalem was seen by outsiders to be characterised by an association with, and the use of, wine, an impression Jews did nothing to counteract. Second, outsiders acted on this impression, both as part of the cognitive step of identifying the God of the Jews with Dionysus, and, possibly, making gifts to the Temple, while it stood, of wine-related dedications. Third, this was a characterisation Jews were willing to embrace themselves, even at times of revolt. (Kirkpatrick, 2013)

As well, as discussed in my article on Dionysus, in relation to the Jews, Dionysus and infused wines, I show that coins were minted in ancient Israel that have been interpreted as indicating the combined worship of Dionysus and Yahweh. That such techniques of ecstasy and worship were extant in the Judaic world to some extent seems like a more likely avenue of infusion into ‘Paleo-Christianity’ as Muraresku refers to the early years of the Christian cult than the more direct link to the cult of Dionysus and Christianity that The Immortality Key suggests.

Indra, Soma and Dionysus

That the connections between, India, Indra, Shiva and Dionysus were missed was another major ball drop.

Numerous ancient sources commented on Dionysus’ own travels to India, and in the 4th century BCE when Alexander the Great triumphantly marched into India and witnessed the pressing of grapes, he believed he had rediscovered the childhood home of Dionysus, Nysa.

As noted on the historical website Livius.org, the identification of Nysa with India, played a significant role at the time of Alexander:

In 327/326, Alexander invaded the Indus valley, where he discovered in Gandara a town called Nysa that was dedicated to the god Dionysus. (Probably, this was the Indian god Shiva. The mountain Meru mentioned below was the center of the Indian universe.) The only description of the temple is to be found in the Life of Apollonius of Tyana by the Greek author Philostratus (more). The story of the discovery is told by the Greek author Arrian of Nicomedia, whose Anabasis (section 5.1.1-2.2) was translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt.

The myth of Nysa

[5.1.1] In the country on Alexander’s route between the river Cophen and the Indus lay the city of Nysa, supposed to have been founded by Dionysus, at the time of his conquest of the Indians.

[5.1.2] Nobody knows, however, who this Dionysus was, nor the date of his invasion of India, nor where he started from, and I myself should hardly care to say if this Theban deity marched with his army against the Indians from Thebes or from Tmolus in Lydia, or how it was that after passing; through the territories of so many warlike peoples unknown to the Greeks of that date, he fought and conquered only the Indians….

[5.1.3] The people of Nysa, upon Alexander’s approach, sent their chief, Acuphis, to him accompanied by thirty of their most distinguished men with instructions to ask him to leave their city to its god.

[5.1.4] The story is that when they entered Alexander’s tent, they found him sitting there dusty and travel-stained, still wearing his equipment, his helmet on his head and a spear in his hand. The sight of him sitting thus surprised them so much that they prostrated themselves upon the ground and for a long time spoke never a word. At last, however, Alexander bade them get up and not be alarmed; whereupon Acuphis addressed him in the following words.

[5.1.5] “Sire, it is the request of the people of Nysa that you show your reverence far Dionysus by leaving them free and independent. For when Dionysus, after his conquest of the Indians, was on his way homeward towards the Greek sea, he founded this city as a memorial of his long journey and his victory, leaving to inhabit it those of his men who were no longer fit for service – who were also his Priests. He did but as you have done; for you too founded Alexandria in the Caucasus and Alexandria in Egypt and many other cities as well, and will found yet more hereafter, in that you will have surpassed the achievements of Dionysus.

[5.1.6] Dionysus named this city Nysa and this land Nysaea in memory of his nurse, who bore that name; and to the mountain near the city he gave the name Meru – or the Thigh – because legend has it that he grew in the thigh of Zeus. Ever since that time Nysa has been free; we who live in it have made our own laws – and obeyed them, as good men should. If you wish for a proof that Dionysus was our founder, here it is: this is the only place in India where ivy grows.”

[5.2.1] Alexander found what Acuphis said highly agreeable; he would have liked very much to believe the old tale about Dionysus’ journey and his founding of Nysa, for then he would have had the satisfaction of knowing that he had already penetrated as far as Dionysus did, and would presently advance yet further; he felt moreover that his Macedonian troops would consent to share his hardships a little longer, if they knew they were in competition with Dionysus. Accordingly he granted to the people of Nysa the continuance of their freedom and autonomy.

As the German-American philologist, comparative mythologist and Indologist, Michael Witzel, Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University and the editor of the Harvard Oriental Series has noted:

When Alexander came across the vines in the eastern Hindu Kush, he immediately concluded that this area must have been that of Dionysus. Indeed, the inhabitants of Nuristan and Kashmir (both before Islam) and of the modern pagan Kalash Land (north-western Pakistan) still grow vines and press grapes there each fall. The new wine is still dedicated to Indra” (Witzel, 2012)

Indra, being the God of Soma, and King of the Gods, (a figure that in many ways, Shiva would later supplant). As Dr Richard Stoneman, a professor of classics and ancient history describes the Greek connection in The Greek Experience of India: From Alexander to the Indo-Greeks:

“It is sometimes argued that this Dionysus is a form of Indra as first king, culture-hero of the Aryans, warrior-leader and bringer of agriculture. Martha Carter produces some compelling evidence that Alexander’s expedition may have wandered into the Indrakun festival in the Kafir lands, in November or January, which involved a dancer dressed as a horned goat, behaving lewdly, while wine was pressed and drunk.” (Stoneman, 2019)

The connection between Soma, Dionysus and the Christian mysteries are by no means new or novel. The 19th century ancient world scholar François Lenormant, in The Beginnings of History According to the Bible and the Traditions of Oriental Peoples: From the Creation of Man to the Delugereferred to “the god Soma or Haoma, prototype of the Greek Dionysus” (Lenormant, et al., 1881). That wine was being consumed by worshippers of the God generally associated with Soma, Indra adds some credence to Professor McGovern’s theory that soma was a cannabis infused wine, a view, that unlike many of McGovern’s other suggestions on ancient infusions, that did not make it into The Immortality Key.

Remnants and even alleged descendants of Alexander the Great’s army may still survive in the region. and they are known for producing a hashish product that is considered by some, the best hashish in the world. Nestled in the peaks of the Himalayas, is the small town of, Malana, which is surrounded by steep cliffs and snow-capped mountains. Stories and legends fuelled by locals’ noticeably different physical features and their language, which are unlike that of any other local tribe, recount how Alexander the Great’s army took shelter in this isolated village in 326BC after they were wounded in a battle. There are surviving artifacts from the period, such as a greek sword kept in a local temple, but genetic tests have not been done to confirm the ancestral connection

However, rather than Indra, the relationship between Dionysus with another still widely worshipped Indian god, Shiva, seems to have been more widely accepted and suggested in both the ancient world and the new. As well in India, a focus of Indra worship and its use of soma seems to have been supplanted by Shiva worship and the use of cannabis as bhang, a situation that is indicated in the myth Samudra Manthan or The Churning of the Ocean of Milk.

There may be another plausible explanation for this myth than supplantation. Dr Koenraad Elst has convincingly suggested that the Shiva of Puranic Hinduism is in fact the continuation of the Vedic Indra. Indra has a variety of epithets and attributes which later seem to have been inherited by Shiva. But, in relation to his study, it is important to note that Shiva and Indra are both associated with intoxication, Indra is praised as having a tremendous appetite for the Soma juice, Shiva drinks copiously of bhang, he is the Lord of Bhang. As well one of the early Indian names for cannabis was Indrasana, Sana being a Sanskrit word for cannabis.

…Shiva, “the auspicious one”, is an epithet of not only Rudra but of Vedic gods in general. Indra himself is called shiva several times (Rg-Veda 2:20:3, 6:45:17, 8:93:3). Shiva is by no means a non-Vedic god, and Indra never really disappeared from popular Hinduism but lives on under another name. (Elst, 1999)

Shiva/Dionysus

Regardless of the debate about the connections and overlap between Indra and Shiva, those between Dionysus and Shiva seem somewhat clearer. As Robert Cowan noted in The Indo-German Identification: Reconciling South Asian Origins and European Destinies (2010), through this designation of Nysa with India, the deities Shiva and Dionysus became conflated:

Roman writers would associate the Greek god Dionysus with the Hindu Siva [Shiva]…. Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and mystical ecstasy was purported to have journeyed to India, subdued the Aryan and Dravidian peoples, absorbed their philosophies, and returned to Europe with their chief ideas. Euripides describes Dionysus in Bacchae (406 B.C.) as a provider of knowledge and the conqueror of Arabia, Persia and Bactria.

….Polyaenus goes so far as to say that Dionysus got the Indians drunk before attacking them and used baccanatic orgies as part of his military strategy for subjugating all of the Asian continent….

The observation that such ancient writers did identify Dionysus with Siva has won the almost unanimous approval of scholars… because of the many similarities between the cult of Dionysus and that of Shaivite devotees… both are said to cure the sick and to have provided the Indians with weapons; both are associated with plowing, with figs and vineyards, with mountains, and with dancing; and both are depicted as having long, bushy hair and carrying a spear or trident. (Cowan, 2010)

I more fully explore and illustrate the connections between Dionysus and Shiva in ‘The Cannabis infused Wine of Dionysus?‘ However, it is important to also note that Shiva, like Dionysus, is also a god of intoxication, with datura, betel, henbane, wine and particularly cannabis, all taken in devotion to him.

In reference to this association, Prof. Carl Ruck has noted “Dionysus … was also said to have returned triumphantly from travels to India, where he would inevitably have been assimilated with the god Shiva, with whom he shares many iconographic similarities, to the extent that they may have been originally the same deity, and both involved with the hemp sacrament (Ruck, et al., 2007).

“Since the wine of Dionysus is a mediation between the god’s wild herbal ancestors and the civilized phenomenon of his cultivated and manufactured manifestation in the product fermented from the juice of the grape, it is most probable that this was the way in which the Greeks incorporated hemp into their pharmacopoeia” (Ruck, 2007).

As Shiva’s cult is not only known for their use of cannabis, but also at times, wine and other potent narcotics such as henbane and datura, it is not surprising that many have suggested such ingredients in the Dionysian infusions as well. Like Dionysus, Shiva is a god of intoxication, some myths depict the God perpetually stoned in meditation. Moreover, Shiva’s sacramental connection to cannabis, has survived into the modern age.

As I have noted in The Cannabis infused Wine of Dionysus? there are some really great books that have been written on this connection, such as Alain Danielou’s Gods of Love and Ecstasy: The Traditions of Shiva and Dionysus and as noted even Muraresku’s own mentor has directly commented on the connection between the two Gods and cannabis. Why would this be excluded? I suppose as it’s not a stopover on The Road to Eleusis?

Dionysus and Thrace

Adding to this list is the lack of mention of the Thracian connections to Dionysus and the history behind his worship there, where he was known as Zagreus. Although there are variations of the myth, most accounts say Dionysus was born in Thrace, traveled abroad, and arrived in Greece as a foreigner. As I noted in more detail in my article on Dionysus, a variety of well known scholars have suggested cannabis use in the background of the Thracian cult going back more than a century. Professor Mircea Eliade, a respected source on the history of religions, referred to elements of shamanism in the Thracian cult of Dionysus and suggested their use of cannabis use (Eliade, 1982). In the 1925 English translation, of the German work, Psyche, Seelencult und Unsterblichkeitsglaube der Griechen (1890–1894); Psyche: The Cult of Souls and the Belief in Immortality Among the Greeks, in a chapter on ‘The Thracian Worship of Dionysus’ Erwin Rohde, points to their likely use of cannabis. (Rohde was one of the great German classical scholars of the 19th century). Clear ancient references to Thracian use of cannabis, as noted by Carl Ruck, can be found in Sophocles (496-406), who used “the word Cannabis, apparently to add ethnic detail for his Thamyras tragedy, which tells the tale of the Thracian shaman-singer who contested the Muses …” (Ruck, et al. 2007). This was also noted by Professor Jan N. Bremmer, a Dutch academic and historian, who served as a professor of Religious Studies and Theology at the University of Groningen, specializing in the history of ancient religion, especially ancient Greek religion and early Christianity.

Historical authors also indicated this. Pomponius Mela, the Latin historian of the first century AD, described a Thracian feast. “They throw in the fires around them, seeds, the smell of which causes drunken amusement,” wrote the Latin author. The third century Roman geographer, Solinus, a third-century Roman geographer, referred to a similar custom. “During lunch, the spouses surround the herd, throw seeds out of the weeds they have in the fire, and feel a drunken joy after being hit by their smell with numbness.”

Archeological evidence from within the area which Thrace occupied, confirms cannabis was used in the region in funerary rituals as far back as 5,000 years ago, through a find of skeletal remains and burnt cannabis seeds recovered at a burial mound at modern day Gurbăneşti, Romania. (Rosetti, 1959). Further Archeological evidence in the region documents its use as late as the 2nd to 3rd BCE at Thracian sites as well.

This omission of Thrace is particularly peculiar when we consider that Carl Ruck, a main character in The Immortality Key, even co-authored a book detailing the relevance of this connection, Dionysus in Thrace: Ancient Entheogenic Themes in the Mythology and Archeology of Northern Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey (2017). My guess is that such historical omissions were again due to the continual attempts to tie things back with the kykeon of Eleusis.

Ironically, as he has written about this, I think Ruck may have something to do with this omission. Nothing intentional, but rather in the way Muraresku has set out to pay homage to Ruck, and particularly his coauthored book The Road to Eleusis, which first made the suggestion that ergot was the sacrament ‘Kykeon’ or as Muaresku presents it ‘kukeon’. This is where I think Muraresku loses track of things, by trying to continually make this connection between the Mysteries of Eleusis and an ergot based drink as hypothesized by Ruck, Dr Albert Hoffman the father of LSD, and R Gordon Wasson, the father of entheogenic mycology.

Lost on the Road to Eleusis?

I know Ruck, he reviewed my own book detailing the role of drugs in the Bible, which made some similar suggestions about wine infusions in the Christian period as those raised in The Immortality Key, in the London England Sunday Times. I have interviewed Ruck a number of times and he has appeared in youtube documentaries I have made, on Old Testament references to cannabis, Mithraism, and ancient Greece. I can only applaud Muraresku’s efforts to place this pioneering scholar in the light he deserves, after so many years of ridicule and academic neglect for his ideas about the role of psychoactive drugs in the ancient world and for helping to coin the term ‘entheogen’ to describe their use in a religious context. In fact, many years ago when I was working on a museum collection, Ruck gave me ergot prepared on rye by Albert Hoffman in a sample jar, for the writing of the Road to Eleusis. Hoffman stated that the entheogenic alkaloids can be separated from the toxic elements without much effort As I recall, Ruck told me he got little effect from what had been prepared.

I have little doubt that ergot could have been found in ancient wines and beers, as it was an issue for the ancient and medieval world, occurring on commonly used wheat and rye, as it was in bread making. There are clear historical accounts and evidence of ergot poisoning.

In regards to the potential method of extraction that could have been used by the ancients to safely get the entheogenic effects, without the toxic effects, the view is that this would have been achievable with an uncomplicated ash and water extraction. As noted in their 2010 Paper, ‘Mixing the Kykeon‘, authors Peter Webster, Carl Ruck and Daniel M. Perrine explain:

The hierophantic priests might well have discovered how to achieve a partial hydrolysis of the mostly toxic alkaloids of C. purpurea, resulting in an extract of ergot containing a blend of psychedelic compounds closely similar to the Aztec’s ololiuqui. The partial hydrolysis might thus also eliminate the toxic ergopeptine
alkaloids, converting them to psychoactive ergine and isoergine.

But how were the hierophants to accomplish this feat, seemingly not duplicated until the20th Century? It must have been a technologically simple procedure, and employed common ingredients, yet been easy to keep secret. Although potassium hydroxide was surely not available to the Greeks, the ashes of wood fires certainly were, and in fact a mixture of wood ash in water results in a solution of potassium of reasonably strong basicity. Is it possible that merely digesting powdered ergot with wood ash and water (and possibly wine containing 10% or so of ethanol to improve the solubility of the alkaloids), heating the mixture for a short period and then filtering off the liquid might have been the method of mixing the kykeon? (Webster; Ruck; and Daniel M. Perrine, 2010)

The Immortality Key, suggests, that if we accept this theory of an ergot infused Eleusinian sacrament, this same sort of ergot beer technology may have passed down from the Eleusian Mysteries to harder evidence from 2nd century BCE Spain. At a site in Catalonia a jawbone with teeth was found and a small cup, that both showed trace evidence of ergot. An archeological find dubbed ’The Kukeon of Catalonia’ by Muraresku. The particularly small size of the cup found adds to the intrigue here as it may indicate that not much of a dose was needed for an effect. Muraresku sees this as a Greek colonial site in Spain, related to the Mysteries of Eleusis, due to some of the statues and artifacts found indicating that, and he describes as a sort of open access sanctuary, for devotees who could not afford the time and expense to travel all the way to Eleusis from Spain.

To be fair, Muraresku has dug deep to find this material, as sites like this have tended to be neglected by more mainstream scholarship, as the papers on them have been published in languages like Catalan, and in some cases Ukrainian, which often fails to make its way to English and other more widely used languages. However, this obscurity also lends itself to avoiding academic criticism and peer reviewed opinion of the claims.

Regardless of any questions regarding the potential historic connections between Eleusis and this site in Mas Castellar des Pontos, Catalonia, I am wondering if the ash water solution above, would register as ergot in an examination of tartar on 2,000 year old teeth and cups. Over such stretches of time, there are complications with the breakdown of chemical residues to begin with, which can cause misidentification, and this has been at the core of debate and controversy regarding the work of by German scientist, Dr Svetla Balabanova and the alleged Egyptian ‘Cocaine Mummies” as I have discussed at length in another article, where hashish, as well as cocaine and nicotine, both from New World plants, were found in 1992 by the German toxicologist on Henut Taui’s hair as well as on the hair of several others mummies. Almost 30 years later there is no consensus on this analysis.

Establishing that this evidence for a claim of ergotized beer from the evidence in a cup and teeth from a jawbone, was a processed form of ergot, and not indications of contamination and ergotism, would go a long way here. I think this remains intriguing speculation until further confirmation and consensus can be found.

It is with Eleusis that I think The Immortality Key gets lost in its search for the ‘lost sacrament’ of ‘the religion with no name’, and by trying to continually tie in Eleusis and Ergot in with the Christian mysteries, when the actual evidence points to other candidates. I also think it does a disservice for the intriguing ergot beer evidence out of Catalonia in relation to the Eleusis hypothesis of Ruck and company, which is where the focus should have been for it in this regard, but it gets lost with this unsubstantiated diffusion through Eleusis, to the Cult of Dionysus and then right past the Jews and straight into Christianity.

Cannabis in Ancient Israel

Just prior to publication of The Immortality Key, one of the most important religious archaeological finds relating to the Bible took place, the discovery of cannabis resins at a temple site in Arad Jerusalem that dated back to the 8th century BCE.

As this came late in the day for The Immortality Key, Muraresku only briefly mentions this important evidence of a Biblical entheogen, in his conclusion. However, I have been suggesting just such a role for cannabis by the ancient Hebrews for more than a quarter century, and I put together this article to contextualize the etymological research that I have been putting forth, with the archeological, out of Arad, Jerusalem, for Graham Hancock’s website, (Hancock wrote the forward to The Immortality Key). In that article and in my 2001 book, Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible, I discuss the evidence for cannabis, burnt as incense, used as a topical ointment, ingested and infused in wines.

In fact, I would say that Muraresku put more discussion into the find in his popular interview with Joe Rogan, than he did in the book. All things considered, with Brian, Ruck, and Hancock who was in the studio for the Rogan interview, I am not going to deny that I was a little more than miffed that my name never came up in relation to this…..

In retrospect, Carl and I first came into contact, when I saw that the first edition of his co-authored The Apples of Apollo: Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the Eucharist, referred to kaneh bosm as cannabis, in a piece clearly based on material I had presented and I was not credited, although a key paragraph in the piece was verbatim to a 1996 article I wrote Kaneh Bosm: Cannabis in the Old Testament. This turned out to be the mistake of a co-author on the project, who came across a copied version of my article online, that failed to list the author, and it was satisfactorily remedied. Moreover, it was only when Ruck supported the kaneh bosm hypothesis that it gained traction and international attention. Likewise with Hancock promoting my material on his personal website. it’s not all sour grapes here by any means and I do appreciate the helping hands that have been offered in that respect.

This is not the only evidence out of the Holy Land regarding cannabis as well, as Muraresku well knows. He wrote me specifically for the details, on another, later find of cannabis as well, in 2018:

I’ve really been enjoying your books. Quick question here, if you don’t mind? In that 2003 article from The Sunday Times, Ruck had mentioned: “Residues of cannabis, moreover, have been detected in vessels from Judea and Egypt in a context indicating its medicinal, as well as visionary, use.”

I’m trying to locate the archaeological cite for these Judaean / Egyptian vessels. Do you happen to know where the finds were reported? Or might you be able to point me toward any other hard archaeological cannabis finds from ancient Israel / Palestine in the centuries surrounding Jesus?(Muraresku, 2018)

I am not sure what the Egyptian vessels Ruck referred to where, but I did point Muraresku to archeological evidence from the 4th century in Bet Shemesh, that indicated its use, topically and burnt as incense:

Archaeologists have found hard evidence that hashish was used as a medicine 1,600 years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority said yesterday. Archaeologists uncovered organic remains of a substance containing hashish, grasses and fruit on the abdominal area of a teenage female’s skeleton that dates back to the fourth century, the antiquities authority said in a statement. Anthropologist Joel Zias said that although researchers knew hashish had been used as a medicine, this is the first archeological evidence. (Associated Press 1992) – Associated Press article, Hashish evidence is 1,600 years old, that appeared in Vancouver newspaper The Province, on June 2, 1992:

As Zias and his colleagues explained: “We assume that the ashes found in the tomb were cannabis, burned in a vessel and administered to the young girl as an inhalant to facilitate the birth process” (Zias, et al., 1993). This find of cannabis in a Judean cave was further supported by the later analysis of glass vessels from the site which also contained evidence of cannabinoid residues (Zias, 1995). Between this and the find in Arad, we have a 1.200 year history of cannabis use in the ancient Holy Land, and this is a story that was overlooked, for less compelling evidence.

After the publication of The Immortality Key, Murarsku explained this was not looked at as it was evidence of medical use, not entheogenic, however, as I noted the material regarding kaneh bosm, in incense, anointing oils, and wine infusions, embodied both, the same healing holy oil used by Jesus and his disciples, also contained entheogenic effects, explicitly. I am assuming as this did not tie in with the efforts to connect the Christian Mysteries with the kykeon and Eleusis–it just didn’t ‘fit’ the agenda of the book.

The Archeology of Drugs

Muraresku focuses a lot on Indo-European and Proto-Indo-European connections, trying to tie in how hypothesized ergot beer technology may have passed down from stone age Turkey, through Eleusis to 2nd century BCE Spain, where the jawbone and cup were found, ’The Kukeon of Catalonia’. in relation to this Muraresku asks the reader “In the absence of any analysis of the many vessels recovered from Eleusis itself, is this how history’s longest game of hide and seek comes to a close?” (Murarsku, 2020).

“To the best of my knowledge and until proven otherwise, the graveyard beers from Mas Casrellar de Pontos and the Necropolis of Las Rueda represent the first scientific data for the ritual use of psychedelic drugs in classic antiquity” (Muraresku, 2020).

This is not the case, there is much stronger evidence. We know that cannabis has been burnt for fumigation purposes in funerary rites in Indo-European culture as far back as 5,000 BCE, through a find of skeletal remains and burnt cannabis seeds recovered at a burial mound at modern day Gurbăneşti, Romania. (Rosetti, 1959) alongside Scythian evidence, as well as Indo-European Gushi in Central China, as indicated in finds from 2500-2800 years ago. There have also been Scythian gold cups with residues of both cannabis and opium that have been suggested as used in a ritual setting. The Scythians were very present in ancient Greek culture and this well known archeological evidence confirmed what the Greek historian Herodotus wrote about their use of cannabis in funerary rituals in the 5th century BCE. This wide range of time and range of area, for cannabis in funerary rites, is much stronger evidence than what is suggested for the ’The Kukeon of Catalonia’ in The Immortality Key.

There is a tendency to approach things as a ‘first time ever’ throughout The Immortality Key and to ignore the evidence from those who trod the path before. I am sure there is much more evidence than realized by any single researcher regarding the ritual use of drugs in the ancient world. More is on the way… “…[N]ew techniques for analyzing residues in excavated jars and identifying tiny amounts of plant material suggest that ancient Near Easterners indulged in a range of psychoactive substances. Recent advances in identifying traces of organic fats, waxes, and resins invisible to the eye have allowed scientists to pinpoint the presence of various substances with a degree of accuracy unthinkable a decade or two ago.”

The April 20th issue of Science, Vol 360, Issue 6386, contains the story, Cannabis, opium use part of ancient Near Eastern cultures:

For as long as there has been civilization, there have been mind-altering drugs. Alcohol has been around for at least 10,000 years, but recent advances in chemical analysis of old pots reveal that other psychoactive drugs were present at the dawn of the first complex societies some 5000 years ago in the ancient Middle East. Ancient people from Turkey to Egypt experimented with local substances such as blue water lily, while imports like cannabis and opium made from poppies spread through early international trade networks. Armed with the new data, archaeologists are probing just how these drugs impacted early societies and beliefs. Some argue that the impact of these psychoactive substances has been underestimated, and that a drug culture was central to ritual in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Egypt, and the Levant.

Indeed, there is clear evidence for the ritual use of cannabis in ancient Israel from the 8th century BCE. alongside evidence indicating medical applications both burnt and applied topically, from 4th century AD Bet Shemesh, Israel.

Now this is just archeological evidence, and I am guessing when Muraresku refers to ‘scientific data’, he is excluding actual textual references to the use of entheogenic substances being used ritually, so I won’t list off the considerable material here that could be referred to.

One might argue that Muraresku specifically refers to ‘psychedelic’ and cannabis is not viewed as such by many sources. Likewise with the term ‘Classical Antiquity’ it could be seen as particularly Greek related. However, throughout The Immortality Key, in his search for the ‘lost sacrament’ of ‘the religion with no name’ Muraresku considers a number of areas of the world in his quest.

The same situation here holds with his potential, where a veritable smörgåsbord of candidates are considered, including straight up alcoholic beer or wine; alongside infusions of cannabis, henbane and other nightshades, opium as well as other psychoactive plants; and ergot. All considered pretty equally in regards to what this entheogenic candidate may have been, despite the vastly different effects they produce.

History wise, I think Muraresku fails to make a believable case of continuity for the strands he offers for tracing his hidden ‘religion with no name’. Discussing the theories of Walter Burkert, who pointed to indications of the use of psychoactive substances by Neanderthals, making their way into the Greek mysteries, Muraresku explains:

According to Burkert, the expertise transferred for tens of thousands of years from Neanderthal to Neanderthal, and Stone Age homo sapiens to Stone Age homo sapiens, somehow came to a dead stop at the temple of Demeter. Without ever explaining how, the German scholar suggested that by the time the primitive rite arrived at Eleusis, the drug somehow vanished from the ‘festival of immortality’” (Muraresku, 2020)

At that point, Burkert suggests harmless placebos replaces the psychoactive sacraments of earlier times. After putting forth this incredible claim of the continuity entheogenic rites from the Neanderthals down to Eleusis, from Burket, with no question or real data to back it, Muraresku disagrees with Burkert that things stopped there, as evidenced by the aforementioned find of a jawbone with teeth, and small ritual cup, with traces of ergot.

The Hard data of hallucinogenic beer at Mas Castellar de Pontos says otherwise. Rather than being replaced by one of Burkert’s “harmless substances,” the original, Stone Age sacrament seems to have survived well into the historical period within certain Indo-European traditions. Not just the eastern branch, among the exotic Indians with their psychedelic soma. Not just the western branch, among the bloodthirsty Vaccean Celts with their graveyard beer at the Necropolis of La Ruedas. But among bona fide Greeks who hailed from Phocaea as the Vikings of Antiquity with well-defined lineage. (Muraresku, 2020)

That this unsubstantiated continuity of transference of entheogenic knowledge from the Neanderthal to the Indo-Europeans is put forth and accepted with so little data, is a real phenomena of The Immortality Key. In this regard, Muraresku acknowledges that some “scholars may come along and object that the ergot-infused beer… has nothing to do with Greece… it’s just another example of Celtic and Iberian extravagance…” (Muraresku, 2020). I’d go further and suggest more research is needed to establish the suggested ergotized beer, and more academic agreement on this identification, actual confirmation as well.

Soma

Both Indo-European Culture and the Vedic Soma, have been longtime interests of mine, as detailed in my book Cannabis and the Soma Solution and my recent series on its botanical identity. In an effort to connect soma with the kykeon Muraresku seems to skip over so much here, to try and keep his ergot entheogen hypothesis alive.

“…Proto-Indo-European, the mother tongue that seems to have introduced the religious use of drugs to both Greece and India, expanding outward over an ancient global triangle binding modern-day Iceland to siberia to Sri Lanka. A secret pharmacology that somehow found its way into the subterranean catacombs… in Rome, now under the exclusive jurisdicition of the Vatican” (Muraresku, 2020).

Again referring to Watkins theory on a common ancestry of the kykeon sacrament at Eleusis and Soma of the Veda, with no real explanation of the theory or even discussion of its acceptance among Vedic scholars, Muraesku states:

If anybody was going to smuggle drugs into Europe, it was the Proto-Indo-Europeans who exported soma to India–that Vedic elixir explicitly characterized by Watkins as “hallucinogenic.” For some reason Western scholars are not scandalized by the prospect of ancient Indians doing drugs. The eastern branch of our Indo-European family seems exotic and far-off, unconnected to our greek foundations. Bu dig deeper, and the issue remains: where did soma come from? Why would the original sacrament of Western civilization make the long journey to the Himalayas but somehow get lost en route to Eleusis? If half the Proto-Indo-European tradition went east into India, and the other half went west into greece, then the common source of both could contain the answer to the whole psychedelic affair. (Muraresku, 2020).

Discussing Soma, and trying to connect it with the Kykeon of Eleusis, Muraresku relies almost completely on the work of the American linguist and philologist Calvert Watkins, who, through the similarity of language, women’s role in the ritual, and women were also behind the production of soma, has suggested this connection. No other opinions are offered by Muraresku on this radical suggestion of a combined origin for the kykeon and soma, and no real effort to explain the theory in a comparison of texts, beyond a brief three paragraph explanation of Watkins theory.

There is also the issue here of making this connection between Vedic India and the Greeks while skipping over the use of Haoma by the Avestan and Zoroastrian religions of Persia. The Persian traditions would have held way more of an influence on Greece than India. How this goes without mention is beyond my comprehension in a serious study of this matter.

Moreover, both Watkins and this connection were more thoroughly examined in another recent publication, Soma and the Indo-European Priesthood: Cereal Cultivation and the Origins of Religion, ( Shelley, 2018) which like so many works that tilled the soil The Immortality Key sprouted from, is not accredited.

Soma as an ergot infusion?

In the now famous Joe Rogan interview, in his discussion of soma, Muraresku seems to indicate that he thinks soma may have been the ergot on barley, as barley is listed as an ingredient in the sacred drink in the Rg Veda.

15 minute mark to 17 Joe Rogan interview

Brian -We have an idea actually brought some some Sanskrit to show you. Yeah. You want to see some Sanskrit?
[Image of sanskrit text appears]
Joe- Oh, look at how beautiful that is.
Brian- There it is.
Joe- Their language writing it in Sanskrit. God, it’s so pretty.
Brain -Do you want me to read it for you?
Joe- please.You can read that.
Brain – Yeah.

Brian – So this was my major in college. … this is from the Rigveda. Right. And it’s the oldest literature in Western civilization. We think it’s among the Indo-European.

Languages, it’s the oldest recorded literature that we have. It could be 1500 B.C., seven hundred, perhaps much earlier, like the Iliad and The Odyssey and Greek, this is the mother tongue of all the Indo-European languages. And what they write about a lot is Soma, which is both a God and the juice that is pressed from this God. And what they’re talking about there is is making this ritual potion very much like the kukeon [sic] on that we find among the ancient Greeks.

And here Soma is described as a mixed potion… mixed with barley. Go Bashira … mixed with milk. And so I’ve read all the theories that you have about what Soma was, whether it was the Amanita Muscaria mushroom or some psilocybin containing species or DMT. The way they described soma here is always a mixed potion, which so in this case mixed with barley and milk.

Joe – So that would be an ergot of some sort?

Brian- already there mentioned…. I mean, and so that’s that’s what Rock Hofman and Wasem were saying in 1978. We have we have literature from the 7th century BC, it’s called to the Hymn to Demeter, where they record these ingredients of what the kukeon [sic]was. You asked like, where’s the actual evidence? So in the 70s, we didn’t have much. It starts with the literature, which is what classicists do. And so there’s this Hymn to Demeter that was discovered in 1777, a year after we declare our independence from Graham’s people and what they what they found in there.

I have to say, when I saw this on the Rogan interview, I did get the feeling it may have been a little staged. From my experience, even scholars fluent in old languages like Greek, Latin and Sanskrit, need a little time to figure out the translation, as it’s not just words, its sentence structure and grammar. This is why we can end up with vastly different passages of the same text. I’m doubting that Muraresku is so fluid in Sanskrit he can just whip it off like it was modern English text.

As well, what I got from this and his book, is that there is little evidence here that Brian has even read much on the references and descriptions of Soma in the Rg Veda, like the whole 10th Mandala for instance. The 10th Mandala of the Rg Veda makes it clear, that Soma is a distinct plant, that has the colours green and purple, describing the rocks used for pressing it being turned ‘green’ in the process.

Rig Veda 10.94 – (Wilson’s 1928 translation)

Let these (stones) speak…. Ye solid, quick moving stones, you utter the noise of praise… full of the Soma juice.

They roar like a hundred, like a thousand men; they cry aloud with green-tinted faces; obtaining the sacrifice, the pious stones… partake of the sacrificial food…

They speak, they received into their mouth the sweet (Soma juice)…chewing the branch of the purple tree, the voracious bulls have bellowed.

Splitting, but unsplit, you, O stones… enjoying the Soma, flowing green (with Soma), they made heaven and earth resound with their clamour.

The stones proclaim it with their clamour at the issue of the Soma-juice,… like cultivators sowing the seed, they devouring the Soma, mix it, and do not hurt it.

….Proclaim the praise of (the stone), which has effused (the Soma-juice); let the honoured stones revolve. [Emphasis added]