EXODrUgS: Chapter excerpt from Neuro-Apocalypse

EXOD^RU^GS

“The mandrakes send out their fragrance, and at our door is every delicacy.”
– Song of Songs, 7:13

“Sure, mandrakes can be used for hallucinogenic purposes, too. So can paint thinner, but just because a home improvement text mentions using paint thinner to thin paint does not mean it also endorses the use of paint thinner to get high.”¹
– Tekton Apologetics Ministries Newsletter, June 2016

N THE BEGINNING, the Blue Lotus arose from the waters of chaos. Sacred to the Egyptian nobility and scattered on the mummy of Tutankhamen, this esteemed plant was given voice in an ancient grimoire, the Egyptian Book of the Dead:²

I am the Holy Lotus that cometh forth from the light which belongeth to the nostrils of Ra.³

At the break of day, the Nymphaea caerulea lotus opens on the Nile to reveal a brilliant golden disk framed by sky-blue petals reflecting Ra in the sky. At dusk it closes to be reborn the following morning, like Osiris after the darkness of death. Its euphoria-inducing properties also impressed the Egyptians as it was often depicted in the hands of gods together with two other psychoactives, mandrakes and opium poppies, along with the papyrus plant that was made into writing paper.^{4 5} ‘Blue Lotus’ is also the name of the body-swapping character who visits the underworld in the slapstick Buddhist Chinese classic Monkey, and Odysseus’ first port of call in the Odyssey is the Island of Lotus-eaters.^{6 7} The colour of these lotuses are not described, though the psychoactivity is; the crewmen who eat them fall into a blissful sleep from which they are unwilling to be roused.

Source material for the verses traditionally attributed to Homer can be traced back to the oral tradition of late Bronze Age Greece, a body of songs and tales that had been refined over generations of retelling. Gordon White’s wonderful Star. Ships makes a case that they spring from the same source as the Egyptian material, but whatever the origin, such oral traditions are repositories of history among other things, and can be remarkably accurate.⁸ Aboriginal stories told today, for example, preserve details about changes to the Australian coastline that happened over 10,000 years ago.⁹ As prehistoric Greek bards wandered between audiences they could refine their wordplay and develop themes and juxtapositions in the meta-narratives, but they had to versify faithfully enough to satisfy audiences that were already familiar with the legends. Details such as lotuses, therefore, may predate the life of an individual poet, or even their entire culture.

The oldest Sanskrit verses are in the Rig Veda, with parts dating in oral form from the late Bronze Age describing how to prepare, store and drink the mysterious soma.¹⁰ Soma is a teacher, doctor and bringer of insight, and written of as the source of the Vedas themselves. Mushroom heads, ganja fiends and ayahuasca loons have all claimed it as theirs (I favour the latter, of course).^{11 12 13 14 15} On the other side of the Indus River, verses composed around the same period by the magi of the East describe a similar brew with the similar name of haoma, in one of the many ancient myths bringing together a garden, a snake, a temptress and a magical plant.

Overenthusiastic mushroom-spotters sometimes come a-cropper in unfamiliar fields, so let us be cautious with our identifications, because not every fungus on a frieze or vine in a verse is psychoactive. Still, there’s no doubt that power plants were highly regarded in ancient pagan poetry and ceremony around the world, as far away as the Mayan empire where another psychoactive lotus of the Nymphaea genus was used in rites of the underworld.¹⁶ The Homeric Hymn to Demeter is set in “Eleusis, fragrant with incense”, where a mystery cult ran for 2000 years.¹⁷ Movers and shakers including Plato, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius travelled considerable distances to drink the mysterious kykeon, reporting terrifying and transformative visions that were “new, astonishing, inaccessible to rational cognition”:¹⁸

Blessed is he who hath seen these things before he goeth beneath the hollow earth; for he understandeth the end of mortal life, and the beginning of a new life given of god.¹⁹

The drama performed was the story of Demeter, goddess of the grain, seeking her daughter Persephone who had been seized by the Lord of the Underworld. Again, different scholars find their favourite psychedelics in the symbolism including ganja, magic mushrooms and ergot.^{20 21 22} There are even depraved metaphor addicts who take it to be a metaphor! Whatever it was, however, kykeon appears to be a physical liquid only to be consumed at Eleusis. One of history’s earliest recorded drug busts sent Plato’s friend Alcibiades (more than a Platonic friend, as it happens) into exile in 415 BC for serving it up at a party.²³

Christian moralists eventually shut down the Eleusinian Mysteries in the fourth century AD, but before sobriety was a virtue, when botany was the science of the day and the long arm of the law was shorter, what would have stopped you from enjoying the fruits of your garden – apart from tribal taboos?²⁴ Though drugs were restricted to certain castes in some traditions, blanket prohibitions only emerge in younger doctrines. For example, Buddhist precepts prohibit drugs “that befuddle the mind”, in contrast to the Hindu milieu from which Buddhism emerged; Shiva the Lord of Dissolution presides over Ganja, Yoga and the Ganges, dissolving away the knots of the mind, the muscles and karma respectively.²⁵ Similarly the Quran banned wine where the OT had blessed it, and while there are plenty of meats, acts, combinations of textiles and so on that are non-kosher, plant drugs are all kosher. As Psalm 104 puts it (and rastas like to repeat), “(H)erb [is] for the service of man”.

The poison path winds back through the ancient world and beyond. In Gabon, the Fang and Pygmy have been eating the psychoactive iboga in coming-of-age rites since time immemorial, and gorillas in the same forests take the same root in preparation before challenging the dominant male in a bid to overturn the current order.²⁶ Jaguars have been filmed eating the ‘jaguar medicine’ ayahuasca vine and then vomiting, or else looking much like my cat on catnip.²⁷ Bighorn sheep brave precarious rocks far from their feeding grounds for narcotic lichen, and some very naughty dogs lick psychedelic toads and even carefully modulate their doses.^{28 29} Vietnamese water buffalo generally leave opium plantations alone, but they started breaking in and getting high when US airstrikes began.³⁰ For courage and for kicks, for escaping the world and for changing it, and maybe for reasons of their own, many non- human animals are enthusiastic drug users.

Ω

Like the Odyssey and the Rig Veda, the earliest Bible stories were drawn from Bronze Age oral traditions by poets with gods in their quills and drugs in their gardens. Rachel let her rival sleep with their shared husband in return for some mandrakes, which indicates the value this trippy aphrodisiac had for her.³¹ Mandrake might not be to the taste of the puritanical minister of apologetics quoted above, but ancient Israelites clearly knew about its effects; they called it duday, from duwd meaning ‘beloved’. ^{32 33 34} Rachel would hardly be using it for food anyway, as while a small amount stimulates creativity and euphoria another mouthful might cause “erotic delirium”, and beyond that “muco-bloody dysenteric discharges”.³⁵ As with any godfood, caution should be observed with dosage. Another caution applies, as not only does mandrake look like a person it is also said to scream like a person when uprooted, killing anyone who hears it. First century Jewish historian Josephus advised mandrake hunters to avoid this fate by tying a dog to its stem,

and when the dog tries hard to follow him that tied him, this root is easily plucked up, but the dog dies immediately.³⁶

Drugs were valuable in the ancient world, even more valuable than a dog in this case. The gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh given to the baby Jesus were clearly esteemed commodities. Frankincense was valuable enough to justify a six month, 1,500 mile camel trek from Oman to Palestine across robber-infested deserts, which would be a lot of trouble for a posh whiff – but there is more to frankincense than that.³⁷ One component is dehydroabietic acid, which is a GABA-receptor modulator (meaning that it works on the most common receptors in the brain which are GABA receptors).^{38 39} Like Valium, which is also a GABA-receptor modulator, this component inhibits the neurone and therefore quietens down the entire network. Frankincense also contains α-pinene, myrcene and linolool, all of which work on GABA receptors, while linalool also has psychoactive effects via the glutamate system.⁴⁰ Linolool vapour inhaled at a low concentration causes a 73% reduction in the amount of movements mice make, while for humans hearing birdsong and other pretty sounds it,⁴¹

not only caused much more favorable impressions in a sensory test but was also accompanied by a greater decrease of the beta wave.⁴²

Another component in frankincense is limonene, which inhibits the acetylcholinesterase enzyme (this usually breaks down serotonin and dopamine, which means that the concentration of both are boosted when frankincense is consumed).⁴³ Jesus’ birthday present also contains incensole acetate, with potent actions on the TRPV3 ion channel.⁴⁴ On the skin this ion channel is involved in temperature sensation, and it is also widely distributed in the brain where its functions remain a mystery.⁴⁵

Scientists have tortured mice with hotplates and drowning to establish to the satisfaction of their weirdo friends that frankincense is a tranquilizer, an antidepressant and an anxiolytic (meaning that it works against anxiety).^{46 47} Such words as anxiolytic, catatonic and other terms from the poorhouses and lunacy wards of history help us discuss these compounds, but experience is complex and details sometimes get lost in the categories. Contemporary public discourse is comfortable with depression and mental illness but balks at the language of mystical experience. On a Freudian’s couch a calling may be mania, a voice-hearer is likely suffering from dissociation, while bliss might be a regression to primary narcissism. Tranquilizers do more than just make one tranquil, and even a mild reduction in anxiety has striking effects on human cognition. People taking a creative problem-solving test after completing a maze score twice as high if the maze is illustrated with a mouse seeking cheese rather than a mouse fleeing an owl; that tiny bit of extra tension felt in sympathy with the cartoon mouse has a large effect.⁴⁸ Given that the psychoactive preparations of Exodus were used for divination, which could be conceptualised as an elaborate ritual of creative problem-solving, anxiolytic effects are highly significant. Animal tests can only tell us so much about what drugs do, and the real empirical test is to eat some. A pea-sized dose or two is about right to start with and go slowly from there, because too much will offend your intestinal flora at some point. I think it is lovely. Dioscorides thought it could cause madness.⁴⁹ You have been warned.

The Magi also brought myrrh, which is another ‘tranquilizer’, and its analgesic properties were clearly known to the ancients as myrrh wine was offered to Jesus at his crucifixion.^{50 51} It contains several opioid receptor agonists, including one with 10% of the pain-killing power of morphine.⁵² Perhaps Jesus refused myrrh on the cross to keep his head clear, because myrrh also contains a large variety of psychoactive compounds discussed in more detail and with fewer gags in an academic article I wrote for the Journal of Psychedelic Science.⁵³ Psychonauts drinking, smoking and snorting it report “relaxed stimulation” and “euphoria… that grows in intensity by the minute”, as well as the constricted pupils seen on opium and heroin.^{54 55} The Romans knew myrrh as an aphrodisiac, and so did the author of Proverbs 7:⁵⁶

I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love until morning; let us delight ourselves with love.

Myrrh is very pleasant on its own but its depths are revealed in combination, with frankincense for example, and both go well with alcohol (best infused in wine, though there is no pharmacological reason why you can’t snort the gifts of the magi off a nightclub toilet). They grow together in a paradisiacal garden in the Song of Songs:

Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant [or precious] fruits [or fresh things]; henna, with spikenard. Spikenard and saffron; cane and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and agarwood, with all the chief spices.⁵⁷

The ‘chief spices’ are rosh bosem, where bosem is a fragrant resin and rosh is ‘chief’, ‘principle’, ‘first’, ‘finest’, and fundamentally ‘head’ (‘head resins’ also works as a translation, given that nearly everything listed is psychoactive).⁵⁸ Saffron is the stigma of Crocus sativus, an analgesic, anxiolytic and hypnotic (sleep-inducing) drug burned reverently around Asia and classed in Islamic jurisprudence as one of the permissible “drugs that cause joy”.⁵⁹ It contains GABA agonists safranal and safrole, the latter being the raw material from which MDMA is usually made.⁶⁰ It also contains crocin, which has the remarkable property of giving rats more erections than normal, recalling Pliny’s comment that saffron “has a gentle effect upon the head, and whets the sex drive”.⁶¹ According to Georg Most, “saffron comes close to opium; in low doses, it excites, cheers, and produces laughter… in high doses it sedates, promotes sleep, sopor.”⁶²

Cinnamon contains safrole and also eugenol, another close relative of MDMA.⁶³ Agarwood is a highly-prized perfume produced by Aquilaria trees as a defence against parasitic fungi.⁶⁴ The 300 compounds isolated from it include GABA receptor modulators, acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, and its hypnotic, sedative and anti-depressant effects have been demonstrated in animals.⁶⁵ Spikenard (pronounced “spick ‘n ‘ard”) is “very costly”, such that Judas complains when it is used liberally on Jesus’ feet.⁶⁶ This sedative boosts levels of the neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine and GABA, and is considered to be both neuroprotective and nootropic (meaning that it assists the formation of memories).^{67 68}

Kaneh elsewhere in the Bible is kaneh bosem, and combined with other ‘head spices’ in the Holy Ointment we shall come to shortly. It is not positively identified, like many plants in the Bible, but the traditional designation as calamus reed is unlikely. Kaneh means ‘cane’, not ‘reed’, and the fact that kaneh was made into funerary shirts suggests a tough fibrous material rather than a soft reed which would quickly decompose.^{69 70} Bosem is ‘fragrant’ as an adjective and ‘resin’ as a noun, so kaneh bosem might be translated as ‘fragrant and resinous cane’.⁷¹ The singular form is kaneh bos, later fused into one word which sounds rather like the kannabis that Herodotus encountered among the Scythians to the north of Judah in the 5^th century BC.72 He reported that they peg down the flaps of their tents and throw kannabis on red-hot stones:

immediately it smokes, and gives out such a vapour as no Grecian vapour-bath can exceed; the Scyths, delighted, shout for joy.⁷²

Hot-boxing enclosed spaces was how herbs were smoked before pipes, with practitioners as far away as China burning cannabis in their cells to channel departed sages.⁷³ Herodotus’ observation is supported by ancient Scythian vessels that were dug up and tested positive for cannabis and opium residues, and a dig near Jerusalem from the mid-second millennium BC uncovered hashish in forms suggesting application both via massage and fumigation.^{74 75 76} It appears that fragrant caning was widespread in the region, with the Greeks to the west of Palestine using kannabis, Persians to the north using kannab, while for the Assyrians it was qunubu. Cannabis pollen was also detected on the mummy of Ramesses II in Egypt to the south, but it was not native there.⁷⁷ It would have been brought in along one of the major trade routes that ran through Palestine, which concords with Jeremiah’s description of kaneh as “from a far country”.⁷⁸ There is also speculation that the pannag being transported in Ezekiel is the ne-penthe powdered and mixed into wine in Egypt, and that both words are corruptions of the Sanskrit bangha (i.e. a certain grade of cannabis).^{79 80} It is all speculative, of course, but ministers, rabbis, linguists, archaeologists, anthropologists and botanists speculating have good credentials.⁸¹ Professor Sula Benet’s pioneering research on the subject won her a scholarship to Columbia University.

Aside from kaneh, the other eight ‘head spices’ in the garden have all been positively identified. All are edible and six contain known psychoactives. Henna is an exception, though maybe the ancients knew something we don’t about its effects, as it is traditionally used as a sedative and aphrodisiac.⁸² The other exception is pomegranate, to which we shall return shortly. While modern pharmacology seeks to isolate chemicals, ancient medical modalities such as Chinese herbalism and Ayurveda employ mixtures that synergise together.⁸³ Traditional Persian medicine administers ‘convoy medicines’ (mobadregh) along with other medicines, and molecular biologists conclude that they work to “increase the bioavailability of coadministered drugs by inhibition of P-gp or cytochrome P450 [enzymes]”.⁸⁴ Mixtures containing enzyme inhibitors can produce entheogenic effects of a totally different order to the ingredients taken alone. Chacruna leaf, for example, is orally ineffective because its DMT is broken down by our monoamine oxidase enzymes, but combined with ayahuasca vine it becomes extremely visionary because the monoamine oxidase inhibitors in the vine inhibit those enzymes so the DMT can cross into the brain.

One common ‘convoy medicine’ in Persian medicine is cinnamon, which is also found in the Holy Ointment recipe of Exodus:⁸⁵

YHWH spake unto Moses, saying: “Take thou also unto thee head spices [rosh bosem], of pure myrrh 500 shekels [about 5.5 kg], and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even 250 shekels, and of kaneh bosem 250 shekels. And of cassia 500 shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of oil olive one hiyn [about 6 litres]. And thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be an holy anointing oil.”^{86 87}

Even disregarding kaneh bosem, cinnamon, cassia and myrrh contain a wide range of psychoactive molecules including opioid receptor agonists described above and β-caryophyllene which activates cannabinoid receptors, as well as linalool, safrole, myrcene, elemecin, estragole and eugenol.^{88 89 90} Most of these chemicals are broken down and rendered ineffective if taken orally on their own, but estragole, for example, has been described as an “electric LSD-like psychedelic” when combined with the correct inhibitors.^{91 92} In bedrooms and online forums, ‘oilahuasca’ psychonauts have revived the art of the apothecary by combining essential oils to explore the synergies. One describes taking sweet basil (which contains high concentrations of estragole) along with cinnamon, pomegranate, cayenne pepper, star anise and chai tea:

I felt like I had a warm fuzzy blanket wrapped around me without CYP2D6 inhibition; but with the CYP2D6 inhibition I feel that I AM that warm fuzzy blanket [capitalization his, or possibly His – YHWH introduces Himself to Moses as ‘I AM’ and ‘I AM THAT I AM’].⁹³

CYP2D6 is one of the six enzymes of the cytochrome system that break down 99% of drugs we encounter, and blocking all six requires a more complex mix than the ayahuascero’s simple two-plant synergism.⁹⁴ Cinnamon inhibits five: CYP3A4, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP1A2 and CYP2E1.^{95 96 97} The sixth, CYP2D6, which is responsible for breaking down estragole and warm fuzzy blankets, is inhibited by the coumarin in cassia.^{98 99} Coumarin concentration is generally lower than 3%, as opposed to 8% cinemaldehyde in cinnamon, which explains why the recipe stipulates twice as much cassia as cinnamon.¹⁰⁰

The fragrant cane from the garden adds a delicious layer of complexity. Cannabis makes CYP1A2 work better, which would work against the inhibition via cinnamon.¹⁰¹ Pomegranate, however, the non-psychoactive exception in the garden, interrupts the expression of genes coding for CYP1A2, so eating it in quantity over the long term would counteract this effect, because less CYP1A2 would be present in the first place.^{102 103} Pomegranate, while not psychoactive in itself, would prolong the effect of various compounds that are (this may explain its effect in the myth of Persephone, where it doesn’t take her to the underworld but does prolong her stay once she is there).¹⁰⁴ The complexity is mind-blowing in more ways than one, and becomes more complex still considering how the spectrum of enzymes varies between individuals and racial groups, and also with their dietary choices.

It seems that the Egyptians understood some of the synergisms at least as early the Middle Bronze Age, as they were exporting a famed massage oil known as the Mendesium composed of myrrh, cinnamon and cassia – three of the four ingredients of the Holy Ointment.¹⁰⁵ The fact that the Exodus recipe is for “one hiyn”, which is an Egyptian measurement, also suggests transmission from Egyptian.¹⁰⁶ The Israelite Ointment, like the Mendesium, appears to have been applied by massage. It is called shemen ha-MiShChah, where MaShaCh means to wipe or paint and is thought to be the root of the word ‘massage’.^{107 108} Massage dilates capillaries and increases absorption, especially with limonene and eugenol increasing absorption across the skin and cinnamaldehyde dilating capillaries.^{109 110} If you try this at home, be careful where you rub it – it’s very spicy!

The Ointment contains many of the allylbenzenes in nutmeg, a spice which can trigger “hallucinations that can last up to 48 hours” due to the fact that it contains inhibitors to its own psychoactive allylbenzenes. ^{111 112} Missing the dosage window results in either disappointment or a dreadful headache, so start with a few teaspoons and work your way up, but if you hit the ideal dose (and if you have the right P450 spectrum) it can work wonders, including:

intensely pleasurable tactile sensations, that seemed to send shivers up my spine every time I acknowledged them. The only thought going through my head at this time was, what a wonderful life I have.¹¹³

Nutmeg is mentioned in combination with myrrh in the Kalachakra Tantra as a path to “pure knowledge […] which illuminates the nature of all things”.¹¹⁴ One brave tantrika, apparently unaware that he was consuming a terpene cocktail quite similar to the Ointment, describes his experience:

• Awakening – as if possessed by a fierce and aggressive deity: deep, monstrous voice boiling out of me unbidden

• Open eyed visions and closed eyed visions of a bulging-eyed, white-skinned man in ceremonial armour

• The real world perceived as a far-away and distorted window

• This window also emanated and originated a mental fireball or supernova

• This fireball had as its identity the fierce deity above

• My voice seemed to penetrate the walls and echo off of the sky

• New doors/avenues opened up inside familiar mantra, new knowledge disclosed, new perspectives on hidden meanings¹¹⁵

His insights and new knowledge are appropriate for an oil used for divination, and so is the martial flavour of the experience. Though one might have assumed his ‘set’ would be coloured by the sexual poetry of the tantric text, his experience is remarkably evocative of the nature of YHWH, a god of war and “great terrors”. Evoking YHWH is, of course, the stated function of the Ointment:¹¹⁶

Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed/ massaged him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of YHWH came upon David from that day forward.¹¹⁷

A new king was initiated in this way as the link between YHWH and His people, and priests were also anointed “that they may minister unto Me [YHWH] in the priest’s office”.¹¹⁸ By adding a yowd to MaShah it becomes MaShiYaCh or ‘anointed person’, a term once used to describe an anointed king and descendent of David destined to free the Children of Israel from their oppressors.¹¹⁹ By the time it was Latinised as ‘messiah’, however, the meaning had drifted somewhat.

Ω

If YHWH can be summoned with a psychoactive concoction, does that mean that He is a by-product of psychopharmacology?

Or does the pharmacology merely bring Him into focus, as my spectacles bring a friend’s face into focus? Such questions are best approached empirically. You could mix up the medicines and ask Him yourself, though He might wax a bit wrath at the impertinence. More importantly, does anything change after you take it? Are you wiser or luckier? Do dry channels open up through the waves of adversity, as before the hand of YHWH’s prophet. Do your enemies scatter at your approach?

In order to perform this operation, bear in mind that you would have to disobey the Good Book to do so, because the anointing oil was off-limits to everyone except the priests: “whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger, shall even be cut off from his people.”¹²⁰ Anointed was also forbidden after drinking wine, which is sound advice YHWH or no YHWH, as tranquilizers and alcohol can be a fatal combination.¹²¹ Another taboo kept the session contained and the setting controlled:

And ye shall not go out from the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: for the anointing oil of YHWH is upon you.¹¹¹

“Oil and incense rejoice the heart,” goes Proverbs 27, using the word for ‘rejoice’ that also describes the effect of wine.¹²² The High Priest used the two in combination, getting oiled up before his smoke bath at the back of the Tabernacle. This incense is ktoreth ha-samim, where ktoreth means ‘incense’ and samim is ‘drugs’ (in modern Hebrew at least – anything from MDMA to heroin).^{123 124} The nuances of ancient words can be difficult to ascertain, but perhaps in this case ‘incense of drugs’ is accurate. Exodus lists the Holy Incense ingredients as “stacte and onycha and galbanum, sweet incense with pure frankincense”.¹²⁵ Stacte is identified by Pliny as high-grade myrrh.¹²⁶ Most scholars believe that galbanum is Ferula gummosa, which acts on opioid receptors and boosts dopamine and serotonin by inhibiting acetylcholinesterase.^{127 128 129} Onycha, which means “claw” or “fingernail” in Greek, was the word chosen to represent the Hebrew sh’cheleth, and its identity remains the subject of much speculation. Many Christian theologians think it is part of a mollusc, although any sea creature without fins is non-kosher according to the rules of ritual cleanliness, and unclean animals are excluded from ritual – burning “an abomination” to YHWH in the Holiest chamber of the Israelite world seems as likely as pulled pork at a Barmitzvah.^{130 131} Furthermore, a mollusc does not fit the Talmud’s description of sh’cheleth as “from the ground, but not from the tree”.¹³² Nor do benzoin and bdellium, as favoured by some scholars, as they both come from trees. Labdanum, as proposed by the 10th century Rabbi Saadia Gaon, does fit, as it comes from rockrose shrubs (not trees).^{133 134} The root of sh’cheleth means “to peel off”, which is how labdanum is traditionally collected, either scraped from the shrubs or from the beards of goats that eat the shrubs.^{135 136} That would also explain the choice of the Greek word onycha, as labdanum is collected with a tool shaped like a claw. Labdanum, like many of the drugs found in the Tabernacle, also has a connection to Egypt as it used to be rubbed into Pharaoh’s false beard – a drug administration scheme that wouldn’t have been out of place at some of the sillier parties of the 1990s.¹³⁷ Labdanum contains both crocin (rat erections) and the related crocetin.^{138 139} Also present is safranal, an antidepressant acting on GABA receptors and β2-adrenoreceptors with a range of physiological effects.¹⁴⁰

Other ingredients listed in the Talmud include saffron, agarwood, cassia and cinnamon discussed above, the stimulant mastic, and costus which is eaten as an aphrodisiac, smoked in Tibet and burned in Chinese joss sticks.^{141 142 143} Costus has neuroleptic, analgesic and sedative effects, and causes motor incoordination and catalepsy in rats.¹⁴⁴ The memory-boosting spikenard was added too, which makes sense as divination techniques would be useless if the high priests couldn’t recall their tranquilized apocalypses. Other neuroprotective and nootropic chemicals in the incense are discussed in nerdy detail in my JPS article.¹⁴⁵ Some incense ingredients were used to pre- process others, which indicates extremely refined techniques of production:

Why was Carshina lye brought? To refine the onycha, that it be pleasant.

Why was Cyprus wine brought? To steep the onycha, that it be pungent.¹⁴⁶

Again there may be a connection with the priestcraft of the master apothecaries of the ancient world, because the kyphi incense burned in the Temple of Edfu on the Nile was also steeped in wine during production, and it also contained frankincense, myrrh, cinnamon, mastic, saffron and spikenard along with unidentified ingredients.¹⁴⁷ Another Holy Incense ingredient is ma’aleh ashan (literally ‘that which causes smoke to rise’).¹⁴⁸ It may be the Nebtadini pyrotechnica used in fireworks, which has this property, but this information was withheld even from the scribes of the Talmud.¹⁴⁹

There might have been other resins not recorded, because the keepers of secrets took their duties seriously and infractions such as omitting an ingredient were punishable by death.¹³⁵ In the time of the Tabernacle the recipes for both the Holy Incense and the Holy Ointment were kept by the Korahite clan of the Levite tribe.¹⁵⁰ They also made the wine (which is psychoactive of course, and LORD knows how much more so if they were steeping power plants in it as did Persian and Egyptian cocktail mixers).^{151 152 153} They were also both executioners and ritual musicians, which makes for a strange mix of party tricks, although each of these roles situates the Korahites as gate- keepers to liminal zones.^{154 155} The same could be said about their job as the guards of the Tabernacle.

Nothing else in the Bible is described in anything like as much detail as the construction of the Tabernacle, with over five chapters specifying the exact dimensions of its acacia frame, the space between the rings fastening the fabrics down and so on (by contrast, the tower of Babel story is over in half a chapter).¹⁵⁶ At the back was a chamber called the Holy of Holies. It contained only one object, the Ark of the Covenant, and was used exclusively for communicating with the divine:

He shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before YHWH, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil: And he shall put the incense upon the fire before YHWH, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony.¹⁵⁷

This is not a little stick of sandalwood but handfuls of finely ground psychoactive resins hot-boxing a 4½m³ chamber sealed beneath four layers of skins and fabrics drawn tightly over a frame extending to the ground. The Talmud adds that the inner veil separating off the Holy of Holies was “one handbreadth thick” in the time of the first temple, and we may speculate that this tradition dates from the original Tabernacle.158 159 The veil at the entrance to the Tabernacle was of unremarkable thickness, but the thick veil was clearly designed to block out more than just curious glances. Surely no veil would be thick enough to contain YHWH, but a thick screen would certainly make the Holy of Holies into an effective smoke trap.

Popular translations describe what follows in extremely problematic English:

As Moses entered into the Tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended [yered], and stood [amuwd] at the door of the Tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses…

The most outrageous liberty taken with the Hebrew here is the addition of “the LORD”, as YHWH is not in fact mentioned for another two verses. Only the Hebrew Names Version Bible faithfully relates that it was the cloud itself that spoke with Moses. Psychopharmacologist and bible enthusiast Dr. Rick Strassman also concludes that the cloud itself was the medium of communication, and retranslates a line from Leviticus as “Through the agency of the cloud I will appear upon the Ark- cover”.¹⁶⁰

When the thick veil was drawn back, smoke would come pouring out of the chamber to rise up from the Tabernacle door, which is just what the people outside see:

…And all the people saw the cloudy pillar appear/arise/ stand [amuwd] at the Tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door…¹⁶¹

It is curious that they see the pillar appearing/arising/standing (amuwd, as in the previous verse), but not ‘descending’ (yered). Whatever yered means, in this instance it is reserved for Moses, and it is happening either inside the tent or inside his mind. Yered means ‘to go down’ in a figurative as well as a literal sense: to go “to a lower region, as the shore, a boundary, the enemy, etc.”; it is not necessarily the simple act of physically moving downwards.^{162 163} It is used elsewhere when divinity reveals itself to Moses, as when “YHWH came down [yered] upon Mount Sinai”.¹⁶⁴ It seems more elegant to interpret this line as YHWH appearing on a lower plane to the senses of Moses rather tumbling out of the sky, and to interpret it in a similar manner in the Tabernacle.

Finally, the translation implies a sequence of events that the Hebrew does not have to. The word ‘v’ in Hebrew begins most Bible verses, and is usually translated as ‘and’, but it may imply continuity of theme rather than chronology of events. The verses, therefore, could also be read as:

When Moses entered into the Tabernacle the cloudy pillar revealed. Then it appeared at the entrance of the Tabernacle. It talked with Moses. All the people [outside] saw the cloudy pillar arise at the Tabernacle entrance: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent entrance.

YHWH spake unto Moses face to face [or ‘presence to presence’], as a man speaketh unto his friend.

This is the famous pillar of smoke by which YHWH guides the Children of Israel, but perhaps it does so by guiding their leader’s decisions, as do shaman’s familiars in many tribal societies. Moses enters the Holy of Holies alone, as the medicine-men of the Amazon jungle or Siberian planes go into their huts alone, with their power plants, their magical objects and familiar spirits, practicing cures and divination on behalf of the tribe. Though definitions of shamanism are problematic, cross-cultural tropes can be observed across widely separated tribal societies. A survey of 47 traditional societies revealed 14 commonalities in magico-religious practice, nearly all of which are found in the stories of Moses and his siblings:¹⁶⁵

• a dominant social role as the preeminent charismatic leader;

• a night-time community ritual;

• use of chanting, singing, drumming, and dancing;

• an initiatory crisis involving a death and rebirth experience;

• shamanic training involving induction of an altered state of consciousness (ASC), particularly with fasting and social isolation;

• an ASC experience characterized as a soul journey (but not possession);

• ASC involving visionary experiences;

• abilities of divination, diagnosis, and prophecy;

• healing processes focused on soul loss and recovery;

• illness believed to be caused by spirits, sorcerers, and the intrusion of objects or entities;

• animal relations as a source of power, including control of animal spirits;

• the ability of the shaman to transform into animals;

• malevolent acts or sorcery, including the ability to kill others;

• hunting magic, assistance in acquiring animals for food.

Moses is initiated into his special relationship with YHWH during an ASC with visionary experiences (7) at the burning bush, and YHWH prophesies (8) that he will lead the Israelites to freedom.^{166 167} Though Moses complains that he has a stutter and is not up to the task of challenging Pharaoh, YHWH promises to act as an ally and give him charisma and eloquence (1): “I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say”.^{168 169} Moses assumes his role as leader of the Israelites (1), and the initiation concludes with a brush with death (4) when “YHWH met him, and sought to kill him”.¹⁷⁰

During a later initiation Moses isolates himself and fasts for forty days (5).¹⁷¹ Though he does not transform into an animal (12), his staff turns into a snake, as does his brother Aaron’s in a magical battle against Egyptian magicians.^{172 173} Other shamanistic powers include malevolent sorcery (13) and controlling animals (11), as when “Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land”.¹⁷⁴ The plagues on Egypt also include disease in the form of boils (10) and killing the firstborn (13).^{175 176}

Moses mediates between YHWH and the tribe, sometimes presenting his utterances in song (3), and his sister the prophetess Miriam follows his song with her own, playing percussion and leading a dance (3).^{177 178} Both the means and objectives of divinatory rites in the Tabernacle follow the shamanic format, with the mysterious urim and thummim as divinatory tools in the place of the shaman’s shells or bones.^{179 180} Shamanistic divination is traditionally performed for military tactics and for life’s other necessities, and YHWH guides Moses to game (14) and water, and vanquishes enemies in battle.^{181 182 183 184} Moses the shaman protects his tribe from danger, diagnosing the cause of diseases (8) that strike both the collective and the individual, and bartering with YHWH to mitigate harms (9).^{185 186} He also instigates three night-time community rituals (2) per year.^{187 188}

The only shamanic trope that is absent from Moses’ story is the soul journey, though the stories of other prophets suggest that it was as familiar to the Israelites as it was to the 47 societies surveyed: “And Enoch went with Elohim: and he was not; for Elohim took him”.¹⁸⁹ Perhaps Moses simply did not need to journey that way because “YHWH spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend”. Moses was not a normal prophet. He was a super-prophet, and “there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom YHWH knew face to face”.^{190 191}

Some shamans use plant preparations entheogenically to facilitate the encounter with the spirit world, to trigger visionary, auditory and other ASC experiences of divinity, and Moses certainly did that. There are hints of biblical entheogens other than the Ointment and the Incense, including the shewbread, or lechem ha-panim (the bread of faces/presences). Even the Rambam (of blessed memory) was perplexed by the symbolism of the shewbread, and he authored A Guide for the Perplexed to explain the symbology of the religion.¹⁹² Maybe he was a bit square, but we can help him out here by considering the dosage, which is more appropriate for a hit than a snack:

In [High Priest] Simeon the Upright’s time a blessing was sent into the omer, the two loaves of bread, and the shewbread, and every priest who received only the size of an olive became satiated, and some was left over…¹⁹³

This is about right for a large dose of frankincense, and frankincense is indeed consumed along with the shewbread, though such a simple recipe seems under par for the master mixers of the Tabernacle.¹⁹⁴ The alchemist in Simeon’s time was clearly in the know about shewbread dough, but after him standards slipped and communion required a strong constitution:

…but after him, these things were cursed, and every priest got only the size of a bean. And the delicate priests refused to take it altogether, but the voracious ones accepted and consumed. It once happened, one took his own share and his fellow’s: he was nicknamed “robber” till his death.¹⁹⁵

The story suggests not potent symbolism but potent drugs, drugs that are moreish even. Another possible allusion to psychoactivity is that it was eaten “for a memorial”, which could be taken to mean that it would make people remember.¹⁹⁶ From the Jewish perspective, like the Socratic perspective, discovery is a process of remembering the wisdom that a person had in the womb before their memory was wiped at birth.^{197 198}

There may have been more ingredients, and indeed more rites, because much was hidden and much has been forgotten. I’m not aware of any references to henbane in Jewish scripture, for example, though Josephus, who was an ex-priest himself, records that the design on the High Priest’s ceremonial hat was a golden henbane flower.¹⁹⁹ This species so powerful that its scent alone makes people dizzy.²⁰⁰ The Oracle at Delphi burned henbane, frankincense, myrrh, laurel and olibanum in the enclosed confines of her cave to prophesy on military matters.²⁰¹ There are no references to acacia incense either in the Bible, though it is curious that this species was so exalted in the ancient middle east. Acacia seyal was the Egyptian Tree of Life from which emerged the primordial couple Isis and Osiris, and Osiris “the solitary one in the Acacia” returned to an acacia tomb after his murder.²⁰² It boasts the most DMT of any plant in the region, along with other powerful psychedelic tryptamines such as the “spatial hallucinogen” NMT, and they can be extracted simply with alcohol.^{203 204 205} In the Book of the Dead, “the Lord of the Acacia Tree” is at the juncture between the worlds, he “who turnest back the Fiend, the Evildoer, and dost cause the Eye of Ra to rest upon its seat”.²⁰⁶ Acacia is consistently found between the worlds in Middle Eastern folklore, burned in Arab exorcisms and planted on Israelite graves, and when YHWH demands that the Ark of the Covenant be made “that I may dwell among them”, it was to be fashioned of this esteemed wood.^{207 208 209} The Talmud records a song describing the ascent and the voice of this species in terms that suggest a communicative smoke rather than a building material:

Sing, O sing, acacia tree,

Ascend in all thy gracefulness.

With golden weave they cover thee,

The sanctuary-palace hears thy eulogy.²¹⁰

Acacia is shittim in Hebrew, derived from shotet (to pierce), which describes what DMT does to the veil of everyday reality (as well as what acacia thorns do to the skin).²¹¹ The Talmud also relates it to shtuth, meaning ‘nonsense’, which is curious for so exalted a substance but makes more sense for a psychedelic.²¹² Professor Benny Shanon speculated that it was brewed into an ayahuasca analogue by mixing it with Peganum harmala, a local plant containing the MAO inhibitor harmaline.²¹³ It’s local name is harmal, related to cherem (taboo), and also the Arabic haram (both taboo and sacred), and it is psychoactive even without the admixture of DMT. Harmal “expels devils and averts misfortune”, according to one of the sayings of the prophet Muhammad – peace be upon his tryptophan receptors.²¹⁴ Another of his sayings recommends repeated strong psychoactive doses for both cure and insight, which are the same properties the Vedic sages praised in soma and ayahuasqueros find in ayahuasca:

Whoever takes a mithqual (4.25 grams) of harmal in water for 40 mornings each day, so shall wisdom enlighten his heart, and he shall be healed/immune from seventy-two diseases.²¹⁵

Ω

And the angel of YHWH appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush [sneh]: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.²¹⁶

A fire that burns but does not consume is clearly not fire, but it would be a good metaphor for the colourful geometric patterns that blaze around the objects of one’s attention in altered states. There is no reason, either from the Bible or from ethnographies on shamanism, to propose psychedelics in the story of the Burning Bush. Strassman sees DMT in this and other visionary experiences of the Bible, but unlike Shanon he proposes that it was endogenous DMT produced naturally by the body. Comparing accounts of prophetic experiences in the Bible with lab notes from thousands of DMT sessions he facilitated, Strassman found many similarities in the psychological, physical, emotional and visionary experiences described, and particularly regarding how entities interact with humans and each other. He proposes a ‘theoneurological’ model of mystical experience where God communicates with humans through the physiology of the brain, challenging the dominant assumption of neurotheology where experiences of gods and spirits are generated by the brain.²¹⁷ Theoneurology has several advantages over neurotheology. For one thing it doesn’t deny the cosmologies of nearly every culture in history except one – the post-Enlightenment Euro-American humanistic project dominated by logical positivism – and therefore it does not embody the neo-colonialism that is so prevalent in science and the academy. It also accounts for transpersonal experiences of telepathy and mediumship that neurotheology cannot.

Strassman’s study focuses not on priests in the Tabernacle but on the prophets, where altered states seem to happen not with entheogens but spontaneously through fasting, meditation, posture or other techniques.²¹⁸ He finds “little, if any, evidence in the text [that] Hebrew Bible personalities experienced prophecy by ingesting psychoactive plants or drugs”, and while he does concede that the mode in which incense was burned in the Tabernacle “suggests an exogenous mind-altering agent”, he stops short of inquiring into the pharmacology of the resins.^{219 220} There is also the vision of fire that burns but does not consume on Mount Sinai. Along with the burning bush, this is one of the only two miraculous fires that burn but do not consume in the story of Exodus. Given the congruence of imagery the wordplay is interesting, because both the burning bush and Sinai derive from SN, meaning ‘to pierce’ (a different root to the piercing acacia shittim).²²¹ The bush (SNH) adds a feminine H, and Sinai (SYNY) adds a doubly potent divine masculine Y. Flamelike manifestations pierce the veil in both stories, and at Sinai more is seen besides:

And all the people are seeing the voices, and the flames, and the sound of the trumpet.²²²

The only time most people see sounds is when they are tripping, when the ACC goes offline and sense modalities become muddled. Not only is this the only example of synaesthesia in the Hebrew Bible, it is also the only collective revelation. Though apocalypses are the stuff of scripture, prophets almost invariably see sights and hear sounds alone. Collective visions are extremely rare in world mythology generally, though there was a well-documented real-life case in October 1917, when tens of thousands of pilgrims and a pack of journalists flocked to Fátima in Portugal for the final apparition in a series that had been announced months in advance.

“Look at the sun!” cried the child prophetess suddenly, and the sun danced.²²³ Or it span. Or it approached the earth. Or it flared in purples, yellows and blues “as if it had come through the stained-glass windows of a cathedral, and spread itself over the people who knelt with outstretched hands.”²²⁴ Some sceptics saw visions. Some believers saw nothing. Accounts vary enormously, but some visually extraordinary event was experienced simultaneously by many thousands of people, each in their own ways, often with the phenomenology of fire that burned but did not consume.

Did years of war and terrifying uncertainty provoke an episode of mass hysteria amongst the witnesses? Or did Our Lady of Perpetual Succour exploit a favourable neurochemical environment to slip through the veil and comfort her children in their hour of need? Psychedelics need not be invoked to explain visions, nor even collective visions. Stress increases levels of naturally occurring endogenous DMT and 5MEO-DMT (in rats at least, and presumably in people, who share 85% of their genes with rats).²²⁵ And as we have seen, perception can be extremely responsive to context at the level of the visual cortex, even without psychedelics. Like the Fátima witnesses, the fleeing Israelites in the story were facing great uncertainties and stress. Even so, biblical history is not without moments of collective stress, and yet the Sinai vision remains the only group apocalypse, and the only experience of synaesthesia. Another unique circumstance is that at this time everyone is eating manna together. According to the KJV:

And when the Children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, “it is manna [man hu]”: for they wist not what it was…²²⁶

…but if they wist not what it was, how would they know to call it manna?

More logical bibles translate man hu as “what is it?”, although ‘what’ in Hebrew is ma not man. Rabbis argue the point in an ancient commentary, with one side proposing that the escapees had picked up the word man in Egypt, and the other asking why they would use this random loan word when the rest of their vocabulary was Hebrew – indeed, a separate commentary specifically states that the Israelites kept their language, and commentaries are supposed to agree.^{227 228} Elsewhere in the same verse ma hu is spelled normally, suggesting something deeper in the wordplay.

Another interpretation is that man is the word Bedouins use for an edible sugary secretion collected from tamarisk trees in the desert.²²⁹ Though we might imagine “bread from heaven” falling like sacks of humanitarian aid, the Bible describes a secretion that drips and forms “thin flakes like frost on the ground”, or else hardens on the plant into white resinous pellets the size of coriander seeds:^{230 231}

And it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.²³²

Bedouin man would have been a good guess at first sight because it forms a honeydew that tastes like honey, and it hardens to from whitish pellets the size of coriander. But manna is “ground in mills, or beat in a mortar”, and this can’t be done with tamarisk secretion because it is gummy rather than brittle.^{233 234} For the same reason it doesn’t form “thin flakes like frost” where it drips but globulous mounds. Furthermore, there’s nothing miraculous about finding Bedouin man, as the Bedouins regularly did just that without divine intervention. The quails which helpfully come to ground every night to be rounded up by the wandering Israelites have a much more remarkable provenance, but they are not called “angel food” as manna is, and nor are they remarked upon much.²³⁵ Indeed, one verse specifically connects a feeling of satisfaction to the manna but not the quail, suggesting that it satisfies them in a way that quail meat did not:

At evening you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be satisfied with bread [manna]: and you shall know that I am YHWH your God.²³⁶

Another problem is that Bedouin man can be stored for up to a year, whereas with manna,

Moses said, “Let no man leave of it till the morning.” Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.²³⁷

It seems that the Israelites’ guess of man was close but wrong (because they wist not what it was, as indicated in the text). The rapid rate of putrification suggests a fungal organism, and so does the fact that heat arrests the decay.

“Tomorrow is to be a day of sabbath rest [said Moses] […] So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.” So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it.²³⁸

Any guess as to the identity of a fungus can only be speculative several thousand years after the penning of legends that were older still. Dan Merkur guessed it was ergot, as the first stage of infection produces a honeydew with a taste like honey that dries on the plant as small resinous pellets.²³⁹ Other evidence Merkur does not cite supports his insight because ergot, being non-viscous (unlike man), forms a white frosty scale where it drips on the ground.²⁴⁰ For the same reason it dries brittle, so it can be ground to powder. Furthermore, ergot emerges from dormancy at the onset of spring, just when the Israelites first encounter manna.^{241 242} It also requires vegetation, and therefore water, and manna is only found when the Israelites have access to water.²⁴³ The method of preparation described in the Bible, whereby manna is baked, ground and boiled, wouldn’t do much for Bedouin man, but it is the simplest way to kill ergot and separate the psychoactive LSA alkaloids from the insoluble toxic compounds.²⁴⁴ Albert Hofmann, who made a mind-bending and non-toxic preparation of ergot a few millennia later, commented that such an extraction by dissolving in water was “well within the range of possibilities open to Early Man”.²⁴⁵

Presumably it wouldn’t have been beyond an omnipotent deity to provide food that didn’t require preparation and had a longer shelf-life – but then the original YHWH isn’t omnipotent, despite all the hype.²⁴⁶ His miracles are subject to the limitations of the natural world (some supernatural stories were edited in by later hands, but more on that after we have got through our stash). The meteorologically exciting escape described in Exodus seems a little far-fetched, but then oral traditions build extraordinary elements of history into meaningful motifs played out in the biographies of larger-than-life characters. Plagues plague. Floods flood. The earth quakes and swallows people.¹⁹⁹ Quails do indeed break their migrations when winds are unfavourable, and they wait on the desert sand in large numbers where they can easily be rounded up.²⁴⁷ Sometimes a “strong east wind” blows all night, and according to the St. Petersburg Institute of Oceanology 67mph would have been sufficient to part the Red Sea.^{248 249} Maybe the miracle of the “angel’s food” is not where it comes from but where it takes you.

To speculate further, perhaps beyond the bounds of good taste: what if the myth-maker was working in an altered state, as the Sanskrit poets claim to be in the Rig Veda? Further still, could Exodus, our most enduring myth about getting out of it, be an allegory of the psychedelic experience? A dry path opens up through the chaos of the sea for the Israelites to pass through, and the army pursuing them succumbs to the waters, obliterating the last remnants of their former conditioning. They emerge free but mostly helpless into the wilderness to begin a journey of 40 years, with only a distant memory that a Promised Land awaits them at the end and the wherewithal to manage the next few steps. 40 years in the wilderness is long enough for everyone to die off, according to commentaries, so a new generation that had never known slavery could enter the Promised Land. 40 is also the numbers of days that Moses fasts on the mountain (and the same period that Jesus fasts in the desert, and that Muhammad recommends for a harmal retreat in the hadith above). 40 days is also the first stage of gestation, according to ancient Israelites and modern embryologists alike, for that is when the organs, limbs and fingers have differentiated, and when brain waves are first detected.²⁵⁰ And 40 is the weeks of pregnancy, counting as the Israelites did from the first day of the last menstrual period.²⁵¹ Death and rebirth, the motif common to so many ancient psychedelic rites and myths, is deeply connected to the number 40 in the Middle Eastern folklore. In the Hebrew calculus of gematria, 40 is the number of mem, the mother letter of water, the letter that represents the womb and resembles a womb in its shape.²⁵² Wilderness is midbar (MDBR) in Hebrew, the womb (M) of the word (DBR), and midbar is the womb of the word in another sense as it also means ‘mouth’.²⁵³ In the wilderness the Children of Israel see the vision and the voice, and Moses and YHWH write the ten mega-words on the tablets. They are words (DBR), not commandments (MAMR), and they have nothing to do with ‘thou-shalt-not’ – but we will return to that in a later chapter.²⁵⁴

Shamans undergo periods of isolation and dietas in order to receive icaros, or phrases of melody and phonemes which transmit the power of a given plant, animal or natural force that has become a spirit ally during the dieta. There is a clear echo in the story of Moses upon Mt. Sinai, where the word usually translated as ‘covenant’ also means ‘alliance’:

And he was there with YHWH forty days and forty nights (5); he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the alliance, the ten words/phrases.²⁵⁵

Moses and his tribe pass through three wildernesses with names that evoke stages on the alchemical journey of lines dissolving and visions erupting into consciousness. The first is the dry midbar shuwr, where SWR means ‘wall’ and evokes the idea of division.²⁵⁶ The second wilderness is where they find water and manna, and it is called midbar syn, where SYN means ‘clay’ or ‘mud’, the malleable substance from which dry walls are made.²⁵⁷ When the Israelites discover manna, the walls that keep the mind com-part-mental-ized become malleable (solve). Another meaning of SYN is ‘thorn’ or ‘spike’, again suggesting boundaries being breached as a thorn pierces the flesh and the veils, letting the contents of one space spill through into another. ²⁵⁸ They continue on to the final wilderness, midbar Sinai (SYNY), which is the same SN root with a doubly fiery yowd of God. At Mt. Sinai the Israelites witness an apocalypse erupting into their plane of existence in a piercing, flaming, synaesthetic vision, and Moses receives his mega-words (coagula).

Ω

At the end of the wanderings in the wilderness, Moses decides that a stash of manna should be safeguarded:

“Fill an omer of it to be kept/cultivated for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness…”²⁵⁹

The command is clear, but then the prophet repeats himself the following line with a slightly different command:

“Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before YHWH, to be kept for your generations.” As YHWH commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the [tablets of the] Testimony, to be kept.²⁶⁰

Something stinks here, as stinky as yesterday’s manna. Firstly, why would Moses give a command twice, and in two slightly different ways? Secondly, the initial command stipulates that manna is to be seen by the people of the generations to come, whereas the second hides it behind two veils where it can’t be seen by anyone except the High Priest. Stranger still, this command is issued, and followed, before the Ark has been constructed. The tablets of the Testimony haven’t even been hewed yet and nor has the Tabernacle been constructed, so how can something be put in front of them?

The second command renders the first both redundant and unworkable. Manna ended up with the other Godfoods in the Tabernacle, beyond the reach of everyone except certain powerful and secretive families.²⁶¹ It is not mentioned for a millennium and a half, from the arrival in the Promised Land in 1406 BC until the 1^st century AD and the New Testament, when it is still safely ensconced inside the Holy of Holies:

And after the second veil, the Tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.²⁶²

The veil of secrecy has grown thicker than ever. At some point the story changed, and to understand why we need to know a little more about how the Bible was put together.

Though tradition recalls that the Pentateuch (a.k.a. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) was written in its entirety by Moses, textual scholars view it as a compilation of documents from different centuries that can be distinguished by grammatical differences, set phrases, setting and so on.²⁶³ They were produced by different communities, and present vastly different theologies and political agendas as power structures shifted over half a millennium of turbulent history, as leadership passed from tribal elders in a commonwealth to kings of a kingdom, then through centuries of civil war, then into exile in Babylon, and then back to Judea under the thumb of a foreign superpower. The different sources were joined together by redactors with agendas of their own, the original cut-up artists, who sometimes spliced them together line by line. Out of reverence for the texts, or perhaps in trying to keep different factions happy, they endeavoured to include as much as they could even when stories contradict each other, so the Ishmaelites become Midianites halfway through a story, and poor old Noah has to enter the ark twice in the same chapter before enduring a flood that lasts both 150 and 40 days.^{264 265} While textual experts disagree over details about the sources and which verse is from which, few dispute the general idea of multiple sources. Even the Vatican acknowledges the possibility of “diverse sources” in its current catechism.²⁶⁶

Genesis and Exodus are mostly composed of text from the oldest source, the Jahwist, which draws upon oral traditions of the Bronze Age (as do other epics such as the Vedas and the Homeric cycle). It is interspersed with passages from a rival text, the Elohist, that draws on northern traditions and was composed a few centuries later after civil war had split the commonwealth. The next source appears to have been written by a Priestly source sometime between the 8^th and 6^th centuries, adding the technical details of the Tabernacle, long tracts about sin and cleanliness, genealogies to establish the pre-eminence of the priestly lineage, then nearly 200 verses counting people and their stuff (“even the censers, the fleshhooks, and the shovels, and the basins”), followed by instructions on how to set up a leper colony.267 By this point it is clear that the Bible has become a very different type of book. Deuteronomy is almost entirely the work of a fourth source called the Deuteronomist, and primarily consists of law. Only after the Babylonian captivity was all of this redacted into something like the Bible that we know and love and hate today.

Exegesis from a deconstructed Bible isn’t an exact science like pharmacology, with its double-blind studies and rat drowning, and with such uncertainty it is tempting to have one’s wicked way with the limited facts available. A series of priesthoods made an industry of doing this, and perhaps I am also guilty in my own incense-addled enthusiasm, and yet many perfectly sober scholars have found something wrong with Exodus placing manna in a Tabernacle that doesn’t yet exist.²⁶⁸ Whatever it was, manna was eaten once a year by the High Priest alone while other priests ate shewbread together outside.²⁶⁹ There was evidently some concern that the High Priest might get too high, because a chain was tied to his robe so people outside the thick veil would know if he stopped moving.²⁷⁰ Perhaps they could have dragged him out if he passed out.

A veil was torn in the wilderness, but a new veil arose to take its place in the Holy Land and hung until the coming of a new masseur Messiah. The Greek equivalent to MaShiYaCh is christos, from chrió (to anoint), and the rite of anointing is called the Chrism.²⁷¹ With Christ, the concept of messiah went in a completely different direction. He took the holy anointing oil from the preserve of elites to baste and bake apostles from all classes. According to the Gospel of Philip:

The Chrism is superior to baptism, for it is from the word “Chrism” that we have been called “Christians,” certainly not because of the word “baptism”. And it is because of the Chrism that “the Christ” has his name. For the Father anointed the Son, and the Son anointed the apostles, and the apostles anointed us.²⁷²

In Mark, Christ sends his followers off to anoint the sick, and in Eastern Orthodox ritual the Chrism is still performed today, albeit with a disappointing dribble on the head.²⁷³

The language as well as the rituals of Christianity retain traces of the entheogenic practices that have been lost. Every day, for example, millions of believers ask in their respective languages that God “give us this day our daily bread”, which is rather a lot of ‘day’.²⁷⁴ Though the Lord’s Prayer is one of the most well- known tracts of scripture in translation, the word translated as “daily” is the most obscure word in the Bible. Actual days tend to be fairly day-to-day, but this word epiousion is found nowhere else in scripture and nowhere in Greek literature.²⁷⁵ The epi- (of epitaph and epilogue) takes the bread ‘beyond’, while ousion appears to be related to ousia (being or essence). St. Jerome translated it as supersubstantialem (i.e. supersubstantial), something ‘beyond real’ or of a ‘higher substance’, rather more ‘extra-ordinary’ than your standard crusty loaf. Ancient sources equate it with manna.²⁷⁶ The Second Book of Baruch looks forward to a time when manna will be eaten again:

When all that which should come to pass in these parts is accomplished, the Messiah will begin to be revealed[…] At that time that the treasury of manna will come down again from on high, and they will eat of it in those years because these are they who will have arrived at the consummation of time.²⁷⁷

The agonists in the agonies and ecstasies of Exodus are agents of the apocalypse and sources of creativity and transformation, and therefore a threat to the status quo. LSD was placed behind a veil a few brief decades after its discovery, with research confined to government programs. Perhaps the secret services worried, as top-secret executioners with a monopoly over mind control had worried in ancient Israel, that a freely-available and safe ergot preparation could dissolve the walls of their towers into mud. As the Age of Rationalism set in, altered states came to be looked down upon rather than up to, and the Temperance movement the evangelical churches proved to be far more puritanical than the original Puritans. Non-ordinary experience is still policed with violence and incarceration. The so-called War on Drugs costs billions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives to maintain, while profane tranquilizer use is massive outside the church and lamentably absent within.²⁷⁸

Though the spice-box passed inhaled and passed on at the closing Havdalah ritual of Jewish Sabbath may be the last faint whiff of something sweeter, psychoactive preparations continued to feature in the Jewish tradition.²⁷⁹ The medieval rabbinical authority Bahya ben Asher wrote openly about drugs he knew that gave higher knowledge about the Tree of Knowledge as manna had done in the wilderness, and the 13^th century Jewish grimoire Sefer Raziel describes scrying for spirits with “canabus” and wormwood.280 281 Cannabis was permitted by some Islamic judges and smoked in some mosques, and a 2014 decree from the highest circle of Shi’i jurisprudence ruled that psychedelics are permissible if used with an experienced guide and in order to know God.282 283 Perhaps other traditions went underground. Rites performed with Acacia seyal at Masonic lodges today are secrets kept on pain of death, as were the rites of Eleusis and the Tabernacle.284

I have experimented with the holy head resins, including once after a talk I gave on the subject. Though I used modest quantities of the few I could source in a poor quality chamber, and without any kaneh bosem, my audience told me in spaced out slurs that they were feeling very tranquilized indeed. My private experiments offering incense to the LORD are yet to supply me with auspicious dates for launching an invasion, but I was surprised on one occasion to see a symbol behind my closed eyelids, and even more surprised to discover later that it was the glyph of an abomination worshipped with frankincense centuries before YHWH came on the scene. If you are going to experiment with large doses, or indeed with abominations, bear in mind that the mortal taboos against doing so are grounded in reason. Enjoy your research but take care, because the incense of drugs is exactly what it says on the tin. The powers pack quite a punch, and there are a lot of chemicals in synergy.

Jesus knew how to party. His first miracle yielded about 150 gallons of wine to liven up a wedding.²⁸⁵ Sobriety came to be a virtue only later, when Paul added pharmakeia along to a list of awful things, including “wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like” – and eris, or discord (Hail Eris!). Even today Jesus sometimes slips his nails and slides off his cross to get high in the forests at the frontiers of Christendom, sometimes he brings something back to church to spice up communion. Freestyle Gnostics traffic between the worlds with flowers in their hair and barks in their pockets. Despite the bans, hedonists and heads in the belly of the beast are still climbing the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, smoking, chewing and snorting their way into other dimensions, reclaiming extraordinary experience as an integral part of a healthy life, the supersubstantial in the everyday. There are further secrets in scripture concerning the mechanics of the mind and the machinations of realpolitik, my brothers and sisters in blessed abandon. Let us begin again, as is our custom, in the beginning.

Ω

HancockHour episode link here

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