"Though Athens brought forth numerous divine things, yet she never created anything nobler than those sublime Mysteries through which we became gentler and have advanced from a barbarous and rustic life to a more civilized one, so that we not only live more joyfully but also die with a better hope." - Cicero
The first part of this review will be my summary of the argument of the book, the second part a short review of the experience of reading it.
1.
The Eleusinian Mysteries was an ancient Greek biannual festival held near Athene for about 2,000 years straight. In the wintertime Month of Flowers, part one, the Lesser Mysteries were held, where a mimesis took place of the abduction of Persephone by Hades and as such her sacred marriage with death, as recounted in the Hymn to Demeter. It is argued in the book that this ceremony was connected to herbalism, more particularly with the picking of plants and flowers and in this case magic or psychotropic kinds.
After months of preparation with preliminary rites, part two, held in our month of September, the Greater Mystery was performed. In this most elusive of rites at times as many as three thousand initiates lived through an extraordinary, unforgettable, and ineffable night. Every year dependably and on schedule they were offered a glimpse into a world beyond. With the only requirement of a small fee and being able to speak Greek, man and woman, freeman and slave, all were invited to join in this, literally, once in a lifetime experience. The rule was: only once and you don't talk about it. No new religion was being promulgated, only a life and consciousness-altering experience had. Plato took part in the vision, as did Sophocles, Euripides, Heracles, and anyone else who was anyone in ancient Greece. Some guy named Alcibiades even profaned the mysteries in his home, showing them to some friends (which led to the tragic suppression of the whole tradition). Piecing together what exactly happened beyond the gates of the telesterion (temple) is a most challenging quest, though there are many reasons to suspect the involvement some kind of a potion which produced physical symptoms, and that closely related to this something transcendent, recounted as divine even, was seen. Persephone herself perhaps? Or was it Demeter, or Heracles?
The writers present a compelling case that the sacred "kykeon" potion apparently drank at the Eleusinian Mysteries, was in fact an entheogenic mixture. They argue that the contemporary priests must have found a manner to treat the naturally occurring ergopeptine alkaloids--found in claviceps purpurea, a parasitic fungus that probably grew on barley in this place and time and maybe now still--somehow with hydrolysis, by using a water and ashes mixture (ashes also being associated to the birth/death symbolism, more on this further on). This would then produce perhaps lysergic acid, approximately LSD, in other words, or in an earlier and easier stage of the process ergine, which may have been further epimerized to an ergine/isoergine mixture. These latter two substances, among others in lesser amounts, are entheogenic and plentifully present in morning glory or LSA seeds, which I can tell by personal experience are very damn psychedelically active. (I don't yet fully understand these processes and hence the authors' argument, but learning about it is on my lengthy to-learn list, if you could refer me to a source where I could do this comprehensively, please do.)
Robert Graves makes the case that it was actually psilocybin mushrooms which were the entheogenic agents of the rite, which is "not entirely unreasonable" in Terence McKenna's words, who agreed on the basis that ergot related alkaloids can cause convulsions, and that there yet is no record or sign of it having been dangerous to participate. (Except if you're a worldview perhaps.)
So that would be chemical and geographical evidence. Extant documentation can, the authors argue, be found in the archeological and historiographical records. Pottery and other excavated materials of this period and in this area somehow depict many of the gods and goddesses related to the festival together with barley (as with mushrooms). The Homeric Hymn to Demeter contains, among other obviously ambivalent, references to a sacred potion. After Persephone's water journey to the chthonic realm, Demeter in her anguish commands the building of the telesterion and teaches the mystery of mortality and rebirth. She threatens to starve humanity to death if Zeus doesn't send Persephone back her way, who by the time Zeus has acquiesced and she has to leave again has eaten a seed from Hades and thus from thence belongs partly to the underworld. The symbolism of death and rebirth and the cycle of life become very complicated here, and if you made it to here in my review I strongly recommend you to read the book. Put shortly, as far as I understand it the premise goes that both mysteries, each related to a specific plant, symbolized the conjunctio of destruction and redemption, of the reclaiming of life from its source in the chtonic depth of death, in other words, it made the reconciliation of both (chaos and order) an actual experience. This symbolism had profound significance for them, being dependent as society, to a large degree at least, on grain and good harvest.
2.
It was a fantastic and inspiring read. Only the documentation part was a bit boring in my experience, but upon reading that a second time I found many intriguing details that escaped my eye the first time around. The language is very clear and accessible, and almost never did I have the feeling that they were being overly repetitive. Speculation is kept to a minimum, they kept it to the point, and some extremely interesting questions are raised.
My favorite chapter was probably the afterword, the message for today's world, which crowns the work fittingly. In it the authors argue that with our Western, dualistic worldview, then in its cradle, we have gradually lost touch with our origins. We have lost a sense of divinity in and around us, and in negating the inner reality, and in thus dominating the external world, even with all the benefits that come with that, we have also become wreckers of the ground under our own feet and manglers of our own dignity. Humans clearly have a proclivity for visionary experience, and folks of all eons and places have realized that in times of change and upheaval, even way before, we need these kinds of profound experiences which touch us to the deepest core of our own being and move us, which connect us with and through our "soul" and bring us closer together, promoting solidarity and a deep, concrete sense of unity. That open our eyes to the mystery beyond and humble us enough to become wiser, whatever that may mean. We Westerners have been mastering the objective, outside world, but concerning the inner world of subjective experience we are adolescents. The authors of this book were true pioneers in reopening the gates to reestablishing our connection with the transcendent reality, and it's about time because at the pace we're going now the ravine does appear to be nearing at an extremely alarming rate. A reintegration of entheogenic drugs, of ecstatic experiences, of transcendence, into the cultural system, may be the missing link to retrieving--and not a bit too soon--a sense of real and profound meaning, felt to the marrow, in this too abstract world where true chaos factually looms. It may be what we need to pop this bubble and finally achieve what we've individually and collectively so long longed for, maturity.
Let us realize, brothers and sisters, that Cicero's praises and hopes were well placed.