Editing Entheogen (section)

==Historical and cultural use==
{{Main|History of entheogenic drugs}}

{{See also|Entheogenic drugs and the archaeological record}}

Entheogens have been used in various cultures worldwide, primarily in religious or healing ceremonies..<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Carod-Artal|first=F.J.|date=2015-01-01|title=Hallucinogenic drugs in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures|journal=Neurología (English Edition)|language=en|volume=30|issue=1|pages=42–49|doi=10.1016/j.nrleng.2011.07.010|pmid=21893367|issn=2173-5808|doi-access=free}}</ref> [[R. Gordon Wasson]] and [[Giorgio Samorini]] have proposed several examples of the cultural use of entheogens that are found in the archaeological record.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Giorgio |last1=Samorini |title=The 'Mushroom-Tree' of Plaincourault |journal=Eleusis |issue=8 |year=1997 |pages=29–37 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first1=Giorgio |last1=Samorini |title=The 'Mushroom-Trees' in Christian Art |journal=Eleusis |issue=1 |year=1998 |pages=87–108 }}</ref> Hemp seeds discovered by archaeologists at [[Pazyryk burials|Pazyryk]] suggest early ceremonial practices by the [[Scythians]] occurred during the 5th to 2nd century BCE, confirming previous historical reports by [[Herodotus]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Amazons : lives and legends of warrior women across the ancient world|last=Mayor|first= Adrienne|year=2014|isbn=9780691147208|location=Princeton|pages=147–149|oclc=882553191}}</ref> As detailed in Ott's ''Pharmacotheon'' (1993), substances such as ayahuasca in South America, psilocybin mushrooms in Mesoamerica, and peyote in North America have long-standing traditional uses for spiritual communication, healing, and ritual.<ref name=":0" />

These traditional uses often involve carefully controlled ceremonial contexts that emphasize the sacred and transformative nature of the entheogenic experience. For example, the Native American Church incorporates peyote in its religious ceremonies, while indigenous Amazonian cultures use ayahuasca in shamanic rituals.<ref name=":0" />

Most of the well-known modern examples of entheogens, such as [[Ayahuasca]], [[peyote]], [[psilocybin mushroom]]s, and [[Ipomoea tricolor|morning glories]] are from the native cultures of the Americas. However, it has also been suggested that entheogens played an important role in ancient Indo-European culture, for example by inclusion in the ritual preparations of the [[Soma (drink)|Soma]], the "pressed juice" that is the subject of Book 9 of the ''[[Rigveda]]''. Soma was ritually prepared and drunk by priests and initiates and elicited a paean in the ''Rigveda'' that embodies the nature of an entheogen:{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}

{{blockquote|Splendid by Law! declaring Law, truth speaking, truthful in thy works, Enouncing faith, King Soma!... O [Soma] Pavāmana (mind clarifying), place me in that deathless, undecaying world wherein the light of heaven is set, and everlasting lustre shines.... Make me immortal in that realm where happiness and transports, where joy and felicities combine...}}

The [[kykeon]] that preceded initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries is another entheogen, which was investigated (before the word was coined) by Carl Kerényi, in ''Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter.'' Other entheogens in the Ancient Near East and the Aegean include the [[Papaver somniferum|opium poppy]], [[Datura stramonium|datura]], and the unidentified "lotus" (likely the [[Nymphaea caerulea|sacred blue lily]]) eaten by the Lotus-Eaters in the ''[[Odyssey]]'' and ''[[narcissus (mythology)|Narcissus]]''.

According to Ruck, Eyan, and Staples, the familiar shamanic entheogen that the [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Indo-Europeans]] brought knowledge of was ''[[Amanita muscaria]]''. It could not be cultivated; thus it had to be found, which suited it to a nomadic lifestyle. When they reached the world of the Caucasus and the Aegean, the Indo-Europeans encountered wine, the entheogen of [[Dionysus]], who brought it with him from his birthplace in the mythical [[Nysa (mythology)|Nysa]], when he returned to claim his Olympian birthright. The Indo-European proto-Greeks "recognized it as the entheogen of Zeus, and their own traditions of shamanism, the Amanita and the 'pressed juice' of Soma{{Snd}}but better, since no longer unpredictable and wild, the way it was found among the [[Hyperborea]]ns: as befit their own assimilation of agrarian modes of life, the entheogen was now cultivable."<ref name="Ruck and Staples">{{cite book|last=Staples|first=Danny|title=The world of classical myth : gods and goddesses, heroines and heroes|year=1994|publisher=Carolina Academic Press|location=Durham, NC|isbn=0-89089-575-9|url=http://csp.org/chrestomathy/world_of.html|author2=Carl A.P. Ruck|access-date=9 May 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415105236/http://csp.org/chrestomathy/world_of.html|archive-date=15 April 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Robert Graves]], in his foreword to ''The Greek Myths,'' hypothesises that the ambrosia of various pre-[[Greeks|Hellenic]] tribes was ''Amanita muscaria'' (which, based on the morphological similarity of the words amanita, amrita and ambrosia, is entirely plausible) and perhaps [[psilocybin mushroom]]s of the genus ''[[Panaeolus]]''. ''Amanita muscaria'' was regarded as [[divinity|divine]] food, according to Ruck and Staples, not something to be indulged in, sampled lightly, or profaned. It was seen as the food of the gods, their [[ambrosia]], and as mediating between the two realms. It is said that [[Tantalus]]'s crime was inviting commoners to share his ambrosia.