Cannabis and the Soma Solution - Softcover

Bennett, Chris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0984185801 ISBN 13: 9780984185801

Publisher: Keneh Press, 2010

Synopsis

Seeking to identify the plant origins of the early sacramental beverages Soma and Haoma, this study draws a connection between the psychoactive properties of these drinks and the widespread use of cannabis among Indo-Europeans during this time. Exploring the role of these libations as inspiration for the Indian Rig Veda and the Persian Avestan texts, this examination discusses the spread of cannabis use across Europe and Asia, the origins of the Soma and Haoma cults, and the shamanic origins of modern religion.

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About the Author

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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Cannabis and the Soma Solution

By Chris Bennet

Trine Day LLC

Copyright © 2010 Chris Bennett
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-9841858-0-1

Contents

Cannabis and the Soma Solution, 
Copright page, 
Publisher's Foreword, 
Acknowledgements, 
Foreword, 
Introduction, 
Quote, 
— 1 — The Soma-Haoma Question, 
— 2 — What Soma Was Not Was Wasson's Mushroom Mania, 
— 3 — Seeds of the Soma-Haoma Cult: Ancient Europe, 
— 4 — Soma: A Cannabis Concoction, 
— 5 — The Bundles of Haoma?, 
— 6 — The Archaeological Evidence, 
— 7 — The Scythian "Haoma-Gatherers", 
— 8 — Hu-ma, Cannabis in China, 
— 9 — China's Haomavarga, 
— 10 — A Scent Pleasing to the Gods: Mesopotamia, 
— 11 — Shemshemet: A Ladder to the Heavens – Egypt, 
— 12 — Kannabis in Greece, 
— 13 — A Drug for Hilarity: Rome, 
— 14 — Zoroaster, Psychopomp or Party-Pooper?, 
— 15 — Bhanga; Zoroaster's Good Narcotic, 
— 16 — Keneh Bosem: Sacred Plant of the Hebrews, 
— 17 — Mithristianity, 
— 18 — India, Land of Bhang, 
— 19 — Hashish and Islam, 
— 20 — Hao ma in the Court, 
Conclusion, 
Appendix A, 
Appendix B, 
Appendix C, 
Appendix D, 
Appendix E, 
Appendix F, 
Illustrations, 
Bibliography, 
Acknowledgements, 

CHAPTER 1

The Soma-Haoma Question

The History of the search for Soma is, properly, the history of Vedic studies in general, as the Soma sacrifice was the focal point of the Vedic religion ... everything of a mystical nature within that religion is pertinent to the identity of the plant.

— (Doniger O'Flaherty, 1968)

The identity of the ancient Soma is undoubtedly one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in the field of religious history. Common in both the religious lore of ancient India and in Persia where it was known as Haoma, the plant was considered a God and when pressed and made into a drink the ancient worshipper who imbibed it gained the powerful attributes of this God.

The whole Sama-Veda is devoted to this moon-plant worship; an important part of the Avesta is occupied by Hymns to Homa. This great reverence paid to the plant, on account of its intoxicating qualities, carries us back to a region where the vine was unknown, and to a race to whom intoxication was so new an experience as to seem a gift of the gods. Wisdom appeared to come from it, health, increased power of body and soul, long life, victory in battle, brilliant children. What Bacchus was to the Greeks, the Divine Haoma, or Soma, was to the primitive Aryans. (Clarke, 1883)

As Zenaide A. Ragozin noted in his 1895 edition of Vedic India, Soma "was unquestionably the greatest and holiest offering of the ancient Indian worship":

The Gods drink of the offered beverage; they long for it; are nourished by it and thrown into joyous intoxication ... The beverage is divine, it purifies, it is a water of life, gives health and immortality, prepares the way to heaven, destroys enemies, etc.,

The fierceness of the drink, its exhilarating and inspiring properties, are especially expatiated upon. The chosen few who partake it ... give most vivid expressions to the state of exaltation, of intensified vitality, which raises them above the level of humanity. (Ragozin, 1895)

The origins of Soma's use goes back into the shadowy time of pre-history and to the common Aryan ancestors of the Persian Zoroastrian religion, and the Vedic religion of India. It may seem strange to some readers that fair skinned Aryans are the source of both the Vedic Soma cult in India, and Avestan Haoma cult in Persia, but this is clearly the case. Fair skinned, yellow haired Indra, the celebrated Soma drinking God of the Vedas, clearly originated as a "white man's" God.

At the swift draught the Soma-drinker waxed in might, the Iron one with yellow beard and yellow hair. (RV.10.96)

Fair cheeks hath Indra, Maghavan, the Victor, Lord of great host ... (RV.3.30)

As I.J.S. Taraporewala explained:

The Aryans (using the word in its narrower sense, as comprising the two peoples, the Indians and the Iranians, who called themselves by that proud name) had lived together for long ages in one land, had spoken one tongue and had followed one religion. Where that ancient Motherland of the Aryans was, we have no means of determining, but it seems to have been a region far to the North, which, according to the Iranian tradition, was overwhelmed and destroyed by ice and snow. At a later period the two main stocks of these people migrated southwards, still keeping together, and after many generations of wandering, ultimately arrived in the neighbourhood of the high mountainous region which we know as the Pamir table-land today. They spread around from that region into the lower fertile and salubrious valleys of the south, west and east. The lands called by us Afghanistan and Bactria were the regions where the Aryans had long carried on their activities.

The language which these people spoke was the ancient tongue of which the language of the Vedic Hymns and that of the Gathic Chants of Zarathustra were both branches. The exceedingly close resemblance between the two has been noted by every student of Aryan philology. So close are these two languages that a mere phonetic change (or, to put it popularly, a slight mispronunciation) often suffices to translate a passage from the one into the other, keeping at the same time the sense absolutely intact. The differences are not greater than what are found between two 'dialects' of one original tongue.

The religious traditions inherited by these two great peoples, the Hindus and the Persians were, therefore, the common Aryan traditions. ... Haoma is ... [an] Indo-Iranian Deity, being the Vedic Soma. In the Avesta He is not a mere personification of the Soma-plant, but a great Teacher who appeared in the very early days to lead forward our infant humanity ... Some scholars believe that it was He who introduced the Haoma-(Soma-) Cult among the Aryans and thus gave His own name to the plant and its juice which formed an important item of the Indo-Iranian ritual. The Hindu and Zoroastrian rituals turn entirely upon the offering of the juice of this plant. (Taraporewala, 1926)

This common ancestry accounts for the many similarities in the Indian and Persian cosmologies and language as can be seen in the surviving religious texts the Hindu Rig Veda, and the Persian, Avesta, and especially to their use of the sacred plant known in India as Soma, and in Persian Haoma. As Dasturji Dr. Maneckji N. Dhalla explained of the connections between Haoma and Soma:

... [T]he resemblance between ... [the Haoma] and the Soma cult is so great that they are spoken of in identical words. We shall quote a few of the more important passages to show the close parallelism between the Haoma-Soma cult. The celestial plant, it is said, was brought upon earth by birds. It is girishta or girijata and parvata vrddhah, say the Vedic texts, and the Avesta says it is bareshnush paiti gairinam and paurvatahva viraodha, that is, growing on mountains. It is Av. zairi, and Skt. hari, meaning green or golden. It is passed through a sieve of the hairs of the tail of the sacred bull among the Iranians and from that made of sheep wool among the Indians. The extracting process is called Av. havana, and Skt. savana. It is Av. haomahe madho, and Skt. somyam madhu, 'sweet juice of Haoma-Soma.' It is Av. baeshaza, and Skt. bheshaja, 'healing.' The plant is deified among both and then it is called Av. hvaresh, and Skt. svarsh 'celestial,' it is Av. hukhratu, and Skt. Sukratu, 'posessed of good intelligence.' It is Av. verethraja, and Skt. vrtraha, 'victorious.' (Dhalla, 1936)

Unfortunately, over the millennia that have passed since these ancient texts were composed, the identity of the original Haoma\Soma was forgotten. "Whatever plant was used by the Indo-Aryans in the early centuries it is certain that it was later replace by other botanical species" (Eliade, 1978). As has been noted, the subjects of psychoactive substances in magical rituals, even in the historic period, are hard to follow, as to both Priests and shamans alike, magic revealed is secrets lost. As Rendel Harris explained, at first the use of ritual consumption of Soma was an event for the general public, but this soon changed:

Then later the club, formed by the initiates, will assert itself against the drink; the democracy of the new draught will disappear; the god-intoxicated mystics will become a caste; the Aryan in the street will no longer make nor drink the beverage: it will come under the rule, 'For the priests only' and 'By the priests only:' in the beginning it appears to have been more widely diffused and more commonly enjoyed. The religious experience becomes transferred from the many to the few; one must not over-populate the upper atmospheres! Gods there; Brahmans here: but not too many of them. (Harris, 1927)

Detailed descriptions of the plant thus likely became a form of sacred knowledge and therefore not privy to the masses administered to by the priesthood. "Apparently for some time members of the priestly clique limited the knowledge and use of Soma to their own esoteric activities. Thus a small influential segment of ancient Indian society controlled religion and the distribution of the Soma plant" (Merlin, 1972). "In the end it could be the case, as it appears with the soma of the ancient Vedic religion, that the priests kept it so secret that they eventually lost the knowledge themselves" (Taylor, 1985). "Some scholars believe that it was an extinct variety of Indian hemp, others that it was some other long forgotten plant found only in the Himalayan foothills. It was already becoming scarce at the time of the Brahmanas, [composed 600 B.C., onwards] and the Aitareya Brahmana even suggests a substitute" (Sharma, 1985).

As Vedic scholar Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty explains, the confusion caused by this situation was further compounded as time went on:

Not knowing what plant the poets of the RgVeda had in mind, modern scholars have often jumped to the conclusion that the hymns are vague and obscure in speaking of soma. The Brahmanas, dealing as they do with involved chains of substitutes, add to the confusion in almost geometric progression; the few Avestan parallels are rendered more or less useless by the overlay of purely Iranian elements; and by the time the Europeans enter the scene, with their fixed ideas and various axes to grind, the situation approaches bedlam. ... there seems to have been little contact between botanists and Vedists, Indian Scholars and Europeans. (Doniger O'Flaherty, 1968)

Fortunately for this author, writing in the age of the internet, access to the works of all such fields are much more easily accessible. Authorities from a variety of areas of expertise, with the inclusion of archaeology, will be cited in order to help establish the position that the original Haoma/Soma was a hemp preparation.

Although modern descendants of these ancient cults still perform the rituals of their ancestors, placebo non-entheogenic sacraments and in many cases the mildly stimulating plant Ephedra, is used as Haoma by modern Zoroastrians, and the non-intoxicating Sarcostemma acidum, consecrated in current Indian rites as Soma. But ephedra and Sarcostemma acidum, along with other substitutions clearly do not live up to all of the claims about the Soma/Haoma as described in the Vedas and Avestan texts. Ephedra is a branching, dioecious shrub, which has a sharp, disgusting taste. Ephedra contains the active alkaloids pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, which are used in a number of cold and other medicines; as well, ephedrine is the base of methamphetamine, or 'speed,' and for this it has come under legal scrutiny in recent times.

The qualities of Soma are given in poetic detail and the ancient composers' love and admiration for the plant can still be felt thousands of years after the texts were composed. In a spirit similar to that of the Catholic Eucharist, Soma/Haoma, was prepared in a sacred rite and then bestowed upon the pious to give them spiritual inspiration, wisdom, courage, health and other benefits.

The descriptions and praises of the plant left to us by antiquity have led numerous scholars to speculate on what the botanical identity of the original plant was. Western research into the identity of Soma/Haoma began in the 18th century, "but in the relatively short time that has elapsed since the investigation was initiated, over 100 species have been suggested as the source of Soma" (Merlin, 1972). "With the rather unusually large number of notoriously varied candidates for Soma and with the controversies arising from a series of misconceptions and subjectivity-centered interpretations, it is no wonder that even genuine students of the Soma problem become baffled and 'lost' themselves" (Swamy, 1976).

Amongst the many suggestions, besides those already mentioned, are milkweed, Sarcostemma acidum, mandrake, rhubarb, ginseng, opium Poppies, blue lotus, Stropharia cubensis, wine or liquor and the still used ephedra. Most popularly and more relative to what shall be discussed here, Syrian rue, the Amanita muscaria mushroom and cannabis have been suggested. As the editors of the authoritative Encyclopaedia Britannica have recorded on the subject;

One of the pharmacological mysteries is the nature of Zoroastrian haoma and the early Hindu soma, both sacred drinks made from plants. Their source may have been the Amanita Muscaria mushroom, the mind-affecting chemicals of which pass into the urine with their properties very little diminished; there are scriptural references to sacred urine drunk as the source of divine insights. Allusions to twigs and branches of haoma, however, suggest other plants, perhaps hemp. The mushroom, which does not grow in hot countries, may have been introduced to India, by Aryan invaders from the north; subsequently, other plants may have been substituted until their identity was confused and lost. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

References to its rich color and wonderful fragrance, the blissful state produced by Soma and the quantity and extent to which it was used also limits the number of potential candidates, as some of the botanical suggestions produce effects which could be considered far from blissful, and in some cases, if ingested in the quantities in which Soma was consumed, would have been toxic.

Before moving onto the reasons why the origins of the Soma/Haoma cult can be found amongst the early users of cannabis, a quick overview of the most popular candidates, Amanita muscaria and ephedra, is required in order to demonstrate why neither of these other substances offer a suitable answer in comparison to cannabis. The ideas that Vedic Soma was the Amanita muscaria mushroom as put forth by R. Gordon Wasson, and the Avestan Haoma was Syrian rue, as suggested by co-authors David Stophlet Flattery and Martin Schwartz, have become so pervasive in academic circles, in some cases seemingly accepted unquestionably as fact, that a thorough examination of the flaws in these theories is needed before moving on to a more realistic presentation. As well, an analysis of their reasons for dismissing cannabis as a candidate is also in order.

CHAPTER 2

What Soma Was Not Was Wasson's Mushroom Mania

Undoubtedly, currently the most popular candidate for Soma has been the Amanita muscaria mushroom. The Fly agaric theory was originally proposed by the banker and mycologist R. Gordon Wasson, and has been widely accepted by a number of scholars, like poet-philosopher Robert Graves, Huston Smith,[1] Clark Heinrich and anthropologist Weston La Barre.

The careful scholarship of the dedicated amatuer mycophile R. Gordon Wasson reads like an exciting scientific, detective story. Moreover, his willingness to pursue the quest through the wide range of linguistics, archaeology, folklore, philology, ethnobotany, plant ecology, human physiology, and prehistory constitutes a object lesson to all holistic professional students of man. (La Barre, 1980)

Indeed, even one of the most in-depth anthropological studies of hemp, Cannabis and Culture, included an essay on the role of cannabis in India, where the author concluded;

Some scholars believe that soma, the mysterious plant, is cannabis ... however, the idea has been strongly opposed by Wasson ... Wasson's scholarly analysis of numerous verses from the Rg Veda and ethnohistorical and entheobotanical data advance very convincing arguments for identifying soma as the mushroom, fly-agaric (Amanita muscaria). (Hasan, 1975)

Before beginning this pointed dismissal of R. Gordon Wasson's theory of Amanita muscaria as the original Haoma/Soma it should be noted that Wasson's overall contributions to the study of the role of psychoactives in the birth of religion are more than remarkable.

My greatest criticism of Wasson's book Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality is that for the most part it only deals with about half the evidence; the Avestan material is only dealt with in a few passages; and a large part of the Vedas are purposely left out of the discussion!

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Cannabis and the Soma Solution by Chris Bennet. Copyright © 2010 Chris Bennett. Excerpted by permission of Trine Day LLC.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Keneh Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0984185801
• ISBN 13: 9780984185801
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 480