Synopsis

In honor of the publication of Em’s debut novel, Dionysus in Wisconsin, Em and Jesse talk about Dionysus (the god), and then about drug use in ancient religious rituals.

Notes

1/ Order book here (or from non-Amazon sites here). (Incredibly well reviewed! Buy one now!!)

2/ Sparagmos: your vocabulary term for the day, kids. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparagmos

3/ Dionysus’s origin story: in some versions, Hera goads Semele into asking to see Zeus au natural. [Hera is usually at fault, absolutely! But the extreme lack of support/belief from Semele’s family plays a part as well.–Jesse]

4/ The film is Inception. I watched the entire thing. Could not tell you what it was about.

5/ Eleusinian Mysteries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleusinian_Mysteries
There’s a nice picture of the Ninnion Tablet on the Wikipedia page (the tablet is one of the few depictions we have of the Elusinian mysteries).

6/ Carl Ruck, “Entheogens in Ancient Times: Wine and the Rituals of Dionysus,” in Toxicology in Antiquity, 2nd edition, ed. Philip Wexler, (2019), 343–352.

7/ Michael Pollan, How to Change Your Mind

8/ Entheogens

9/ F. J. Carod-Artal, “Hallucinogenic Drugs in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican Cultures,” in Neurologia 30.1 (2015), 42–49.

10/ Balche: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balch%C3%A9

11/ “Many mushrooms cause hallucinations. Some only cause hallucinations once.”

12/ For the record, erowid.org (https://erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/mushrooms_basics.shtml) notes that there are numerous species of psilocybin mushrooms in three different genuses (psilocybe, panaeolus, and copelandia) that are psychoactive. Dose varies by whether the mushroom is dried or fresh and also based on species. Onset is generally 30–60 min after being taken but up to 2 hrs, and effects last 4–6 hrs with an additional period of 2–6 hrs during which “it is difficult to go to sleep and there is definitely a noticeable difference from everyday reality, but which is not strong enough to be considered tripping.”

Jesse just returned from Amsterdam where there are Mushroom (psilocybin) stores. The staff are very careful to make sure that customers understand the process of taking psilocybin, and staff refuse to sell to any customers who won’t listen to the brief lecture (eat before partaking, don’t mix with anything else, be in a safe space, vitamin C will help slow/nullify effects).

13/ Fatur, Karsten. “‘Hexing herbs’ in ethnobotanical perspective: a historical review of the uses of anticholinergic solanaceae plants in Europe.” Economic Botany 74, 140–158 (2020). (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12231-020-09498-w)

14/ Franciscan Friar Bernardino de Sahagún (c.1499–1590) left us a number of descriptions of drug use and is quoted by Carod-Artal (see note 9 above).

15/ For the descriptions of Mayan drug enemas and statues, see Carod-Artal (note 9 above).

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS