Albert Hofmann

R. Gordon Wasson

Carl A. P. Ruck

"...one of the two best kept secrets in history, and this book is the most successful attempt I know to unlock it. ... [A] historical tour de force." --Huston Smith, author of The World’s Religions The secretive Mysteries conducted at Eleusis in Greece for nearly two millennia have long puzzled scholars with strange accounts of initiates experiencing otherworldly journeys. In this groundbreaking work, three experts—a mycologist, a chemist, and a historian—argue persuasively that the sacred potion given to participants in the course of the ritual contained a psychoactive entheogen. The authors then expand the discussion to show that natural psychedelic agents have been used in spiritual rituals across history and cultures. Although controversial when first published in 1978, the book’s hypothesis has become more widely accepted in recent years, as knowledge of ethnobotany has deepened. The authors have played critical roles in the modern rediscovery of entheogens, and The Road to Eleusis presents an authoritative exposition of their views. The book’s themes of the universality of experiential religion, the suppression of that knowledge by exploitative forces, and the use of psychedelics to reconcile the human and natural worlds make it a fascinating and timely read. This 30th anniversary edition includes an appreciative preface by religious scholar Huston Smith and an updated exploration of the chemical evidence by Peter Webster.

Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries

The Road to Eleusis

John Marco Allegro

Jan R. Irvin

"First published by ... Hodder and Stoughton, London, May 1970, ... Doubleday & Company, Garden City, NY, August 1970"--T.p. verso.

A Study of the Nature and Origins of Christianity Within the Fertility Cults of the Ancient Near East

The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross

Clark Heinrich

Blaise D. Staples

Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the  Eucharist

The Apples of Apollo

Blaise Daniel Staples

When the apostle Paul proclaimed the new Christian Mystery to the factious congregation at Corinth, there was no one who would not understand that this Eucharist was meant to replace the pagan Mystery that had been celebrated for over a millennium just a short distance away up the shore at the sanctuary of Eleusis. These essays attempt to uncover the original food of the sacramental communion."--BOOK JACKET.

Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the Eucharist

This new edition of Carl Ruck's text keeps its experimental approach and felicitous style, while including substantial changes that make the material easier to teach and learn. The book has been consolidated into a more concise and direct format so that the material can be covered in less time, and the somewhat intimidating aural-oral emphasis that characterized the first edition has been reduced. These improvements, together with the accessibility inherent in the structural approach to grammar, make Ancient Greek: A New Approach useful not only as an innovative text in the text in the classroom but for general self-instruction as well.

A New Approach

Ancient Greek

Robert Gordon Wasson

Alla scoperta dei misteri eleusini

José Alfredo González Celdrán

Mark Alwin Hoffman

"It was mainly just the European urban centers that converted to Christianity, and often more for political or commercial interests, rather than as a matter of faith. The old religions persisted in the villages or pagani, pejoratively named after them as Paganism. The Christians built their sanctuaries upon the pagan sites, expropriating their numinous past, commonly incorporating the actual architectural remnants and assimilating the symbolism of the former deities. The wisdom of those deposed gods and their rites persisted in less objectionable forms, disguised to delude the censors, as country festivals and quaint tales, often about the fairy folk who coexisted with this world and could be accessed by magical procedures that perpetuated ancient visionary sacraments of ecstatic shamanism. Encoded in tales seemingly as simple as Snow White with her poisoned red and white apple are themes traceable back to the great epic of Homer, about a hibernating bear hero called Odysseus, and the Mesopotamian Gilgamesh, as well as the cherished lineage of the leading families of Europe who derived their original empowerment from the pre-Christian fairy deities."--BOOK JACKET.

Survival of Pagan Shamanic Themes in European Fairytales

The Hidden World

In the ancient world, men and women joined cults known as Mysteries to unite with the deities of the otherworld and achieve eternal life. The most important of the Mysteries existed for two millennia at the village of Eleusis. Its deities were Demeter and Persephone, interchangeable in their roles as mother and daughter. The initiations and other rituals of this goddess-based cult were a profound secret: divulging information was punishable by death. For centuries, scholars have probed the secrets of the Eleusinian Mysteries and kykeon, its sacramental Eucharist — a sacred drink containing psychoactive chemicals similar to those in LSD. Their discoveries have been buried in the arcane language of alchemy, the occult sciences, and secret societies. Here, in prose accessible to all readers, Carl Ruck unravels the Mysteries, revealing the awesome powers of the goddesses, as well as the pagan underpinnings of Western culture.

Secrets of Eleusis

Sacred Mushrooms

Carl A. P. Ruck

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