Twelve Constellations of the Girdle of Gaia

72 The Spirits or Mothers of the Plants - Pablo Amaringo (Luna) Twelve Constellations of the Girdle of Gaia “The Tree of Life bears twelve manner of monthly fruit and the leaves are for the healing of the nations”- Revelation Just as the twelve signs of the Zodiac represent twelve constellations of prominent stellar cofigurations so the following constellations of sacred plants, because of their great cultural significance, deserve to be respected as the fabled twelve-fold fruit of the Tree of Life. Each constellation represents a collection of species shar- ing a particular molecular arrangement psychoactive in the human brain, and having a significant cultural history of religious use to induce visionary, mystical or shamanic trance states. This chapter is to acknowledge the stature and respect these sacred fruits deserve, and to indicate beyond them those other stars without number which further enrich the diversity of our conscious life. It should be borne in mind that ancient uses of such plants were negotiated in a sacred and ritual manner and that several, despite their historical use are toxic. Others despite not being physically harmful have pro- found effects on the conscious mind, which, without proper guidance, could lead to social consequences detrimental to the respect in which these and all medicinal plants should be held. Eliade's failure to recognize the central role of hallucinogens in the shamanic path, both in Siberia and particularly in the Americas constitutes one of the most misleading episodes in modern anthropology. Pivotal to this realization is also an overturning of James Frazer's sequence of civi- lized attainment from magic to religion and finally to science. The idea that magic is more primitive than religion and that religion is more primitive than science arises from a confusion between mechanism and the intrinsic uncertainty of conscious experience. From a quantum-mechanical perspective, science and magic look if anything complementary. Science explains the probabilities in a given situation and ‘shamanism’ addresses why one possible fate rather than another is chosen by nature. Religion has been caught in the middle, falling from its primal roots in vision in the doctrines of mass belief, and yet neither conforming to the rational developments of scientific reason. Through a combination of scientific reason and shamanic vision, we may finally correct the folly of religion and regain the Tao of vision-reason which the gatherer-hunters with their vast knowledge of plants gave us as their sacred heritage of the Garden - the fruit of knowledge and immortality. 73 The Ancient Use of Sacred Plants By the Upper Palaeolithic period, beginning about 45,00 years ago and ending around 10,000 years ago in Europe Homo sapiens sapiens had firmly established itself with an economy based on hunting, fishing and the gathering of plants. Almost all gatherer-hunter societies have a division of labour between the sexes. The men hunt whilst the women gather plants and collect or hunt small animals (e.g. shellfish, birds, eggs, etc.). Whilst animal proteins are prized, the bulk of the staple foodstuffs are gained by female labour. In prehistoric times women's role vis- a-vis plants, probably not limited to food, or medical species, but extended into the discovery of psychoactive plants (echoing the European witchcraft tradition. Gath- erers have an extremely detailed knowledge of their land and its natural resources, and traditionally identify, collect and process a variety of psychoactive species The leisure time of many hunter-gatherers seems to be abundant. Case-studies from var- ious parts of the world show that sufficient food can be obtained in an average adult working day of 3-5 hours (Rudgley 12-14). The neolithic saw no particular improvement over the palaeolithic in the amount of time required per capita for the production of subsistence; probably, with the advent of agriculture, people had to work harder. There is abundant data which suggests not only that hunter-gatherers have adequate supplies of food but also that they enjoy quantities of leisure time, much more in fact than do modern industrial or farm workers, or even professors of archaeology (Sahlin). Carved stones from the neolithic tomb of Gavrinis in Brittany. Pottery braziers Er Lannic (Rudgley). In the Alchemy of Culture, Richard Rudgley gathers evidence from several researchers that Palaeolithic cultures, based on such detailed knowledge of local flora and fungi utilized the natural distributions of psychoactive species in their locale as an early feature of their cultural development. Rudgley notes the research of other authors who make a case that the abstract patterns that occur in parallel with the animals found in such pre-historic caves as Lascaux, which have long been ascribed to shamanic rites of hunting, are representations of the phosphenes that accompany meditative and trance states, accompanying shamanic practices, particularly those associated with psychoactive plants. Somewhat later we indeed find more definitive suggestions of such ‘phosphene art’ in the form of the Neolithic Tomb of Gavrinis in Brittany, where carved megaliths from a neolithic tomb show striking abstract patterns of this nature. These are also nearby another find of pottery 'vase-supports' from Er Lannic, some of which show signs of being used as braziers, and are consistent with an early spread from the South of ritual burning possibly of opium. 74 1: Papaver somniferum: The Poppy of the Holy Mother The opium poppy, which is one of the most medically important plants known to man and which still plays a central role in the control of pain and suffering, particularly in terminal conditions, shows a very early pattern of use and cultivation. Although the exact origins of the poppy remain uncertain, it seems to have been domesticated in the west Mediterranean by the sixth millennium BC. Several finds of remains poppy seeds have come from neolithic lake villages in Switzerland, and also in Germany and Italy point to widespread domestication in neolithic times. These are complemented by full pods at burial sites at Albunol in Spain from around 4200 BC which are more indicative of medicinal use. Cypriot juglets from Egypt 18 th dynasty from around 1350 BC appear to be designed on inverted poppy pods, Papaver somniferum, inset of Minoan seal from Crete 1500 BC, head of Goddess with slit poppies Crete 1350 BC (Rudgley, King, Gadon, Gadon). Use of poppies in Crete is attested to by Minoan statues and seals from the second millennium BC clearly indicating ritual use of opium resin in the cultures of the fertility Goddess, consistent with her role in gathering medicinal plants and using them as an integral part of her ritual worship. It is natural for the fertility Goddess to utilize and respect as spiritual those emanations of her own manifestation of physical fertility as an aspect of the very body of the Earth Goddess. Dur- ing the Late Minoan period opium was taken by participants in ceremonies to induce a state of ecstasy essential for the performance of the sacred rites. From a similar period come Cypriot juglets from tel Amarna in the 18th dynasty of Egypt of Akhenaten. It has been suggested that these juglets were designed to iconically represent their con- tents as indicated above left. Chromatographic evidence confirms the presence of opiates in at least some of these juglets (Rudgley 27). The role of opium in the ancient world is well attested. There are references to it in writings from Egypt, Assyria and Greece. Egyptian medical texts list among opium's many uses its sedative powers to alleviate the pain of wounds, abscesses and scalp complaints. For the Romans too it was something of a panacea, being used to treat elephantiasis, carbuncles, liver complaints, epilepsy and scorpion bites, according to Pliny. Opion is Greek for poppy juice, dedicated to Nyx, goddess of the night, who is shown distributing it to youths in repose in a cameo. Almost every 75 major writer of antiquity from Hippocrates who recommended poppy wine, mentions it. (Emboden 23). A Lisu village Thailand-Burma border 1976. Poppy field, lisu child among the poppies (CK) It has also been suggested that the poppy was an integral part of sacrificial rites from Sumer to Babylon. It has been noted that in at least some of the sacrificial Tombs of the early Kings of Ur the sacrificed servants and courtiers appear to have died peacefully, suggesting they were given a potion to relax them, or even to bring on unconsciousness. Sumerian tablature of the second millennium BC mentions its efficacy in bringing sleep and an end to pain (Emboden 23). A key paragraph from Babel Tower (273) expresses this use in poetic terms: “We are told by antiquaries ... that in ancient Babylon, in the chamber at the top of the ziggurat which was reserved for the activities of the god Baal, he came sometimes to sleep with the priestess, and sometimes to share a feast at a giant stone table, and sometimes, in difficult times, to demand a sacrifice. And there are many tales of what this sacrifice was - a red human heart, tastefully roasted, a whole human infant, the first-bom, trussed and tossed into the flames of his altar fire. It is told that on his feast days a great cake was baked, and cut into small portions, one of which was blacked with the soot of the eternal Fire of his altar. The people took their cakes blindfold, and he who chose the black square was the Chosen One, devoted to the god. And for a time this Devoted One was fed and fattened, granted his desires of the flesh, sweet cakes and wine, sweet bedfellows and smoky opiates.

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