Exaltation: Happy May Day!

May ushers in the traditional month of the Queen: associated with whoever is the Queen of Heaven in that locale, May is the quintessential time of the Goddess.

 "Queen of Heaven" is the third and final title of the Daughter: to honour the title today explicitly marks Her as one and the same as the Goddess worshipped in this month for ages past.

An interesting note I had not paid attention to before is that the flowers recommended for today (if doing a Rite) are red & white -- two colours  associated with death and otherworlds, particularly in Wales: creatures of the otherworld were usually these colours, such as the hunting dogs the Fey used (white with red ears). This connection is further strengthened by the intent behind the Rite, as today is intended as a celebration of the gift of Communion:

 

"The Exaltation also celebrates our Lady's gift of the Sacrament of Communion, the sacred meal in which we are one with Her, for it is on this day in the Archetypal Year that our Lady enters the Temple of Heaven to break the bread of Her sacrificial body and to pour out the wine of Her spirit into the holy Chalice; it is the essence of this act which is reflected in the earthly sacrament. On this day, we remember that through the Daughter we shall return to the Mother." (ECE, Appendix B, pg 192)

 

I've been reading a lot lately into the use of hallucinogens in history. The intentional cultivation and consumption of hallucinogens in very precise methods were widespread throughout the ancient world, and lie behind the Eleusinian Mysteries. They still continue in the modern world (such as with Ayahuasca), though with hardly the prevalence they once held.

Hallucinogenic beverages also lie behind our modern communion rites.

In the past, well before the birth of the Christian movement, these drinks, originally a type of beer before becoming a type of heady wine that we see patronized by the god Dionysus, were given to induce visions of the otherworld. Faith was not based on theology and being convinced by clever arguments, but on direct experience. Historical religions that used hallucinogens viewed the god of the brew as both a deity and as the literal plant itself; to consume the plant was to consume the god (hence the body & blood of Christ), and to become one with that deity.

People who consume modern versions of these drinks, such as Ayahuasca, describe their experiences as being 'realer than real' and even one experience (such as one carefully curated by those running the Eleusinian Mysteries) leaves a lifelong impression. It is still the same today: with modern experiments using such hallucinogens, the people participating have had an entirely new outlook on life afterward, such as with one experiment run for people with cancer to ease the fear of death. Most people going through such experiences come out the other side convinced of the importance of compassion, kindness, and empathy, accompanied by a complete lack of fear concerning death: a conviction that there is plenty more on the other side to experience when the time comes. (NYU in Nov 2016 and Hopkins in 2006 performed similar experiments; NYU did the one with cancer patients while Hopkins were ordinary volunteers, but both experiments had similar results.)

"Hallucinations" have a bad reputation, but there is a significant difference between those personal, wild hallucinations that are unique to the individual, and those visions seen by people in the experiments and historically: just as with NDEs, it is highly significant that these visions are remarkably similar to others who have these experiences, speaking to an underlying reality behind them. Though I have a hard time putting it into words, I find the evidence for the brain being a receiver of consciousness (not the generator) compelling; the use of particular types of medications or the experience of certain life-or-death situations can transcend the brain's limits to show us a glimpse of what is beyond us. Our brain is a limiter, receiving our consciousness and accessing our memories in this other locale (memories are not stored in the brain), but condensing it down to just what is necessary to this life and this world. Once we leave this body, this brain, and this life behind, we become aware of just how much more there was, all along.

 

"You are not your body, nor is your body any portion of you. It is an estate which you hold for a time, and after a time it shall pass from you...You are not your mind, nor is your mind any portion of you. It is an estate which you hold for a time, and after a time it shall pass from you. For longer than the body you shall hold it; and when the body passes into dust, still it shall be with you. Yet in its turn it shall pass away, in its appointed season.

But you shall never pass away; when all the worlds are dust you shall endure."

Clew of the Horse, v47-57

(Science distinguishes the mind from the brain. Your mind is the consciousness using the brain and the body to move about in this world, while your brain is what is physically in your skull. We are not given to know much of what will happen past our death, and I think that is for a purpose, but all indications are that we continue on with our memories into another life beyond this one.)

 

While Christianity made it so you could visit the otherworld every week for a short time, the Eleusinian Mysteries only held their event once a year in the fall. I find it interesting that in our round of the year, we mark the importance of Communion once a year...

I do not condone the use of illegal substances in any way; I'm purely an armchair archaeologist who loves the history of religion. I have no personal interest in piercing the veil in this life, as I find myself thoroughly convinced through the secondhand experiences of others!

If you would like to read more on this fascinating topic, I recommend reading The Immortality Key as a good introduction; the Introduction (not the Foreword) goes over the experiments mentioned above in more detail. For more on the mind and after death experiences, I highly recommend Science & the Near-Death Experience: How Consciousness Survives Death, and Science and the Afterlife Experience: Evidence for the Immortality of Consciousness, both by Christopher David Carter.

 

Unlike Muraresku and Hancock, however, I do not believe easy access to these substances for all consenting adults is a good thing. Careful curation as with the important temples and shamans of the past who vetted people and measured per person, and restricted access to once a year at best, once a life for most, meant that the average person had their brush with divinity and could live their life more fully without giving up everything to be so focused on heaven/the otherworld that they became useless in this world.

 

I do think that discussing these experiences more freely might give people more awareness of how religion started and could give people more comfort to know that there is indeed more beyond death for all of us, that morality and ethical living are important, and that God loves each of us dearly.

"...for truly your Mother loves you and delights in giving Her grace."

~Teachings of the Daughter, v18

Happy May Day!