Ploughing the Clouds: The Search for Irish Soma

Front Cover
City Lights Books, 1999 - History - 150 pages

The Rig Veda, written in India about 1500BC, praises a holy plant called Soma, which is sacrificed and consumed, granting the drinker an experience of enlightenment and ecstasy. The late Gordon Wasson identified Soma as a "magic mushroom," Amanita muscaria, and he and his followers discovered that such Indo-Europeans as the ancient Greeks, Iranians and Norse had also used a Soma-type plant.

In Ploughing the Clouds Peter Lamborn Wilson investigates the probability of a Soma cult in ancient Ireland, tracing clues in Irish (and other Celtic) lore. By comparing Celtic folktales, romances, epics and topographic lore with the Rig Veda, he uncovers the Irish branch of the great Indo-European tradition of psychedelic (or "entheogenic") shamanism, and even reconstructs some of its secret rituals. He uses this comparative material to illuminate the deep meaning of the Soma-function in all cultures: the entheogenic origin of "poetic frenzy," the link between intoxication and inspiration.

 

Selected pages

Contents

The Use and Elusiveness of Psychotropic Plants
9
Part
37
Bibliography
138
Credits and Permissions
145
Copyright

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Ploughing the Clouds: The Search for Irish Soma
Peter Lamborn Wilson
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Common terms and phrases

Agni agriculture Amanita ancient appear associated battle becomes berries body Boyne called Celtic Celts compared complex connection cult culture cups dark desire divine drink eagle earth entheogenic existence experience fact fairy figure Finn fire folklore Fomorians fruit giant gives goddess gods head hero honey human hymn India Indo-European Indra inspiration Ireland Irish kind king knowledge language later light living lore magic Maruts material means milk moon motifs mushroom myth never offers once original parallels perhaps plant poet poetic poetry possess priest psychotropic represent Ṛg Veda ritual river sacred sacrifice says secret seems seen sexual shamanic snake Soma Soma-function sources space speech spirit stone story structure symbol tale traced tradition transformed tree Tuatha Dé variants Vedic vision Vṛtra Wasson wild wisdom

References to this book

About the author (1999)

Peter Lamborn Wilson, scholar, critic, poet, and visionary best known for Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam (City Lights) and his radio commentaries on WBAI New York, offers a fascinating study on the use of psychoactive plants in ancient Ireland in emPloughing the Clouds: The Search for Irish Soma.

Bibliographic information

TitlePloughing the Clouds: The Search for Irish Soma
G - Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series
AuthorPeter Lamborn Wilson
PublisherCity Lights Books, 1999
ISBN0872863263, 9780872863262
Length150 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Body, Mind & Spirit / Entheogens & Visionary Substances
Body, Mind & Spirit / Shamanism
History / Europe / Ireland
Religion / History
Religion / Paganism & Neo-Paganism
Social Science / Folklore & Mythology
  
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