Two fundamental principles underlie the structure of primordial religion,—Intoxication and Phallism. All perversion of the cerebral functions, whether temporary estrangement or permanent alienation, is classified as Obsession; and the pranks and gibberish of the maniac or the idiot are solemnly treasured as outbursts of inspiration.
Where such temporary exaltation can be produced by an herb, bulb, liquid, or food, the knowledge of such excitant is kept as long as possible from the laity; and even after the general diffusion of a more enlightened intelligence has broadened the mental horizon of the devotee, these narcotics and irritants are “sacred,” and the frenzies they induce are “sacred” also.
If the drug in question, whatever it be, possess the additional recommendation of acting upon the genito-urinary organs, and by arousing the sexual energies appeals to the phallic element in the religious nature, the apotheosis of the drug follows as a matter of course, no matter under what expression or symbolism it may be veiled; and as human nature feels the necessity of restraint upon the passions as well as a stimulus thereof, it follows that there are to be noted many cases in which a veneration is paid to plants and drugs which have just the opposite effect,—that is to say that where an aphrodisiac is held among the sacred essences or agents its counter or antagonist is held in almost equal esteem.
Mushroom, mistletoe, rue, ivy, mandrake, hemp, opium, the stramonium of the medicine-man of the Hualpai Indians of Arizona,—all may well be examined in the light of this proposition. Frazer says: “According to primitive notions, all abnormal states—such as intoxication or madness—are caused by the entrance of a spirit into the person; such mental states, in other words, are regarded as forms of possession or inspiration.”—(“The Golden Bough,” vol. i. p. 184.)
“Women who were addicted to Bacchanalian sports presently ran to the ivy and plucked it off, tearing it to pieces with their hands and gnawing it with their mouths.... It was reported ... it hath a spirit that stirreth and moveth to madness, transporting and bereaving of the senses, and that alone by itself it introduceth drunkenness without wine to those that have an easy inclination to enthusiasm.”—(Plutarch, “Morals,” Goodwin’s English translation, Boston, 1870, vol. ii. p. 264.)
An eternal drunkenness was the reward held out to the savage warrior in many regions of the world; the Scandinavians, as well as the Indians of the Pampas, had this belief.—(See “Les Primitifs,” Elie Réclus, Paris, 1885, p. 123.)
Speaking of the Ur-Orgy of the Siberians, Dr. J. W. Kingsley comments in the following terms: “I remember being shown this fungus by an Englishman who was returning via the Central Pacific Railway from Siberia. He fully confirmed all that I had heard on the subject, having seen the orgy himself.... Nothing religious in this, you may say; but look at the question a little closer and you will see that these ‘intoxicants,’ which nowadays are used to produce mere excitement or brutal drunkenness, were at first looked upon as media able to raise the mere man up to a level with his gods, and enable him to communicate with them, as was certainly the case with the ‘soma’ of the Hindu ecstatics and the hashich I have seen used by some tribes of Arabs. It would be well worth while trying to ascertain whether the actors in the Ur-Orgy had eaten any particular kind of herb before its commencement, or whether they had any tradition of their ancestors having done so.”—(Personal letter to Captain Bourke, dated Cambridge, England, May, 1888.)
For sacred intoxication among the Finns, see also “Chaldean Magic,” Lenormant, p. 255, where there is a reference to “intoxicating drugs.”