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From the Bodies of the Gods: Psychoactive Plants and the Cults of the Dead by Earl Lee

ISBN: 9781594774584 PUBLISHER: Inner Traditions Bear and Company FORMAT: Paperback

PUBLICATION DATE: 30.06.2012 DIMENSIONS: 229mmX152mmX17mm 550grams

DESCRIPTION: Long before the beginnings of civilisation, humans have been sacrificed and their flesh used to produce sacred foods and oils for use in religious rites. Originating with the sacred harvest of hallucinogenic mushrooms from the corpses of shamans and other holy men, these acts of ritual cannibalism and visionary intoxication are part of the history of all cultures, including Judeo-Christian ones and provided a way to commune with the dead. These practices continued openly into the Dark Ages, when they were suppressed and adapted into the worship of saintly bones - or continued in secret by a few heretical sects, such as the Cathars and the Knights Templar. While little known today, these rites remain deeply embedded in the symbolism, theology and sacraments of modern religion and bring a much more literal meaning to the church's Holy Communion or symbolic consumption of the body and blood of Christ. Documenting the sacrificial, cannibalistic and psychoactive sacramental practices associated with the Cult of the Dead from the prehistoric Minoans on Crete to the ancient Egyptians and Hebrews and onward to early and mediaeval Christian sects, Earl Lee shows how these religious rites influenced the development of Western religion. In particular, he reveals how Christianity originated with Jesus's effort to restore the sacred rites of Moses, including the Marzeah or Feast for th

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