NSummer

by Never Summer (retail) (epub)

  “But I thought we were alcohol-free.”

  “It’s medicinal, for emergencies.”

  “Look,” someone said, “it’s breaking up!” A dozen heads turned to the West. It was true. The sky was clearing. A jagged patch of blue had opened over Bowen Mountain, a gap in the clouds, like a crown. It was an azure blue, the palest of blues, and it held the promise of better days.

  FORTY TWO

  A blustery wind was rocking the cottonwoods as Tom drove up the gravel drive. He exited his rig and paused for a moment to take in the mountains to the east. Though the high country was still wreathed in clouds the view from the front yard was breathtaking. Mary had seen him from the kitchen window and met him at the front door.

  “Tom. Come in. Come in,” she said, wiping her hands on her apron.

  “Is Tallie home?”

  “Sound asleep. She had a rough night. I’m letting her sleep.”

  “A migraine?”

  “Thankfully, no. Not a migraine. But as you know she has good days and bad days. Yesterday was a bad one. She just needs to catch up on her rest. Are you hungry?”

  “Famished.”

  “You came to the right place.” She paused to let in Rough and Ready, who were wagging at his heels.

  “Smells really good.”

  “I hope you like turkey.”

  “Love it.”

  “You timed it perfectly. I just took a fifteen-pound bird out of the oven.” The troupe flocked into the kitchen where the canines waited patiently as Mary opened two large cans of dog food. She led them out into the laundry room and set down the bowls. The waggers got right down to business. “Let’s give the turkey some time to cool. Then we’ll eat. The potatoes and beans from the garden are done.” She motioned to the covered pans on the stove. “Think you can hold out for half an hour?”

  “No problem.”

  “There’s chips.”

  “No, I’m good.”

  “How about a cold beer?”

  “I would but I’m still damp and cold from last night. I came straight from Bowen Gulch. Last night, we about froze in the rain. Do you have something hot?”

  “How about tea? I was about to make a cup for me.”

  Tom nodded.

  “It stormed hard here too. Heavy rain and wind. I want to hear everything.”

  Mary put the kettle on. “Tom, how about building us a fire? Now you mention it, there’s been a chill in the house all morning.”

  He felt the temperature drop as he left the kitchen. Kneeling before the stone hearth, he stuffed old newspapers under the wrought-iron grate, then, laid on kindling and some larger pieces. He touched it off and fed the blaze until it was roaring. Within minutes the large room was warming up. He waited by the high window enjoying the view.

  Mary joined him and set a tray on the coffee table. She moved to the fire and stood sipping her tea. “Ah, that feels good,” she said, “There’s nothing like a wood fire.” She settled herself comfortably in a rocking chair and tossed a newspaper at him. It flopped on the floor at his feet. “Did you know you made the front page of the Denver Post?”

  “No.”

  “The story is short on details. Maybe you can fill me in.”

  At a glance he saw it was yesterday’s paper. The headline read: LOGGING EQUIPMENT DESTROYED! The story was old news, but he was intrigued by the color photo of Jacques St. Clair on page one. The boss looked so different without his hat. The story was about the sabotage and the spiked trees. According to the article, the evidence pointed to environmental extremists. However, as yet no one had been charged or even apprehended. A sheriff’s investigation was still underway. The paper quoted a spokesperson for the Ancient Forest Rescue coalition who decried the ecotage, denying any involvement. The article also hinted at “strange goings-on” at the logging camp, and even mentioned that some of the loggers had refused to work. He chortled. The story continued on the back page with a photo of the sheriff’s deputy. Officer Joe Ramirez appeared to be scratching his head. The article raised more questions than it answered. Tom was smiling when he looked up. “Tallie told you about the mushrooms?”

  “Yes.” There was a curious light in Mary’s eyes.

  “Mary, this is old news. The war is over. It ended early this morning at Bowen Gulch. We won. We stopped the cutting.” He laughed.

  She stared at him intently. “We?” she said smiling. “So, when were you planning to tell me about it? Next week? If you don’t get on with it I might die from curiosity.”

  “Where to begin.”

  “How about any place?”

  So he did. He told her about the nonviolence training, the ride in the van, the showdown at the gate and the arrests, and how everything had played out. Mary listened with rapt attention. When he was done she said, “It would appear you just put yourself out of work.”

  “Something like that.”

  She had been studying him intently. She got up and shuffled across the room. Her slippers went flop-flop-flop on the flagstones. She began exploring the bookshelves, poring over several of the stacks. She was looking for something. “So, what will you do, now?” she said. He was still considering how to answer when she added, “Ah, here it is. I knew it was up here somewhere.” She was on her tiptoes, reaching, and with two fingers extended just managed to slip a book off the top shelf. It was a slender green volume. She opened it with obvious relish. Several of the page corners had been folded back. A dog-eared bookmark protruded from one end. She wet her finger and began turning pages as she crossed the room. When she found what she was looking for she handed him the open book. “Is this it?” she said.

  The next thing he knew he was staring at a full-page color photograph of a bright red mushroom. He flipped to the title page, and read:

  THE SACRED MUSHROOM

  History, Biology, and Fungal Lore

  By Cormac O’Sullivan, PhD.

  Cambridge University Press, 1981

  “No, this is different,” he told her. “I have never seen the kind we used ... in a book, anyway. I don’t think it’s been formally identified.”

  Mary looked thoughtful. “Well, that’s certainly possible. The diversity of fungi is so great that probably only a small fraction of the total number of species on earth have been studied. New types are being discovered all the time. Almost every day, in fact.”

  He rifled through the book with great interest. At a glance it was or purported to be a comprehensive study of Amanita muscaria, the so-called sacred mushroom. One section was devoted to its physical characteristics, morphology, habitat and range, which apparently was worldwide.

  Another section included a twenty-odd page discussion of the various chemical agents believed to be responsible for the mushroom’s manifold effects. Apparently there was more than one active drug. The chapter intrigued him. But it would have to wait because, suddenly, he wanted to devour the book whole, in its entirety. He quickly skimmed front to back. When he reached the index he returned to the introduction, where on page one he read:

  The evidence presented in this study will show that this remarkable mushroom was known from antiquity. The species has a unique morphology and a wide range, though it appears to be confined to the northern hemisphere. It is distinguished by profound psychotropic effects, for which it was indubitably famous in the ancient world. At least one active agent is known to possess powerful aphrodisiacal properties. These appear to depend on dosage....The mushroom is believed to have played an important, perhaps even a central, role in certain pagan fertility rites that were once commonplace throughout the Mediterranean region. The species was known from the Levant to Italy, including parts of North Africa (though this is less well documented), and west as far as northern Spain. It may even have been known as far-East as India...

  The sacred mushroom was associated with the cult of the Great Goddess, the Magna Mater.... In the West perhaps the most vital center of the cult was Greece, in both classical and pre-classical periods.... But G
reek interest in psychoactive compounds was not limited to fungi. As we will show, a number of other hallucinogenic compounds were also in use... Mushrooms were regarded as sacred to the god Dionysius who, according to Greek tradition, was the divine offspring of Persephone and Zeus.... Dionysius was a complex deity and was often regarded as a form of Zeus himself. The traditional lore held that mushrooms appeared after lightning storms. Hence, the common view that mushrooms were divine, a manifestation of God, the thunderbolt being the principal vehicle of Zeus’ divine provenance and power. So it should not be surprising that hallucinogenic mushrooms were sometimes referred to as “the divine ambrosia,” or as “the food or nectar of the gods”...

  ...Dionysius was usually portrayed as androgynous. Among the god’s many symbols was the erect phallus, a word that derives from the Greek phallos (pl: phalloi), which was metaphorically synonymous with mykes, the Greek word for mushroom. A poetic equivalent in English might refer to a man’s staff of life, his metaphorical rod, or button.... From the same root is derived the modern word for the study of mushrooms: Mycology.... Recently, the classicist scholar Carl Ruck made a convincing case for other fascinating connections. A related word mykene, meaning “the bride of the mushroom,” happens to be the root of the word Mycenaea, one of the most prominent of early Greek city-states. It is no minor connection, because in a more general sense the word Mycenaean also refers to the whole of proto-Greek civilization, which flourished during the second millennium BC.

  Here Tom deferred to a footnote for more details, then returned to the text:

  The root mykene suggests a more important historical role for psychedelic mushrooms than modern scholarship has heretofore acknowledged. This interpretation is consistent with legends known to have been widespread throughout Greece from antiquity. According to these old tales, which date to the earliest known period of Greek culture, each of the Greek city-states was founded by a heroic invader after a sacred ancestral marriage involving ecstatic use of aphrodisiacal fungi....

  At this point, the text was augmented with several full-page plates. One was a black and white photograph of a Greek ceremonial vase described by an explanatory note as “a pastoral scene showing temple hierophants gathering phalloi, penis-shaped young mushrooms.” A second plate was a marble stele from the fifth century BC. It showed two priestesses, or possibly two goddesses. They were serenely facing one another, each with a mushroom in hand. Tom flipped ahead.

  The author will build on the excellent work of previous investigators, primarily the ethnomycologist Gordon Wasson, the pioneering chemist Albert Hofman, and the classicist Carl Ruck, in an attempt to show that the species figured prominently in annual pagan rites associated with the famed temple at Eleusis, sacred to the goddess-pair Demeter-Persephone (Kore)....

  In classical times, the Greek village of Eleusis, not far from present-day Athens, achieved widespread fame as the home of the legendary Eleusinian mysteries. Annual pagan rites were celebrated at Eleusis without interruption for nearly 2000 years, until the fourth century of the present era.... The mystery rites sacred to Demeter and her daughter Persephone were comprised of two parts, the Lesser and the Greater Mysteries. Each was annually reenacted at a different time of the year, and at a different site. The Lesser Mysteries were celebrated at Agrai in Anthesterion (February), at the start of the Mediterranean spring. These lesser rites were in observance of the legendary abduction of Persephone, said to have occurred at Nysa, a site sacred to Dionysius, whose name means god of Nysa...

  Now, he skipped randomly through the book:

  ...A considerable body of evidence suggests that the sacred mushroom was administered to participants in these Lesser Mysteries...

  The Greater Mysteries, on the other hand, were enacted later in the year, at Boedromion (September-October), when Greek farmers traditionally make preparation for the fall planting of cereal grains. This portion of the mysteries was reenacted at Eleusis….Wasson et al. recently presented a convincing case that the Greater Mysteries involved the ceremonial use of a different mushroom, a botanical psychedelic native to the region, namely, the ergot of barley, whose active compound has been shown to be related to lysergic acid diethylamide...

  He looked up. “So, you know about psychedelic mushrooms.”

  “I will give that a qualified yes,” Mary said. “Several years ago, I conducted my own investigation of Amanita muscaria out of, shall we say, disinterested curiosity. We have them here on the ranch, you know.”

  He was surprised. “Oh really?”

  “Yes, out in the woods behind the barn. The species is not uncommon. They produce fruiting bodies in the early summer, every few years. But not this year, which is curious given what you told me. My curiosity grew out of my scholarly interest in the ancient world. Did Tallie mention that I minored in Middle East Studies?”

  “No.”

  “At a certain point in my research I realized that hallucinogenic mushrooms and other psychoactive compounds were much more important to the ancients than our “modern” scholars have been willing to admit; probably because in our world the social ramifications are almost universally frowned upon. The mystery rites at Eleusis were the best known, but by no means were they the only pagan rites. There was a similar tradition on the island of Samothrace in honor of the mysterious Kuretes. And there were numerous cults devoted to Dionysius, which apparently were very widespread. The most important were the Orphic mysteries, which had a deep influence on Plato, Pythagoras, and even the early Christians. The Phrygian Mysteries were yet another set of observances, celebrated in Asia Minor, present-day Turkey. My guess is that they were similar to the rites at Eleusis. The cult of Osiris was the most ancient of all. As for its origins, we can only guess. They are murky. No doubt, there were many other pagan mystery traditions about which we know absolutely nothing. Our knowledge of the ancient world is, at best, fragmentary...”

  As he listened Tom recalled what Tallie had told him.

  Mary had paused. “You’ll have to excuse me, Tom,” she said. “I’m probably boring you to tears. Once I get started on the ancient world I can go on for hours. I find it all so fascinating. But you…”

  “Oh no, no. You are not boring,” he told her. “Anything but. So, what happened? Why do we know so little?”

  She looked relieved. Smiling graciously, she picked up the thread. “Sad to say, Christianity bears a large measure of responsibility. In the fourth century AD, after the emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, the Church began to suppress the pagan cults.”

  “But why would the Church or anyone care?”

  “Simple. The pagan cults were an embarrassment. You see, despite the spread and dominance of Christianity, the Eleusinian Mysteries had continued to be quite popular. Christian scholars don’t like to admit it but the pagan mystery traditions were more than holding their own in the fourth century. Some were, at any rate. It’s surely why they were banned. And there is another factor…”

  “Another factor?”

  “Yes, there is another reason why so little about the mystery cults has come down to us. You see, the initiates into the mysteries were always sworn to secrecy, and the penalty for talking was apparently death. Judging from the rarity of historical accounts, the secrecy oaths were extremely effective, much to the detriment of the historical record. Take the Eleusinian mysteries. They were celebrated annually for nearly 2000 years, a very long time. It’s hard for us moderns to appreciate a span of time that long.”

  Tom was thinking aloud. “That’s the equivalent of the entire historical period, since Christ.”

  “Yes, and during that long epoch of history there were no leaks, with a single possible exception. Tens, perhaps hundreds of millions of initiates took the secrets with them to the grave. It has only been very recently, thanks to the extraordinary work of some able scholars that we have finally gained some insight into what the pagan pageants were really about. In the process, we’ve
also learned about their use of psychoactive compounds. Many find this shocking. Of course, no one really knows if mushrooms were also used in the many other mystery cults of the day. To date, scholarship has mainly focused on the Eleusinian mysteries, but my guess is they were. I suspect that Eleusis was representative, not the exception.” She paused for a moment. “I was very surprised when I began to study ancient Greece, at just how extensive the use of psychoactive substances actually was. Did you know, there is evidence that the Greeks bolstered ordinary table wine with powerful drugs?”

  “I had no idea...”

  “The potency of Greek wine was legendary. There are references to this in the classical literature, in Homer, for example. Greek table wine was so potent it was customary to dilute the wine before serving it to dinner guests. Dilution was necessary, precautionary, because Greek wine was a witches’ brew of mind-altering substances. Dilution insured that the desired level of inebriation would be achieved, but no more. In those days, alcohol was not the only, perhaps not even the primary, agent in wine. Today, we bolster wine by adding extra-distilled alcohol. But the practice was unknown in the ancient world.”

  “Unknown? Why?”

  “The distillation process had not yet been discovered; and for this reason the alcoholic content of Greek wine could not have exceeded about fourteen percent. At that point, you see, the alcohol from natural fermentation becomes fatal to the active yeasts that drive the fermentation process. Fourteen percent alcohol is not enough, not nearly enough, to account for the notorious potency of Greek wine. And if the potency was not due to alcohol, well, then other compounds had to be present. It is interesting that the classical Greek language made no distinction between inebriation, ecstasy, and madness. All three states were regarded as increasing stages of the same process of mind-alteration. Still, and this is important, two very different classes of psychoactive drugs are known to have been in use; because, you see, the ancient Greeks maintained a firm distinction between the sacred and the profane. Hallucinogenic mushrooms were in the realm of the divine, hence, were a part of pagan religious life. Alcoholic brews, on the other hand, were a part of the secular world and were never involved in the mystery rites. On the contrary, initiates at Eleusis were actually required to purify themselves by abstaining from wine for several days before participating. The ancients believed that the realms of the sacred and the profane were incompatible. Like oil and water, the two did not mix.”