Literary Nonfiction. Mythology. In PLOUGHING THE CLOUDS, Peter Lamborn Wilson suggests that the ancient Celts of Ireland may have possessed a "Soma" ceremony similar to one described in the Rig Veda, one of the oldest scriptures in the world. Written in India in 1500 BC, the Rig Veda praises a holy plant called Soma or "magic mushroom" that grants the drinker enlightenment and ecstasy. By comparing Celtic myth and folklore with the Rig Veda, he uncovers an 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.

Author City: NEW PALTZ, NY USA

Peter Lamborn Wilson is co-author of Green Hermeticism: Alchemy and Ecology (Lindisfarne Books, 2007); and author of ESCAPE FOR THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND OTHER ESSAYS: FOURIER, MARX PROUDHOM AND NIETZSCHE (Autonomedia, 1998), plus numerous other books and essays. He is a longtime member of the Autonomedia Collective and lives in the Hudson Valley.