First, I agree with Nietzsch that the terminology is erroneous and leads to problems. In an age of Drug Wars and Drug Stores (to quote somebody, I forget), it's very important to clearly define what it is exactly that we're talking about. The compounds which I consider personally beneficial when I think of "drugs & magic" are LSD, Psilocybin, DMT, other tryptamine derivatives, the Harmala alkaloids, certain phenethylamines like Mescaline (2CB, 2CT7, MDMA as well), salvia, and perhaps the thujones, like Absynth. This is about the extent of my experience. I also akcnowledge that others may find value in compounds not listed above, though personally I've never had a very good relationship with most powders or narcotics, beyond utilitarian.
not everyone reading this forum thinks taking drugs is a good idea.
Even those of us who feel a strong relationship with some of these substances understand that they are not for everyone. Furthermore, their use should be explored by novices with the utmost respect and safety.
They're often singly, and almost always cumulatively, addictive and I don't trust them.
I disagree strongly on this point, especially when applied to the compounds listed above. Addiction is generally a property of the individual and not the compound. However, some substances have a stronger tendency to evoke addiction in the individual, and it is this benchmark that I usually go by to determine if a substance is worth pursuing as a magickal ally. Note that all of the psychedelics pretty universally regulate their own addiction. In other words, the experiences tend to be of such magnitude that the user is happy to come down and usually requires a good amount of processing time before they are willing to return to that place. This is the root of the shamanic experience - an experience of profoud depth where the traveller experiences both Heaven and Hell and is left to rebuild themselves from the ground up afterwards.
Using psychedelic or empathogenic compounds within a magickal setting, to re-enforce ritual, can be effective when used in small doses. I find that a small dose allows me to dip into the spaces represented by these allies, while still being able to focus the ritual. But the space lends depth and color to the ritual as each of these substances represents a unique field or channel within the collective (sub)consciousness of the planet and beyond. At larger doses, the magician is somewhat at the will of the ally, so the utility turns from one of ritual to one of Vision - instead of wading in the waters, one has dove in headfirst.
I tend to think of these compounds as keys to specific Gates they gaurd. The Gate of LSD opens into a different space than the Gate of Psilocybin, or the Gate of Mescaline. This uniqueness is an inherent part of the compound and how it affects neurochemistry, but it is also a feature of the history of that compound's relationship with the humans that have used it for decades, centuries, millenia.
The shamanic path recognizes the ally, it recognizes the Gate or Key presented to the user and seeks to open the pathway into these spaces. For the shaman, Peyote is not simply a drug, nor just an experience of hallucination or seeing the malleability of reality. Peyote represents a being, an entelechy, a plant consciousness capable of educating the shaman, of showing Hir the right way of living, of immersing Hir completely into the world of mind and spirit tended by the ally, and reconnecting Hir with those who have entered into that communion before.
In this respect there is never any question of the state being "valid". It is absolutely just as real as any other state. And if we believe that all of our reality is simply consciousness anyway - a fundamental tenent of both western and eastern mysticism - then the plant, or blotter, or resin, is simply a key that consciousness has left for itslef to gain insight back into the phenomenology of mind, to runite with the Absolute.
Ultimately, as with any experience, what you put into it will determine what you get out of it. But I could ramble on about this for ages. Suffice it to say that these compounds can be both: hallucinatory party drug, or transportational vision quest. Sometimes at the same time! While I agree strongly that these experiences are not for everyone (more likely only for a few), and that their use in any setting should be approached with caution and respect, I would not simply dismiss them as "drugs" nor would I regard the insights found in them as invalid.
Everything is a drug. TV, Big Macs, billboards, chocolate, Love. And what drug is more disorienting, transportational, addictive, potentially deadly, and sacred, than Love? |
