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[New Latin sōma, from Greek, body.]
An intoxicating or hallucinogenic beverage, used as an offering to the Hindu gods and consumed by participants in Vedic ritual sacrifices.
[Sanskrit somaḥ; akin to sunoti, he presses.]
For more information on soma, visit Britannica.com.
The word soma is derived from the Sanskrit root meaning “to press.” Recent scholarship suggests that the sometimes hallucinatory and psychedelic drink called soma, personified and worshipped as the god Soma in the ancient Indian Vedas (See Vedas), was in fact pressed from a type of mushroom called soma. The Sāma Veda (See Sāma Veda) is a collection of ritual hymns dedicated to the god Soma as a source of imaginative power. Soma is much praised in the ṛg Veda (See ṛg Veda), in which is told the myth of the discovery of the soma plant in Heaven. It was an eagle who plucked some of the plant from the heights and planted it on earthly mountains, where it was gathered by Vedic (See Vedic entries) priests. The priests pressed the plant, extracting the sacred essence, which they then filtered through wool and mixed with clarified butter. They used the resulting liquid in rituals. If consumed, it would bring remarkable insights. If placed in the ritual fire as a sacrifice, it would rise up to the gods in the smoke and become their ambrosia of immortality and the source of their power. In the Persian Avestan tradition (See Avestas), we find a similar drink of immortality called haoma (See Haoma). Soma is also a name given to the Moon, where it is said that the gods store soma.
Bibliography
See R. G. Wasson, Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality (1971).
A term found in the hymns of the Rig-Veda, one of the four sacred scriptures of ancient India (the others are the Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, and Artharva Veda). The essential teachings of the Vedas were recast in the form of the Upanishads, of which there are 108 principal scriptures and a number of minor ones.
The ninth chapter of the Rig-Veda comprises 114 verses in praise of soma, the ambrosia of the gods and the elixir of immortality. It is clear that soma was also an intoxicating drink (possibly made from the milk-weed asclepias acida described in the Yajur Veda as a dark, sour creeper without leaves). This drink was offered by the priests as a libation to the gods, much as wine is used sparingly in the sacraments of the Christian religion for symbolic purposes.
In the twentieth century, several writers, most notably R. Gordon Wasson in his book Soma, Divine Mushroom of Immortality (1968), have speculated that soma was the amanita muscaria (a mushroom with hallucinogenic properties) and that Hindu mysticism arose from intoxication of the priests. This suggestion stemmed from Wasson's research in Mexico, when he discovered a Mazatec Indian religious practice based on the use of a hallucinogenic mushroom.
Wasson's soma theory became attractive during the psychedelic revolution of the 1960s, and it became fashionable to expand upon Wasson's view to assert that transcendental revelation had always been stimulated by the use of psychedelic drugs. Another writer, John M. Allegro, suggested in his book The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross (1970) that the crucifixion story of Jesus was a symbolic myth of the ecstasy produced by a psychedelic drug.
Intoxicating (as opposed to psychedelic) beverages have certainly been known since ancient times in Egypt, India, Greece, and Rome. Warnings about intoxication abound in ancient writings, notably in the Bible, in the Proverbs of Solomon, in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and Hosea. In the Christian religion, the apostle Paul complained of drunkenness at the agape, or love feasts, celebrated in common. Novatian, a Church father of the third century, spoke of Christians who, in the morning after fasting, began the day by drinking, pouring wine into their still "empty veins," and were drunk before eating.
In India, the Manava Dharma Shastra (Ordinances of Manu), a code of religious and civil duties, prohibited intoxication on the part of Brahmin priests and made it clear that the soma drink was from a plant, not a mushroom. This plant is sometimes called the "moon plant," and soma was traditionally associated with the moon.
Yoga treatises on meditation suggest that the true soma, or elixir of life, is the union of the twin currents of kundalini energy in the human body, culminating in higher consciousness. Some Hindus believe in kundalini as a latent energy situated at the base of the spine that is activated in normal life in sexual activity, but which may also be drawn upward in subtle channels of the spine to a center in the head, illuminating the consciousness with mystical awareness. The goal of some forms of yoga practice is often referred to as the union of the sun and moon, the fiery and cool kundalini currents in the spinal column. At the junction of these currents, the blissful condition is described as "drinking the soma juice," and the energy flow as "amaravaruni" (wine drinking).
The elaborate symbolism and metaphor of Hindu mysticism has often misled commentators into literal interpretations. While intoxicants and hallucinatory drugs may produce transcendental experiences, throughout history great prophets and mystics, as well as scientists and geniuses, have been inspired by a higher consciousness that owed nothing to intoxication or hallucinogenic mushrooms. The twentieth-century discovery of psychedelic drugs and their power to transform normal consciousness have misled many people into vastly overstating the role of such substances in the history of mystical experiences. Critics of drug use have also complained that the use of drugs for mystical purposes has yet to "produce a single inspiring statement on the philosophy and meaning of life comparable with the wisdom of the prophets and mystics of history."
In the 1960s, several groups were formed in the United States to promote the idea of the religious use of psychedelics, but most of these dissolved following negative court actions. Outside of these circles, as recently as 1988, a short-lived attempt to defend the psychedelic/soma connection was made in the journal ReVision (vol. 10, no. 4, spring 1988). There was little positive response and a strong rebuttal by Gene Kieffer, a follower of Indian teacher Gopi Krishna.
Sources:
Allegro, John M. The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1970; Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1970.
Gopi Krishna. The Awakening of Kundalini. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1973.
Iyangar, Yogi Srinivasa. Hatha-Yoga-Pradipika of Svatmarama Svamin. Adyar, Madras, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1933.
Kieffer, Gene. "An Appeal for Common Sense." SFF Newsletter [Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship] (October 1988).
——. "It's Not the Soma that the Brahmans Know!" SFF Newsletter [Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship] (September 1988).
——. "ReVision Revisits the Sacred Mushroom." SFF Newsletter [Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship] (August 1988).
Masters, R. E. L., and Jean Houston. The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience. New York: Delta, 1967.
Rele, Vasant G. The Mysterious Kundalini: The Physical Basis of the "Kundalini (Hatha) Yoga" in Terms of Western Anatomy and Physiology. Rev. ed. Bombay, India: D. B. Taraporevala, 1950.
Wasson, R. Gordon. Soma, Divine Mushroom of Immortality. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971.
Zaehner, R. C. Mysticism: Sacred and Profane. London: Clardenon Press, 1957. Reprint, Galaxy Book, 1961.
1. the body as distinguished from the mind.
2. the body tissue as distinguished from the germ cells.
3. the cell body.
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Soma (Sanskrit: सोमः), or Haoma (Avestan), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma-, was a ritual drink of importance among the early Indo-Iranians, and the later Vedic and greater Persian cultures. It is frequently mentioned in the Rigveda, which contains many hymns praising its energizing qualities. In the Avesta, Haoma has an entire Yasht dedicated to it.
It is described as prepared by pressing juice from the stalks of a certain mountain plant, which has been variously hypothesized to be honey[1], a psychedelic mushroom, cannabis, Peganum harmala, Blue lotus[1], or ephedra. In both Vedic and Zoroastrian tradition, the drink is identified with the plant, and also personified as a divinity, the three forming a religious or mythological unity.
Both Soma and the Avestan Haoma are derived from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma-. The name of the Scythian tribe Hauma-varga is related to the word, and probably connected with the ritual. The word is derived from an Indo-Iranian root *sav- (Sanskrit sav-) "to press", i.e. *sav-ma- is the drink prepared by pressing the stalks of a plant (cf. es-presso). The root is probably Proto-Indo-European (*sewh-), and also appears in son (from *suhnu-, "pressed out" i.e. "newly born").
In the Vedas, Soma is portrayed as sacred and as a god (deva). The god, the drink and the plant probably referred to the same entity, or at least the differentiation was ambiguous. In this aspect, Soma is similar to the Greek ambrosia (cognate to amrita); it is what the gods drink, and what made them deities. Indra and Agni are portrayed as consuming Soma in copious quantities. The consumption of Soma by human beings was probably under the belief that it bestowed divine qualities on them.
The Rigveda (8.48.3, tr. Griffith) states,
The Ninth Mandala of the Rigveda is known as the Soma Mandala. It consists entirely of hymns addressed to Soma Pavamana ("purified Soma"). The drink Soma was kept and distributed by the Gandharvas. The Rigveda associates the Sushoma, Arjikiya and other regions with Soma (e.g. 8.7.29; 8.64.10-11). Sharyanavat was possibly the name of a pond or lake on the banks of which Soma could be found.
The plant is described as growing in the mountains (giristha, cf. Orestes), with long stalks, and of yellow or tawny (hari) colour. The drink is prepared by priests pounding the stalks with stones, an occupation that creates tapas (literally "heat"). The juice so gathered is mixed with other ingredients (including milk) before it is drunk.
Growing far away, in the mountains, Soma had to be purchased from travelling traders. The plant supposedly grew in the Hindukush and thus it had to be imported to the Punjab region.[citation needed] Later, knowledge of the plant was lost altogether, and Indian ritual reflects this, in expiatory prayers apologizing to the gods for the use of a substitute plant (e.g. rhubarb) because Soma had become unavailable.
In Hindu art, the god Soma was depicted as a bull or bird, and sometimes as an embryo, but rarely as an adult human. In Hinduism, the god Soma evolved into a lunar deity, and became associated with the underworld. The moon is the cup from which the gods drink Soma, and so Soma became identified with the moon god Chandra. A waxing moon meant Soma was recreating himself, ready to be drunk again. Alternatively, Soma's twenty-seven wives were daughters of Daksha, who felt he paid too much attention to just one of his wives, Rohini. He cursed him to wither and die, but the wives intervened and the death became periodic and temporary, and is symbolized by the waxing and waning of the moon.
The famous ayurvedic scholar Sushruta wrote that the best Soma is found in the upper Indus and Kashmir region (Sushruta Samhita: 537-538, SS.CS. 29.28-31).
The continuing of Haoma in Zoroastrianism may be glimpsed from the Avesta (particularly in the Hōm Yast, Yasna 9.11), and Avestan language *hauma also survived as middle Persian hōm. The plant Haoma yielded the essential ingredient for the ritual drink, parahaoma.
In the Hōm yašt of the Avesta, the Yazata (divine) Haoma appears to Zoroaster "at the time of pressing" (havani ratu) in the form of a beautiful man. Yasna 9.1 and 9.2 exhort him to gather and press Haoma plants. Haoma's epitheta include "the Golden-Green One" (zairi-, Sanskrit hari-), "righteous" (ašavan-), "furthering righteousness" (aša-vazah-), and "of good wisdom" (hu.xratu-, Sanskrit sukratu-).
In Yasna 9.22, Haoma grants "speed and strength to warriors, excellent and righteous sons to those giving birth, spiritual power and knowledge to those who apply themselves to the study of the nasks". As the religion's chief cult divinity he came to be perceived as its divine priest. In Yasna 9.26, Ahura Mazda is said to have invested him with the sacred girdle, and in Yasna 10.89, to have installed Haoma as the "swiftly sacrificing zaotar" (Sanskrit hotar) for himself and the Amesha Spenta. Haoma services were celebrated until the 1960s in a strongly conservative village near Yazd[citation needed].
There has been much speculation as to the original Proto-Indo-Iranian Sauma plant. It was generally assumed to be hallucinogenic, based on RV 8.48 cited above. But note that this is the only evidence of hallucinogenic properties, in a book full of hymns to Soma. The typical description of Soma is associated with excitation and tapas. Soma is associated with the warrior-god Indra, and appears to have been drunk before battle. For these reasons, there are energizing plants as well as hallucinogenic plants among the candidates that have been suggested, including honey[2], , fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) which was widely used as a brew of sorts among Siberian shamans for its hallucinogenic and 'religious experience'-inducing properties. Several texts like the Atharvaveda extol the medicinal properties of Soma and he is regarded as the king of medicinal herbs (and also of the Brahmana class).
Since the late 1700s, when Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron and others made portions of the Avesta available to Western scholars, several scholars have sought a representative botanical equivalent of the haoma as described in the texts and as used in living Zoroastrian practice. Most of the proposals concentrated on either linguistic evidence or comparative pharmacology or reflected ritual use. Rarely were all three considered together, which usually resulted in such proposals being quickly rejected.
In the late 19th century, the highly conservative Zoroastrians of Yazd (Iran) were found to use Ephedra (genus Ephedra), which was locally known as hum or homa and which they exported to the Indian Zoroastrians. (Aitchison, 1888) The plant, as Falk also established, requires a cool and dry climate, i.e. it does not grow in India (which is either too hot or too humid or both) but thrives in central Asia. Later, it was discovered that a number of Iranian languages and Persian dialects have hom or similar terms as the local name for some variant of Ephedra.
There are numerous mountain regions in the northwest Indian subcontinent which have cool and dry conditions where soma plant can grow. In later vedic texts the mention of best soma plant coming from kashmir has been mentioned. This is also supported by the presence of high concentration of vedic Brahmans in Kashmir up to the present day who setteled there in ancient times because of the easy availability of soma plant.
From the late 1960s onwards, several studies attempted to establish soma as a psychoactive substance. A number of proposals were made, included an important one in 1968 by R. Gordon Wasson, an amateur mycologist, who asserted that soma was an inebriant, and suggested fly-agaric mushroom, Amanita muscaria, as the likely candidate. Wasson and his co-author, Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, drew parallels between Vedic descriptions and reports of Siberian uses of the fly-agaric in shamanic ritual. (Wasson, Robert Gordon (1968). "Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality". Ethno-Mycological Studies 1. )
In Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel Brave New World, Soma is the popular dream-inducing drug which is employed by the government as a method of control through pleasure and immediate availability. It is ordinary among the culture of the novel for everyone to use it for whatever various practices: sex, relaxation, concentration, confidence. It is seemingly a single-chemical combination of many of today's drugs' effects, giving its patients the full hedonistic spectrum.
Soma is the central theme of the poem The Brewing of the Soma by the American Quaker poet, John Whittier (1807-1892) from which the well-known Christian hymn "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" is derived. Whittier here portrays the drinking of soma as distracting the mind from the proper worship of God.
Soma has also been frequently referenced in popular culture, see Soma (disambiguation).
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