The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries

I have mixed responses to this book because the opening two chapters made me think, ‘ oh no, not another retreat to the 60’s, and the use of hallucinogens – LSD, Peyote, etc., as a kind of substitute for real spiritual work – which always implies a discipline. Some people may be fascinated by the chemistry of hydrolysis of ergon etc., as an ex-chemist, I am not. I was not convinced by the ‘evidence’ suggesting that the Eleusis experience had its counterpart in the Mexican Indian Peyote experience, or even the speculation of a link with the Soma ritual of Vedic India. Nor was, I impressed, by the final sections, which looks at modern scientific ‘evidence’ supporting the preceding thesis. (the same might be said of the literary correspondences, though they were interesting.)I found that as boring and as really irrelevant, as evidence produced by researchers, showing what happens during TM, simply because it is all on a physical level. Plato warned us a very long ago, that we cannot use the physical world to describe the intelligible world; as Wordsworth said, at most it can only be as ‘intimations.’What really did get my interest was chapter 3, which preceded a translation of the Homeric hymn to Demeter. I kept thinking, why did they not go further with what they had found out about the birth of ‘cereal’ in the west, instead of burying it in a kind of pseudo mythology. Whatever translation I have read of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, I have found it moving – the translation here being no exception, and further, clearly these authors share a common affinity of understanding with Jung in respect of the ‘great mother’, the archetypal ‘female’. So my obvious problem with the book as a whole, is that in speaking to two audiences, it has two voices, and some of us have moved on from listening to one of them.

Obviously they were not called "The Mystery's" for nothing, and much of what went on at Eleusis remains just that. But, this book presents a great theory into what may be The central theme or inspiration to the initiate. As well as the theory there's some great background on the mythology that was central to the Eleusinian Mystery's. I would highly recommend this to a broad spectrum of readers from those who are interested in the history of pre Hellenistic era Greece, Philosophy, Theology, Esotericism, Ontology, Epistemology, and Entheogenic Substances.

A very readable series of academic essays on the role of entheogenic fungi in the ancient world. This work is now over thirty years old and still relevant today to those pondering the history and meaning of the entheogenic experience. Some useful footnotes from the authors bring things up to date.The hymn to Demeter is perhaps hard to follow but would have been widely known in its day.It seems she might not have been the goddess of wheat but of the fungus that grew on it and the experience it engendered.

If you want to know the secret of the universe and its Gods, that book may be the first step toward this goal- easy enough to read, some big words but not too many - enjoyable and enlighting

What a brilliant book, this kind of information should be taught at schools to educate our children about true history, this book is very well written and I am sure I will be reading again. What a treasure for a cheap price :)

Very pleased

Not for the blinkered, extremely interesting subject with loads of research, if you think how much history has been hidden because of religion/politics, through power and it’s compulsive will too control, still relevant today.