Peyotism in North American Indian religion and culture

Peyotism

The white man's reality is his streets with their banks, shops, neon lights and traffic; streets full of policemen, whores, and sad-faced people in a hurry to punch a time clock. But this is unreal. The real reality is underneath all this. Grandfather Peyote helps you find it."

Crow Dog

Peyotism and North American Indian religion are intimately interlinked and extends over a vast expanse of recorded and unrecorded history. The use of Peyote as an essential element of North American religion is evidenced in many archeological and historical findings.

The religious use peyote is very ancient. One cache of dried peyote found in a Texas cave, has been dated at approximately 7000 years old. The use of peyote in ceremonies among Mexican tribes was a well established tradition by the time of the European entrance into the continent. This pre-historical religious use eventually diffused into the North American regions.

However, the ancient religions of the North American Indian culture was disrupted and in some instances destroyed by the incursion of other cultures into the area. "Along with this evangelistic migration came changes in the basic ceremonies associated with peyote. "

The above fact relating to the eventual changes caused by the migration of settlers into the New World will form an important aspect of the following overview of the Peyote religion. The central focus of this paper however will be on an integrated view of the origins and importance of Peyotism in North American Indian culture and traditions.

2. Native American spirituality and culture

In order to understand the importance and functioning of the culture of Peyote in North American Indian spirituality, one has to firstly understand the central concepts and underlying theoretical and spiritual basis of Indian religion. It must be stated at the outset that understanding these religions requires a mindset and conceptuality that is often different to modern Western religions. As will be discussed, there is a danger in attempting to understand the spiritual dimensions of the North American Indian through the perceptual lenses of Western Culture, which often results in various misinterpretations of these cultures.

The foundations of the Indian religions rest on the belief in the interconnections between different dimensions or worlds of reality. A cardinal point in understanding Indian and many other ancient religious structures is that the world of spirituality, within these more ancient cultures, is closer to the reality of everyday life than is possibly the case in contemporary culture. This is an extremely important aspect, as the Native American Indian cultures view the natural world as a living conduit to the worlds of the spirit.

In other words, the world of spirituality was not distant or removed from the experiences of everyday life. To this end there were spiritual specialists within all these ancient cultures whose role it was to explore the realms of the spiritual and secondly to interpret and act as negotiators between the spiritual world and the world of common reality. These spiritual specialists are known today as the Shaman or "healers" in ancient North American culture. The use of peyote was an important part of the Shaman's ritual and process of contacting and envisioning the spiritual dimensions.

Many earlier ethnographers and researchers of Indian culture viewed the traditions from the point-of-view of Western concepts of reason and rationality, completely failing to understand the importance and meaning of the use of Peyote in the Indian culture and reducing it to a form of drug. For example, the following quotation from an early ethnographic study claims that Peyote and its use is an insidious elements of Indian culture which is seen not as an important part of the religious techniques and methods of the people, but rather as one of the causes of the downfall of the culture.

The greatest and most insidious evil remains to be considered. The use of peyote, or mescal, has become one of the most serious menaces to the progress of the Indian race in the United States. The chemical constituents, the therapeutic value, the physiological and physical effects of the drug must be thoroughly understood if the Indian is to free himself from this vice. "

The use of Peyote was certainly not intended as a form of "drug abuse" and played a vital part in the religious constructions in the culture, particularly with regard to the "vision" or trance state of the Shaman or spiritual specialist.

A brief background as to the various myths and views that dominate North American spiritual culture is also important in understanding the use and significance of the Peyote cult. The various myths and views of reality and creation within the contest of North American Indian cultures are extensive.

Indian and Inuit religions consist of a complex set of social and cultural customs for dealing with the sacred and the supernatural. There are rich traditions of religious mythology and ceremonial rituals in most areas. Spectacular religious manifestations are found on the Northwest Coast (Kwakiutl, Haida, Tsimshian), the northern Great Plains (Blackfoot, Peigan, Blood, Sarcee) and the Central and Eastern Woodlands (Ojibwa, Cree, Huron, Iroquois). In general, the Sub-Arctic Athapaskan groups and the Arctic Inuit have less elaborate religious ceremonials, but are rich in mythic tradition.

It is not possible to classify or reduce these various myths, but a general view is that they all relate to three kinds of mythical structures. The first are the creation myths "that describe the origins of the cosmos and the interrelations of its elements. Here belong the Earth Diver myth, in which either the Great Spirit or the Transformer who dives or orders other animals to dive into the primeval water to bring up mud, out of which he fashions the Earth."

There are many other variations of the creation myth.

Secondly, there are the institutional myths, which tell of the origins of religious institutions, such as the Sun Dance.

Thirdly, there are a large group of ritual myths which "serve as detailed texts for the performance of ceremonials and rituals by which cosmic order is dramatically represented "

An essential point that is made in many of these myths is that there is a profound distinction between ancient or primordial time and the present time. The primordial time is seen to be a time in which there was no or little separation between man and God and the spiritual world. There is therefore a sense of distance or separation between the ideal past and the present - a common factor found in many other religions. This separation of the spiritual from the mundane world was recognized in all the various myths and Indian cultures and ceremonies; and rituals were preformed to repair and rejoin the material and the spiritual worlds. An indication of the structure of Indian spiritual thought is given by the description of the spiritual geography of the culture.

The world is believed to have a circular surface covered with a domelike overworld. These levels are joined by a 'cosmic axis', which may be represented by a 'world tree', a 'rainbow bridge' or the 'backbone of the worlds' (the Milky Way). Religious myths of the Star Husband (Temagami Ojibwa), the Chain of Arrows (Tlingit) or the Stretching Tree (Chilcotin) tell of contacts made between humans and the world beyond via this axis. Ceremonially, such elements as columns of smoke, central house posts or the central pole of the Sun Dance Lodge represent this axis. Whirlpools or caves may represent the way to the underworld.

3. The Shaman and the Peyote Culture very important personage in understanding these cultures, and the significance of Peyote, is the Shaman or spiritual practitioner, who stands in rough equivalence to the Western idea of the Priest.

The Shaman is the central figure responsible for maintaining a balance between the spiritual and the mundane. He, or she, does this through ritual and ceremony. The Shaman is also the messenger of the spiritual world as well as the healer. He is the explorer of the spiritual dimensions that infuse our world. It should also be remembered in this context that the spiritual and ordinary worlds are seen to be continually co-present in ancient Indian culture. For example, sickness or disease is seen as having spiritual causes. Therefore, the Shaman as spiritual practitioner is also the healer of illness.

Of several religious figures, Shamans are the most notable. They function as healers, prophets, diviners and custodians of religious mythology, and are often the officiants at religious ceremonies. In some societies, all these functions are performed by the same person; in others Shamans are specialists.

In many Indian cultures the use of Peyote, and other natural substances, are seen as essential elements of this opening up of awareness and understanding in the Shamanic experience and is used explicitly for the spiritual process and not as a recreational drug.

The Shamanic 'journey' into the spiritual world therefore forms not only an essential religious function in the culture but also has many social aspects related to it. Without the Shaman's visions and entrance into the spiritual dimension the causes of disease, for example, would not be known. Shamanic intervention is also a part of the social fabric of these cultures, and the Shaman is often consulted in terms of political and tribal disputes. The classic Shamanic trance or journey consists of a number of elements:

Leaving the realm of the mundane, that is, the physical world; (2) Traveling to the supernatural; and (3) Returning to the world of the mundane.

In order to facilitate this vital function the Shaman often uses psychoactive plants such as Peyote to aid his perception of the spiritual world. "The transition between the world of the mundane and the supernatural world is frequently facilitated by inducing trance states using psychoactive plants."

4. Conclusion

Today there are thousands of North and South American Indians who practice Peyotism. Peyotism is a spiritual and religious practice which has its foundations in the use of Peyote as a sacred element in the understanding and interpretation of the spiritual world. It is aligned with some of the earliest and most profound religions in world history. It is also a mistake to try to comprehend the use of a drug like mescaline in Peyote rites without at the same time understanding the intensions and religious context which enframe it.

5. Bibliography

Batchelder, Tim. Drug Addictions, Hallucinogens and Shamanism: the View from Anthropology. Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, July 1, 2001

French, Laurence Armand. Addictions and Native Americans. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2000.

Glazier, Stephen D., ed. Anthropology of Religion A Handbook. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999.

Lindquist.

E.E. The Red Man in the United States: An Intimate Study of the Social, Economic, and Religious Life of the American Indian. New York: George H. Doran Co., 1923. iii.

MESCALINE: PEYOTE SAN PEDRO CACTUS [article-online]; available at http://www.mescaline.com/exp/index.htm;Internet: accessed 19 January, 2005.

Native American Church. [essay-online] available at http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/N/NatvA1mC1h.asp.Internet: accessed 19 January, 2005.

Slotkin, J.S. The Peyote Religion: A Study in Indian-White Relations. [article-online]; available at http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy/peyote_religion-slotkin.html;Internet: accessed 19 January, 2005.

Smith, D.G. Native People, Religion. The 1998 Canadian Encyclopedia. 9/6/1997

The Peyote Religion [essay online]; available at http://www.peyote.net/archive/religion.html;Internet: accessed 17 January 2005

THE TRACKS OF THE LITTLE DEER. Peyote.org. [essay-online] 1992; available at http://peyote.org/.Internet: accessed 19 January, 2005.

VanPool, Christine S.. "The shaman-priests of the Casas Grandes Region, Chihuahua, Mexico." American Antiquity, October 1, 2003.

Walker, Deward E., ed. Systems of North American Witchcraft and Sorcery. Moscow, ID: University of Idaho, 1970.

The Peyote Religion [essay online]; available at http://www.peyote.net/archive/religion.html;Internet: accessed 17 January 2005.

E.E. Lindquist. The Red Man in the United States: An Intimate Study of the Social, Economic, and Religious Life of the American Indian. New York: George H. Doran Co., 1923. iii.

Smith, D.G. Native People, Religion. The 1998 Canadian Encyclopedia.: 9/6/1997

The Shamanic figure, while similar in some respects to the Western concept of the priest, is also radically different in function and meaning and should not be taken as a direct equivalent.

Christine S. VanPool, "The shaman-priests of the Casas Grandes Region, Chihuahua, Mexico." American Antiquity, October 1

THE TRACKS OF THE LITTLE DEER. Peyote.org. [essay-online] 1992; available at http://peyote.org/.Internet: accessed 19, January, 2005.

MESCALINE: PEYOTE SAN PEDRO CACTUS [article-online]; available at http://www.mescaline.com/exp/index.htm;Internet: accessed 19 January, 2005.

Slotkin, J. S The Peyote Religion: A Study in Indian-White Relations. [article-online]; available at http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy/peyote_religion-slotkin.html;Internet: accessed 19 January, 2005.

Tim Batchelder,. Drug Addictions, Hallucinogens and Shamanism: the View from Anthropology. Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, July 1, 2001.

Native American Church. [essay-online] available at http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/N/NatvA1mC1h.asp.Internet: accessed 19 January, 2005.

THE TRACKS OF THE LITTLE DEER. Peyote.org. [essay-online] 1992; available at http://peyote.org/.Internet: accessed 19 January, 2005.

Deward Walker, ed. Systems of North American Witchcraft and Sorcery. Moscow, ID: University of Idaho, 1970.