Ploughing the Clouds: The Search for Irish Soma

by Peter Lamborn Wilson City Lights Press, 1999

OR: Tales of One-Eyed Singers and Redactors

(reviewed by Gordon Cooper, a Seattle area OBOD Correspondent)

Two of the most contentious topics within Europaganism are questions regarding interpretations of earlier cultural practices and the place of entheogens within native Western and modern spiritual traditions. Wilson attempts to tackle both questions in this book, and argues for either soma or an early soma analogue in Ireland as a driving factor in many of the descriptions of faery or Otherworldly experiences that are found within Irish materials.

To recap the Soma Story---The Soma complex was identified by R. Gordon Wasson in 1968. In "Soma" this ethnomycologist argued persuasively for the presence of circumpolar ecstatic ritual activities centered around the use of A. muscaria, better known as fly agaric or flycap.

This religious complex in North America, Europe and Asia associates trembling, visionary and ecstatic states with reddened faces, magical urine, ladders, specific conifers, thunder, wells, poetry, the sun, (cows, reindeer and milk in Europe and Asia) and a variety of one-legged or one-eyed divine figures with this mushroom, which grows only in mycorrhizal association with birch, larch, pine, or fir trees. Wasson argued that the otherwise unidentified "soma" plant in the Vedas which was associated with speckles, redness, and a host of other properties could be convincingly identified with amanita but not with other plants, given the textual descriptions.

The second question posed by Wilson, one of greater relevance for scholars interested in the Celts is whether or not there is evidence for the mediation of the visionary states of druids and filidh via entheogens, and if there were entheogens present, whether or not their use was related to the soma or other complexes. It is a matter of historical record that the Celts brewed beer, imported retsina wine and of course made mead. However, many of the ecstatic and visionary states described within the texts do not correlate well to the experiences produced by alcohol.

White and Laurie argue that the substance seeming to best fit the associations (redness, speckles, birch trees, etc.) is amanita^,. It is here that Wilson parts company with Laurie, White and the Wassons. Wilson considers all intoxicants to be soma analogues or replacements. Amanita differs greatly in its actions from alcohol or the alkaloid substances (nightshade, etc.) known to be available in Europe. A "soma cult" with alcohol replacing the amanita drastically alters the nature of visions produced.

Much of the artwork in the book, while fascinating, does not seem particularly relevant to a discussion of Irish entheogen use. Maeve probably cannnot be related to an hypothesized deity at Knossos, particularly if one is attempting to argue that as Irish Sovereignty, she is derived from the Hindu Goddess Sri- Laksmi, as Wilson does.

Wilson relies on the interpretations of Marija Gimbutas and Barry Fell for several of his lines of reasoning, as well as the IndoEuropean tripartite ideology of Georges Dumezil. Even for an interdisciplinary scholar, this goes very far afield and pulls in data of dubious value, giving it the same weight as other, more credible evidence.

A potential buyer should carefully consider the review on the back cover of the book before spending money.

"[Ploughing the Clouds) is the best thing of its kind since Robert Grave’s The White Goddess" Dale Perkell, author.

While this book works well as a modern mythic statement on Sovereignty, ecstasy and liminal states, like The White Goddess it should not be read or referenced as a scholarly work.