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Soma is a ritual drink of importance in ancient proto-Hindu-Vedic (in India) and Persian culture. It is regularly
mentioned in the Vedic scriptures, which
contain many hymns praising its energising and intoxicating qualities. It was probably created by extracting juice from a
hallucinogenic mountain
plant. In the scriptures, Soma is portrayed as sacred and as a god (deva). What Soma actually was, is not known. The plant
may be Ephedra vulgaris. R. Gordon Wasson and many other researchers believe that Soma may be the mushroom Amanita muscaria. In modern versions of the ancient rituals 'Soma' is a
non-intoxicating drink, consisting of rhubarb.
Soma is similar to ambrosia; it is what the gods drink, and what made them
deities. Indra and Agni are known for drinking
massive amounts of Soma. Mortals also drink it, giving hallucinations
that are interpreted as access to the divine. The Rig-Veda (8.48)
states, "We have drunk the Soma; we have become immortal; we have gone to the
light; we have found the gods." The Ninth Mandala of the Rig Veda is known as the Soma Mandala. It consists largely of
hymns to Soma.
The Persians called the drink 'Haoma', a dialect variant of 'Soma'. In both Persia
and India, the original Soma/Haoma making rituals died out when the early Aryan forms of
these religions were reformed by Zoroaster in Persia, and by later Brahminical practice in India. Zoroaster seems to have considered Haoma-consumption to
be immoral.
In the hymns, the plant itself is personified as a god. The god is the
plant and the drink; there is no difference. The plant is the god and the drink is the god and the plant is the drink -- they are
all three the same. In art the god Soma was depicted as a bull or bird, and sometimes as an
embryo, but rarely as an adult human.
However the god 'Soma' later 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.
Soma kidnapped Tara, wife
of Brihaspati. This began a war, and Brahma eventually forced Soma to let her go. She gave birth to his son, Budha.
The drink Soma was kept and distributed by the Gandharvas.
Soma and psychiatry in Huxley
The term "Soma" was used in Aldous Huxley's dystopic novel Brave New World
(1932) in which it describes a drug. This is an 'opium of the people' that replaces
religion in an oppressive futuristic science-based society. Soma is a pill consumed as an anti-depressant by workers who lead
emotionally repressed and regimented lives. The use of the term satirically refers to the revived interest in ancient Aryan
culture at the time. Huxley's society is caste based, like that of Brahminical India.
Some people say that our modern, Western society has been kept under the "soma" of television for the last few decades.
Huxley's soma was taken by the Anti-psychiatry movement in the
1960s as a model for their claim that anti-depressants and other drugs functioned to emotionally control people whose distress
and mental illness arose from the oppressive nature of modern society.
After experiencing the (apparently) consciousness-expanding effects of mescaline and other psychedelic drugs, Huxley wrote the novel Island (1962), in which the fictional psychedelic
mushrooms known as "Moksha" played a central role as an active sacrament in the spiritual lives of the citizens of a utopian society. The term 'Moksha' is also Hindu in origin, referring to the liberation of the soul from
reincarnation. The social and religious roles of Soma in ancient proto-Hindu-Vedic and Persian culture were probably closer to
those ascribed to Moksha than to those of the Soma of Brave New World, which was written before Huxley became closely
aquainted with Hinduism and psychedelic drugs.
Other uses of the term "Soma":
- The body, usually in contrast to the mind.
- Carisoprodol, a muscle relaxant drug, is marketed under the brand name
"Soma."
- Soma, Fukushima is a city in Japan.
- The Soma cube is a puzzle invented by Piet Hein.
- Soma is a song by the Smashing Pumpkins, from the 1993 album
Siamese Dream.
- Soma is a song by Project 86,
from the album Truthless
Heroes.
- Soma is another name for the cell body of a neuron.
- SoMa is a neighborhood in
San Francisco.
- Somafm.com is an internet radio station streaming seven different genres of music.
- The Soma Electronic Music Studios is a studio in Chicago, IL owned by
John McEntire.
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