About Us

What’s so different and special about this approach to understanding ancient mythology and the use of entheogens through the works and writings of Classical Scholar Carl A. P. Ruck in a community? Let me explain…

INTRODUCING CARL AND HIS METHOD

When Carl entered his undergraduate education, he looked forward to studying medicine and psychology. However, something soon seemed missing from his studies. Although these disciplines focused on important concerns of trauma and disability, Carl wanted more. He sought an understanding of sustaining, resilient, and transcendent aspects of the human mind and experience that seemed beyond the interests of these academic disciplines. These aspirations led Carl to enroll in ancient Greek and Latin studies, the field of Classics. The ancient literary worlds of poetry, philosophy, tragedy, comedy, history, and language opened doors of knowledge into those unseen worlds that intrigued. Specifically, ancient Greek religion and its rituals captured his interest and imagination. The ancient Mystery religions held insights to which only its initiates had access and benefit. Specifically, Carl examined the ancient Mystery rite, the Eleusinian Mysteries, whose site was situated a short distance from Athens. He soon became the expert on these rituals that celebrated the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone.

The Eleusinian Mysteries promised its worshippers a cessation of any fear of death or dying. Myths and stories structured the initiates’ spiritual and psychological journey to prepare them for a moment of revelation that would change their lives forever. The myths narrate an event that is meaningful to our contemporary consideration of psychedelic therapy. That is, the story speaks about a sacred drink that was central to the nine-day ritual. That drink was called kykeon that simply means “the mixed potion.” The central mystery of this Mystery today concerns the contents of that potion. Scholars today claim not to know its contents, but Carl examined the evidence and that revealed its psychoactive contents to be a chemical composition similar to LSD. Currently, psychedelics are used similarly in therapy to heal a range of psychological difficulties, including grief and loss, PTSD, addictions, and end of life care, to name a few.

Carl’s research and writing focuses on what he has named “entheogens” which is a term intended to avoid the misinformation and negative stereotypes that come with the word “hallucinogens.” The term entheogens, in contrast, indicated certain psychoactive plants that were considered sacred because they provided access to divine consciousness in human experience. Carl’s research did more than reveal the ancient reverence for these magical substances, he extended our understanding of ancient religious experience to be relevant to our existential concerns today. We gain insight into contemporary life through his explications of ancient constructions of reality. In this way, Carl identified the symbolic forms and mental processes of thought and experience that are basic to human consciousness. These are seen in ancient and contemporary mythologies and cultures globally in various and diverse expressions.

MYTHIC CIRCLES

Ancient mythology offers us this cognitive and spiritual entryway into enhanced awareness. For our exploration of mind and spirit, Carl reinterpreted his early training in medicine, psychology, and philosophy. Rather than seeing mythology as a site of repression (Freud), power (Adler), or other models of twentieth century psychology, Carl reclaimed the analytical psychology of C.G. Jung and its elemental images (archetypes) of human consciousness.

In this way, Carl identified the symbols, forms, and processes of thought and experience that are central in ancient mythology and manifest in religions and beliefs around the world in various and diverse expressions of the sacred. This website and its Circle offerings seek to present Carl’s methods of mythological analysis in relation to the sacred plants and human insights that appear in the myths and rituals of ancient Greece.

Let me offer an example. As we know, agriculture was a major economic and social development in human history. It changed the uncertainty and dangers of gathering wild plants into the security of annual harvests and domesticated plants and animals. This duality of wild vs. cultivated impacted human psychology. In ancient ideology, the wilderness is a place of madness and intoxication. Cultivation displays the mind’s control and practice of rational security and stability. Perhaps this sounds familiar in the divided consciousness that is so often seen in mental illness today: a mind working against itself. Current psychiatry employs psychedelics precisely to address this divided self.

Even in states of relative mental health, we live between such dualities as we deal with the pressures of modern life. The part of ourselves that we reject, avoid, or deny, is called “the shadow self” in Carl’s mythological approach that was coined by Jung’s analytical approach. Ultimately to achieve psychic wholeness, we must bring those troubling or traumatic parts of ourselves into awareness and acceptance to enjoy full and flourishing lives. Psychedelic therapy today seeks to use the same drugs as antiquity to heal this divided identity.

Mythic Circles, in addition, recognizes that we need to go beyond healing to flourishing. We seek to bring therapeutic and transcendent experience into accord and mutual enrichment with our study of ancient Greek mythology and entheogens through the insights of Carl A.P. Ruck.

The work of Mythic Circles through our discussions and presentations is joyous and affirming. We seek participants who are passionate about mythology and entheogens. This is an opportunity to explore and celebrate the human spirit together.

Please join our coming Mythic Circles event.

All are welcome.