Drugs in Mythology and Folklore: Style Brainstorm

Topic: My Storybook project will be centered around drug use in mythology and folklore. I want to highlight use of entheogenic (aka hallucinogenic) drugs in many different cultures and how they play a role in their myths and legends. One story that I think I will include is The Hemp-Smoker’s Dream, a Persian myth, and a second is Why the Woodpecker Pecks, a myth from the Tejas culture.

I am also considering using hymns from the Rig Veda Book 9, which is dedicated completely to the divinity Soma, which is also the plant and the drink made from it. The story of the Lotus-eaters in Homer’s Odyssey Book 9, speaks of how some of Odysseus’ men “who ate the honey-sweet lotus fruit no longer wished to bring back word to us, or sail for home.” Though the story is not long, I think it could be a good one to investigate further.

I would really like to find more stories to choose from though, so I’m in the process of discovering those. I have a list of cultures and the entheogenic drugs that they used, and I’m looking through their stories to try to find more references to drug use.

(Odysseus on the island of the lotus-eaters)

Bibliography:

1. The Hemp-Smoker’s Dream, from Persian Tales, translated by D.L.R. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer and illustrated by Hilda Roberts (1919).
2. Why the Woodpecker Pecks, from When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends, retold by Florence Stratton and illustrated by Berniece Burrough (1936).
3. Book 9, from The Rig Veda, translated by Ralph T.H. Griffith
4. The Lotus Eaters, from Homer’s Odyssey, translated by Tony Kline (2004).

Possible Styles:

Travel: One idea I have for this is to tell the story is to go through each of the location (hopefully across the globe) and have the narrator describe his/her experience here in the first person. I think I want to have the narrator experience the story happening to him/herself instead of seeing it happen to someone else. That could afford more creative license with what happens in these stories since they involve drug use, though internet research into the effects of each of the drugs might be necessary to clarify some of them.

Time Travel: In addition to traveling in general, I think I’m going to go with some kind of time travel to get my narrator from place to place since they generally don’t take place during the same time period. This will allow him/her to experience each of the locations in the time period the stories were written, which would prevent me from having to come up with reasons why all of these drugs were accessible at the same time.

1960s: I think I want my narrator to be from the 1960s. The quintessential hippie drug user many of us envision from that time period. I think I will have the story start with drugs to tie the theme together. Maybe he has a crazy LSD trip and travels through time. That sounds like it would be pretty fun to write. But how does he travel around in the first place…?

The Beatles: I’ve got it! He travels in the Yellow Submarine, of course. Anyone who has seen the movie of the same name knows that it’s pretty wild, so I think I’ll have my narrator travel around in the Yellow Submarine as his TARDIS of sorts. Awesome. Maybe I can incorporate the Beatles into the story somehow...